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Plenty of work ahead

It's a busy week for me. This weekend is an Iaido seminar. It's a memorial for a man who passed away 10 years ago. His name was Bill Mears. I never had the good fortune to meet him. I'm told he was a gentle giant who helped grow our art in Canada. I'll likely miss posting on Sunday because of that and I'll be enjoying my birthday.

Tomorrow I visit the physiotherapist to continue working on my neck, which I injured last year playing roller derby. I hit a woman in my league who was quite a lot larger than me (but that's not a challenging thing for most people). The thing is, not having been all that athletic prior, I didn't know that any neck pain no matter how slight should be attended to right away. I woke up a month later with a neck that couldn't support my head and the pain was excruciating. I've come a long way since, but it's still not fixed. I saw the sports medicine specialist today and he's sending me for new X-rays and an MRI. I'm hopeful I will be pain free someday.

I continued trying to be a part of roller derby for a long time, but the weight of my helmet and the constant head movements made refereeing impossible. Also the rules changed so frequently, I couldn't get them into my head at the level needed to be a good referee. It took up too much of my free time and caused me physical pain. I tried to help by doing other things like non-skating official jobs, but the hours spent on concrete made me suffer for days after. So now I just do the fan thing when I can. But it feels weird seeing my old league members sometimes. Like I've let them down.I enjoyed watching the RVRG Sirens win this weekend. I wished my old team had tasted victory too. Next time.

It hasn't been all bad. I've been able to put serious time into my writing. I'm now halfway through the edit on chapter 16. I'm getting excited for the next stage, but I'm actually enjoying editing now. I've stumbled on pieces I forgot I wrote and some of them are quite steamy. It was a fun surprise tonight.

At least 7.5 chapters to get through editing. Then I can figure out how to get beta readers. Excited, but also nervous as I don't know what that part of the process looks like. I'm thankful I have experienced writers in my group who've gone through the whole thing from first draft to a physical book to sell. It makes it a little less scary.

I'm really enjoying Supernatural. I'm nearing the end of season 4. The best part? It's an old school show with around 22 episodes per season. They're on season 10 now, so I have about 150 more episodes to enjoy! I wonder if I'll be caught up by the time the next season starts...

I noticed I'm more motivated to do household chores like laundry or dishes when I have an external circumstance that is creating a deadline for me like this seminar, a special meeting at work, or a date. At least I'm motivated intrinsically to write.

Alright, I really need to run my dishwasher and it's not over 30 degrees in here, so it's a perfect time for it.

Ciao,
R~

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