My last day working at AMD was last Friday. I start my new job at Homeaway.com next Monday. This week off has been absolutely glorious! I've had a chance to read, write, take plenty of classes, attend a few meetup group meetings, work on the www.ClassAddicts.com website, lay out by the pool, and craft. Tomorrow is Friday and is my last official day off. I could get really used to not working with all the interests that are yet to be explored and/or revisited. But I'm very excited about starting the new job. I'll start getting nervous on Sunday morning.
Abby's health has remarkably improved since the vet prescribed steroids. She can't stay on them, but at least now it's quite certain that she's suffering from allergies. Bosley's back is back to normal. Ruby is Ruby...I came home to find that she'd lifted a pair of basketry scissors off my end table and taken them over to another room to chew the protective slip cover off of them. Well, at least she didn't chew the handles so the scissors are intact and there's no blood so she must not have cut herself.
One of the meetup groups that I've started attending is Reading for Writers, and I'm actually making progress on character development and plot outline for the idea I have for a novel! That has me pretty jazzed. I'm thinking that I'll continue with the meetup group, reading all the assigned books and participating in the meeting discussions, and hopefully next year around this time, I can push myself to do NaNoWriMo since that seems like an effective way of getting that dreaded first draft out of the way. I'm hoping to find a few trusted friends that read voraciously to assist me along the way in terms of feedback and troubleshooting. So far I've read Ann Lamott's Birb By Bird and Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel. Donald's book was extremely informative to me and it really helped me see how much I need to learn about novel writing. First of which is that I'm seriously unread! There were very few book examples that he sited that I've read, or have even heard of before. I hope to compile a list of the books that Donald sited throughout his book, and put them on my audible wish list. I also need to compile my notes from his book so I have a synopsis of points that I can look to as my novel progresses, so I don't have to read the entire book again to refresh my memory.
But all that lovely stuff has to wait right now as I have 3 new classes that I'm teaching in October and of course being the procrastinator that I am I've waited until the week before the first 2 classes to start the instruction manuals. Two are done now except for photos. One manual is 19 pages without the pictures. The second manual is 14 pages before pictures. I haven't started the 3rd manual yet, but that class isn't until the following weekend thank heavens! Yet, with the new job starting on Monday, well, it's going to be "interesting" if I don't get all the manuals done before this Sunday when I teach 2 of the 3 classes for the first time.
I'm enjoying my basketry classes the most at the moment. And I really feel like I'm progress in terms of skill which is always gratifying. I've only had one negative class experience recently, but another teacher, Rita Ross, was able to help me learn what I failed to learn in that class (not her class!) so that is the important thing.
I'm really hoping the class addicts website takes off and that other class addicts in Austin will use the forum and share info. If I'm the only one that has 17 classes scheduled for the month of October, well that just proves I'm the biggest class addict of them all and deserve the right to own the website! I ordered business cards so that should help get the word out! Maybe I'll offer some sort of prize/drawing for new members, or for submitted forum posts, or for pictures posted or something. Heaven knows I have plenty of things that I've made sitting around the house that could use a new home!
I'm finally starting to meet people that aren't co-workers too which is great. The meetup groups are seriously helping on that note. It is so enriching to be around others that are smart, creative, talented and motivated!
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