Last week was an odd combination of highs and lows. After the podcast Monday night I was feeling a little bit ill – might have had something to do with the Ben and Jerry’s I had afterwards, or so I thought. Turns out my ulcerative colitis was gathering up a head of steam to kick my ass. Things went downhill pretty quickly…
so I spent Tuesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon in the hospital getting fluids and many unfortunate tests. The good news is, as much as I dislike having UC, it beats the crap out of the many other nasty diseases it could have been (and isn’t). For this I am thankful. Seriously.
I nagged the doctor into letting me out so I could attend the ASJA conference (that’s American Society of Journalists and Authors) on Friday and Saturday. I always love going to the conference, but this year was special because I got to speak on a panel discussion about Profiting from your Writing Passion. I had a really great time and got some nice feedback. Friday afternoon was editor meetings, and I managed to get through most of Saturday’s workshops as well.
Saturday night, LL did a big dance fundraiser with her new dance school and it was a whole lot of fun- although we didn’t get home until 1:00 AM! She danced in four different numbers and had a blast – all the fun of performing with none of the ups and downs of competition. Middle Sister came too so she could watch.
Now I am exhausted! But not awfully sickly, just way worn down. Finishing up knitting two sweaters, trying to catch up with everything that didn’t get done last week when I was ill. Mostly sitting on the couch full time – knitting or crocheting, or writing, or emailing. Cinderella Puppy is happy I am home and keeps coming over to check up on me, which is cute.
So two more things – I am teaching my Designing for Print Publication online class again – this time on Yahoo Groups so I can have knitters as well as crocheters. Check it out here.
And for today’s high? I admit to going through phases of checking out my books’ sales rank on Amazon.com way more often than might be considered necesary by a more normal person, but with Hooked for Life being new to the market, I have succumbed to the lure of the rankings. It has spent a whole lot of time on the top 100 crochet books list, which of course pleases me greatly – thanks to all of you who shopped or bought the book there already. But when the ranking is particularly high, I turn up on the top 100 essay books list – which makes me feel a lot like a grown-up writer – a feeling I don’t always have. So today was one of those days when I was on the essay book list.
I now share my dementia – I clicked over to see the whole list of top essay books today to see the kind of company I was keeping, if only for a brief and shining moment. Joan Didion was one title above me, Kurt Vonnegut one title below. I can die happy now!
Speaking of books – if you are the mother or special adult in the life of a tween or teen girl, I highly recommend this one –
I met the author over the weekend and enjoyed her immensely.
Back to the knitting…