In the last two weeks, several medium-to-big good things have happened that have buoyed me along to where I am today, on the precipice of the weekend and excited for what’s to come (which, granted, isn’t that exciting – an overnight at my mom’s and a weekend of cleaning – but I’m looking forward to it, you know?)
Bear is on his fourth week of consistently positive behavioral charts, and hasn’t had any incidents at school in nearly a month. He’s also back to reading every night and is excited about getting new books every few weeks at the library. The last two days, actually, I awoke to find him up in bed, already reading. Normally I wake up to him playing with LEGOS – which is totally legit and a great thing that I totally encourage – but it was still a wholesome change of pace.
We finally settled contract negotiations at work! It took almost six hundred days, but we have a contract, and I will be getting retro pay in the next few weeks – which won’t be a ton, but will cover a lot of what we lost when Kira’s hours were cut.
And speaking of – my wife, near the end of January, had a work debacle that I’ve vaguely alluded to, which resulted in her hours being cut from thirty-six hours a week to nine. Yesterday she got a call saying a new position opened and she would be working forty hours a week starting today.
When I tell you, the relief that I felt. Like a weight lifted. Like I finally let out a breath I had barely known I’d been holding.
So yes, the last two weeks have been overwhelming positive personal news. It’s a nice change of pace from the previous month or two.
As a result, and as always happens when I feel a sudden endorphin rush, I am just all aflutter with stupidly ambitious ideas, so:
I’m writing a book, guys.
This is not for NaNoWriMo, this is not taking the place of my plans for that, or NaPoWriMo, or A-to-Z Challenge. It’s something that I’m going to work on in a separate space, at a separate pace, and on a separate schedule, but it is something that I am most certainly working on.
It’s not going to be a novel or anything narrative – we have well and truly established that that sort of long-form narrative storytelling is not my forte – but instead will be about keeping a sketchbook, generating creative ideas, building an art routine, etc. I know a million people have done it before but I don’t know if I’ve seen advice geared towards hobbyists from an experienced hobbyist? Someone whose lifestyle might actually be similar to that of the intended audience, someone whose bread-and-butter isn’t the art world?
Either way, I’m excited about it. It’s a big project with a long-term timeline; I think it’ll be an interesting challenge if nothing else.
All’s well in my own little corner of the world. I’m greatly looking forward to staying at my mom’s tomorrow night, taking Bear to the really nice park downtown with my brother and our pseudo-niece and and nephew on Saturday, and having a day to myself Sunday to get some serious chores done (is it weird that I actually really like cleaning… but only when I’m alone in the house? Yes? Is that a ‘yes?’ It’s probably a ‘yes.’)
Take care of yourselves and each other. Cheers.
All Your Crooked Heart 