Thurs. May 11, 2023: Keeping On Keeping On

image courtesy of Engin Akyurt via pixabay.com

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury and Pluto Retrograde

You can read the latest garden shenanigans here, on Gratitude and Growth.

As of today, this country declares the COVID pandemic over, which is ridiculous, untrue, and will cost more lives. The only reason is to force workers back into unsafe situations and allow insurance companies to charge more. The CDC and Rochelle Walensky failed us. And now, she’s tiptoeing away and not taking responsibility for selling out the general population to corporations. I was so excited when she was named, and she was a huge (and dangerous) disappointment. May she reap what she has sown.

Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:

Episode 84: Jae’s Theory

Jae’s belief that Brone is a pawn could have repercussions beyond Legerdemain.

Legerdemain Serial Link

Legerdemain Website

I belong to a virtual book club hosted by my university. More men than women participate in the club (which surprised me). It means that, whenever a book choice is voted on, books by men tend to get priority. I was deeply discouraged in the current choice list for autumn’s read: two books by women, one by a man, and he’s leading the votes. He is the most well-known author, but still. . .I’m going to read the two books by the women on my own. It’s not that I won’t read his book because of his gender; I will, because I’m interested in it. I just notice how the votes skew, month after month.

I did the social media rounds for The Process Muse, and then, later in the day, for ANGEL HUNT.

I’m still having problems with the Pages On Stages website. It doesn’t come up when I put it in the search bar. I can sign in and work on it: I just can’t see it. My webhost sees it just fine. It’s something in my Chrome settings. When I followed directions to clear the caches, WordPress wouldn’t let me sign into anything, claiming I blocked all cookies. I had to go back and change that. I can get in and work on my other sites now, but still not see Pages on Stages. I’m frustrated.

I got a bit of work done on the Legerdemain site. Not enough, but at least something. I have a LOT of work to do on that site, and I’m hoping that I can do some of it next week. I thought I had the history of Legerdemain written and ready to go, but then a throwaway comment in the episode I drafted yesterday needs to be integrated into it, and I need to write up the Enrique Macallen pirate story.

As I mentioned, I drafted an episode of Legerdemain.

Client work in the afternoon; finished earlier than expected (although I got a request for some additional information from one that I will do today).

Finished reading Cherie Priest’s FLIGHT RISK, which was a lot of fun. Need to start the Elizabeth Siddal biography, which has to go back to the library soon. I was percolating an idea for something built around her, but there’s a slew of projects in various pipelines about her right now, so I will sit back and enjoy them instead. (In case you’ve never heard of Elizabeth Siddal, she was a primary muse for the Pre-Raphaelites).

Put up the new string lights on the front porch. They’re very pretty, and it’s nice to sit there as twilight moves into darkness.

Slept through the night, until the cats rousted me out of bed this morning. Most of the poem for July’s event has formed in my brain, and I woke up knowing how it would flow. I scribbled it down in my “Poetry Adventures” notebook. When I get my starting word, I can write a couple of transition lines, and I’ll still be within the time limit, I think. Before I send it off, I’ll read it a few times with a stopwatch, and make any necessary trims. I mean, I’ll work it and rhythm it and hone it more between now and then, but at least I’m not starting from scratch when I get my opening word, and I can weave it in. Writing the poem in 24 hours is a challenge I met last year; this year, I want to prepare better, now that I understand the overall event.

Figures July’s poem would come at me, when I need to work on the poem I’ll read in a week and a half!

I want to draft another episode of Legerdemain today, and I have to get next week’s episodes uploaded and scheduled. I might go back and add something into yesterday’s episode (the one I wrote, not one already scheduled/dropped). I was going to put that exchange into today’s, but maybe it will work better in yesterday’s? Once I work on today’s episode, I’ll know.

Client work this afternoon, but I hope to be done early, and then that’s it for me for the week. I’ll regret it on Monday, but I don’t care for today and tomorrow!

Have to do a grocery run, a liquor store run, mail something to my insurance company by  Certified mail (because they never admit to receiving ANY paperwork unless it’s certified and when they claim they never got it, I send them a copy of the proof of delivery). Meditation this morning. All I want to do is sleep. I’m trying to pace myself a little better to deal with the fatigue. It’s waning moon, so I’ll also take iron supplements again for a few days. If I take them every day, I get sick; if I take them 3^rd/4^th quarter moon, about every other day, I’m usually okay. As the spring vegetables come out, I’ll round out my diet with more spinach and kale, and will start feeling better again. I haven’t watched what I eat as carefully as usual in the transition to spring, and my diet has been less healthy.

The pollen just wafts past the window in clouds. I’m making eyewashes with chamomile, and setting aside time every afternoon to lie down on the acupressure mat with a chamomile compress over my eyes. I’ll probably start using the air purifier again, too.

At some point this weekend, I’ll climb up onto whatever lets me reach it, and clean the tops of the ceiling fans. We’ll be using those soon, and I want to make sure they aren’t just stirring up more pollen and dust. Hopefully, by Sunday, it’ll be warm enough to take out some plants and set down the rugs out back.

The FALL FOREVER edits are percolating in my brain. The Heist Romance script wants attention, and CAST IRON MURDER reminds me that there are still revisions to do there. Plus the upcoming poem and the flash fiction. By next week, I have to get back on track with the next Twinkle Tavern short, “Labor Intensive.” I had a pithy name for the third one, built around President’s Day, but I didn’t write it in the file. I think it’s in my journal, so I’ll have to go back through that book and find it. And there are some other short pieces that I worked on back in February that are almost ready to go out into the world.

Plenty to keep me busy.

Have a good one!

Wed. Aug. 17, 2022: Work Stacking Like Wood

image courtesy of pexels via pixabay.com

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Waning Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter Retrograde

Drizzly and humid

Yesterday was busy. I had trouble getting my act together. The fatigue is a lot, but I have to push through, at least for the next few weeks. Deadlines wait for no one.

I got out an LOI for an intriguing, but slightly odd position that would run about five months over the winter. We’ll see.

I got the two sessions I wanted for the Authors’ Guild WIT conference in Lenox in mid-September. Supposedly, they have strict protocols. But that’s what the other theatre claimed, and the audience didn’t do their part. So I will show up, and if I feel uncomfortable, I will leave.

I did some promotion for Episode 7 of Legerdemain. I did some prep work on a couple of grant applications that need to go out. I have to take some photographs, and I keep putting it off, but I can’t put it off much longer. I want to tweak a little in the project proposal, so that it’s tighter.

Cleaned the house, with a thorough vacuuming, scrubbing floors, tidying things up, burning some incense so it all smelled good.

Tessa Was Not Amused.

My friend came over and we worked mostly on her bio, and explaining the difference between a bio and a vision statement and the other pieces one needs to assemble. Before she can apply for grants, she has to get the domain registration and web hosting sorted out, because the grants all want a website as part of their process. She has a list of assignments of the pieces that need work before it makes sense to meet again. I sort of felt like I was giving homework, but she has to learn how to do this and be self-sustaining. She’s not a client. And I’m juggling this WITH all my other work, not instead of it. I have to have boundaries, or I’ll end up working as a consultant, researcher, copywriter, and grant writer for free and resenting it, and that’s not what this is about. It’s about teaching her how to find the resources and sustain those aspects as she builds her business.

In the evening, I attended the virtual launch of Roselle Lim’s new book, SOPHIE GO’s LONELY HEARTS CLUB with The Ripped Bodice LA. Which was a lot of fun. I’m so glad she invited me, and I’m looking forward to reading the book.

We wrestled off the couch pillow covers, which is always a not-fun chore, and stuck them in the laundry bag. I didn’t sleep well last night – as soon as I’d drifted off, the downstairs neighbor sounded like they were rearranging the furniture at midnight, and then I couldn’t fall asleep again. So when the alarm went off at 5, I was tired and grumpy.

But I hauled everything in the rain over to the laundromat. There were people there, unmasked, and I wasn’t about to sit in a humid, poorly ventilated space with unmasked strangers, so I spent the time the laundry was going through in the car, editing the next set of episodes for LEGERDEMAIN.

Managed to get a grant application out first thing this morning.

Now, I have to get the clean cushion covers back on the cushions, which will be a wrestling match, and then go on with the rest of my day.

The DEVELOPING THE SERIES Topic Workbook releases today, so I also have to get all those links updated. And turn around two scripts. And work on Legerdemain, both the episodes and the website. And start the next book for review. And. . .

Tues. Aug. 16, 2022: All About The Words

image courtesy of Nicole via pixabay.com

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Waning Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

It was a busy weekend, but few-words busy. As in I don’t need a lot of words to talk about it, although the bulk of the weekend was all about words.

Friday & Saturday were almost entirely about LEGERDEMAIN. I got six episodes revised, edited, proofed, and up on Friday, along with some other stuff (which I don’t even remember). I did a library/post office/CVS run.

But almost everything was focused on LEGERDEMAIN, and, of course, it all took longer than I hoped. But things take as long as they take, and I’m doing 3-4 editing passes of each episode and then uploading/scheduling, so what would normally be a process stretched out over a period of weeks is now over a period of hours.

Different mediums require different processes.

I was also tired from Thursday night’s event, albeit a good tired, and thinking a lot about the other poets’ poems.

I meant to go to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. At 7:30 in the morning, I sat down at the desk to “just do a little work” on the next 4 episodes of LEGERDEMAIN. The next time I looked up, it was 3:30. So, I missed it.

But the episodes are uploaded and scheduled through Episode 20. I did the episode-specific ads and loglines, and uploaded and scheduled all those. I started working on some more general ads.

I did some work on a residency application. I still have to take some photos of clay and textile pieces I’ve made.

I was too tired to cook on Saturday night, so I ordered in Chinese. And read.

Sunday, I had a slow start. I handwashed and ironed some of the new fabric – I’d hoped to sew this weekend, but that didn’t happen. But at least everything is washed and ironed. I managed to finish the new tablecloth for the kitchen table, and swap that out, and tidy up all of that.

The cut mugwort stems were dry enough to strip, so I stripped them and put them in glass jars for the stillroom section of the laundry room. 3 jars’ worth, which should last me awhile.

I played with some ideas for the Shakespeare horror story. So far, I have ideas and scenes, but I need the narrative drive, and I haven’t yet settled on that.

In the afternoon, I drove down to the Edith Wharton homestead again, this time to be an audience member for Word X Word. Nine poets did pieces inspired by various pieces of sculpture. It was fascinating to see how  they used the pieces as jumping off points.

Driving home, I started writing in my head two new pieces. I need to get a notebook specifically for poetry-esque work. I mean, it takes about an hour to get anywhere, so writing in my head while I drive makes sense. And then having the notebook for the specific type of work makes sense (although I always carry one of the Fragment Notebooks with me, to jot down notes).

Stopped at the Adams Market to pick up pizza and a bottle of wine, because, again, too tired to cook.

Monday morning, I was just exhausted. I think the last few weeks are catching up with me. I managed to heave myself out of the house for a run to Wild Oats for a few things, and Stop & Shop, and another store, where I went in to get Velcro dots and lightbulbs. I came out with those, and some project notebooks. Love back-to-school sales. I have to get down to Staples for more.

I got some more ironing done. I worked on an application for another residency, which had just opened up. I’d worked on all the pieces. It should have taken me 30 minutes to slot in what I’d written. But it took 2 ½ hours because the damn computer kept freezing and crashing. Windows11 sucks.

But I got it done and out, and I’m actually proud of it. We’ll see if they give me a slot next year.

Turned around a script coverage. Got my inbox down from over 900 emails to just over 170.

Roasted a chicken. It’s finally cool enough to make roast chicken again, my favorite, because there’s so much one can do with the leftovers. Had the makings of chicken stock simmering on the stove while I took Jeremy Rock Smith’s cooking class in honor of Julia Child’s birthday.

Didn’t sleep well, although I don’t have the overall sense of fatigue today that I had yesterday. I have to do some serious house cleaning this morning, because my friend the baker is coming over in the afternoon, and I’m going to teach her how to register her domain name and find a web host and maybe we’ll even apply for a grant or two. Tonight, I’m attending a virtual event with The Ripped Bodice for the release of Roselle Lim’s new book.

I have two scripts in the queue; I may do one today, or I may do both tomorrow. I will see how the afternoon goes. I intentionally kept the start of this week light.

This morning, in and around the cleaning, I’ll do some promo for Episode 7 of Legerdemain, which releases today, “There Are Rituals, and Then There Are Rituals.” The episode ad is lovely/creepy with a candle balanced on a raven’s beak.

Better get to it. Busy day, but again, it’s good busy.

Wed. July 21, 2021: Just A Simple Day

image courtesy of Bumiputra via pixabay.com

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron Retrograde

Cloudy and humid

Yesterday wasn’t as productive as I hoped, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Got some work done in the early morning. Got through most of the emails, so that it’s now manageable, and I can work through the rest that need attention.

Finessed a few things in the one-act version of “Confidence Confidant” and sent it in response to a call for submission. Have a couple of other plays to send off today and tomorrow.

Dropped off/picked up books at the library. I’m not happy about the two-book checkout limit until October. If I had a history of not returning books/piling up fees, I could see it, but I don’t.

Found the Big Y grocery store, although the Google directions were wrong (as usual). It’s a big, lovely store. Still doesn’t have enough Asian or Latin foods, so I will have to hunt for other stores that do. And it doesn’t carry rye flour – I have a feeling I might have to special order that. Or maybe find an organic store which carries it. They have all kinds of other grain flours, but not rye. And I do love my orange rye bread.

Spent much more than I planned there, but now we are well stocked. Between Big Y and Stop and Shop, both of which aren’t too far away (once you know how to get there), I think we’ll make it through the harsh winters here.

The CVS is next door to Big Y, so we’ll be able to get my mom’s prescriptions set up there. We both still have to find new doctors, change our voter registration (the Town Clerk, which the State told me handles it, has not responded), and change our drivers’ licenses/car registration.

On the way back from the grocery store, swung by the post office to mail letters and bills.

Got everything up the stairs and put away. The humidity was pretty intense by then, and I ran out of steam. It was too hot and humid in the afternoon to try to find the lake, unless we wanted to go IN it, which we don’t. I wish I’d stop feeling so awful all the time. The fatigue and muscle pain should be easing up by now; if anything, it’s getting worse.

I’m enjoying QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD. I like the way the story is unfolding, at least so far. I’m reading it slowly, savoring it.

Pizza for dinner. Thunderstorms, lightning, and rain at night. Since there are rivers everywhere (where the mills were perched, mills that are now museums and artist lofts and studios), I worry about flooding, like we had back in Westchester. Lee and Lenox were hit badly by the storms over the last weekend, but around here, it wasn’t too bad.

I’m glad I didn’t go to Lenox for WordXWord last night. I would have been miserable driving back in the storm. I’m not yet confidant driving in the mountains.

The fire alarm went off a little after 10 PM, for no discernable reason. We weren’t cooking or anything. It does that, at least once a week. Not sure what’s going on there.

Today is more writing, more LOIs, script coverage, work on the class, prepping and sending out some plays. Remote Chat is this afternoon, so that should be fun.

I have to get back to work updating my brochure, so I can send LOIs to local businesses. And I need to get back on track with the revisions and re-releases of the Topic Workbooks. I managed to update the main Devon Ellington website a couple of days back; I need to cycle through the other sites and make sure they are updated, too.

I should unpack some more, too. There are still too many boxes everywhere.

Thurs. April 15, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 327 — Before The Storm

Tessa in her new bed

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and chilly

There’s a longer than usual post over on Gratitude and Growth about how the changes in the neighborhood affect the garden.

Yesterday was reasonably productive. Early in the morning, it turns out the client I thought with whom I would be working starting this week – well, it’s not going to work out. The client “requires” I jump through hoops they “need” for their accounting. Um, they pay via PayPal, and I filled out a W-9. They don’t “need” anything else. This client paid a lower rate than I’d normally accept, but I wanted to have some steady, stop-gap work with the move coming up, while I continue to have discussions with higher-paying potential clients. But I’m not jumping through hoops for this kind of money, when I don’t need to for clients who pay much, much more. Buh-bye.

Got another nibble from another LOI from someone who wants some more information. I can turn that around today, I hope. We’ll see if that’s legit, or yet another “client” that’s actually an outsourcer wasting my time.

Turned around some additional information requested from another LOI, and got the exact same message asking for the exact same information, which I said I sent, did they need it resent, and got the same message asking for the same information instead of an actual response. Hon, if your AI chat bot can’t get it together, we aren’t a good match. Next!

Got a lot done at the client’s. She was just in for a few minutes, so we talked about a few things, I kept going with what I had to get done, she kept going with what she had to get done. She bought her elderly cat a new cat bed, and gave me the fancy previous one.

My cats were fascinated. Charlotte and Willa fussed at each other over it, and while they were busy, Tessa decided it was HERS. And now it is. Tessa spent most of the afternoon in the bed, happy as could be. That gave Willa a chance to sneak in and sit in the window in my room before I took Willa and Charlotte out in their playpens on the deck.

Remote Chat was fun.

I was hit with more fatigue and some swollen lymph nodes again in the afternoon and evening. Instead of pushing myself, I let myself sit out on the deck for a bit, with the cats in their playpens.

Went to bed awfully early, though, which meant I woke up around 3:30 and was wide awake.

Meditation this morning. I should do a quick grocery run, before the storm starts. It’s supposed to get nasty this afternoon and overnight, into tomorrow. We do need the rain, though. But the thought of going to the store is overwhelming.

I’ve got a story idea almost percolating. I can feel it starting to form. I need to get back to a regular fiction writing routine again. I’m much more centered and productive when I stick to an early morning 1K of fiction. But it’s as though I’m punishing myself for not having landed a new home, therefore I don’t let myself write, and I throw off my whole day, and it’s a continuing downward spiral. When what I should be doing is writing my way to a better reality.

But all I want to do is sleep. Only I don’t have time to sleep, I need to finish packing and find us a place to live.

Client work, LOIs, article work, filling information requests, and looking at rental listings. That’s my agenda for today.

What’s on your plate?

Tues. April 13, 2021: Die For Your Employer Day 326 — Vaccine Dose 1 Recovery

image courtesy of Free Photos via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Waxing Moon

Cloudy and cool

Well, it’s been an interesting few days.

Friday I was just cooked. I did client work, worked on the paperwork for the new client (which did not get finished), and cleared off as much as I could for the weekend. Looked at rental listings, put out some inquiries. Worked on contest entries. Worked on the book for review.

Saturday morning, up early. Finished reading the book for review. I liked it, but wanted to think about it for awhile before I wrote the review.

Made sure I ate a big breakfast (frittata with spinach, tomato, and cheese).

We were out of the house on time, headed for the vaccine appointment. Not bad getting there, although the Google Maps directions sucked. Technically, it’s where my primary care is located, but I usually go to the satellite office down the street.

Went in, filled out paperwork, got my jab (Moderna). Sat reading in the waiting area, although no one checked on us, and we were trusted to speak up and keep track of our 15 minutes ourselves.

I started feeling the effects within five minutes, the fatigue, but I didn’t want to say anything, because I was afraid they wouldn’t let me go home. After 15 minutes, I thanked them, waved, and went to the car.  By the time I got to the car, they’d pinged me with the second dose appointment.

That’s the way it should work, not all the cage fighting I had to do to get my mother’s appointments.

I should have let my mom drive me home, but I drove. Of course, there was an accident at the turn to the road for the dump. Probably caused by the jackass with all the pro-Trump paraphernalia on his corner lot. It’s distracting.

Anyway, sitting there, waiting for the traffic to move was difficult. But, eventually it moved, and I was still conscious by the time we got home. I managed to toss the first load of laundry in, drank a large glass of water, changed into my pajamas, and went to bed, where I promptly fell asleep.

The day consisted of me sleeping for 20-30 minutes, getting up to drink a glass of water and do a few asanas, and then back to bed again. I kept moving my arm. I managed to get two loads of laundry through, sorted, and put away. I sort of read a book for pleasure in between naps.

But that was it. My body said it was busy, and I needed to rest, so I did. I had some swelling in my lymph nodes, but only for a few hours.

I ate lunch and dinner – I was very hungry all day, along with being very thirsty, but hungry for very specific things.  All healthy, fortunately. And I felt well enough to cook dinner.

I took some Tylenol and went to bed very early. Slept through until about 2:30, went to the bathroom, drank more water, went back to bed. A fever had started overnight.

Sunday, my arm still hurt, I had a fever off and on, and a mild headache off and on. Still quite a bit of fatigue. It didn’t help that I did too much: I changed the beds (usually a Saturday task), ran that laundry through, folded it up and put it away. I packed all the chimes and bells from the house, except for the large chimes on the deck. It feels so empty without them singing every time we go through a door or open a window. Packed more decorations in the living room, and from the fireplace mantel. Sent out a bunch of inquiries to listings. We found a few that we like, and think could work. Packed up my tarot cards in my room – a little more than 3 boxes’ worth.

In between, I rested and took Tylenol and felt grumpy. Probably because I wasn’t resting properly. My body was busy learning to fight the threat.

But imagine if we lived in a world that honored listening to one’s body? Resting when necessary, eating properly, taking care of oneself and each other instead of us being forced to literally work ourselves to death? “Die for Your Employer” isn’t just about the pandemic. It’s how we are expected to conduct our lives, and it needs to change.

Felt well enough by late afternoon to work on contest entries again, and even cooked a nice dinner of baked trout on a bed of roasted vegetables. It was very good, and I felt much better after eating it.

Woke up once in the night Sunday into Monday to go to the bathroom and drink more water, but managed to get back to sleep. Still up early, though. Got my review written and sent out, and requested more books.

Had to catch up on correspondence that came in over the weekend. Some from friends; others from those pretending they are reaching out in the name of friendship, but then want something.

Went into the client’s office for a bit. I’d hoped to get what I needed to get done onsite and get out before the others got there, but one person arrived early. We figured out some stuff, I got the ETSY orders done, downloaded some stuff that came in via the client email that I needed to work on, and left. I actually felt worse than I had at any point after the vaccine.

Swung by the post office to drop off the ETSY shipments, came home. Decontamination protocols, then back to the computer. Got the stuff done for my client. Got my review out, and was assigned two more books. Worked on contest entries.

Felt pretty lousy; the arm still hurt, and I had a headache. I had chills for a couple of hours, but wrapped up in a blanket with Tessa snuggled next to me, and it passed. Should have packed more, but didn’t feel up to it. Did start feeling better in the evening, and more like myself, which was nice.

Looked at more rental listings, and send out more inquiries.

Heard back from one place – the apartment layout we liked won’t be available for at least a year, so that won’t work. Reported a bunch of scams on craigslist.

I made an absolutely huge decision: I’m going to sell my little red push mower. Yes, the little red mower that I dreamed of owning all my life, and bought about three years ago, and only used for one season.

Chances are we won’t have a garden in this next move. Even when we do get another place with a yard, I hate mowing, and I’m going to hire someone to do it, like I have here. Carting it around and paying to keep it in storage doesn’t make sense. And yet, it breaks my heart a little to give it up.

I spent a lot of last week crying, and it looks like quite a bit of this week will be spent that way, too.

Going to put several things up on craigslist in the coming weeks, including the old printers that can be used for parts. Trying to see which thrift shops are taking donations (if any are, since, technically, it’s still pandemic time). As we’ve been sorting through the closets, there are several big bags of clothes in really good shape that don’t fit or I don’t like and won’t wear that we can donate.

Today, I need to finish the paperwork for the new client, get out some more LOIs, finish my article, and pitch some new article ideas to editors. I need to get some client work done, work on contest entries, and, most importantly, get packing again.

I just wish I knew where we were going. Looking at listings, when they have floor plans, it’s kind of fun to see if and how we could make things fit. I’m looking forward to the UN-packing, once we know where we’re going. It’s the uncertainty that takes such a toll.

Woke up this morning, after sleeping through the night, for once. Lymph nodes are a little swollen again, but the arm hurts less. I have to say, I’d rather have a parade of symptoms, one or two at a time, then have them descend all at once.

Back to it.