Fri. March 21, 2025: Juggling the Fun and the Not So Fun

image courtesy of  Ulrike Mai via pixabay.com

Friday, March 21, 2025

Waning Moon

Venus & Mercury Retrograde

Snowy and mucky

And we’re at the end of another week! They just fly by.

Meditation was good yesterday morning, and I’m glad I showed up for the online group. After breakfast, I got the handouts finished and sent them off to my students. I did some more research/work on the bid package.

I am giving it a polish and sending it out this morning. I’ve found a rate with which I’m comfortable. Either it fits their needs, or it doesn’t. If it’s too high, we both move on. This is skilled work, it’s something I’m good at, and if they want cheap and lousy, they can go somewhere else.

Some small coverages came in, which I will turn around on Monday.

I didn’t get all the paperwork I needed to finish finished, and will have to do this today, along with some other paperwork I shouldn’t have to do, and more fighting with Berkshire Gas. They sent me a letter with intentional misinformation about our discussions. Fortunately, I have an email trail. I have lost so many billable hours on this crap.

I worked on my conference proposal, I hope to get that out today.

Was able to join the #FreelanceFriends meeting on Bluesky (it used to be called #FreelanceChat, but the originator took that tag with her to her own platforms). It was hosted by one of our colleagues, and was a lot of fun, although one Canadian guy kept pushing us to land government contracts, and we’re like, “everything is on hold right now, we don’t have a functioning government and all those agencies are being dismantled” and he was all “but do this, do that” and I’m like, “these agencies no longer EXIST in this country.” I mean, we have the court battles, etc., coming up on them, but they’re firing everyone. They’re not going to hire contractors who aren’t cis white men even when they have to hire back in.

Prepped for my meeting about the group art show. I’m expanding my piece somewhat from the original concept, but I think it will work. I better start building it in the next couple of weeks to make sure! About half of us involved were at the meeting, and it was great to hear what people are doing/planning. We’re all very different, but I think the pieces will work together, almost like an exquisite corpse poem. We’re also going to do events at the gallery throughout the month, workshops and performances. I will read the text portion that pairs with my piece at the opening First Friday, and then offer a writing workshop later in the month. One of my colleagues and I talked about me possibly creating a word piece inspired by each artist’s work installed, that will then live on a panel, with some of the words wood-burned into it (he will help with that), and have an interactive component. We are going to get into more detail about that in the coming weeks. Some of it would have to be done ahead of time, but a finished text piece/poem (not burned into the panel) can only be done in the day between installation and opening, which puts a lot of pressure on me in that I don’t know what my schedule will be like then.

But I basically expect to spend most weekends in August at the gallery, with a few scattered nights there, too, supporting other members of the cohort in their workshops and performances.

Part of me is like, why aren’t you just doing something fully in your wheelhouse that you know you can do in your sleep, since it’s for public consumption? And the rest of me is like, how often do I get the chance to take this kind of creative risk, and what will I learn from it?

So I’m jumping in and challenging myself.

If it’s terrible, I don’t put it in the show!

I will put together the information on the workshop and pick a date this weekend. I don’t really want to write the statement about the work quite yet, since I want to build some of it first.

Walked to and from the gallery, since it’s only four blocks and it was a lovely evening. Steeple City Social was hopping. I’m so glad it’s having a strong opening. I look forward to spending some quality time in there writing and socializing.

The City made a formal announcement about artist applications to paint crosswalks in downtown (something the Public Art Commission supported). I’m so happy! The electric boxes that were painted last summer still look good, and brighten up the city so much. I’m excited to see what the crosswalks will look like.

Speaking of formal announcements, I’m still waiting for the anthology announcement to come out, so I can talk about it!

Annoyed that two of my books were stolen as part of the Meta AI training program. “Lake Justice” (which is currently out of print), and Savasana at Sea were both stolen. Ellen Byron had a bunch of her books stolen, as did Lilith St. Crow, and Jenn McKinlay had all 64 of her books stolen. I mean, thousands of authors had their work stolen. I’m lucky only two of mine (so far) showed up on the database. There’s a class action suit forming for that.

Anyway, I have a lot to do today as far as paperwork, the bid proposal (which is the absolute priority), administrative bickering, and errands to the library, grocery store, and a couple of other stores. The rain changed to snow overnight, and it’s wet and mucky. I keep hoping it will warm up, so I won’t have to dig out the car before I go.

I have a busy weekend, some stressful, some fun, and we’ll catch up on Tuesday.

Have a good one!