A Disturbance In The Force

Hi there and welcome back to my blog! First of all I must apologize for being remiss; I’ve been dealing with some real-life stuff. A “Disturbance in the Force” if you will. Nothing I can’t handle, but in the past couple of months my creativity has been just sapped. And I mean sapped to the point that all I want to do is watch Nugget the Big Fat Chicken over and over on loop. What do I mean? You haven’t seen this?

You GOTTA watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inyJv2dhftA

I promise, it’ll make your day. I would’ve embedded the video, but for whatever reason WordPress is being a pain in my ass and not letting me.

And now you know what I’ve been doing with all my free time, citizens of the Internet. Sorry about the earworm but if I have to go around squawking “My name is NugGET and I’m a big fat chickEN,” well, so do you. Heh.

But seriously, folks, it’s been a tough few months. Like I said I’ve had some IRL stuff going on; for one, I’ve been TWICE VACCINATED!! WOOHOO!! Which is great now that I’m at the end of the road, but during the interim…well, let’s just say that waiting is the hardest part. Also, I’ve been having a bit of an ongoing adventure with my teeth. In that, I’ve been undergoing laser treatments in order to save my front tooth implant. Not unpleasant, but anything with my teeth causes me undue anxiety. And I could give you thirty-two million more excuses for not writing, but really, do we have time for all that?

Disturbance In The Force # 309: When Life Gets In The Way

The simple fact is, sometimes life gets in the way of writing, hence a disturbance in the force. It’s tough to be creative when you’re worried about if your tooth is gonna crumble out of your head like those damn nightmares I had growing up. Or you’re in stasis in between vaccination shots. I swear it was almost like I had been oh, let me search my pop-culture memory for a suitable reference…FROZEN IN CARBONITE FOR A MONTH??

Actual footage of me waiting for my second COVID-19 vaccination

Let’s just say it’s been a draining few months since the last time we spoke, not to mention what’s been going on in the world.

Disturbance in the Force # 804: Doom and Gloom in the Media

Between the death of one of my favorite musicians (rest well sir, I’ll miss you more than you can know), the extremely draining trial of Derek Chauvin (guilty on all counts), and the general fuckery of the police in general (STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE! BLACK LIVES MATTER!), yeah, it’s been a VERY trying few months.

Unless you’re a hermit living off the grid (which is starting to look better and better), it’s been pretty impossible to ignore the news of the world. At least, now that some accountability has been had for the murder of George Floyd, things might start to change. But I’m well aware it’s not going to be an easy change.

I mean the Chauvin verdict hadn’t even been read when a teenage girl who was CALLING THE POLICE FOR HELP was gunned down in the street yesterday. But the I believe the accountability for the murder of George Floyd will institute a very necessary change; a change 400 years in the making. Like President Biden told Mr. Floyd’s little girl via telephone yesterday, “your daddy changed the world.”

And Now for Some Good News

On a lighter note, can we talk about some good news? In the midst of everything scary and awful going on in the world, I just saw some pretty impressive news about how President Biden will hit his doubled goal of 200 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in arms on Thursday. Check this out:

Jen Psaki says the U.S. will hit Pres. Biden’s doubled goal of 200 million shots on Thursday, more than a week ahead of schedule pic.twitter.com/t2ta5GmvAn— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 21, 2021

from @nowthisnews Twitter feed

Pretty darn impressive, if I do say so myself. Again I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have a President and Vice President that not only meet, but exceed their promises. It does give me hope to see a Presidential administration do what they say and say what they mean after the travesty that was the former administration. I’m hopeful that we can get back to some semblance of “normal” in the coming months. And now that Matthew and I are both vaccinated, we can look forward to doing things (in two weeks) I’d previously taken for granted like getting a haircut, and…wait for it…

And you know what I’m going to do while I’m there?

And So What Have We Learned?

We being me and the mouse in my pocket. You know, you’re never too old to stop learning. And what I’ve learned from having my force disturbed multiple times over the past few months is this:

I worry too much, but I’m stronger than I think. When shit happens, I think it’s pretty much indicative of human nature to want to crawl under the bed and hide until shit stops happening. But eventually I had to get out from under the bed and handle business. I don’t know if this treatment for my teeth is going to work in the long term, but I’m doing it, and I have to face down the idea of replacing the implant.

That’s not pleasant, but it’s a reality I must face in order to keep up with my health. It is what it is. Waiting for that second vaccination shot over the course of a month made my anxiety sing the “what if you don’t get your second shot” aria over and over. Thank God THAT’s over with. Dealing with things like house and swimming pool maintenance is a crazy-making pain in the ass; I had to fire my pool guy recently and managed to snag a MUCH BETTER service.

May The Non-Disturbed Force Be With Us All

The point is that Life is going to create a disturbance in my force sometimes for no rhyme or reason. I can drive myself crazy worrying, or I can take the experience and learn from it. The biggest thing I’m learning is to keep rolling along, even when I think I can’t go one millimeter further. And that’s progress. All we can do is the best we can do, right, Gentle Reader? And hopefully I’ll see you again sooner than later.

Until next time,
Meredith Silverman