Be Careful What You Wish For

Posted on June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by Dusty Roads

About a month ago, right before I left for my Tennessee vacation I received a promotion at work. I applied with some hesitation because I was in pretty good place. I wasn’t working very hard and I was making an OK salary. I didn’t have to start work until noon and even then I didn’t have a whole lot to do.

I admit, I was a little bored and I wouldn’t mind the chance to earn a bit more money for those extra things but I was also very aware that I am willing to slow down a bit. I was getting quite a bit of subtle pressure to apply along with assurances that once I mastered the learning curve I’d only be working about 4 hours a day.

So I applied and I got it. Yay! It came with a raise and a chance to earn bonuses. It also came with a fast pace and tons more work. After the first week I really wondered if I’d made a mistake. I was really pushing to keep up and more work just kept coming. I never had a chance to learn the ropes. It was sink or swim and I was dog paddling like crazy.

Now, one month into it I’ve begun to see the pattern. I’ve almost got a hold of the crazy workload. None of it is rocket science. I don’t have to be an attorney to do this job. I just need to keep an eye on the calendar, a lot of what I do is time sensitive. But I am busy and that was one of the things I wanted. And yes, I’ve already made some of the bonuses.

The downside is that I’m really busy. I started out supporting 2 agents and have just added one more who is working in another state altogether. So I’m learning the ropes for a different state. Another learning curve.

I find I am mentally tired at the end of the day. My hobbies, which are cerebral, from photography to reading to writing this blog, have taken a back seat. I just can’t concentrate by the end of my shift. I usually end my day chatting with the senior agent and it turns into a giggle fest because we’re both so tired we’re punchy.

So I apologize if these pages suffer. I’m having a blast with the new job but I’m not sure I’ll be keeping up the every day pace of my posts. 🙁 That makes me sad because I really wanted to meet a goal of posting every day but I guess no post is better than a bad post.

I’ll keep trying but forgive me if I miss a day here and there.

Housework , if you do it right, will kill you

Posted on January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Housework , if you do it right, will kill you. This is a quote from Erma Bombeck. Do you remember her? She was a very funny writer. February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996. She would take a look around her and see the humor in everyday lives. In the course of her career she wrote over 4000 newspaper columns about the life of a midwestern suburban housewife. Her columns appeared twice weekly and were read by 30 MILLION readers in 900 newspapers! She was also the author of 15 bestselling books, most collections of short stories about life in the suburbs.

What made me think about Mrs. Bombeck? Quite frankly, envy. I loved her writings. They always made me laugh. I remember one titled “The Grass is always greener over the Septic Tank”. You know, that’s true. We had a regular jungle of healthy green plants growing over ours behind our house. If only the lawn had looked half as lush.

Her stories were short, humorous and contained a kernel of truth. I never would have given that green grass a thought if she hadn’t pointed it out.

And what about those big holiday meals? For years I’ve been saying I cook all day and the meal is over in 30 minutes! Well Erma beat me to it. Her quote was :Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

So here I am staring at the blank computer screen with a major case of writers block. I haven’t been anywhere lately, the weather has been horrible, (it’s raining cats and dogs and pitch black as I write this) and I just couldn’t think of a thing to say. In desperation I thought I could gain inspiration like another blogger friend did from the alphabet.

She wrote a blog post for each letter of the alphabet. Author Sue Grafton is wring a whole series of fictional crime novels known as the Alphabet Series (A is for Alibi, etc. ) so it seemed like a good idea but the only thing that I could think of that started with “A” was Arthritis. Unless you’re a doctor I would think that would be a very painful subject.

That’s when I thought of Erma Bombeck. How did she do it? How could she look around and see something not only worth writing about her everyday surroundings but write it with such humor. She could take everyday events and routines and have wonderful observations. Another example: My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?

My hat’s off to you Erma Bombeck. If I can be only half as original and funny as you in my feeble writing attempts I will consider myself a success!

NaNoWriMo is Here

Posted on November 4, 2013November 4, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Don’t know what it means? Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. I know it always rolls around in November but I thought it was a challenge to bloggers to post at least one post a day, no restrictions, no minimum, no maximum, just be dedicated enough to post at least once a day.

For a part time blogger that can be tough but the point of the exercise is to create a new habit..or so I thought.

I decided to look it up for once and I found out the NaNoWriMo really stands for National Novel Writing Month! It was started to encourage budding athors to pursue their dream of writing a novel, maybe not the GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL, but who knows what’s locked inside if you never get started.

Now reading novels is more my speed than writing them but that doesn’t mean I don’t embrace the idea of a month in which we make an attempt to post daily. One of the quotes I found says NaNoWriMo is all about writing something you want to write, just for you, without worrying about others sitting in judgment, so it’s an exercise in truly expressing yourself — which means, if you think about it, there really isn’t a way to fail!

Pretty cool idea, huh. I know I try very hard to make my posts interesting. When I don’t have first hand experience I put a lot of research into the subject. Sometimes that takes more time than actually writing the post so when, after all that, no one sees it or reads it, it can get kind of disheartening. I’m sure all of the other bloggers out there feel the same way.

Oh I know, you’re writing for yourself. You don’t care if no one else reads it. Don’t kid yourself. If you really didn’t care you wouldn’t put it out there for everyone to see. You’d have a private diary or journal.

So hop on the band wagon. See if you can post something every day in November, short or long, good or bad, just post something so you can be a part of NaNoWriMo.

Happy Writing!

The Daily Blog

Posted on November 5, 2012November 5, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I got an email from WordPress the other day. November is blogging month. I forget the actual acronym but the point of the excercise is to post something on your blog every day. Yikes!

Maybe if I didn’t work full-time I could pull that off but somehow I think my entries would become a bit mundane…8:am alarm went off 9am coffee and toast…etc.

They say if you don’t have anything to say post pictures. Ok so here’s a picture. It has nothing to do with anything…I just like the Peanuts Family. 🙂

They suggest you post your stories of going “over the river and through the woods ” for the holidays. That won’t work for me because I work most holidays. Let people with young children have the day off. Those kids won’t be little forever.

So the bottom line is this time of year is hard to find good stuff to post, especially when my theme is “travel related” for the everyday person. So like most everyday people I don’t travel 365 days a year. I get my 2 vacations and some little mini vacations but by this time of year I’m ready for a rest.

This year in addition to working between 40 & 50 hours / week I’m trying, in my spare time, to get the holiday card line together. I’m trying to be sure my local supporters get their photo shoot for their family portraits to go on their 2012 Christmas cards.

It’s not leaving much time for writing so I don’t think I’ll be able to meet the “post -a-day” challenge from WordPress. I’m sure you’d rather have quality over quantity.

Are any of you bloggers that follow me trying to meet that challenge? Let me know. I’d love to know what you think of that goal and if you are able to meet it. Maybe it will help me on those days when I just don’t have anything of substance to share.