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How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
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I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"  In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job. Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B. After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate. It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general. Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions. |
| Today's Mommy funny: I've decided to include a quick funny quip in each blog entry, something that happened to me or someone else I know that was a humerous mommyism. I hope you enjoy! This actually happened about a month ago. My oldest, Dawn, 4, went through a color-on-the-wall phase. Despite the fact that I provide her with ample amounts of paper, she wanted to have it on the wall. We tried everything - disciplining of various sorts, taking the crayons away, giving her tape so she could hang her pictures on the wall (this worked best - until she ran out of tape) - but one day, I came in to find a wall-sized mural in her bedroom. Already frantic and worn out, I just started crying. "Dawn, why do you color on the walls?!" I sobbed. She looks at me in utter seriousness and says, "Mommy, we should have a rule that we don't color on the walls. If there was a rule, then Mookie and I wouldn't color on the walls anymore." (I'm the Mommy! Isn't everything I say a rule?!) I looked at her, said, "The rule is, no more coloring on the wall." We made a poster that stated the rule, hung it on her door, and have had no more problems with wall coloring. Whew! I finally finished all the judging and scoring required for the Port Raid. It was a great contest, with a wonderful turnout, and my thanks to all those who participated!  I loved getting all the reviews - I think spiral kinetochore  said there were over 400 - and it's been great! Very time consuming, though.I was hoping to take a short break, but my short story contest is supposed to close soon. I just remembered that...I need to run over and post it on the contest page. Okay, that's done. Well, no, it isn't! Dreams - Anon, who are you? plugged it for me! What a doll! So hopefully I'll pull in some more short stories.It's been a long and difficult day. Things are chaotic. We joined up with four other women in our church to do a 'home preschool', of sorts, where we rotate teaching the kids. Two moms teach, and the others get a little free time. I'm not overly sure about it anyway, but we've been going for the past two weeks - two days, two hours (well, it was supposed to go until 12, and did last week, but by today it was down to 11; started at 9). My four year old (Dawn) and my two and a half year old (Mookie) were both attending, and I was helping this week. Mook doesn't seem to be very excited about the reading and such. I'm not overly certain things are working well for him, of course he is a bit young. But the first part seems to be a bit slow in all cases; both 'teachers'/moms started out reading, and he didn't seem to take interest. He did good with the creative activities, and of course with the playing (the 'school' is half playtime, which is another reason I'm 50/50 on it; the kids need some play time and this works as a 'playdate' of sorts, if nothing else), but didn't seem into the reading. Rachel, the mom in charge (and my best friend), was asking if I would consider not bringing him. She has a point, and we're going to wait to see how he does next week when I'm not there, but my big concern is Dawn. She's already been jealous that I'm spending 1-on-1 time with Mook while she is in ballet (one day a week, 45 mts). I can't imagine how she'll feel if we have 'just us' time four hours a week, even if it's only two weeks a month. (since I'll be at 'school' the other two weeks, more or less) On other fronts, my husband officially worked his last day at his second 'job' yesterday. He has been working nights helping a friend with his house. After he got the 'new' job (did I mention that to you? well, he got a new job [after five, six months of iffy jobs and temporary jobs and underpaid jobs] making $1,000/year more than he was making at the company he left. But they pay more benefits, AND also provide dental and vision, as well as medical. So we are very excited. Anyway, now Michael (my husband) no longer has to work nights, and can be home. I did tell you, because I recall spelling out my hope that I would be able to work on my novel again. So I'm going to take a few moments to ponder and think my way through how I will accomplish such a feat. By now, of course, you know I think best by typing; a great thing, since my other method involves talking out loud and making people look at me like I'm a loon. Okay, so, what kind of plan should I adopt? I have a few goals.  First, I would like to get at least one if not several of my short stories published. I think that being a published writer would give me more credibility when I want to get my novel published. However, I don't want to spend so much time working on new stories that I neglect my novel. I have a wellspring of great stories posted here that I will start with, and I may extend that to my novel shorts. Second, I will continue to write short stories - mostly my 'novel shorts' - as I continue to research various eras and develop my characters. This will also serve as my contest entries to hopefully help me earn a premium membership, which I anticipate needing by next April. Third, I need to research various eras. I'm going to do that two-fold; first by checking out books and such, and second by writing short stories set in that time period. Hmm, should I include bits about Jonathan and Caroline in those periods? We'll see. Anyway, that will help me not only research but actually put my reading into practice. Fourth, I need to write my actual novel.  I'm not sure how to do that, but I think if I do it step-by-step, I should accomplish it. I have written the first segment somewhat, but I'd like to work on it a little more; I don't remember being happy with it.Hmm, I am having some thoughts. I am thinking about creating a group, a reviewing group. Perhaps a few selected, strong-reviewing friends who might be willing to help me on the road to my novel. But do I want them to review each segment as I write? Would that be too confusing? They could also help me nitpick my novel shorts and catch any inconsitancies. No, I think that might be too much. I like the idea, though, and will hold out for it. Okay, so, timing. I'm going to do my writing at night, from 8:30 to 9:30, after my husband is home, when the two oldest are down and he can handle just the baby. I hope. That seemed to be the best time for us earlier. But when do I do my research? Well, I read a lot, and can keep track of it as I go, I suppose. I can read here and there, like I do with fiction, although I may want to take a few notes. Perhaps I'll have a notepad to write anything that prominently sticks out, and keep it with me always. Okay, so research constantly. When do I research markets for publication? I must've researched the market for "Invalid Item" a hundred times. Now it will be 101, right?Got a great rejection letter for the 'burn my letter' competition. I'm going to send it in because it needs serious burning. If you have shy eyes, please turn away, because this is a full 13+: this is a prime example ov tha kind ov shit we do not need. thank you. That's a direct quote. www.antimuse.org, if you want to know who to avoid. So, I was doing one morning a week, get up super early and research, but I don't know if I can do that, now that we have so much to get done in the morning. Then again...four days a week, I am up at 7:30 getting the kids ready to go. Perhaps for only one of those days, I can get up at 6:30 <shudder>. Or maybe I can stay up late one night. I'm more of a night person.  I'm not giving up sleeping in on Monday morning, though, that's the only day I don't have to get up super-early.I am really excited, and I think I will get started on Monday...or I could start tonight. My original plan was to 'work' M-F. I think I actually was writing Monday through Thursday and researching Friday morning, because Friday nights (that's tonight) are so unpredictable. Maybe I will scope out some of the short story contests on the site and see what stirs my memories. I think I should also wander over to the various Going Pro! groups; it's been awhile since I've dabbled over there. The kids are gone right now, so I could even write, but I think I'm going to do some research. I have two books from the library already. I'm really excited to be back on this road. Hopefully I can stick to it for awhile longer this time around. I really miss writing; I haven't been able to do much 'fun' writing over the past few months. Between Jimmy being born (that was Feb!) and Michael losing his job (March!), things have been chaotic. Hopefully all that will change. Also, I'm going to create another book - I'll add the link uptop - for my short story/novel development. That's more for me, since I like to organize things in my head before I start writing. Call it my super-rough draft. I'd link it here but, well, I haven't started it yet. edited to add a link:
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| Well, I'm just zonkered. I feel worn out. I wish my husband was around. I was so excited about his new job because I thought he would be able to stop working nights, but that hasn't happened yet. He's got some stupid reasoning behind that, too. Whatever. I need more help around the house, just with the kids. I'm sick of my house, itself. It's a big old mess. Between watching Madison and working at the gym, I'm worn out. I'm sick of cleaning it up. The little energy I expend on the house is wasted, because the mess pops up again, twice as bad. I'm tired of wearing myself out cleaning up, only to have to do it again. Consequently, this house looks dreadful and it's affecting my mood. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of cleaning. I'm sick of juggling. I'm tired of working two jobs while my husband works two jobs, only he gets to come home and go to bed, whereas I have to come home and take care of the kids. I recognize that this is an unfair statement, as I only work part time, but it doesn't help that my part time work - both jobs - involve working with kids, thus adding to the stress. But that's the only way I can work and keep my kids with me. And I hate it. I'm not good at juggling four kids, or ten kids, or whatever. I don't get to write anymore, and I can manage to squeeze some reading in here and there. I squeezed in good reviewing because I could do it in bits; read, review, get up and run in circles. I have lots of stories that I want to write, a novel I would love to research, and...that's the way it is when you have kids. I love my kids, and I love staying home with them. I have my moments, yes, but overall, I thought I was doing pretty good with the balance. Even after dh got laid off and was working two jobs and so I shouldered pretty much the whole thing, everything around the house. Not like he had too much - he did the dinner dishes and took the trash down once a week. I couldn't even get him to take the trash out every day. Granted, he did let the kids jump all over him, which was a nice breather for me. He seems to do less when I get more uptight - a perception error, not a laziness problem. Now he's working the second job and doesn't need to, while I feel like I've overdrawn every ounce of energy I have. Furthermore, I'm working two jobs, and I no longer can convince myself that it is a necessity. The current thought is that we will take the extra money I earn, put it in a second savings account, and use it for our vacation. After all, it's almost our fifth wedding anniversary, and now that dh is in a job making *big* {e:laugh) money, we are talking about going on a cruise. I think that we need a vacation, and we should be able to put a big dent in the credit cards. And if we have our 'special' savings account, then we should be able to pay for most of it in cash, rather than going into debt. Not all of it, but most, and maybe we can swing the rest with dh's job. <sigh> Also, lovely couponing is going to kill me. This week I bought 26 packs of Huggies diaper wipes, at $2.50/pack. Not a great price, but decent. I used a coupon and got 25 free baby bodywashes, and for every bodywash purchased, $1 goes into my upromise account. So that's good. Next week they are doing a thing with neutrogena products; spend $20 and get $20 extra care bucks (basically money back to be spent at CVS only). No limit. With coupons you can actually make money, rather than just getting it for free. <sigh> So I'll probably do that a couple of times. I'll have to figure out the best way to do it. Which should be nicely depleting. I still have $20 ECB from a previous promo. I'll probably wind up spending too much money. Par for the course. I also have picked up about 50 boxes of free cereal. It's free after rebate, but I've already gotten back the first 20 checks, so that's good. I found two more boxes. We're almost cleaned out. I need to go to Walmart and do a pricematch; that will be quite draining. Actually, I think the cereal is cheaper at Walmart than CVS. Ha ha ha. "The original price is $2.38, I want to price match it at $2.50 please." Bt I haven't been able to get to WM because I've had Madison every Tuesday and Thursday when I leave the gym, and there's NO WAY I'm taking four kids shopping. Three is struggle enough.Recent feedback on my 'novel shorts' have been so encouraging, and so manypeople have asked about when I'm going to be published. karabu said Can I sign up for an advanced order for your novel whenever you finish and get it published? I'm already hooked! I've found that very encouraging. Others have also made similar 'preorders', or 'I want to read it' comments. I've started the research; I have two books from the library and, as I said, I have the first time period placed. I only got one bit of feedback from my posted question about the villan, from Puditat , but it restored my confidence. So we'll see how that goes. Poor Alex.I'm tired, but I think my husband is coming home; I begged him via AOL. And my kids hurt the baby. Gotta go. |
| Oh, I am so very, very angry! I'm not sure who I'm angry it, and maybe I'm just mad in general, but ARGH! When my daughter was born, we had a plethora of car seats. We had two carrying car seats for newborns, with three bases. One base for my car, the matching one for my husband's, and the third seat for my in-laws (who live in town). Great. Then, when moved up to a bigger carseat, we had four big car seats - two purchased (one by my dad, one by my inlaws) and two donated. Great. One for mine, one for dh (dear hubby), one for my inlaws, and one to spare. Then we had another baby, and finally a third. Over the course of time, we bought a new carseat for our oldest (after she figured out how to squiggle out of the original) and then a second when my 2 year old learned the same. My inlaws bought a new carseat for the same reason, and a booster seat. This makes EIGHT big carseats, total, PLUS the original three baby carseats. Right now, we can only find: the carseat my dad boughtthe two carseats we bought that the kids can't squiggle out ofthe two bases and the carrying car seat for usand the special carseat my inlaws boughtThat's four carseats and two bases. We are missing FOUR car seats, plus the baby carseat. My inlaws were responsible for all the missing carseats at various times before they were lost as they purchased and confiscated new seats. Once a week, I take the kids to my inlaws and my husband picks them up. Because of the incredible missing carseats, we have to take the seats out and put them back. Today - Thursday - as I was driving with my children plus a little girl I watch in the car, all buckled in and safe, we had an, er, accident. Not a wreck. But I made a left turn from a dead stop, and the acceleration caused Madison (the not-my-child)'s car seat to fly out of the seat and hit the ground. Her legs wedged under the car seat, so I had to try to pick her up with the whole car seat - this is a thirty pound child plus the seat, and I'm reaching across the van, not a good angle. She's screaming the whole time, of course. Thankfully, it was a slow-speed accident, but what if we had been in a wreck? To top it off, yesterday, I drove around for about two hours with my SON in the car seat. What if we'd been in a wreck? What if Madison had been hurt? I'm mad, mad, mad. First, I'm mad my husband set the carseat in correctly, so I couldn't tell it wasn't buckled in. When I have four kids in a parking lot, I assume the damn thing is buckled in. I don't have time to play hide and seek with the carseats. Second, I'm ticked at my inlaws for managing to lose so many car seats. Third, as an off note, I'm annoyed that when I told my mother-in-law about the problem, she blew off Madison's accident - a real problem - but freaked out about Mookie riding around yesterday. Well, at least I know she cares about my son. I'm putting my foot down. When we go over on Sunday, I'm finding and redistributing the car seats, and they can all kiss my backside. I'm sick of my kids being in danger - either because my husband doesn't have time to buckle them in and then tell me, or because I have to buckle in a car seat in the middle of a parking lot with four kids, three of them mobile toddlers. They can all kiss my backside. I can't believe my idiotic, who cares about money, inlaws can lose FIVE FREAKING car seats. |
| Well, I was hoping to leave the other entry at the top, but it isn't to be. I don't have a lot to blog on today, but I felt the need to make an entry, though I must confess to watching tv while doing so - and my attention is more on the television! My husband started his new job today. I'm...interested in seeing how that goes. For instance, he seems to love it but is frustrated by the 'manager' who doesn't seem to be, well, managing. Today, there was a huge group of people that she was supposed to be training. One person said 'let's do it this way' and another said 'let's do it this way' and a third said 'no no let's do it this way.' The manager's response? 'You guys do whatever you want, I don't want to have to fight with you.' The result was no training because the manager didn't know what she was doing. AND when another department (which is supposed to be merging with the current mgr's department) requested help, and the other employees said "we don't have to do any work because our positions have changed", she said, 'yup, you don't have to do anything.' !!! So dh (darling hubby) is supposed to talk to her boss today regarding how she handled the situation. I see trouble a-brewing. On the other hand, the 'big manager' (her boss) flat-out told dh that he is hoping MY HUSBAND can take over her position, or even work over her (not sure how that's supposed to work). That's going to make for bad karma. Hmmm. Okay, I have to go, I have some things I need to get done before bedtime, and it's, well, it's bedtime, but oh well. I'm very excited about the current port raid, and thank you to all of the great reviewers. I've seen one reviewer come so far already; hugs to her! I know she's feeling down, but her reviews have gotten more in-depth - and thus more helpful - over only a few short days. I've been impressed with the growth. Tomorrow is Tuesday, so I doubt I'll be on-site until close to nine or ten. Lots to do, and I'm only home for, um, an hour between 8:45 and about 8:45. I'm tired just thinking about it! Oh, per instruction, I'm seriously considering spliting my journal into two books; one for story ruminations, and one for my life. I'd love to hear any thoughts on that; no one will probably read the story creation. |
I am about to have my portfolio raided, which is highly exciting. I've been a mess of nerves for the past several days. I still need to create a spreadsheet in Excel to keep track of the points for the reviews; that way, I can go back and review. I am trying to work out in my head – still – how I'm going to do the scoring. I'm pretty sure I have it, but I'm not going to post it here; that would be unfair!  I'm going to take a few minutes to talk about my novel, for two reasons. The first is that, flat out, I'm reinspired. I got the idea in my head around December or January of last year, and I worked for awhile on it. I tried to do some research – a killer – and some writing (most of my novel shorts come from that time) but then I had my baby and so I've been out of commission. Actually, that's not altogether true. I took a brief hiatus, but then, when I started getting started again (LOL), my husband lost his job and started working random hours, and I lost my hour of writing at nighttime. Before the baby, I'd put the kids down and go, and right after, he kept the baby after the other two were down. But once he started getting home around nine or ten, and I had to start doing about a zillion things offline (not to mention on), my brain was fried. I lost my urge for research - this novel takes a lot of it – and that didn't give me many places to go. The other reason for posting now is because I know I'm suddenly going to have a spike in viewers. Hey, any feedback is welcome! I love feedback.So the basic premise of the novel, for readers who don't always hook on, is time travel. As an astrophysics major (once upon a time), I've got some pretty good ideas on the 'how'; the novel is more for the 'why'. I have two people time traveling, both against their will. The first, Caroline (you'll recognize her in "Invalid Item" ), is a scientist in a competing field. The second, Jonathan (he's the good guy, sorry for giving away the 'ending', LOL), is also a scientist, albeit in a different field. She's in biology; he's in physics (and in fact, on the time travel project). Caroline is sent directly back in time – I decided to start in Rome, FYI – while Jonathan, who traveled back a few years later after he investigates Caroline's disappearance, skips around. So the first time Caroline met Jonathan, he'd already known her for years. And vice versa. Caroline, in the meantime, has created something to keep her from dying of old age (so they both live from Roman times into the 'present'), and the ultimate goal is for the two of them to get back to their time and 'triumph'.The first part of the problem I am having is research, pure and simple. I don't have a lot of time to work with. When I first started the novel, I had a list of times/locations that I chose to place the novel, the first being Rome. I've expanded on that (as you can tell in the next/previous entry) to the time period I want to use. And, incidentally, I figured out the other inspiration I wanted to use – the large sewer system under Rome. Great for pursuit and problems. Each section has a particular problem to be solved. For instance, in Rome, Jonathan has to get Caroline to trust him AND to finish the formula she was working on. Although speculation also claimed completion and self-injection as a test, though that doesn't seem very scientific. I'll have to think about that. That's part of the 'action'. The other problem is between the two of them; eventually, of course, they're going to wind up in love, married, etc. What I'm trying to decide is if that is action enough. I wanted to include some other problem in the time period. For instance, in Rome, I'm going to have them based around the great fire, but I was also considering adding a problem with the law, perhaps Jonathan is taken as a gladiator, something like that. I haven't ironed it out. So, while Jonathan is trying to get Caroline to trust him, and while Caroline is trying to get the materials he has brought back to formulate the whatever-it-is (I have some ideas, and vaguely remember the specifics from before) to extend their lives, they also have to deal with whatever the problem is. The question I have for all you blog skimmers is, is that enough? Is that enough action to propel the story? Or do I need to actually insert a consistent bad guy? I thought about sending the bad guy back in time (I won't tell you who he is, should you have read the novel shorts; I don't want to disillusion or depress you), but he's not evil-bad; he's overly-focused-and-would-do-anything bad. Does that make sense? He's not a serial killer, and he decided to send Caroline and Jonathan back in time rather than killing them. Because he thought they were getting in his way. So even if he was mistakenly sent back in time, I don't see him as the type to hunt down and kill the two people he sent back. I can't help it, I like the 'bad guy'. If I focus on having basically three problems a section – a problem/challenge with the trip, a relationship problem, and a 'once we get out of here everything will be okay' problem – is that enough? Is the localized problem too awkward? Should I expand or exchange it for a more story-central problem? I'm very confused. Any thoughts would be appreciated. From anyone. Okay, now, last thing. I am getting ready to rework my short story, "Invalid Item" . So let me just say  SPOILER ALERT. Don't say I didn't warn you.I've gotten several reviews on this story that have made me rethink my structure. For instance, I'd like a fuller tie-in to Caroline and Prometheus in the 'now', rather than in the future. The allusion, of course, was intentionally intended to be future-based, but to stand alone, I need to make it reference the present. So how is teenaged Caroline like unto Prometheus? I think I did a decent job of establishing that through the rest of the stories. Not only does she go through the very flat, stereotypical razzing at school, but she also winds up putting herself before her family. That is the main thing I was shooting for. The secondary parallel, so to speak (the main being her triumph over death, which actually parallels Frankenstein). Caroline puts the good of herself and her dreams behind her, in order to support and sustain her family. How can I show this without launching into a discourse, and without restating much of what was done in "The Conference"? I can show it in similar ways. I can have her take the other two kids out to garage sales, and notice the fact that she frequently is teased. I can have her come home and make dinner again, and do some more cleanup. I can have her do her homework – wait, most of that is done at school? Not so much now that she's skipped two grades. Have her launch into Calculus once James and Laura are in bed. But her big thing is biology; what's a good bio class? Anatomy. I didn’t take that, so I have to remember what my friends said. I remember they dissected a pig. I could have her review the holograms (more sci-fi) as she writes up her reports. That would also be more thematic. I can have her work herself to exhaustion. But when does the book fit into it? As she slaved over her chores, her mind drifted back to the book. Perhaps she read some on the 'bus' – I'll have to check "Isolation" to see what it was called. Enough of it stuck in her mind that recalls Victor slaving over the body while she studies the pig, and has to push it from her mind. The point regarding laptops was made that nowadays, they can easily be taken to bed. Perhaps I should rephrase it so that she has one of those clunky computers from twenty years ago, and internet from school. The more affluent students had parents who purchased them laptops, which they could then take anywhere; she was literally trapped at her desk (and in her life). Or, perhaps, she has the big clunky laptops from years ago, which had to remain plugged in. While others have little iPods. I like the laptop but why can't she take it to bed? Hard on the eyes, hot on the legs (I speak from present experience), and a little heavy. Not as comfortable. That pretty much covers everything I want to explore. I wish I could eat now, but I have to check my internet (down all day) and then hopefully find the phone number so we can eat Chinese. Then I'm going to write the story. I'm hyped again. I've printed the first draft to refer to, but I may not even do that. |
| I have only a minute but I wanted to talk about redistribution of time...I'm going to start limiting my time and not spending so much of it on writing.com...not because I don't enjoy it but because I need to focus on my children. There are so many things going on, and I feel like my daughter is literally screaming for my attention, and all I manage some days is to scream back at her. So I am limiting judging, reviewing, etc. for when my kids are in bed. That's maybe an hour an afternoon, and then an hour, maybe two, at night. I'm going to miss the online stuff, but my kids are far and away more important, and most folks here will be waiting when I get back. That said, my port raid is coming up soon, and I'm so excited/nervous. How I'm going to judge reviews one day at a time I don't know, LOL. But I'll manage. I'm going to print the reviews out and score them from there. I think my husband is home wiht the kids, so I'm off. Dawn and Mookie are starting "school" tomorrow, very exciting, and I'm all a-nervous. It's more of a preK type deal, and we'll see how everything pans out. |
I am close to considering a writing.com time out. To taking a break, perhaps just doing the newsletter each month and no more. I feel so pulled. I feel so tired. I feel like I'm not spending enough time with my kids, my husband, thank goodness I don't have a dog. I'm worn out, and worn sick. I'm working two jobs part time, and get to take my kids with me - a benefit, but also something that makes it even more difficult. I'm so burned out it's insane, and I'm about three pages behind on my emails.  I'm going to go do a quick run to the public review page and go from there to bed. <sigh> Or at least, to some time off. Or just breath. |
| Well, I knew it would happen, and look, it did. I am now officially pulled in too many different directions, both on and off site. Offsite, my husband is working two jobs still and not coming home until 8 or later. That means I get to do all the childrearing and housework and pretty much everything. Granted, I did most of it in the first place, but it used to be that when he came home, he'd play wiht the kids some, he'd help me give them their baths and put them to bed, and he'd do the dishes. I'd get a little breathing room at night. Now, I wind up doing all of that, and I'm swamped. On top of that, I've started couponing again. This is good, because it saves us megabucks on our grocery bill (see "Invalid Item" ), and I'm super-hyped because there is a free cereal deal going on, unlimited, until May 2006, and lots of nearbye places doing it. The downside, however, is that couponing itself takes a great deal of time. An hour once a week to get the coupons - plus an hour to drive over and leave the kids with my inlaws, plus thirty minutes to come home - thirty minutes to sort my new coupons (at least, and probably closer to an hour; plus I'm in the 'startup' section so I'm sorting several trips out right now), and then all the shopping. The thing about couponing is that you have to be willing to hit a variety of stores. So (without the free cereal) I hit Publix on Monday, Walgreens on Tuesday, the day-old bread store on Wednesday, Kroger on Thursday, and - when necessary (aka when milk isn't on sale) BJs on Friday. There's even a reason for this wacko routine. If I go to Publix on Monday, they have a free item usually, and it's mostly something I like (otherwise I can defer Publix to Wednesday; this week it was ice cream sandwiches, and I rarely by ice cream). Wednesday I get a free loaf of bread from the bread store. I save BJs for last because the milk there is usually cheaper by nearly a dollar than the other stores, but if it's cheaper somewhere else, I get milk there; this week, for instance, it was cheaper at Kroger, so I got it there. Then you add in my search for specially marked cereal, and I'm stopping at Walgreens, Walmart, and Target to get it, and I'm trying to pick up one load (two boxes) a day.On top of couponing, I'm now working a part time job two mornings a week, three hours a shot. Not much, and I get to take my kids, but it's one more thing to add to my plate. Then there is on-site activity. I tried to avoid getting overloaded, really I did, but I guess I failed. I have the newsletter - I need to be reading 25+ items a week to come up with stuff to refer. I haven't done that lately. Maybe I will stop reviewing after each read? I hate to do that. I have the Rewarding Reviewers Committee, which I love, but I seem driven to read through all the reviews. Right now, I'm 15 pages of reviews behind. Granted, my "contractual" obligation is only to do four pages a day - ish, but I like doing more and supporting more reviewers, ya know? <sigh> Plus I keep pulling up stuff to read. I'm going to start only pulling up things that look to be good drama stories until I have three newsletters worth of stories to fill. <sigh> But I've cut back on my reviewing already. Then I have my short story; it looks like it was a big hit and I have nearly 30 entries. Hopefully some of them will turn up good, but I don't want to rely on that. Instead, I'll try to find my 6-10 and then I can bump them for any stories I felt should place. My house is a mess. The laundry has been washed and dried (mostly) but not folded and put away. The sink is full of moldy leftovers pulled out of my fridge so I could fit new groceries in it. And I know I'm spending too much time on the computer. Something has to give, somewhere, and I'm still not sure where. And I don't have any time to write. I stole about forty-five minutes to do a story last night, based on my journaling, but I only got to write for about fifteen minutes. It's not gotten great reviews and needs some work. And I'm still spending too much time on the computer. So, the slack. I think I'm going to start using my 'minireviews' for awhile. Not quite so organized or detailed, but not terrible, either. <sigh> |
| I think I finally got it. For years, I've had a story in my head...well, not a story. When I was in college, my boyfriend's best friend died in a very odd and very tragic way. Well, I guess the way he died wasn't tragic, but he was young - maybe 21? if that old - and engaged, and of course, my bf's best friend. My boyfriend was already upset because only a few years before that he'd lost a best friend to suicide. Anyway, I won't tell you the story - you might steal it - but for years, I've been trying to figure out how to make it work for a story. Then today, I realized that it seems like I keep getting "double smacked" with Tim McGraw's new song "Do You Want Fries With That?". Seriously, I listen to the song, then change the station when it ends (because of a commercial or dud song), and it comes on the new station. Every time I hear it, it reminds me of my (brief) stint at McDonalds. Although I only worked there for two months before going to college, having quit my old job of two or three years, I had spent a lot of time there due to the fact that my boyfriend worked there. Along with the college students, there were several older folks who worked there (and post-high school, not-college-attending folks as well). Somehow the various situations seemed to strike me as tragic. While I can't remember the details - though I could probably pull out my journals and re-remember a lot - I have enough random things floating around where I think I could create some great stories. Still, this alone isn't enough for a story; a bunch of portraits? However, in my musings while I drove (well, I guess screaming because I was singing along at the top of my lungs, LOL), I realized that this would be the perfect setting for the tragic death. I think that, in posting it there, I can help each character come to a brief - I dunno. They can't all realize how pathetic their lives are, but they can surely come far. Maybe each one can make amends, can progress sightly. I'll have to think about this some more. But it sure will be nice to put all that experience to good use! |
| Alright, I just finished Pixie's port raid, and I'm zonkered. Well, I finished yesterday. I thought I had a good shot at finishing first, but jessiegirl (I see you!) had a jump start on me, due to R&Ring many items in the port first, so there you go. All that work, wasted! I spent all day yesterday & Monday in front of the computer. <sigh> I had to go run some errands - had to drop off the kids so I couldn't reschedule - or I think I would've beat her. Then again, vjanczuk said (I'm looking now...) never mind. I got distracted and now I'm zonked again. I don't know how she's going to sort this, but I wish her the best of luck. <hugs to Jessie> but head starts seems a touch...unfair. Guess we'll see how it pans out. Didn't come in here to whine, I promise. I'm easily sidetracked. I did a new item for the Dialogue 500, "Invalid Item" , and I think it'll go well. Wish me luck there. I still haven't done my Muses' Alley entry but it's there. Did I tell you I won the D500 last round? Cool, huh?Alright, children screaming and dinner burning, so I'm outta here. I really didn't come to whine but things are on fire, so cya. |
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