A Month of (mostly) Small Victories

[lapacifidora]

A year after graduating from university, I've realized the only reason I used to like September was because it was the first month of school. As a non-school-attending adult, September kind of sucks.

And yet, this last month did, in its way, present me with a series of small victories. In an effort not to behave like an ungrateful bitca, I've decided to inventory these victories. They are as follows:

• Sent out at least 10-12 cover letters & resumes (Previous total for period from August 2009 to August 2010: About 5. ::is lazy/scared of rejection::)
• Got a call back from a company regarding my submission of cover letter & resume; is charming/articulate during phone call & secures an interview
• Bought a portfolio so I have something in which to stick several examples of my journalistic writing
• Actually put stuff into portfolio, which is more that I thought I would
• Got job with company I interviewed with
• Made some fun new LJ icons for myself (see current icon)
• Posted *8* whole chapters of my "Community" fic to Milady/Milord, which considering I've been unhappy and exhausted is pretty good
• Got a couple of awesome new work-appropriate shirts (OK, so the parentals bought them for me, but I'm counting it as a win)
• Have put up with assholes at new job, despite being told to basically plagairize press releases :::facepalm:::
• Learned how to write a press release (I think this is less a victory than a neutral event, but it's not a completely wasted skill, so I'll put it in the win category.)
• Met a lovely Welsh lady who works at the Public Library downtown and had a lovely chat with her
• Not completely sure, but I think I've lost some weight
• Am thisclose to getting a new, awesome job, which even though it's only going to start as part-time, I'm still super excited about (But in case I don't get it, I'm going to continue to treat it as a goldfish that I don't know will live or die. If it does die, I haven't named it and given it a personality so I'll not be too upset. If it lives, I'll give it a name and make a funny little hat that I'll pretend it wear.)
• My sister-in-law is finally pregnant after four years with her first child (This one is not so much a personal victory or a small one - it's actually pretty huge for her. But I'm genuinely excited for her and my brother, and I only hope everything goes well, considering she has existing health problems.)
• Finally finished reading Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo." (OK, this actually happened yesterday, Oct. 2, but I'm counting it as a September thing because it hasn't been a full week in October yet. And it only took me two months to read it - normally it would've taken less, but between work and exhaustion, I didn't want to read something as intense and depressing as this every night and I didn't always have time.)
• Am about half-way through Rhys Bowen's fourth installment in the "Royal Spyness" series, "Royal Blood," where in Lady Georgiana travels to Romania/Transylvannia to represent HRMs at a wedding only to stumble across an old school friends' apparent vampiracy, a dead Bulgarian field marshall and Darcy O'Mara's continued "is he a spy or isn't he?" shtick. (Again, also mostly something I've managed in the last two days, but I did read the first chapter a couple of weeks ago, so technically I started it in September. Also: How much do I love these books? Too much. And how frustrated am I that they have not yet been made into a "Mystery!" series, a la The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries or something from Agatha Christie? These books are ripe for being dramatized.)

So, all in all, September didn't totally suck. Some good things did happen. However, in the spirit of assessing what I could've done better, here's what sucked monkey balls:

• The new job: Plagairism + arrogant, humorless bitch executive director + inefficiently organized company = unhappy, miserable, stressed me
• The weather. OK, so it's Cleveland, and we have three seasons: Frozen, Sauna and Road construction. But now it's turned into autumn, and I'm trying not to catch a cold.
• Driving downtown and back five days a week
• Paying $5 a day for parking - and not getting paid all month because a) I wasn't in the system and they couldn't add me for two weeks, b) I was told as soon as I was in the system, I would be eligible for all pay to date (WRONG), and c) No one could tell me why I wasn't getting paid until nearly the end of the next pay period. So now I won't get paid until the end of this week.
• Somehow getting the release date for Gail Carriger's third novel, "Blameless" wrong (It comes out in November, though I could've sworn that it was due out September. Meh.)
• Not having time to hang out with my friends
• My friend's grandmother dying, and me deciding it'd be a good idea for me to go to the funeral for moral support (well, the going to the funeral wasn't a bad idea, but it's only the second one I've ever been to, and she was a wreck, which I'm not used to dealing with)
• Not knowing if I'd have a shot at the awesome new job I now have a shot at
• Not having time/inclination to start knitting the socks I was given yarn for
• Having to decide if I value my personal/professional ethics more than I do money.

I also have been wondering if the only reason I was ever interested in Hot Photographer was because I recognized that he'd never look at me. It'd kind of fit with my existing behavior patterns.

Still, I think there were some significant, if tiny, victories this last month. That said, I still kind of wish September had been unfairly sent to federal prison so it could've been fucked in the ass like I feel it did to me.

Comments

[ravenecho.livejournal.com]

New chapters sounds like excellent motivation!

I'm kind of addicted to reading it lol.

How many more chapters do you reckon it has left?

[lapacifidora.livejournal.com]

Um. I'm working on no. 39 now, and I can't see it going for very much longer. Maybe 45 total? Depends on how quickly I'm able to get the story across. It is winding down in my head, although in my timeline, it's Nov. 27, 2010 and the final chapter of the story proper will be just before Christmas 2010. And then the Abed in my head has been bugging me for the last 10 chapters that he wants an epilogue narrated by him, and I decided that will be a New Year's Eve thing. So, maybe 46 if you count the epilogue?

[ravenecho.livejournal.com]

Wow.

That is commitment. I can hardly sit still long enough to reply to emails lol, let alone write multi-chapter fanfic like what you've done.

I look forward to reading the rest of it. :)

[lapacifidora.livejournal.com]

That is commitment. I can hardly sit still long enough to reply to emails lol, let alone write multi-chapter fanfic like what you've done

Um. Or it's the fact that my family called me 'Little Miss Chatterbox' after the character in the book because apparently I talk too much. :7