Keeping busy

I thought I’d be bored by now. I’m finding out a lot about myself during this forced respite. Such as:

-except for losing 1/3 of our income, this isn’t that bad.
-being out of work doesn’t mean you aren’t busy
-there just aren’t that many jobs, of any kind to look for

First off, I’ve applied for about 4 different jobs I’ve found on various journalism/pr/advertising job sites. I’ve been e-mailing all my contacts and letting them know about my availability. My husband and I went to a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness, we had a great time! We were invited by one of my new PR friends. A wonderful lady who has taken me under her wing and has been feeding me with invaluable information, job sites, groups and organizations and names to talk to. I’ve been doing it all.

This month I will be going to an informational breakfast/seminar, a prowriters meeting and I’m still hunting down other groups to throw my newly made business cards at.

I’ve also been hired to do some “punch up and editing” for a new website’s press release. Not much money, but hey, work is work. I also contacted the local CEO of the OC Registers community papers and let him know I was available for freelancing locally. He said he has read my work and really likes my style and would be thrilled to “use me”! Plus, he’d like me to write up a sample column for a monthly article for the area I live in. I’ve done the mock-up and will send it over today sometime. Again, stinko pay, but the bylines are invaluable.

Another fun thing-I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a speaker for VibrantLives. We are a volunteer group of speakers for those of us on ENBREL. This is my “saving grace” medication for my rheumatoid arthritis. When asked, I go and speak-usually to a group of rheumatologists and their staff and tell them my story and how much this particular drug has done for my health.

One of the team leaders gave me a call and asked me to book November 10th. They’re sending me to Thousand Oaks (a very lovely community outside Santa Barbara) and speak. I readily agreed and let them know of my new found availability for not only speaking, but if they’d like to use me to write up press releases, that I am in fact, for hire!

Hey, this is the same organization who hired a limo and swept my husband and I to Santa Barbara, paid for our dinner at a five star dinner and back home. They also sent me to Omaha, put me up at a local Hilton, paid for my very nice Omaha steak dinner at a wonderful restaurant (I don’t really eat beef, but I was told to break training and try it) and all meals. They were also nice enough to reimburse us for the gas we used for my husband to drive me to the airport and back home.

I love speaking in public. I’m a ham and want all these doctors to know just what these two shots a week has meant to my independence.

I’ve also been feeling so much better that I’ve been walking over 2 miles a day. Thank goodness-my old lady leg is finally firming up. This could be due to the heat and sweat, but I’ll take the improvements and enjoy!

So there you have it-we are not as well off financially, but in all respects, even after two weeks, I’m thinking this is one of the better things that has happened to me in a long time.

I’m physically more capable, writing more and still looking forward to what comes next.

Hopefully all of you feel just as positive.

Lost My Job

I am no longer employed at the day job. Financially, this really SUCKS! It wasn’t the best paying job, it certainly wasn’t a writing job and it wasn’t a dream job, but it helped pay our bills and allowed me to write on the side.

The bosses came down last Friday, about 3:30. Okay. I thought when they both walked in “this is weird“. You see, the wife never came to this store unless there was some sort of La-di-dah function. The husband was supposed to be with us every Tuesday, but he usually did a 15 minute “drive-by” sometime during the day and left in a hurry.

If you’re thinking, this was a shock-you’d be wrong. This day job was in the home remodeling/improvement business. So, if real estate and the market are in “the toilet”, so is this business. The three of us who ran this “trade only” store knew that business had dropped dramatically, but several people quit/retired/out on medical leave at the retail store and hadn’t been replaced, so we thought of ourselves as okay. Not safe, but okay.

After all, we dealt with a very select group of interior designers, custom home builders and contractors who made it clear they would never go to the retail store. Yet, we went from having a normal daily take of \$15–20 thousand a day to less than that in a week.

Back to my loss-the owners came in, shut my office door and said in a very choked up manner that they no longer could afford my position. They handed me my check and paper work to collect unemployment. Which I promptly had my daughter help me sign up for within hours of my “release”.

The wife told me to go home and have a good cry (which it seemed she was already doing for me) and call her after the weekend with any questions I might have. Well I did, seems a weekend is long enough to forget me-she took 3 days and another phone call and e-mail from me to talk about my profit-sharing money. I hate having to chase people down. Damn, excuse my French.

Anyway, I’ve decided that this was the shove I needed. Time to stop writing for mere peanuts and really push myself to start writing full-time. I got “to work” right away.

By Saturday morning I had contacted all the PR people that have helped me locate subjects for all the articles I’ve been writing for the OC Register, told them all about losing the “day job” and asked if they had any suggestions, need for a free-lance writer or have heard of any jobs to please think of me. I sent notes to writer friends, who sent the “congratulations” and told me to “go for this with both hands and hit the ground running”. Which I think I have.

I’ve applied for 4 PR jobs, signed up and put my resume on 3 different journalism job boards, I comb the media job area of Craigslist daily and have been tooting my own horn all week.

Okay, I haven’t actually heard back from someone offering me a job, but I would imagine this is going to take a bit of time-even if the job outlook for all fields weren’t so bleak.

As for the unemployment pay-woohoo (hint of sarcasm coming), I’m practically in like Flynn-I am probably going to receive a whopping \$325 a week. My daughter and a close friend warned me I wouldn’t actually see a check for about a month.

My daughter told me I should call my doctor and ask about disability. I asked “why would I do that?”

“Mom, you’ve got RA, CRPS, degenerative discs in your neck and possibly fibromyalgia, you of anyone should qualify for disability!”

I don’t like the idea. I know I’ve not been feeling “my best” this year, but as long as I can move, I will. Is that really weird? I’d like real opinions here people.

The funny thing is, I’ve only been out of work a few days and my RA has improved. I haven’t had to take an anti-inflammatory all week and only 1 pain-killer. I’m thinking maybe working a full-time day job, plus free-lance writing and moderating the magazine forum may have been more than my body should have taken on!

I’ve said all along-the day job was getting in my way. Look out world of journalism, here I come!

What do you wear for daily jewelry? I saw this question on a message board. Truly, I didn’t even answer the thread. Just read it and some of the responses and moved on. One of the people who post on this board frequently wrote me an e-mail and thought this would make an interesting subject for my column here.

At the time I agreed, but for some reason I was actually ahead of myself and had 3 weeks worth of material “in the queue”. But I have been keeping it on the backburner.

This morning when I opened up my trusty computer here, I decided I really didn’t know what to write about-it’s happened before, but something usually comes up. This time what came up was this question-

What do you wear for your daily jewelry? If I want to be technical (and lord knows where that takes me!), the actual question was: Do you wear your wedding rings?

Both are interesting questions.

Finally, I’ll answer-yes, I have always worn my wedding band, my engagement ring and when my husband bought me one-I added an anniversary band to the daily wear. I’ve worn it swimming, during surgery, walking around downtown LA-doesn’t matter to me! Those three rings mean as much to me as the man who bestowed them on me.

What other jewelry do I wear? A watch is a must. Although it’s not all that necessary. Wherever I go there is some way to know what time it is. My computer is telling me it’s 8:19, my cell phone has the time on it as well. If I’m in my kitchen-I have the clock on the range, the microwave, the coffee pot and if I look due south-the cable box and the DVR and VCR have the time on them. I also wear one of 3 necklaces. Okay, I tend to wear them for about 6–8 months before changing them, but I do wear one.

At the moment, the one on my neck is a silver heart within a heart from Tiffany’s that my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day.

Oh, there’s my tennis bracelet. Again, my husband gave it to me for our 25th anniversary and it means a lot to me. Doesn’t matter if I’m making waffles for breakfast or cleaning out the dishwasher-these items are on my body. And a pair of diamond studs-17th anniversary.

My husband buys me diamonds with less hesitance than buying food.

I do take off my watch and bracelet to go to sleep, but the rest are on my person.

If you think I’m “dolled” up, you should see my mom! She wears her wedding bands, her mother’s engagement ring, a diamond ring that belonged to her best friend. The lady had passed away and her son knew my mom would appreciate having the memento. She also wears a Star of David that my dad gave her as an engagement present. About two years ago he bought her a diamond heart, so she has been wearing them both.

She wears a watch, but no earring or bracelets.

My sister wears her wedding set, but she has a lot of jewelry, so she changes things daily.

I don’t know how she keeps track. She’s also really good with numbers. I’m not sure if there’s a correlation between being able to do math and making sure all of your jewelry gets equal use, but I thought I’d throw that fact in-I have trouble doing simple equations with the help of a calculator.

And now for your input-What jewelry to you wear and is there a story behind the pieces you’ve chosen?

Lately I’ve had the pleasure of learning about some pretty fascinating things-treatments for adult lazy eye, new less invasive ways to do corneal transplants and treat breast cancer, a program to help those with early stage Alzheimer’s and even correct flat feet. These are just a few to bring up.

Maybe it’s the old “teacher” in me, but I’ve loved every minute of the research, the interviews and the writing. I’ve also loved reading the comments and the e-mails I’ve received from readers who are in some way touched by what my words have meant to me.

It’s been my pleasure to talk to people from all walks of life who are willing to share their experiences at first just one-on-one with me-knowing all along that I’d be sharing their stories with people in Orange County, California where I reside.

Due to the internet, it amazes me where my stories end up! When I wrote about “healing touch” therapy-it seemed that about three websites picked up the story from the OC Register and ran it for their members to read. When I wrote about hypnotherapy to treat teenagers I had several people send me notes thanking me for writing about the subject and just as many who thought I had to be kidding.

No I wasn’t kidding and yes, even the American Psychology Association recognizes the benefits of its use.

When I wrote about a podiatrist who specialized in a new procedure to cure flat feet and that he was starting a fund to help give underprivileged kids the surgery-I received about 10 letters from kids (and one daring young adult) asking me to put in a good word to the “good doctor” on their behalf.

My favorite was the discreet notes sent via the newspaper about a story I did about female sexual dysfunction. Yes, I wrote a story for an Orange County newspaper on this subject and yes it ran in the print version-not just online.

Several women wanted to thank me for letting them know that I had given them the courage to make an appointment with their doctors to discus their pain and ask for help. And now, they even knew who to go to in order to get this help.

I’m really hoping that the two stories I’ll be sitting at and composing this weekend do a lot of good.

One is on a program to help Alzheimer patients and the other is on the two latest procedures on treating breast cancer.

Both are very positive stories, informing all of us that if we know of someone we love with either problem that there are new things to try and do-all with very positive and assuring outcomes.

That’s what I love about writing-the wonderful people you meet, getting the word out to others and learning absolutely fascinating and useful information.

Now last week, I was in quite a mood-Yana knew this day on fab 40 was a must for me!

I think I’m tired.

This week I felt that if I saw the “I Love Lucy” episode about vitameatavegamin tonic I would have called the number on the screen and ordered not a bottle but a case.

Maybe it was the head cold that hit last Thursday and slid outward to my ears Friday afternoon. Maybe it was the 9–5 job, the grandkids spending 3 days at the house during the week (even though our son Adam and his fiancée Sam did most of the duties during the day), the free-lancing articles that kept me interviewing very interesting people and trying to write up the subject matter or the never-ending pile of books that publishers have been sending me to review-whatever, or even the snoring husband-whatever, I’m exhausted.

Now everything I mentioned, I love doing and I don’t want to stop doing any of it. I had a three day weekend and worked the entire time. If I wasn’t writing, I was running errands, cooking, baking, reading and trying to be an amateur counselor.

This week is our daughter’s 4th wedding anniversary. Normally I’d have them over for dinner. I am so not doing that this year. First off, I have 3 books to read, 4 columns to write, 3 book reviews to submit, an article on Alzheimer’s and M-power and one on two of the latest forms of breast cancer treatment. Oh, a dentist appointment and the usual household errands. This is just my list for Saturday and Sunday

And as I mentioned before:

I AM TIRED!

I’m betting I’m not the only one who feels this way-I’ve been taking a mental poll of those I talk to. Like anyone, I always say “how are you?” at the beginning of a conversation and e-mails-most of the answers come back as “Really tired, how are you?”

We all do too much. I’m thinking a lot lately that slowing down would be so much FUN to try.

Yes, a week without going to the day job, a week without loading my cart at Henry’s or perusing the aisles at Costco (or Vons), a week without getting up at 7:30 a.m (and 6 a.m. on the weekdays) on the weekends to “hurry and get to our errands” and a week without my desk calendar looking as if I should staple another row of boxes onto the right side. This would be so nice.

Of course I realize somewhere around day 3 I’d be bored silly and wondering “what the heck was I thinking?” But still I’d like to try this experiment. And I do mean staying at home, not doing a “staycation”, or leaving on an actual vacation-just clearing my calendar.

I do not want to use it for doctors appointments either.

Here’s a thought, let’s all decide to try an experiment (No, not for a week). Let’s chose a day of protest. We will not do anything that could be remotely defined as work, enjoyable or not.

To Life!

What’s the saying? Life is what happens when you’re making plans.
It’s true, we know that. Every year between Christmas and New Year’s, my day job closes. We don’t get paid for this, but it’s nice to know I get it. Somehow, we always wind up in Las Vegas.

I hate Las Vegas. The last few years we went mainly because our daughter and son-in-law have a time share and it didn’t cost us anything for the room. We don’t gamble. It’s too cold to do much walking (and then there’s the ensuing “foot” problem that I have take into consideration) and the shows are very expensive. We wind up shopping and eating.

Last year, 2 days before we left, I came down with the worst cold (and later infection)I had had in over 3 years. Really romantic. It hit my lungs and my ears-I couldn’t even sit without a case of severe vertigo. Here we are a year later and I still can’t move my head to fast or the room spins. And yes, I’ve seen a doctor about it-let’s just not go there.

This year, I’m digging in my heels-I want to see something other than my breath and one the many outlet malls.

With our “special” Starwood card we’ve been looking at Phoenix or Tucson. San Francisco is a possibility, but with the wind and cold and my lack of going up and down the hills with the needed amount of grace-the desert seems a lot more friendly.

We’ve been to Phoenix and Scottsdale many times, but not as a couple-this might sound crazy, but we took our summer vacations there when the kids were in grade school. Yes, it was murderously hot, but we were able to stay at the Hilton Resort in one of their townhouses for \$69 a night, so we loved it. Plus, the kids could swim until 10 at night-they thought it was great.

Tucson has some wonderful hotel choices. We have enough bonus points to have 4 nights at a luxury resort that’s close to Old Town, the mountains and quite a few tourist areas. And, my own personal requirement, a gym and spa. I can get my physical therapy work in, walk (or attempt to hobble around) and then possibly splurge with a much needed massage. And according to the Tucson Tourist site, they have 300 days of sunshine a year. That fact and the heavenly bed-I’m already there.

My guess is we’ll chicken out on the Tucson part and opt for Phoenix. Same financial choices and it’s much less time in my husband’s Crossfire. Hey, nothing says “romantic vacation” like a trip in a sports car for two.

Where does the part about life happens while you make plans? Let’s see-2 years ago, we went with our kids-our daughter was 7 months pregnant and was supposed to be on bed rest. For some reason, her OB sanctioned this trip-she gave birth a month later.

Last year, not only was I sick as the proverbial dog, but my sister-in-law decided to visit so we had to rush home. Our daughter and my husband’s mother cannot be in the same city together, so we had to contend with that situation. Plus, she was pregnant again and wound up in the hospital. Not exactly the way we pictured the week together.

I’m determined this week will be different. We’re going to be healthy, see something new and come back to nothing life-changing.

Will I get my wish? I don’t know.

This might be a great subject to make a cyber-pool on.