To make a long story short

It's been a couple of weeks since I stepped in here, and things are no different today. There are one or two things different I suppose. I'm still writing and as for the word challenge in August; I'm not going to meet that goal of thirty-five thousand, just too many things going on in my work life and what not.

My niece has had her share of issues, her ex-boyfriend is causing problems. Together, they have two children and I feel bad for those boys. The oldest one is now four and the other day, I babysat him and another little girl. They were at the kitchen table drawing and coloring on paper. As I sat there watching them, I asked Nicholas what he was drawing and he told me a picture for his dad.

His mother has a "friend", nothing serious as of now, although I have my suspicions they are steering towards something of that nature. I think she should have relationships, but it will be rough on the kids. They have their "Am ma" and me, but all little ones want their mom when they get tired. To make a long story short, after a girlfriend of hers buried Jessie's vehicle up to both axles in someones front yard, momma finally said enough was enough. There is more to that story too, but I will not go there.

This past Saturday, I had my sister (Am ma) and my "adopted" daughter/friend were over drinking a couple of beers and shooting the breeze. My niece calls, wanting to leave the kids to go see the ex, supposedly he has diapers for his younger son. I made it known to her she is on a timer. Bring the kids over, I say, but you have 30 minutes, get over there, get the diapers and get back.

We had enough beer in us that we promised if she was not back within that time frame, we would be coming after her. She made it back in 35, of course, I called her at the twenty-nine minute mark and at thirty minutes. I pretty sure she thinks we are totally nuts, that being said, she is a good mom and loves her kids.

This situation with her children and the ex has sparked the project I will do for National Novel Writer's Month in November. The working title is "A Day of Reckoning", in the Thriller genre.

Here is the blurb: After Karrie Jensen is murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Carla Simpson is left to care for the two children. When Carla's sister, Abby is found dead and the grandchildren are kidnapped from school by their father, Carla's worst fear is reality when she finds out he has taken them to Mexico. Now Carla has to find the boys and somehow make Juan Pedreza pay for what he has done.

That is the basic idea of the story.

My being the victim of spousal abuse gives me an advantage. Any writer knows that if they read on the subject of writing, it is preached to write what you know. I know in the past twenty years, great strides have been made to help victims of abuse and to keep it from becoming a tragedy.

I pray that nothing comes from this situation. The boyfriend has shown aggressiveness by pushing and shoving, making remarks she is not to have communications with family members and friends. He has stopped making payments (his half) on the vehicle she uses, cut off the television subscription, good thing she has movies to keep the kids entertained and takes them to the park. The man stalks her, follows her around. I told her all it will take is a phone call and INS will take care of him, yes, he's an illegal alien, and so is most of his family. She wants him to be able to have interaction with his kids. Fine, great, and so he should. So far, he's not going about this in the right way. Momma has made it clear he is not welcome, yeah, that's another story and will probably be in the book.

It gives me a passion that I think will be felt in the book and it is exciting to have this passion flowing. I'm glad that I don't believe in things being said and things happening from that. Like to movie "Stranger Than Fiction" with Will Farrell.

As for the job. I'm coming to a point in my life I want to do other things, the main one of course is to become a published writer and do that professionally. In high school, I wanted to be a teacher and when I went to our local school back in June with my friend and her daughter, it came back, those wants of becoming a teacher. To make a long story short, it's a no-go. Tuition rates are too high, I make too much money for grants and student loans? Uh,no. I don't really want to go through four years taking classes I don't need for gaining a teaching certificate. So, this is something I should have pursued way back when. I could try to get a Bachelor's of Arts, there again, taking classes I don't want to take just to get that degree. Online? Most of them want you to come to the campus for orientation, sooo, it's not going to happen. I want to be able to have more time to write, I get depressed when I don't, it's addicting, even a thirty minute span isn't enough.

Working in the water treatment department is causing some health issues. I hurt all the time. Stretching and pills help some but not enough. I would like to find another job which will allow me to sit down and not worry about something going wrong. I don't want to deal with weather issues, power outages, and equipment failure. I make good money, but honestly, I would rather be happy and less stressed out for less dollars an hour.

But for now, I'll have to put up with my feet screaming in agony and the rest of my joints throbbing that constant dull ache. My ideal setting would be to own my own bookstore where folks could come in and get a cup of coffee, for there would be many flavors and blends to choose from, nice cushy chairs and privacy cubicles for reading. On Tuesday nights have a book club and writer's club on Saturday mornings. During the summer, kids could come in such as a reading group. I'd even do commission of second hand books.

I'll just keep on dreaming that one, I do not see anything of that sort falling into my lap and funding is out of the question. I'm finding that to search for loans, grants and funding also cost money, what little extra we have goes to vet bills, saving for work to be done on the home, the list goes on.

It's funny though, here I am almost fifty, and still don't know what I truly want. Oh, there are things I would like to have, such as the dream store mentioned, a bestselling author would be nice, but for many, that is one dream that reaches few.

To make a long story short, I'll stay where I'm at for now, but keep looking for what I want. I most definitely will continue to write, that is a given

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