Weekly Update 3/14

3/8
I did some sit-ups tonight, but you know something?  Sit-ups really suck.

I also went to the library, but once I got there, I didn't know what to work on.  I read over my original 2020 outline for my Outpost novel, and was reminded how little of it I had covered in fifty thousand words.  Deciding to continue where I left off, I did a search for "outpost" and was surprised to find a story I'd written about Ebenezer Scrooge that I had totally forgotten about.  I opened the document and read through it, like it belonged to another writer, maybe a friend of mine who had mentioned it once.  I expected it to be abandoned halfway through, like everything else I've ever written, but it was a complete story, all the way to "the end."  Huh.
The date I finished the story?  December 30th, 2021.
AND I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN IT.

I can't wait for you to hear it, so you can forget all about it too.*

3/9
My nephew (14) had volleyball practice to go to tonight, so I didn't hit the library.  But that's okay, I'm not really working on anything right now.  I did go on another run, and one of these days, I need to do push-ups.

3/10
I'm at the library again, but darn it, I haven't written anything.  I'd say "I don't know what's wrong with me," but after so many years, between you and me . . . I know.

I ended up grabbing that Christmas story I wrote (and forgot about) last December, and looked it over.  I made a couple of additions, and decided to title the story "The Baleful," thinking I was pretty clever.  I found a random point and inserted a reference to "Scrooge the Baleful" in the text . . . then I discovered that I had already done so a couple of paragraphs later in the original writing.  I'm not sure if that makes me clever or not.

3/11
I both wrote and went on a run tonight.  Plus, I did about twenty sit-ups.

3/12

Looks like I'm not going to make it to the library again today.  A cousin of mine asked if I'd like to do karaoke with her and her boyfriend (she also invited my niece and her boyfriend), so that may be a fun activity tonight . . . if it happens.  There's a toy show here in town (the first one that's been held nearby), and I'm taking my two younger nephews to it.  I'll let you know if there was anything of interest there.

Hmm.  There wasn't.  Only three people showed up to sell their wares, and about five or six others showed up to buy, so I'd say it qualifies as a bust.  There was free pizza and soda, but it was that thin, floppy, super greasy kind that I'm not a fan of.  But free is free.

I had a short window in which I could have written and could have exercised, but I must admit that I didn't.  I did some audio editing, but that doesn't count as either.

So, once night fell, we went to the karaoke bar (well, technically, I went there twice) and it didn't really work.  The (very) young girl behind the counter told me to get online and make a reservation, and when I looked, they were booked up until eleven, but when I went in with my nephews to wait for my niece and cousin, there was only one guy in there, singing Seventies folk songs (and Tom Petty's "Breakdown"), so I didn't think there would be a problem.

By the time my group go there, the folk singer had gone home (his last song was Have You Ever Seen The Rain?), and the girl behind the counter asked if we had made a reservation.  We had not, but since the place was literally empty**, I figured we were okay.  But she told us we were not, and that our only option was to make a reservation for eleven and come back then.  I told her I had two children with me, and eleven was too late.  She told me that there were reservations already made (there are, apparently, regulars who came in every week) and she couldn't let us have the room if people who had played by the rules were on their way.  

I told her that we were there now, no one was using the microphone, and couldn't we just do it until the regulars got there?  And then, oddly, she changed her tune, and told me they had a rule that only groups of four or less could use the room.

I told her that the fourteen year old and my aunt weren't going to sing, so we were only five, and one of those five was eleven years old.  When she didn't budge, Cathexis's boyfriend said he wasn't going to sing, so that brought our group down to four.  But the girl said our group was still too big, and so we left.  There had been something else going on there, and I didn't know what it was.  My suspicion was that she had invited some of her friends over, saying, "Hey, nobody's using the main stage right now, if you want to jet over here and sing a few songs before the weekend crowds get here," and I was ruining her fun.  But I'll never know.

So, I told the group to come to my house and we'd just use the karaoke machine my uncle got us a couple of years ago.  And that worked out.  My sister joined us (and even sang a couple of songs), and my brother-in-law was off camping, so only the four year old might have complained . . . and he was asleep.

My cousin's boyfriend was tall and blonde, and could easily have played Captain America if Chris Evans didn't want to do it (or he could also play the guy who turns out to be the villain in WATCHMEN).  He seemed like a friendly, patient fellow, but I wondered what it would be like, to be dragged to a karaoke party by your girlfriend, meeting the family . . . and being forced to sing for others' amusement.  Maybe it would be a dealbreaker for some.  For me, of course, I'd think it was pretty cool, but of course, karaoke is within my very limited wheelhouse.

Cathexis and I sang "Dammit Janet" together, which I don't think we ever had before, and it was very impressive, but my sister did snark that I had just proposed to my own niece.  My nephews were also willing to sing in the house when they were much more timid in a public setting, so that was nice (even if I had to endure them belting out "Dance Monkey" for the fifth time).

We couldn't get it to play two mics at the same time for some reason, but I thought it was still pretty fun.  And it hadn't cost a damn thing.

3/13

Well, I did my usual run today, and it was fine (I used to think I ought to expand the run to two miles, but I only ever did that once, and never repeated it--and now I'm out of practice and 1.6 miles seems quite enough, thank you very much).  

3/14
I went to the library and wrote so little it absolutely should not count.  Mostly I made a list for an upcoming podcast episode (or possibly video) , and jotted down an idea or two.  I apologize for being so inconsistent this week, and I promise . . . next week will be even worse.

*Heck, maybe I should cut out the middleman and not even release it.  

**I may have misused the term "literally" here, since obviously, we were there, as was the girl behind the counter, just