Just Chilling

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