I returned home to find that while I was away, the heat had turned itself off. The Castle was freezing. It must have grown lonely with both Doolies and me gone. I don’t blame it. I’ve since gotten the heat up and running again. My nose is up and running again as I hide under the green blanket waiting for the Castle to warm up. I ate a quick dinner and I decided to get the writing out of the way. Not that it was in the way necessarily, and not that I have anything better to do once I get it out of the way. It’s just that I’m not caffeinated and I acquired a slight headache on the return trip home, which has left me out of sorts. There was plenty of traffic from the airport to the Castle, and with the headaches and the complaints and the coldness, well, I’m not moving my fingers so well.

I didn’t get any writing done on the plane. I grew discouraged when my power cord did not work in the airport. I have a few plugs for my laptop, and this one (the one I use at home and when I travel) seems to be on its last cord (heh—it was funnier when I first wrote it, trust me. You had to be there). I’m writing this on battery power, which means if it runs out I won’t be able to post it tonight. So far I’m doing rather well (this is the editor David talking—the first draft David finished about five minutes ago).

The flight back was uneventful. I watched the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and then about five sitcoms. This is the first time I’ve seen Continental televise sitcoms this way: one after the next with no commercial breaks. I realized how little I missed watching regular television as each episode grew more painful than the previous. The plan was to show the Simpsons last, which I was looking forward to, but we landed before it got there. The sitcoms did help pass the time or get the time out of the way. For that I was grateful. The ride was a bit bumpy at the end but not too bad—certainly not as bad as my return flight from Taiwan, where the drinks threatened to spill over if they were not properly covered by the palm of my hands.

The weather cooled and turned rainy in New York. Seattle greeted me with almost exactly the same weather, except for higher winds and more traffic (which can be explained by the fact that it was noonish when my mother drove me to the airport in NY, and around six when I drove home from the airport in Seattle).

Yes, I’m pushing words now. You should be used to it and ready to ignore these useless words. I’m okay with that. On days like this all I can hope for is to keep my finger and words in shape so on the days where I have the energy and ability, I can actually write something. I bet you didn’t see that coming: consternating about not writing stories. Unexpected, huh. And I bet the consternation about the consternation was unexpected as well. I could go on like this until I reach the Goal but I choose not to. There must be other things to talk about.

I set up the new menorah my mother bought us. It’s in the living room on the table with its candles ready to go for Friday night. It looks like Doolies won’t be returning until Friday night. She was on standby for the Thursday flight. Even if they had room for her on the Thursday flight, I wouldn’t be able to pick her up from the airport until much after she arrived. The Thursday flight gets in at 2pm, and I have too many meetings and work to catch up on to escape before five. This hopefully won’t be a problem for Doolies’s Friday night flight. I just have to figure out when I’m going to get to Albertson’s to ready the groceries for the late Shabbot dinner when she arrives. Such a lucky Doolies.

For a decaffeinated night, I’m pounding through these words. I only have a few hundred left and I can call this written and posted before my batteries die. I don’t know what I’m going to do for the rest of the evening. I would like nothing better than to lie down and fall asleep. I took a nap on the plane, which I now think pushed over my sleep clock. I pathologically yawned on the drive home, and I feel no better now. A good night’s sleep is what I need. I just wish it was sleep time.

Speaking of sleep, I managed to snooze for more than an entire hour this morning. The alarm went off at 8am (it was set for my class the previous two days) and I decided that instead of resetting it, I would enjoy the snooze time. I know snooze time does not equate to good quality sleep time, but there’s something exceptionally gratifying about having permission to hit the snooze button repeatedly and roll over and sleep in nine-minute intervals. I could have reset the alarm at any time but decided against it. By snoozing and having my vibrating phone on the hotel’s rug (which caused me not to hear it over the street noise and the heater), I missed Doolies’s early morning calls. I did catch her as I contemplated whether I should get up at 9am, and even spoke with her for longer than usual. I guess snoozing wasn’t all I had hoped it to be.

I realize the ridiculousness of these non-entries. I don’t say anything but I do get words. I’m on my last twenty now. I’m going to go downstairs and veg out in front of the television. After watching a crapload of television over the last four days, I’m going to have to wean myself off of it slowly. Maybe the headache is television withdrawal. It’s possible, you know. Very possible.