Zombie Evasion and Debating NaNoWriMo

Today wasn’t bad for a Monday, it was just uneventful. I stayed late at work so Jon could take a test. We did laundry and dropped off a library book. I finished up some con notes and correspondence. The most excitement I had was doing a zombie mission this evening. We’d originally planned to find a geocache, vacuum the car, and then take a walk, but I’m not used to the fact that it’s getting darker earlier now. We nixed the other plans and headed to the rec track so we wouldn’t be out much past dark.

I’ve been feeling good about my walking abilities lately, so I was excited to see if tonight’s walk would be better than past ones have been. It started out great. I was walking at a good pace and got chased by zombies early on. I evaded them around the hilly part of the track,  and was out of breath by the time I crested the small hill (hills and I are not yet friends), but recovered quickly. I kept my pace up for a little while after that, but then my ankle started cramping. Everything else felt fine, but that ankle…so frustrating.  It’s like a tightness or stiffness on the outside, and it makes walking uncomfortable.  I thought I’d finally found the right fit of shoe because that cramp hadn’t happened in a long time.

Good shoe fit or not, my ankle gave me some grief, possibly due to the change in speed. I decided to take a rest at one of the benches to let the cramp ease itself. It finally felt okay, so I started up again.  I got a little further and finished my second zombie chase before it cramped up again. There are no other benches along that track, so I took a few standing breaks that didn’t really help. I was limping by the time I got to the last stretch. I figured it was okay, though. The app says it won’t trigger the zombie chases unless you’re walking at least 2.2 mph, and by that time I was shuffling along pretty slowly, so I didn’t think anything would happen.

Apparently, that’s not the case. Maybe it’s an average or the starting speed, but even with my slow shamble, the app triggered a third chase. I realize I could have paused the app or just said screw it and gotten eaten by the zombies. Instead, I pushed through the pain and hauled butt down the sidewalk for that interval. This is a good thing, right? The whole idea of “training” is to push past those painful moments and get in a good endurance-building walk. Be that as it may, once that group was evaded, I slowed right back down.

I ended up taking another break on the benches by the concession stands. The breaks always feel so long, and I get frustrated at the time I’m wasting, but I really needed that ankle cramp to go away. While I sat there, I watched Jon just stroll past. He was going into his third lap and didn’t see me sitting in the dark.

By that time, I was just a few minutes from having finished a thirty minute walk (breaks not included) and completing my mission. Though the break felt long, it was only a few minutes.  I walked around the parking lot for the cool down and to wait for Jon to get back around to the car since he had my keys. During what I thought was my cool down, I was chased again! It took me by surprise, but I got away . Apparently, there is no cool down. It’s just jump in, deal with the undead, and have a nice day.

Besides the sore ankle, I had some pain in one side of my lower back and hip, but I would guess that’s from walking funny to try to avoid the ankle cramp. Otherwise, I felt good! In the future, I’ll have to push through the pain, maybe, or just let the ankle acclimate. Next time I walk, I might do it with no zombie chases so I can keep at a steady pace and see if that makes a difference.

Afterwards, we went and got Subway for dinner then came home. I didn’t put laundry away, opting to get online and start this post instead. I did take a break to shower, so I’m all clean and ready for bed.

The only other thing of note is that National Novel Writing Month is coming up in just a few weeks, and I have yet to decide if I’m going to do it. Last week I was all excited for it, but now I’m not so sure. If anything, I should edit and re-work some of my past Nanos for possible publication. But I’m also sitting on two ideas for new stories right now: a horror/mystery that is currently in my head as a short story but could be fleshed out into a novel, I think; and a romance/erotica novel that I want to write to prove that I can turn out something better than 50SoG.  At the same time, I’ve already got things to do that I’m not getting done, like knitting projects, courses, books to read, and packing and purging. I’m just not sure if NaNoWriMo is in the cards this year.

But i have a few weeks to decide. I suppose I could set October as goal month to get all the other things done to free up the time to write in November. It could happen.

On that note, it’s time to catch up on some blogs before heading off to sleep times.

A.

 

Post Vacation Scramble

Getting back into the swing of things this past week has been somewhat of a challenge. I took an extra day off work to reset myself back to the real world. Having the extra day was incredibly useful and sanity- saving. Besides running errands, I took some time to relax, hit the gym, and breathe a little bit between play and work. Even with the extra day, though, going back to work was rough. And it wasn’t that things weren’t handled while I was gone. I was happy to see that they were. But getting back into the 8 to 5 mindset can be difficult.

It probably didn’t help that I jumped head first back into life, not only getting back to my routine, but also handling several things from my to-do list. I got a haircut and in the heat of the moment decided to go with bangs, something I haven’t had in ten years. I handled things with our cell phones, and I jumped into my first Coursera class, which took up more time than I expected. I like it though. It’s fun and it’s making me schedule things and giving me more time management practice.

That doesn’t seem like a lot, but trying to balance it in the midst of a forty hour work week, tweaking budgets for future travel, and supporting J during some crunchy school times, it feels somewhat overwhelming. And sadly, I’ve had very little social time this week, outside of work (where I haven’t been real social either). As for my day job work load, I’m not yet feelign organized and caught up, even though I’ve evaluated what I’ve gotten done and I know I should feel good about it.

And let’s not forget the small things that are lurking in the background, waiting to be done and finished: my mom’s shawl and other requested knitting projects; the four books I’m currently reading that want to be finished; the craft projects that have been calling to me; stories that want to be written; a car that needs to be cleaned out; and the fact that I need to put in some gaming time with my friends and husband. Well, I suppose I don’t need to…but it’s good for my mental health.

Part of me thinks though that for as stressful as it feels, it’s probably the best way to do it…jump right in. It’s a feeling I have to get used to. With two, maybe three more big vacations this year and several long weekend trips, maybe I should consider this practice.