The Best Breakfast in NYC, Operation Mincemeat, & The Comedy Cellar

New York City – Memorial Day Weekend (Sunday, Day 3 of 4)

* All names have been altered for privacy.

Other posts in this series: Day 1, Day 2 (part 1), Day 2 (part 2)

Our favorite place to get breakfast in NYC is Jack's Wife Freda. There are a few locations around the city, but our favorite is the one in West Village on Carmine Street. Han and I had stayed up until 3 a.m. the night before, talking and laughing in our hotel room, so we were completely exhausted when we woke up at 8 a.m. to get breakfast, but we knew the delicious food would be worth the fatigue.

Han and I made it downstairs before Mom and Dad, so we sat on a bench outside the hotel for a few minutes while we waited for them.

"How much you wanna bet Lottie and Seth won't come?" Han asked.

I laughed. "They're definitely not going to come."

"I hope Jasper's doing okay," he said, voice soft and pensive.

"I'm sure he's alright," I replied, though I did also worry. The pictures and reports we'd gotten of him the previous day from the kennel had been promising, though. He looked content, if not perfectly happy.

"Here they are," Han said quietly.

I looked up, and my parents were walking through the revolving door out of the hotel.

“Hey, sleepyheads!" I called, my tone lighthearted and joking. "We almost left without you! You gotta get up earlier!"

Dad rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"Are Lottie and Seth coming?" I asked, turning to Mom.

"I'll text them," Mom said, then looked down at her phone to type them a message.

We waited a couple extra minutes just in case they showed or texted back, but they didn't. So we walked through the bustling streets that cool morning to the subway, then rode all the way to West Village. I love taking the subway; it can transform a thirty-minute walk or a twenty-minute drive into a five-minute ride. It is, by far, the fastest and most efficient way of getting around New York City.

It took us about three or four stops to get to West Village, then we walked for about five minutes to get to the restaurant.

Jack's Wife Freda in West Village is one big room, longer than it is wide. There's one long table in the center of the room, like the kind of table where a king would sit at the very end, except there's no end seat, just bench seats along both sides. There are other, smaller tables scattered around the room, a few two-person tables, and a few four-person tables.

The walls are a creamy white color, and the floors are composed of large, cream-colored tiles with black squares surrounding them. It feels like a café that would belong in Paris. The walls are lined with a strange mix of modern art and intricate paintings with heavily stylized Hebrew letters. Everything about this place feels friendly and warm. The owners of the restaurant are from Israel and South Africa. They serve a mix of American, Mediterranean, and Jewish comfort food that is to die for.

There's a reason you have to show up early here. The tables will be packed by 9:30 a.m. Thankfully, we had arrived at the restaurant early enough that getting a table was quick and easy.

I ordered a latte and my favorite item on the menu: rosewater waffles. They were served with a dollop of yogurt on top, sprinkled with mixed berries, and fresh maple syrup. The waffles were light and fluffy, and with the yogurt, it isn't too sweet, even when you add maple syrup. The berries were perfectly ripe, but just a tiny hint of sourness.

Han always orders the shakshuka, a popular North African/Middle Eastern dish, featuring eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. Han’s mom is from Israel, and her parents were from Iraq, so Han grew up eating red shakshuka. At Jack's Wife Freda, they serve green shakshuka, which I think is made from a different base, but it’s still absolutely delicious.

Mom got eggs and sausage, so she and I split the eggs and the waffles, and Dad ordered a little grapefruit bowl.

"Is that all?" The waiter asked when my Dad ordered.

"Yes, I don't eat very much," Dad replied with an innocent smile.

Mom, Han, and I all burst out laughing because that isn't true at all. He was going to eat whatever the rest of us didn't finish, and would still be hungry after that, I was certain.

We took our time at breakfast, enjoying the delicious food and even better company. I felt so bloated afterward because I had seriously overeaten. If you're trying to lose weight and lack self-control, it's best to avoid this restaurant. Everything is too good to resist.

After breakfast, we took a very long detour back to our hotel. We walked the High Line, which is absolutely beautiful, especially in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. The High Line was an old rail line, but it was shut down and converted into a walkway filled with plants. It goes on for a while and goes past some very cool-shaped buildings.

walking the high line © Jessica McKendry

cool building views on the high line © Jessica McKendry

more cool views from the high line © Jessica McKendry

Dad was walking at a kind of insane pace, so my feet started to hurt a bit, but I wasn't going to complain.

"Hey, what's that!?" I called, momentarily distracted from the pain in my feet.

Mom and Dad turned to look at me, then followed my gaze.

“Oh, that’s the Little Island!” Mom said.

“We haven’t taken you there before?” Dad asked.

I shook my head. “Can we go?”

So Dad took us to Little Island, and we walked through the park on the manmade island. There’s a small amphitheater on the island, too, which is often used for concerts and events.

little island © Jessica McKendry

crossing the bridge to little island © Jessica McKendry

We returned to the hotel around noon and had already taken 12,000 steps!

Lottie and Seth had awakened by then and had gotten breakfast at the little café inside the hotel. We all dressed up a little to go see our next show: Operation Mincemeat.

This musical is based on a true story of how the British tricked over 90,000 German soldiers into leaving Sicily during WWII. I’d never heard of the musical before, and I had no idea what it was about before going into it.

The music is beautiful. It’s both fun and upbeat, yet deeply emotional. There are only four or five cast members, and each actor plays multiple roles. At first, it’s quite silly to see some male actors switch into female characters, and female actors switch into male characters. It was written to feel silly at first. But at some point, it becomes so believable that it isn’t funny anymore, and it just becomes beautiful.

Unfortunately, Han started falling asleep in the most emotional song, so I was annoyed. I took his hand and gave him a hand massage to help him stay awake so that he didn’t start snoring. At the intermission, he went and grabbed a rum and coke, which I was worried would only make him more tired.

“I’ll be fine,” he promised as he sat back down next to me. “I’m really enjoying the musical. We just did so much walking this morning and stayed up so late last night!”

I nodded. That was totally fair.

After the show, we went to Empanada Mama, a restaurant where the entire menu consisted of different kinds of empanadas. I got a mac & cheese empanada, a ground beef empanada, and a rice & beans empanada. I also ordered an apple juice.

Dad gave me a disappointed look, and Lottie, Seth, Mom, and Han all laughed at me.

“What?” I cried, defensively. “I like juice!”

“Are you a child?” Dad asked, though he was trying not to smile.

“Apple juice is not only for children!” I replied with a scoff.

The empanadas were delicious, of course. The ground beef one was really good, but I’ve gotta be honest, my favorite was the mac & cheese one.

After lunch, Lottie, Seth, Han, and I split off from my parents. We returned to the hotel while my parents attended a friend’s birthday party, and we relaxed and played Fortnite for a bit.

In the evening, we went to the Village Underground Comedy Cellar. Han led us there because my parents were meeting us there. We waited outside the Comedy Cellar for my parents since they had our tickets.

While we waited, Lottie pulled me aside while Han and Seth talked. Seth––who is a cop––kept talking about how you can identify which homeless people are on some really bad drugs, because they’re the ones with no shoes on. I think he was trying to sound cool, but we weren't impressed.

Mom and Dad finally arrived after we had been waiting for about ten or fifteen minutes, and we went into the Comedy Cellar together. The security personnel had to put everyone’s phones in bags, and we were required to keep our phones and all our electronics in bags until the show was over. We could keep the bags at the table with us; we just couldn’t open them until we left.

The show was hilarious, we could hardly breathe, we were laughing so hard! This was the lineup

Ayanna Dookie was my favorite. Her ex-husband was a cop, so she told a lot of jokes about him, and Mom, Lottie, and I were dying laughing. Seth was laughing, too, but I’m not sure he found it quite as funny as the rest of us did.

After the show, Dad took us to John’s of Bleeker, a pizza place, but Dad was walking so fast, and Lottie was wearing heels, so her feet really hurt. Dad was quite a ways ahead of the rest of us.

“Go tell Dad to slow down,” Mom said to me.

“Agh, okay,” I replied, then ran up the street to walk just behind Dad. “Hey, can we slow down a bit? Lottie's feet hurt!”

“No, we gotta get there!” Dad said.

I grabbed his arm and tried to slow him down, but he just kept walking.

“Why do we have to go so fast?” I asked.

“Because they close in seven minutes!” Dad said.

“You should have led with that!” I cried, then stopped pulling his arm. I turned around to face Lottie, Seth, Mom, and Han. “Guys, hurry up! The place is closing!”

I don’t think Mom was thrilled that we were going so fast, but we made it to John’s of Bleecker with five minutes to spare before it closed. We ordered extremely quickly, and I was honestly shocked that they took our order.

We devoured the pizza, even though it felt hotter than lava in our mouths, then went to another boba place across the street called Heytea. I ordered a mango drink, but the man taking our orders kept getting confused because we were all ordering at the same time. He could have easily gotten annoyed with us, but he was very friendly and patient.

We drank our boba–or in my case, my mango drink–as we walked back to the subway. On the way, we talked about Grandma, who passed away in May, and how Aunt Joyce had taken such good care of Grandma right up until the end. It was Aunt Joyce who’d gone to Grandma every day she was in the hospital during her recovery.

“We should call her,” Han said.

So we FaceTimed her.

“Hello?” She said, answering the phone.

“Hi Aunt Joyce!” We all said into the camera.

“Oh hi, guys!” Aunt Joyce replied. “We’re watching The Watch right now, since Wander has never seen it!”

“We just wanted to tell you that you’re such an amazing person!” Mom said.

“Yeah, and we love you so much!” I added.

“Thank you, guys,” Aunt Joyce said. “I love you, too!”

We talked to her a little longer and said hello to Uncle Goose, Amelia, Oliver, and Wander (my cousin Amelia’s boyfriend). Then, we went down into the subway station and waited for a train. Mom was a little tipsy from the alcohol we had at the Comedy Cellar, so she and I were stretching and being silly.

Lottie and Seth were standing off to the side. I think they were arguing.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel safely and went to bed after all that.

Learning From Mistakes

I think I'm taking way too much time to write this story. Maybe I need to dive in. I feel trapped by the planning. Perhaps I need to run with it. Every time I feel ready to start writing, I get another idea that’s slightly better than the last one, and then I have to adjust my plan to accommodate it. But maybe I keep delaying because I’m afraid to start.

I made a lot of mistakes writing my first two novels, and I don’t regret any of them. However, I’m trying hard to learn from those mistakes, and maybe that’s what’s holding me back.

Here are the top three.

Mistake #1: Planning

My biggest mistake in writing From the Ashes and The Inferiors was the lack of planning. When I wrote those, I had been struck by an insatiable inspiration, one that consumed me like a fire I couldn’t put out. It was such an amazing, incredible feeling. I spent so much time writing that I didn’t stop and think about where I actually wanted these books to go.

When I started, I knew how I wanted Book 1 to end, and I had some vague plans for Book 2. I had assumed that a plan for Book 3 would just materialize as I wrote Book 2, but it never did. This was not only disappointing but also somewhat terrifying. I had come up with this whole story, to leave it 2/3rds finished, which feels very unfair to my readers. (Side note: I am still cooking up ideas for Book 3, but don’t get your hopes up.)

With my new stories, I want to have a plan for how I want each character arc to begin and end. If the plan changes along the way, that’s fine.

Mistake #2: Being Too Hasty

Don't get me wrong. I love From the Ashes and The Inferiors. They were the books that taught me how to be a writer. They were the books that taught me I could really be published, that I could actually do this. But there is a part of me that wishes I had waited to publish them until all three books were ready.

That way, I could have modified Books 1 and 2 to fit Book 3 in case things changed as the story evolved.

Mistake #3: World-Building

From the Ashes and The Inferiors are absolutely character-driven stories. However, I could have explored the world-building a bit further. Yes, I was 16 when Book 1 was published, and around 20 when Book 2 was published, but I had wanted to create a richer world.

The Mistakes I’m Making Now

Of course, I made so many mistakes writing my first two books, far more than these three, but these are the ones that bother me the most when I look back on them. Again, I don’t regret any of them, because all of my mistakes are things I can learn from. All my mistakes will make my current and future projects even better.

Right now, I’m wondering if the mistakes I’m currently making are an overcorrection of the mistakes I made in the past. I have over 100k words of world-building, I seem stuck in an endless loop of planning, and I feel overly cautious. I spend hours creating new languages, cultures, and religions. It’s incredibly fun, but I’m also not sure how productive it is. I often find myself in a world-building rabbit hole. I spend so much time writing, but it’s not going anywhere because I’m not drafting.

So … here’s to drafting.

Here’s to starting, to diving in headfirst, even if it’s scary.

Even if I don’t know where I’m going.

Open road ahead.

Talking To My Brain, A Sad Liver, & Some Turmeric

For the past few weeks, my body just hasn’t felt quite right. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I’ve always been very aware of when something is wrong. I’ve been exhausted, more so than usual, to the point that being creative has felt almost impossible.

Then, two Saturdays ago, Han and I went out to an Italian restaurant with our friends, Geralt and Luna. I ordered tortellini with tomato sauce, and honestly, it wasn’t very good. I can buy better quality tortellini and pasta sauce from Heinen’s to make at home. This food tasted like it came out of a box, which was disappointing.

When we got home, this acidic pain bloomed in my chest. It came in waves, ebbing and growing every few minutes. I don’t experience heartburn very often, but I knew what it felt like, so I took a Tums and tried to forget about it. Over the next few hours, the pain continued to worsen, and at around 12:30 a.m. I ended up … er … tossing my cookies. And I mean all of them.

Under remotely normal circumstances, that would’ve made me feel better. So I waited a few minutes for the relief to set in, for the pain to subside, but it remained. As a last-ditch effort, I took a shower, and when that didn’t work, I was exhausted. So, ignoring the pain, I lay down and went to bed.

For about three hours, I shifted in and out of restless sleep, trying to find some position where the burning pain couldn’t find me. Absolutely nothing helped.

At three in the morning, I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling for about twenty minutes, going through all of it in my head. The pain had only gotten worse.

Do I need to go to the hospital? I asked myself. I definitely didn’t want to spend my Sunday in the ER, especially if it turned out to be a bad case of heartburn. By this point, I was starting to feel anxious. I was pretty sure heartburn wasn’t supposed to last more than a few hours, and it had been six.

You might know from reading my previous posts that I have chronic anxiety, and that I’m also a bit of a hypochondriac. I often “don’t feel right,” so I go through an entire conversation with myself whenever I find myself in this situation. You think it’d be straightforward, but it really isn’t.

BRAIN: Are you blowing this out of proportion?
ME: Maybe? It’s hard to tell. You know how my anxiety is.
ANXIETY: Not blowing it out of proportion, it hurts so much!
BRAIN: How bad is the pain?
ANXIETY: It’s pretty fucking bad. Can we go to the hospital now? Jess, you know you have a high pain tolerance. If it hurts so bad that you can’t even sleep, then we need to go.
BRAIN: *sighs* On a scale of one to ten.
ANXIETY: Nine.
ME: *feeling a bit doubtful of anxiety* Nine is pretty high … I’m not screaming, I’m pretty sure childbirth or getting shot would be a lot more painful.
ANXIETY: Is that what people mean when they ask that question? If you’re measuring pain on a scale of one to ten, are you supposed to imagine the most painful thing you can think of and then compare it to that? Or is it more like you’re comparing this pain to all of the pain you have previously experienced?
ME: … I … actually don’t know.
BRAIN: Let’s think about this logically. Can we look up your symptoms online?
ME: *cringing* You remember how Anxiety reacted last time we looked up symptoms?
BRAIN: *Looks up over its glasses at Anxiety* Well, you’re wide awake and in pain with nothing else to do. We need to figure out what’s going on here. Anxiety, can you go sit in the corner while we look this up?
ANXIETY: Uhh, sure, I guess …
BRAIN: *pulls up my phone* Okay, so here it says heartburn should not last more than a few hours. It’s been what … six hours?
ME: Yep. That’s not good. Look here, it also says you should probably see a doctor if you experience heartburn accompanied by vomiting.
ANXIETY: *sneaking up behind me, and Brain* What if it’s an ulcer!? *steals my phone and searches up ulcer symptoms* Look! That sounds like what you are experiencing!
ME: *looking at Brain* It … kinda does …
BRAIN: Okay. Wake up Han. We’ll see what he thinks.

At that point, I did what Brain recommended, because Han is a lot more level-headed about these things. After a few minutes of discussion and going through my list of symptoms, Han cringed.

“Whatever you want to do, we’ll do,” he said. “I don’t really know how to help … if you feel like it’s that bad, and it’s not just your anxiety, then we should go.”

So that settled it.

Han took me to the ER at 4 a.m., which isn’t far from our apartment. They took my blood and did a CAT scan while we waited for a room in the ER. The CAT scan was super freaky, and the contrast they injected into my blood made me feel super weird for a bit.

At about 10 a.m. I finally got a room in the ER, and a doctor came to tell me that some enzymes in my liver were super elevated. They’re supposed to be under 50, and mine were over 500. Yeah, this felt like the time to start freaking out.

Sad liver!

I was admitted to the hospital and was given a nicer room around 1 p.m. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me fluids.

Mom and Lottie came to visit me in the early evening, which was nice because it allowed Han to go home, work out, shower, and bring me some things to do. Mom and Lottie helped take my mind off of everything, and Lottie talked to me about her boy drama for the week. That’s always a good distraction.

When Han returned, he hooked up our Apple TV to the hospital TV. He’d also brought my Nintendo Switch, the book I’m currently reading––Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson––and my laptop in case I wanted to write. I was way too stressed out to write, so I spent the rest of the night watching Star Wars: Rebels, playing Fortnite, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I had to stay the night, and Han stayed with me the entire time.

The IV was in the crook of my left arm, and it felt gross to move it around, so I did my best to keep it straight. Even so, I must have moved it around a little too much because around 10 p.m., my arm started to feel cold, and the IV started to hurt. When someone came to check on me, I asked if they could check my IV, and they told me the IV must have shifted out of my vein because my arm shouldn’t have been so cold.

“Is that bad?” I asked, trying desperately hard not to sound like I was panicking.

The nurse shook her head. “No, it’s fine. The IV is draining under your skin instead of into a vein. It’s just saline, so your body will absorb it.”

“Oh … great …” I managed. My anxiety was pacified with the new knowledge, but I was so grossed out.

The next day, Monday, they wanted to keep me again because my numbers had gone up. Instead of 500, they were at 552, and the doctors weren’t entirely sure why this was happening. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t take pain medication even when I probably should, just because I don’t like taking medication.

On Tuesday morning, my numbers had finally gone down to 300, so they released me with orders to rest until Monday–– today.

They are still unsure why this happened, but they have developed two theories.

Theory 1: I had COVID and didn’t know it. I have never tested positive for COVID, either at home or in a medical facility, but some people don’t ever test for it, even if they have it.

Mean turmeric!

Theory 2: I drink a lot of tea, and one of my favorites is turmeric ginger tea. I had a lot of that a few weeks ago, and then I had paneer butter masala from my favorite Indian restaurant. Many Indian dishes incorporate turmeric, but excessive consumption of this spice can lead to liver damage.

They still aren’t sure which one of these two things caused it. Either way, they’re pretty sure my liver being messed up was what also caused the severe heartburn, since livers produce bile, and when your liver is messed up, a whole horrible range of things can happen.

Anyway. If there’s a moral to this story at all, it’s fine to have turmeric, but avoid excessive amounts of it. It’s fine to have in small quantities, but maybe don’t drink four cups of turmeric tea in a day, just in case that’s what caused this whole fiasco. Though again … they still aren’t entirely sure.

Project Updates

Convergence

Nothing to see here … I mean literally nothing.

Fan Fiction

Don’t look at me!

Goals This Week

Can we get back to normal, please? Let’s see if I can meet these goals this week.

I'd like to write:

1. 500 words in Convergence that I actually keep
2. 500 words in my Fan Fic that I actually keep

And I'd like to read:

1. 1 chapter in Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Jasper Update

Jasper had a tick this week. We took him to the vet and they removed it, but it was so gross! Although… with all of Jasper’s medical problems, my parents joked that they felt bad for the tick.

“I bet Jasper gave the tick Lyme disease,” my dad laughed.

Don’t worry, he was joking, and Jasper doesn’t have Lyme disease. So far.

Quote of the Week

What are your goals for the week? How have you guys been?

IWSG - Not Unethical, Just Confusing

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! This is exciting for me because it's been about eight or nine years since I last posted for the IWSG, and it's really really nice to be back. The first Wednesday of every month, the IWSG hosts a blog hop with a prompt, and it's always been a fun way for me to connect with other writers.

The prompt today is, "What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?"

I've only got two novels published, and they're self-published at that. So I don't really have a lot of experience in the publishing industry. However, this question made me think of the thing that's been bothering me the most this week: publishing children's picture books.

For background, I work at a library. I'm not a librarian, I'm just a circulation assistant--the person who checks in books that have been returned, answers phones, directs people to the resources they're looking for, answers questions, etc.--but a lot of my day consists of handling books, which automatically makes it the best job ever.

Sometimes, if it's a slower day, I have time to flip through some of the books. The ones I read most often are picture books, since they're the easiest to finish in one sitting. I'm not a picture book author, and I won't pretend to know anything at all about traditional publishing, or publishing children's books or picture books. However, I can't help but notice how many picture books seem to be written for adults.

I'm not talking about the picture books that address LGBTQ+ issues, the ones that the right-wing are getting all triggered about. I've read a lot of these books, and they're wonderful. So far, in my personal readings, I haven't come across a single LGBTQ+ picture book that I would find inappropriate for children.

No, the books I'm talking about are the ones like We, the Curious Ones by Marion Dane Bauer.

PC: Goodreads

Before I say anything else, this book is absolutely gorgeous. When I read it the other day, I was captivated by the stunning images and the poetry. This is a beautiful book, one I think most adults would enjoy reading––I certainly did. It discusses the human experience and our curiosity, our beliefs, and how they've changed throughout the ages. However, as I was reading it, I started to wonder who this book was really for.

Would I have enjoyed this book as a kid? Most likely, yes. I enjoyed Carl Sagan's Cosmos series as a six-year-old, so I'm absolutely not saying "there are no children who would enjoy this book!" But … there are so many books out there like this, books that are poetic and vague, books that seem sort of "highbrow" for children. Which, again, is fine.

But I realized something after coming across a few of these.

When it comes to children's picture books––and children's media, in general––we're not actually writing these books for kids. And you can't write these books just for kids because the people who approve whether or not you get published at all are adults. You have to convince these adults that your book is worth it, you have to convince adults to publish a book for kids. It makes sense, because a five-year-old isn't going to be shelling out the money to buy these picture books, or signing up for a library card to check these out. Your publisher knows that the people you really have to charm are the parents, otherwise they're not going to buy your books for their kids, or let them check out your books from the library.

I'm not saying anything is inherently wrong with this, it's just the way the world works. But it's one of the few industries where your target audience is not who you're trying to sell to, and all I can say is … I can't imagine how hard it is to write and publish children's picture books right now.

Be sure to visit the Insecure Writer's Support Group page and the other people who have posted today!

Catching Up on Sleep, A Hike, & A Rough Week for Jasper

* All names in this post have been altered for privacy.

For the first time in a long time, I had a surprisingly restful, yet productive weekend! I didn't do as much writing as I wanted to, but I never do. Also, sorry I took last week off of blogging. I was very sick last weekend, and it sort of lasted all through the week. But I'm better now, thank goodness.

Friday, I worked all day then went home. Han ordered us pizza and I tried to take a nap on the couch while he watched DC's Legends of Tomorrow. I say "tried" because he kept waking me up and saying, "Jess, watch this part! Watch this part!"

On Saturday, I woke up late, which was absolutely lovely. Han and I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning our apartment, and then we went on a two-mile hike. It was the perfect day for it, too! Here are some pictures from the day!

© Jessica McKendry

I was obsessed with the texture of this tree bark!
© Jessica McKendry

Gorgeous overlook of the marsh
© Jessica McKendry

© Jessica McKendry

© Jessica McKendry

Han was mostly on his phone catching Pokémon on Pokémon Go! but I didn't mind, we were outside getting exercise, talking, and walking at a decent pace. Apparently he caught some good ones, too.

After our hike, I finally convinced Han to watch Love Actually with me! I have been trying to get him to watch this movie for years and he constantly refused to watch it. And I know it's normal for most guys to not want to watch romantic movies, but Han loves romance movies, and I knew he'd love this one, too.

Overall, he rated his enjoyment of the movie 3.5 out of 5 stars, which is honestly a win.

I spent all Sunday writing 800 words in something completely unrelated to either of my current projects, but it was fun to write so I don't regret it.

Project Updates

Convergence

This week, I decided to completely rework the plot and do a deep dive into character development. I feel like I haven't settled on exactly how I want the plot to go yet, and that's been frustrating. 

Fan Fiction

I wrote about a thousand words in a fan fiction, but not the one I'm supposed to be working on, so … that's great.

Goals

Since I didn't blog last week, I'm carrying my goals from the week before that over. Let's see how well I did …

❌ 1,000 words in Convergence that I actually keep

This did not happen. I probably wrote over 1,000 words in my notes, but I only got 446 words in my draft finished.

❌ 1,000 words in my fan fic that I actually keep

So … I wrote about 1,000 words in a fan fiction, but not the one I'm supposed to be working on. Oops.

✔️ Read 2 chapters of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

I did do this, and I also finished rereading Strike the Zither by Joan He.

Since I did such a bad job with my goals last week, I'm lowering them again. This week, I'd like to write:

• 500 words in Convergence that I actually keep
• 500 words in my Fan Fic that I actually keep

And I'd like to read:

• 2 more chapters in Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Jasper Update

Jasper had a great time on our hike over the weekend! Ever since we rescued him, he has loved going on long walks through the woods. The rest of his week was kind of rough; he pooped in the apartment several times over the week, which used to be a rare occurrence but now it's happening more and more often.

We've taken him to the vet to try and figure out what's going on with him, but after hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of tests, they're still not entirely sure what's making him go to the bathroom all the time. I think I've mentioned it before, but he's got Cushing's disease, a degenerative spinal disease, an enlarged heart, and an enlarged liver. I'm sure there are other problems too, but we're just not sure of what they are yet.

Three or four times he's gone to the bathroom after 3 a.m. in our bedroom, and we've awakened right about that time to the horrible smell. We've tried doggy diapers, but he's figured out how to take them off at night, so we switched to those potty pads you can put on the floor. They've worked pretty well so far, but it's still been tough getting enough sleep when he has accidents.

Quote of the Week

HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS THIS WEEK, WRITING, READING, OR OTHERWISE?