earrings – of words & books

Last week-end, I indulged myself by keeping a written log of an afternoon of writing. I aimed to reach the lofty heights of 5,000 words. Did I? you ask.

Ha. Haha. Hahahaha.

3:21pm Today is beautiful; the sun is shining, it’s not too hot nor too cold. I’ve been out on my walk to the shops, have spent some time outside and have now sat myself down with apple juice and water. I’ve selected music but I’m listening to ‘Still Alive’ on YouTube (Portal, anyone? I’ve never played it nor realised it had music like this).

3:43pm I got trapped on YouTube. Have now extracted myself. Peter Hollins … I blame you.

4:16pm (Word count: 723) Short break. K is yelling at S and he’s like ‘wow, what’s this, woman?’ It’s all very dramatic AND I DIDN’T PLAN THIS AT ALL. As a side-note, I’m really enjoying listening to the Legend of Tarzan music.

4:20pm There is a chair over there. When I hit … something on my word count, I’m going over there. Right. Back to the writing. Listening to: Tarzan and RainyMood.

4:36pm (Word count: 1,071) Moving to the chair. One fifth of the way towards my goal. K and S are staring murder at each other. Not sure if the Tarzan music is distracting or helping.

5:27pm (Word count: 2,263) Right, I’m going for a break. My right eye is protesting, RainyMood is confusing me because it’s beautifully sunny outside and yet I hear rain in my ears. My wrists are aching.

5:55pm (Came back from break) I’m outside. My eye is threatening to make my brain ache BUT WE WILL FORGE ONWARDS! Music? Play. Fingers? Type. Brain? Please, please, please work.

6:40pm (Word count: 3,263) I’m moving back indoors; my laptop battery needs charging and I think small beasties might be climbing into my shorts. NOOOOOO! Where’s a knight in battered armour and a fly swatter when you need one?

OWWWW! Tried to get up. Tried to take my earbuds out. Yanked at my earring instead of my earbud. IT HURT! IT REALLLY HURT!

7:00pm (Break is over.)

7:36pm (Word count: 3654) Oh, it’s getting a wee bit harder. I typed something to the effect of ‘green moss covered moss of the stones’. What? Whyyy! Having a small break because my brain no functioning. I think I’m going to stick K in a landslide. Not sure if I’m going to have her followed by Psycho Man BECAUSE I HAVEN’T INTRODUCED EVEN THE THOUGHT OF HIM.

I need tea.

11:25pm Oops. I fell into the massive trap of ‘Soldiers Coming Home’ videos and had to use some facial wipes as tissues because I was blubbering like a baby.

I think, as it’s so late, that I may as well call it a night. Sleep and books are calling.

final word count: 3,654

It’s partially the fault of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and my liking of magnetic earrings as a youngling, but recently I decided to have my ears pierced.

I mean – lots of people have had their ears pierced, haven’t they? It’s no big deal, right?

Haha.

You see, though I like dangling earrings, I cannot bear piercings. I cannot compute. What if someone yanks your ear and the hole tears?!!!

Sometimes I was very happy at the idea. Self, I’d say, it would look so good. That bit of jaw would be made to look SO elegant. But then I’d look at pictures of piercings and feel ill. Self, I’d say, maybe another time.

And thus it would go on. Until, of course, one day when I took the plunge. ‘It’s a just a prick’ they said. ‘It will hardly hurt at all’ they said.

They lied.

It felt as if it had started as a prick and ended up as a hole punch. My ear was brutally hole-punched. THERE WERE ALIEN OBJECTS IN MY EARS!

According to those present (sister, niece, and bearer of torture device), I was rather pale. I felt ill. Faint. Everything grew distant. I told the lady who did the brutal deed that though I was sure she was nice, I didn’t like her very much at that moment.

I hung my head like an ashamed dog and tried not to think about ears. Or piercings. Or MY SKIN – MY OWN FLESH, THE FLESH THAT WAS MY OWN AND PURE AND WHOLE – BREACHED BY CALLOUS METAL.

The Beautician – a lovely lady who did a splendid job (though I wasn’t inclined to think so at the time) – brought me cold water, a cold pack for my neck and turned the air conditioning on. I didn’t faint, but by golly, I wasn’t at my finest.

So far there’s been no infection, I don’t feel so ill when I have clean (or worse – turn) the foreign objects in my ear lobes, and I will have the experience of Ear Piercing for any future writing projects.

Was it worth it, you ask?

It will be.