On Thursday, while I was out of town, the Siren was called to Unfocused Girl’s school to pick her up; she had a fever and chills. The pediatrician finally diagnosed H1N1 over the phone at 2:15 Friday morning based on her symptoms. She was a little better on Friday — at least the vomiting had stopped and the fever was under some kind of control — but when I got home Friday evening with a stack of comic books I’d picked up from a store near the Des Moines airport, she was too wiped out to read them. She slept through the night, though, and this morning came downstairs for breakfast and asked to go to taekwondo (the answer was no, BTW). I think she’s already read all the comics.
National Novel Writing Month is two-thirds over, and for the first time all month, I’m significantly behind. I started Week Three with a sizable margin; I was 2,000 words ahead of pace by Monday night. I did manage to get around 1,300 words written on Tuesday, but it was a 14-hour day and completely wiped me out. Wednesday morning I was up early and hit the road, driving a hundred miles west for a hearing, then back straight to O’Hare to fly to Iowa for depositions.
Wednesday and Thursday were also 14-15 hour days. I managed a 15-minute word sprint each day, 300-400 words, so that I wouldn’t lose all of my momentum, but that was all the time I could steal. Friday wasn’t quite as long, but I was so wiped out that I fell asleep on the plane after about 200 words, the last of which was the letter r typed 699 times. When I got home and we got the kids to bed, I faceplanted onto the kitchen counter in front of the open laptop, and finally the Siren was able to convince me to go to bed.
At the end of Friday night, I was 2,148 words behind; the furthest behind I’ve been before this was just a few hundred words at the end of week two, and I was totally caught up, even a little ahead, by the end of Saturday. Since I would have to write 3,852 words today to be caught up at the end of the day today, I don’t think that’s going to happen. If I can catch up by Sunday night I’ll be delighted but very surprised. My guess it that it will be Monday or Tuesday before I’m all the way back on pace. If you’re interested in a word war, either using Write or Die Desktop Edition or just on Twitter, email or DM me on Twitter and we’ll set it up; I could use the help.
31148 / 50000 words. 62% done!
If you’re in the area of the Des Moines airport and you have time or need for a comfortable internet cafe and/or comic book store, I enthusiastically recommend Cup o’ Kryptonite. Comfy couches, wifi, some connected desktop computers, a decent comic selection and helpful, friendly staff.
The Unfocused Life 
Sorry to hear that Unfocused Girl came down with the flu, but glad that she is much better.