don't f*k with the system

That pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks. I should know better. I've been writing a long time. But still, every once in awhile I decide it would be fun to tinker and then my writing goes no where. Absolutely no where. I finally managed to put down 400 words today.

Ok, the system is this. I get up, make lunch for the guy, take him to the train, come home, feed the cat, make tea, turn on the computer, get cereal, play a game of free cell, and then write. In that order or the monster in charge of my creativity (he has floppy ears) decides to go pick daisies instead.

But my computer is old and its immune system is vulnerable to every sort of new virus that comes along. Most times I just keep it in the bubble of my apartment with no internet but it had to go out, so we put on a new virus scanner. A virus scanner that causes my poor, sluggish baby to take for-freaking-ever (which is even longer than forever, let me tell you) to load. Waiting for load time is not in the writing system. It's a sensitive system. I sit in front of the computer glaring at it, chomping on my cereal and wondering how many more million times I need to click the button to get free cell to come up.

So instead of waiting, I took to playing piano (ok, more like playing at piano, or playing with a piano--actually, it's a keyboard, I only wish I had a real piano, and my musicality is sort of limited anyway) while the computer loaded up. And the monster went to pick daisies. And it has only taken me TWO WHOLE WEEKS to figure out why I was suddenly and massively word constipated. Two weeks. I am a moron. In the meantime I have not been a joy to live with and have resolutely turned down everything and stayed in my little hidey hole hoping the monster would come and play with me.

And so I have tweaked the system in a way that just might work. Now I get up, turn on the computer, make lunch, etc, etc, and by the time I get home from the train station and the tea made and the cat fed, the computer is ready for me to play free cell and start putting words down. The creative monster has made enough daisy chains.