Thursday, March 29, 2012

Item #75 week 10

After 10 wonderful weeks working towards my goal I've finally made it. Coming in at a cool  48 inches, my first ever afghan is finished. Grandma Sarah would be proud, I wish she could see it.

It's not free of mistakes, excuse me, character. But it sure is warm, it's unique and it's all mine. There's nothing like being able to cross off something on my life list. Ticking away my completed goals.
Item 75, Xed off!
Will I knit another afghan? Not in the near future. For now I'm going to stick to some projects that are shorter. But knitting another one is always an option for me, knowing I did it once before.

Please enjoy my new blanket's first photo shoot.

 I really do love this blanket. It's soft, very warm, and is just the right size!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Children's book update

I enjoy processes. Starting from scratch and climbing up to a goal. Writing and publishing a children's book is a process. I can't say my goal is getting published, my goal is trying.

I felt like I let my book take a backseat for little bit so I gave myself a deadline of two weeks from yesterday to have my editing finished and have my cover letter written.

I needed that push to get these things complete. It's easy to think I can never make it perfect so with that notion I am going to be confident in how it is and move on to the next step.

With the generous help of a few friends and their great suggestions my editing is as good as I need it to be to start sending it to publishers. I've been scouring the Internet for publishers and the ones I am attracted to right now are ones with submission guidelines on their website. Ones that actually will accept manuscript that are submitted by an author themselves, not an agent.

From this point on I am going to submit my story to as many publishers that I can find with those above guidelines. Here is my first one.

 
My manuscript, cover letter, and self addressed stamped envelope

Will Andrews McMeel Publish be the one?

Monday, March 26, 2012

Sugaring and Shearing

When I was young I always loved going to Ella Sharp Park for the Sugaring and Shearing Festival. I have missed it the past two year due to living in Morocco, but today I very happily went to the festival with my parents.

I enjoy this festival so much because Ella Sharp park is one of my favorite places in Jackson. I love the park and I love the museum because I love this history that is there. I enjoy going through the old school house, cabin, general store, and farm house to be able to step into the past, if only for a couple hours.

I watched a few sheep get their summer hair cuts and learned how maple syrup is made. Maple syrup candy is one of my favorite things so I bought some in the general store along with some maple tea and genuine maple syrup. In a world where so much of the food we eat is not what it used to be I enjoy eating something I know is real.

I got to watch a sheep dog demonstration. It was really amazing watching the dog round the sheep and seeing them realize exactly what they should be doing and where they should go. I do love watching dogs work, doing something that they are bred to do and that they love.
 It was such a beautiful sunny day and a perfect 60 degree temperature made it ideal for enjoying the outdoors. My stamp of approval couldn't be better for this day. 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Item #75 week 9

I'm getting close to being able to type an X next to another one of the items on my life list. And close to having a new cozy blanket to use. I've been trying to hurry since the weather has taken such a summery turn, I want to finish this before it's too hot to use it!

Remember this picture of all the yarn I had in rolls ready to knit with?
Well now I am down to one lone roll of yarn ready to be added as the final piece of my afghan.
I am going to be done with this very soon and in my next update you will be seeing a completed blanket. Look how far I've come!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The good

Too often we focus more on the bad things rather than the good. Why do we do that? Do we like to wallow in our own self pity? Are negative emotions just that much stronger than positive ones? Negative emotions tend to leave scars no matter how big or small.

My life is by no means bad nor is anything in it but I have a few things going on that I find frustrating. I seem to let certain negative emotions outweigh the good. And just as a general rule, we shouldn't do that. Even if more bad things happen to us in a day we should choose to remember the few good things.

Use the good things as a fuel to keep you up. The other day as I was monitoring the first floor of Jackson High School a student walked by and in a sly, smooth sort way said "you look nice today." My first thought was that is was inappropriate for a student to say that to a teacher but then I chose to see it as one person giving another person a compliment. There's nothing wrong with that. It made me smile.

Today as I was working out at Planet Fitness a woman came up to me and told me how good I looked. She was giving me a genuine compliment about the work that I put into my body. Now it just so happens these two good things had to do with my looks and I don't need these things to make me feel good, I just need some kind of connection to make me feel good. Connecting with a person to make them or myself laugh, make them happy, or just to give them something good to remember at the end of the day.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Writing a kids book

I really want to publish a book. Not for the money. Not for the fame. I just love to write and I want to see a book with my name in the author's spot. I have written a children's book and now I'm trying to get it just right. I have been looking up publishers online and trying to find out what it is I need to do to submit my manuscript.

I want you to be with me in this process so check back for periodic updates about this. Right now I am still making sure I've chosen all the right words and all my punctuation is correct. I have a writer friend of mine looking it over so I can hopefully get some good constructive criticism.

I'm not sure how long this process will be and I don't care. Honestly I'm not even concerned with the destination but rather the journey. I want to see what it feels like to try to publish a book. I have heard it can be brutal, but since I don't have my sights set too high they can't fall too far.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

RPCV update

After just about two months of searching for full time work here in Jackson I finally found it. Well sort of. I will be working full time, as in I will be putting in 40+ hours of work each week but those 40+ hours won't be doing the same thing.

As I have come to find out that folks of my generation (hardworking, tech savvy, innovative, and resourceful), pardon my French, are getting the shit end of the stick. I am finding that we are doing work we are overqualified for, a lot more is expected of us, and we are expected to do it for peanuts. But we can't complain because at least we have a job right?

With that rant out of the way I will say exactly what I am doing. I am currently subbing at Jackson High School. A while ago I met the school's English as a Second Language teacher in the teachers lounge. He overheard one of my old teachers talking to be about my time in Morocco and asked me if I spoke Arabic. I said yes, the Moroccan dialect of it at least. He told me that he had a student from Yemen and that he could not find anyone to speak Arabic with him. I said I'd love to meet him and see what I could do, but I was apprehensive that my dialect would not match up with his.

The next day I met the 16-year-old sophomore and I was shocked to realize that he understood much of my Moroccan Arabic. The ESL instructor immediately saw me as what he had been looking to find. I never in a million years expected to use my Moroccan Arabic in Jackson, MI. To wrap this story up I have been hired by Jackson High School to work with this student 12 hours per week in his health, algebra, and English classes. With my three years ESL experience I am confident I can improve his English somehow.

The administration at Jackson High is also determined to help me have work in the hours that I am not working with the Arabic student. I have been taken on as a building sub, which will mean that I will come in everyday and rotate in classrooms if a sub is needed and can't be found. If variety is the spice of life then this work will be pretty spicy.

I am also working part time for Jacksonopolis.com. Writing some stories and working as a community manager helping to direct the right stories to the correct writers. This is great because I am getting some experience that will keep my on track with my career goals.

I'm proud that I am paying my own bills and saving some money. I'm still holding down the fort at my parents house, but I really can't complain about free rent.

I still don't know what is next from here. Come summer I won't have a job with the school anymore obviously and this is not something I hope to continue doing in the fall. But right now I am just embracing the chaos.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Item #75 week 7

This week I went to the knitting group at Cuppa Coffee in Art 634. It was something fun and different for me to do, and was a good place for me to show off my work. The women were really nice and friendly. I got some tips on fixing my mistakes before they happen. A couple were knitting socks and it's something I would like to try next.

My knitting project now serves as a blanket for my lap while I work. It is very warm! Can't wait until it's finished and I can get it off the needles to really start using it.


It's bigger than my tape measure now, but trust me it's 30 inches, 20 to go!