Fuck cancer indeed. I will say that my understanding of testicular cancer is that it tends to strike the young and generally has a good prognosis. I hope the latter is true for your cousin.

Can't help, Suzi, sorry.

My brain fuzzed out into white noise reading the description of that paper and reminded me I needed to vacuum the apartment. Wow. You sure you don't need anything on women's roles in the early Medieval period?

And I've been faffing around on FB, Next Door, looking up Kitty's estimated birthday, arranging her memorial shadow box, organizing stuff, and writing in my bujo. Note, NONE of that contributes to this paper which is currently just an outline and a list of suggested references from my other papers in this class.

I even took my Adderall to try to up the concentration factor. Ugh.

As a fellow ADHD person, may I suggest a couple of strategies? First, take a moment to focus on your body. Do you have physical needs that are unaddressed? Do you need water? Do you need protein? Are you feeling restless - maybe do some jumping jacks or lift something for a few minutes? Then try to settle down to write. Second, focus on the paper. Is there some part of it you do not see quite how you are going to do? Is there some part that even if you know how to do, seems like the worst part? If so, start by doing every other part of it you can until you can no longer put off that worst part.

Spoiler-fonted in case advice was not the thing you want.

And, well, the thing is, it is hard to write when grieving. If at all possible, can you give yourself a holiday?

My manager says "I made it in in my Honda."

grrr. I hate that shit.

Suzi, good luck to you. That would be a hard paper to write in the best of times.

My manager says "I made it in in my Honda."

Oh good, he can pick you up then.

Oh good, he can pick you up then.

::claps::

Now I'm wondering if he thought Iw s saying only people with 4 wheel drive cars could get out at all.. I dunno.

About 3:30 someone in trhe group text said their road hadn't been plowed yet. I'm sure there are going to be call outs tomorrow as well.

Great suggestions, Andi. Thank you. I KNOW some of those strategies and yet, duh, they didn't come to mind until I read your post. I can't give myself much of a holiday. Tomorrow is the last day of class and this is the final paper. I know I'll be writing all day tomorrow too and I may just try to bite off the easy stuff today and then fill in the rest tomorrow.

But good news is what I'm trying to focus on the most, so I made a list:

• Noodle had a well kitty check up and she is in great health and was NOT deemed overweight. Just...don't gain any more.
  
• With just one cat dish out, Noodle will not be eating as much as she did before - eating up Kitty's leftovers (yes, trying to find the lemonade there)
  
• CJ is registered for school for the Spring semester and has all his books. I'm trying to ignore the fact that he still needs to sort out his tuition cause this is GOOD NEWS stuff.
  
• As noted over in Natter, we are starting to plan our first ever Persian New Year's party in March (y'all are invited).
  
• Kelly and C are looking to move out in April or May. Yes, I will miss having her close, but they need their own space.
  
• Soon after I will have a home office/guest room!!!
• Comic-con is in June and I'm going to volunteer again.
  
• I've lost 40 lbs since July and while the downward trend has stalled since Thanksgiving, I haven't gained and my newer clothes still fit better. And I FEEL better.
  
• Possibly related, from July - December I didn't have any major asthma episodes.