Rejected!

Today marks the receipt of my first-ever rejection letter from a publishing company.


It's a weird feeling. Instead of being sad or angry (I was naturally disappointed, but just a little bit!) I was instead inspired. As soon as I got the rejection, I high-tailed it to my favorite website ever and submitted not one, not two, but four different pieces. It somehow managed to light a fire under my ass!

I even, in my sudden ambition, submitted a piece to The New Yorker.

I'll admit, I've only read The New Yorker maybe once, in a doctors waiting room or something. But a good friend of mine read Times Square, 2011 and said (and I quote, because I've committed it to memory!) "You should go on to write for The New Yorker or something, that was brilliantly written."

So I thought, hey, why not?

Rejection (and eventual acceptance!) is only a few copy-paste-clicks away!

The shunning of Twilight

I tend to shun things that are immediately popular, and outrageously so.

Like, Harry Potter. I went for a good three years, I think, refusing to see the movie. Everyone told me I'd love it, but I stood my ground... until the third movie came out. I caught up on the first two, loved them, and ended up seeing the third one at a midnight show, dressed as Hermione.

Now... Twilight.

I am so skeptical of this one. Middle aged married women, drooling over teenage vampires? I mean... c'mon, what is this? It just sounds like a watered down romance novel that has the country addicted.

I decided that I would eventually read it, just to see what all the fuss was about.

But, after seeing this, I guess I no longer have to. :)

Goals For Next Year:

Instead of jumping on the usual bandwagon of New Years Resolutions, I'm going to simply post what I would like to have accomplished by this time next year.

Hopefully, I will pass all my classes this semester (I've fallen behind in a few of them, but I hope I can still squeak by) & will only have to take 2 more classes before graduation.

• Work full time. Due to circumstances at work, me having my ideal 8-4 or 9-5 Monday through Friday shift is finally becoming a possibility.
• Minimize my stuff and keep my apartment CLEAN. This was near impossible when I was working two jobs and going to school full time, but I'm hoping it will be easier come January.
• Pay off some more bills. I intend on using my entire tax return to pay off at least one or 2 smaller credit card balances, and from there, plus the extra money coming in from finally getting a decent work schedule, I should be able to spare more per week to square down the rest of my debts.
• Save "fun" money! I want to be able to run away to NYC, Boston, or even Florida for the weekend. I'm tired of having to forgo $60 Regina Spektor concerts that are only 30 miles away.
  
• ULTIMATE TRIP ALERT: My next Christmas, I want to be able to go to NYC, skate at Rockefeller Center, see The Nutcracker (or the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show), and do other cliche NYC things. I've been trying to do this for YEARS but it's never came to fruition.
• Publish something. Anything! I'm working on a Chapbook, but if that doesn't work, self-publish, if only to have my work in one place (bound up all nicely) and backed up!
• Clean most of my old stuff out of my mom's house. I shouldn't have TWO houses full of crap! And so much of that stuff is just unnecessary!

What's your one-year plan?

Giving thanks

I'm jumping on the Thanksgiving band wagon, here.

Things I am thankful for:

• Having understanding landlords, a roof over my head, a car to drive and food to eat, after what was a very financially trying year.
  
• Jay getting a new job that pays him well, gives him full-time hours, and seems to be downright enjoyable for him.
• Stef beating cancer! :)
• Danielle moving back to the area.
• Having Edwina as a teacher, and being inspired to write all over again
• Getting the opportunity to finally work for a portrait studio
• School being free... and me, almost being done with it!
• My math teacher... for helping me get a B+ for the first time ever.
• My employers, for finally not blindly using favoritism. And for buying coffee the last two times I've been at work.
• Fate. For... y'know, just being... fateful.
  

Things I am NOT thankful for:

• Collection agencies and credit card companies.
  
• My computer teacher. He's unforgivably rude, but thinks he's funny.
• People who don't return phone calls/emails.

Message in a bottle....

12 days ago, I threw out a message in a bottle.

I told fate, "Go ahead and do what you will. If it's not meant to be, I get it, I'll move on."

Today, fate intervened.

I'm still flabbergasted.


(That's all I'm going to say on the matter for now.)

Today's thoughts.

I don't like to censor my blog.

But in this case, it seems I have to... at least until things blow over at work.

So I will leave you with the words of Kid Rock:

"You get what you put in, and people get what they deserve."

Things my boss should have told me in training.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy working alone, as I'm able to operate effectively and I really am more confident and comfortable when there isn't someone breathing down my neck.

That being said, I was skeptical about this new job when the boss spend about 6 days training us (most of this time was spent doing computer modules) and then let us run the studio by ourselves.

I took very diligent notes during my training, figuring that I would need them later.

Here are things that I have NOT been taught, that keep coming up.

-I was told by a co-worker that my boss wanted me to vacuum tonight. No problem. Co-worker then left speedily. As I was performing the closing duties, I looked around for the vacuum and there wasn't one. Only a steam cleaner for the backdrops.

-We're never updated as to when the sales start/end. I sometimes come in to an empty studio and work alone all night, with absolutely no knowledge of what our current 'specials' are. I was asked by three different people today when certain sales end, & I couldn't give them a definite answer.

-The employees only room? The one I need to go into and drop off the key every night? My boss told me that there wasn't a code for the door. Which was great... until I found myself locked out. There is most definitely a code.

-When putting away the camera one day, I asked a co-worker where the lens cap was. She told me there wasn't one. I asked her if she was sure, telling her that it seemed strange. She assured me there wasn't one. Today I was told "make sure you're putting the lens cap on the camera...a few people who close haven't been doing it." *sigh*

-Why do I give you my schedule if you just continue to put me on for hours I'm working at my other job? I don't get it.

-I discovered today that not only do I not have the ability to transfer calls that have come to me in error, but I also don't have the actual MAIN store phone number written anywhere. So if someone calls me saying "Oh, I thought this was the number for the front store", I can't assist them by giving them the correct number.

-I have still not been trained on using the passport camera, nor do I know how prices run. I've had to turn away 2 separate families who needed passport pictures (no one else knows how to do them, either, only the manager.)

-I had to call the help desk on my own and figure out how to cancel a sale that was rung through mistakenly. (That was a total shot in the dark, but luckily it worked out!)


All and all, I love what I'm doing and the chance for creativity that my job gives me. I really love seeing the finish product, and the whole thing is a lot of fun. But the feeling that I don't have the required training to do my job WELL is aggravating. I hate having to shrug and say, "Sorry, I'm new... but the manager will be in tomorrow & she can answer your question."