Before you ask, I had a great Valentine’s Day. Most of it was spent doing laundry and dishes and checking on Batman who spent a majority of the day in bed due to a slip on Saturday. That’s right. Even the caped crusader himself slips on wet pavement and goes down to the ground hard. Like ouch hard. For most people, this would be at most a painful and somewhat embarrassing event. But Batman has had three back surgeries, so his pain was a little more intense, and lasted longer—pretty much halfway through Sunday which kept him in bed. But he’s okay now. Mostly. Just like the rest of humanity.

So how was your Valentine’s Day? Did you celebrate it? Did you not? I usually don’t ask these questions because I don’t care, because it’s not a real holiday, but since someone signed us up to participate this year, I guess I’ll bite. Tell me of all the holiday things you did. Besides laundry and dishes, we celebrated with small gifts to show how we feel about one another.

Batman’s gifts to me:

• 

• 

My gift to Batman:

As you can see, we love each other to the point of profanity and pop-culture, which I think is the only real way to love someone. There might have been chocolate involved as well, but only because Mamabear mentioned dipped strawberries, and also, most Russell Stover candy boxes are ten bucks or under, so, like, win for the affluently-challenged.

Seriously though, I hope everyone had a great Sunday. And Saturday. And Tuesday. And childhood. I hope everyone had a great childhood. All my hopes and positive vibes for you are year-round and apply to your past, but mostly your future. I’m still employed, Batman’s feeling better, and I love my bracelet and my sexy as sin Handerpants.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

~ Lady Caitlin Signing Off

It’s Wednesday again, and I’m pleased to report that I am still employed. That’s right. I’ve proven myself for a week and a half at this point, and even though the water-machine and I got into it, I think I’ve secured myself a position with this company. We’ll see if my employee tag ever makes it in and also, if they dump a little money in my account on Friday—I feel like that will definitely seal the deal that this is reality, and I’m not still stuck in land of unemployment.

Oh, to be in the workforce again, and to feel the familiar sting of stress and anxiety!

It’s actually not terrible and I hope it continues to not be terrible, but only time will tell. I don’t want to say too much, but I will say that there’s this gong that gets hit at least once a day and I am DETERMINED to hit that thing at some point. I know what it takes even though I’m obviously still learning how to get there, but I’m going to hit that gong before the year is out. This is my personal goal. I’m very excited about the paydays and PTO and 401k company match all and, but I am now OBSESSED with hitting that gong which I am sure will start to annoy me after a while. Or maybe not? Maybe it’ll be the motivation I need to hit the darn thing. I don’t know, but it’s all very exciting.

Writing-wise, I’m still deep into my re-write, but it’s coming along nicely. Slowed down a bit the past week due to the new job, but I cranked out a bunch over the weekend which means I’m still solidly into this new direction and in fact, I’m going to jump back in that document here in a moment when I’m finished with this one. But I prioritized you first, because I care. Honestly, I should work on my second newsletter next, but I still have a week. And a weekend between now and then, so, there you go.

I feel like I’ve said everything I need to for this week. Probably more to report next Wednesday, because that’ll be the post after Valentine’s Day, and I’m excited to see what mystery gift Batman keeps teasing me with. Seriously, we never do this holiday and now he has “gifts.” The first was the Handerpants—you remember. And this second one…who knows? But, I DID break down and get him something, and let me just say—it’s badass, and by extension, so am I.

We’ll go over that more next week. That’s all for now.

Have a great one!

~ Lady Caitlin signing off

There’s not a ton of news on my end (good thing?) so let’s dive right into the Insecure Writers Support Group question, which I *did* remember to post on time this month.

Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

Aw man, I was so erratic in the beginning of my blogging days, and I’d say up to about four years ago, I barely remembered I had a blog. I posted whenever I thought about it, which means I didn’t participate in the great blogosphere culture. Sadly, this post exposes me because I’m still not embracing it to the point that I could be, but I’m getting better and making interaction more of a goal. Honestly, the internet scares the crap out of me because with all the psychos and trolls polluting, I’m hesitant to make friends. But I have made a few who I’m pretty sure aren’t psychos because by now I think I’d have picked up on some things. Maybe? I guess time will tell.

There’re no do-overs with the past—nor should there be—so I can’t change that I lingered in the blogosphere for five to six years and didn’t actually participate. But, I can change what I do going forward, which is develop the few friendships I actually have maintained (vetted to be not psychos) and embrace new friends (hopefully not psychos) so that I surround myself with people who understand and can empathize with what I’m going though writing-wise, and maybe even more that that. Sounds like an awesome idea to me.

Okay, 2021. I’m ready. Let’s do this.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly blog hop for writers at all levels to share their fears and insecurities in a safe and encouraging place. Please drop by and say hi to Alex Cavanaugh who started this nifty concept in bringing us all together.

~ Lady Caitlin Signing off

P.S. Also, this should be the third day I’m working at my new job if 2021 continues being the awesome year that it is. Woo-hoo for awesome new years!