That's My Bix!

My lunker day kind of is turning into a lunker week.

I’m finding it exceptionally difficult to rally and honestly to care about stuff. I don’t know why the fellowship thing is bugging me as much as it is — I guess maybe because I had allowed myself to imagine it and to believe the administrators who kept telling me that I had such a good shot at getting one of the biggies. Ah well. I’ll get past it and recenter my energies toward something else.

That something else is, at the moment, just keeping busy. Today I taught my class — we finished the last story in our current round of workshops and did some focused writing. It’s weird to watch them on Zoom all writing in their notebooks but also, delightful. I love watching their writer faces, their brows furrow, they make fun expressions. After that, I asked them to flip back into their older work and practice reading aloud to the class to learn from the experience of reading something you haven’t practiced. It was a good exercise for everyone and I’ll need to remember it if I ever get to teach a fiction workshop again.

After my class, I took a meeting with a CFO of a big deal tech website. You’d think I would have learned my lesson, right? And yet, no fellowship and no possible job opportunities and someone needs to keep the Frenchie in the manner in which he is accustomed (which involves many shipments from Chewy.com containing beef industry by-products upon which he meditates nightly). I probably suggested too little pay but also, it’s doing something I’m really good at and I know that if it’s too much money, I’ll twist myself up and keep doing it even when it sucks. I got the gig and the guy didn’t trip off my creep radar, so we’ll see how it goes.

After that, I rounded up the pug for her annual Senior Lady bloodwork. However, Mister Olepants refused to let me leave with the pug — he insisted he was also going, so I clipped him up and brought him too. That’s when I remembered that the AC in my car isn’t working very well and the car had been closed up in the 80 degree afternoon — immediately the two short snouters started panting. I cranked down the AC and tried modulating the temperature as best as I could but never really succeeded. And due to All This, we couldn’t actually leave the car once we got to the vet — they asked you to call and let them know you were there, they came out and retrieved the animal from the car and then after awhile, the vet called back to discuss her status — gained two pounds in two months, yeah, me too Avi, me too — and then took the payment over the phone, after which they brought her back out.

Doing so much (ha!) in one day after the lulls of living in Pandemia was a bit of a kick in the pants. I also chatted back and forth with a new potential agent, who is very interested in reading my full manuscript (which isn’t ready for real professional eyes! Close but not yet!) and also arranged for our agents in the Motherland to go check out another house. This one, I dare say, feels very much like The One. It checks basically every box and has many of the design things that delight me. Ultimately it’s not only more money than I’d like but actually far more house than I’d like too — I’ve been complaining about the giant-quality of our Vegas quaint ranch out here in McMansion Land, and this new possible house is even bigger. To the tune of almost double, which is, let’s be honest, very ridiculous for two people and three tiny animals. That said, I could have every little weird area I need, including a vaulted ceiling writing studio with a view of the yard AND its own fireplace, PLUS a pottery studio in the basement, while Esteban could have a dedicated Dorkathalon space with its own kitchenette AND a giant second garage space for his wrenching and hammering occasions.

It sounds like a lot of people are jumping on it, from our realtor’s impressions, but we’ve sent my sister and brother-in-law to go check it out tomorrow and if it doesn’t smell like someone’s been hiding bodies in the attic, we’ll probably put in an offer. Ultimately, I’m refusing to get het up about how perfect this place is, though, because if we don’t get it, then meh, it was too much house for us anyway, and if we do get it, man, I’m glad I talked to Big Deal Tech Website and am about to be their new best Swiss Army Knife.

Tomorrow is another weirdly busy day — mostly because I flaked on answering my students back for their requested one-on-one meetings until today, so I have three of them tomorrow, PLUS I have to go pick up our grocery order, which is great because today I had to pop a can of evaporated milk and use it in my second latte. How bad could it be after all of that dark Jack Mormon espresso and a ton of sugar free Torani syrup?

Not recommended. Not recommended at all.

Tomorrow, I’ll be rigging up some iced coffee with my patented survival trick of adding the cold brew concentrate to a Caramel flavor protein drink. (I do not get kickbacks for pimping this particular protein shake but I with iced coffee concentrate it tastes JUST like a melted Frappuccino, I swear.) It’s delicious and also has the added benefit of following one of my own rules to survive the Panicdemic.

See what I did there? How are you doing on your own restabilization plan? Share your story in the comments!