You should start an underground bareknuckle MMA club where like minded men can indulge our primal violent nature and take out our frustrations with the modern world. All it needs is a name. How about, "Chuck's MMA: where the first rule is to have fun and be yourself."
You know what I’ve always thought would be just an absolutely horrible death? One of those giant industrial shredders that they use to shred cars and whatever other large garbage. I’ve seen those things pulverize engine blocks. Watching them work is somehow satisfying and really unnerving at the same time.
I'm going to bring up yet another Dr. Peterson thing...Sorrow/loss to cynicism/anger to wisdom. He talked about how all of us will go through sorrow and pain. One of the most important things to do in life is to get through sorrow and pain to place a wisdom and understanding as fast as possible. Move though that middle part of cynicism and anger as quickly as you can.
Yes. I enjoy listening to Radiohead and NIN a little too much...any excuse to listen lol. I certainly don't want to end up an angry Karen though so I make sure to keep my depression at a low simmer . Being an ugly Karen is a terrible fate I do not want to suffer. Who are you????! ;)
If a car comes that close to hitting you that your phone breaks yet you still continue to go on to purchase some books doesn’t say, “I like literature”, then, quite frankly, I don’t know what does.
This reminds me of a thing I learned about in my genetics class. There are wealthy people out there who get their dogs cloned. Over and over the dog dies and is cloned so the owner doesn’t have to face the inevitability or finality of the death of a loved one. So if the dog has a genetic predisposition to cancers or something else always it will be born and die of that same cancer. There’s got to be some Schopenhauerian metaphor here about suffering and allowing suffering to continue because we refuse to accept things.
Good to hear. As an owner of a cocker spaniel called Tallulah, who just yesterday had a load of pins taken out of both her back legs (after probably 3 months, 2 major operations, 2 stubborn wound infections) I'm so pleased for your dog ❤️
Oh my god dude, I'm freaking the hell out right now. That's me in the article! I cannot stop smiling. I did a quick scroll to the bottom and then I just lost it. Sent Dennis my info. Give me a minute, I will read the rest once I calm down. I feel like one of Oprah's audience members who got told to check under his chair.
Hey Joseph, is your last name in your email address? The G part? Don't want to blab your name, here, but want to verify your last name for the mailing. Will include something great for Snow.
Haha! Snow. She likes to come in my room really early in the morning and lie next to me with her butt in my direction. She is quite farty. Forgot to mention that she is a Cocker Spaniel mix.
I've always loved teachers who answer a question by telling a much bigger but, relatable story, and everyone in class gets to learn a surpising lesson. I think it's clear, you are the Michael Jordan of that! Those novelists.. maybe a bit envious?
I have a question I've been looking for a convenient time to ask it but, what the hell..
Almost all stories I come up with deal with dark subjects. Thats what I'm drawn to, and I don't know why. Whenever I'm a dozen pages onto one, I stop fearing for my sanity, because It
frightens me. Writing scares me, simply put but, I can't help but return to pen and paper.. I wanna make it work. So, here's the question: Is this normal for writers ( Beginners like myself or experienced ones) ? How can I distance myself from what I'm writing about, while at the same time not leave anything out and be as open, vulnerable and brutally honest?
I don't think it's entirely normal for ALL writers to explore pain and darkness in their work. Instead of their writing being a plunge into reality, some write to escape. But I love writers who have the courage to say the thing nobody wants to say.
As far as how to distance yourself, I think Chuck has talked about how people like to tell a story over and over again in order to exhaust their emotions. And this repetition becomes like a form of exposure therapy.
And that's a good answer. But, I think what I'm looking for is something beyond exhausting my emotions. Something I've learned from playing Poker seriously, is that I've developed a mental switch whenever I sit at the table ( something the movie the Card Counter got right), I can win a huge huge pot then lose 200 bucks in the next minute without experiencing any joy or anger. I want to find a way to use this when I'm writing but, is it possible given as the saying goes that writers write with their veins open?
I think what you're asking to achieve might be a conundrum. To write about deeply emotional/dark things while being unemotional yourself. I don't know if I have a good answer for that. Robert Frost said something I love: "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." In order to create some that resonates emotionally, you first should be moved by it. The biggest goal of any fiction piece is to evoke emotions, within yourself and if you do it right, within your readers/listeners.
But with poker, it's more profitable to remain unemotional. Whereas writing, at least for me, it's the opposite. Because I understand at the table, it's beneficial not see the your chips as "real" money. It's how you can distance yourself. I was into poker at one point. Bought a bunch of books including Super System. Watch High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark. One of my favorite biographies is called "One of the Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar." The strongest players, like you explained, are unaffected by how much they lose or gain.
I think you're right. I just have to find a way to push through it all, or maybe cognitively reframe it in some way, by always reminding myself this is just ink on paper, just a story..
If you get a chance try the Barry Greenstein book, Ace on the River. It's not up to date when it comes to strategies but, it's super fun to read.
If I can add my own writing journey info—- I had to write through some dark spots in my life to get out to the other side and really hit the creative stride. It was like going into the attic of my life—- but not getting stuck in the nostalgia of an old steamer trunk full of memories. Watch out for the mouse turds. You can’t live there. Visit— enjoy— toss what doesn’t serve you. Be aware of the darkness, explore it, find what makes it, break it up, let the light into it—- that draws the fear out of the subject—- you can come out of it.
Free verse the parts that you don’t want to leave out— just write down every sense, vulnerable moment— every honest, on the body moment as well— put those aside separately— then, come back to it and see if it serves a purpose for what you need as you write. It could be a total separate story or piece for something else, and not what you are writing towards. But moreover, keep writing. Get it out.
I guess we are! I feel I can say anything in this group without getting banned, no matter how stupid or douchy it is. That's sign of a really good group of folks.
I've been reading 1984 ( currently page 29) It made me wonder to what extent we do that to ourselves aswell, under the authority of maybe religion, prevailing morality or codes of being of the current time, state laws, peer pressure... either willinglly or not?
I’ve often thought, “Everyone needs a villain,” which helped explain the bullshit we busy ourselves with. But I never considered why that is. Now it’s clear: our ancient brains need to vent the tension. Thanks, Chuck.
Thank you. This week I've been up all night, every night, working on the darkest book I've ever tackled. The 'Greener Pastures' novel gets very dark and dicey, soon, but this new one... is killing me.
Mother Of God. If you want some cannon fodder my aunt told me the most heart breaking story this morning. A story about her experience and her mother's friend. The woman had two or three children. All the children were sort of low achievers accept for her oldest son. The oldest son was not only intelligent, handsome, and popular but he was also the star wrestler in his high school district. What more could a mother want from a son? Well one day the wrestler son picks up his girlfriend. They were very much in love. Everything happy. The two get into the car and the wrestler pulls out a gun he bought recently to showoff to his girlfriend. The girlfriend understandably says "Please, put that away. Guns are dangerous. It could be loaded blah blah blah..." In order to calm her down and prove to her that everything was OK he puts the gun to his head and says "No no it's not loaded. It's completely safe." It was loaded. He pulled the trigger in front of his girlfriend in the car and blew off his head right in front of her...blood everywhere. The mother was nearly destroyed. I can only imagine how the girlfriend is doing now...I can hardly imagine. Good morning. Sorry I just want to write this out. Some suffering is nearly unspeakable.
Your mind must hate you with every idea you generate. How your fight/flight remains in check, I do not know. Keep up the great work and thank you for replying.
Good to hear (mind wise). I'm sure your agent will cope with any trauma as a result of reading it. It would be interesting, to me anyway, to see what people thought the book was about based on the tagline.
I love The Hunger. Thank god for my musician friend who introduced me to both The Hunger and Flannery O'Conner AND made me circle back around to Alien.
This makes me think of our shadow self. What it takes to move on. I often think about military training and what it takes to drive a young man/woman from being a normal civilian into a killing machine. It doesn't take too much. I often think that we were born as predators but we have that kill-or-be-killed instinct carefully and cautiously removed as we develop and we are finally raised into adults. I think we are trained to have empathy and pretend to care about what your loved one had for breakfast. Marina Abramović famously said that she was ready to die when she stood for hours while people hit her and pushed her during her performance art piece. This seemingly docile group turned into animals within hours. Jordon Peterson talks about it all the time. Also being a completely docile push over is horrible too. It's not a good thing...Lot's to think about.
Very good. I think a heaping dose of denial is necessary in order to keep our stories going. I would love to see what you've written regarding this subject...Can you provide an example of what you mean when you say "...the essence of the itself in life, is not a story." and "Something has to get wasted in order for the illusion of a story to take place" What are some of the things that escape humans?
I love the faith healer pain trick, I’m going to try that one on myself next time I get a headache.
To your point that epiphanies don’t happen when you’re alone, maybe that comes to a definition of what alone means. If I’m by myself in nature, for example, I might be the only human there but there will be other living creatures around therefore I don’t consider myself alone. Nature is alive all around me. But maybe that’s just me…
Funny, but the trick works so well for me that I seldom get enough notes written before the headache is gone. I need to suffer several headaches before I can depict one on the page.
“In regard to epiphanies, I hammer on my students that such revelations don’t happen to characters when they’re alone.” Is this in part because it helps to have the character observing some sort of physical setting or action? Like with your dog, you were able to observe others who were in the same situation you were. Had you been sitting alone in that waiting room, then maybe you hadn’t come to the same realization? Almost like being out of body. Also, does it matter whether the moment is high stress? Or could it be a bland moment for the character, but in a social setting? Does pairing an epiphany with a stressful event help to give it wings?
Yeah I wondered this too. There are plenty of characters out there who are alone and come to some new realization. Chuck can you maybe speak to why or how an epiphany can work if a character is seemingly alone? How can that be executed effectively?
Usually it takes two characters to talk out or process or create an experience. Thus fight club begins as seemingly two people. Seemingly. But sometimes just the comforting presence of others allows for epiphany. I write better if someone is staying over, even we never speak. So just seeing yourself as part of a pattern of people can do the trick.
Years ago I switched to half cafe because whenever I woke up later than I usually drank my first cup of coffee, I’d end up with a migraine.
Welp, last week I ran out of half cafe and temporarily switched to the free (full strength) stuff my mother-in-law bulk buys and delivers every time she’s over.
Big mistake. Woke this morning and headed straight for the toilet with my fingers down my throat.
Step 1: puke the sip of coffee you tried to drink even though you knew you were too late and whatever other crap didn’t digest from the night before.
Step 2: force a saltine cracker down throat, wash with 7up if available.
Step 3: Two Excedrin Migraine pills, one at a time spaced at least 30 minutes apart in case you barf again.
Step 4: go back to bed. Rock on elbows and knees while shoving head into headboard (that’s why it’s called that, right?) until pills kick in.
Screaming two year and five month old complicate this process, but both of them brought their little crying faces to me and curled up and fell asleep right on top of me.
And as they did that I was thinking about metaphors and how with both of them there I felt like the Grinch on the day his heart tripled in size.
And while I was thing about that, my headache went away, and maybe it was the medicine, but maybe it was also a bit of what Chuck said about displacement. I’ll be trying more of that next time.
Oof.
He's not wrong though lol
"A psychic told me that in 12 years I'd suffer terrible heartbreak. So to cheer myself up, I got a puppy."
Fate.
Ouch. My doctor just told me I'm so healthy that I'll probably die a violent death. What do I do with that knowledge?
You should start an underground bareknuckle MMA club where like minded men can indulge our primal violent nature and take out our frustrations with the modern world. All it needs is a name. How about, "Chuck's MMA: where the first rule is to have fun and be yourself."
Also, Happy New Year to you and yours, sir.
I never thought Fight Clubs would be a thing, because after the 80s I figured 'Who'd want to be exposed to a stranger's blood?'
Now we're wearing masks...
Don't get me started.
That sounds like a product read for PrEP, which for some odd reason keeps popping up in my Facebook feed...
Hmmm. I’d fight the Kraken. I’d go out that way. I still can’t believe that happened to you in the cross walk. What the hell!!!??
You know what I’ve always thought would be just an absolutely horrible death? One of those giant industrial shredders that they use to shred cars and whatever other large garbage. I’ve seen those things pulverize engine blocks. Watching them work is somehow satisfying and really unnerving at the same time.
For anyone wondering, it’s this: https://youtu.be/vMuusbATomE
Hahahaha!
My little angel is 19 and I'm terrified of her passing.
Which is why you try to make each day into something worthwhile. That's the only comfort you'll have.
I like this very much.
I'm going to bring up yet another Dr. Peterson thing...Sorrow/loss to cynicism/anger to wisdom. He talked about how all of us will go through sorrow and pain. One of the most important things to do in life is to get through sorrow and pain to place a wisdom and understanding as fast as possible. Move though that middle part of cynicism and anger as quickly as you can.
Yes. I enjoy listening to Radiohead and NIN a little too much...any excuse to listen lol. I certainly don't want to end up an angry Karen though so I make sure to keep my depression at a low simmer . Being an ugly Karen is a terrible fate I do not want to suffer. Who are you????! ;)
I lost again! Damn it! ;P
I don't know why this was the post that finally made me become a paid subscriber, but it was. There must be a metaphor in this somewhere...
Maybe you just want to help him pay for a new phone?
Ha! Yes! That must be it.
Thank you. That vet bill was a whopper.
If a car comes that close to hitting you that your phone breaks yet you still continue to go on to purchase some books doesn’t say, “I like literature”, then, quite frankly, I don’t know what does.
Boss move.
Meanwhile, the car that grazed him...probably booked it.
Some please bubble wrap Chuck—- please keep him safe.
Egg, too.
This reminds me of a thing I learned about in my genetics class. There are wealthy people out there who get their dogs cloned. Over and over the dog dies and is cloned so the owner doesn’t have to face the inevitability or finality of the death of a loved one. So if the dog has a genetic predisposition to cancers or something else always it will be born and die of that same cancer. There’s got to be some Schopenhauerian metaphor here about suffering and allowing suffering to continue because we refuse to accept things.
You just gave away the plot of the movie 'Moon.' Shame on you.
Godsend too. But I’d much rather watch Moon.
Is your dog ok? And are you ok? Sometimes an anadrelline rush can mask physical damage. Hope it's ok to ask.
I'm fine. The pooch is good, too. Thanks for asking. We're both on light duty.
Good to hear. As an owner of a cocker spaniel called Tallulah, who just yesterday had a load of pins taken out of both her back legs (after probably 3 months, 2 major operations, 2 stubborn wound infections) I'm so pleased for your dog ❤️
This was beautiful, thank you.
Thank you.
Oh my god dude, I'm freaking the hell out right now. That's me in the article! I cannot stop smiling. I did a quick scroll to the bottom and then I just lost it. Sent Dennis my info. Give me a minute, I will read the rest once I calm down. I feel like one of Oprah's audience members who got told to check under his chair.
Thanks Chuck!
And on top of that, just a few hours ago I was searching for the post where I left that exact comment and rereading your answer. Mind blown.
Congrats, Joseph G!
Thanks Jim! This ties up my 2021 with a lovely bow haha
Just wait til you get the box!! He’s a national treasure. 😌
Congrats dude. That is very cool. I remember reading that and thinking it was a great question!
Hey Joseph, is your last name in your email address? The G part? Don't want to blab your name, here, but want to verify your last name for the mailing. Will include something great for Snow.
And I'm way behind on mailing due to snow issues locally. On the upside, the UPS delivery will be quicker post-holidays.
Haha! Snow. She likes to come in my room really early in the morning and lie next to me with her butt in my direction. She is quite farty. Forgot to mention that she is a Cocker Spaniel mix.
But that is indeed my last name! The G part.
Doh! I'm so dumb I forgot that my name it apart of my mailing address. I wrote it in the heat of the moment lol
What's the mailing thing?
Presents and prizes to people who helped out over the past couple weeks. And toys for Dana's rescue dogs.
Cool
Chuck explains things better than any teacher I've had. I'm saving this post.
You mean you don’t save them all??! 😃
In Prague, two other novelists complained that I answered every question with an anecdote. But I thought anecdotes were our job?
I've always loved teachers who answer a question by telling a much bigger but, relatable story, and everyone in class gets to learn a surpising lesson. I think it's clear, you are the Michael Jordan of that! Those novelists.. maybe a bit envious?
I have a question I've been looking for a convenient time to ask it but, what the hell..
Almost all stories I come up with deal with dark subjects. Thats what I'm drawn to, and I don't know why. Whenever I'm a dozen pages onto one, I stop fearing for my sanity, because It
frightens me. Writing scares me, simply put but, I can't help but return to pen and paper.. I wanna make it work. So, here's the question: Is this normal for writers ( Beginners like myself or experienced ones) ? How can I distance myself from what I'm writing about, while at the same time not leave anything out and be as open, vulnerable and brutally honest?
I ask myself this every time I sit at the keyboard. I await Chucks answer.
I don't think it's entirely normal for ALL writers to explore pain and darkness in their work. Instead of their writing being a plunge into reality, some write to escape. But I love writers who have the courage to say the thing nobody wants to say.
As far as how to distance yourself, I think Chuck has talked about how people like to tell a story over and over again in order to exhaust their emotions. And this repetition becomes like a form of exposure therapy.
Good question!
And that's a good answer. But, I think what I'm looking for is something beyond exhausting my emotions. Something I've learned from playing Poker seriously, is that I've developed a mental switch whenever I sit at the table ( something the movie the Card Counter got right), I can win a huge huge pot then lose 200 bucks in the next minute without experiencing any joy or anger. I want to find a way to use this when I'm writing but, is it possible given as the saying goes that writers write with their veins open?
I think what you're asking to achieve might be a conundrum. To write about deeply emotional/dark things while being unemotional yourself. I don't know if I have a good answer for that. Robert Frost said something I love: "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." In order to create some that resonates emotionally, you first should be moved by it. The biggest goal of any fiction piece is to evoke emotions, within yourself and if you do it right, within your readers/listeners.
But with poker, it's more profitable to remain unemotional. Whereas writing, at least for me, it's the opposite. Because I understand at the table, it's beneficial not see the your chips as "real" money. It's how you can distance yourself. I was into poker at one point. Bought a bunch of books including Super System. Watch High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark. One of my favorite biographies is called "One of the Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar." The strongest players, like you explained, are unaffected by how much they lose or gain.
I think you're right. I just have to find a way to push through it all, or maybe cognitively reframe it in some way, by always reminding myself this is just ink on paper, just a story..
If you get a chance try the Barry Greenstein book, Ace on the River. It's not up to date when it comes to strategies but, it's super fun to read.
The Robinhood of Poker!
He said he made most of his money going after the weaker players. Hey, it's all fair game and a viable strategy.
And you can always try to start small, gain more experience, and then work your way up to tougher and tougher subjects to write about.
If I can add my own writing journey info—- I had to write through some dark spots in my life to get out to the other side and really hit the creative stride. It was like going into the attic of my life—- but not getting stuck in the nostalgia of an old steamer trunk full of memories. Watch out for the mouse turds. You can’t live there. Visit— enjoy— toss what doesn’t serve you. Be aware of the darkness, explore it, find what makes it, break it up, let the light into it—- that draws the fear out of the subject—- you can come out of it.
Free verse the parts that you don’t want to leave out— just write down every sense, vulnerable moment— every honest, on the body moment as well— put those aside separately— then, come back to it and see if it serves a purpose for what you need as you write. It could be a total separate story or piece for something else, and not what you are writing towards. But moreover, keep writing. Get it out.
You're not the only one! "We're all in this together".
I guess we are! I feel I can say anything in this group without getting banned, no matter how stupid or douchy it is. That's sign of a really good group of folks.
"We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control..."
I've been reading 1984 ( currently page 29) It made me wonder to what extent we do that to ourselves aswell, under the authority of maybe religion, prevailing morality or codes of being of the current time, state laws, peer pressure... either willinglly or not?
I want to address that angst, soon, in the context of 'comfort stories.' It might help a lot. Okay?
Okay, thank you.
I’ve often thought, “Everyone needs a villain,” which helped explain the bullshit we busy ourselves with. But I never considered why that is. Now it’s clear: our ancient brains need to vent the tension. Thanks, Chuck.
Even notice how fiction really loves a good villain?
Great advice. Really enjoying reading your articles and thanks for all the books you've written.
Thank you. This week I've been up all night, every night, working on the darkest book I've ever tackled. The 'Greener Pastures' novel gets very dark and dicey, soon, but this new one... is killing me.
Mother Of God. If you want some cannon fodder my aunt told me the most heart breaking story this morning. A story about her experience and her mother's friend. The woman had two or three children. All the children were sort of low achievers accept for her oldest son. The oldest son was not only intelligent, handsome, and popular but he was also the star wrestler in his high school district. What more could a mother want from a son? Well one day the wrestler son picks up his girlfriend. They were very much in love. Everything happy. The two get into the car and the wrestler pulls out a gun he bought recently to showoff to his girlfriend. The girlfriend understandably says "Please, put that away. Guns are dangerous. It could be loaded blah blah blah..." In order to calm her down and prove to her that everything was OK he puts the gun to his head and says "No no it's not loaded. It's completely safe." It was loaded. He pulled the trigger in front of his girlfriend in the car and blew off his head right in front of her...blood everywhere. The mother was nearly destroyed. I can only imagine how the girlfriend is doing now...I can hardly imagine. Good morning. Sorry I just want to write this out. Some suffering is nearly unspeakable.
F--k.
F--k is right. I'm still processing the story. And the fact that it's part of my family's experience gives the story a whole other dimension.
I think the U.I. gods have answered the cries of mere mortals! Is it just me or has the spacing changed allowing for slightly less confusion!?
Your mind must hate you with every idea you generate. How your fight/flight remains in check, I do not know. Keep up the great work and thank you for replying.
No, actually my new agent hates me. 'You wrote a book about what...?'
Chuck, if your cryptic allusions to a new taboo book are meant to generate interest... keep it up ‘cause it’s working.
Good to hear (mind wise). I'm sure your agent will cope with any trauma as a result of reading it. It would be interesting, to me anyway, to see what people thought the book was about based on the tagline.
Yesssssss! I can’t wait.
I love The Hunger. Thank god for my musician friend who introduced me to both The Hunger and Flannery O'Conner AND made me circle back around to Alien.
On its release, 'The Hunger' got slammed as a 'perfume commercial.' But I understand that it's a lasting influence on David Fincher.
They can stick that perfume commercial critique right up their ass. That's what I think this evening.
This makes me think of our shadow self. What it takes to move on. I often think about military training and what it takes to drive a young man/woman from being a normal civilian into a killing machine. It doesn't take too much. I often think that we were born as predators but we have that kill-or-be-killed instinct carefully and cautiously removed as we develop and we are finally raised into adults. I think we are trained to have empathy and pretend to care about what your loved one had for breakfast. Marina Abramović famously said that she was ready to die when she stood for hours while people hit her and pushed her during her performance art piece. This seemingly docile group turned into animals within hours. Jordon Peterson talks about it all the time. Also being a completely docile push over is horrible too. It's not a good thing...Lot's to think about.
Very good. I think a heaping dose of denial is necessary in order to keep our stories going. I would love to see what you've written regarding this subject...Can you provide an example of what you mean when you say "...the essence of the itself in life, is not a story." and "Something has to get wasted in order for the illusion of a story to take place" What are some of the things that escape humans?
Hell yes to THIS!
I love the faith healer pain trick, I’m going to try that one on myself next time I get a headache.
To your point that epiphanies don’t happen when you’re alone, maybe that comes to a definition of what alone means. If I’m by myself in nature, for example, I might be the only human there but there will be other living creatures around therefore I don’t consider myself alone. Nature is alive all around me. But maybe that’s just me…
Funny, but the trick works so well for me that I seldom get enough notes written before the headache is gone. I need to suffer several headaches before I can depict one on the page.
“In regard to epiphanies, I hammer on my students that such revelations don’t happen to characters when they’re alone.” Is this in part because it helps to have the character observing some sort of physical setting or action? Like with your dog, you were able to observe others who were in the same situation you were. Had you been sitting alone in that waiting room, then maybe you hadn’t come to the same realization? Almost like being out of body. Also, does it matter whether the moment is high stress? Or could it be a bland moment for the character, but in a social setting? Does pairing an epiphany with a stressful event help to give it wings?
Yeah I wondered this too. There are plenty of characters out there who are alone and come to some new realization. Chuck can you maybe speak to why or how an epiphany can work if a character is seemingly alone? How can that be executed effectively?
Usually it takes two characters to talk out or process or create an experience. Thus fight club begins as seemingly two people. Seemingly. But sometimes just the comforting presence of others allows for epiphany. I write better if someone is staying over, even we never speak. So just seeing yourself as part of a pattern of people can do the trick.
Years ago I switched to half cafe because whenever I woke up later than I usually drank my first cup of coffee, I’d end up with a migraine.
Welp, last week I ran out of half cafe and temporarily switched to the free (full strength) stuff my mother-in-law bulk buys and delivers every time she’s over.
Big mistake. Woke this morning and headed straight for the toilet with my fingers down my throat.
Step 1: puke the sip of coffee you tried to drink even though you knew you were too late and whatever other crap didn’t digest from the night before.
Step 2: force a saltine cracker down throat, wash with 7up if available.
Step 3: Two Excedrin Migraine pills, one at a time spaced at least 30 minutes apart in case you barf again.
Step 4: go back to bed. Rock on elbows and knees while shoving head into headboard (that’s why it’s called that, right?) until pills kick in.
Screaming two year and five month old complicate this process, but both of them brought their little crying faces to me and curled up and fell asleep right on top of me.
And as they did that I was thinking about metaphors and how with both of them there I felt like the Grinch on the day his heart tripled in size.
And while I was thing about that, my headache went away, and maybe it was the medicine, but maybe it was also a bit of what Chuck said about displacement. I’ll be trying more of that next time.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.