Author: AJ Mullican

I love our cat. I really do.

But damn, he just doesn’t get this whole humans-aren’t-nocturnal thing.

As I write this, it’s 3 a.m. in our time zone. Rory woke me up at about 1:30 a.m. to clean his litter–which is all well and good, because a litter that sits there dirty all night gets kinda rank–but I guess he decided he needed to be fed as well. So, after about 30-45 minutes of him throat-kneading me and giving me kitty-breath kisses, I finally reneged and got up to give him his wet food for breakfast. Unfortunately, I’m now too awake to get back to sleep.

It is really freaking boring at 3 a.m. when you don’t have much to do.

I could be doing music reviews for Talk Nerdy With Us, but I’m not quite focused enough for that right now. I could also be writing, but I’m still stuck on the same chapter–hell, the same paragraph–of my new WIP. I could go out to the other room and watch TV or a DVD, but we have company and I don’t want to wake them up.

Finally, I have a mosquito bite that is driving me crazy.

All I really want to do is online shopping, but that’s not fiscally possible now. There’s a website where I can turn the cover for my poetry anthology, Kamikaze Butterflies, into a fabric. It’s expensive, but it would look so freakin’ cool. Would make for great scrubs or hand warmers. Alas, it’s $17.50 per yard, so unless I come into some magical money in the near future, that’s just going to have to wait.

Maybe I could sell the hand warmers on Etsy…take pre-orders….

Or maybe I could try to go to sleep. Each is equally likely to happen.

Okay, so I wasn’t really hallucinating…but isn’t that was dreaming is, after all?

I get the strangest dreams sometimes. And it’s not that they’re bad, but they’re so vivid that my mind & body reject being asleep. I’m forced awake by my own body so I don’t have to dream anymore.

The feeling is kind of freaky. I dig my way out of the dream and back to consciousness, and no matter how tired I am I fight going back to sleep. I’m not wide awake by any stretch of the imagination; I just can’t stand the thought of dreaming again.

Right now, for instance, I’m exhausted. I want to go back to sleep, but at the same time I don’t. I don’t want to go back down the rabbit hole. Into the Twilight Zone. Fuck it, Narnia or wherever the hell you go when you’re dreaming. I don’t want to do it. Nope. No siree Bob.

Now let’s see if the Ritalin and energy drink can help me face the day ahead now that I’ve wakened ahead of time.

This day has been so odd.

Rory woke me up at 1:30 a.m. to kindly inform me that he had missed the hole in the litter ring on the toilet (he’s partially toilet trained, but got too big too fast to skip the ring entirely…still, easier & less messy than a regular litter box), so I had to spend half an hour cleaning that up; best to just dump out the litter and sanitize the whole ring when he misses that much.

Then I woke up a bit when my husband started work. Not abnormal, but I decided to eat breakfast and take my pills. I thought something was off about the number of pills in my hand, but couldn’t figure out what, until…

…about 6:30 or 7, when I woke up again to realize I hadn’t put my morning Ritalin in with the other pills when I was setting up my pill organizer last night. So, when I finally fully woke up for the day (at 8 a.m.) I took the Ritalin and have been awake since.

I don’t know what to do with myself, though. I’m not accustomed to having a Friday off unless I have something to do, like take a trip or go to a doctor’s appointment. Also, temporary maintenance on a website I write for has postponed my posting and two people are beta reading my novel, so…what do I do? I’ve swept and vacuumed (my shoulders and neck are pretty mad at me for that one) and downloaded a fitness app so that after my company for the weekend is gone and my schedule is back to “normal” I can try walking in the mornings or evenings.

It’s not quite lunch time, and I’ve already had a snack of some carrots, so no eating. I’ve got to break my habit of boredom eating. Not going to go to the grocery store until after my husband gets off work in a few hours.

After this post I’ll…I dunno. Look at Facebook some more? Tweet? I’ll write a little bit of course, but no telling on how the flow will go. It could be 100 words, it could be 1000, it could be 3000. All depends on how productive my muse is feeling today.

Poor Rory. Our cat has had ringworm for over two weeks, and our vet’s office hasn’t gotten back to us on his lab results to confirm it (we know it’s ringworm, though–just Google the images & it’s obvious what it is). The “7-10 day” time period for the labs to come back has been & gone with no answers. In the meantime, poor Rory has to have medicine put on twice a day and yesterday he was lethargic and acting strange.

The good news is, he’s still eating/drinking/voiding as normal. He even woke me up at nothing in the morning as is his usual routine, so that’s a plus (who would’ve though I’d be glad to have him wake me up in the middle of the night lol).

My husband is going to the vet today to get answers. He’s going to find out why the labs aren’t back yet, or if they are why we haven’t been notified, and what else we can do to make Rory better.

We love our Rory and want to be sure he’s happy and healthy.

It’s weird how people can grow apart and suddenly someone who was an important part of your life is absent.

I was thinking today about the way we move on and how such important people can become distant memories. You go from talking every day to maybe a time or two a week to “Hmm, I wonder what they’re up to.” It happens all the time, yet what really interests me is how I view these friendships-gone-by.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m terrible at keeping touch. I feel like I don’t have anything to say that isn’t about me, and if I’m only contacting someone to talk about myself that’s pretty sad (not that I don’t still do this, but bear with me). I will instead stare at their icon, trying to think of something to say, some question to ask to get a conversation going. It should be simple–“Hey, how’s it going?”–but it’s not.

The more time I let pass, the more that person has moved on, changed, grown…How can I just insert myself back into their life after so long? They’re going on with their daily life, with no thoughts about what’s happening with me.

I think about what they might be doing, and I have trouble remembering the good old times when we were close. Just as they’ve moved on, so have I, despite my musings. I’m no less guilty of drifting away than any of my old friends.

Where is this ramble going? Who knows. Maybe I lost touch with the point of this post, much as I lost touch with most of my friends.

After spending most of the day working on more reversible gloves/hand warmers/whatever I’m calling them, I began to wonder: Could I sell these?

The cost of making them isn’t too bad considering how many I can get per yard of fabric, but they are time-consuming. So it begs the question, is it worth it to try selling them? I could use my early-a.m. wake ups to do the hand sewing, which is the biggest time hog, or do it while watching TV in the evening.

Still, it’s a debate. I’d have to determine if there’s enough of a demand for them, then figure out where to sell & market them. I wouldn’t want to make a whole bunch if they’re just going to sit around taking up space (small though they are).

Here are a couple examples of ones I’ve made so far:

So far all I have is Doctor Who fabric, but it could obviously be done with pretty much any fabric, even solid colors. I’m stuck debating this. I, personally, love the slouchy hand warmers. They are great for typing when it’s cold, & I bet they’d be awesome in the winter (living in Arizona, I’ll have to wait quite a while to test that theory).

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll sleep on it.

The weekend is finally here! I made it through a long and busy week at the day job.

I have a few things planned for the weekend, but not too much. Some sewing, some reading, some laundry, maybe some shopping. After spending all week creatively and physically drained, I need to take some “me” time.

Of course, I can’t get too deep into any one project. There’s company coming next weekend–my in-laws–and my “craft room” is technically a spare bedroom that I commandeer when we don’t have visitors. Can’t be exploding into some huge craft project when someone has to live there for a few days soon.

Better keep my craft projects small 😉

Things are slowing down at work the next couple of weeks, then they pick right back up to life as normal. I think after the long holiday weekend I might start thinking bigger for my projects. Aiming high. And, most likely, taking on more than I should.

Finally got a decent night’s sleep (for me, that is…it’s relative & all that). I am still a bit tired, but I also have energy thanks to my trusty Rock Star drink 😉

It’s going to be a long day, but I’m not going to let that get me down. I’m going to go in with the attitude that we are going to rock it today and have a smooth day. I’ve got my Ritalin to take midday, have my lunch packed, I’ve got Tylenol in case my back tries to get mad at me, and I’m bringing some joint/muscle cream with me in case the Tylenol isn’t enough. I WILL have a good day. I’m going to use the power of positive thinking.

Have I psyched myself up enough? I think so.

After work I’ll probably crash like all get-out, but as long as I keep up this mentality I should be good.

You can’t start your day with dread. It doesn’t serve any purpose other than to put you in a foul mood to begin with. That’s not good for you or your coworkers/clients/customers/patients.

I might be a tad manic with all this positive thinking talk, but hey, might as well harness it while I have it.

Keep your head high and rock it today!

Here it is again, #WorkofArtWednesday! I’m going to share yet another work of art that is available for sale 🙂

This one may seem overly simplistic, but bear in mind it was done with no paintbrushes–this is actually fingerpainting with acrylics. 11″x14″ canvas

I have been trying to exercise. Get in shape. Work out. Lose the extra weight. Tone up, slim down.

I think I may have taken it too far.

It was only for two days, and I only did a few simple exercises, but this morning I was a little too sore to do them at all. I figured I’d tone it back to every other day to give my body a break.

Also, I forgot to take my RA meds this morning.

Oh yeah, and I worked more than 10 hours straight (not counting a quick 10 minute lunch).

My back is now furious with me. It’s rebelling against any movement and begging for a heating pad. Guess I’ll be getting that out after dinner.

Note to self: either stick to every other day on the exercises, or find a different workout. And take your damn meds. And remember to stretch every so often at work.

Ow.