These past four months were extremely busy for me at work (in my one update since that time, I mentioned I’d taken on the workload of a colleague on medical leave). For the first two months I managed to make consistent, albeit slow, progress on my fiction writing. However, in late October/early November, my workload destroyed me as I took on one more time-consuming responsibility that lasted for three weeks. It was an ugly time and I felt on the verge of a breakdown. I went from practicing Korean studiously every night–I was up to 200 words learned–to not touching my flashcards at all for over a month, and I stopped writing on the weekends as well.

Everything calmed down the week of Thanksgiving, thanks to a combination of my workload returning to normal and a few work-free days with my family in California. Unfortunately, the recent stress had totally compromised my immune system and I caught a bad virus on the return flight. (My husband never got sick, despite much saliva swapping, so I definitely blame my immune system.) It left me functionless for over a week, plus I developed laryngitis and couldn’t speak for four days. Blech!

This week was both the end of my crazy overload schedule at work (YAY!) and the beginning of three weeks off. I’ll still be working from home for some of it, but I’m pretty pleased about the increase in free time. I jumped back into fiction writing this weekend, accomplishing a total of 4,400 words! YAY again! During my hectic four-month overload stretch, I only wrote about 20,000 words total (and I only wrote on weekends), so it’s very satisfying to have written this much in two days. Unfortunately, for the next two days I need to prioritize regular work (and then family holiday obligations will keep me busy for another two), but I’m really excited to get back into writing. Importantly, unlike these past four months, my workload should be manageable when I return in January, so I expect make decent writing progress from now on.

My work-in-progress is currently at ~56,000 words, and I estimate it will take about ~100,000 to bring the tale to its conclusion. I hope to finish it by mid-May. Fingers crossed!

In other news, here are some things I’ve really enjoyed recently:

MOVIE: Departures

I watched this for the second time recently and it’s hands-down one of the best movies I’ve seen. It was touching in a genuinely meaningful way (not in saccharine or Lifetime movie way), and it made me cry more than once.

TV SHOWS: Family Tree and Boardwalk Empire

Family Tree is unfortunately only one season long, but I enjoyed every episode. If you like Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries (like Best in Show), you’ll probably like Family Tree. It had me laughing out loud with tears at one point.

Boardwalk Empire is a high-quality HBO serial drama, which is the category nearly all of my favorite TV shows fall under. I just wish there wasn’t so much female nudity. The feminist in me (which is all of me) is incredibly tired of the dramatically skewed distribution of male and female nudity on television. Therefore, I’ve decided to create a TV show called Dicks and Balls, which will be about male athletes who are all jerks, and it will have a bunch of male full-frontal nudity (and absolutely no female nudity). Who’s with me?

BOOKS: Daughter of the Forest and The Lost City of Z

I thought the romantic in me had died, but Daughter of the Forest proved me wrong. I haven’t been so emotionally invested in a love story in a very long time. Better yet, the love story wasn’t the main focus of the novel. Sorcha, the protagonist, endures pain and exerts fierce self-control to save her brothers, and she just so happens to find love along the way.

The Lost City of Z is a nonfiction account of the disappearance of a British explorer in the Amazon. It’s a captivating tale, although after reading it I definitely have absolutely no desire to visit the Amazon ever.

MUSIC: LCD Soundsystem, “Dance Yrself Clean”

I haven’t discovered any new great bands in over seven months, but this particular song was an awesome mood-booster for me during recent stressful times. At 3:08 into the song, I have an uncontrollable urge to dance for the next five minutes. The song is best enjoyed as loud as possible.