The second half of January has been absolutely lovely. I’ve been mostly living my life instead of posting about it (save revision kvetching, which is obligatory) so here’s a quick catch-up post.
I turned 28 last Friday. 28 is my lucky number, which I hope means this is going to be my year. (My friend Melody says she’s sure in some language "28" means "published." I will love Melody forever for that.) I received several nice phone calls and emails, and got to spend the evening with my Writer Girls, who are always awesome. Sarah, who is also mired in revision, made me this, which makes me all kinds of happy:
My revision progresses. I thought I was done with chapter one. I gave it one last read through and realized that no where in the chapter can I tell what my character is feeling. This is a problem. So back to work on it I go. (This revision is eternal. I’m resigned to that.)
We’re going low-budget on birthdays at our house this year (Drew’s is coming up in February), but Drew got me pickles and pistachio pudding, which are two of my very favorite foods. I was happier with those than I would have been with pretty much anything. Drew=Awesome.
I came home from Writer Girls to six inches of snow that hadn’t been there when I left for Salt Lake. The snowing had stopped, so I dragged Drew out into the snow for a midnight walk. Everything was beautiful and bright. If it has to be winter, that’s exactly the kind of winter I like it to be. I like to think it’s an omen. My year indeed.
All that snow is my excuse for only having gone running three times so far this winter. But hey, three is more than none, which is an improvement over my normal winter exercise. Also, those day lights are working. I can get up and function every day at an almost reasonable hour. That’s ten dollars well spent. (Also, the lights are likely to last me the next ten years.)
As of today I’ve finished all of the 2009 financial tasks. (Only took me the whole month.) Today was income taxes, which were surprisingly easy to do. I’ve learned a lot since last year, and Quickbooks is turning into my very best friend, since it practically did the Schedule C for me. This means I’m starting to be able to breathe again, especially since I’m now certain we have several more months before securing another income source becomes imminent. (For those who haven’t been following, that’s been the theme of the last year. Every month or so I go through the finances and consult Drew; we figure I should start looking for a job in a month or two. It’s been 14 months of "in a month or two," and I still haven’t had to job search. Much as I dislike the stress of being in limbo, I so love working from home.)
Drew’s given about a billion quotes this last week, which means February is likely to be very, very busy on his end. We like busy, since it means getting paid.
We’ve also signed a contract to do more Schlock minis. Drew has the sculpt almost done, which means soon it will be on my desk rather than his, then out the door where it will multiply and return to us in pewter, rather than green. Some days the process still takes me by surprise.
And for today’s non-sequitur, this is my fish:
I bought him in December when I was having a horrible day. Some girls shop for shoes; I bought a three-dollar fish. His name is Goreshade, as in the bastard. So far, he doesn’t seem to have litchified himself. Maybe he’s still working on the phylactery.
