Thurs. March 11, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 293/MA Vaccine Distribution Fail Day 43 — Giving Myself a Day’s Break, Sort Of

image courtesy of Free Photos via pixabay.com

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Day Before Dark Moon

Sunny and warmer

There’s a post over on Gratitude and Growth about the garden.

It might break records in Boston for warmth. Cooler down here. I might set up a chair on the deck and enjoy it later on.

Today is my birthday, and I’m older than I expected. I’m usually a little blue on my birthday, because I haven’t lived up to my own expectations the previous year, and this year, with so much in flux, is no exception.

However, I appreciate all the good wishes pouring in from all over. They definitely cheer me up. And I plan to make this a day of (mostly) rest and cake and things I want to do.

The exception to that is an hour-long meeting with a potential new client this afternoon. I did some prep for it yesterday, and will do some more this morning, and then we’ll see where it goes. I had some humdingers the past couple of weeks with “potential” clients that just wanted a lot of work done without paying for it.

Got some work done in the morning. We left for my mom’s vaccine appointment early enough so that the road construction on 6 wouldn’t be a problem. It wasn’t as backed up as I feared (although there was a lot of traffic). We made good time to Orleans, and found our way back to the dump.

Everyone was, again, so nice. Spirits were pretty high, since this was 2^nd dose day, and people were in a good mood. The nurses were so kind, and I thanked them for everything, and we all got a little teary. My mom got her shot, we went into the observation lot for 15 minutes, and then we headed home.

Getting home was a challenge – Rt. 6 has construction. Rt. 6A has construction and road closures/detours. Rt. 28 has construction and road closures. How poorly planned and how stupid do you have to be to have construction and road closures on all three roads at once? So typical of around here.

But we got home, just the long way round. Picked up my birthday cake and some truffles on the way.

Got my mom settled to rest after the vaccine, got some more work done. Tidied up my office and worked on lighting and webcam angles for today’s interview. I’m going to need A LOT of makeup.

Felt physically and emotionally wiped out.

The trauma and grief I feel from the year of dealing with the virus and the loss of over 500,000 of my fellow country-people is only compounded by all those running around pretending it never happened and panting to open everything too early without following protocols. I already had trouble trusting people; this past year has made it far, far worse. And I want nothing to do with those who behaved badly during the past year. If one can’t trust them for something as simple as wearing a mask, one can’t trust them on any other level, either.

Supposedly, the vaccine sign up is going onto a new platform as of Friday. One can pre-register, and then get notification of openings – and then, it sounds like it’s back to cage-fighting for those openings again. How much do you want to bet that you have to upload all the information to pre-register, and then upload it all AGAIN while cage fighting for appointments? I have no faith in this system, but I will, tomorrow morning, try to fight my way in to ‘pre-register.”

At least the Rescue Plan passed – without any Republican support. Gee, what a surprise. Not. And Merrick Garland is our AG. That makes me both happy AND relieved. He is a man who believes in justice. And other worthy cabinet members were confirmed.

I’m thankful for Cori Bush for stating that she is still fighting for more direct cash relief, $15 minimum wage, and other things.

The Dems need to learn to stop compromising because the Repubs vote against it anyway, after diluting it. And Manchin and Sinema need to be irrelevant, which means Schumer needs to get them in line until we vote in enough additional progressive Democrats so their votes no longer matter.

This morning, I have the online meditation group, which I desperately need. I’ll do a little work, here and there, but I intend to enjoy myself. I even intend to enjoy the hour-long video meeting this afternoon!

My mom’s arm is giving her a lot of pain, so she’s been taking liquid Tylenol. And she’s tired, so she’s trying to sleep, but Willa keeps poking at her, to make sure she’s still breathing.

I’m looking forward to a nice dinner tonight, and birthday cake!

Tomorrow, it’s back into the trenches, but today, I want to give myself a break.

Thurs. Oct. 29, 2020: Die for Your Employer Day 162 — My Mom’s 96th Birthday

image courtesy of Pexels via Pixabay.com

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Waxing Moon

Neptune, Uranus, Mars, Mercury Retrograde

Rainy and raw

Happy 96^th birthday to my mom! I’m lucky she’s still here, and doing well.

Latest garden post is up over on Gratitude and Growth.

The powers-that-be want to clear cut 170 acres of trees (which we need to, you know, breathe) near an aquifer in order to build a machine-gun training range.  I think that’s one of the dumbest ideas they’ve had lately.

170 acres destroyed for guns.

The stupid never stops around here.

Kids are getting sick in Barnstable and Bourne, yet they refuse to close the schools. They shouldn’t have opened them in the first place.

In-person learning is not more important than children’s lives. Or the lives of their teachers. Or the families, who then are exposed.

Dropped off a big bag of books at the library on my way to my client’s. it was quiet there, for most of my time, as it should be, with me on my own. Got a lot done. The boss came to overlap for the last hour or so, so we could catch up and do some planning. Our other colleague was out with a stomach bug.

There were two possible places to pick up the specific kind of cheesecake my mom likes. The first place – the entire large parking lot was filled. No line outside the store. Which meant that they were over capacity, not enforcing protocols, and not distancing.

I didn’t even get out of the car. I drove out of the lot and drove a few towns over, where a different store carries the same kind of cheesecake. It’s a bigger store, and there were only a few people in it, with plenty of space for all of us. I was in and out in just a few minutes, with only minor worries.

But the traffic! Backed up in both directions.

We’re in a pandemic, people. And it’s nearly November. We shouldn’t have traffic issues as though it was high season.

And people wonder why our numbers are steadily increasing. Yesterday was the 5^th day in a row of new cases over 1000.

The Boston Marathon in April 2021 was postponed until at least fall. The right decision, absolutely, but it means they know we won’t be even close to out of this by next April.

Came home, decontaminated, was a little late for Remote Chat, but caught up.

The cats were all in a tizzy that I was gone all morning, so a good portion of the afternoon was spent with them.

I managed to get some admin work done, though.

I was up early this morning, wrapped my mom’s gift and wrote her a card. She’ll find it when she comes down.

I have meditation group with Concord Library via Zoom. Then, I’m making my mother Eggs Benedict (with salmon, not pork) for breakfast.

I’ll write most of the day; for dinner, she asked for my special turkey meatloaf, one of her favorites. And we have her cheesecake.

It should be a nice, quiet, but special day.

I need to buckle down and write a lot today. Let’s hope I can keep up the focus. I’d also like to finish the book for review, and write the review either later today or tomorrow, and get that off. That way, tomorrow, I can work on the pair of pitches I need to get out next week.

The last few days, researching companies, there haven’t been any to whom I wanted to send an LOI, so more research is needed.

Knowledge Unicorns tonight, which should be fun.

It’s amazing how Nano Prep Sense Memory always kicks in during October, ideas spinning, even when I have no intention of participating.

Just a reminder, if you are doing Nano and feel like you need some encouragement, 30 TIPS FOR 30 DAYS has prep suggestions and daily encouragements. It’s always free here.

Peace, friends!

Wed. March 11, 2020: Another Birthday. Who’d’a Thunk?

image by manfredrichter courtesy of pixabay.com

Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Waning Moon

Today is my birthday. Considering a few weeks ago, it didn’t look like I’d have another one, I’m pleased I got here.

Monday was irritating at my client’s, because people there are not taking the Corona threat seriously. The sheer arrogance and selfishness sickens me.

I seem to have gotten the issues sorted out with Tweetdeck, and I’m using it to schedule posts for both myself and one of my clients. I’m also going to expand to Hootsuite, and see how I like them. Buffer comes highly recommended, but won’t give a free trial without a credit card. Having been burned too often by companies who claim they won’t bill if you cancel before the end of the trial period, and then randomly remove whatever amount they want whenever they want,I don’t do that anymore. Should one of my clients want to put it on their company card, fine. But I’m not taking on that burden. If it winds up making sense for me to run multiple accounts for social media on a paid site, I will build it into the billing, but right now, it doesn’t.

After work, swung by Trader Joe’s for a couple of things, dropped off and picked up library books.

Started cleaning the windows from the inside when I got home. It was such a lovely, bright, mild day. I opened windows and doors, and managed to clean the windows in the living room. It’s a bit of a slog, because they are sectioned into six pieces on the top, six on the bottom. The outside storm windows need a good scrub, but that’s for a later day. Yesterday, I did the windows in my office, the back bedroom, the downstairs bathroom, and the kitchen. Today, I’ll do the windows upstairs.

Excellent writing sessions both Monday morning and Tuesday morning; hope that’s true today, too. It sets a positive tone for the day when that happens. We’re trying to figure out what to do with the Nautical Namaste series — it’s hard to promote it with people quarantined on cruise ships. And is it even ethical to promote it? An ongoing discussion.

I had a good evening yoga session on Monday night. A good hip-opening sequence. Last night, I was a little smarter about the every-other-day core work I’m working up to. I’m feeling better with the weight I’m dropping, but I need to get the fitness and the stamina up. I know it won’t be my 30-year-old self, but I want to be appropriately fit for my this-age self.

Client work was okay on Tuesday; then it was a quick trip to the library to drop off and pick up, and picking up my birthday cake.

I’m going to have a low-key day today. A client wanted to take me to lunch, but I asked to postpone it. The medication I’m on leaves me in a constant state of mild nausea, and I can’t really enjoy meals right now. So I’ll go to work, lift a glass in the afternoon, have a little cake. I’m going to do what I want, as much as possible, and enjoy the fact that I’m around to do it.

I will have to do housework today, although the big push is tomorrow, since the Annoying and Unnecessary Home Energy Assessment happens first thing on Friday.

Tomorrow’s post is shaping up to be a long one, where I share some of the musings and sortings-out I’ve been working on. Friday’s post will be short (and is scheduled already) because of the Annoying and Unnecessary Home Energy Assessment and the follow-up appointment with the specialist.

If the weather is nice, we might go to Truro on Saturday. We’re playing it all by ear.

Next week is all about prepping for the next surgery. I hope it’s the last one. I need to get back on track with a lot of different things.

We’re working on Charlotte’s fear of garbage trucks. I’m trying to teach her that the garbage truck goes to other houses, and only drives by, making noise. If I’m next to her when it goes by, she’s okay. If she’s on her own, she gets upset.

Tessa is thrilled with her catnip carrot and guards it from everyone else.

And so we go on.

Mon. March 11, 2019: Kindness to Self – #UpbeatAuthors

Monday, March 11, 2019
Waxing Moon
Mercury Retrograde
My birthday

Today is my birthday, which is always a mixed day. I want to have a happy day, but it’s hard not to beat myself up about not getting everything done in the previous year that I wished.

So, today, I have to be kind to myself.

That doesn’t mean lowering my standards or letting myself off the hook. But it means giving myself today as a personal holiday, and enjoying the day without bringing in unnecessary baggage.

Personal holidays are important. These are days that have nothing to do with anyone else’s calendar or traditional holidays. They are days you take for yourself, just because the day has meaning, and you get to do whatever you want. August 1 is one such day for me. I’m resolving to turn my birthday into another.

So, today, I resolve not to get caught up in other people’s drama. I’m just going to nod and smile and move on. I resolve not to focus on the half-empty, but the half-full.

On a practical level, I will write today. I will spend a few hours onsite with a client. Then, I’m going out to lunch, and then to meditation group, and then have a nice dinner and a quiet evening doing what I want with whom I want.

My kindness to myself.

How will you be kind to yourself this week?

 

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Waning Moon
Drizzly and warm

Belated Happy Birthdays to both Brenda Birch and Colin Galbraith! I hope many of your dreams come true this year – you deserve it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I found it difficult to work on the serene scenes at the beginning of Prince Paisley’s Chintz yesterday, due to the frenetic energy of this neighborhood. So I switched to typing the draft of Revenge Tangents, since the beginning of that is set in Manhattan. It worked much better. Maybe I’ll pack up PPC today and try to write somewhere quiet. I’d say a library, but, unfortunately, people seem to have forgotten that libraries are for quiet work and now treat them like coffee shops. Come to think of it, it might work better to work in a coffee shop. We’ll see how the day shapes out. I have to finish and polish two articles before I can go anywhere.

The theatre was fine. I caught up with everyone. Someone made brownies; someone didn’t get a promised job on a new show and now has to scramble; someone is doing a bread-baking intensive at the Culinary Institute and brought the day’s work (oh, my goodness, it is the BEST); some talk about what’s going on with the negotiations between the League and the stagehands, but no one seems too worried.

Came back to the apartment; ate dinner; changed for the reception, trying to give myself a reason not to go. But I did. I thought it would take me an hour to get there. It took 20 minutes on the subway.

I’ve never been to Housing Works before, to their bookstore and café, and I’ve certainly missed a lot. The reception was hosted by PEN, to welcome their new members. The drinks were good, the appetizers were wonderful. Both Francine Prose and A.M. Homes spoke. I’m struck again, with the people I’ve met via PEN, at the commitment to the art and craft of writing, the commitment to the community at large, and the commitment to social justice. Yes, everyone does the business-y aspects of marketing that have been shoveled off from publishers to authors – but the first priority is the writing. The community comes next, and everything else just has to take a number. It’s such a refreshing change from the majority of writing groups where the majority of the conversation is either bitching and moaning about agents and publishers, or obsession with branding. Maybe if more writers would concern themselves with the quality of their work before focusing all their time and energy on marketing work that’s not ready, more of them would get published in the way they wish.

I’m always energized and uplifted by attending PEN events. They are inspirational on so many levels, and they are proof that the written word still matters – no matter what corporate poobahs squeal about the numbers. The written word is still able to change people’s lives around the world. And that is something, as writers, we need to be aware of even more than the latest Amazon ranking.

I reconnected with some people I’d met at other events, and met some fascinating new people – one of them is a translator and the other is an agent. I’m going to interview the agent for the next Literary Athlete column – if she still wants to do it once she’s thought about it. Her take on both writing and the business are quite inspiring and I’d like to share it with my readers.

Got home early enough to do a good, long core workout. Watched some bad TV (I’m starting to wonder if there’s much else, now that THE CLOSER and BURN NOTICE are done until next summer). Read a bit, but the book I was reading didn’t capture me – I didn’t connect or care about the characters and they were kind of floating in nothingness. I think that was the author’s point, but I didn’t care enough to continue on the journey with them, and put the book up on BookMooch.

I want to do some research for the Good Names rewrite down around Grammercy Park. I guess I better get going on the articles, so I can “allow” myself to go – paid, contracted work first, after all. I’ll do word bar updates tomorrow.

I’ve also got some ideas swirling around – one of a novella for a contest with an early January deadline, and one for a book that could be a career changer and lucrative, but I’m not sure if I want to go in that direction. Especially in light of last night’s inspiration. So, I have to think.

It’s hard to think with trucks rumbling by so that the building shakes and construction noise. Time to put on the music and the headphones and get on those articles.

Good yoga workout this morning. Costume Imp’s cats still think I’m nuts, but at least they figured out that Corpse position doesn’t mean I’m actually a corpse.

Devon

Happy Birthday to Me!

I bought a car today. To replace the one lost in the flood.

New.

2007 Rabbit.

Blue.

The nice, DARK blue.

Because I don’t feel like waiting around for the insurance settlement offer and then have to scramble.

Happy Birthday to me!