Tuesday, April 8, 2025: Trying to Arrange the Creative Flowers

image courtesy of Pexels via pixabay.com

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Waxing Moon

Venus Retrograde

Mercury direct as of yesterday

Snowy and mucky

I hope you had a good weekend, and I hope you did something to support the nationwide protests, even if you couldn’t be out there yourself. 

The Community Tarot Reading for the week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site.

Friday, I did a final polish on the ghostwriting assignment and sent it off in the morning. No sense waiting around and getting even more insecure about it. I honestly have no idea if it’s closer to what they want. I integrated the notes as best I could interpret them. We’ll see. I’ll either have to do a rewrite, or just invoice and we part ways.

Once the assignment was out the door, I did a library run and did some errands.

Felt rather like I’d been kicked by a mule in the head. Which seems to be how I feel every time I turn in a project to the ghostwriting client, which is a little disturbing. Did some housework and some resting/reading over the afternoon. Was too wiped out to go down to First Friday.

Saturday morning, I went to Big Y and did a big grocery shop to set us up for the month, so we only need to replenish some perishables. I also stopped by a store I’d visited the day before and forgotten a few things, and picked up some other essentials at another store.

Home, unloaded everything, put it away. Pulled myself together and headed out in the freezing rain to one of the rallies. For safety reasons, I am not going to announce ahead of time to when and where I will be at rallies, nor will I take and post photographs. I will also not go into details after.

There were quite a few in our region. I attended one of them. I was cold and wet by the end of it, but I’m still glad I went. It matters.

Came home dried off, put on warm clothes, had some hot cocoa, and rested up. Watched the social media coverage from around the country. The latest numbers are 1400 events with over 5 million people. 2% of the population. It should be far more.

But it’s still hopeful.

Weird dreams Saturday into Sunday. Sunday was a rest day, and a homework day for the library cohort. And a housework day. I hadn’t changed the beds on Saturday, so I did that, and switched out the tablecloth in the kitchen for April, and switched from the white lights to the summer lights. I usually switch those in May, but since I was up on the stool anyway, why not. I did some other chores and housecleaning, and this week, have to get into the deep clean.

Read the next book for review. Worked on contest entries. Pulled all the international grant/residency proposals I’d either submitted or worked on. I don’t feel comfortable traveling.  I do, however, hope to submit to the BBC radio international call in June, if I can whip my idea into good enough shape by then. Made turkey meatloaf for dinner.

Had weird dreams Sunday into Monday.

We were up at You’re Kidding Me Early to do all the things necessary to get out the door by 7:30 to be at the doctor by 7:45 for my mom’s appointment. In the snow. Because yes, it was snowing.

We got there, and the receptionist told us the appointment was cancelled, and they just found out. And they haven’t been able to find another appointment to reschedule. Gee, thanks, Mercury Retrograde (and the non-health care system in this country). She’s over 100. She should be treated like a treasure, not an inconvenience. It’s absolutely about economics. We’re not rich enough for them to make an effort.

We returned through the intensifying snow, but got home before it was too bad. We cooked a big breakfast instead. It was amazing how much she perked up once the appointment was cancelled!

I had a bunch of admin to do in the morning. I read and rested in the afternoon. I’m reading a biography of Lillian Hellman. She was Dorothy Parker’s good friend and literary executor, which may tie in to the expanded version of DAWN AND DOROTHY IN THE AFTERLIFE.

Two small coverages turned up in my queue, which I will turn around today, at pathetic pay. I received the three scripts I have to read for the next literary committee meeting at the end of the month. I am supposed to hear back, one way or another, on another script of mine today. Well after hours (after 8 PM) last night, I got conflicting messages about the ghostwriting. Either I do or I don’t have to do a revision, but in any case, whatever it is, it’s not right now. Okaaaaay?

I will respond DURING the agreed-upon EST business hours this morning.

In a holding pattern on several pieces: the revisions for the anthology story; the final decision on the other anthology story; the contract for the Spell-a-Day 2027; the next library board meeting; start date for the audiobook adaptation; a couple of other scripts that I’m supposed to get decisions on in the next couple of weeks; the next meeting about the group show. I haven’t heard anything from them about my workshop proposal, either. I’m not chasing; if they won’t communicate in a way that’s accessible for me or if everything is a last minute scramble, I’m just going to move on. I’m done with cleaning up the messes of the disorganized, especially when I’m not paid.

I’m hopping in during office hours for the library cohort to ask some questions about my board plan. I’ll check the meetings calendar to get the details for Thursday evening’s meeting. I plan to start the BBC radio project this morning. I have the opening/hook/catalyst figured out and the climactic sequence/resolution/ending figured out. It’s how to get from one to the other that needs to percolate some more, and I hope that writing my way in will help. It’s only a one-hour piece. If I hit a couple of pages per day, I can get a draft done reasonably quickly and then have a couple of weeks to polish before deadline.

I think part of my frustration these past few weeks is not managing my time well enough to put my own work first. When I start the day on my own work, everything else falls into place and I’m far more creative and productive. When I feel the pressure of deadlines imposed by others and start with that, I create creative obstacles for myself.

I HAVE systems that work. I need to get back to them, and adjust the timing on them a bit better, that’s all.

It’s supposed to snow most of the day. Fortunately, everything I’m doing today is virtual.

I decided to up my morning meditation from 20 to 30 minutes, which was both interesting and helpful. You know the old saying: sit for 20 minutes every day. When you’re busy, sit for an hour.

Fortunately, I’m in the right kind of busy, if I can just get out of my own way.

I figured out the hook and the flow of the conference presentation, so once I’ve written my radio pages for the day, I will write that up and send it off.

Before I forget: every day’s poetry over the past 4 mornings has been a Jane Shore poem, from her MUSIC MINUS ONE volume. Her work resonates with me.

The Supreme Court, as usual, has betrayed the people. Hard not to lose hope.

Have a good one!