Interesting News

Those who are following me on Facebook may have seen my status update about my job interview today.  The rest of you… you now know.

As far as first interviews go, it went well.  Instead of the usual one on one, they brought in a group of us and told us all about the company (American Life Income), and their own goals before telling us what they were wanting from us.  Not a whole lot is expected of us, really, and it was a pyramid scheme like my first gut feeling said when I first saw the conference room.

It went well, and they want their people to take some initiative in getting the company out there but they provide the leads, not us writing down lists of people we may or may not know.  There’ll be training, of course, and a license to get, but nothing unexpected as far as fees.  What they do need their people to have is a laptop.  Thankfully, I have that ready and waiting even if it is four years old.

Once I have the spare cash, I’ll be getting a newer laptop and/or a tablet or netbook for work.  That is, of course, I get a second interview and they like me well enough to take the risk.  I know I can do the job and become a good leader.  It’s are they willing to take the chance.

I’m ready to take the chance, so I‘m 50% there already.  Cross your fingers.  I need all the prayers, hope, and luck I can get.

Frantic Friday!

Instead of a Black Friday post, which, in another meaning of the phrase, this is definitely a Frantic Friday.  Well, I can honestly say, by the time of this post, this post can be classified as a Saturday post.  It has been one of those days all around and it started much the same as any other day.  Then... suddenly... BOOM!  Not in the good way, either.

What I'll be writing is more to keep things straight in my mind for future reference should I need to go to court over what has happened.  I'm sure I will, but knowing my son, he is as much at fault here, too.  He doesn't seem to understand that what his father and I tell him is good advice.

The day started normal with the usual yelling match to get him to get ready for school.  He's still grounded from watching his shows so he was upset, but he was still happy and willing to get off to school.  The day is good.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  No phone calls from the school.  ect, ect, ect... Ad nauseum.

I note the time at 2:23PM that we should expect him to come through the door from school and be ready to go play with his friends.  I was planning to have him help me clean out the car so we can get his grandmother too and from the place she's getting an oil change, new tires, wipers, and a few other things to prepare for our big trip to Arkansas for Adam's graduation. (He has grown up way to fast.)

About the time I was getting ready to gather things to clean the car, we get a phone call.  Someone named Mary Love.  I don't know who, but it could be about a job and it is local.  Instead, the call is about my son.  He was bitten by a dog and was bleeding badly.  She had already called 911 for an ambulance.  The fire truck arrived first for in case the dog was loose and trying to attack again.  I arrive on the scene when the fire truck was pulling in.  From there, it becomes chaos.

Colin is screaming, his foot hurt really bad.  While I tried to calm him down so the first responders can assess the damage and prepare for the ambulance, I learn who saved him.  A sweet older woman who lives in the duplexes near by and she happened to be close enough to yank him out of the dog's mouth before the animal could pull him through the hole in the fence.  Another of the dog's neighbors witnessed the saving, but didn't see what caused it to attack a child going by.

Let me state right here that my son is insanely curious and a lover of all animals.  He has been raised around cats and ferrets and has been around dogs under controlled circumstances.  He knows any of them could hurt him if he wasn't careful.  Considering we do have two cats, the dog could have smelled them on him.  Or, another child could have aggravated the dog and Colin was the one it saw.  Or, and I wouldn't put it pass him, Colin might have accidentally put the dog on guard and it attacked because of something he did.  All three fit the scenario.  But the kids who were gathered are all within the same grade level (3rd grade) and live either in our apartment complex or in the houses nearby.

Colin is ADHD and is impulsive as well as problems with defiance which is being treated through his therapy and the medication he's taking.  Who knows what is going through his mind at any particular moment unless he's sleeping or playing a game on the computer or his tablet.  The last he wanted to do was to make any animal mad enough to attack.

Until today, I had no idea this dog was there.  All I could see of it through the fence was a decent sized dog.  When it poked its head through the hole it tried to drag my son through, I could see that it had to be a Shephard mix.  The muzzle and shape of the face was that of a German Shepard.  Beautiful creature.  Still, it tasted blood and it could be even more dangerous now as a result.

Back to the subject:

When I saw his foot, there was a large section of skin pulled back on the top of his foot.  You could see the tendons clearly, ligaments, and muscle.  Of course, lots of blood, but not as much as I first feared.  He is very lucky that the major artery that runs across the top of the foot wasn't cut or nicked by those sharp teeth.  There are other lacerations across the top where his shoe gave way to the jaws but they weren't near as bad.  What I could see, there was still good color in his toes so no huge blood loss.  The rest we wouldn't know until later.  At the hospital. /cringe and shudder

No one can say Colin was difficult.  He knew what the medics were doing.  He answered their questions between shouts of pain.  He hurt very bad but kept his wits about him, even when they asked him about his favorite games and other questions to help distract him.  He is a little trooper and handled himself better than most adults in similar situations.

He made me very proud of him for his behavior and willingness to let strangers take care of his big owie.  :D  Even better, he gave Miss Love our number so we'd know what had happened.  We would have noticed within a few minutes regardless because he is very punctual coming home from school.

At the hospital, we learn the extent and it is decided quickly to operate.  Not just to sew up the skin, but to piece together the torn ligaments and tendons they could see.  That's when we learned how close the dog's teeth came to slicing open a major artery.  Hearing that didn't help me much at all.  I was shaking already.  That news made it worse.

Thankfully Dave and mom were there.  Robin had just gotten off her shift and was heading home when the news got to her.  She got me home through the rush hour traffic to get Dave so Colin had both of us there.  He had his three most important people on hand when he went into surgery and I was there when he came out in recovery.  As soon as they could, they got mom and Dave up to his room to help him settle in and talk to the doctor.  He was so happy his daddy brought his tablet to help distract him from the pain in his foot.

I'll be camping out in his room until he's released.  May be Monday from what the nurses said.  The doctor who did the surgery wants to let the swelling go down some more so they can see if any further damage was done.  The pediatric surgeons will decide if more is needed and how we'll progress from there for his healing.  The way it sounds right now, he'll make a full recovery and be able to become a marathon runner when he's older.

Right now, he's in a pain-free sleep.  So angelic looking and peaceful.  David, mom, and I didn't leave until he fell asleep due to the lortab elixir he was given to help the pain.  By then, the adrenaline I was running on was dissipating and my stomach was realizing I hadn't eaten since around noon.  Dinner was close to midnight and I was feeling the effects of blood sugar getting too low.

The last of the tension has run its course now.  I'm tired, but mom-mode never stops until the child is safe and feeling better.  I may get some sleep here in the room.  Who knows.  Just keep my boy in your thoughts for a speedy recovery.

March #writemotivation Roundup

Well, the month ended quietly with a beautiful day and a well cooked meal in my house.  My son was well behaved and ate everything we put on his plate.  On top of that, he loved his Easter gifts and new clothes.  That was all that went well during the month.

It had been a hectic month with long hours and tough days at work which took away a lot of my writing and revising time. Most nights I was too tired to even focus on my emails and other messages let alone try to figure out how to revise one chapter without losing too much of the content.  I did, however, manage to get some done.  Not a lot, but some.

Just a few days before Easter, I lost my job at Wal-Mart.  Which meant I needed to get a few things done before I could focus on anything.  But, I used the extra spare time working on SoNL.  I also spent some extra time with my son, too.  Something he really enjoyed.

So, for now, I am searching for a new job and getting things set up with unemployment and food stamps.  My big priority for now is figuring out what to do with my 401K money.  Other than using some to get this month's bills took care of, I need to invest the rest.  Thankfully, I do have a few good places to talk that over until I make a decision.

1) Finally do the edits and revisions to chapters 8 through 15 on SoNL.

I got to chapter 11 before the month ended.  Saturday saw nothing done due to a lot of shopping both for me, my boyfriend, and my son.  Sunday was spent paying attention to family and food instead of writing.  Family IS more important than any craft.  They are our first inspirations for doing what we do.  At least work was done on it.  Amazingly, I kept almost half of the content of the original chapter.  Chapter ten was so long, I decided to split it up into two chapters, so technically, I did get to chapter 11.

2) Try to come up with a good name for the book itself while I edit.

Sorry, no decent names have popped into my head, yet.  Past Through Shadows as the book name remains and still sounds lame and clunky.

3) Try to write at least one more chapter to Black Friday 2.

I didn't write a thing on this one.  I probably would have gotten some done over the weekend if I wasn't shopping.

4) Brain willing, come up with names for Black Friday 2.

I have a tentative idea for a name, but nothing I'm willing to note, yet.  So, no, incomplete again.  :(

5) Revise the beginning to Test of Ascension

Didn't even touch it.  >.<

6) Pre-write the ABC challenge posts.

I got to the letter M and I am so happy!  Half the alphabet to buffer.  I'll knock out the rest during this week between applications.  So... I guess I can cross this one off.  I got farther than I expected.