Vacation post 4: Are you a pelican or a peliCAN'T?

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to be able to do anything productive this week. Part of me is frustrated and disappointed about that, but for the most part I'm perfectly at peace with that realization. While this week would have been a great opportunity to do things such as, say, apply for new jobs, the simple fact of the matter is that I'm limited to what resources I have available to me, and right now access to any sort of job listings database isn't among my them. ( ;

If I've done anything worth mentioning, it's that I've kind-of-sort-of found an escape from the writer's block that's been plaguing me for some time. While I may not be writing the way I want to, at least I'm writing. I have to say that starting each morning by waking up, brushing my teeth, and typing up what will eventually become a blog post, has been a real refresher. It's nice to be able to engage my mind in that manner, and more often than I typically have a chance to. This week I've also dabbled in a little bit of pleasure writing, too. It's nothing worth speaking of, but even a few paragraphs of fiction is a victory for someone who hasn't felt able to write in months! I have to say that one of the biggest pressures that may have been holding me back was the end of Requiem and the planning stages of Avernus. I don't multi-task extremely well and can better interact with ideas in serial, one at a time. I've wondered from time to time if I might have some glimmering of an attention deficit disorder, since in normal life I tend to be distracted very easily, and when I'm not distracted I tend more to hyper-focus. This is just idle wondering, though; I absolutely REFUSE to "self-diagnose" that condition. Mostly my refusal comes from social frustration; I have heard too many people use the excuse of "undiagnosed ADD/ADHD" to try to magic away breaches of social grace or good manners. In a few instances it could very well be true...but more often it seems like people simply flagrantly misuse ADD and ADHD in the same way people misuse "random" and "hyper". For some reason, this really bothers me! I'm usually very forgiving about people taking a casual or playful approach toward grammar, because I thrive off that sort of things; honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if close to a third of what I say devolves into some form or wordplay, punnery, or abuse of the rules of grammar (homophones are lovely, when it comes to things like that. Rhyming words as well). But for some reason there are just a few words that I feel adamantly must be used with precision. "ADD", "random", and "hyper" are definitely high up on the list. And whenever (ha!) a person says "whenever" when it would be more appropriate to simply say "when"?...for some reason that really makes my blood boil! I've not got the slightest idea why, though.

So far we've not done any of the "classic" beach things that people do; in spite of all our talk, lil sis and I haven't played in the ocean, we haven't built a sand castle (or a sand anything...although we did see a really good sand sculpture of a sea turtle the other day! I've got a photo of it, so I'll put it up as soon as I'm able), and we haven't flown a kite. We haven't been townies and homebodies by a long shot, however! I've spent hours out on the beach, and it's become sort of my habit to walk to the nearest pier (about a mile away) and back at sunset, or just after it. It's cooler than making the same trek in the middle of the day, and with the sun having taken it's leave for the day, a person as light-skinned as I am has a LOT less to worry about when it comes to getting sunburned! I've actually tried to be very careful this week; I do sunburn very easily, so I've been making sure to cover up sufficiently, limit my time in direct sunlight, and put on sunscreen (which I absolutely despise having to wear) if I'm going to be out for a prolonged time. So far, so good! We'll see if I can keep it up for the rest of the week. ( ;