My Humble Abode – Tbilisi, Georgia – 10:35pm

Yes, this is a day in the life of a writer.

And the day includes minimal writing. That sometimes happens.

I had a super busy day, running between different places. I slept in a bit, and talked with my sister and mom for a bit before heading off for yet another driving theory lesson.

11am

Today, we studied theory questions about the rules regarding herds of animals crossing the road, towing car, and children on the bus, among other topics. The funny thing about the translations of the exam questions is that you never know which is a mistaken translation and which is correct but worded very poorly, so you might answer the question correctly but get it wrong because you were given the wrong information. It’s a very convoluted process, and I definitely feel like I’m being trained to study wrongly. It’s simply about memorizing the answers (which sometimes are not even the real rules of the road), not necessarily learning the rules of the road.

1pm

So, I went from Isani to Delisi station, and got my passport page translated into Georgian at a notary, as this is supposedly required for getting my driver’s license. It ended up being 26 lari (CAD$13) to translate and notarize the document. I don’t know where this is on the scale of affordability, but I’m just glad that it didn’t cost 100 lari or something. I sat waiting there for a little bit, checked the translation to make sure it was done correctly (and a good thing I did because the translator had made a couple of errors). Then, I was told to come back and collect it after 3pm. At least I got a pesky little errand underway.

2pm

I arrived for my drums lesson. Today, we played on a new set of drums, a more “professional set,” my drums teacher Temo said. The one I had been playing on before was of the training wheels variety (haha). Personally, I like the sound of the previous set I’d been playing on (Alessi brand) but maybe that’s just because I’ve been playing it for longer. The set I played today sounded really soft and like it was harder to beat it to life, if that makes sense.

We continued learning the rest of Holiday by Green Day. It’s pretty awesome how far I’ve come with that song, honestly. I think it was just three or four lessons ago that I was struggling to even pick up the intro and then the first two riffs, and now I kind of have the entirety of the song memorized. I still have to keep practicing but even two lessons ago, I couldn’t play the song at the original tempo and had to slow it down to 0.75 speed. So, making great progress! I practiced until 5pm. I also took a break and sang some Bruno Mars songs.

6pm

I picked up the notarized translation and then headed back to Marjanishvili and got Tom Kha for dinner at Tom Yum 3. It’s funny that there’s a Tom Yum 1, 2 and 3. They’re definitely owned by the same person because the menus all look the same, although the cooking doesn’t follow exactly the same style. I’ll have to go back and visit Tom Yum 2 because the waiter (maybe owner?) was so nice and gave me double portions without any extra charge. He told me “we have to help each other,” so that was really heartwarming. He even offered me a job haha. I do enjoy supporting the Thai restaurants.

7:30pm

Then it was back in the DJ studio at CES! I had a bit of fun experimenting with the loop features and just playing around with different mixes. I’m still terrible, but at least it’s fun and relaxing to experiment as I want to, rather than having to deal with a ‘teacher’ who only makes me feel like crap every time I try.

So, that was my day, running between three different events: driving theory, drums, and a DJ studio session. I’m feeling pretty accomplished, even though I haven’t written anything yet.

On the way home though, I passed over a manhole cover, and the idea for a horror story blossomed. It’s a psychological horror story where a killer’s method for murdering people is removing manhole covers on streets without streetlights and watching random passers-by fall in and hurt or kill themselves. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I fleshed out a general outline for the story on the commute back to my accommodation, and I’m now finally going to be a writer for the day and do a writing block before midnight strikes.

Essentially, a day in the life of a writer, even if the writing takes place at odd hours, is always one of day dreaming, brain storming, and thinking about stories. I was on the bus and metro a lot today, and I was constantly listening to different horror podcasts, partly for entertainment, but also for setting the mood and getting my subconscious churning about my own horror writing. I listened to the Sept 29th Someone’s Trying to Kill the Kids I’m Babysitting episode on Dr. NoSleep, as well as the June 7th I Think My Grandfather is a Serial Killer: Part 1 episode and part of the Sept 27th Psychotic Ex-Girlfriend episode of the Be Scared: Fueling Your Nightmares With a Smile Horror Podcast.

Update: 10:30pm

I’d originally planned on writing at Fabrika, but I was too sleepy and decided to work from my accommodation. I spent about half an hour writing this blog post, and another 45 minutes outlining the gist of my new horror story. I also spent about twenty minutes writing 528 words towards said new story. So, before the clock struck midnight, I wrote roughly 3000+ words between all three projects. A great, inspired way to end the day!

I’m excited for tomorrow (and it’s already tomorrow – I’m writing this update at 12:50am) and all the writing I’ll get to jump back into!

Toodles,

Alaska