A Birthday Post

 A long time ago I created a very similar post listing 55 things about me. I'm not going to do that many again, but here's 24 facts for my 24th birthday! 

1.) I got my very first tattoo this year, the symbol from my very favorite book Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I do have several more planned. 

2.) I currently have 19 different works in progress. Some are standalones, some are long series. Maybe some of my posts in the future will be more about them 

3.) My favorite board game is Werewolf or Cosmic Encounter. I also love throw throw burrito. 

4.) I moved into my first apartment in 2021 less than a week before my 23rd birthday. 

5.) I'd like to open my own bar someday. 

6.) I'm thinking about starting a podcast, the working title is Cancel Me. 

7.) I don't have a ton of fears, I think fear generally holds people back in life. Except for sharks, I'm absolutely horrified by sharks. (And abandonment, but hey that's trauma for you). 

8.) I envy artists, because no matter how much I've tried, I cannot draw for the life of me. I do paint for fun sometimes. 

9.) I've been in a relationship for almost 5 years. 

10.) I have a dog, Juniper, and an asshole (read: cat) Haze. 

11.) I was in theater in high school, one of the plays I did was Alice in Wonderland (I played the Gryphon). This is ultimately what led to my love for the characters, and the eventual creation of Code Red. 

12.)  Since 2018 I've lost over 50 pounds. 

13.) So far this year I've read about 60 books, I'm aiming to be at at least 75 by the end of the year. 

14.) I got into some light gaming in the last few years. I absolutely adore the Nintendo Switch. Overwatch and Animal Crossing probably rank as my top two favorite games. 

15.) I have a passion for educating people on sex and kink. 

16.) I love to sing, but I'm awful at it. 

17.) My childhood stuffed animal was a Pat the Bunny. His name is Rabbi, and he still lives on a shelf in my bedroom. 

18.) When played D&D I tend to play Tieflings or Elves. (Bard or Barbarian). 

19.) I've had ear tubes five times, and still have issues with my ears. 

20.) I collect stuffed animals and rocks. 

21.) I've had Covid twice, the first time was just before the vaccines came out, and I was very, very sick. The second time was much more mild, but still pretty awful. I've also had mono 3 times, and chicken pox twice, and whooping cough. (Yes, I was a vaccinated kid, I just have no immune system). 

22.) I'm not especially picky about movies and TV, in the sense that I tend to enjoy what I'm watching without the over critical eye that most fans have in this day and age. 

23.) I love to crochet. My grandmother taught me, and like cooking it's something I do to feel close to her. 

24.) Last One! I'm allergic to eucalyptus, latex, and tobacco. 

Hope you enjoyed learning some random things about me. 

Happy Birthday to Me.

Taila Out.  

We Didn't Start the Fire... but I Did

 2022 has been hell of a year. I started the year working for a roadside assistance company remotely. I liked the job, and I was good at it, but I knew it wasn't something I wanted to do forever. After a bit of a mental health crisis, I started looking at things I needed to change. I've lost a lot of weight in the last few years, but getting more stamina and feeling less depressed led to a gym membership. I needed to focus on myself, so I also made the choice to get my bartending license. It was a spontaneous choice, though not the first time I'd considered it. I like cooking, I've always enjoyed mixing drinks for my friends, though I'm not a big drinker myself. I was also looking for a new job, I felt like sitting in my living room 5 days a week staring at a screen, when that was all I was doing in my free time as well, wasn't good for me. I needed out of the house more, so I was also applying for new jobs. A lot went on in this month long period, and I made the decision to quit my job, I felt storm weathered. 

Now hindsight is 20/20, quitting a job I mostly liked was not my best choice. I did take on another job just a couple weeks later. I'll talk about this one outright. I was hired by Buff City Soap, it's important to note that I had never worked retail before. I like cushy desk jobs, and I excel in them generally speaking, but the idea of making handmade soap, and the fifty percent discount led me to take the job while I was attending bartending class. The store I was hired at wasn't open yet, so the first couple weeks of the job we were preparing the store for customers. I didn't hate it, it was a part time job, that I knew was temporary. I had convinced myself, I would continue working part time there, and find a nice part time bartending job, and that would be perfect. Listen folks, I'm only twenty three, I'm using the excuse that my brain isn't done cooking for the error in my judgement. The store opened, and I hated it, I couldn't handle the pain I was in from being on my feet all day. I got written up for rolling my eyes at the assistant manger. The 'tude in this one is strong, I can't always keep the look off my face if I'm annoyed. I came home and cried in pain, I couldn't hardly make it up the stairs at my apartment. My partner and a friend tried to convince me to quit when they put me on the side of the road flipping a sign in 95 degree weather. I waited a few days, really debating the intelligence of that choice. Ultimately, I did make the choice to quit on June 13th. 

Now let me harken us back to when I was still working at the previous job, I had had several interviews. When I didn't hear back from any of them at that time I was disappointed, but continued the hunt. After quitting Buff City, I applied for and interviewed at several places. One day, I received a surprising email that a job I had interviewed for on May 3rd was still interested in me. I was a final candidate in their hiring process. I was ecstatic, the job paid well, and was almost exactly what I was looking for. But I never count my chickens before they hatch, so I continued to apply and interview elsewhere. It was a Friday near the end of June (no I don't remember the exact date), I had just finished two interviews around town, when I received a call from the first one at a Nissan Dealership, offering me the position on the following Monday. I wasn't especially excited about the job itself, but I was going to take it. The bills were calling, I knew they needed to be fed. About 30 minutes later, the job I had interviewed with in May called. I was offered the position. I took it, screaming in happiness once I was off the phone. It was call center, but I was going to be doing more administrative work than calls. Exactly what I was looking for. 

I started with Rural Metro (yes the Fire department) on July 11th. I adored it instantly, everything about the job was perfect (aside of the 8am-5pm schedule, but I could adjust. My coworkers were some of the nicest women I'd been around in many years, there was camaraderie and understanding. The work itself was a breeze. I got up everyday happy to be there. Unfortunately, I contracted Covid at the very beginning of August, so I missed 3 and 1/2 work days. Even during this time, the people I worked with were caring, offering to help in anyway they could. I returned to work on August 9th. I was finally starting to take calls, things were going perfectly. Until the fire nation attacked on August 17th, just after my lunch. HR pulled the five people that made up our little member services department, and let us know that we were all being terminated due to Covid 19 causing higher business expenses. They laid off 200 employees across the company.

I cried a few tears with the nice women I'd come to love, packed my stuff and came home. It still makes no sense to me why they would hire a new employee, only to lay off the entire department barely a month later, but I guess I'm not a CEO, so what do I know. We were officially employed until August 31st, after which time we would receive a severances package based on tenure. Mine was for one pay period. So here I am, looking for my 4th job of 2022, feeling a bit depressed. Of course this has given me the chance to finish Code Red. I've had a few interviews, though nothing solid on the job front currently. Life is nothing if not filled with twists and turns. I guess the old adage, if something seems too good to be true it is applies. But, I'm not down, this is just a chance for new opportunities in my life. 

Wish Me Luck. 

Taila Out

Writing #13: Renewed Passion

 I know I haven't been posting consistently on this blog for many, many years. You can read several previous posts to find out why that is, but I have very exciting news. In my previous post on writing, I had given updates on Code Red. I finished the book initially on September 30th, 2017. I remember this night so vividly. I was sitting in  my grandmother's bedroom, watching my little sister, who would not go to sleep (the whims of a freshly two year old). I had just turned nineteen myself. I had spent months working to finish this story, my first ever completed work. I had other stories, but none that I had ever been as diligent about completing. The excitement I felt as I typed the final words of the epilogue, cementing the ending of the first book was breathtaking. 

I spent hours editing with a now former friend. The events that would take place in the short months after I had started editing would put a damper on my excitement. On January 17th, 2018, I was still recovering from a nasty car accident, when I was sitting with my grandmother, mulling over the epilogue, debating a character's death. I knew I wasn't entirely happy with the end, but none of the ideas I had meshed with what I knew the next two books would look like.. This was the last conversation I would ever have with Grammy. Some part of me hates that, that our final conversation was about death, hours before she herself would pass. Code Red is dedicated to my grandmother, she named it, she watched as I wrote it, talked to me endlessly about it. I couldn't touch the story for years, it brought back so much pain, to lose the person I had talked to about everything, who had supported my dreams. My very best friend. I've spent a lot of time trying to heal, hell even as I write this, thinking about her brings tears to my eyes. Grief is a strange thing, a hole that never refills in your heart, but I know her, she would never have wanted me to stop writing. She would be as excited as I am for what comes next. She'd be happy to know the cheerleaders in my life that remind me they're proud of me, and keep pushing me forward to grow. Thanks Dad, Angel, and Tyler. There's many more of you, but I have to give props to the main homies. 

At almost exactly five years later, I have finally finished the edits of Code Red. Kind of... There's many reasons it took me so long. For five years, I have carted around the chapters I still needed to edit on the computer. The pile had diminished over the years, I had only the final six left. An insane situation with my job led me to feeling glum and disappointed. You'll probably be seeing a post about that on going situation soon, but what happened motivated me to finally knock out those chapters. I want to publish a book, I want to share this amazing story with the world. Or at least a few people who might enjoy it. With the support of some every good friends and my partner, I am doing final edits. Finalizing what Code Red will be when it comes to an Amazon Kindle near you. I felt the same overwhelming amazement when I completed those edits. It's renewed my passion for writing. I've never stopped, I have so many stories to finish, Code Red may be the first, but it most certainly is not the last.