Retirement chronicles

 

So on Thursday morning, we drove six hours to Roanoke, VA on the first leg of our journey to Nashville to see Eric and Natalie and tonight, go to their first live show since the pandemic.

Except today we are back in Philadelphia, having driven all the way back home Friday morning at 4:00 a.m. when Jake got deathly ill.

Without going into it, he’s okay now but he’s almost 12 years old, has had an insidious ear infection all year, and maybe we didn’t use the best judgment taking him on this trip.

Of course I’m devastated about not going to Nashville but I have nothing but time now, I will fly down there shortly.

Anyway, that’s my sad story for today.

Other than that, retirement is going great.  I’ve gotten into a solid schedule of daily writing starting at 5:00a.m., which is why you’re seeing less of me here.

I’m playing around with a new idea that has me excited, a love letter to someone who is shocked to receive it, causing a series of crazy, unexpected life changing events.

That’s not the official synopsis but I am still working stuff out. 

We’ll see.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I sent out a few chapters of a book I wrote on getting older called What the Hell Happened and I got very favorable agent reaction - “really funny and well written, but….

not breaking any new ground.”

Woo, that stung.

As you can imagine, I’ve been thinking about that a lot.

Obsessively.

And I got invitations from two agents to send future work.

So, onward!  I’m fired up now.

Will I try another agent, though, or go at it myself?

Don’t know.

I do know one thing.  I would never publish without hiring a professional editor.

I have never read a book by a self published or small press author where I can’t tell if they’ve used a real editor.

It’s beyond embarrassing when they don’t. 

Just don’t do it.

Yeah, so we’re in a groove now at Casa Slick.  I write for around 3-4 hours until Gary wakes up, and while he drinks coffee upstairs for an hour, preparing for his rigorous 😂😂😂 day, I watch my food tv shows.

Omg, Top Chef.  I’m not giving any spoilers but not only is this my all time favorite season, this week was my all time favorite show.

I cried.

Woo, speaking of crying, I’ve been doing that a lot lately.  Between Jake and the state of our country.

Listen, I’m (mostly) done discussing politics here, but if you go back and read my posts between November 3-January 6, I was hysterical with fear over what I perceived could happen on said January 6.

Yeah, I was right.

So just a warning, I am ten times more positive we are getting #2 in August.

I really hope I’m wrong.

Oy vey do I.

Let’s see, what else.

Oh yeah, I do miss working. I think ideally in September I will look for something I can do a few hours 1-2 days a week downtown to get out of the house so I don’t get too loony.

Nah.

Hahaha, seriously, I might.  

It will depend on Gary.

If at any point he makes me watch Matlock with him, I’m outta here and working a day or two.

All kidding aside, I wasn’t going to get into this, but I am noticing more and more how the pandemic has changed us and how Gary and I have gotten even weirder and less social.   

I have to force myself to be around people and for the most part, other than the kids and a handful of friends, I still can’t do it.

I can’t stop my brain from overthinking everything and now it appears Gary has joined the club.

We talked the entire ride home from Roanoke.

Usually we listen to music and halfway home on long trips, he starts yelling at me to talk to him to keep him awake.

Under pressure to keep us alive, I suddenly run out of interesting things to say.

“Boy, that cheese was good last night.”

Nope, this time, when not talking about Jake, we discussed everything from Gary protesting outside of Fox News all summer to painting our upstairs bathroom bright, aqua turquoise with an old school diner black and white checked ceramic tile floor.  And new retro style fixtures, etc.

We are so doing the bathroom.  

I think we’re either going out today or tomorrow to buy stuff to start the process.

And now to bore you further:

We’re having blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight.

I’m beyond excited.

Okay, that’s enough of my silly life.

Have a great Saturday!