All right, my sinuses have been kicking my ass for the past couple weeks. First it started out with fatigue and some scary lymph node activity (seriously, who put lymph nodes so close to the breasts? Find a lump in that area and it’s cause for a good week’s worth of panic–which is pretty much exactly what I did), and now it’s converted to the typical headaches/scratchy throat/ running nose/itchy eyes/clogged ears/upset-stomach-due-to-overload-of-mucous kind of sinus infection crap. Oh, and still sensitive lymph thingies, but no more lumps. And it appears I have ringworm on my wrist. Great. The ringworm isn’t anything new since I’ve had it before, but I’ve never had it anywhere where it was visible to people so they could ponder what sort of strange activities I’ve been up to. It looks a bit like a cigarette burn or something, to be honest. Stupid fungi. It’s as though all those years of being called “Ringworm” have come back to bite me in the uh, wrist. Regardless, the sheer amount of fatigue from the sinuses that has been plaguing me lately has kept me from doing much of anything for quite a while, and the problem with that is that I’ve had need to be busy!

Let’s see, where did I leave off on my previous update post? Nine days ago? Dammit! So much to catch up on. Well, last Saturday we had another NaNo write-in at the library that went pretty well. I forgot to wish Kelly a happy birthday (Happy extremely late birthday, cutie!) on that day as well though I’ve thought about it every day since then constantly reminding myself that I needed to sit down and post something about it but just haven’t because well, I haven’t been posting anything except that random picture of my bad knitting. Sunday at work was a blast with cramps (why does my period always seem to start on Sundays anymore? And always the Sunday that I work!) and the sinus headaches. I spent the better part of the week at work stuck at the desk because somehow people just seem to disappear from the circulation counter whenever I really want to work on something like the collection agency stuff or the display for next month or signs to post around the library or fliers for up-coming events or you know, just using the bathroom. It happens; it just seemed to happen all week when I was already cranky/tired from sinuses and still calming down from breast-lump scare. The obnoxious hormonal issues related to menstruating also didn’t help. Stupid body. It hates me; I’m convinced of it.

There are quite a number of new people at the crochet club. That’s always exciting. It’s fun to meet new people interested in learning to crochet, and it’s really rewarding and satisfying to see their projects start to take off once I’ve taught them the basic stitches. We’ve got quite a number of younger girls in the club too now, and they’re starting to do really well. It’s pretty awesome having such a diverse age range in the club. Next week’s project: pansies and pine cones. Long story. Regardless, still having fun with the crochet club. My knitting is coming along (I’ve made about six squares of various sizes now), and maybe next year I’ll add knitting into the mix. After all, there are already many people there who knit already and can help out when I get stumped. So far, all I know is the back and forth stuff, no increasing or decreasing or fancy stuff. I’ll be happy when I can consistently make squares without many mistakes before working on fancy stuff. One funny note about the crochet club (getting back to that as I keep jumping from subject to subject): I almost never actually crochet anything in there. Last week’s class? I crocheted a beak for one of those little turkeys (I still need to sew together Aunt Rachel’s and get to work on Mom’s) and that was it. Sure, I crochet chains and some single crochets as examples to demonstrate the stitches to people, but all of that gets frogged and balled back up. I can’t remember the last time I actually crocheted something during class that I’ve kept. I do all my crocheting at home and then bring it in to show everyone as an example. It’s crazy.

I’ve barely been writing. In fact, if you hop over to my NaNoWriMo page and click on stats or whatever, you’ll see that I haven’t written anything in a couple days. The reason? Sibuses. Er, sinuses. Rook will get the “sibuses” reference, or at least he’d better. His memory can’t be that bad. I actually slept for about fourteen hours Wednesday night. I really, really, really hate my sinuses. Have I mentioned that already? Maybe I’ll get something written tonight since I’ve already written about uh, I dunno, a couple thousand words in this post alone. Can I count that for NaNo? Probably not, especially seeing as how it has nothing to do with my novel. I at least have reached the plot of the novel, about 80 pages in. Go figure.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I wanted to post the differences between this year and last year’s word counts again. I gotta say, I’m way behind compared to last year, but I’ll let the numbers show you that.

     Last year           This year

1. 1216             7226
2. 1216             7649
3. 6279             9140
4. 7782             10694
5. 7782             15490
6. 8579             15490
7. 17379           16605
8. 20936           22498
9. 20936           24225
10. 25405           25202
11. 31899           31143
12. 40173           36880
13. 45624           38008
14. 52362           40201
15. 52362           43155
16. 61598           46002
17. 62246           46310
18. 70005           46310
19. 74044           46310
20. 76740           ???

I’ve undertaken a sort-of-work-related project that I’ve been working on since yesterday and more today. Both Dad and our director sent me info about an Indiana library looking for a library-themed crochet project. Well, I made my own filet crochet pattern using the typical green roadsign that points in the direction of a local library. I’m making it out of green thread, but it’s a pastel green because I don’t have bright green like the signs. Still, I think it’d be a fun thing to finish, frame, and then hang somewhere in the library. Had I been thinking about it at the time, I’d’ve included the word “LIBRARY” under the little person reading a book, but I didn’t. That can be for the next one or something. I’m up to row 9 of 78 already. Maybe if I make a second one, that one can go in the Loogootee Library. They could use some perty decorations. 🙂

And speaking of stuff for the library, I’m going to be on the local news next Tuesday. Yup, they contacted me and asked if I’d come in to record a segment announcing the up-coming library events for December. I walked to the studio this morning (van’s still leaking excessive amounts of coolant) and met with Chris Lowry, who’s a really nice guy. I assured him that I’d have no trouble talking for seven minutes. I think we ended up talking for about ten, but they’ll edit it down, I’m sure. Too bad we don’t have cable or an antennae or some way of recording it. At least the other librarians will get to watch if they think about it. I stopped by there after the segment was recorded so I could tell them when it’ll be. I basically talked about the crochet club, the genealogy class, the movies for December as well as that people should stop in and get fliers for the children’s programs and check out our webpage for tons of useful information. It was fun. I wonder if they’ll have me come back in January to record another segment. I guess it depends on how goofy I looked during this one.

During the typing of this post, I sneezed 19 times and blew my nose 6 times. As soon as I click SUBMIT, I’ll probably blow my nose again. It’s a wonder just how much crap can fit in my sinus cavity. Really amazing. Then again, there are probably quite a number of people out there who would insist that I simply have a lot of crap in my head in general, let alone my sinuses. Touché. Maybe more NyQuil will help with that.