I’m trying to figure out how it happened. Other than a quick go early this morning online to do a few basic things for my gaming team to get points, I got started with my day. I think I only touched YouTube most of the day to put some stuff on for noise come mid afternoon when I started to slow down and I didn’t feel like listening to old movies or news clips.

I started–and mostly stuck to–my new schedule today. It’s a basic schedule that once I feel I can reasonably tackle what I’ve put on it, I’ll fine tune it later. I had a stomach ache early this morning (I forgot the rule of too much fiber + not enough water = unpleasantness), so I slept in a little. Amazingly, sleeping off the discomfort actually helped a bit. I got up just before 7 a.m. and checked the weather report while gaming a little. I got the dogs out to do their thing, fed the fish and the birds, and got my water bottle to go use my elliptical. I realize the early mornings are really the only times I could possibly and reasonably expect to be able to exercise without a problem (unless I have an early appointment, but I’ll work around that when I get used to waking up at the same time every day again).

So, while the dogs were out, I did a short stint on the elliptical, brought the dogs in, and then went to my dining room table where I have my writing area set up. I don’t have a dedicated ritual yet, especially regarding writing and editing times. I just forced myself to get a coffee and sit down and get a start on writing prompts or other things I had over there. I admit I cheated and got up once to make a smoothie, but considering I was actually getting hungry and needed to take multivitamins with some food, it was necessary. I’m gonna have to build in a “make breakfast” time for tomorrow, because I don’t want to rely on “heat and serve” items that wreak havoc with my stomach. But I wanted three hours with some good music on the TV as I worked. And I forgot how nice it was to sit down at a table and look at old work or try to stir things up in my head with writing prompts or questions to ask. I did have an old story I had in one of my files and I spent some time revising it before the end.

I almost quit early because I felt I really needed to check my e-mail just in case some bureaucratic questions had been asked or answered. But I made myself persist because I spent all of LAST Monday going back and forth writing lengthy e-mails and trying to reach people. I had too much to do and was NOT gonna spend another whole day doing that. And I waited til noon to check. Nothing. So, I didn’t go digging for more (though I checked my phone to make sure I didn’t miss anything) and went to practice a little piano and guitar.

That was fun, and my fingers are starting to get their groove back, remembering what to do next. But after that, around 1pm, I was considering making phone calls or cleaning. I noticed the floor needed a helluva mopping (with all the paw imprints showing up in certain lights because of the dew and dirt outside. So I made sure to sweep, wipe up, and mop the utility room, breakfast nook, kitchen, and dining room. It took so many hours to get it all cleaned up, with everything that didn’t belong moved out, the towels I had to use to do wood polishing, glass cleaning, and just getting all those dog-hair tumbleweed up and out from narrow spaces against the wall and furniture. At least my compressed air machine proved very useful in most respects, trying to drive the dust out of hard to reach spaces. No more of those damned expensive cans–now I got a nozzle and a plug and I just let it go to town.

I didn’t stop cleaning up til about 10pm. I had to re-set my writing space after cleaning the dining table. It looks shiny and like new now (thanks to Old English polish and Windex on the glass top). The constant walking around for hours made my feet throb, and they still are throbbing while I try not to fall asleep sitting up.

I could get used to this working myself toward sleep. I just hope I don’t wake up with another talking stomach situation, this time from hunger. I actually don’t feel hungry at all, probably because of how filling those homemade burritos were. But I know myself well enough that sometimes its better to just go to bed and not worry about food for the rest of the evening. I can’t sleep if I’ve got a stomach churning away, trying to digest a bunch of stuff. Those two macaroons from an hour ago and the rest of my water bottle will have to do.

I hope I can keep this trend alive. I enjoyed feeling so productive, and just checking things off my to-do list in big chunks. I’m tired, but feeling fine all over.