My office this morning has a lot more jello than I'd like

I'm trying to get some writing done and hit one somewhat expected road block (lots of hospital time) and one unexpected. For the expected--my mom had surgery yesterday. I'm the closest relation geographically, and so I of course was here all day. ALL. DAY. Between check-in, the surgery going long, recovery going long, etc, I was here from 11 AM to almost midnight, when my mom's friend took over so I could go sleep in a bed. My mom is doing well, and I brought stuff to do--but despite having hours to wait, I couldn't work yesterday. Mostly because I was fielding messages on my phone and basically every social media I'm part of as people checked in on my mom. I mean, I knew she was popular, because my mom is awesome, but let me tell you, my mom is WICKED POPULAR.

I have never texted so much in my life, and that is saying something.

It's slowed today, but as I was writing the last paragraph, I got three text messages. See? Popular. My mom is the coolest. But yesterday it meant I couldn't really concentrate to write, so I read and texted. Today I actually got some words down before the unexpected road block happened. Why did I decide Lena's dad is from Rhode Island? Why did it sound like a good idea to set part of the story there? I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO RHODE ISLAND THAT I AM AWARE OF. I'm frantically googling things and I've reached out to locals for help so I can do a bit of a crash-course in Rhode Island living. Hopefully I'll learn quick and you'll have new pages by Sun/Mon. But of course, I'm also tired and there's the whole hospital thing. It's weirdly exhausting to sit in a waiting room. I'm fairly chill about these things--I mean, my mom was an ICU nurse for 50 years and my dad is a doctor. I grew up in hospitals. They don't stress me out. In the summer, instead of putting me in child care, my dad used to take me to his office and make me hang out in the employee lounge. (I have seen so much Price is Right because of this.) In high school when I had to pick up my mom from work, I'd have to hang out in her office in the ICU and listen to people screaming as they came down from heroin. Or meth. Let me tell you, it was an efficient deterrent from ever going near such things. But because of my upbringing, I find hospital weirdly soothing, usually. But today, I need a nap. Then more research on Rhode Island! 

Oh, the things you have to learn when you write. Even writing fantasy, I have to do a ton of research. Which is cool, because I like research. Learning is fun.

Hope you're all okay out there!

Hugs,

Lish