Devon Ellington's Blog, page 74

Intent for the Week: Coast

Due to the weather, I couldn’t ship out the computer to computer hospital until yesterday. I seriously doubt I’ll get it back until some time in January.

There aren’t scripts clamoring the queue; I’d hoped to read today and tomorrow, and then again on Thursday, and take off next week. Right now, it doesn’t look like I’ll read at all this week.

I’m okay with it.

I have a few more errands to do (cookie deliveries, postponed by weather, stocking stuffers) that I will do tomorrow. I’m taking the Solstice off to celebrate properly, and there’s a big storm coming in again just before the weekend holiday, so again, I will hunker down and enjoy it.

But the rest of the week will be reading and writing (yes, I still write in longhand).

My intent for the week is to not panic because the schedule isn’t what I planned; but to enjoy what IS.

What’s your intent for the week?

Thurs. Dec. 15, 2022: Incoming Snow (Quick Update)

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Waning Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Storm coming in

This will be quick. I’m uploading at the library, and the storm is coming in faster than predicted.

Yesterday went better than expected: sent off the work at the library. Put in the claim to get the computer fixed and it went right through and I got the paperwork. I will pack it up. I was going to send it off today, but I will wait until the storm is over. I don’t want it sitting in a truck in a snowdrift.

Came home. Turned around 3 more scripts and wrote the book review, which I just sent off from the library this morning.

I was going to do cookie deliveries this morning, but with the storm coming in, I popped over to the library, and I’m going to pick up some wine on my way home, and that’s it. The storm starts today, and won’t end until sometime on Saturday. The town has sent out a warning to expect everything shut down all day tomorrow.

So it will be next week sometime before I post here again, when I can get to the library. I will check in on social media as I can, although we’ve been warned to expect power and internet outages.

Take care and stay safe.

Guess my vacation starts early.

I intend to lie on the sofa reading books and watching the snow tomorrow.

Wed. Dec. 14, 2022: Well, This is a Problem

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Waning Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Sunny and cold

You may not hear much from me the next few days. My computer crashed (after a day of chaos).

I have a ton of deadlines.

I’d hoped to take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I might have to take off most of next week.

First of all, I ran a bunch of errands in the morning and got the cards mailed. On the way back, I stopped at the Laundromat and put in three loads of laundry. Two loads went through just fine. The third machine cut out half way through and didn’t unlock the door to let me get at my wet clothes.

I got in touch with the company, and they sent a tech over. The machine spontaneously spit out the dripping clothes. We got them moved to another machine, and they paid for the new wash and also the extra dry. The machines started acting possessed anyway, and for a few minutes, it sounded like we were a spaceship preparing for takeoff. There were quite a few people there by then, and we were all kind of freaked out, but laughing.

I stayed in the car most of the time, because too many people in too small a space, and me the only one masking. Nope.

Drove home the groceries and one set of laundry; came back and picked up the other.

What should have taken an hour and a half took 4 hours.

Then, the computer kept crashing. I managed to fill out a residency application, but as I worked on the script coverage, the laptop crashed and wouldn’t come up. It just said “Your PC needs repair” and that it couldn’t access the operating system.

The machine is under warranty, but I doubt it will be honored (there are 2 more years on the warranty, and I even found it). I found a local repair place that has a good reputation (and a website, not a FB page), so that will be my backup.

Of course, I have script coverages.

I managed to read on my tablet last night — 6 scripts. I handwrote the notes. I pulled out my old Macbook, which can’t go online, but the word processing works. I typed up the coverages.

The plan is to go to the library and upload everything, then come home, read the rest of the scripts for the week and finish a book review, write them up on the old Macbook, and go back to the library tomorrow.

Another storm comes in tomorrow night, lasting until Saturday morning. So even if the warranty is honored, I can’t get the computer anywhere until Monday.

I’m wondering if I can rent one for a week or two while mine is repaired. I have a feeling it needs a new hard drive; if that’s the case, I’ll see how much more it costs to get a bigger hard drive.

Fortunately, about 90% is backed up on USB and external hard drive. With Mercury going retrograde on the 29th (yes, we’re in the shadow, SHUT UP), I was going to back it all up again right after Christmas. So I won’t have lost too much, and all the writing is on flash drive anyway, as well as external.

But it’s more running around, it meant I couldn’t bake or deliver cookies, and it’s a lot of pressure in the next 48 hours.

Breathe, right?

But I might not be posting here again until next week.

If not, peace, my friends.

(And buy my books, my topic workbooks, and read the serial, please)!

Tues. Dec. 13, 2022: Busy in the Cold

image courtesy of 0fjd125gk87 via pixabay.com

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Waning Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Cloudy and COLD

It is ZERO degrees F this morning. Brrrr!

I hope you have a cup of your favorite beverage, so we can curl up to catch up.

There’s a post over on the Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions site about “Flexible Gratitude” which is what I’m working on this week, in addition to trying to hold steady and get things done.

Friday, I had the day off from script coverage. I did the blogging, the social media rounds, picked up books at the library, got a couple of things from the grocery store. I had trouble getting going, because I was tired.

However, after lunch, I started baking, and I baked 25 dozen cookies (orange cranberry, oatmeal currant, molasses spice). Once I got going, I had it down to a system, and it went pretty fast. I did two batches of each kind of cookie; if I need more, I can always whip up another batch.

Since I have 7 baking trays, I can prep the trays and just rotate them through the baking while I keep working on the next batch.

Got them all packed up in their tins, once they cooled. But I was definitely tired by the end of it.  I ran out of wax paper while I was packing the tins, but I had parchment paper, so it was all good.

Really, though, it took about 4 ½ hours, that’s all.

And I made more vegetable stock in the slow cooker, too, because I needed the space in the freezer that was taken up with the bits that go into the stock.

Saturday, I was up early. I had to get a few things like more ginger and more wax paper and Crisco for some of the cookies, and a few things I’m stockpiling for the holiday meals.

I made the dough for the coffee spice cookies and for the brown sugar maple cookies. While that chilled in the fridge, I handstitched the holly curtain for the Kitchen Island Cart from Hell, because we must be festive in the kitchen.

Baked the cookies. The coffee spice cookies are from a companion cookbook to Phillip R. Craig’s mysteries set on Martha’s Vineyard. If you’ve never read them, I recommend them. I read them first years ago, and then re-read them (and got the cookbook) when I lived on Cape.

The cookies are good, but I want to bump up the flavor. The next batch I try will split the batch and put some anise extract in one half and some allspice in the other. The nutmeg is a little too subtle.

The brown maple sugar cookies are good, but it doesn’t make a lot, which is a concern. I think I’ll have to make another batch in the next couple of days. The maple glaze is good, too. These will be a good addition to the platters.

I was tired, so I made turkey enchiladas for dinner. No, not from Thanksgiving leftovers. We finished all those!

I was happy to see that all the packages I mailed last Monday were delivered. Whew! Of course a package UPS was supposed to deliver last Wednesday is still out there somewhere, and every day, UPS lies and says it’s “out for delivery” and every day it doesn’t show up. I hate UPS. It’s fine if there’s a delay, but stop lying.

I made a chocolate glaze and put it on the coffee spice cookies. Yup, that gave it enough of a boost to go into this year’s cookie platters, while I work on the recipe. Only I ran out of confectioner’s sugar, and have to make another batch of glaze. So one batch of cookies needs 3 batches of glaze (I made 2, which will get me through the first few platter deliveries).

While the glaze set, we sat down and wrote the domestic cards. Only around 50 this year. So many have died. I’m at that age, plus COVID, means a lot of loss. I also let some names on the list go, when I haven’t heard from them at all for several years.  There were years, in New York, when I wrote as many as 500 cards (it took most of the month).

There’s a whole set of people with whom I only interact during the winter holidays. That’s fine; we manage to keep in touch. Someone, a few years back on social media, raged that if the only time one keeps in touch is winter holidays, it’s not worth it, and I disagree.

But then, the whole ritual of holiday cards is very important to me. Choosing the cards. Choosing the stamps. Sitting down with the list. Writing something in the card. Addressing the card. It’s taking a moment to honor the friendship and connection with each individual. And, while there are definitely times postage is a frightening expense, I believe each of these people is worth spending the cost of a stamp and some time on, once a year.

Some people choose not to send cards, for whatever reason. It’s up to them. Some of those who don’t like the whole card ritual keep in touch in other ways at other times of the year. Which I also appreciate.

But when there’s no interaction over a long period of time, it’s time to let go.

That’s a big change for me; there were people on the list to whom I’ve written for ten or more years and not heard from at all. Ever. Definitely time to let go. My position in their lives is clear (as in “non-existent”). I can retain positive memories and let go of the current connection.

As someone who was always designated “Kin Keeper” of various groups of friends and colleagues over the years, the letting to AND BEING OKAY WITH IT, is a big step.

In the afternoon, we finished decorating the big tree in the doorway between the living room and the sewing room. Because one can see all around the tree, the back of the tree is as important as the front, and it’s fun to decorate in 360.

Added the musical instrument garland and lights to the garland on the mantel. I bought the musical instrument garland for 50 cents in December 1980 in Woolworth’s, Tallahassee, Florida, when I was at FSU that first year (I transferred to NYU the following spring). I love that silly little garland, and have hung it up every year in Florida, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Cape Cod, and now here in the Berkshires.

Put up the lights in the living room window. Set up a shelf full of snowmen behind one of the big reading chairs. Put up the small tree over my desk, behind Seshat, my goddess of scribes, who has pride of place over my desk.

The Santas are still packed; we have to figure out where to put 50+ Santas. All over the house, no doubt.

Once the stacks of cookies are on platters and out the door, I will set up my mix-and-match Holiday Village on the big table in my office. I still have to put up the lights on the front porch, in the kitchen, and on the stairs, along with the garlands.

It started snowing around 11 on Sunday morning and snowed all day. We got about 5 inches. I perched on the couch in the evening, enjoying the candles and lights (3rd of Advent) and reading.

I have a lot of holiday stuffed animals (especially reindeer. I love reindeer). One of them, which I picked up at a thrift store for about 50 cents, has a music box on it. Only I don’t know how to make it work. Charlotte, on the other hand, keeps setting it off. It’s hilarious.

I had weird dreams, Sunday into Monday, about an immersive theatre experience in a stadium-sized theatre. Charlotte woke me up from it.

Slow start Monday, wanting it to be a snow day. No scripts in the queue. I decided to be grateful instead of worried. I could do other things!

I did the Monday blogging, and the social media rounds.

To my absolute joy, the big laser printer which hasn’t worked for the past few weeks, turned itself on and started printing, like nothing was every wrong. Okay, it thinks it is May 17, 2020, but other than that, it’s working. I am so grateful. I guess it needed a vacation?

I haven’t even set up the other printer yet.

I caught up on all the printing on which I’d gotten behind, got some scanning done. I created the Cookie Cheat Sheets to go with the cookies. I figured I should get as much done as possible, in case it decided to stop working again.

I went out and dug out the car. The parking lot was plowed already, and the snow was light and fluffy, so it wasn’t a big deal. The sun came out later on and helped, too.

I edited, polished, uploaded, and scheduled Episodes 47 & 48 of Legerdemain. I wrote their episode log lines, created the episode graphics, and uploaded/scheduled that content to drop on the appropriate days. I’m good through the first week of January, which gives me a little breathing room, since I won’t get to write new episodes until sometime next week. I’ve written through Episode 58, but I need to go further and finish the arc, so that I can make sure I don’t need to plant information in earlier episodes to make sense later.

I put release dates into the January calendar for Legerdemain and ANGEL HUNT episodes (I’m behind where I want to be on that, too), and other deadlines in January. This is in the big calendar. I didn’t use different colors in January, which I’m kind of regretting. Everything is in black ink, and it looks rather dull.

I was about to finish my witchy charm bracelet and my talisman necklace when I realized I need to get jump rings.

The trust paid off and more scripts came in for the week. I have 3 coverages today and 2 tomorrow. If I can pick up a couple more each day Thursday and Friday great; if not, that’s fine, too. I hope to get some coverages next week for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and maybe one on Friday, and then I am on vacation!

Today, I need to do the rounds to promote the Legerdemain episode that’s dropping. I want to work on “Comfort, Then Joy” and I have a tarot reading to set, write up, and post on Ko-fi later. I have to go out and get more maple syrup and more confectioners’ sugar, so I can do another batch of the brown sugar maple cookies, and make another batch of glaze for the coffee spice cookies. I hope to give the batches of cookies to the neighbors in the building later today, and then start delivering the other cookie platters tomorrow. I also need to drop off the cards at the post office. Writing them is great, but if they’re not mailed, it doesn’t mean a whole lot, does it?

A package arrived a week late yesterday, but it’s here, so that’s all good.

There’s another storm coming in on Friday, so I need to figure out if I can get the laundry done today or tomorrow, and all the cookie deliveries out by Thursday, then grab a few groceries to get us through the weekend. I was going to do the stocking stuffer shopping this weekend, but might put It off until next week. I also have another book to review this week, and need to get moving on that.

The Christmas novella wants to be worked on, but that will have to wait until next week. The newsletter story and the Ko-fi flash have to take priority. Then, I’ll mix working on the Christmas novella next week, along with work on Legerdemain, ANGEL HUNT, and finishing THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH.

Fingers crossed the printer keeps working!

On a personal level, there’s some rough work going on. The Chiron retrograde energy presses down, forcing me to face some painful memories and past choices, deal with them, and gain perspective. While making sure I don’t make the same mistakes again. Necessary work, but not easy and often painful.

Have a good one, friends. Enjoy the next episode of Legerdemain! This one wraps up the first large story arc and leads into the second one.

Mon. Dec. 12, 2022: Intent for the Week — Steady

image courtesy of ha11ok via pixabay.com

The domestic cards are written; I will take them to the post office, probably tomorrow, when we are dug out of the storm.

The cookies are baked, and I will start delivering the platters tomorrow.

There’s a little more decorating to be done.

I don’t have any scripts in my queue for today (or the week). Instead of panicking, I am grateful to have a day in which to focus on other things. I trust the work I need will be there in its time.

My intent this week is to hold steady and get things finished, so that I can enjoy the holiday. Next week, midweek, is the Winter Solstice, which is my big holiday of this season. Then are the days of Christmas, New Year’s, and all the rest. And I intend to rest in that week between, as much as possible.

I’m crafting my vision for 2023, and figuring out how to manifest it. But this week, I want to hold steady and get things finished.

What is your intent for the week?

Fri. Dec. 9, 2022: Catching Up on Baking; Planning the Writing, the Cards, the Decorating

image courtesy of Mylene 2401 via pixabay.com

Friday, December 9, 2022

Waning Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Partly cloudy and cold

Yesterday felt slow, although I got a decent amount of work done. I polished, uploaded, and scheduled two more episodes of Legerdemain. I created promo graphics for them. I redid the promo graphic I hated so much on Episode 42. I also redid the graphic for Episode 44. I liked the graphic for Episode 44 a lot, but it was in a style that was completely different than any of the other episode promos, and it was jarring. It also gave the sense that it was an episode that leaned more toward humor, which that episode does not. I uploaded and scheduled all the promos. I also decided, starting with the promo for Episode 45, to stop putting “First 3 Episodes Free on Kindle Vella.” That’s known, especially 44 episodes into it, and the promos will be more useful in the long term without the Vella reference. I think I will leave off the reference on the ANGEL HUNT promos, except for the first 3 episodes which are eternally free.

I’m sitting down to do the 2023 Plan which involved the larger plan for the serials (some of which will run beyond 2023). Legerdemain is sustaining itself well enough to warrant the first three large arcs, and possible one or two more. ANGEL HUNT is finite (and, by the end of this year, I hope I know just how many episodes it will entail. I’m pretty sure it will be over 100, meaning it will run for at least a year). I have to schedule in the radio plays I need to write, and a couple of full-length stage plays. I have a couple of film scripts that need prepping so they can go out to contests. Pretty soon, I will know whether or not I’m going back to the series that went on pause when I got sick. And I want to get CAST IRON MURDER out on submission this spring.

Two more packages of the ten mailed on Monday have been delivered. So, five out of the ten. Of the remaining five to be delivered, two of them having been repeatedly traveling between Springfield and Chicopee, instead of getting out of state to their destinations, so let’s hope they get it together and get going.

That’s why I mailed everything early.

It’s UPS and their lying about an incoming package that gets my goat. The package was out for delivery on the truck with the package that was delivered on Wednesday. Only it never made it off the truck with that other package. And now, UPS keeps telling me it will be delivered “today” but it isn’t.

Slogged through a bunch of email. I need to clean up and unsubscribe from a bunch of stuff instead of just deleting it.

Turned around two coverages in the afternoon. Nothing on the docket for today, which is fine, because that gives me time to catch up on the baking. Hopefully, I’ll get a few more coverages next week, and into the following week.

Too tired to bake yesterday.

Finished reading my friend’s book, and I’ll do the writeup on it I promised her, and get it posted this morning.

Today, I need to get two more episodes of Legerdemain polished, uploaded, scheduled. Then do the graphics for them. Then upload and schedule the ads for those last four episodes, and I’m into the first week of January 2023. Then I can switch to editing the next batch of episodes in this arc, and writing more.

I’ve lost some momentum on THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH, and need to get that back. I’m fairly close to the end of this draft, and then I want to let it sit for two months, without even looking at it.

I need to do the rounds of the library, the grocery, the liquor store later this morning, and then bake in the afternoon. If I want to get back on track with the plan, I need to bake 3 different kinds of cookies today.

This weekend, we write the domestic cards, so I can mail them on Monday. I have to get the new printer set up, and do a test run on the coffeemaker. We also need to finish decorating: the tree, getting the garlands and lights up on the stairs, the small tree on the porch, the additional lights throughout, the mantel, and decide where the 50+ Santas I’ve accumulated will perch. We have a platoon of the smaller nutcrackers waiting to be deployed in the living room, too. And Tessa’s made a nest of stuffed Christmas animals in the sewing room, near the heater.

Speaking of Tessa, she has decided that since Charlotte eats out of Tessa’s bowl, Tessa will now eat off Charlotte’s plate when she’s in the kitchen. This is the cat who has never eaten anything that wasn’t in her warm, freshly washed bowl. But she has had enough of Charlotte’s food theft. And Charlotte believes everything tastes better out of Tessa’s bowl.

Willa stays out of it.

Have a good weekend, friends, and I’ll catch you next week.

Thurs. Dec. 8, 2022: Following the Packages

image courtesy of E. Muhammad via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Last Day of the Full Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Cloudy and mild

The latest garden update is over on Gratitude and Growth.

I had a slow start yesterday, and did not get anywhere near what I hoped to get done accomplished. I got the blogging done, and did the social media rounds, and promoted The Process Muse.

I was accepted on the Post.News site, so I had to get that signup sorted out, do my profile, start posting. It seems Very Serious over there. But there’s a lot of interesting content, so we’ll see.

Took a lot of books back to the library, and returned with a smaller stack, but one of them was a medieval bestiary so huge it needed its own slipcase. It looks beautiful, though. I posted photos online yesterday. I have it sitting on the worktable in my office, because it’s too big to curl up with on the sofa.

I was too tired to bake, but I turned around two more scripts. I have two for today, but nothing for tomorrow, so I might use tomorrow as a baking day, instead, and hope there are scripts early next week.

I kept getting distracted by the notifications on where the various packages I mailed on Monday were, at any given moment. Originally, most of the ones on the East Coast were supposed to hit yesterday, with those in the Midwest hitting today, and the one for the West Coast on Saturday. No problem.

But, although I kept getting notifications that the East coast packages would be delivered yesterday by 9 PM (impossible, since most of them were still in Chicopee midafternoon), the package to New York City, the one to Maine, and the one in California were all delivered. Go figure. Anyway, there’s no stress involved, because that’s why I mailed them early. But it’s fun to watch their progress.

We were supposed to receive 3 packages yesterday, but only one showed up: the red fleece sheets for my mom.

I ordered one last gift for my mom from LL Bean. She really wanted a particular shirt (again, in red) and she never asks for anything, so, of course, I ordered it.

Read my friend’s book last night (didn’t finish it). It’s very well done, and I’m happy for her.

Meditation didn’t happen this morning. The regular group leader is away, and the person who was supposed to step in either forgot or had technical difficulties. It happens. I’ll sit on my own later.

I HAVE to do the new promo graphic for the episode of Legerdemain that drops next Thursday; I really hate the one I did earlier this week. It would be good to get a couple more episodes uploaded and scheduled today, and a couple more tomorrow, and then I’m fine through the first week of January. I have enough episodes through January, but I need to get more drafted, so I can get ahead of things a bit more, in case I need to drop a seed in one of the earlier episodes.

Maybe this weekend, along with work on “Comfort, Then Joy” and THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH.

Anyway, back to work. Have a good one, my friends.

And don’t forget, the next episode of Legerdemain goes live today!

Wed. Dec. 7, 2022: Working Around the Weather

image courtesy of JulianDC via pixabay.com

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Full Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Rainy and mild

The weather’s been all over the place, cold, then warmer, raining, sleet, the works. Today is mild, in the high 50’s (F). Next week it goes back down. Originally, a White Christmas was predicted, but now it’s more likely to be a murky, rainy, gray one. January’s predicted down into the single digits, though. Yikes.

When I lived in NYC, the point was to overcome the weather as much as possible and get on with it. Once I moved to the Cape, weather was important because of the tides and power outages, but we often soldiered through. Here, weather has a huge effect on planning the regular day, at least from November to March. It’s interesting. We are in a little mountain bowl here, so even if the weather is one thing here, it might be different one or two towns over. Heck, there are days when the weather is different from the front end to the back end of the house!

Congratulations to Senator Warnock on his re-election. That’s a relief, for the entire country.

Now, Schumer needs to remove Manchin from committees. He should have done that anyway, every time Manchin pulled one of his false promise/jerk moves.

A good friend has been going through a terrible time health-wise, and I wish there was something actually useful I could do to help.

Today’s installment of The Process Muse, over on Substack, talks about “When Process Evolution Becomes an Obstacle.” Come join the conversation.

I had a slow start yesterday. But I polished, uploaded, and scheduled three episodes of Legerdemain. I did the loglines and episode ads. One of them I might do again; I didn’t like it. The middle one is kind of cool. The third one is good, but the style is completely different than the other ads, which breaks a lot of marketing advice. But it fits the episode.

Did the SM rounds to promote Legerdemain and hang out. Did some catching up on Substack. Not enough, but I’m trying to do a little every day to keep up. There’s lots of terrific stuff going on over there, across a wide variety of disciplines, and I’m learning a lot.

Instead of baking all the holiday cookies over a day or two, I’m doing one type of cookie per day. Yesterday was the chocolate chip. Two batches made about 9 dozen cookies. Today will be the orange cranberry.

“Net Worth” went up on Ko-fi and I did the rounds posting the link.

Someone on Counter Social berated me for a proofreading mistake in the opening line. The shot provided didn’t look anything like my page, but there was definitely a problem in that line. But when I pulled up the page on the site, it was fine. And when I pulled up the draft page I’d uploaded to the site, it was fine, too. So I’m baffled as to why it came up the way it did on his screen.

However, I knew that responding to the post would just encourage more argument and belittling. Probably accusing me of lying. If the intent was to point out a mistake to a colleague, it would have been done in a private message, not a public beratement. I’m just not interested in getting into an argument with this individual, nor do I have to have this individual in my timelines. Don’t feed the trolls, right? Go back to Twitter if trolling is the goal.

I had a good conversation over on Mastodon with someone having similar Dreamscape experiences as I have lately, with a series of dreams taking place in the same general location.

The brain is fascinating.

Even when it’s tired.

Did 2 script coverages. There’s not a lot coming in, which concerns me for the rest of this week and into next week, but we’ll see. Last year, it was light until just  before the holidays, which meant I had to work between the Christmas/New Year days, and I completely burned out. I want to take those days off this year, but I have to earn enough early in the month so to do. But I really need the break to clear my head and return in January with fresh eyes.

Yes, next year, I have to add in a few other clients to diversify the business end a bit more. I’ve stepped back from doing social media work for clients, for a wide variety of reasons, including issues with client scheduling tools. I’m glad I stepped back before the Twitter kerflamma, because there’s a lot of panic going on, and, as I said before, no one really knows how it will shake out. That makes it difficult to plan long-term strategies for next year.

I want to focus on other elements of freelance writing next year. But pulling back from the social media work in the past few months meant leaning on the coverage more than I’d like.

That’s the thing with freelancing; you need to be ready to adjust quickly.

Which is getting harder, as I age and want to slow down. I predict the whole first quarter of next year will have a lot to do with reassessing and making changes. It would be great to have them in place before that, but let’s face it, there’s only so much that I can handle before the end of the year, and it’s unfair to dump a lot of requests on other people’s desks right before the holidays.

On today’s agenda: I have to return a big stack of books to the library and pick up some books. I need to upload/schedule some more LEGERDEMAIN. I need to redo the ad for Episode 42, because I dislike it so much. Hopefully, I’ll get some work done on “Comfort, Then Joy.”

I’ll bake the next cookie on the agenda right after lunch, and then it’s script coverage.

Tessa hurled up a fur ball the size of her head this morning, and then looked astonished. Cats.

Back to work. Have a good one!

Tues. Dec. 6, 2022: A Richly Busy Weekend

image courtesy of Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Day Before Full Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Rainy and cold

Curl up and get comfy, and we’ll have a catch-up.

There’s a post over on the GDR site about looking back at November and forward to December.

Friday was a lot of fun. Mailed bills on the way out of town, and headed down to Great Barrington. I found a shorter route, which was good. But, because we’d left later than I expected, we stopped at another store on the way down that was open, but wouldn’t have been had we left on time, and picked up something we needed (but didn’t find the bayberry candles we went down to get).

On the way down, we made an impulse stop at the library in Pittsfield, which was having a lobby book sale and found some cool books. Some of them holiday craft books, because I am a sucker for even tacky holiday craft books (especially at 50 cents a pop). And these have some cool ideas in them.

We went only to one store in GB, one of our favorite thrift stores. I found a train station for my Christmas village and the crossing sign lights up! (Which is more than the crossing sign IRL down the street does). Found a couple of small plates in a favorite pattern, a really cool mermaid candle holder, and a silver chain and bracelet with the large links I need for the charms I have for each. I also found a silver-plated frame for my favorite picture of my dad (who died when I was 10).

On the way back, we stopped in Stockbridge, in search of bayberry candles, but no luck. Then it was to a store in Pittsfield to pick up the last gift for extended family in Maine, and a few goodies for us. With a stop at Adams Fresh Market for fish for Friday night supper.

Pizza for lunch. I’m going to have to start making pizza from scratch again. Store-bought pizza tastes worse every time we buy it.

In the afternoon, I turned around two script coverages, and did some admin work. I was tired by the end of it. Really, really tired.

Tried reading for pleasure, a mystery that came recommended. But the writer uses “witch” as a slur against women and the world’s internal logic doesn’t makes sense, placing the characters in the “too stupid to live” category. So that one goes back, and that author is crossed off my list.

In Ellen Byron’s latest newsletter, she posted a photo of gigantic earrings she bought several decades ago in a shop on Columbus Ave. in NYC. I started laughing, because I remember the shop AND the earrings. They were too big to wear, so she turned them into Christmas ornaments. I love that so much. And that’s just so Ellen.

Her next Catering Hall Mystery (under the Maria DiRico name) comes out in March, and I’m excited.

Saturday morning, I had trouble getting going. But I did. And I wrote the first draft of “Net Worth” (which goes up today on Ko-Fi). The bones worked, and I knew I would do some edits. It came in a little over 1K, but hey, I don’t have to fit someone else’s word count. It won’t go too far one way or the other once it’s edited.

I started “Comfort, Then Joy” which was originally aimed to Ko-fi, but which I now feel is better suited to the quarterly newsletter. The story’s in my head; it’s just a case of getting it down on paper.

After a couple of hours at the desk, we hauled out the big Christmas tree from the broom closet and brought it into the living room. I started fighting with the stand, which has never worked well (and I bought this damn tree in 1989, or maybe it was 1990).

I finally decided I had HAD IT. I put the stuff down, wrapped up, got into the car, and drove into the escalating storm to get a new artificial tree stand. I got the last small one in the store, and while I was there, picked up a couple of oversized decorative poinsettias that clip to branches. I had hoped to find a finial topper, but no luck. I’ll keep looking in thrift stores after the holidays. All the other traditional toppers were too gaudy for our tree.

Home. Unwrapped. The new stand snapped together in less than 5 minutes, the tree slipped in and locked, and we could spend quality time fluffing the tree, instead of fighting for an hour or more with the stand. We put the lights on the tree (which actually had stayed coiled properly this year). And moved the tree into position in the doorway between the living room and the sewing room. We use the glass doors to frame it.

Even though this stand is far sturdier than the other one, I tied off the tree to the door hinges, just for added security.

We unpacked all the ornaments from the big bin in the closet in the sewing room and put them on. The shimmery gold ornaments and some small wooden ornaments go on last, after everything else goes on, and we put those aside.

That took most of the afternoon, but we had a lot of fun with it. Each ornament has a story, and we tell and retell our history with it.

The kitty litter delivery from Chewy also arrived, so I got to haul 45 pounds of cat litter up the stairs.

Sprawled on the couch reading in the evening, with candles on and cats on laps.

Willa is so gentle when she checks out the tree. It’s kind of adorable. Tessa circled it a few times, and pointed out where some branches needed adjustment, and then was satisfied. Charlotte watched from a safe distance.

They really are all very good with the tree. But then, we don’t shut them out when we decorate. They’re always a part of the process of unpacking ornaments, putting things up, or packing them. ALL my cats have been good with the trees. I mean, Elsa (tortie) used to climb the bare tree, but she was fine once the ornaments were up. And Iris (Russian blue) used to choose a patch of tree she wanted bare and remove the ornaments. But none of them were ever destructive.

The storm intensified, and we had power outages on and off all night. Tessa did not like it, and roamed the house, complaining, each time it went off or on. I discovered that, while I could report the outage to the electric company, the gas company has no system for outages. WTF? Charlotte and Willa just burrowed deeper in blankets.

By the time I got up on Sunday morning, everything was fine again.

I mean, we live in a city, not a rural area (despite what Staples claims, when they slap “rural carrier fees” onto orders). It makes sense they’d get the power back on pretty quickly.

Sunday was cold and sunny. My neighbor knocked to let me know packages arrived last night. He’d knocked on the door, but, for whatever reason, I hadn’t heard, and he’d taken them in and then brought them over this morning. One was the Goddess Provisions box (which I didn’t expect until Monday) and the other was a gift from a friend in NY.

After breakfast, I revised “Net Worth” mostly for internal logic, and starting to layer in some sensory details. There’s plenty I intentionally don’t explain and leave for the readers’ imaginations.

I did some more work on “Comfort, Then Joy” which is surprising me for all the right reasons. I’m a little past halfway with it. I figure it’ll come in between 3-5K, a little longer than I wanted for a newsletter story, but it’s a fairly short newsletter.

In the late morning, we went over to the Alpaca Farm to pick up a gift for the cousin in Maine, and then to pick up a few things at Wild Oats. They had bayberry candles! And wonderful ones, from Mole HIll in Sturbridge.

The afternoon was all about wrapping presents, packing the packages, writing the cards to go in the packages, taping everything up, mailing labels, etc. I was tired, grumpy, and feeling every bit of my age by the end of it. Charlotte helped, which was pretty funny.

I like the wrapping and choosing things I think my friends would enjoy. But the whole post office prep can be a bit much. But I had the labels and the tape and the Sharpies and all the rest, so it was fine.

Too tired to do much more in the evening except have a glass of wine with some cheese, crackers, and fig/orange spread, enjoying the 2nd of Advent candles and the partially finished tree.

Dipped into a bit of Script Chat, but felt old and grumpy and in pain, so I wasn’t at my best.

To date, I have been invited to 17 different holiday gatherings, none with appropriate COVID protocols, and therefore have said no to all the invitations. Not worth the risk. I’m grateful they invite me, but I’m not getting sick because someone can’t be bothered to wear a mask. So I don’t put myself in high risk situations.

Fell into a very deep sleep. Charlotte woke me around 1:30. When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that I met Dewi Hargreaves, with whom I’m friendly on various social media, in person. We were meeting a couple of others we “knew” from social media in a parking lot somewhere, but they were wittering on about stuff we found vicious and tedious, so we ditched them to go to a book-lined bar and talk about books, which sounds like a nice evening to me. In this Dreamscape, we didn’t have to worry about COVID.

Tessa woke me up around 4, and I told her I was NOT getting up that early, and fell back to sleep. I dreamed that I was at an estate sale, bought 5 vintage suitcases, some books, and lots of women’s gloves. I have lots of suitcases (but love luggage) and I do pick up vintage gloves a lot (at least I did, pre-plague), so that made sense. But there was this other guy there, who kept trying to take stuff I’d already paid for and add it to his pile.

According to dream “experts”, dreams about suitcases mean an upcoming trip, or the need to access personal information about yourself. Dreaming about gloves shows a need for protection. It’s pretty obvious what someone taking something symbolizes. However, in this case, I think it was all more literal than metaphorical. But I’ll use the Rackham Tarot given to me by my friend to dig deeper. That deck works well for dream work.

I woke up late, and felt behind the beat and tired all day.

I got the Monday blogging done, made the SM rounds, sat down and made the grocery list. I took the packages to the post office. Managed to park right in front, walk right up to the desk, and was done in just a few minutes – AND within budget. Everything will be where it needs to be by the end of the week. It was sunny, so everyone was in a good mood (and most masked, indoors).

Went to Big Y to do the Big Shop. I think I’m all set for baking – will probably need to get more eggs, as some point. But I’ve been stockpiling staples for a few weeks, and I think I’m in pretty good shape.

Got a batch of veggie stock made in the crockpot. Did another draft of “Net Worth” so it was where I needed it to be in order to put it up this afternoon on Ko-fi. Polished the next two posts for The Process Muse, chose the graphics, uploaded and scheduled.

Turned around two coverages.

Jeremy’s soup class was great. He taught us to make Italian Wedding Soup, and I learned a bunch of new techniques. Charlotte was delighted, although I had to stop and grate some Parmesan for her, because he used Parmesan and talked Parmesan, and every time he said the word, she got all excited.

Tired. Had weird dreams overnight.

Last night was St. Nicholas Night, a traditional celebration, where one leaves out a shoe, and wakes up to find it filled with chocolate or candy or whatever. Chocolate and cocoa for us, this morning. And we generally put the goodies in either a gift bag or one of the Christmas stockings and put the bag in the shoe, because, you know, hygiene.

Waking up to chocolate is always good.

The coffee filter split this morning, so there are coffee grounds in the coffee. Better than no coffee, and I HAVE to get the new coffeemaker up and running.

Roxane Gay shared an article written by Isabel Kaplan about her boyfriend, a fellow writer, breaking up with her once she had some success. He didn’t like that she kept a journal. He felt it was his “responsibility to take her down a peg” and so on and so forth. It reminded me so much of a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship I was in back in the mid-90’s. I’m so glad I’m not still with that guy. I would be dead, emotionally (and most likely physically; he had a history of dead wives). She talks about parsing out her good news, about contorting herself emotionally until she’s a pretzel and then blaming herself for the hurt. It hit very close to the bone. Too many men in my life have defined “partnership” as me putting my writing last while doing physical, emotional, and sexual labor to promote their careers. No. Just no. The right partner will not sabotage the writing. The bell weather for me, in a relationship is – if my writing improves, sparkles, strengthens with this person, it’s a good relationship. If the writing falters or stalls, it means get the hell out.

And, as someone who has kept a journal for 50 years (there are boxes of them in storage), anyone who tried to keep me from my journal, or, worse yet, violated my trust by READING it, was gone in a heartbeat. My blogs are public. What’s in those handwritten books is private.

The big priority this morning is getting at least some of the next episodes of LEGERDEMAIN uploaded and posted. ‘Net Worth” goes up on Ko-fi this afternoon. We’ll see where we are, timewise, after that. I need to work on “Comfort, Then Joy” and also work on THE TREES WHISPERED DEATH and more LEGERDEMAIN, but that might not happen.

The baking begins today. I’ll do two batches of one kind of cookie right after lunch, then start my script coverages for the day. That should let me get all my baking done by the end of the weekend, so I can start delivering cookie platters early next week.

No doubt, I will post photos as I bake.

Have a good one, my friends. Peace and joy to you.

The next epsiode of Legerdemain goes live today. Enjoy!

Mon. Dec. 5, 2022: Intent for the Week — Clarity

image courtesy of Irish Daniel via pixabay.com

This week is busy with the potential for through the roof.

The weekend was busy, and by the end of it, I felt old and grumpy and disappointed in myself.

This week, I want clarity: What is a real, pressing issue, and where am I putting unnecessary pressure on myself? What needs immediate attention, and what can be rescheduled without causing distress to anyone?

Finding clarity in the way I prioritize will help me get done what needs to be done, while keeping stress levels under control. It means stopping and taking a breath in the moment, while stepping back to take a better look at the overall picture of what has to get done between now and December 21 (Solstice).

It means asking myself, is this actually a problem, or am I creating one where none exists?

Doing this work actively and several times a day, along with maintining the daily yoga and meditaion practices, possibly upping them, will keep me on track.

I want to actually enjoy the holidays, not feel so overwhelmed that all I do is sleep right through them, because there’s nothing left in the tank.

What is your intent this week?