Monday, February 27, 2017

light through the veins

Programming note: for the next few days, I'm going to treat my time in London as though it's a writing retreat (which feels plausible, since I just got here and don't really know anyone and am figuring out how to feed myself) and try to limit my time on social media/internet/etc. as much as possible so I can get deeper into the book. I'll still be blogging and will likely still post photos on Instagram - but I may have my phone off for swathes of time. So if something happens and you try to reach me and I don't respond right away, don't assume I'm dead!

You can probably tell, based on that, that the writing wasn't going perfectly today. Some of this was no doubt jetlag related - I woke up at midnight and thought it was time to get up (it was, if you were still in Bali, where it was eight a.m.). I went back to sleep, but I woke up again at four and knew it was futile to try sleeping again. So I got up, showered, made some eggs at five, and was settled in to work by 6:30. But I didn't actually start working until 7:30 (hence the comment above about needing to cut myself off).

So I worked pretty steadily until 9:30, at which point I was hungry again. So I walked down the street and had breakfast - there's a great cafe near here with a lot of gluten free baked goods, and I was in love even though it's clear that Chelsea is even more intensely crazy than the Marina was, and the bitchy yoga moms were out in full force. Then I was going to take a longish walk to Kensington High Street, but it started raining right after I finished breakfast, so I took the Underground three stops instead.

My first destination was Marks and Spencer, where I scored a $10 pair of microfiber slippers to combat the fact that I'm now in a winter climate with wood floors instead of a summer climate with stone floors, and also four pairs of socks for the same reason. Then I went to Boots (their equivalent of Walgreens, although with slightly nicer products) to buy shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc. And then I went next door to Whole Foods - there's a Whole Foods in Kensington, and it's nicer and bigger than basically any Whole Foods I've seen in the US. I found some gluten free bread and gluten free pasta, and discovered that they carry Kind bars (a staple of my diet that I've been deeply missing). I made one critical error in regards to weight and cost of deli-sliced turkey, since their prices are per 100g rather than per 1lb, which made it exorbitant - and was made more exorbitant when I ordered double what I should have. So, I will be eating turkey sandwiches as often as possible - but otherwise, #noregrets, and it's good to know I can get some specialty stuff while I'm here.

Then I came back, kinda worked again, made a sandwich and talked to the community manager for awhile, and then ill-advisedly took a two hour nap because I couldn't stand it anymore. Then I found the cutest little room tucked away in the attic, where I happily took care of business while sitting on a velvet chaise lounge looking out over the street.

I basically spent the evening lazing around when I should have been working - no, I don't want to be a workaholic, but I could certainly be working harder than I am now. I do think social media plays a big role, which I already knew - but I've been tracking my writing time very closely on this book so I can better estimate how long a project will take, and it's stunning how many of my writing blocks are only ten or twenty minutes long, followed by a thirty minute break that was probably twitter. It's hard to do great writing if you can't get deep into the story - and right now, it's too easy for me to stay shallow.

But that's a concern for antoher day - for now I need to sleep. Goodnight!

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