Irritating Silence

Wow, there's this strange, glowing yellow thing in the sky, which has patches of a funny blue color. What's going on? Is it the end of the world?

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit, but we haven't had a sunny day in a while. Unfortunately, I'm not really in the mood for sun. The lingering allergies/cold/whatever are on an upswing today, and when I'm not feeling well, I don't like it being sunny. It just seems wrong, somehow. I'm not really outright sick. If I had a real job, I'd probably be dragging myself to work. It's more at an irritating level. Mostly, I can't sing or talk. Well, I can, and my voice has been normal. It's just that if I sing more than a couple of lines or talk for for than a minute or two, I start coughing and my throat hurts. It's the singing part that's really getting to me. I have a habit of singing to myself as I cook or do housework or putter around the house. I think it's even part of my creative process, as I'll sing whatever pops into my head, and it usually turns out to hold the answer to whatever I've been thinking about. But when I start doing that now, it turns into coughing. It's like putting my brain in handcuffs because it's affecting the way I think. The talking is less of an issue because I'm at home alone all day and generally don't talk to anyone, though it does come up when I get a phone call. I can talk for a little bit before I start coughing, and then once the coughing starts, I need to stop the conversation because it starts to hurt. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle panels at ConDFW next weekend if this doesn't stop. I'll have a bottle of water with me and maybe some cough drops. Otherwise, my role on panels may be to smile enigmatically. I'll do my reading in mime or interpretive dance.

I understand that it's Super Bowl weekend, and I really don't care. I don't care about the game (though I do know who's playing and I know who I'd prefer to win). I don't care about the commercials. I don't care who's singing the national anthem or performing at halftime. I'm not sure what PBS is showing, since my station showed all of the ending of Emma last weekend instead of saving the final segment for this week, but it's very likely that my counterprogramming will involve bonnets of some sort. Or I'll get wild and crazy and turn off the TV and read a book. I'm such a rebel.

Today's writing task: Re-write a scene so that the main character in the scene acts like she's got a goal, so that the villain shows signs of minor intelligence and so it all fits within the main plot. The jokes and weirdness, which really are very clever, must have an actual point. Much tea will be consumed.