When I entered menopause at age 42, I noticed my sleeping patterns beginning to change.  Like everyone else, at first I fought it and tried all sorts of things to keep me asleep for my previous 6-8 hours at a stretch.  If you listen to the tv ads, that’s what’s “normal” and menopause was “interrupting” that natural cycle. I typically have 3-4 hours sleep in a row and then it’s feet on the floor and back to the office.   A recreational sleeper I’m not.    Then I thought, wait, menopause itself is a natural cycle and if I just go with it, instead of fighting it, let me see what my sleeping patterns morph into.  I’m lucky in that I work for myself and can make my own hours, so I began what would be a decade long experiment to find my own natural sleeping pattern.   Continue reading →

A psychic reader friend said they had been receiving no calls despite advertising in several local papers.  I emailed: “No calls yet?  Hmm why do you think you are attracting that right now?  Are you doing creative visualization a few times a day about people calling in and being excited about your work and being appreciative of their breakthroughs and telling all their friends about you and also in your visualization writing in an appointment book, filling your calendar and PayPal account?  I am not kidding in the least.  Know that voice who says “who would want to pay me? There are too many readers to choose from, I’ll never make a living doing this”?  Do your visualization twice as long as those thoughts last.  When you do your viz often enough, that voice will subside. The moment that voice drops, your phone will begin ringing.”
My Making Up The Bank Deposit Visualization
Life Transforming Links here for Creative Visualization
Create the space for the phone to ring off the hook

11-20-08
This morning I thought I’d get an early start on doing the post office paperwork for tomorrow’s mailing of the December Horizons Magazine.  I did a med lite and my morning yoga, and was at my desk by 6am.  Due to a Sept 08 new rule, I have had to change how Horizons gets mailed each month, and now it has to go via permit, sorted by zone and 3 digit zip, then sacked and taken in to the main post office downtown.  The sacks have to be labeled, the jobs separated by size, and 3 pages of paperwork filled out for each job.

So I thought I’d get a head start by having the printer tell me the weight count on one stack of magazines, then I could do all the paperwork ahead of time.  I began doing all my figuring and was surprised that getting everything done in order to make the calculations to fill in the paperwork took me over 8 hours.  I could not believe it.  I’m exhausted, but at least I have a handle on the forms now and feel familiar with them.  Oh dang, I need to run to the post office and pick up about 40 of their white mail sacks so I don’t have to do it before the mailing tomorrow.

11-14-08
I made the schedule for the 2009 magazine layout.  I basically work on it for 2 weeks, deliver it for a week and then do administrative work for a week.  I do my phone work in the evenings during the 2 weeks I am not doing final layout.  My problem is that I always think of the “administrative work” week as my “free” week.  Free except for the billing, the bookkeeping, updating mailing lists, returning calls, running errands, cleaning the house and catching up on yard work.  So I am always late doing the billing and bookkeeping.  I goof off for a few days thinking they are free, then those run over into the time I have to begin layout and I don’t know where the time went.  The time goes because I am always thinking I have 5 weeks in the month instead of 4.3.

No wonder I don’t get to hang with my buddies…

We have all the time in the world, not a moment to lose

I was talking earlier with a friend about how astrological placements demonstrate in our external lives.  I have my Sun, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter all in Aries, all in the 12th house, which is the house of working behind the scenes.  I work mostly alone from computer and phone.  In my psychic reading practice, I read for many other readers.  In my ghostwriting practice, I ghost for 2 other ghosts.  That is pretty “behind the scenes” alright.  Then I have Aries rising so it makes me at least want to get out 🙂

I remember growing up in Hialeah, FL. We lived in a Cuban neighborhood where even the Stop signs said ALTO.  There were 2 water coolers in the Kwik Chek grocery, one for “white”, one for “colored”. My brother and I used to sneak drinks out of the colored one thinking we might start turning brown.  My mom was olive skinned with long black hair and looked very Cuban.  I look just like her except I’m a very beige and blonde version.   There was a big discrimination against the Cubans back then and everyone assumed my mom was Cuban, especially where we lived.  I remember once in the car, we pulled up to a stoplight and the car ahead of us has a bumper sticker that said “Honk if you love Jesus.”  Well, we love Jesus so Mom honks her horn.  The woman in the car flips her the bird and shouts out the window: “F*cking spics can’t wait for the light to change.”  My poor mom was mortified.   Continue reading →

10-22-08
Today I made my seafood chowder

Marinate 1 lb of bay scallops in the juice of 2 lemons
8 cloves fresh garlic chopped and sauteed in
2 tblsp olive oil

Dice and add:

I giant whole leek
1 fat stalk of fennel
I parsnip
2 whole carrots
corn scraped from one raw ear
4 stalks celery

1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
handful of fresh basil torn up, maybe 20 leaves
7 strands saffron
salt and pepper

Stir until the vegetables soften and reduce, then add:

1 giant can chopped tomatoes
1 small can double strength Campbell’s beef broth + 1 can water

A handful of bay scallops for flavor

Simmer 45 minutes, then add the rest of the scallops.  It’s ready when they are done, 5-8 minutes, but I add them and cook another 30 minutes so they kind of melt into the stock.

I love scallops. I know that many larger scallops are actually shark or ray, but I don’t care, I like the taste of all.

My sailor friend Mark and I moved up here together from Miami in 1983.  It was always interesting going about together because he was blind (2 years into it after a sailing accident), so I would describe to him everything we would be passing, so he could visualize the scene.  We both had the same odd, twisted sense of humor, so you can imagine how much fun it was with me doing the describing.  We’d often eat in seafood restaurants and would conjecture about what the scallops might actually be made of.  I’d describe the ray I’d see flying out of the kitchen, with little heart and star shapes cut out of its wings.  Get it?  Cookie cutter?  Wings?  har har I crack myself up.

Mark married my 4th husband and I, I have the video of him standing there with the giant Chapman Piloting & Seamanship book upside down in his hands as he begins reading off the Miranda warnings (it was a law office crowd I hung with back then).  Then his assistant whispers in his ear, she takes the Chapmans and hands him a PDR instead, also upside down, and the ceremony begins.  Mark is a hoot.  He married another ACLU attorney some 10 years back, we are still good friends.

I have all my post office stuff almost sorted out.  Lots of new rules and procedures for sorting, and forms to fill out and apparently I’m the only job in all of Melbourne to use Bound Printed Matter.  But it’s by far the cheapest rate for mailing the magazines, and they typically get there within 3 days.  Cheaper than a driver would be.

I have two more days to figure it out if I want the mailing to go smoothly.  I have figured it out step by step and have to run down to the main post office and spend 1-2 hours there to have them check it and tell me it’s right so I can move on to the next step.

First I have to sort out 4 separate jobs, because each weight counts as a separate job:

Stacks of 50 (9lbs) * Stacks of 25 (4.5 lbs) * Stacks of 10 * Stacks of 6 mags each

So the four jobs have to be kept separated by weight.

Then I have to sort by zone and fill out on a form how many to each zone.
Then I have to sort by zip code and fill out on a form how many to each 3 digit zip.

I have to put the stacks into big white postal bags, weighing not more than 30 lbs (although the rules say and the bags are marked 70 lb maximum).  If the intake guy says 30 lbs, even if that’s because he doesn’t want to lift 70 lbs, I am gonna do it his way because he’s doing my job for me.  Meaning I have learned it’s unwise to piss off the waiter that is getting ready to bring my dinner to me…

So that’s like only 4 stacks of 50’s in one bag; 7 stacks of 25 in one bag.
If my math is close, that will be 8 bags of 25s and 21 bags of 50s.
Wow that sounds like a whole lot less work than I thought…

I’m lucky in that all but 3 packages of mags go thru the Jacksonville 320 station, which means after sorting by zone and zip, I now will tumble them all into the same sack together.

I finished last night getting my labels resorted to zip code, and practiced filling out the forms.

And of course I’ve been calling the post office since 6am when they “opened” and can’t get anyone to pick up the phone…

I will go down there again if I can’t get them on the phone, and also ask when is the best time to call and come in and what their exact days and hours are for the mail to be brought to them.  I can always come when it’s not their busy time, since I’m the boss.

That’s really the only part I don’t like, is we have to take the job in to the downtown main post office now.  Before, they always came out to the house and picked up the pallet of mags for only $14.75 and took it in to the post office.