36. "Muses, Elves, Imps & Phoenix"

Sometimes one thing leads to another and we learn something about ourselves quite unexpectedly -- a serendipitous discovery -- and even have fun doing it. Until I wrote the following, responses to David Bridger's posts on the NaNoWriMo.org forum, I had no idea who or what my muse was.

~~~

David Bridger wrote (11/17):

"Hi, I'm just about keeping the daily stuff going,
but it's a hard grind.
I have a chronic illness called ME, or CFIDS, that hurts."

David, so sorry to hear you have ME/CFIDS. I’m familiar with the acronym CFIDS -- my doctors thought for a few years that was what I had (then changed their minds and opted for a diabetes/lupus combo, which has many of the same symptoms). But I’m not familiar with the ME acronym. So I looked it up on acronymfinder.com, which came up with several pages of uses for the ME acronym -- but didn’t see any of a medical nature. Then I saw what most certainly must be what you were referring to: “Muse Elf!” Confess now. That’s really what you suffer from -- right? :lol:

But all seriousness aside, KUDOS! to you for tap-tap-tapping “away and ignoring those little flags of surrender that muscles wave at ” when you type.

David Bridger wrote (11/20):

"ME stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis,
but I much prefer your "Muse Elf!" Thanks -
that's definitely what I have from now on. :lol:

...I've had a hellish week,
with bits of body falling apart painfully everywhere,
so I gave my elf the day off today.
No wordcount-worrying today, uh uh...."

So let me get this straight, David. You're saying that your "Muse Elf" does what you tell it? Hmmm ... interesting concept. I think mine tends to be more imp than elf.

Actually, I have two muses. The one who deals more one-on-one with me, these days, is a Phoenix named Ekki. He's come to my rescue more times than I can count, this year.

My health was giving me terrible fits this last weekend -- beginning in the wee hours of Friday A.M. I thought (my first mistake) that since my wordcount was doing so well, I should have no problem taking a break for at least a day (maybe two) and recoup a bit. Sounded good to me and I thought I would have an easy go of it explaining the matter to my muse -- and wouldn't he be ecstatic! (assumptions = second mistake) Those were very well thought out, logical reasonings to my mind; and Ekki seemed to take to the idea -- though I now know the meaning behind that impish smile he gave me as he skipped off to do whatever "muses on holiday" do these days. Me? I settled down to a relaxing day or two without deadlines, goals, worries or concerns -- I thought (more assumptions = third mistake).

I couldn't sleep, rest, relax -- too much of that "pain" that you mentioned, David. My meds didn't do more than keep the pain levels just below the "going over the edge" mark -- and, as per usual, nothing helped the TIA symptoms. All I could do was hang on through those and try to focus on the "not passing out" drill -- day-in-and-day-out -- all of Friday and Saturday. After finally getting some sleep on Sunday, I noticed Ekki out of the corner of my eye, sneak in, whisper something to a rabbit, who handed him some notepaper and took off. Ekki noticed me watching and quickly hid the paper behind his back -- and I could swear that I heard some drumming in the background, though I couldn't be absolutely sure, since Ekki was coughing.

"What's the paper for?" I asked.

"What paper?" But when I gave him my "I'm not buying it" look, he pulled the paper out, looked surprised and said, "Oh! You mean this paper? That old thing. It's nothing."

"What's on the paper, Ekki?"

"Just a list," he said and flashed it up for me to see then spirited it away into a hidden pocket.

But it was just enough time for me to see a long list of something or other with red check marks beside most of the the items. Suddenly I had the very sneaky suspicion that I'd been had -- by my muse and ...

"Was that the Energizer Bunny, you were talking to?"

Ekki shrugged and shuffled and wouldn't meet my eyes. That was good enough answer for me. "I've been had by my muse and the Energizer Bunny!" I said.

"I wouldn't call it that. We were just trying to help," he said. Hah! That confirmed it.

"Help?! Did you say help? You just about killed me!" I was getting really torqued-up.

"Aw, now ... don't you think that's exaggerating a bit over much? We were just giving you something to focus on to get you through the really hard spots. You know, so you wouldn't think about the pain and other problems as much. You gotta' admit that it did help. Didn't it?"

"Huh! If you were just helping why didn't you tell me what you were doing, instead of being sneaky?"

"It wouldn't've worked as well. You would've sabotaged it by thinking about it too much. This way you did it without thinking at all about what you were doing."

Well, I couldn't argue that point and started to calm down.

"Oh, by the way," Ekki said, trying real hard to look innocent, "have you figured up your new word count?"

"Huh? Nah. Couldn't be much. I was practically delirious half the time and out of my mind with exhaustion the other half. I don’t even remember what I wrote. I'll check it later -- maybe tomorrow," I said.

I checked my word count late Monday. Shock and disbelief wouldn't come close to describing my reaction. (If there's a word that expresses those emotions in the extreme, I can't think of it.) I rechecked the count three times. 40K in two days?!? I could've sworn I heard Ekki chuckling -- or was that a snicker -- in the background. I worked 22 hrs. Friday and 23.5 hrs. Saturday. A lot of it was written on my pda while laying in my recliner. After finally getting some sleep, Sunday, I put in 8.25 hrs., but did only 3.25K words. That's fine by me. I'm not ready to pull a two day marathon again -- ever, if I have anything to say about it.

Did you hear a snicker? ... a drum beating, maybe? ... crazy rabbit! ... darn it Ekki! -- Thanks. ;-)

Write On, Y'all!
~ Nanette

David Bridger's quotes come from: http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=22198&forum=171
(posts #: 17 & 21.)

© Nanette Y. Francis, 2005. All Rights Reserved.