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Barbara Clough

After the surgery

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This week has been challenging to say the least. Minor surgery on Monday, followed by pain and fatigue on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday, even though I am still not sleeping through the night as I try to sleep propped up on my back to reduce swelling, I feel almost normal again. I take naps throughout the day, not worried about whether my paid work does or does not get done. Sometimes, needs must. Right now, my need is for sleep. Only one person in my family knows the surgery and two friends, but I don't tell people what I've done. I'm a good secret keeper, like Elaine in Seinfeld. She closes her mouth, zips her hand across her lips, and the secret goes into the vault. That's me. Zipped. I will unzip at some to be determined future point. 

Today, I received my workshop feedback on my upcoming TMA, which leaves me 11 days to revise and perfect my first genre-bending piece. It's a new world for me and one I think I like. I start banging out free-writing for what may become personal essays in the future or might not. Good to hear what worked and what didn't. When two or three students who reviewed my piece in the workshop have the same observation of a specific section or piece, I refocus my energies on that. I also listen to the recording I had made of the piece earlier in the week. The reading aloud helps me find the arrhythms and clunky bits, but hearing it read a few days later, when I have some distance, enables me to hear the arrhythms and clunky bits. 

All in all, after five days of little intellectual work, I feel like I am back into the thick of it. Thank god. 

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Gill Burrell, Saturday, 6 Nov 2021, 21:01)
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