Countdown to fall semester: fifteen days
The past 28 hours or so have been great ones. Yes, I'm still losing my hair, but still, it's been great here today. I've been working for most of my waking hours around the house, but mostly in my room.
The former girlfriend needs boxes for her move...whenever that happens, of course. In her packing, she's filled almost all the ones she has -- even going as far as to run across the street this morning to "steal" cardboard boxes that the neighbors had broken down and put out for recycling. I'm sure the neighbors thought she was nuts, as one of them came out of the house a few minutes later, looked at the suddenly-smaller pile of boxes, and went back inside, looking puzzled and/or pissed off. Why she couldn't just knock on the door and ask politely if she could take them was beyond me.
Anyway, I've had a lot of stuff in my Man Cave in boxes, big cardboard ones, for storage since we moved into this place over two years ago. I've also never done a proper "spring cleaning" type of cleaning of this room since we moved in, so stuff just sort of piled up over time, being stacked in corners and the closet, under my desk, etc. It was the sort of "controlled clutter" one might expect from a guy like me -- everything is in its place, even if said place is piled in a corner in stacked Sterilite tubs. However, most of the stuff in the cardboard boxes hadn't been touched in a year or more, and I decided there was no need to keep most of it, especially if I was never going to use it.
So, I disassembled my room. I brought the former girlfriend's shredder in here, where I sat down with a stack of old, useless papers, pay stubs, bank statements, etc -- and shredded them one by one. I found a ton of old student essays that are past the date which I needed to keep them. Into the shredder. Old receipts from Amazon purchases that I'll never need to see again? Into the shredder. By the time I was done last night, I had shredded two full trash bags of papers to recycle this morning with the garbage. By this evening, I had two more, and still have a fair-sized stack of papers to go. The shredder will automatically switch itself off for a "cool down" period after every fifty pages or so, which means that there's a lot of stopping and starting. During the cool down times, I cleaned the rest of the room like a cyclone, and here's what I've accomplished thus far:
1. Emptied and removed any and all cardboard boxes that the former girlfriend might be able to use in her move, and placed them with the rest
2. Reorganized my entire DVD bookcase for more space and storage; placed many books in there as well
3. Cleaned out my file cabinet (thus contributing a ton to the shredding)
4. Found all of my articles/copies of the newspaper work I did in this town, and had to rubber-band all of it into a binder to keep it together
5. Readied and organized more stuff to take back to school, to the office
6. Cleaned off and readied my old netbook, Pinky, to donate to a friend (more on this later)
7. Created a "table" of sorts for my Xbox and PSOne so that they're off the floor, complete with pillowcase "tablecloth"
8. Reorganized my daily carryables into the original tray I had them in over two years ago when we lived in Missouri, put another "tablecloth" under those (a Batman hand towel)
9. Cleaned off the top of my file cabinet, washed my oil burner, and gave that a tablecloth of a towel as well
10. Did all the laundry and dishes; switched out bedsheets so the former girlfriend can take the ones she likes with her
11. Took out all the trash, got the mail, brought the trash cans back up
12. Cleaned out the cat room, gave them new food/water/litter
13. Listened to two player loads' worth of podcasts.
Despite all this work, my Man Cave remains a wreck, though it's not for lack of trying. I've still got a few hours' worth of work to do, most of it involving shredding, a bit of reorganization of the room proper, and vacuuming it (before the former girlfriend takes the vacuum with her in the move).
The real news of the day, however, is how absolutely, shockingly generous my friends are, and to properly tell the story, I should start from about 24 hours ago, when I was awake in the middle of the night (yet again) working on the cleaning.
I received a message in my Facebook inbox from a friend and colleague at the school. It said something along the lines of "Hey, I've noticed you write a lot of status updates about your car needing work. What's wrong with it? My husband has worked on a lot of cars and he's never come across anything he couldn't fix. Maybe he could work on it and save you the ridiculous mechanics' costs. Just let me know; figured I'd offer because I hope someone would do the same for me."
Please note: this woman and her husband are two of the nicest people I've ever met. The offer is, of course, genuine -- they like to help anyone out if they can. The work that I need done the most, obviously, is the spark plugs/wire and the leaky radiator hose (which at this point I'm sure I've made out to sound that it's a lot worse than it is, since both of my parents are concerned about it). Those repairs, if you've been reading this blog for longer than its 2.0 incarnation, were quoted to me by a shop here in Newton to be $400 -- and that was for two spark plugs and one wire, before the hose started leaking. My point is, if I can get the car worked on by these friends for the cost of parts as well as a little kickback of cash, some free beer, etc. -- I need to do it. Like it or not, I need to rely heavily on this car three days a week (more on that later as well) for the foreseeable future to get me to and from Wichita for school. And they offered me this help out of the blue, of course, just when I needed it the most.
Sometimes I think I'm a very lucky guy.
I sent her a message back describing the known problems with the car in as much detail as I possibly could, not only for her benefit but for the benefit of her husband, who should be able to translate the technobabble of working on cars fairly well, since he's so experienced with them, and told her to keep me posted.
One of my fears allayed for the time being, with hope on the horizon, I went to bed.
When I awoke, the former girlfriend had just returned home from Wichita, where she'd spent the night with her visiting former professor (she's spending the night down there again tonight, too). I told her about the car situation and showed her my Man Cave as well as the boxes I'd cleaned out for her to use, she agreed with me that I am indeed starting to lose my hair, and gathered her items and stuff for another night down there of visiting, before telling me not to "kill her shredder" before leaving again.
She has not yet heard back from the apartment she's trying to get, so I told her she should probably call or email the woman again so that she can figure out what's going on, exactly. She's not really had any leads for any other places, save for one place that, if she gets it, she can't move into until September 9th -- a month from tomorrow. So, right now this place is her best bet if she wants to move out this month.
Settling down at my computer for my morning routine of smokes and coffee, I saw that I had another Facebook message waiting for me. This one was from my friend Becky, who I went to high school with. She was asking me if I would rather have stainless steel or nonstick cookware.
...wow, really?
So, I replied that if I had the choice, I'd rather have stainless, as it's a lot easier to clean, and thought nothing of it. A few minutes later she was asking me for my phone number and shipping address, as she'd ordered me stuff from Walmart.com for ship-to-store instead of getting the stuff on Amazon, where (I would imagine) the stuff was more expensive or the shipping was outrageous.
"Ginsu 8 piece knife block set, Mainstays 7 piece stainless steel cookware set, and Farberware 2 piece bamboo cutting board set are on their way," she told me a few minutes later.
Holy shit.
Shortly thereafter I received the confirmation email that no, she wasn't kidding, and that the girl had spent seventy-seven dollars on kitchen supplies for me. They'll be available for me to pick up in the Walmart store a few miles from my house in around ten days or so.
I was, and still am, completely humbled and frankly stunned. I didn't even really have the words to thank her, though I did. Profusely. And told her that I would find some way to make it up to her, I didn't care how, because that's one of the most extremely generous things that anyone's ever done for me.
"Don't worry about it at all!" she told me. "It's my good deed for the day. You are very welcome!"
Regardless, I will and simply must do something to thank her, whether that be sending her some t-shirts and/or gift cards to stores, or something else. I won't let a friend do something that nice for me without some sort of thanks. I still don't know what to say.
Still reeling from that, I got still more messages and pledges of support today from other friends -- one bought me the toaster off my wish list, so I can cross that off, and Brittany mailed me the popcorn popper and silverware this morning. Still other friends, throughout the course of the day, took more items off the list one by one, including both clocks I needed, an air purifier, and one of my former students that I'm still close with offered me two end tables quite similar to the ones we have now. When I go to the office this week she's going to bring them to me on campus, and I'll have to cram them in the backseat of the Monte Carlo to get them home. Because of all of these heartfelt responses and pledges to help in any way possible, I revised and re-posted the note on Facebook, which garnered even more responses, including one from my former editor at the paper, who is on the lookout for free or cheap furniture for me as well.
I wish I knew anything to say or do other than thank these people profusely. Most of them live far from here in other cities and states, and yet all of them are pitching in to lend a hand in any way they can. This means, of course, that almost all of the minor items on my original list are now taken care of in one way or another, leaving me to only have to worry about the bigger or more expensive things once I get paid and once the former girlfriend vacates the premises. Every little bit helps, though -- $20 here, $30 there -- it all helps me out, helps me save money and better prepare for those big purchases that I'll eventually have to make, like a couch/futon, a chair or two, a coffee table, a lawnmower, etc. You get the idea.
So, with that, I got down to my work this afternoon, occasionally taking one of those many breaks between shredding sessions to check my email, read the news on Twitter, etc. I then received an email from the office administrator of the department (read: savior to all who GTA). It was about my teaching schedule.
As you may recall, last week at some point I emailed her to ask -- since she had me on the preliminary schedule for teaching Tuesday/Thursday classes -- if she would be able to keep me on that if possible, since it would help wear and tear on the car if I only had to be in there three days a week. She had emailed me back to confirm that yes, I was on a Tuesday/Thursday teaching schedule, and that I'd be teaching at 9:30 and 11 (the same times I taught in the spring), and that I'd be teaching the section of 102 specifically for Engineering majors due to my science background -- but neither the director nor his wife will be back in town until the 14th, the desk copy of my textbook hasn't arrived yet, and I'll have to talk to the director's wife about the syllabus and other materials for the class once they get back (which I already knew, of course). She gave me the course catalog numbers, but doesn't know a room assignment yet as all of the important paperwork has to go through the proper channels for that, and then she can declare me the formal instructor of the class, etc., in the registration stuff.
This is some of the best news I've heard all week -- and that includes all the stuff from my friends -- because it not only means that I won't have to be in there five days a week (or even four) but I got the days and times I like to teach, which also corresponds to the days and times I'll actually be there for my own classes. Thursday, regrettably (and for the third semester in the row) looks like it's going to be another of those "leave house at 7AM, get home at 10:30PM" sort of days, but if that's the sacrifice I must make to have a three-day work week and be able to get all of my work done, then I will most certainly take it. I, of course, replied to the email thanking her profusely for the information, as well.
Now all I have to do about school (aside from moving my stuff back into the office), really, is wait. When those-who-are-in-charge return to town, I'll have a week to get the literature, book, and example syllabus, and read through it enough to make my edits/changes and primary lesson plans. This excites me and challenges me at the same time.
As I said, sometimes I think I'm a very lucky guy.
Later, I received emails from my parents; my mother told me she was able to find me yet another 12-pack of Blue Raspberry Crush, but didn't know how she'd ship it as it would cost more to ship than it did to actually buy it. I told her that she could do the same thing my friend Amber did, and that was to put the individual cans in a flat-rate box and insulate it with shopping bags so they don't get dented and/or burst. Plus, if she does that, she could stick any mail or anything else she wanted to in the box for further insulation, but I forgot to mention that to her. After all, the flat-rate boxes all ship for the same price regardless of weight; it's what makes them flat-rate.
My mother also inquired about my book and how she could purchase it once it's up for sale on Amazon -- and I told her how, so I figure I'll tell all of you how to do it (if you're interested, of course) as well.
Amazon's self-publishing program works similar to music services like iTunes -- people upload their works, sell them, and the company (of course) gets a cut. With Amazon, I believe that cut is somewhere in the realm of 15-20%, though I'm not sure and would have to read through everything again. Regardless, it's not an overwhelming chunk (such as my t-shirt stores on Cafepress take) and I will be pulling most of the profits of the book's sales. This is because the books aren't printed, per se, they're electronic -- thus, there's no real overhead cost to Amazon. To be able to read these books, you either must have a Kindle or other compatible e-reader to purchase and download it to, or you can purchase the actual file outright. To be able to read the file, you have to have a sort of "reader app" for your computer, which is readily available -- and, I believe, free -- on the site. This app is similar to using a program like Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF files. Once you have that, or a Kindle, you can read any of the eBooks on the site after purchase.
I'm setting the purchase price somewhere in the realm of $9.99 to $14.99; I'm not sure yet. My book is almost 500 pages long (480+ before the last two or three pages are "locked"), and I feel that's comparable in price to most other books on the site, eBooks and hard copies -- right in the middle. Not too little, not too much. If I do this, I'll get around $8-12 per copy I sell, which when I'm running out of money (and hoping to be able to eventually help pay back some of my student loan debt with profits/sales from this book) is a good thing.
Now, the bad news -- because of the simply crazy hectic week, including everything I'm doing around the house, the trip back to the office to move my stuff back in there, and a possible move of the former girlfriend within the next few days (depending on how the cards fall), it looks like the book's release is going to get pushed back to around the 15th at the earliest. Yes, it's almost done, and yes, I've already "locked" the front and back cover art for the e-edition, but I still have hours upon hours of work to do on it before I can really call it completely done and ready to metaphorically go to print -- and I don't know when I'll get the next chance to do that.
Of course, when I do -- and especially when it's finished -- you folks will be the first to know, and I'll post the link to it here on the site. It just takes time, folks, and with two weeks left before school starts up again, time is at a premium. I have to take care of the most important stuff first.
On that note, I'm headed to bed. It's 4AM; anything else can wait until the morning/early afternoon when I get up.
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