It has been more than a few months since I last rambled. I was in the midst of a free fall way back whenever that was. The demands of my day job pushed me past my breaking point and I walked away from everything I'd been working toward for twenty two years. My midlevel management job was making me worse than just frustrated, I was getting really depressed.
So, I did the thing they tell you never to do...I cashed in my retirement and stopped my mad dash toward heart failure or insanity. I found a housewarming gift from six years ago that I never used before; an umbrella beach chair with attached footrest. For all of April and May, I went to the beach everyday, rain or shine, and watched the water. I let the Atlantic heal my heart break and mend my tattered soul one wave at a time.
I wrote too. Sometimes at the beach and sometimes at my computer in my chilly house with hot coco nearby. I wrote a lot...one hundred and fourteen thousand words in one hundred and forty six days to be exact. There were two new stories at my free website and six Dirty Stories of the Month Club and work on two novel length manuscripts. Not bad for somebody in a free fall.
Reality is a cruel bitch though. Cash reserves need frequent replenishing to maintain positive bank balances. So, I've returned to my day job...kind of, sort of. I'm out of the manager loop and sticking with patient care. It is much more satisfying to help somebody regain their ability to speak than to worry about meeting impossible benchmarks. However, it is much more draining emotionally. My patients are old or very ill or both and most will pass away before another summer makes it around to these shores. They tend to know this and cling to caregivers like a lifeline. Some are looking for saving but most are hoping for just an extra minute of your time to shoot the breeze like normal folks do. Normal is in short supply at nursing homes. They crave it even more the closer they get to their final day. That makes it all the more difficult when they say things like, "wait'll next year...those Red Sox will be unstoppable." Sad and brave and crazy all wrapped into one sentence.
My next story on my free site is going to explore the place where I've spent most of my days for the last two decades: a nursing home. Wish me luck.
If you are so inclined to support my efforts then email me encouragement or hit my site hard enough to make the courter jump or subscribe to the Dirty Story of the Month Club. Club members don't know this yet but at Solstice they are getting an extra Dirty Story just to say thanks. Join now and you can get all the back issues and November, December, and Solstice too.
Okay first up...I miss these rambles, do you? Send us one if you are so inclined! Next, phair, once again a big THANK YOU. Oh and lots of luck on that upcoming story! Reminder to all, thank phair and check out her site!
Now back to it.
Peace, Health and Happiness.
Elisa
- BtVS
- Chapter 4 of What Goes Around, Comes Around by nightwolf5642 (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 6 of The Adventures of Barchick_85 by InmyDreamsFluffy (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 7 of Faith the Vampire Slayer by Swingline99 (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 42 of The War Is Over...But the Fight Has Just Begun by eagle11 (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 17 of Fallen by invalid_reality (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 5 of The Reckoning by invalid_reality (BuffynFaith.Net).
- Chapter 8 of Lost In Silence by SMunoz24 (BuffynFaith.Net).
Comics - Part 7, Comic 43 of Angels2200 by Peter Haynes, Nathaniel Savio, Jana Hoffman, & Kimberly Stewart (Angels 2200).
Guiding Light - Part 3 of July 5th by jaina47 (Burning City).
Law & Order: SVU/Law & Order - Chapters 4-6 of Alchemy & Chapter 11 of Scenes by miri_cleo, future_imp47, and twtd (Saffic).
Legend of the Seeker - Part 3 of Kings and Queens by seven_3_oh (LotS Femslash).
- A Good Fit by seriousfic (LotS Femslash).
- Part 9 of Memories Guarded in Blue Paradise by greatshow (LotS Femslash).
Stargate SG-1 - Never Enough Time (Unrequited 4) by Arcturus (Area 52).
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