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Posts from the ‘Everyday Life’ Category

Oct 24

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October So Far

 

Beauty of Fall in MD.

This month has flown by.  I can’t believe it is almost November, especially since someone decided to turn the calendar back to May.  It was so warm today, I swore it was spring, not fall.  But all you have to do is look at the trees and you remember what time of year it is.  Spring and fall are the best times of the year in the mid-atlantic.

Class is going well so far.  I have to give an oral presentation at the end of the semester, which I am not crazy about.  The positive side is that I get to read an author I have been meaning to explore for a while now. It’s Reynolds Price. I first read an essay he wrote for Book World (Remember that on Sunday?) in The Washington Post.  I was so blown away by it, that a short time later I went out and bought Kate Vaiden.

And it sat on my bookshelf ever since.  You know how that goes…

So now I am finally getting around to reading it.  Yay!  I almost picked a few other books (The person should-be an American and a book of note, but exceptions were made for others.), but I have been sitting on this book long enough.

I also realized I’ve been watching way too many episodes of How I Met Your Mother.  I used the phrase “suiting up” in my last post.  LOL! I didn’t even realized until a week after I posted.  I also find myself humming “Let’s Go to the Mall” every now and then.  Thank you FX.  It’s a great show and my subconscious is giving you a high-five.

Interested in reading the essay?  Find it here.  It’s a great collection, and well worth the money.

Sep 23

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Best Book Scouting Day Ever!

So yesterday, I had an amazing day.  On 4th of July weekend 2011, I started seriously collecting books.  My main focus is scifi and horror by minority writers, but I also will pick up books by others that I really love that don’t fit into those categories.  In a little over a year, I have found some really good stuff.  Gems include:

  • Dawn by Octavia Butler (1St)
  • American Gods and Neverwhere (signed) by Neil Gaiman (both 1st)
  • Signed copies of Lady Oracle and Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood
  • Lion’s Blood (1st) by Steven Barnes
  • Signed copy of Invisible Sign of My Own by Amiee Bender (review copy)
  • 16 signed books of Roger Zelanzy
  • The Road (1st) by Cormac Mccarthy
  • All three Dragon Tattoo books (1st)
  • A few other books by Octavia Butler, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, and Samuel R. Delaney

Yes, this year has been good to me.  But yesterday I found a Fist Edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.  I am a huge Atwood fan and I lost my &!@% when I saw it on the shelf.  It is officially one of the most expensive books I have ever found.  So cool!

I needed the boost.  Not only is my company still on shakey ground, but it is very discouraging when you need to get your car repaired and it takes your whole paycheck.  But it had to be done.  Luckily I have perfected the art of living as a struggling artist, so I had the money to pay.  I just hate seeing it go out as soon as it comes in.

I have started my new semester at JHU.  So far so good.  Lots of reading this semester and I’m mixed in with some nonfiction students, so this is a new experience for me.  I even picked up a copy of Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking to read in between semesters.

I also picked up Infinite Jest to read over break.  Ambitious I know, but I’m feeling like I need to read more.  Just flipping through it intimidated the heck out of me.  So many dense passages!  But I may love it, so I will dive in head first in late December.

Wish me luck!

 

Aug 7

Good News!

The last few months have been so busy.  I ended up not moving, because my money situation is just not good.  Basically, the owner of my company is dealing with the uncertainty of the business climate.  So my 10% pay cut continues….

It is frustrating, because I want to get my own place again.  I miss having the privacy that I used to have.  But I guess I can be happy that I am saving money.  A one bedroom or studio would run me at least double what I am paying now.  And money will be even tighter now because….

I GOT INTO GRADUATE SCHOOL!

After being admitted as a provisional student into Johns Hopkins last fall, I am now an official master’s degree candidate.
I am so excited to start.  I can’t stop smiling.  I really wanted this and it is nice to be on this journey.  I know this is going to be a lot of hard work, but I am ready.  I kept going back and forth about going back to school, but I know that this is the best decision for me now.  I already have one class under my belt, so let’s get going on the next semester.  Before I know it, I’ll have my MA in Writing.

In other (not so exciting, but still good) news, I have expanded my book collection nicely in the past month.  For a little over a year I have become a serious book collector.  I primarily collect scifi, fantasy, and horror by minority writers, but I also have a good amount of speculative literature by other writers.  One of these days I’m going to up load my library to librarything.org.  But that is a big project and right now it is all about school.

My mom says I am the book whisperer.

But it is looking more and more, like I will have to let go of some of my books.  Like I said before, money is tight.  There are a few I am not dying to keep, so they will probably go up for sale on amazon.  When they do, I will be sure to announce it here.  My few, but still awesome, readers will be sure to hear about the scoop first.

Working on new material too.  To early to tell any details, but this summer, I started plotting out a new novel.  It is strange, I didn’t think I had any more novels in me.  I wanted to focus more on my short fiction. But I just can’t picture this story as a short fiction piece.  I guess that will teach me to predict my own ideas…

So far, August has been very good to me.

Apr 8

Out With the Old…

Yesterday, I finally got rid of my old computer.  It was sitting in my office, off in a corner getting dusty, when I realized it had to go.  I hadn’t used it in 4 years.  When I moved to my current place, I just dismantled it and never set it back up again.  Even in 2008, the computer was really old (10 yrs!).  I finally bit the bullet and bought a new machine.

But, I still held on to the old one.  I thought one day I might suddenly remember there was a file or something that I forgot to transfer.  But the only thing that was really important (my novel) was transferred to a flash drive before I moved.

And now it looks like I might move again.  So I have been paring down all of my things.  All my books that I have been saving for years that I will never read again, clothes that don’t fit, and old electronics that needed to be recycled, had to go.  I love decluttering, but man, I hang on to a lot of crap!  I found and old copy of Sweet Valley Twins in one of my book boxes.  I hadn’t read one of those in at least 20 years!  It has been exhausting, but I am at the point now where I see real progress.  Sometimes I think I just cart the same boxes from place to place and never open them.  Hopefully my next place, I can really settle in and unpack.

I still remember buying that old computer.  I worked in a HR office in Virginia Beach, VA for a summer for a whopping six dollars and hour.  I saved all summer and two weeks before I was about to go back to school for my senior year of college, I walked into Circuit City (Remember that store?) and bought my first PC.  I was so nervous driving home with it in the back seat, I went well below the speed limit.

I wrote my college final papers on that computer.  I composed a short story, Mr. Fear, that would set the tone for all of my future work.  My short lived life as a columnist about women in pro-wrestling (not kidding!), found its voice in that keyboard.  And of course I wrote my novel, my first as an adult, between February 2002 and June 2003 (Just the first draft.  Subsequent drafts took another year.).  So many important memories in my career were on that machine.  I wasn’t sad to see it go.  The work was important, not the machine.  The memories were good and they are enough.

 

Apr 1

Update!

It’s been almost a year since I’ve written.  I have neglected my blogging duties.  Not that many have noticed.  I am keenly aware that my traffic is a virtual zero.  Really, I’ve just been writing this for myself.  Originally, I was keeping this as a place to display my writing.  My family and friends were always asking to read some of my fiction, so I created this place to display it.

But I still haven’t put anything up.  I am a perfectionist, but I also think that I have been afraid.  Afraid to put myself out here.  My fiction is very much a part of myself and I haven’t had to will to share.

But since the last time I wrote, a few things have changed…

First, I mentioned last year that I wanted to go to graduate school.  Well lo and behold, I actually was admitted as a provisional student into the Master’s degree program at John’s Hopkins University.  I hadn’t been in a classroom in 12 years (I got my BA in 1999!).  It was fun and I loved every minute of it.  I hope to continue my studies (provisional means I need to be formally admitted before I can take anymore classes).  But school does keep you busy.  I had to get used to doing homework again! LOL!

It was also a change to have complete strangers read my fiction.  I was intimidated by some of my classmates.  Some had been published and seemed more accomplished than me.  But by the end of the semester, I had gotten over most of this fear.  Somewhere in the last few years, I forgot how much I loved the creation of a new story.  I forgot what it felt like to finish a new story.  In short, I think I managed to grab a hold of some of my old ambition again.

Second, I took up a new hobby/business venture.  Sometime in June, I had a serious anxiety attack.  It was brought on by my worries of money.  It just seemed like there was never enough.  I tend to read a few personal finance blogs and I realized that no matter where I cut, there came a point were I needed to earn more money.  So I decided to resell books on Amazon.  So far I have barely made anything, but it let me focus my energies away from my tiny bank account.  And my personal library is significantly diminished.  It felt good to get rid of the clutter.  I loved some of those books, but I was holding on to them for the wrong reasons.  I was never going to read them again, so why not pass them on to others to read and love?

This little venture also stirred me to become a serious collector.  I was in my local Friends of the Library store when I came across a copy of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.  Signed.  It was priced at six dollars!  I snatched it up and never looked back. (FYI, Margaret Atwood is my favorite author.)  I got the collecting bug, and I think it is a permanent condition.  For now I will only prowl thrift store and used book stores.  High end bookstores are not in the budget yet.

And finally, just a month ago my company experienced layoffs.  We are a small publishing company, so anyone leaving is noticeable.  For now, my job is safe…but I had to take a pay cut. It is not permanent (the pay cut), but no one can say when things will go back to normal.  I am, obviously, worried.  Hearing the company is in trouble is never fun to experience.  I am so glad I saved last year. I have a solid emergency fund, started my retirement savings, and have a good amount for grad school (so no loans).  Getting by on less is something I am used to, so I just reworked my budget for this year.

So that is all the latest news.  Cross fingers for 2012.  I think it is going to be an adventurous year.  And my birthday is on Thursday!  So wish me a happy B-Day!

May 29

Half Way

So we are coming up on the half way mark of the year.  So far, so good.  I reviewd the goals that I laid out for the year and I am pretty satified that I am still meeting them.

Goal 1: I’m still exercising and trying to eat healthy.  I’ve lost a few pounds, but not as much as I should.

Goal 2:  Still saving for the car.  Should have a good chunk by the end of the year.  So far my car hasn’t been giving me nearly as much trouble as it did last year.  Less money for repairs, means more for saving.

Goal 3:  I’ve applied to school, but no word on whether or not I am accepted.

Goal 4:  Still saving to boost my emergency fund.

Goal 5:  Definitly buying less stuff and using up what I have, instead of buying unnecessary things.

Goal 6:  Opened a retirement account and I am making automatic payments to it.

Everything looks good so far.  It helps that there are no major setbacks that have derailed me, like last year with the surgery, or the year before when I took a pay cut.  Really what I am beginning to remember is that slow and steady steps are what get you the best and LASTING results. I just have to keep chipping away at the proverbial “rock” and eventually I will get what I want.

On another note, I did create this page to put up my fiction stories.  I haven’t forgotten that original idea and I do intend to put some up.  That was partially why I changed the theme.  I guess I know how I will be spending my Memorial Holiday.

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