Caveats and clarifications

 

Ravenel is leaving the Muddlehampton Choir (in the lurch)!*

            He's retired, for pity's sake, but like a lot of other old people who are only old chronologically**, he's a consultant, and they love him in Bandar Seri Begawan.  He's been out there several times and that was supposed to be the end of his contract—but they've just offered him a longer-term one and he's TAKING it, the ratbag.

            I was all ready to be devastated . . . and then he started us on a new song*** last thing tonight which is so unutterably loathsome I found myself unable to pry my tongue from the roof of my mouth and sing it.  Arrgh.  People have frelling quit choirs for less.  (It's supposed to be funny.  It isn't.  And the music is BORING.)  So maybe I'll like having Ravenel in Bandar Seri Begawan better than I expected.  Meanwhile . . . the post of director/conductor is open† and to some extent the structure of the choir with it.  NOW IS THE TIME FOR OISIN TO START THE NEW ARCADIA SINGERS.  AND WE WILL SING NO LOATHSOME SONGS.†† 

* * *

 The problem with writing the blog on fumes is that you tend not to say what you mean to say, or you leave stuff out, or you fail to express yourself clearly enough, or you don't make all the caveats you should make.  Caveat number one:  I know I've said much of what I said last night before.  But the doodles remain undone, and I owe you an update occasionally.  Blogmom also needs to be able to say something useful to understandably plaintive non-blog-readers about what's going on.  

Catlady

Well, I am the one who originally suggested 2017 as a possible mailing date for the doodles, 

Yes, I remember you '17ers.  I like you a lot.  

and I'm sticking to that, so by my count, you've got five and a half years (if we're counting to the Christmas season in 2017, so that we can, if we desire, give doodles as gifts. To ourselves.). 

I'm also a strong believer in self-selected gifts.  Who needs surprise when you can have exactly what you want?††† 

And I am quite looking forward to Shadows, and am glad that it's taking the time that the doodles would take. The motto I've been trying to live by recently is: there are always important things I'm neglecting in favor of the important things I'm doing, but that doesn't mean what I'm doing is wrong. 

Yes.  I'm with you all the way on this one.  Prioritizing, and all those clever punchy annoying business-speak words, only work so far.  We're still waiting for our thirty-six hour day.  With the brain stamina to go with it.‡ 

katinseattle 

Robin, stop whacking yourself over the head. 

Huh?  Um.  How am I whacking myself over the head?  I'm fairly cranky at fate, but then I am often cranky at fate.  And I might have handled last year better, but that would mean going back to about this time last year and realising expeditiously that PEG II had a serious and insoluble from the then-current approach problem,‡‡ and when one's critical errors start fading into the mists of time . . . maybe it's just my short attention span, but I'm much more interested in coping with now.  And it's more what catlady said:  I may be screwing up, but that doesn't mean what I am doing is wrong.  I've prioritised:  SHADOWS must come first.  This isn't getting the doodles done.  And I'm sorry about that—as I should be.  That's not whacking myself over the head.  That's being fate's hellhounds' chew-toy. 

We're here because we like and admire you. 

Thank you!  But some of the people who ordered books and doodles last autumn just wanted their merchandise.

Personally, I'm sorry for your sake that Shadows is taking longer than you wanted, but I'd much rather have quality McKinley than earlier McKinley.  

Well, so would I . . . but it's also not really my choice.  The Story is the Story, as I keep saying.  I can only do what it lets me do.  And if it doesn't like the quality of the blood flow it'll make me find another vein.  Ow.  

lorelibrarian

As for the doodles, well, I've forgotten I sent off the money now, so it will feel like I'm getting a free amazing gift from the universe whenever it does arrive.  

I love this.‡‡‡  

* * *

* jmeadows

She doesn't knit because nothing happens fast enough? Hee. Someone is clearly not a process knitter. I like the way knitting feels! I'm perfectly happy to wait for something to happen. (Though I don't like waiting TOO long. I'm not made of patience, you know.)

 This would be me too.   Especially given that I'm still doing the knitting equivalent of moving my lips when I read, if I were into product I would be in big trouble.  Certainly at my level—squares, and Very Basic Ribbing, knitting is meditative, and I can use all the calming options I can get.  And wasting time winds me up something vicious, so it serves a dual purpose:  the knitting itself is soothing, and the not wasting time is sort of soothing-plus.  And I was casting off The World's Longest Leg Warmer during break tonight.  Because I'm not made of patience either^ and I would like to wear these things, that's things, plural, as in TWO of them, next winter. . . . 

^ Shock horror.  Film at eleven. 

**  . . . Ahem. 

*** Remember I said that nobody knows the playlist for the summer concert? 

†Nice young Japheth is going to a new job inYorkshire or somewhere equally extreme at the end of the year, so he's not a candidate.  But we may have him through the summer concert if Ravenel slopes off early. 

†† I will be sure to be on the board, and the first rule we will pass is that all items on the musical programme must be okayed by the board.^ 

^ The Muddles are looking for more board members . . . NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.+ 

+ Not unless we can pass this one little new rule. . . .  

††† And some people want vampire muffins.

 ‡ Last night as I lay sleepless in my icy cold bed^ I was thinking about kinds of energy:  creative, which overlaps with but is not the same as intellectual;  emotional, which also overlaps with and adds resonance to creative, but is definitely not the same as, and which is in a constant running fire-fight with intellectual which is inconvenient, wasteful and stupid;  and physical energy, which is a crucial support for all the rest, as well as necessary for hurtling, gardening, and singing exercises at your computer.^^  I no longer remember what it's like to be juggling all this as a normal, un-ME'd^^^ person, but with ME you also have the spoons issue.^^^^  Different kinds of energy also demand different numbers of spoons.  And I'm terrible at maths. 

 ^ My electric blanket went phut the moment the temperature dropped back to gelid again.  Thanks so much.  Maybe there will be a nice sale on electric blankets in April. 

^^ There's at least one more but I'm not sure what to call it.  Moral energy, possibly, which is a kind of immaterial resilience or fortitude. 

^^^ And possibly younger.  Something else I've said here before, I'd rather blame the ME for being stupid and feeble, than just that I'm getting old.  

^^^^ http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory-written-by-christine-miserandino/

This link is also in the 'about' section of this blog.  I have a very mild case, as ME—and lupus, and fibro, and a lot of other auto-immune things that lead with tiredness and pain and general offness—goes.  

‡‡ And, you know, there's a first time for everything.  I could do expeditious one of these years.  I could.  

‡‡ This is also the argument for, for example, pre-ordering books.   You can forget they're coming.  And then . . . what's nicer than a desirable new book to read??