Well, here goes. In half an hour (give or take a few minutes), I’ll be on my way to the day job to be “in charge” for the next six to eight weeks while the new clinic manager is on maternity leave.
“Dread” seems too mild a word for what I feel. I mean, I know we have a good, hard-working team for the most part, but I just have this uneasy feeling that something major will go wrong at some point. Something I will have to handle, something that will crack my facade of competence.
On top of that, I’m starting a new rheumatology treatment tomorrow. Infusions, which will be an hour long, in a location that’s an hour and a half from where I live and work, and, yeah, I’ll have to drive straight to work from these infusions when I’m done. One tomorrow, one two weeks after that, then either monthly or every two months depending on how things go, I guess. Eight o’clock check in times each time, to ensure that I can still make it to the office in time to get some work done.
Some say change is good, but this seems excessive. I mean, new work routines on top of new treatments on top of all the things I’ve already got going on…It’s gonna be a lot.
My hope is that I maintain my sanity throughout this time. I think if I can just hold on through the maternity leave, I can tough out most anything that’s thrown at me. Or something. Regardless, a lot is riding on my ability to handle this time.
Will I be able to keep up with writing during this time? Maybe. Will I be able to keep to my self-imposed deadlines? Gods, I hope so. I have been having a tendency to nudge my deadlines back a week or two at a time when I get stuck, and I know that’s going to bite me in the ass sooner rather than later. At least I’m 1/3 of the way through the latest novel, with one more novel after, then it’s a string of novellas that I’ve got lined up. Those tend to go rather quickly.
I have a couple of embroidery commissions in the works, plus at least one for-fun project, but none of those have 100% set timelines yet (and one doesn’t even have a design or materials yet). So I am putting the stitching on a back burner until A – I have my latest deadline met (or beaten) or B – One of the embroidery deadlines moves up before one or more of the writing WIPs.
I’m enjoying my current WIP, but I’ll be glad to have it done next month and be back to the Abnormalverse. I think I’ll reread the second and third books to refresh me, plus all my copious notes for Book 4, before I dive back in. I want to be sure I don’t write in someone who’s dead or magically reattach a vaporized limb or something stupid like that. Continuity is a thing, after all.
Well, time to finish getting ready. Off I go into the wild.
Let’s hope I don’t get eaten.