First Cup of Coffee - November 26, 2018

I'm back at it today, musing on vacation, taking time off, and learning to listen to your subconscious voice on whether to work or relax.

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Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy. I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Tea today. And it is Monday, November 26th, post-US Thanksgiving. So, and a week since I last podcasted. So, no huge surprise there. Um probably could tell from the tentative nature of my last podcast that uh I wasn't gonna post again all week. But hey, you guys were all offline doing things too, right? I do think that's good for us. And I've learned that uh I'm looking at I have that yogi detox tea. I'm doing a little post-Thanksgiving excess detox, you know, and they have those um yogic sayings on the back of the tea thing, and mine says, There is nothing like you, there was nothing like you, there shall be nothing like you. And so I don't know what do they what do they call those things? I need to memorize the word for it because I dislike them intensely, you know, it's the things that um are like parallelisms or something like that, uh, you know, where people sort of flip the words around and make it seem like it's really um profound when it's actually meaningless. Things like um, if you criminalize guns, only criminals will have guns. You know, it's like because they're doing some kind of wordplay and it appears to have some sort of internal logic or purports to make sense. When if you examine it, it makes no sense at all. Um, it's not meant to make sense, it's supposed to cloud things rather than illuminate them. I'm a little disappointed in yogi tea with their um is nothing, was nothing, shall be nothing like me. Well, I suppose so, because everything in the universe is unique in its own way. So there is no precise repetition of anything at all. That's one of the facts of the reality that we live in. So an unexpected plunge into philosophy. Perhaps that's what Yogi T anticipated was that they would stir some deep thoughts. Excuse me. Laughing at myself. So yeah, I could tell that um when I was saying maybe I'll do this, keep podcasting through the week, for me, any time that it's a like maybe I'll do this, it ends up being a no. Um, I think that's I think that there is some profound truth to that. That unless I am determined to do something, it's not gonna happen. And I think maybe that's what happens to a lot of people who want to find the time to write, you know, are hoping that you know, they'll maybe tonight after work I won't be too tired and I can write. And really, it comes down to you have to be determined, you have to be absolutely certain that you're going to do the thing, or the the maybes will will overwhelm it. As it was, I um did not get any writing done to speak of on Monday. I got my podcast up, got a few other things taken care of. Um, but after Monday, I you know, we got up early Tuesday morning and I packed up my laptop without turning it on, and I did not turn it on again until Friday evening, and that's because um I needed to look up something for my mom, and then I didn't look at it again, uh didn't turn it on on Saturday, uh, and didn't really look at it until Sunday. So that was interesting, right? I find that that is really good for me to not turn on the laptop for a week. I have my phone pared down so that really only high priority emergency stuff comes to it. Um, my special email address and the one messenger that uh like my assistant can reach me on. Other than that, very little comes through on my phone, no social media to speak of, um, no notifications. So people can reach me if they really desperately need to, but otherwise not so much. So um, yeah, it was it's really good to uh to disconnect, and I I'd like to do more than that, and then more more of that, not more than that, maybe more than that, more of that. Um yeah, and so I didn't think that I needed a break because I, as you all know, as the faithful listeners, I've been screwing off for a couple of weeks anyway, or I shouldn't call it screwing off because that's not fair. I haven't been writing intensively uh because I was dealing so much with businessy things. I was writing sort of scattershot little bits here and there. Um so the upshot of it is is last week I didn't work on the book at all, and I only got 65 words for the entire week. Um, that's because on Sunday I do count my blog posts and intro stuff, so that's all those were is because Sunday was a um blurb a buddy on SFF7, so all I had to do was write a little intro to that. And then today, or today, then Monday, I just did my podcast intro, which I kept very brief, and then I didn't write anything again for the rest of the week. So heh, I don't you all could probably hear that. That was uh Corrine replying on to something on Messenger. Hi, Corrine. She's one of the few people who gets an audible notification because she often needs my attention. So um, oh yeah, so the upshot is it was my lowest workout week of the entire year, which I did not anticipate, didn't plan necessarily, but I do think that there's um something to be said for listening to yourself and to what you need. There have been other Thanksgivings when I have gotten up early and gone to write and you know gotten some words to in keeping that flow. Um this time, this time, yeah, I really needed uh apparently did need that time because I was very happy not opening my laptop at all. I think that um it's another one of those things, and I know I sort of wend around and around this topic, you know, that you have to get good enough at knowing when you're when you need to put the spurs to yourself, when you really need to clamp down and make the effort to be determined, to set those boundaries and say, yes, I am getting this word count today. And when you can back off, and when you can tell that um that you're I it's some of it's being able to listen to your subconscious voice, I think. Knowing when your subconscious needs the break and needs the time to play, or when your subconscious is just um what wanting to be lazy and it's not easy, it really isn't. Isabelle's popping up in my window wanting in, but David's home, so I'm going to let him take care of her rather than risk messing up the podcast halfway through. As has happened before, right? So um, so yeah, it was a good break. It was a really nice trip. Um, David and I did stopped along the way at Apache Lake, um, Salt River, and comes through the canyon there above Phoenix. I'll put that picture on here. And it was um, and then we got to my folks' house in Tucson and it was uh a nicely laid-back few days. Yeah. Um my stepsister ended up hosting Thanksgiving. We have it catered by the hotel, so nobody has to cook, so that makes it a lot easier. Nobody's stressing about the food. And on Friday, my mom and stepsister and I went shopping. We've been doing that for a long time now. Um I'm not sure what year we started it, but it we've probably been doing it at least 10 years. And um this kitty is giving me the mournful kitty looks. She's probably going to freeze to death. Freeze. That's all right. All right with sir, all right for her. Um oh yeah, we've probably been doing that at least 10 years. And we go to this mall in Tucson that's a beautiful outdoor mall called La Encantada. And it's um the first years we started going was, you know, like before Obama was elected, and it was deep economic depression, and Tucson was hard hit. A lot of the stores had closed, and the employees were just so eager to make a sale, any sale. And even though it is technically Black Friday shopping, we don't really consider it that way. My stepsister likes to take the opportunity while she's with us to get help have us point out things for the guys or things that we want that she can get us. She's a planner aheader on Christmas shopping. So occasionally we pack pick up Christmas presents, but we also um you know look for we try on clothes and that kind of thing and take advantage of the good clothing sales. And it's a fun day. We you know go out when the stores open at the mall and we are pretty leisurely about it. You know, it's not like we're trying to make any particular sale. Then we have a nice lunch with wine and finish up our shopping, and then we all go out for Mexican food that Friday night. That's a tradition from their side of the family. And um, but this year, yeah, and we've always told people, you know, they're like, oh my god, I can't believe you go to the mall on Black Friday. And we've always told people, well, it's not like that, it's not like you imagine, it's not the lines on the hordes and the pressing crowds and the desperation to get that last Walmart TV at that price or what have you. Um, but this year, this year for the first time, there were a lot of people there. Um, and we stood in a couple of long checkout lines, particularly at anthropology. They were really uh really mocked. So it was still fun, but this was the first time that I felt a little bit of the crowd pressure. Uh so and very interestingly, um, a lot of people up from Mexico too, um, not caravans of refugees by any stretch, but um beautifully dressed and clearly um upper class, middle upper class families taking advantage of the shopping, some Asian families, uh a lot more diversity, and it was nice to see that. Tucson is good that way. But it occurs to me that um Mexico is probably, at least anecdotally, seems to be gaining a lot more uh wealth than I remember them having, certainly in my youth. Um, a lot of the people who come up, you know, are very much like you can't tell them apart from from Americans for the most part, except that they you can the Mexican Spanish has a certain cadence to it that uh is pretty clear, but you know, otherwise it's uh everybody kind of out shopping and enjoying the things. So I guess that's good. It's good that people are feeling better economically. Uh it it helps m mitigate many things. Uh yeah, so so it goes. So I didn't buy a whole lot of things, but I did get a few gifts. And then we drove home on Saturday, and yesterday I did do a blog post. So I already like more than tripled my word count. It wasn't a very long one, but I still uh got quite a bit more than I had the previous week. And today I'm I really do need to get on track with Sorcerer's Moons and get that going. Um at this point, I don't see how I'm gonna release it in December. I'm sorry. No, don't don't cry. You knew it was a long shot anyway, right? Um, maybe I'll get it out in December, but almost certainly it's going to be January. And I just don't want to have the pressure, I don't want to try to meet that deadline. And uh Seasons of Sorcery is still sewing nicely, so thank you all for supporting that book. It's um yeah, great to see them. And what else? David does must not know that Isabel wants it in because she she keeps jumping, but she jumps up and down and up and down. I'll have to let her in in a minute, but I think that's all I have to say anyway. So I'm gonna get at it. Hope you all have a wonderful uh Monday, wonderful rest of the week. Sort of the last hurrah here in the States. Um, this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas tends to be a little funny. A lot of people take, use up their mandatory vacation, and uh everybody has a little bit of short timer's disease, looking forward to the holidays. We have a nice break between Thanksgiving. Excuse me, I don't know why I have a little bit of hoarseness. I did run this morning, and that felt good kind of breaking up some of that um that uh sedentary crap, you know, from sitting around, sitting around and eating goopy food. So um, oops, I say lost track. I got all distracted by goopy food. Oh, well, we have a good break between Thanksgiving and Christmas, yeah. So four weeks. So uh a month from today, my folks will be leaving again. So I'll be heading into Christmas prep, which will be fun. So, all right, I'm gonna sign out. Hope you all have a great day. Thank you for sharing my first cup of coffee with me. Hope you all had a lovely break if you had one, and I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye bye.