Dress for Success

Ladies, when was the last time, if ever, you wore a suit?

For me, it has been over twenty years. The last time I wore a suit was in the 80′s and not even for interviews have I needed a suit…until now.

Why?

Perhaps it was the change in location. Miami, Florida verses Portland, Oregon. Perhaps it was the change from a big corporation to small, more family run, businesses. Perhaps it was just the natural evolution of business wear to casual business wear. Or perhaps, the e-trade world we live in where people are a voice, an email signature, rather than a face.

Joely Sue Burkhart talked about dressing for dieting and writing success last year. Loved that post. And, as I mentioned in my comment, getting dressed each day is part of my Flylady routine. I’ve never been a slob but my last two positions (not counting the animal hospital) were more jeans/Dockers and blouses than skirts/dresses/suits!

Yet here, in Sin City, it seems to have shifted back to the professional dress code. Perhaps that isn’t so strange after all. Miami = tourist destination. Las Vegas = tourist destination. Portland, not so much.

I have an interview this afternoon so this has been on my mind, thrust into the foreground with my continued job hunt. Like many, I’m in a catch-22. I don’t have the funds to go out a buy a business suit yet I need to dress for the position I want, not the one I have…well, had.

Apparently, the current thinking is to focus on suits and/or separates (jackets, slacks, and skirts) in gray, black, navy, or tan. Stay away from open-toed and slingback shoes, keeping the heels under four inches, in fact, kitten-heels are recommended.

What is business wear in your neck of the woods?

A New Year, a New Round of #ROW80

And it must be time for a new set of goals.

2012 went out with a whimper for me. Even with fabulous posts like Shan Jeniah’s Relax. Revel. Appreciate. Repeat and Joely’s Fake It Until You Make It (that spoke to me on many levels), I lost steam somewhere along the way and no amount of kicking my own arse (a challenge in and of itself, let me tell you) got me going again.

Perhaps, simply NOT taking part in ROW80 was the culprit.

I did get bogged down in the social media and the blog reading/commenting to the point of NOT writing. And did that muscle atrophied fast! Add EDJ on top of family commitments… Sigh.

It’s a new week. A new month. A new year. A new start.

In the mindset of the KISS principle, my goal this week is:

• Write 250 words (or edit for an hour) every day

Call it my test mile, if you will.

Additionally, my goal for this Round is:

• Complete one lesson per week from Margie Lawson’s Deep Editing: The EDITS System lecture packet.

In the mindset of the Flylady, my overarching plan is to add more goals each week…baby steps and the rebuilding of habits.

Do you have a new goal or resolution for 2013?

Oops…Where’d the Week Go?

Sorry for the unexpected blog hiatus. I thought I had posts scheduled for the week. Senior moment, I guess.

Are you ready for a new year to start?

I sure am.

It’s not that this last year has been particularly bad. I feel like it’s going out with a whimper on my part. I certainly didn’t accomplish as much as I’d hoped. Probably a lack of stick-to-it-ness on my part.

In the midst of family visiting, the wee beasties playing more video games than probably healthy, catching up on my reading, and car shopping I’ve realized I need to get back into ROW80. Yes, the visiting blogs can take a lot of time but I usually learn something and I love giving support to others. I’ve been horribly lax about blog visiting, even my reading through Google reader has been down since the EDJ, and I need to get back on that horse. Mostly, ROW80 keeps me more accountable on the writing end of things than my trying to wing it on my own.

Round One of 2013 starts on January 7th…and I’m in.

My goals for this last week were to:

1. Continue with my Flylady routines, adding a new job each day. — Mostly a success.
2. Spend an hour each day working on writing in some form or other. — Snicker. I did Morning Pages two days, I think.
3. Social Media and blog reading/commenting — Sadly, not even a blip on my radar.

I’ll aim for the same goals for this week, with a focus on that third one. Oy. I really must get back in that saddle.

To Maria and Angela and Melanie and Julie and Nicole for your amazing blog support this last month despite my failure to reciprocate — I appreciate you beyond words! To Joely for keeping me going with your D&E emails — Thank you!

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

Baby Step ~ Sunday Summary

I’ve been a slug. Not writing. Not visiting blogs. Not being very active on the whole.

Oh sure, I can say I’ve been slammed at work. True. That my work schedule is all over the place thus hard to develop a routine. Also true. I can even say that the ol’ home life is crazy. But when isn’t it? A husband, Seven scouring mice, Six crazy schedules, Five gold rings (I’m sure I could find if I tried really hard), Four boys making their lists, Three large rodents (two guinea pigs and a rabbit), two turtles, and a Beastie Girl…it almost sounds like the 12 Days of Christmas, LOL

I woke up Wednesday with “this has to change” running through my mind. Then I saw this: Fake It Until You Make It. Yep. Needed that kick in the pants. Even my own post on Thursday, Seven of Water, talked about saying ‘no’ to the good, in order to say ‘yes’ to the great. Yep. Needed that kick in the pants, too.

Time to get back to basics.

Wednesday, I forced myself to do my Flylady routines, something I’d let slide when I took the job and realized just how crazy my schedule would be. I even had a short Twitter conversation…shocking, I know. I even did some decking of the halls. It’s still not up to the usual level of decorating but at least we’re looking a bit more like Christmas around here.

Thursday, I did my Flylady routines, made sure I drank some water, and I OPENED a file. Got sidetracked working on said file but at least I opened it!

Friday, I did my Flylady routines, drank more water without it being a struggle, and did some baking.

Saturday, I was a slug again though I did do my Flylady routines and some reading.

And it feels great to actually do something. Baby steps. I need to be accountable again.

My goals this week:

1. Continue with the Flylady routines, adding jobs each day
2. Spend an hour each day working on writing, I have to open a file and do something even if it’s just re-reading what I have
3. If I get the daily writing done, spend an hour visiting blogs and/or social media

How do you pick up the pieces?

Sunday Summary

That in which not enough writing or blog visiting or social media updating has occurred.

And I must say, I’m bummed about that.

The day job — I haven’t decided if it is eeeevil yet — has a very random schedule, think retail, and I’m learning it’s not my thing. Hats off to those of you who work the crazy hours and thrive! Plus there’s the whole trying to fit everything in on the days off. I’d grown soft, LOL.

I have been reading, lots of stand around and wait periods this week, mostly novellas. I finally got around to Joely Sue Burkhart’s The Zombie Billionaire’s Virgin Witch — She’s donating to the Joplin, MO rebuilding effort so picking this up is for a good cause, not just a great read. So here’s a mini for y’all –

Why I picked it up? :snort: I pick up everything Joely writes.

What I liked? I thoroughly enjoyed the paranormal spin on a category romance. Seriously, I’m not a zombie fan. Only Joely could get me to read a zombie story and enjoy it. All her trademarks are present: fascinating characters, sacrificial love, tantalizing sex, and not pulling punches when it comes to making her characters work for their HEA.

What I disliked? While this story was fun and had the emotional ride I’ve come to expect from Joely’s stories it perhaps wasn’t as intense. And I can’t even say that’s really a dislike.

On the writing front, I do have two — count ‘em, two — sets of characters clamoring at me. One smart aleck character even suggested I work on his story with one hand and the other guy’s story with the other! :headdesk: But isn’t that always the way? You get crazy busy and the creative comes alive. I did work on both a bit this week, just not as much as either my characters or I would have liked.

That Man is on vacation, thus, the blog will have a short hiatus this week. I’m wishing all y’all in the states a very wonderful Thanksgiving! Catch ya on the flip side (25th or 27th).

A Coyote Sunday Summary

I can hardly believe it’s only a week away…Coyote Con.

I wrapped up the schedule this week/weekend, there’s a link on Schedule tab of the main site.

Joely added a FAQs page.

And be sure to check out the Panelist page — we’ve got an amazing list of people taking part this year!

There are also quite a few giveaways planned.

Attendance is free but you’ll want to register early so you can work out any kinks you may have with chat room software.

I managed to write, Morning Pages, for my half hour each day, six out of the last seven. Not bad considering I opened two of those days which meant me dragging myself from my nice, comfortable bed at 4:30 when I needed to wash my hair, LOL. Luckily, work is just 10-15 minutes away by car!

I really haven’t worked on any of my WiP, though I did open a file Yeah, Archie is glaring at me. He owns a pub, he knows how to glare. In fact, his glare has sent many an employee running to at least LOOK busy. He’s not buying my attempt.

Sunday Summary

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya…”Let me ‘splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

LOL

Backstory:

About two years into our move to Vegas for That Man’s job, he was laid off. Luckily for us, he was able to land another job within a month. However, he took a pay cut to do so. At the time we were just happy he HAD a job and figured with belt tightening and some creativity we would survive until the industry picked up and he was once again earning a decent wage.

That Man is extremely generous, with his time and talent and often monitory. I love this about him. He’s also somewhat old fashioned and has always dreamed of supporting our family so I could be a stay-at-home mother. The amount of his pay cut prevented this from being a reality yet he struggled, often silently, to maintain it.

Fast forward to this summer:

In a week that could have been a scene from the old Airplane movie, y’all know the one, “I picked a bad week to quit X,” it was hammered home just how much That Man had been hiding.

Thus began my job hunt. Oy. The economy sucks. There’s not a lot out there, especially for someone who has been out of the work force for five years. Positions I was more than qualified for weren’t interested because of the employed gap. Positions I was qualified for but in an industry I didn’t have experience in weren’t interested because of that lack of industry experience. And then there were the scams!

I’ve never encountered so many scams. There were an extremely depressing couple of weeks where the only responses I received were scams. PSA: while there are some legit reasons for a business to run a credit check on employees it is NOT something that should ever happen PRIOR to your interview. Ugh. I lost count of the number of “positions that would require me to handle large sums of cash and it was company policy to run credit checks.”

I got mad too. I flagged every last ad that resulted in one of these scam like responses.

This week:

Finally, while I was in Oregon no less, I was called in for a legitimate interview. Whew. I had a first interview on Thursday, a second on Friday, and on Saturday I picked up my uniform. I start Monday!

So, now I’ll have to juggle my writing around not just family stuff but work. However, it was like the entire house sighed in relief when I got the call back Friday that I had the job.

That was some of the personal stress going on behind the scenes. The stuff I hadn’t been ready to share.

ROW80:

I’m still on the fence about ROW80 R4. I think I’ll get this first week of work under my belt then see where things stand.

Coyote Con:

The panels are in place. I’ll be working with Joely this week to finalize the schedule so be looking for it to appear on the Coyote Con site soon. The chat rooms are up, you can register through WordPress, Facebook, or Google. It’s coming together!

What’s happening in YOUR world?

It’s a 3-Day Weekend

Whatcha doing here?

We made it through the first week of school. The wee beasties like their teachers. However, we aren’t done with the supply shopping apparently and #1 is missing lunch with his friends because he’s in yearbook again this year. Transportation, well, let’s just say I hope they get their act together sooner rather than later. Fairly typical.

I meet my goal of commenting on 5 blogs and at least one update on Twitter and Facebook…even if it was all done on one day, LOL. I did not get around to updating Goodreads, perhaps later today.

I spent some time talking to possible panelists for Coyote Con. For an idea of the types of panels Coyote Con is offering, Joely has a tentative list in the forums. If you’re interested in being on a panel, shoot me an email and I’ll get you on the list.

I also got to play around with schedules and agendas and fun Excel type stuff. Of course, we’re still early for a lot of that but I do enjoy it, LOL.

Coyote Con is shaping up nicely. I hope to see you there!

Hope y’all have a fabulous weekend.

Bubble and Squeak

Is that a fun name or what?!

This is something I grew up eating. Every visit to my grandparents involved eating this at least once. Strangely enough, it wasn’t something I attempted for my family…prior to the Olympics.

We were watching some food around London type show and they featured Bubble and Squeak with Bangers. Yum, and fond memories. The wee beasties thought it sounded worth a try. As any parent knows, strike when the iron is hot!

(That’s actually a Bratwurst, which I had on hand, not a Banger. Now, here’s the crazy. That Man, who is of German ancestry, can’t stand Bratwurst. Who knew? LOL)

First off, there is no true recipe for this dish. It is very much a way of using leftovers. But I remembered having a hand written scribble of Nana’s process. So here goes…

I didn’t have leftovers so pulled out a package of California blend frozen veggies, thawed, and ran a knife through to chop.

Approximately 4 tablespoons of butter, or 2 of butter with 2 of olive oil
Onion, finely chopped
Leftover veg, finely chopped
Leftover mashed potato
Salt and Pepper
Clove of garlic, minced, if preparing for dinner

In a large frying pan saute the onion, add veggies and garlic, turning to warm the veggies. Add potato, fry about 10 minutes, turning a couple times to coat with butter — Goal is to brown the outside edges like hash browns, not to burn. Then press mixture into the base of pan and cook 1 minute, flip and repeat. This is the part where you’ll see where the name comes from

My memory of this dish was that it came out of the pan whole, almost like a pancake, but I wasn’t able to achieve that. So I may have been impatient — no surprise there — didn’t have the heat high or low enough, or was simply using the wrong frying pan. The lack of presentation didn’t effect the taste…yum.

Wee Beastie Rating:

Note: This is also a great dish for breakfast, or breakfast for dinner, and lunch when served with a fried egg.

(Psst, Joely, no one complained about the dreaded cauliflower, well, except for the one wee beastie who didn’t like the dish, LOL)

Tuesday Book Talk

Let’s talk books!

Just Read

Senator, Mine and Druid, Mine by Kerry Adrienne

Why I picked it up: Louisa Bacio featured Senator, Mine back in April and it tickled my fancy. Then she featured Druid, Mine in June — Hello! Lover of all things Celtic here. — and I won a copy. I understand there’s a third one, Pharaoh, Mine, due out later this year.

Note: I’m doing both together as they are short, only 40 or so pages, and I read them in one sitting.

What I liked: Ms. Adrienne did a nice bit of research and wove the info in without burdening the stories. Both involve magical time-travel, one of my favorite sub-genres. The heroes were delicious. The heroines took charge of their lives by signing up for a single night of passion. These books are part of a series called 1 Night Stand but stand alone.

What I disliked: Quite frankly, the pricing. I’m all for authors getting paid, don’t get me wrong. However, I still use a 100K paperback as my pricing guideline so forking out almost half the dollars for approximately 10% of that 100K doesn’t sit well.

Reading

The Bloodgate Warrior (The Bloodgate Series) by Joely Sue Burkhart

Why I picked it up: Joely is a must read for me, I devour everything she writes. This is the second in the Mayan Bloodgate world she created. The first is The Bloodgate Guardian and reading it will enrich the reading of Bloodgate Warrior but both stand alone. She’s also just re-released a free prequel Bloodgate.

What I like: The amazing character depth Joely brings to each and every story. The tantalizing sex, the exploration of BDSM, blood ritual, heroes finding pleasure in giving pleasure, heroines strong enough to ask for what they want (even if it embarrasses them) and not settling for less.

I love this world. The Mayan details are well researched and seamlessly woven into the story. Each element of the story moves you forward, pushing toward the scene that (as an insider I know) inspired this story. And we’re left with a nice tease for a possible third book.

What I dislike: I wish it was longer, because I devoured it in a single afternoon, but I respect Joely for staying true to the story.

Will Read

Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

Why I picked this up: I’ve been following Jennifer Estep’s blog for awhile now, thoroughly enjoy her reviews. This has been one of those books I’ve been meaning to pick up for ages so when I needed one more book to qualify for free shipping I snagged it off the ol’ wish list.

What I expect to like: The elemental aspect of this book/series. If you’ve read any of my tarot posts you know I’m drawn to the elements. With an opening line of, “My name is Gin, and I kill people,” well, I expect to enjoy Estep’s voice.

What I expect to dislike: I can’t think of anything at this point. This will be my first foray into Estep’s fiction.

The seventh book, Widow’s Web, in this Elemental Assassin series (of a contracted ten) is due out later this month. I’d better get crackin’!

• And I’m looking forward to Mistress of the Stone by Maria Zannini coming August 28th. Check out this cover –
  
• August is full of goodness with Weighted by Ciara Knight also due this month.

What are you reading and loving at the moment?