(no subject)

Luck? Notice anything about our luck lately? Some kinda pattern?

*sigh*

Seems like no matter what I do lately something, be it big or little, goes wrong. Took the turn into the work parkinglot too sharp this morning and drove over the curb. Scraped up my bumper and hubcap something fierce, and probably knocked the wheels out of alignment, not to mention possibly damaging the tire. Seems ok at the moment, but that kind of stunt can cause slow leaks so I wouldn't be too surprised to find it flat when I leave today. In a way, it's worse, because it's my own damn fault for being careless. I don't really care about the cosmetic damage - I plan on driving her into the ground like I've done for all my cars and a few scrapes just add personality - but dammit I can't afford any repairs, even minor ones, right now. I was over budget last month, and I'm over budget again this month already. And my budget doesn't have much in the way of wiggle-room so when I end up over budget it tends to come from the overdraft, which then sits there gaining interest until I get an under budget month where I can pay it off.

I can't help but figure the world's trying to tell me something, but damned if I know what it is.

(no subject)

Today seems to be a day of whinging, I guess. That happens when I'm stuck on the desk on a weekend and have too much time to think.

After a little over a year of being truly healthy again, I'd forgotten what it was like to be disabled. For the past four months or so, despite multiple attempts at medication to control it, I've been having increasing anxiety, panic attacks, bouts of and crippling insomnia. I'm exhausted *all the time* now. The degree varies from 'stumbling around like I'm drunk' tired to 'I could really use a nap' tired but I'm never not tired anymore. I'm back to counting spoons. I'm back to having to make all my plans conditional -- yeah, I'll hang out with you tomorrow *if* I get more than 5 hours of sleep tonight and *if* I don't have an anxiety attack and *if* the thought of actually facing people doesn't make me want to curl up under the covers and *if* my brain is actually functioning at something resembling normal capacity.

It's a different kind of disability from the physical issues I had before my surgery, but it's become a disability nonetheless. Between the recurring nature of my Depression/Anxiety Disorders and the high likelihood that my Neurofibromatosis will continue to cause problems in the future, I find myself wondering whether I will ever get to be truly healthy again.

Liath notes

Well, apparently I have pretty decent intuition. When I first started writing the Liath story, I hadn't moved to Louisiana yet, and so the Black Rose was located pretty much in an as-yet-unnamed random city. Once I'd moved here and been to New Orleans a few times, I realised it was the perfect setting, and I could tie in all kinds of Post-Katrina stuff that really worked well with the plot. After all, if you were a magical being compelled to ease the emotional burdens of traumatised humans what better place (assuming you were in the US) than New Orleans after Katrina -- practically an entire city suffering from PTSD. I'm not trying to be flippant - I was close enough to what happened to know some of what Katrina did to people around here emotionally, and it would make sense for Liath to move to a city where she was most needed.

So once I'd settled on New Orleans as the location (and where else would you put a bar like the Black Rose but in the French Quarter?) I started looking for an actual address to give it. The wonderfully named Pirate's Alley jumped out at me from the map, and I *really* wanted to place it there. However, I'm big on being as realistic as possible, and I've never actually been to Pirate's Alley. So it was there in the back of my mind, but I hadn't put it down on paper until I could get a chance to go down to NO to check it out.

And then today I find this:





That's an image of Pirate's Alley. It's *perfect*. I don't think I could have chosen a better street for the Black Rose if I'd designed it myself. I still intend to take a trip down there to see it in person, but really. You can't get much better than that.