THANKSGIVING CHEER

Just wanted to take a couple of minutes to wish every one of my beloved followers a Happy Thanksgiving! Soooooooooooo, well...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It felt very weird yesterday not to have a goal for my writing. I rested and didn't do any writing at all. I'll hit this keyboard hard and heavy on Monday...until then I'm spending quality time with my family. From the time November 1st rolled around, till Tuesday, my mind has been filled with plot lines for Damaged Goods (title may change on rewrite). I've only been half present no matter what I was doing or who I was with, till I had my 50,000 words typed.

I actually cleaned my house yesterday...for the first time in 18 days. Surprised it wasn't stinkier than it was! I had a wonderful visit from a friend who I haven't seen in 40 years! She was here visiting family. We'd reconnected through Facebook several months ago and it was fantastic seeing her again! She is one of the few people on this earth who knew at least a small portion of the circumstances in which I grew up. We talked a little more about that because of the book I've just completed.

Dorothy was right...sometimes "there's no place like home". I don't ever want to live in Peekskill again, but it is so wonderful connecting with friends from years past! I'll travel up that way in the spring, when things "thaw" in that neck of the woods, to do some detail research for my manuscript. Until then I will stay in touch with all my wonderful friends living there and visit them when I make my visit.

EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY TODAY! LOVE ALL OF YOU!

POULTRY WILD SIDE

I typed for six hours yesterday! Gotta be some kind of record...at least for me. I now have 47,670 words for my NaNo challenge and I will complete it today...as I have big plans for tomorrow. My goal today is to be finished by 1:00.

I hope everyone has great plans for Thanksgiving. I will be visiting my son. He bought his first home this year and wanted to celebrate turkey-day in his own home. I personally am thrilled not to have to do all that cooking, cleaning and planning. My concern: salmonella. Yep, that's right...I'm having my first Thanksgiving at my son's house and I'm worried about being poisoned. But here's the thing...a turkey should never be defrosted at room temperature and it should never be stuffed the night before and then stored in the frig till it's popped in the oven. Does my son know this? Do I dare tell him? Nope. Gonna take my chances. Gonna walk on the poultry wild side and pray I don't spend Thanksgiving evening in an emergency room having my stomach pumped...hmmmmmmmmm, I see a story developing here......

Talk to you later...NaNo, NaNo...........

FLOWERY FUN

Okay I confess. I didn't write one blessed word yesterday. I was up bright and early, put a roast in the crockpot, blogged and went off to play with flowers. The Moravian church here in town collects donated flowers from funerals, weddings, showers, social events, etc. and they tear the arrangements apart and re-do them into smaller arrangements and then donate them to nursing homes, shut-ins, low income families, etc. People who don't normally receive flowers. Even several retailers in town donate their flowers when they are in full bloom and they can't sell them.

Flowers make everyone smile. This was so much fun and rewarding at the same time. More churches should do this! My creativity was at full alert and I was in awe of some of the beautiful arrangements some of the ladies created. A talented group...that's for sure.

After we got done "flowering", a group of us went to lunch. We spent about two leisurely hours talking, munching and getting to know one another. I finally got home around 3:00 and needless to say...was totally and completely unmotivated to begin writing what is starting into the very dark side of my childhood. So I took a break.

Today it is dreary, rainy and joyless outside. A perfect day to be writing ugly, gloomy memories. NaNo, NaNo.........

MATTRESS TOPPER

My heart is heavy today and I feel very blah. I didn't write yesterday. I got so caught up in "life events" that I didn't get around to my manuscript at all. I've noticed a change in me. If I don't write during the day...I get sort of depressed and feel like I've failed to do my job.

I blogged yesterday and kudos to me for doing that...but I didn't open Deadly Letters and continue working on it, even though that was my game plan for yesterday afternoon. Spent the morning doing some household crap, grabbed a quick lunch with a friend, had to go Brad's store to take him some medicine he'd left at home, then came the really FUN part of the day. I went to Target to buy a mattress topper. Oi Vey. I found the one I wanted, asked an associate to scan it for a price check...great price, struggled getting it up to checkout (those things are heavy if you get a good one), no offer of help from sales associate. Got it home, struggled getting it upstairs...opened box...CRAP...someone had switched out the less expensive one for the cheap one. I got tricked. Called store, talked to manager, she checked other stores, found one, struggled to get box back downstairs, scared the hell out of dog, drove to other store, struggled to get box into store, delivered it to customer service and can you believe it...in the mood I was now in...I got MS. ATTITUDE at the service desk. I almost went Madea on her ass, I was so completely pissed off. Talked to the manager, finally got my mattress topper, lugged it out to car, drove home, lugged it upstairs, took 30 minutes to get it opened and situated on top of mattress...FINALLY I had my new mattress topper.

Was it worth all that struggling? Definitely. I slept great last night. But maybe that's just cause I was so exhausted from all the lugging and struggling. At any rate, there was no way my brain was going to function and allow me to do my manuscript re-write justice, so I wimped out. I CAN'T do this in November!!!

Today...I continue with Deadly Letters...no distractions! Ooooo was that a butterfly I just saw?

CRISIS AVERTED

OMG...almost had a heart attack this morning. I woke up to NO cable and NO internet! Panic!! I felt so cut off from the world, so helpless, frustrated and pissed at the cable company. I called their office, but couldn't get thru cause a recording told me I had to call during "office hours" which started at 5a.m. and it was 7:35 when I called. WTH??? Now I was really concerned. I mean what if aliens had arrived during the night while we were sleeping and stole all our cable signals. I called friends and family..."do you have cable?" Everyone did...except us...or so I thought. It had become personal, until I called our next door neighbors and was so relieved when they told me they didn't have any signals either. WHEW! At least the extra-terrestrials weren't just after me. I found a different number for the cable company and a wonderful recording told me it was an outage in our area and they were working on it and should have us back up and running by 8a.m. Breathe, breathe...disaster averted.

How addicted to electronics are we? Almost all of the agents I am contacting accept only emailed queries now. If I'm not connected to the internet...how could I send them anything? How could I research the agents I'm considering without internet? How could I find out about writing contests? How could I find out about possible freelance assignments? How could I Facebook???? Yeeee gads! I'm starting to sweat again just thinking about it. Breathe, breathe.......

I actually wanted to blog about something else today, but I'll save it till tomorrow. I need to get a stiff drink right now...oh wait it's only 9:15? Oh what the heck............

RE-ORGANIZING

No hablo Espanol...and that about covers it. My interview that I was so excited about yesterday was a bust. Why? Because the employer failed to state in their ad that they wanted someone who was bilingual. The interview was going great to begin with. The place was shabby and they'd never had an Admin, but I was more than willing to deal with that. I would have been the only estrogen based human in the place...but I was even willing to put up with all that testosterone...if it meant making some decent money. Things went down hill though in the middle of the meeting when I was asked if I spoke Spanish. Uh...no and I don't intend to. I'm just not interested at my age in trying to learn a new language. I'm still of the mind-set...if you want to truly "belong" in this country and contribute and hold a job then you should learn OUR language...not the other way around. So...no "jobo for meo".

I am re-energized toward my writing this morning. I got all the various manuscripts out that I've been working on and I am determined to start treating this as my full-time employment. I am starting with my blog this morning and will proceed with lining up more possible agents for Deadly Letters and looking through some of my older things to see if there is something that I can submit to either newspapers or magazines.

I am a huge fan of "So You Think You Can Dance" and last night I watched our latest recorded episode. I was really inspired by all the dancers who were cut and then just said they would keep dancing, get better and try again next year. I give up too easily. It's a major fault in my personality, so I will be working on fixing this flaw in the next few months.

Andale, andale, ariba, ariba..............

JOB PROSPECT

Today I have my first actual job interview since I was laid off January 22nd. I am nervous, excited, semi-confident and just a wee bit scared. A job interview for me, in the past, always meant...if I wanted the job...I had the job. There might have been 10 or 15 people applying for the same job, but I interview well....so, if I wanted the job I was interviewing for...I got it. These days though there are 300-400 people applying for the same job. I'm in awe of even getting a chance to interview. I drove to the office address Sunday when we got back from the beach. I wanted to be sure I didn't get lost and arrive late today. In fact, I will allow myself an extra 15 minutes to get there. If I'm early, I will park around the corner till 9:55 and then go to the location, so I arrive approximately 5 minutes early.

I am always friendly to the receptionist. I used to be a receptionist and trust me...when you leave...she WILL give her opinion of you...and trust me...her opinion will carry a lot of weight.

When I enter the office, I look the interviewer straight in the eye and continue to make eye contact through out the interview. I don't want "stare" at him/her, but I do look them in the eye periodically so they feel they can trust me. Besides there is nothing that connects two people more than looking each other in the eye...and I do want him/her to feel a connection to me.

I always have some questions ready for the interviewer. If possible I look the company up on the internet so I know something about them. When the interview is done...I stand and shake the interviewer's hand and again make that eye contact...thank him/her for their time and consideration. I ask them for one of their business cards and then leave...I don't linger fidgeting, like I don't know what to do.

If the job is something I feel I'd really like then I wait a day and then send a quick thank you to the person who interviewed me and then all I can do is sit back and wait and hope for either a second interview or a confirmation that I got the job.

All of these little tricks have served me very well in the past...in this economic time I am praying that they still will.

BTW...if I DON'T want the job...I will just fail to do all of the above and trust me...I NEVER get a call back. Unless the interviewer today decides to "interview" my boobs and not me...then I intend to do my very best to secure this position. Wish me luck!