There is Always Good
And I'm going to try not to talk about the bad or the ugly
I’m not sure I mentioned anything good in my last newsletter. My bad. ← See, my brain is just focused on the bad, so I need to refocus and think more about the good things! There is always good amidst the bad!
It was good that we got the copyedits for Quad Cities Beer back from the copyeditor so soon! We didn’t expect it to move that fast. We submitted corrections on the 8th and got the page proofs on the 17th! Can I just tell you - it looks gorgeous!!! I can’t wait for it to be in print! We got a publication date of August 7th! That seems so far away! I was hoping it would be more like May or June, but we can start planning now that there is a date! I’m super excited about having a book published through a publisher. This may be the only one I do with a traditional publisher! Hahaha!! I’m a perfectionist and a control freak. Not that we have had any issues with the publisher - everyone from the publisher we have dealt with have all been fantastic!
Look at the beautiful inside title page!!
I’m anxious to share the cover design!! I will do a cover reveal tomorrow at Wake Brewing - not sure exactly what it will entail, but I’m doing a few color copies. I will share it here after that.
I’ve been working on putting together a collection of essays from all of the places I write or have written. This is coming together slowly because I haven’t had much time to dedicate to it lately. I am shooting for May or June with this collection. I want to have it out before Quad Cities Beer hits the shelves. I was initially shooting for March or April, but I also want plenty of time to write introductions for each piece. There will be at least one new piece as well. At this point, I have eighteen pieces in it, and I will probably find a couple more. If you have followed my writing, let me know if there is a piece you think I should include! I will be self-publishing it through Amazon’s KDP. I’m a huge geek, and I love doing all of the formatting and layout by myself. The title is The Funny, the Serious, and the Seriously Funny.
I got my shit together, and started resume-dropping all over the place. Action people! I did it! Not only did I do that, but I went to a job fair on Monday, and one of the places had me go interview that day for a part-time position. I got that part-time job offer yesterday morning just before a phone interview with a company for an excellent position. Their recruiter emailed me after looking at my information on LinkedIn. The funny thing is that I wasn’t out looking for a full-time job because I didn’t think it would work out with the hours I have available with kids. BUT, this place is close to the kids’ school, and it’s a salaried position. I will have to make some concessions, and the kids will have to walk to their dad’s house after school. But, this full-time position would be a legit career job that I would love and be good at. I had been looking for part-time positions to supplement my part-time teaching - which was probably not quite the right thinking I should have been doing. At this point, I want and need a career job. I really hope this one works out. If not, I will continue to apply for jobs in this field.
And guess what, guys?? I had a spelling error in my resume!!! I’m so embarrassed!! I had dropped one off at about six or seven places, had four ready to go drop off, emailed it to a few places, and handed out at least eight at the job fair! It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a random word somewhere that wasn’t highlighted, but it was my degree information, “BA English…” I had left out the “l”… so it read “BA Engish” OMG. Just mortifying!! The person that I had the phone interview with pointed it out to me (very politely) and let me revise my resume and resubmit it. I have not updated the education section of my resume in YEARS!! So, it has had this spelling error at least since like 2012 or 2013??
I joined the Y!! I got a nice discount on the family membership since I’m low-income. I really made myself do it the Friday before the kids were on spring break. The new North Scott Y is within walking distance from their dad’s house. Unfortunately, the boys need a session with a personal trainer before they can use the equipment, and the personal trainer there was on spring break, too… so that sucked. My middle son only wants to go to use the equipment. But, I will set aside at least two nights a week to go with the kids. This past week we went swimming Monday and Wednesday after school. In the summer, I will definitely take them more often. The rules about the ages of children using equipment without parental supervision are different between the North Scott Y (12) and the North Y (16 or 14, depending on which machines) that is closest to my house. Apparently, the parents in Eldridge petitioned the Y to lower the age out there so their kids could go use the equipment without parental supervision… go figure. Hahaha!
This week has been a blur. I actually started writing this last weekend. Monday: I had PT for my ankle (arthritis) at 9, I decided to go to a job fair at 10…talked to someone there and had an interview at noon… ran errands, picked kids up from school, and took two of them swimming at the Y… I just went nonstop all freaking day. Tuesday, was pretty much the same. I dropped the kids off and went to Target to get the two snorkels for swimming. I got a few other random things - creamer, Nutella, paper towels, Gatorade, bubblers… I got all anxious when I got home, thinking I needed to leave at 10 for therapy, and then realized I didn’t have to leave until 10:30, so in the middle of bringing the stuff in, I pulled my cover letters off the printer and stapled them to the resumes I wanted to drop today, then decided to move a box from the garage inside, and lost track of the bag with the creamer and Nutella in it… It completely disappeared. I was almost late to therapy trying to find the missing bag. I dropped resumes after therapy and stopped in at my mom’s briefly. I was home for about 15 minutes before I had to leave to go pick up the kids. I seriously looked everywhere in my house and could not find the bag. I swear I took it out of the car, but I’ve been so scattered and distracted with so many things going on lately. It turned out that I didn’t actually leave the store with the bag. I called Tuesday night to see if anyone had left a bag with creamer and Nutella, and they said since it had creamer, it would have been put back right away. They said to come in, and they would replace or refund them. When I went in, I noticed the same person was monitoring the self-checkouts, so I asked her if I had left a bag, and she said, “Yep!” I’m just glad that the mystery was solved!
Some of you probably don’t follow me on Facebook - and this week a couple of my kids had some really choice things to say that I had to post! Hahaha!! I used to do a weekly “Best Kid Quotes of the Week” on my Tumblr blog because the things these guys come up with just crack me up!
There was also this great one in my Facebook memories:
But, here are the best ones from this past week!
If you are local, don’t forget to come visit me at the Skylark on Sunday from noon-4 pm for the Eclectic Market! I will have some swear word hats and headbands!!