So I do this sport

A "rugged adventure recreational sport activity." I did not make that up; that is the phrasing the waivers for my college's dressage team chose. Yes, yes, I do dressage, which, for those potential readers who are not my close coerced friends, is a form of horseback riding.

I started riding when I was about ten because my mom read something about a woman with terrible arthritis who, after riding for a few years, had notable improvement in her finger joints. Riding is (theoretically) a low impact sport, which is basically why I can do it.




Low impact ^^^


^^^High impact

(wow I started writing this post like 9 days ago, what the fuck was I going to say about horses? Horses. Horses?)

Going off of my confusion, the reason I started writing this was a) oh hey I've never talked about the fact that I ride the quadrupeds and b) I had just gotten back from a horse show that had tried to screw me over for midterms via Fatigue.

Actually, on a sad note, I am "sitting in that middle spot" as my coach says, in that I place 7th practically every show. She wondered if it was because of nerves or because I am just wiped out by the time I ride (coaches, of course, have always known that I am immunointeresting). Then she suggested that the team start leaving me in the hotel till lunch. Which, on the one hand, sleep! on the other hand, sad-face.

I told my doctor about the fairly epic fatigue today. (Oh, this is the part where I ingeniously pretend like this whole post was going to be about my doctor's appointment today instead of about a horse show 9 days ago. Which...yeah.) She was pretty unimpressed with all my symptoms, from my lingering cough (seriously, my lungs are just spazzing at this point) to my swollen lymph nodes to my off-track knees (her words, not mine.)

My lymph nodes, you may remember, have been swollen for six months now. Just two of them, one on the left side of my neck farther back than you would expect, one just next to my trachea on the right side (you needed those details). There used to be more of them, so it's good that it's down to two, and they haven't grown (if anything, they've shrunk) so that is also good but they were still worrying me. My doctor said, and I quote, "What do we worry about with lymph nodes? Lymphoma! But if they're not getting bigger and they're isolated in your neck, it's very unlikely. Have you ever had unprotected sex? Then you probably do not have HIV. You know what? I'm not going to give you another disease."

Yes, friends. "I'm not going to give you another disease."

Then she got really excited when she remembered I had mono six months ago, even though student health was still not completely sure that I did. I don't actually know what happened, but it was finals and I was having boy problems and it was hot and my head hurt and I stopped listening to them. Stupid student health.

So it appears I'm doing well-ish. Doctor also unimpressed with birth control side effects so we guess those are not a big deal. Doctor appeared to be on some sort of drug because she usually is not as pleased with my existence as she was today. Actually, she doesn't like me that much. I took myself off of Plaquenil. (psst, little known fact: doctors don't like it when you take yourself off their drugs.) In my defense, people could tell on days when I hadn't taken my meds: "Did you take your meds today?" "No, why?" "You seem happy." That's how bad that drug was for me.

Okay, that is all for today. I apologize to all, you know, seven of you for not updating ever, I am just very tired/busy/tired/stressed/busy/tired lately. I'm on fall break right now but catching up on sleep takes a lot of work. Plus my friend introduced me to and got me hooked on Dexter and that is seriously cutting into my sleep time because GOODNESS CREEPY.

Children with Disabilities, in your writing

It is no longer cool, folks, to describe a seemingly normal child and then do a sudden "zoom out" and see that he's actually in a wheelchair. That does not make you sound like you accept/are spreading awareness...it really just sounds like you're going for a cheap twist.

(The most recent submission I got of this sort was terrible in other ways too. Fascinating word choices. For instance, this child did now "say," he "uttered." But it did make me think about why, exactly, that kind of plot line fundamentally bugs me.)

What is "in," any dear aspiring child-lit authors, is putting the handicap out there straight away (the manifestation of it, at least, e.g., the wheelchair)and then telling a story that ranges beyond that part of your characters life. What the twist at the end does is make you think you are reading about a child's life only to have it reduced in a second to OH HEY AND HE IS IN A WHEELCHAIR.

Also, be careful when you're folding paper. No first reader likes to have to untangle her submissions before reading them. And don't say "I look forward to hearing your favorable response" in your cover letter. That makes me really not want to give you a favorable response. Soon I will talk about cover letters. Since we have some problems with those.

Alright, that is all for tonight, sorry for my (now usual) lack of vibrancy. I have just enough energy to (barely) get my schoolwork and paid-work done and then I'm pretty much done.

Insomnia

You know how it goes. You went to bed an hour ago and you are still awake only now you are panicked because you can't sleep so if you were restless before you are restless as fuck now.

I forced myself to go to bed an hour ago because my sinuses were shouting at me. I have a LOT of work I need to be doing but I reasoned with my anxiety by telling it that I will be more productive when I am less sick, but this whole not-being-able-to-sleep thing makes that a LOT harder to accept, because now I see tomorrow as a sleepy-sick-overworked day.

Dammit.

It really doesn't take much to piss my sinuses off. They get infected in an alarming number of my colds. Hopefully this is just a headache (or, you know, an entire face-ache) but I really, really, really need to be either sleeping or working. Sleeping, because I am so fuzzy-brained right now. I should have foreseen this and taken nyquil but now it is too late for that.

This is not as coherent as I'd like it to be. I am mostly just jabbering in an attempt to wear myself out so that when I try and sleep again I will succeed.

A few more tips you didn't need

Please keep in mind, dear readers, that I am not an expert in the field of publishing. I am not even a professional in that field. But, chances are, if you are submitting to a kid's literary magazine your first reader will be kind of me-like in experience. I finished my first box of submissions fairly recently, so here are 3 tips for healthy submitting.

1. We don't care about Pooky. We do not care that Pooky is a real cat who sits by a real window and we wish you would not tell us these things in your cover letter because it kind of creeps us out. Furthermore, Pooky may see really fun, educational things out the window, but "Only Pooky knows what Pooky sees in the dark, dark night" is a BAD WAY to end a poem. A bad way.

To be on the safe side, do not write us about your cat. Cats are kind of inherently creepy.

2. No, we have never had a "grumpy bumpy day" but we are sorry that your main character is having one. You probably don't need to start off your cover letter addressing someone you know to be vaguely adult-like with "have you ever had a grumpy bumpy day?" - we really don't react well to that line of questioning. It makes us, if you will, grumpy-bumpy.

3. If you need to use a letter template on microsoft word, be sure to delete where it says "(your signature here)" BEFORE printing. It's just that I laughed at you a lot.

Okay that's all for now folks, I'm gonna do that whole sleep thing (slept through class this morning. I never do that. Must be really, really tired).