The one way to work through writer’s block is to well -- write.
We got our new refrigerator yesterday. Our refrigerator now comes complete with WiFi. Lucy and I are befuddled as to why a frig needs WiFi, but hey, it’s 2020. Don’t get me wrong, the frig does what it needs to do, like cool food, but now, we can play Spotify from the frig. Will wonders never cease?
Yesterday, Eric sent me a link to a book called *Unfu*k Yourself* by Gary John Bishop. It’s a three-hour book I started yesterday, and Gary said something interesting, people have an average of fifty-thousand thoughts daily. I don’t know why, but that seems like many thoughts. And I was wondering, in my case, how many of those thoughts were worth having and how many are worth writing down?
I think that’s what this “warming up” is about. Trying to capture some of those thoughts before they pass on into the ether.
And what’s so funny about yesterday is that it was chaotic in a sense. As I was in a meeting, the frig guy showed up with our new frig. So it’s a mad rush to unpack the old frig, put it in the garage (which acts more like chaotic storage), and then deal with work. I’m also responsible for getting commissions out for my guys I had to work on that yesterday. So there’s figuring all that out.
All the while, I’m still doing my meetings: a guy needs to get paid, and trying to keep up with my calendar. Needless to say, by the late afternoon, I was spent.
And then, I started listening to Bishop’s book about the language you use during self-talk.
That’s one of the things I’m going to be monitoring today. How do I talk to myself? Or rather, the language I use while talking to myself?
I don’t think I use negative language. I seem to remember reading about this from Awaken The Giant Within and have tried to monitor it since then, and this was back almost twenty years ago. I usually try to stay positive. Not Pollyanna positive, but at least above ground. Sure, there’s been some times I’ve gone dark, but I’m usually pretty good at pulling myself through any dangerous downward spirals.
But like I was saying, I’m going to monitor that today. It did take me a while to get up the gumption to write, but not much. I wanted to get my words in for the day.
I’ve got an appointment with a Sleep Doctor today. I forget the official name. Lucy has been talking about my sleep patterns for a long time, and it sounds like I might need one of those sleep machines. I’ve seen ‘em before, and they vaguely remind me of *Top Gun*. So maybe I’ll feel like Maverick when I sleep. Who knows?
I have a close friend who uses it and swears by it. He could tell the difference when he’d had used a sleep machine for a while, and the night he forgot to put it on. It was night and day for him. We’ll see if it helps me.
I’ve noticed for a long while that I’ve needed more naps during the day. I just get tired somewhere around one in the afternoon. Usually, what I’ll do is take a quick fifteen-minute power nap. Thanks, Jocko.
I thought maybe its because I’m getting older. I usually stay up late at night and wake up early. My morning are usually chaotic. But maybe there’s more to the story. Its worth looking into and getting checked out.
Dad used to take lots of naps during the day. He’d come home for lunch mid-day and take a quick nap to carry him out throughout the day.
By the way, I did talk to Mom the day before last. It was the feast day of St. Andrew. She added to a story of my name. It’s been a recent addition of late.
Legend has it, that my brother named me. Mom and Dad had wanted to get Eric involved in my coming into the world. So they gave him the honor of naming me. Mom says, that Eric would come in and pitch names. Some good, some bad.
Well, Eric, whose six years older than I am, had this girlfriend in Kindergarten (my brother was always quite the player), named Andrea.
So when I was born, I was named after her. Only problem was that I came out a boy. My brother offered the name Andreo. Mom vetoed that one quickly.
The old story was Mom offered up Andrew, and Eric agreed. With certain provisions: a) no middle name and b) I would only go by Andrew. No Andy, No Drew.
My name was Andrew.
Period.
Paragraph.
Mom agreed. And it had been like that ever since.
But one thing she added on St. Andrew’s Feast Day was that Eric was taking classes at the Baptist street next to my grandmother’s house. Actually, I think they ran a daycare or Bible study of some sort. I had gone a couple of times.
Anyways, they were covering the Apostles, and St. Andrew came up. Eric remembered the name and liked it.
Ah, history.
I’ll tell you why I like Highland 2 real quick. First, you write down your words, no formatting, no nothing. Only words on the page. Then, on the top right corner, you click this picture of a page, and it instantly formats what you’ve written. When you are writing screenplay format, it’s better, but it works when writing prose or just long form.
It’s a neat feature.
I struggle to implement my daily list, but I’m determined to do it.
Something needs to change.
I do want to blog more because the more I use Twitter, the more I hate it. Do people read blogs anymore? I doubt it, but they’re still fun to write.
See what I did there -- language.