Life can never be boring! And I wouldn’t expect it to be. What I also don’t expect at every turn is things being the opposite… all the time!

So I had taken a job in Clinton/Goderich with the intentions of moving there eventually. We even put an offer on a house. For the last two-and-a-half months it has been pretty unpleasant. My team is great! I don’t know what I’d do without my supervisor and my partner-in-crime (both of us have the same Lead title). It’s management. So I started looking both here and there not knowing where I would land.

Last Thursday I got a call about an interview… in Waterloo. It was scheduled for last Friday. I was very excited because this was a role I’ve been trying for in various places (and almost had one a year ago). It was scheduled for Friday at 5:30 and I raced home at the end of a very long week and got my laptop set up.

An hour later, my phone rang. I got the job!

So, starting on November 11, my title will be Director of Care at a retirement home in Waterloo. I’m coming home!

Of course other things have taken place as well but I’m very excited to be starting in my new role. I know I thought I’d finished my little memoir of nursing but I think this gives it a much better ending. If it has been turned down for distribution I might just go in and pull it down and add a few sections to it!

Still playing around with AI and some stories are coming out as workable and others, not so much. But I feel like my writing might just take off again!

Anyway, I’m madly writing the Christmas Movie blog now that there are new movies every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s been tough to stay on top of so here’s hoping I can do it!

It’s been a while again but my excuse has been work, trying to buy a house, trying to sell a house and having to… close the trailer. SIGH! Despite the fact I’m working along this gorgeous shoreline, closing the trailer was torture.

The last few weeks have been improved, at least a little bit and have been VERY busy! That started with my brother’s wedding. I had sooooooo much fun and felt like the real me that night! That’s hard to describe but it made me realize every day (on the brink of tears most days) that I somehow need to make changes. I don’t know exactly how to make that happen but I really do need to try, really hard. Being there that day, seeing my family, dancing like I used to including doing half a jive with LJ made me feel ALIVE! Alive like I haven’t felt in a long time.

I want to feel that every day. LJ said I looked amazing on the dance floor having so much fun kicking up my heels and he truly has no idea just how great I felt that weekend.

So the AI thing is paying off. The short stories I have managed to play with and feel good about is great and I’m coming along with the beginnings of the fourth book in the Mystery of the Past series. I’m just trying to flesh out where it’s going and how the new characters will be introduced and play a role in the book.

There’s one more thing… guess what? It’s TWO sleeps until CHRISTMAS MOVIES start! That means I will need to try to keep up with them all on my other blog!

Stay tuned for more…

Life has been beyond hectic! I’m not even going to try to explain most things because it’s just crazy! My parents got moved in last weekend and are settling very quickly and the house looks great. Should have grass by the end of the week!

What have I been up to? Well, not writing! I’ll get to that in a minute! So as I had shared, the three doctors had decided to retire and found two doctors to take over. We’d met them, they said they weren’t planning on changing anything and said they wanted to be a great big happy family… well, team.

THEY LIED!!!!!

Exactly one week after they started, they called the eighth meeting (well, it felt like it anyway) and told us that we were now done at 4:00 every day. Ummm… that was a FOUR hour PER WEEK loss for me! EIGHT hours per pay! The grand total was going to cost me $5600 a year which would have put my annual income less than it had been when I started working there!

Luckily for me I had been applying to anything, anywhere just to get myself out of a position that I had a feeling wasn’t going to end well. I ended up getting an offer for a position with a company out of Clinton though I’m based out of Goderich… that’s right… the same beautiful town that has been my home away from home for the last too many years to mention! I’m titling it as temporary.

I have said more than once that I wish I could just go back to the office but unfortunately with the cut hours I was backed into a corner and had no choice. I’m going back and forth since so much is still at home. I’m spending lots of time at the trailer but the position is not what I thought so I’m also continuing to look. It’s one of those positions where I had high hopes but… I’ll leave it at that.

As for writing, with everything going on, I haven’t really been writing. I have my binder of what I want to write and I have thoughts in my head that I need to get back to writing so much so that, despite how much I despise AI, I actually looked for a free AI writer and used it for ideas! I entered in some of the information for the Mysteries of the Past series Book Four and it spit out some ideas for me… the one I found so far only allows for short stories.

Then I typed in something else I thought of, just an off-the-cuff idea that had come to me and it has come up with the most beautiful little story that I will probably end up developing first! I figure I can lengthen the 1048 words to at least a novella, or maybe some length that I’ve never written before!

So I guess AI isn’t all that bad if you use it for good… I have writer’s block so I’m using it to get unblocked. They are my ideas but I will put it into my own words! That I can handle!

Somewhere in amongst all this I celebrated my 50th birthday, had Halloween with dress-up and trick or treating at the trailer and my brother has also moved!

I will do my best to try to keep you all better posted with what is happening, where I am and especially how I’m making out with my writing.

For starters, I can’t believe I haven’t written in seven weeks.

Since then the trailer has opened and I’ve spent every weekend there since. I’ve gone through three rounds of edits on Tales Out of Nursing AND…

I published it last night! Welcome to the world Tales Out of Nursing… Stories and Lessons from 30 Years on the Front Lines

After so much time and writing and adding stories up to the last round of edits it has finally been born… there were moments, I have to admit, when I didn’t know if I’d ever get it together the way I pictured it. I went through a phase asking myself if I even wanted to finish it but I like to commemorate milestones and despite having a love-hate relationship with nursing for a large percentage of those years it has also shaped my life so I might as well celebrate it!

I’ve ordered a proof copy so we’ll wait and see what it looks like before I hit the live button!

Of course, as I saw this finish lining approaching, I started to wonder what I would move on to and I’m not certain yet… I think another non-fiction book right now would drain me the rest of the way so I think I will set to work adding a 17th book to my collection… how does that sound?

Anyway, on the personal front… I see the rheumatologist on July 8 so we’ll see what’s up with my hands! Hopefully.

Hi again!

So I didn’t think this was going to happen so fast but it’s been a little while in the making. Last Monday I finally caught up with the host of Promenade, a radio show here in Waterloo Region. There were a few bumps along the way of us trying to make our appointed times but we finally managed and it went really well!

So it’s actually going to air tomorrow night already which was a bit of a shock to me.

So it will be on, as you can see, at 8:00 pm Eastern time on 98.5 FM. For those who aren’t close by you can also stream via ckwr.com

We are just talking about my writing, how I got here considering I’m a nurse by day and a few other tidbits!

Give it a listen!

I’m trying to work hard on editing Tales out of Nursing but seem to be falling short. Between work, pain and fatigue, and packing for the trailer that opens in 11 days I am not getting as far as I’d like to!

Now here’s a question though… because I’m telling some true stories I can’t, obviously, use real names. So, as readers, what do you prefer to read? Initials? Or names? I can change names like Katie to Kim (or any other name though I’m not always that good at choosing names) or refer to the person as K. Or P., etc.

I can’t wait to get this book edited and start the process of putting it out there. Though it’s kind of sad to watch 30 years of life pass me by!

I just wanted to put this out there but now it’s bedtime!

It’s been a while since I posted last and though I have thought about posting, actually doing it has been an entirely different story. The reason for that has been mostly due to a lack of time, a lack of words and a connection to my last post.

In my last post I had just found out about slightly worse arthritis in my hands, bones in my wrist that have narrowed slightly in the last year and arthritis in four of seven vertebrae in my neck. What I didn’t talk about much, at the time, was the difficulties I have had just sitting upright without resting my head/neck and the pain that causes. That means that computer work has become a bit of an issue as well not only for my neck but also my hands and typing.

Three weeks after I saw the doctor (two weeks after my last post) I went to work on Monday morning with a very sore left hand… the majority of my issues had been in my right thumb at the base near the wrist. This pain was all the knuckles across the base of my fingers. Of course, as I do, I carried on with my day as best I could. Late in the day I actually looked at my hand and realized that my first two knuckles at the base of my first two fingers were non-existent. There was so much swelling that setting my hand down flat made them disappear.

Tomorrow will be four weeks since that started and it hasn’t let up. I went to the doctor again this past Tuesday and he ordered more blood tests.

In the interim, before I hear from him, I have made a new friend in Poland who, like me, is a huge Phantom of the Opera fan and was interested in reading my 2007 novel, Let the Dream Begin. I didn’t realize initially that I hadn’t published it on Amazon so I told her that I would do that. Then I couldn’t find the 5×8 formatted copy in my files anywhere so I had to alter it and do all the edits. Then I got to the end and realized that I had missed something so I finally took the time to write what I felt was missing. Today I spent the afternoon working and not only have I now created the new, updated novel on Amazon but I also recreated a brand new copy on Lulu!

Let me know what you think:

My neck is now killing me having done extra time at the computer today but I feel great that I was able to accomplish this! I’ll keep you posted!