On the 3rd Day of Critmiss my author gave to me… A Day in the Life of an Author.
I thought that this could be a fun one, mostly because I feel like most people think I live at my desk 24/7 typing away at this keyboard or staring at blank Word documents. Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot of both of those things, I love writing, it’s my absolute passion but that isn’t the only thing that I do. Even if we are in quarantine and there isn’t a whole lot that we can do. You know what I mean?
So, I thought I’d take you through my day.
First thing is first, you should know that I always start my day off with either a cup of Tazo Sweet Orange tea, or a cup of coffee. Lately, I’ve been getting coffee before my physical therapy appointments with my brother at either Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. From Starbucks I normally keep it pretty simple and get a caramel macchiato, and from Dunkin I absolutely love their new Sugarplum Macchiato. Today however, I didn’t have to go and get tortured, which meant that I would be making my tea or coffee at home.
However, before I go upstairs and make coffee, one of thee first things I do is roll over and snuggle with the dog for a little while. Bear sleeps with me almost every night, meaning I’m very used to his loud snoring, kicking me in the middle of the night, being right on top of me, and most of all, the cold snoot either in the back of the knee or the arm when I’m trying to sleep. It’s rude, and he knows it. He can wake you up with his snoring, groaning, yawning, sneezing, and stretching but, God forbid if you wake him up either accidentally or on purpose. So, he normally gets some love first.
After Bear gets a little bit of attention, I make my rounds really quick making sure all of the snakes, gliders, and rats are doing okay before I go upstairs and make my drink. Today, I decided to make a hot cup of tea with lots of honey, something I love doing on these super chilly winter-esque mornings before it was time to get down to business.
This morning Bear had an appointment at the groomers to get a bath and to get his nails clipped because, trust me when I say he was overdue. The funny thing about Bear is that he absolutely hates water, even though Tina, his groomer, says that he loves getting baths over there. He also hates having his nails clipped, or we’d probably do these things at home. But, the bonus is, we don’t need to clean up all of the water that he’d probably splash all over my bathroom, or all of the shed. So, I guess it’s a win win, seeing as Tina at Perfect Paws in Fox Lake is fantastic. Bear always comes home smelling good, soft, and having his nails at a good comfortable length.
And you know one of my favorite parts? The adorable bandana that he always comes home with! Bear normally comes home from every groomer’s appointment with a new and usually themed bandana, like his Christmas doggy bandana that he got today. We also have a Fourth of July bandana, a Halloween bandana, and a couple of other ones that we put on him periodically as well, though I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wanted to find one that says “My Mom is an Author” one that was covered in penguins, or one that has Jack Skellington on it! He was a good boy to day- even if he was mad at me, since he doesn’t like having his toenails clipped- so he got a plain cheeseburger from McDonald’s.
After that, I got some gas, hit up the Dollar Store for some Christmas present wrapping supplies and headed home. I did end up getting a little bit of my Christmas wrapping done but, not all of it. I think that’s one of the worst parts for me- I like doing the shopping, the opening, and the actual gift-giving itself, but I hate the gift wrapping. I always want my wrapping to be the kind of pretty, perfect wrapping that you see in Hallmark Christmas movies but, it looks more like a drunken elf attacked the packages with wrapping paper and a tape bomb exploded.
I was also productive enough to day to get all the fixins together in the crockpot to make a beef stew- beef, potatoes, carrots, green beans, and a beautiful, rich, and flavorful broth. Mmm, it was so filling, and warm, and good, and I’m making myself want to go back upstairs and have some more even though I’m still full from the last bowl! It’s definitely not something that’s going to go to waste in this house because soup and salad are two of my favorite things, especially when the broth is that good!
I also made some cheesecake swirl brownies today while I was at it, which kind of surprised me honestly. Normally, this is the time of year where I should be doing nothing but baking. I should be making my family’s Christmas candy, salted caramel cookies, Nutella truffles, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and there are others that I’m not even naming because we would literally be here forever. Fall and winter are the time of year where the Lambert household is usually nothing but baking. So, since I’m not doing any of that right now, I may or may not drop a couple pictures here of our past baking excursions because, I feel I owe it to my mom that if I’m not at least doing our annual Christmas baking that I at least talk about it and acknowledge those feelings.
Because that was something that I used to do with my mom, and holidays are quickly becoming the hardest time of year for me because I have so many memories of her around this time of year. I’m finding it hard to combat those memories and feeling like I should be doing or feeling a certain way, and even though I know that it’s all part of my grieving process it is still just so fucking hard, and I can’t lie about that even if I really wanted to. Sometimes, pain demands to be felt whether or not you want to feel it.
It sucks and it hurts but, it is what it is.
The rest of my night so far has been spent either reading, watching lame Christmas movies on Netflix, doing a couple Duolingo German lessons, or doing a little bit of writing, all while having Little Miss Zero the rit sitting on my shoulder, and Bear snoring away on my bed. But somehow it is now almost 2a.m, so I’m going to turn in for the night.
Goodnight.
Stay Safe & Stay Healthy.
-Sky
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