Tuesday, August 23, 2005

All About Me

I enjoy coming home in the evenings after a long day of stress. My pool calls to me invitingly but I resisted today and as soon as I had changed into a tank and shorts I rushed to my computer and pulled up my blog site. I am having a terrible time getting my profile to save. Maybe later I’ll read the directions.

I did go back and pull up my story and counted how many chapters I have completed. So far I have 14 and I managed to get in 2 paragraphs on Chapter 15. Tonight I am hoping to complete it. My husband is working late tonight and the only distractions I have are my girls. One wants homework help and the other wants me to taste her cooking, which turned out quite well. Dinner was very good. I keep getting the urge to log into WOW but so far I am winning the battle. My character is going into work and I have to describe a confrontation with another employee and I am having a hard time with it. Not so much the confrontation itself but working up to the moment of impact. I love it when a scene finally works itself out and I find that I can’t type near as fast as I thought I could.

Well since I can’t get my profile to load I’ll give a brief synopsis of my life up till now. I was born and raised in the South Eastern USA living most of that time in Florida. I love the ocean and can not imaging living any where else. I moved around a lot as a child but finally settled in my home town when I was 16 and I have made a good life for myself. I met and married a wonderful man. We are currently raising our 3 wonderful children. He is in law enforcement. I went to college for my nursing degree only to flunk out. I always thought I would do well in a position where I could help people so when I flunked out of college I ended up at our local 911 Center and have worked there for 13 years. I have helped quite a few people but mostly I have listened to a lot of bull shit.

Right now “burn out” would be the word used to describe my attitude towards work. The title to my blog is actually a good description of what I do now. I had an elderly lady call several days ago crying hysterically because her water heater broke. She describe her plight to me in between sobs. I in my infinite wisdom told the woman “Ma’m It’s just water”. I had the raise my voice because she was hard of hearing so everyone in the center heard me and now my fellow employees rag on me every chance they get. It’s just water has become another one of a short collection witty come backs. Several months ago it was “step away from the cousin”. I tell that story another day. Or my favorite and most often mimicked “Listen to me!” I don’t know why I didn’t get reprimanded for that one.

Long story short I had to send out a police officer to calm her down. She was 80 years old and I did not want her to fall out (pass out, have heart attack, ect.) on my shift. Needless to say the officer responded and told her to call a plumber which is what I told her to do. Tax payer’s money in action, this is just typical of what my job has become and I wonder why I loath people sometimes. Well enough for tonight I really need to work on my story.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

My First Blog Entry

I have avoided this all day. I don’t know why but I have. I have cleaned the house, the patio, and started the laundry. Beth is cooking so I don’t have that excuse. I started to play WOW (my current online game addiction) but I closed it down and finally resigned myself to the fact that I need to get this going.

I have always considered myself a decent author however I have yet to finish anything I have started unless it involved getting a good grade. School was a long time ago and even though I keep telling myself I am going to finish my degree I always seem to find something else to do. Work or cleaning the house or just needing extra sleep is just a few of the barriers that always seem to get in my way. However last night after working 6 hours of over time at a job that no longer makes me happy I have decided to sit down and finish one of my stories "Typical Florida Sunshine". It is a romance story in a nut shell. It’s about divorce, misunderstanding and then forgiveness. It’s not the greatest idea I have ever had or the best story I've ever written but I need to finish it.

I have set up my desk. I unfolded my old antique table and set it up in my empty living room. (I still can’t afford new furniture and I am taking donations) I put it in front of the window and I have a great view of the neighborhood. I moved my laptop to its new location from its previous spot on the kitchen counter. I am now away from the children and the T.V. but close enough to hear what is going on. I placed the beautiful roses my husband bought me Friday after another crisis my extended family seems to create. This one involved our travel trailer. Anyway, I have my root beer and my fan a comfortable chair and no reason not to write.

I decided on starting a blog to chronicle my journey from 911 operator to Author. I use to keep a journal when I was young and I never had any problems with anyone reading it so I thought a blog is away to start that tradition again. Besides, I like my sister-in-laws blog site and she is making new friends from all over and I hope to not only make a few new friends who may be making the same journey but also get some support. I should just join procrastinators anonymous but gas is just too expensive to leave home for anything other than work or food. (Good one!)

I am going to reread my story after I check my first blog entry for mistakes and add a few more paragraphs maybe even a chapter to my story. Wish me luck.