Feh
Okay, so I'm STILL sick, sonuvabitch. I got even sicker this week than I was over the weekend, and I've fallen WAY behind in my NaNo word count. Stupid flu type fatiguey stuff. Grr. I left work very early yesterday afternoon, and was running enough of a fever that I ended up leaving my keys in the lock in my back door, locking it from the inside, and setting my alarm. I zoned out for the entirety of the afternoon and evening, not really coherent enough to do anything except break my favorite coffee mug. When I went through my autopilot "check all doors and windows and appliances" routine before going to bed, I discovered my keys hanging out outside, and I panicked, opened the door, set off my alarm, and then stood in my mudroom in a frozen panic, not really being able to identify where the horrible beeping sound was coming from. Luckily there is like a 30 second grace period from the time the alarm is triggered and the calls are actually sent to the police and stuff, so I did manage to disarm the system before the cops came out, but still. Stupid delirium. I took my temperature just before crawling into bed, was confused to discover it was 96.3 degrees (apparently I'd been dead for close to two hours by that point but was too cracked out on NyQuil to notice), and proceeded to pass out. I slept for just over 17 hours straight without waking up once. I do feel marginally better right now, but I suspect I'll be slipping into another mini-coma tonight.
Anyway, I'm trying to play catch-up with my word count this weekend, and I'm beyond grateful that I'd scheduled Monday off in advance so I can continue to get healthy and get writing (though not necessarily in that order).
And as devoted as I am to my story and to my characters, I've decided on a nice little reward for myself that I can have ONLY if I cross the 50,000 word mark by 30 November. Yes, I want to finish my story because I do love it, and I really do love my characters, but because I'm so far behind now as far as word count goes due to my illness, I figure it won't hurt to have a little extra motivation to really push to complete the NaNo challenge part of the project. See, one of my characters seems to be overly fixated on steak dinners, and I've realized that almost every scene he's in includes a moment where he talks about the best way to cook a steak and/or having a steak dinner before shipping out to the trenches. Being as suggestible to food as I am, it's making me crave steak. I almost never have steak only because as awesome a cook as I am, I can never quite cook it the way I want it, and as much as I love love love Outback and Texas Roadhouse, they're just a tad too expensive for me most of the time (especially because I need to get Bloomin' Onions and merlot to go with my steak. . . .). So, long story short, I'm hungry for steak but can't really afford (or justify the expense) it the way I want it.
So my reward to myself IF I get 50,000 words done by midnight on 30 November will be permission to go out to dinner and get my damn steak and Bloomin' Onion. It will be my little tribute to Sam. So I think I'll set aside a little money each day from here on out to go towards my indulgent steak feast. I need to write about 33,000 words in the next 15 days. For every 1,000 words I finish from here on out, I will set aside $1. If I exceed my daily goal, I will set aside an extra dollar. If I don't make my daily goal, I will subtract $2 from the pot. So I have the potential to set aside more than enough cash to cover a 9 oz filet mingnon (with the horseradish crumb crust! Or, best case scenario and I save the maximum cash, I can get REALLY indulgent and get the lobster & mushroom topping), a Bloomin' Onion, a glass or two of merlot, and maybe a dessert, and the tip. Yes, I think that will make for a nice little bit of extra motivation to get caught up despite feeling like crap.
Okay, with that in mind, I'd better get writing.