So in May I will be celebrating (not sure that’s the right word but…) 30 years since I graduated Nursing school. Leading up to this I have thought about ways of sharing some stories that I have told and retold over the years. Moments, conversations, losses, psychotherapy… just anything that I have connected to and carried with me.

My hope is that medical professional readers can nod their heads and the non-medical readers can take some knowledge away but also understand the types of things we do… and, sometimes, put up with!

It’s not going to be very long, but it’s been fun revisiting some of those stories and finally documenting much of it for the first time ever!

As I do this, though, I have been looking for ways to leave the profession like so many others. No matter where a nurse works, it gets exhausting. Hospital work can be even more exhausting but no matter what, it’s that you’re always thinking, you’re always at someone’s beck and call and it gets hard to keep your chin up and, often, I find myself smiling and nodding (a contribution from a friend of mine… she knows who she is) and I also find myself sighing a lot!

So I will continue to edit Tales Out of Nursing but here’s a sneak peak at what I thought would make a great cover… don’t forget I’m mostly writing this from the perspective of family practice where we become parts of families and we celebrate weddings and births and we mourn losses. I didn’t know how, exactly, to depict all of that in a photo so I pulled together representations of those.

This year has been more depressing than most with some obvious highlights. I think my biggest letdown was a number of potential job changes that fizzled out in puffs of smoke leaving me smoldering and asking myself what I did wrong?

There were obvious great points… I finished and published the last two novels of my trilogy. I’ve started thinking about a mystery for book four of my Mysteries of the Past series and I did have a slightly more fruitful book sale in July. I was also invited to a retirement savings event where the financial planner handed out my books as thank you gifts!

Of course the trailer is in there except that it was the summer that wasn’t which hugely decreased beach time as I dressed in capris or leggings far more frequently than I want to admit.

Now, on the flip-side of that, we are, so far, having the winter that wasn’t so I can get on board with the summer that wasn’t.

I also got my new vehicle two weeks ago and that’s been exciting and fun plus we can’t forget about the Christmas party two weeks ago where we kicked our heels up… for one song only because the DJ guy, I don’t think, had a single slow song or Christmas song in his entire repertoire. Something has to be taught to these so-called hot-shots.

Otherwise, it’s been same old. Fall out of bed in the morning, drag my sorry, tired a** out the door. Run around like a chicken with my head cut off and come home so exhausted I don’t even feel like eating let alone writing!

I have been dreaming about my business idea that I’ve had for years and years and I’d love to try to put together a business plan for it but then I don’t know where I’d set it up! If I were to set it up here my summers are history unless there’s someone extremely reliable to run it so I can get away to the trailer. And it deters me from moving away from here. If I set it up where I want to go then it would not only be cheaper but I’d be where I want to go. BUT the audience would be smaller. And I have no way of really doing down and dirty market research on this particular idea and renting any kind of commercial space costs too much.

So I’m stuck in this holding pattern. The only other option is to try to open an online version of it with the promise to expand but it would be nowhere close to the same thing!

Well, it doesn’t matter. Here’s hoping that 2024 is significantly more uplifting than 2023 has been!

Cheers!

or Happy Holidays to those who celebrate other holidays!

Can you believe I am on day three of only four days off? I can’t. I have my days so mixed up that I’m worried I might not end up at work on Wednesday morning! The holidays aren’t exactly ideal days to get rest and relaxation though because there’s too much going on!

Anyway, for all of my readers, I am looking at expanding my Mysteries of the Past series. I’m thinking about writing book four and possibly bridge the main story into a book five. Of course that will take lots of planning and organization but it will bring back a good number of the characters from book three.

So those are my plans! I’m very excited to get started but I guess Christmas isn’t the greatest time to try to find time to do that!

All the best to all of you. May you find the magic of the season!

I haven’t written in a WEEK! Can you believe it?

It’s been a stressful week… and not at work, well, mostly, which is a huge surprise to you and me alike! Not to say it wasn’t busy on Tuesday and Thursday and not to say I wasn’t stressing in those moments but stuff has been happening!

Monday I woke after sleeping really well all night only to feel exhausted and even a little light-headed. I missed a few hints on Tuesday but Wednesday morning when I woke with a giant cold sore on my bottom lip… yeah, I figured it out.

So this week has basically been about working and doing nothing because I just haven’t had the energy to do so as I fight this unpleasant virus.

Tuesday I did feel very uneasy, like there was something going on that I didn’t know about. That’s a long story for another time.

Anyway, with everything in chaos in my house all the time I decided, since a different tree was put up in my living room, to put my tree up in my room. Since baby kitty Tigger ruined my 6-foot tree 6 years ago before my surgery I have had a 5-foot tree so it won’t take up a ton of space. I put that up yesterday but I still have to do lights and decorations.

So I’m off to do a few things this morning even though I woke with a headache.

I find myself very contemplative at this time of year as Christmas approaches and it’s the anniversary of my surgery… 6 years ago.

And I wanted so much more after that and I still do. I know WHERE to find it… I just don’t know HOW to find it because I don’t have the money to do what I need to do to get WHERE I need to be. It’s always about that isn’t it?

Then there are the HOURS of writing I have ahead of me and NO energy to do any of it, at all.

I’m exhausted and burnt out. I have so many wishes but very few are coming true these days. I’d love to open A Thousand Words… my pipe dream… one that I don’t ever see coming true in my lifetime.

I make lists and I can only accomplish so much. At the moment I write this I could put my head down and fall asleep listening to White Christmas.

On that note I will return to listening to a beautiful song but I will also mention that it’s time to decorate my tree, which is up, it’s just the time and energy to get stuff out.

Now I will go, for now.

The new books arrived on Friday afternoon which is so exciting. I don’t know why it’s exciting after 16 of them but it is.

I’m thinking of so many things these days. Everything is having an impact on me these days. All those little “glimmers” that are all the rage these days are all over the Christmas movies. It’s hard to watch them when you see people, though fictionally, living something close to what they want or they are able to afford to take the leap into something new meanwhile I can’t even get a job in a different vocation or have the ability to remotely afford to do what I would love to do!

I keep reading that we have to make our own breaks! That our regrets don’t have to be just that… regrets. Our stories have been, or are being, written but I wonder how much of my story has been written off because I don’t make the choices I’m supposed to make when I’m supposed to make them.

Anyway, I’m onto some newer projects. On Thursday morning I had a conversation with a patient who told me the most amazing and romantic story. As a romance author it was amazing and I have to try to integrate it into a book, somehow. I’m not sure how yet but I have to try. So I have that on my mind.

I’m also starting to write Tales from Nursing… a collection of little stories and lessons from 30 years of nursing. I celebrate that milestone next spring, if you can believe it, and thought it might be a neat project.

I’m still writing all about the new Christmas movies over on the new blog. I haven’t had any followers over there yet so I might have to try something different or maybe just merge it and put the posts over here! I’ll poke around on the site to see if there’s a way I can add a page or something. Then you can read them too!

Seems I should get back to working on the Tales I’m telling because this month is also NaNoWriMo and I’m very behind on my word count!

For those of you on my Facebook Author Page you just saw a post pop up so I figured I’d better write a post here too and for all of you who get this one.

I have started a blog about Christmas Movies. Most of you know how avid I am about watching them… even at the craziest times of the year. When I worked from home I would sit, some days, and just play them one after another.

After watching Ms Christmas Comes to Town from Thursday night it gave me the idea to not only get myself into the spirit of Christmas but all of you too. So I’ve changed an old blog into something about these movies where I can, hopefully, instill some hope.

So go give the first one a read. It’s got a weird address of upsideanddownside.wordpress.com because it was one I built but never started. Give it a read!

I’ll still post here about the winding journey of my writing as the path is very long, twisted and sometimes comes across dead-ends but I know that I’m not the only writer who experiences that!

My proof copy of Love, Forever arrived and it’s perfect. I have approved it so it is available at Lulu but probably won’t his Amazon yet. I will be getting those books published as Kindles eventually… just need the time to do it!

There are so many projects I want to work on that it’s hard to pick just one! I figure the new blog will give me opportunities to write regularly so stay tuned!

Whew.

Phew.

Hi! I am still here!

Do you ever just feel like jumping off a cliff/bridge/roof? Nothing seems to ever go your way? Or, enough little things to be grateful for come past you but you’re in constant stress mode and everything and everybody seems to toss a bit more onto the fire?

YUP! That’s ME right now!

Nothing is coming together. But see, I can’t say NOTHING because I finished the last of my trilogy! Join Lily and Max in the finale of their love story where nothing is slowing down at Love, Flowers or for the two of them and their families.
It’s the new year which has brought in more wedding bookings. Lily’s family is thriving in their new home. Her grandkids are flourishing with new jobs, love, special occasions of their own to celebrate and new, promising hobbies.
As they celebrate the wedding of a dear friend and special news from close friends they also face trials that, once again, makes them realize that life is too short to be put on hold for anything.

I keep forgetting that I can’t using inclusive words because there are plenty of little things to be thankful for. I think the big things overwhelm us so much that we can’t help but make those things our focus. How can we not? A safe drive to work is repeated multiple times a day, day in and day out. It’s not having the time to do things we need to do, not getting a good night’s sleep, having car trouble that threatens to, once again, potentially strand us somewhere, having a job where you hate almost every facet of it save for the wonderful support staff… those are all the things that make the black cloud bigger and drown out all the little things.

Anyway, I’m now at a point where I’m making a list of what I want to work on next. My time is limited but I’d love to work on about three things at once. I’ve made notes on three new projects plus I need to write an article for a website/program that will maybe help to launch a bit more of that type of business on the side. Not that I have time for that!

If anyone knows of anyone looking for a great read, send them my name an they can search me up on Amazon. If you know of anyone looking for a great writer who can write articles then tell them to look me up too!

Since my last post that consisted of an entire comedy of errors (of sorts) it has been even more interesting. I worked only three more days before I went on vacation at the end of the day on August 31st. I left for the trailer because I wanted to be there on my birthday the following day. That was an awesome day that ended with a campfire, marshmallows, my parents and our neighbours-across-the-street.

While driving around Goderich the following morning my mom and I were chatting and I was checking my email when I saw a job posting for the retirement home in Goderich and they were looking for an Assistant Director of Wellness. My mom, in the moment, told me to apply because really… what did I have to lose?

I went back to the trailer and wrote a lovely letter, sent it off and then forgot about it because it was the long weekend and we were celebrating Halloween! That meant decorating our site, dressing up as Cinderella, handing out candy then changing my costume and going up for the Halloween party with my brother’s band as the entertainment. We sat for quite a while, I did the twist with my brother’s fiancee then sat more. Finally the music just got so good that LJ couldn’t even stay sitting any longer and dragged us both up where we spent the remainder of the evening pretty much.

Labour Day arrived and I found an unusual message in my email. Are you still interested in this position? Ummmm… it took me quite some time to finally write back to say that I was interested in finding out more. When are you available for an interview? Being on vacation I said I could be there the next day.

To make the long story short I did go the following afternoon at 3:00 and was given a tour… and offered the position. Unfortunately it’s evenings which would be 3-11 and I’m a 10:00-to-bed-baby. Make fun of me all you want but I know I couldn’t do it for the long haul. There’s also the issue with the trailer closing in three weekends (from now; it was six from then) and not having a place to stay. They have a manager’s apartment that they offered me. Now I have the schedule I would be working and I would literally get home every two weeks from Saturday morning and would have to leave Monday morning to be there for 3:00. With that horribly disgusting weather coming and how unpredictable it is I’m also hesitant.

So though I haven’t declined the offer yet I now know I have to. I don’t see it working out right now. Of course with my current frustration levels at work and the lack of income I see there’s still this draw.

Anyway, I was also denied for WSIB so that felt like it added insult to injury because I HAVE TO keep going back there until I can find something else.

I’m basically at my wits end.

Anyway, I’m also in the midst of editing the third (and final) novella of my Flower Shop Trilogy the second time around. Shouldn’t be too long now before it’s available!