Last weekend didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. I woke up on Saturday to find that I was chosen for an extra position at my summer job. This required another day of training, which was going to be Sunday. I originally put this day aside for writing and resting since I was (and still am) reaching a mental and emotional limit. My friend was over to see ‘John Wick 3’ and we went to a convention that an artist friend was at. Ran into my ex-wife who took my son there in his Green Lantern costume, but I don’t have any pics of those. Thought she would send me some, but she keeps forgetting and I didn’t think of using my phone. Hopefully, I can get a few this week. Got to play some retro games like ‘Final Fight’ and ‘Double Dragon’. Gave the newest ‘Super Smash Bros’ a try and found that I’m really only good with Link. Sounds like a good day, right?
My visiting friend and I were on our way to ‘John Wick 3’ after getting dinner at the nearby mall. We got to the theater and I realized I was in two spaces since I’m still not used to the larger car. Only had this one for 2 weeks. I get back in and find that the engine won’t turn on. I mean, I got no sounds whatsoever. There goes the movie because I couldn’t risk my friend getting stuck on Long Island when he had work the next day. We were waiting for a tow when my ex-wife called with the nightly phone call with my son. I was playing with the key while talking and the car suddenly roars to life. Cancelled the tow and we headed back home to be safe. This forced me to reschedule that training too because I didn’t want to get stuck far from home with only my ex-wife to call for a ride. Not thrilled about that, but it gave me my Sunday back and I did drive the car a bit while staying within free towing distance of the mechanic. I did a little writing, but my artist friend had a free pass to the convention. Decided to go and hang out a bit then wander around to buy a few things for myself and play some games. Should have done writing, but my mind was already brutalized from the rough events.
All of that was the weekend! The week was a bit smoother with me having to take Tuesday off to watch my son and then I had Wednesday off. Our districts didn’t match up for the Eid holiday. Plus side is that my car died again on Monday night in front of the house, so I had it towed. My son was excited to see how the tow truck worked and he was willing to take a long walk the next day when the work was done. The starter had died, so I had to pay for that and the ice cream as a thank you to the little guy for coming with me. I got to do some writing on Wednesday before getting together with a friend for lunch and then heading off to my son’s orchestra concert. He did really good considering he would still look at me and the ex-wife in the middle of playing. I don’t think he fell behind though because I think he has the songs memorized. We have to return his violin today, so I’m trying to figure out a way for him to get a little practicing in over the summer. I’d need to get an instrument and music, which will be tough. Even if he does it a bit over the weekend since summer camp runs 9-5.
What am I up to? The last two days of the week were busy since we’re preparing for finals and Regent tests. One more week of classes and then two weeks of testing. Then I get to rest . . . for a minute because my summer job starts the second to last day of school. I still need to find out if I can take the days off or I’ll have to rush to the camp after the final bell. My next ‘break’ is the July 4th weekend, which might be when I finally get back to War of Nytefall: Eradication. After that is the last week of August and then back to school, so we’re going to see how things go.
It might take all of my free time to maintain this blog, but I’ve got it scheduled through July right now. Gives me a cushion and I have topic lists for August and September, so Sunday will be the unknown. Might try to get most of that done by the end of June just to take the edge off. No idea when or if I’ll get to editing my book. The ‘fantasy tip’ book is going slow since I have trouble getting to my notebook. I’ve taken to reading during my lunch break instead of writing, but I might switch that up during the testing weeks. Not really sure what I do once the tests are done since I’m sure I have to stay until the end of the day.
I’m still trying to rebuild my life. Feel like I’m getting better at putting up a front, but it’s too easy for me to fall into rants and despair. I was talking to my friend last weekend about how divorces are very hard to explain. They’re so much worse than a breakup because your entire life gets divided. If children are involved then you have to focus on their mental and emotional health. You try not to talk about it too often, but it’s such an upheaval that you can’t avoid it. There’s a sense of isolation at times when I kind of want to slip away because I can’t explain myself. I was told that it takes one month to recover from every year of a relationship. That means I have a full year to go, but I’m having some doubts about the timing. It’s going to be a long road that backtracks at times. Hmmm, I ranted more than I wanted here.
So, goals of the week:
- Weekend with the son
- Return violin
- Set up his birthday party
- Schedule blog posts
- Write some of War of Nytefall: Eradication if the chance appears
- Contain working on puzzle
- Finish watching ‘Luke Cage’ Season 2 and then . . . Iron Fist 2? I might switch to ‘Good Omens’ for a break from Marvel Netflix.
- Full day of camp training next weekend.
Oh yeah, I should mention this again. I don’t think I’ll be able to use my phone while I’m at my summer job. There might be a few break periods, but I’ll only be active in the morning and evening. So, comments will be slow during the week and I don’t know if I’ll be able to visit blogs that often by the time I get home. We’re talking 9-5 and summer heat, so I’ll be dropping fairly early. I’ll do my best. Doesn’t help that the WP Reader isn’t behaving on my phone. A few blogs come up as ‘not followed’ and I’m not able to reblog or comment. It’s frustrating.
Wait . . . I sold 6 books today? Wonder how that happened.
Happy Friday to all the Story Empire readers! Today I’m veering a bit off course from a regular post format at the end of the work week into the topic of managing a newsletter to gain better results (hopefully). I’m relying on some recent information, some of which is from my mass mailing provider, Mailerlite, so I include some links at the end of the post as resources.
