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2023 - Week 42

Will this week be the answer to life and everything? That answer is probably as unique as each individual on this planet.

This week began with a lot of soreness for me, particularly my shoulders after all the sweeping at my first curling game the day before. Despite that, I was gung-ho to install a shelf above the door in my bedroom. Problem? I put the parts that actually hold the shelf somewhere super secret. Regardless, I put the wall part they hook into up, so that it would be ready for when I inevitably tripped over them. I was really quite annoyed that I couldn't find them as they were getting in the way of me reorganizing my bookshelves, which is a necessary thing after a writer's conference. After some more intense searching, I found them and was ready to deal with my bookshelves, but I was too tired to hop to that. It was time for a break.

The ominous sky held splashes of hope on the horizon.


I finally put a note in my mail box to request no flyers or junk mail and was informed I needed a red dot, so I went back up and made one. I did my bookshelf reorg before attending the condo AGM. During that, I put up some cute Hallowe'en decorations. 

Suddenly, it was Tuesday and work was hectic. I fit in some Diablo IV, which was mainly to get my alt characters levelled enough to access their stashes to put loot in their hands as the current season is ending and I have no idea which loot is connected to it or if I have any and didn't want to lose anything. Dinner was mall Chinese food because I did not do enough groceries this week and had GSL curling, but first I finally hung the light that would be helpful for crafting. 


The rest of that wall has changed. My Dali is now in my bedroom. I want space on the wall for holding things I plan to craft and for some art I've already made. I also want to place things deliberately, so they are visible on stream. My Dali was too high to be shown nicely.

GSL was fun. We covered turning the handle before release and then we played a two end game. I learned a bit of strategy and finally got some answers on sweeping that I've been wanting for over a year!

Wednesday was my first time attending the Ottawa Writer's Festival and the event a couple of friends and I went to was titled: Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists. Four of the five finalists read from their nominated works and the fifth was read by a sub because the author of that one was busy giving birth. The sub was the winner of a previous year who didn't let the host convince her that it was better to be on a stage in front of people instead of at home on Zoom. She preferred not to be leaving her home and I think a lot of people can relate to that, particularly in the winter. The authors were of good humour and relateable rather than pretentious. A lot of the writing advice given was similar to that I received from Can-Con, so whether one is writing genre, non-fiction, or literary novels, writers are writers. Mostly, anyway. I have met some stuffy ones along the way, but not too often.

Thursday was hydra email day at work and then a Haunted Walk at the old Carleton Jail, which I got my ticket for when I was in Kingston on the spooky vacay because I learned that if I didn't go to it soon, I'd never be able to see it. They are discontinuing tours come December as the hostel is expanding its spaces. I invited a new friend to come along if they could get a ticket. I was early, so I had a divination reading done for fun and the rune I got was Jera. My new friend arrived sometime after that and we had a good time learning about the old jail and the gallows. A little morbid, but interesting. I got to see how small old cells really were. I could fit in one a little better than some, but I can't imagine spending 12 hours in it. I also can't imagine a large man staying in one for so long.


Friday came and went reasonably quickly as many of the things I had been waiting on finally arrived, so I was able to clear a lot of tasks. I had a brief, but odd, interaction at the grocery store before hanging out in my friend's Twitch chat while having some rum. I also did some novel work as I finally could! I'm currently splitting my chapters into scenes, which is thankfully easy in Scrivener. Well, easy enough. It's still a lot of mundane work. This will let me move pieces around more easily and do the restructure it sorely needs. I'm both looking forward to and dreading this, but I know it will make it better.

On Saturday, I slept in until 8, which is when I usually start work during the week. Then I split my time between editing my novel and cleaning the condo. It was a rainy day, so I didn't want to be out anyway. I completed the task of breaking out my novel into scenes for the most part. Some of my last chapters were not easy to find the scenes in and I figured that they would be changing quite a lot since they were the least edited, so I left them for later. After about two hours of this, I decided to bring some things out to my car despite the rain as I needed a break and I wanted my entranceway back. I spent some time sourcing a slim cart to hold some items. I was going to build a shelf, but I really haven't felt like it. It would be a lot of work and I was finally making progress on my book. After taking some things to storage, I decided lunch and some gaming was in order. I later spent about an hour trying to find my hammer as I wanted to get more done, but I was totally spent, so takeout and a movie were in order. I watched two. The first was Evil Dead Rise and it was a serious horror rather than Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, and Ash vs Evil Dead were. I tend to prefer horror comedies these days. The second was You Can Live Forever. It was a bit of an odd sapphic romance set in the context of a Jehovah's Witness community. During it, I did some prep work for Dinosaur Streamfest 17 where I will be crafting. My timeslot is 4:00 PM Eastern.



Sunday came and I got errands done. I wanted a nicer coat, needed more fabric for my upcoming quilting project, and I also needed gas in my car. I was only slightly late to hanging out with friends online. I won some art from Danielle Allard's Twitch channel and the timing is lovely since I was working on making room on my wall for art. That piece may go in my music room since it's an album cover. I was glad my team had a bye for curling due to all the construction projects making it difficult to travel in the city. It also let me work on my goals and relax.

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