Raise a cold One

I’m trying to decide if the dull headache and difficulty focusing is lack of coffee, or excess of immune system reaction to allergens, or quite possibly both. I mean, why not both? I have a tall tinkling glassfull of iced coffee at hand, and an allergy pill onboard, and any minute now, I’ll have a brain working at capacity again. You know the ‘you only use 10% of your brain’ is a myth, right?

Iced coffee, for you purists out there (I’m not looking northeastward toward my husband, no, not at all) because it’s been running 100F here in the Dallas area for a week. This was not a shock to me. Summers in Texas are supposed to be hot. Anyway, I now own a reflector shield thing for my car windshield, so I don’t burn my hands driving home after work, and I’m drinking my coffee iced more often than not.

Having had a conversation with friends recently about what we like to sip, I realized that it’s not just the tastes, and textures, it is the time to relax and lean back and share ideas. We do this online, through chat, but it’s different when there’s glasses and bottles involved – and I’m not necessarily referring to alcohol, as there’s a friend who is strictly Dr. Pepper unless it’s some ungodly sweet energy drink – it’s the in-person that counts.

I’ve uprooted my entire family, shaken the dirt off the roots, and am trying to see if the transplant will take. With a plant, that requires water. With a family? Well, tall glasses that tinkle while conversations take place can’t hurt. Even if my husband’s cold caffeine preference involves RC cola and mine is just the leftover dregs of the pot from the day before (made some of you shudder there, didn’t I? I’m laughing) and my kids… my son is drinking through the Mt. Dew rainbow. No, I’m not kidding. Not satisfied with the unnatural irradiated green stuff, they now come in blues, purples, pinks, oranges and yellows. Teenagers!

My creative brain is struggling, which is why this post isn’t about writing. It’s about the things that lead up to writing. The relaxation, the bouncing ideas off others to see if they can survive outside your own head. The writing can happen without that, sure. For me, it helps sometimes. Other times it’s not necessary, but I’m realizing that when I am under stress at the level I am… the level I’ve been multiple times in the past decade, really. I need the external validation. Which is probably a failing of mine, but you know what? Find your weaknesses and shore them up however you need to. It will make you more fit to tackle the world, and your writing.

My writing, which is not coming from the same place as anyone else’s, and I know this, which is why it’s weird to me to write a column on writing. Ok, sorry, that sentence went off the rails somewhere fast. Let me start over. I don’t think writers are normal. I know I’m not, at any rate, and I don’t think I’m special as a writer. I do think I’m unique, but I also think you are, and you over there, and yes, you too. What works for me might work for you, but you may have to apply your own spin on it. Picking up and trying what works for someone else is likely to fail, but maybe not completely. Just be willing to learn from ‘that didn’t work,’ and eventually you’ll find your own way. Me, writing for writers? I’m over here contemplating more iced coffee. It’s too early for anything stronger in my glass.

So what’s your beverage of choice? And what are you reading presently? Me, I’m about to buy a book on surfactants in cosmetics. Thrilling, I assure you. I’ve been working through a text on formulating cosmetics, and a handbook of natural ingredients (yeah, I was one of those kids who read through dictionaries and encyclopedias from front to back, and evidently I’m still doing it). Now you understand why writing fiction is a wee bit difficult in my current headspace.