March has ended!

It was a pretty good month.

While most of the writing I did was for class my total word count for the month was 11080 words.  

I finished reading three books this month:

Two of the books that I finished were for class. I’m currently reading five other books; my current reading list has never grown this fast in my life. I started paying attention to the days read counter on my kindle app. I read (in the app) 18 out of 31 days.

I only went to the gym 3 times this month, I had a surgery on March 12th, and it limits what I’m allowed to lift. While that doesn’t affect everything that I could be doing at the gym I know myself well enough to know that I would break the rules just a little and end up hurting myself.

I did end up in the hospital. After my surgery I was prescribed Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen. Turns out that I am allergic to Hydro’s. The general response to that discovery has been, “have you really never taken them before?” I did. About 20 years ago…and I ended up in the hospital then. About 20 years ago I was bitten by a brown recluse spider and had a nasty spot come up on my arm, my doctor prescribed me some pain killer I took it according to orders and ended up passing out. My ex-husband took me to the hospital, where they immediately acted like I had overdosed and wasn’t taking it correctly. When I insisted that I was they did some blood work and then told me that my potassium levels had completely bottomed out. I believed for many years that was the reason that I had ended up in the hospital. The hospital put into my chart that I’m allergic to hydrocodone. But they didn’t TELL me that. Since all my doctors that would prescribe painkillers are linked in the same hospital network, they all have access to that information. No one ever prescribed me it, and I honestly don’t like taking stuff anyway. If Tylenol works just fine, why take anything stronger?

I went to get an augmentation surgery through a doctor that is not linked to that network. He asked about allergies. I didn’t know of any. My pain meds were prescribed 2 every 6 hours for pain. I was taking 1 every 8-ish hours depending on how I felt. My liver started shutting down. I discovered this after about a week when I woke up throwing up. I was bloated. At my post op checkup, I was told that swelling is a normal side effect of the surgery. Did you know that swelling is a side effect of liver failure? I do now.  My kid’s dad found me half conscious on the bathroom floor and when I tried to stand up, I was shaking too much to walk.

Guess who got to spend a night in the Emergency Room hooked to an IV. I guess the good news is it happened during spring break, so I didn’t have to worry about getting homework done.   

My lowest grade is an 82%. While I am a little disappointed with myself for not hitting Straight A’s this semester, I’m not going to complain too much. Currently my grades are:

My goals for April are:

I feel like my life is moving in the right direction, I have some things that I still need to work out, but I feel like I’m starting to figure things out.

Solar eclipses, while not ever day occurrences are common enough, I can remember three in my lifetime. The upcoming eclipse on April 8th, 2024, is different from the ones we’ve seen previously. There are four types of solar eclipses: total, annular, partial, and hybrid. This solar eclipse is a total solar eclipse.

An eclipse can only happen during a brief period when the orbit of the sun and moon line up and the moon blocks part of the sun creating a shadow across the planet. During the spring eclipse season the sun is farther from earth than it is during the fall eclipse season.

A total eclipse occurs when the face of the sun is completely blocked.  It can only happen when the sun is a certain distance from earth, during a brief period of time and the moon is in it’s new phase.

An annular eclipse is when the moon is farther from earth in its own orbit making it appear smaller, this means it covers less of the sun casting a smaller shadow.

A partial eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and earth, but it is not quite in perfect alignment meaning only part of the moon is passing between the sun and earth.

A hybrid eclipse happens when because of the shape of the earth within the course of the eclipse it shifts between total and annular as they rotate.

This upcoming eclipse will be a total eclipse. There won’t be another like it in north America within the next fifty years. Other parts of the world will see totality in future eclipses but will require a plane ticket and passport to enjoy.

Photo Credit: (Tammy Baze, 2017)

I had a meeting this afternoon with the career councilor through my college. Which was insightful. I’m updating my resume from managerial focused to writer focused. His suggestion was to apply for a job within the college newspaper. Which sounds great, but I am terrified that if I apply and am turned down? Then what? One of the things I need to do is put together a writing portfolio of samples of my work. The problem here is that most of my writing is either horror, poetry, or blog posts about the writing process. I don’t have any examples of journalistic writing.

One of the reasons that I didn’t go into journalism following high school is the process of hunting down news leads for stories seemed overwhelming to me. 20 years later, nothing has changed. I’m still uncertain where to start.

My expertise professionally up to this point has really been within business. My current degrees are in business technology and management, my professional experience has all been within business management. I don’t write about business, even if that’s where I hold a lot of knowledge. I can create example works, rather than actual published work.

I just need to figure out some things. I guess before I apply, since this is my first semester I very likely can postpone this application either until summer, or next semester, but I need to have a deadline. Another issue is that if it is an on-campus job, then I am three hours from campus with an inflexible “day” job, that unless the college paper can pay me equivalent to my salary is not something that I can give up.  I think that’s fear talking though. I think that if I have to move, nothing is actually tying me to where I am. I don’t have a lease, I’m staying with family, I can move if I need to as long as I can afford the cost of living, in addition to my personal expenses. I’d just need a clear idea of what salary range I would need to be in, to live comfortably somewhere else.

My first goal is going to be to read through the past few issues of the paper and get a feel for what types of articles and columns it posts. I can find something similar within my area to write about as examples.

I did find a website that has a list of newspapers in every state within the US. I’m going to start local, but I think I’m going to start seeing who takes submissions online and what their policies are and then start trying to come up with pieces to submit to them.

I have definitely figured out how I’m going to start my marketing campaign for the next book I write. Which is not something I was working on tonight, but hey information is information.  

Happy St. Patricks Day!

My spring break officially starts tomorrow. I am done with homework for the next week! I have felt most of this semester like I’m constantly staying one step ahead of falling behind. I’ve maintained A’s and B’s so far this semester which I am proud of.

I keep thinking that I am afraid of what will happen if I can’t keep up. The answer is really nothing, but it’s an abnormal amount of anxiety that I have associated with it. I always feel like the work I’m doing is rushed.

The next week I’m going to take it easy. I don’t know if I want to work on any of my books. I have several first drafts that I could choose from, but not really any are jumping out at me as what I want to work on right now.

I recently had surgery so I can’t go to the gym for the next 6 weeks. But it was totally worth it. I am going to have to give myself some time to heal before I do anything too strenuous.

My goals for the upcoming week are:

I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks.  February had ended, and I still haven’t done my

Classes aren’t going as well as I had hoped. I had a couple weeks where I was super busy and got a bit behind. So I’m not doing as well as I had hoped. (I missed a couple deadlines)

My grades are currently:

Astronomy: 82.5

Astronomy Lab: 87.4

Creative Writing: 97.5

Transatlantic Lit: 100

Literature Beginnings: 88.6

History of American People: 84.5

A’s and B’s really isn’t something to complain about, but I am worried about Midterms. I know I shouldn’t be. I’ll be fine, but it’s my natural state of being, especially when I haven’t been able to get anything done the past couple of weeks.

I had another short story post in my creative writing class. I love reading the reactions to them. I’ve gained some confidence, both in my ability to write and in other people’s opinions of my writing. I’ve realized I can absolutely write a short story in less than a week. That’s always been one of the things that makes me not want to do them, I’m always afraid that I won’t be able to condense what I want to say into such a short format.

Not saying I’m likely to focus on writing short stories but has proved to myself I can write decent short stories. I might post them if I can make sure it won’t get me in trouble. I’m not sure what the rules there are.

In February I wrote 17,953 Words. I averaged over 600 words per day. Its more than my minimum goal. So I can’t really complain. I hope to do better this month and focus a little more.

I only went to the gym 5 times. I am super out of my routine, but I am going to do better this month.

In other personal news, I am creating the person that I want to be from the person that I am.

I’ve got surgery scheduled for the 19th. I’m getting breast implants. That’s a whole other story on my personal journey to be the person that I want to be. I’m recreating myself in my own image.

Oh my gosh!

So I just had my first feedback on my first short story for my creative writing class. This guy Jack in my class MADE MY DAY! He understood the story so well! He understood the layers of work that I put into this story. The analysis he did of it made me so happy. I mean I know how much work I put into this story, and I know the writing itself I did in less than two hours, but I put two weeks of work into just planning the story. When I actually sat down to write it, I knew exactly what I wanted to say and it came out so smoothly.

I don’t normally write short stories; this one came out much easier than I expected it to, since it’s not my normal writing style. For it to be appreciated was amazing for me.

It makes me want to write more.

I got an email the other day about an anthology of undergrad writing through my college, I think I’m going to try to submit to it. Do I want to go for poetry? Or do I want to go for another short story?

I know I’ve also got a major essay that I’m supposed to be writing the first draft of this week (honestly I don’t even picture myself having any problems with this, because I will spend about two hours doing research, two hours drafting and an hour editing and get it done in one day, probably weds.)

My fear of traditional publishing has always been that I think I’m better than I am. I’m always afraid that when it comes down to it, I will find I’m not as good as I feel like I am, and that what I write won’t resonate.

I am kind of thinking that there’s something to do with my anxiety issues still holding on there.

It’s time I started getting over this irrational fear.  I’m going to try. At the very least I can try.

We made it through January!

So far things are going well. The past week I’ve felt stretched a bit thin, but I’ve had things going on at work, classes, and my daughter has been very needy. Her paternal grandmother was in the hospital with pneumonia not too long ago, and since she’s made it home Lyric has been a bit clingy and needy both with her and with me. I think that since me and her grandma are the two that spend the most time with her, and she was gone and I’ve been doing homework, now that we’ve both been in the house, she’s really trying to keep both of our attention all the time.

It's lead to some friction. But that’s what happens with family.

I only finished reading one book in January. Though I’m currently reading four different books. Animal Farm, 1984, The Experience Machine: How our minds predict and shape reality, and Wyrd Sisters.

I should finish 1984 of them tonight or in the morning. I’ve read it before, but this time it’s for a class.

I’ve got two essays to write for History this week, and a discussion post so that’s going to be how I spend most of my time over the next couple days.

I actually did a good job this month. My word count for the month has been over 30k. Part of it is homework assignments but I’m averaging over a thousand words a day! If I can keep it up for the rest of the year I’ll be really proud of myself.

I made it to the gym 12 days this month. I’m proud of the progress that I’m making there. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but it is kind of starting to feel natural for me to be there. I mean I really only go at night when it’s empty. It helps assuage my self-consciousness.  

My classes are going well, so far I have A’s in everything!

My son learned to fix a water leak today. He’s learning a lot of life skills in home school this year. I’m going to have to figure out a better home school system, because let’s call our current system heavily arts focused. Because I’m heavily arts focused. I have trouble teaching him math. He just doesn’t comprehend it. Doesn’t matter how many times we go over it, or how we break it down. He’s convinced he can’t do math, so he doesn’t do math.

We’re going to get better though.