I totally forgot to write down something funny I was thinking about this week. Probably because not that much funny is going on.
The co-op is still struggling to work out a new location.
The hubs and I are fighting.
I still have pneumonia.
Every review of my new book talks about how they can’t wait for the next one.
Good luck with that, I ain’t writing it.
Good morning.
Things have been a bit mad here.
My son got the stomach flu last Thursday. Quick 24 hour bug for him, involving no fever and one episode of vomit.
You know what’s coming right?
I got the stomach flu on Friday. It was pretty quick but more like 30 episodes of vomiting in 18 hours. Yikes.
But wait there’s more….
When you throw up that much all the muscles in your abdominal area, including your esophagus get wore out. And little things, like say vomitous stomach acid, end up in your lungs.
Three guesses what happens when foreign material ends up in your lungs?
If you guessed Aspiration Pneumonia, winner winner chicken dinner.
Like I said, author down for maintenance.
I teach. This is not new news to you, I am sure.
I teach at a weird cooperative school where 75% of the students are non neuro typical. Lots of ADHD. Lots of ASD. Anxiety. Dyslexia. Dysgraphia.
And most of those are 2E.
Add in hormones and it’s a mad, mad zoo. But I love it.
Our current lease is likely not going to be renewed next year. Changes at our venue. They took two classrooms away this year, one literally the day school started. (Yes, we have a signed contract, no, they do not honor it.) Anyway…. If they do renew our lease they are taking another classroom next year. Shrinking our offered classes by 40% in one year essentially.
I got super nervous about this. And I started the process of getting another teaching job at another small school where a number of our coop students take classes.
They offered me an array of classes.
And then I realized, I didn’t actually want to teach there. I was hedging my bets. Insulation against the huge, grieving loss I would feel if the coop closed.
I turned down the classes at the new school, proposed 3 more classes for the coop for next year, and threw myself into the search for a new location that will allow us to grow rather than slowly choking us to death.
I may end up with no where to teach next year and that will break my heart a little, maybe a lot. For me though, it’s so much better to throw myself 100% into something that is a passion even if I lose in the end, than to tepidly hedge my bets and feel nothing.
A lot of folk I know have been up in arms about the young woman, 19, who died because her asthma medication was too expensive. It is a tragedy. No one should die for lack of medication that is readily available. (Side note, I read she had meds but chose not to take it because she wanted to save it for when she really needed it and died before she got to the hospital.)
But all of the commentary is aimed at CEOs of big corporations who are only after money. They charge exorbitant rates because people will try to find a way to pay it. Lots of people calling for big corporations to be responsible and reasonable with their actions.
Sounds good to me. Sounds downright perfect.
Except, at the same time, we aren’t holding the average man/woman responsible for their choices.
Take this young woman, from what I read, she lived in the UK, where asthma medication can cost between 100-500 dollars a year. (yes, I know they have pounds there, monetary conversion done for you.) That’s between 8.35 and 41.47 a month for inhalers, I assume the variation is based on how many you go through.
So if you need an inhaler to live, that puts it in the category of housing and food, right?
If you can’t afford your meds, you must not have any disposable income, everything must be going to higher priority needs like roof and food?
But she clearly had disposable income. Dyed hair. Eyelash extensions. All lovely things that are not NEEDS. At some point she chose to spend her disposable money on those things rather than her medication.
How can we demand boards of directors and CEOs act reasonably and responsibly, dare we say with civic interest at heart, when we don’t hold people accountable for their choices. Big corps are run by people. People with money, but people none the less.
I can’t help but feel as a society we need to look at the choices we make and take responsibility for them, or we have no chance at getting people who are more interested in profit than people, to do the same.
I give great dialogue and I have an excellent bead on human psychology.
I give credit for these things to reading, excessively, many genres, much non fiction. My entire life.
Minoring in film didn’t hurt my dialogue skills.
I majored in history in case you were wondering. That’s more on the psychology side. LOL.
#AuthorLifeMonth
#AuthorLifeMonth continues with a question about my hobbies. I’ve talked about this before. I crochet, I paint by numbers, I yoga.
I also travel. As much as I can. And right now I am in Hawaii, showing some friends who’ve never been to the touristy sites. No judgement, that’s what they asked for.
And what do I care? It’s warm and sunny here. After 10 days of being snowed in, I am all for warm and sunny.
#AuthorLifeMonth has got to be the strangest daily post challenge I have ever participated in. I have to wonder, do you all really want to know all this about me?
OK, the easy answer to dream author meeting, Agatha Christie. Boom, done.
But that’s pretty short and boring, after all, she’s dead. It ain’t happening.
My cuz had an all female heavy metal band back in the late 80’s early 90’s. They got invited a lot of places in LA. She told me something I’ve always remembered. “When you meet a celebrity you can either have an autograph or an experience.” Update that to today, selfie or experience.
And I get what she meant. When you meet a “star” and you ask for a selfie or an autograph you are putting them in the star category and yourself in the fan category.
By treating them like a human, you might get an interesting experience. Or they might blow you off, mileage varies.
So while I have met a number of “stars” over the years, I only ever once asked for an autograph and I immediately regretted it because other people saw the exchange and mobbed him and he had to leave the location. It was the first “star” I ever met. I never did it again.
And no, I won’t be sharing my experiences. LOL.
Laughing, seriously? There is no safe way to answer this without pissing someone off. I’ll make my apologies now.
I could say my hubs, but realistically he is my biggest fan in life. And the one most likely to tell me I’ve bitten off more than I chew, yet again. And that’s a good partnership, plain and simple.
I could list various friends, but what makes one more fan-ish that another. They love my books because they love me. They love the crud I crochet because they love me.
Family? ROFL. Don’t kid yourself, most of them have not read a word I’ve written. Although props to my cuz, Lance, who works his social media like a fiend every time I am up for an award and need votes or release a new book. That is some serious love.
So I think I’ll talk instead about a mom at co-op. I would not have said we were friends. We were acquaintances. I taught/teach her children. Her children like me. She heard I wrote and got my books. She read them. She then sought me out as a human because she liked my books. That’s a good definition of a fan, if you ask me.
#AuthorLifeMonth
I don’t like to listen to music when I write. I find it creeps into my work. The tone of the music seeps into what I am writing.
I remember one Nano, at write in at a local cafe where they really support local artists, they were playing a CD that was super repetitive. And when we all broke after a word war and looked at our materials, almost everyone realized they had written lyrics into the story from the repetitive music.
It’s not always that dramatic but…if I’m listening to something slow and melodic, I find it hard to give my conflict umph. Contrarily, if the music is pumping, I write fast, but everyone is pissed at everyone else.
No music for me.
Although, I don’t like silence either. Must be a hold over from my early days writing while my kiddo was at co-op and parkour. Noise is good.
#AuthorLifeMonth
I used to have a first edition of an Agatha Christie. I found it in a second hand shop. It was fairly beat up. It wasn’t one of my favorite books.
But it was a first edition!
We moved 6 months ago from a 3000 square foot monstrosity in the middle of nowhere to a 1200 square foot townhouse in the heart of the city. Better commute for everyone.
I have always been a declutterer. I don’t like too much stuff about. So when you go from 3000 sf to 1200, a lot needs to go.
I decided to let go of all my “prized possessions” that didn’t actually improve my life. Including my first edition.
#AuthorLifeMonth
T.A. Henry 