Active Rain - Today's Best Calmative

This morning has been one of those times when my nerves feel like they're shredded.

I'm trying to get some copy written for a client, and there's been one interruption after another.

First, the cat.

I have a big fat cat who would eat sixteen cans of cat food every day if I'd let him. Days like today I'm tempted to let him, just to get him to leave me alone. I could just open every can in the house and say "have at it."

I don't know why, but for the past few days he's been deciding he needs more about a half hour after every feeding. Mind you, there's always a full bowl of dry food, but that's not what he wants.

When he wants canned food he start stalking me, clawing at the side of my chair (or at my leg). Telling him to "shoo" works for about 15 seconds, then he's back. And of course, my concentration is gone. When I persist with chasing him away from my chair, he jumps on the side desk and starts knocking things on the floor.

Today I picked him up and threw him outside. That worked for a few minutes, then he started clawing at the screen. So... I fed him again.

Then there's the dogs. They keep thinking they see something out in the meadow. Maybe they do - their eyes are keener than mine. But meanwhile, they bark like mad every time they spot whatever it is (or isn't.)

Then my husband decided to bring me a load of wood. I had to stop to help unload it. An hour later he decided to come in for lunch. He doesn't deliberately interrupt me when he comes for lunch, but he walks around the kitchen in his boots. It's like having someone beating a drum over my head.

Some people can write with music playing, some can write in a crowded coffee house, some can write on a bus. I need uninterrupted quiet. And after all those interruptions, I'm so wound up that it takes a while to settle down and be able to focus again.

So what to do? Stop everything and go read Active Rain. It's entertaining, it gets me thinking about other things, and it helps me calm down. Sometimes it even gives me ideas for future ezines or blog posts.

Best of all, I don't feel like I've been forced to waste time, because I almost always learn something when I read Active Rain.