Just
Chilling
By
Imari
Jade
Literally, it’s cold as the North Pole in New Orleans.
Well, it’s forty-four degrees at the moment, that cold for us. Well,
Thanksgiving is half-way over and I’ve just been sitting around giving my brain
a rest…not really, I’m not writing, but I am doing research.
My seventh grandchild was born this morning. It is a
girl, seven pounds and eight ounces (No name yet). She’s my fourth
grand-daughter. For a mother that has only three sons, that’s a big
accomplishment. I still don’t know what to do with girls. But I have figured
out that they like the same things boys like and the first three granddaughters
are seriously tougher than the boys.
Some of my children are upset (no I can’t say upset),
disappointed that I didn’t cook a big dinner this year. I don’t know why. I
have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the last hundred years. I think I deserve a
rest. It’s not that I’m not cooking. I
have chicken in the oven. It’s just that the eldest is having a big dinner at
his house (yes, he invited me), the middle son’s wife has cooked and the
youngest has been at the hospital since last night (and he won’t eat anything
except ramen noodles). His son just came in the door and wanted to know what I
cooked. They call me the cooking grandma, which means whenever they come over I’m
usually cooking, have cooked are am about to cook.
One of my daughter-in-laws is disappointed that I didn’t
fix stuffing. I usually make cornbread dressing, (not this holiday). She’s also
upset that I didn’t bake my sock-it-to-me cake (she works at a bakery). She
cooks better than I do. She has prepared things like stuffed peppers and gumbo
and a baked ham. About a week ago I asked her what she was going to do for
Thanksgiving. She said she was just going to go around to everyone’s house and
eat. To me that meant I don’t have to cook, since she would probably be
dragging my son and their two kids with her.
There are several reasons I’ve decided not to cook a
big meal this year.
(1) It is too expensive (I have bills to pay, plus
Thanksgiving is just one day)
(2) I’m on a restrictive diet (no salt, dairy, acidy,
fried, highly-seasoned or greasy food). That limits what I can eat. I had
toast, grits, and coffee for breakfast and oatmeal for lunch. (I’m straight). I don’t particularly like
turkey, and I don’t want it more than once a day. I can have fish and chicken.
I picked chicken. I just finished the sweet potatoes and the rice is steaming.
The cranberry sauce is chilling in the refrigerator, the pie is baked and the
only thing left is the green beans. No I didn’t plan to cook today, but I did.
(3) If I bake dessert, I’m going to eat dessert. I need
to lose about 20 lbs. It’s all sitting in my stomach, hips and thighs. No one
else can see the weight, except the scale in the doctor’s office. I have to get
it off to stop the pain in my lower back. I was quite disappointed when I went
to the doctor’s office last week and discovered that I hadn’t lost a pound in
three weeks. It’s all my fault. I’m not exercising. I’ve also lost my
motivation. I come straight in this door and turn on my laptop. I have to work,
thus, I don’t exercise. Also the doctor(s) are watching my cholesterol and
vitamin D levels. I’m trying not to cheat on the diet. If I do, it doesn’t hurt
anyone but me.
(4) No one took me to the grocery. I can’t drive. My
youngest asked me last night around seven if I needed him to take me to the
grocery. I told him no. It was 30 degrees when I got home from work. I had been
out in the elements all day and I wasn’t going back out. I’m an asthmatic. Cold
air isn’t good for me. Did my kids think I was going to take a bus to the
grocery on the night before a major holiday and hope that there was a fresh
turkey waiting there for me? Once they told me they would be doing other things
for the holiday, I didn’t make a grocery list and decided to eat what I had in
the house. It’s a good thing I didn’t have him take me to the grocery. My
daughter-in-law went into labor and he had to take her to the hospital.
Okay, enough about Thanksgiving. I’ve been trying to
figure out what I want to write about in 2014. My Pretty Asian Boy series is supposed to come to an end soon. That’s
the plan, but if the fans want it to continue then I’ll continue.
Anyway I’ve lost about three publishers this year (they
went out of business). So those checks aren’t coming in any more. I have to
find new publishers. I’ve developed a long list of premises, and seriously most
of them probably won’t get into publication until 2015 at the rate I’m going. I
keep starting and stopping. The last couple of days I feel like I’ve lost my
momentum. I start on a story and then another one interferes. I do have one book
out to the publisher, two being published next month, and one that will be
published in Jan or Feb. But we all know that’s not enough. I’m also trying to
find a way to promote the books I already have published. You can only do so
much with the Yahoo groups. Usually I pay for advertising, but I need to make
money first in order to do this.
My Nook is broke, so I’m not reading.
I’m seriously thinking about going back to article
writing or just writing short stories for magazine. Writing is a business, so
the only way you can make money is that you have to do more than one type of
writing. It’s not easy trying to do it with a full-time job and family
responsibilities. My website needs to be updated and I still haven’t figured
out my MySpace page since they changed the format. I can’t find the blog. I
loved that blog. Wait, I just found it. Happy Day!!! I have no idea what I
clicked on. It’s funny how it takes something so little to impress me. Okay,
they downloaded my old blogs, but I haven’t found out how to actually create a
new blog. I do have Blogger site. I guess I’ll use that one.
Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten the oatmeal. I still feel
it in my chest. I think my problem may be the gluten. I might have to change my
diet again.
Tomorrow I need to do some filing. I have mail falling
off my dresser and steno books filled with stories I’ve already written taking
up space on my desk. Now since I know what books I’ll be working on I need to
get started with the outline and character development. I plan to have it all
done by the end of the year (maybe).
Well, I’m just rambling. I do plan to do just a little
writing today. Yes, it is on book seven of the Asian Pretty Boy series. I swear, sometimes I do think those
characters are real. Don’t you.
Happy Thanksgiving
Imari Jade
