Thurs. Dec. 5, 2024: Snow Day!

image courtesy of  Jill Wellington via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Waxing Moon

Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter, Mercury Retrograde

St. Nicholas Day

Snowing and cold

We have a snow day! About 7 inches of snow fell overnight, and it’s snowing again. Schools and libraries are closed, and probably a good many small businesses. I’m glad I planned for it, and don’t have anywhere to be, except virtually.

It’s Thursday! That means you can read the latest on the garden over at Gratitude and Growth.

Tonight, per our family tradition, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Or maybe it’s night? We put out a shoe (with a napkin tucked inside, because. . .shoe). In the morning, it’s filled with candy and maybe some fruit. We’ve followed this tradition since I was a kid, and still keep it up.

I signed the contract for the ghostwriting trial and sent it off yesterday morning. Signing contracts during Mercury retrograde is not a good idea, but sometimes you have to do it anyway. It’s simple and straightforward, everything we discussed, so it will be what it is. It’s for a trial, to see if we like each other and I can match tone and structure. If we do, we take the next steps; if we don’t, we won’t. They liked my initial writing sample, and our conversations have been good thus far, so we’ll see how it goes. I received my instructions for the test assignment, and had some questions, which I sent off. Getting those answered before I start will eliminate at least one round of revisions. Got my folders set up for the assignment. They answered my questions quickly, and now I feel I have a good foundation from which to start.

I put together some resources for my yoga teacher and sent them off.

I need to get going on the MURDER BELLS video and the Nina Bell combo video, because they have to be ready for the MURDER BELLS launch next week.

I worked on the holiday story for the newsletter. It’s a little more bittersweet than the zany ones I usually do. I think it will come in a little under 1K. Did a bunch of admin. Went to the grocery store, in case the overnight storm prevents me from going today (which it will). Swung by another store and got ribbons, bags, and stuff I needed for the cookie platters. I need to buy another set of oval reinforced cardboard platters themselves – I don’t have enough. But I have the bags and the ribbons, and can now make the cheat sheets. Realized I forgot to get the little foil cups for the gluten free inclusion; but I can swing by and get that over the weekend.

Soup and bread for lunch, and then the attention had to switch to coverage work.

Turned around one medium and four small coverages. Worried that nothing else is coming in, and there’s another deadline this week; it better get some results. Makes me even more grateful for the opportunity to do a paid trial for the ghostwriting job, although that won’t pay out until sometime in January.

It looked like it would bust out snowing any minute, but I decided to risk it and head for tarot anyway. It was snowing lightly when I left. We had a larger group than expected – everyone thought no one else would show up, so a bunch of us showed up! And we were raucous – excited for a snow day coming up, I think! It was a great session, and I feel so lucky to be with this amazing group of people.

Some of them headed to an art opening that one member of the group curated, but I will have to visit the show some other day. I came home, cooked dinner, finished reading the books for review. I will write the reviews this morning and invoice. And, hopefully, get some more assignments, because if coverages don’t come through next week, I will read more while I’m juggling the ghost-writing trial assignment. We need cash for the last few things we need to buy, and then to mail everything out.

I got my new insurance cards; it looks like I’m all set on that.

Tessa is so funny. As soon as it gets dark, she marches into the living room and demands we turn on the tree lights, so she can sit under the tree. Once we’ve finished decorating and have the skirt under it, she’ll be even happier.

Slept pretty well. Up early to the wet, heavy snow, and closure notices. Fed the cats, did my yoga and my own meditation practice; not sure if the ZOOM one will happen in a half hour or so.

On today’s agenda: writing, marketing, shoveling snow, turning around the last few small coverages, working on the ghost-writing assignment, writing/submitting reviews, invoicing, some admin work, hopefully starting to write our holiday cards, enjoying the beauty of the snow.

I also have a training session for the Scholastic Judging in the afternoon, and a library protection training session in the evening. Both on ZOOM.

What’s on your schedule today? Have a good one!