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How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
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I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"  In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job. Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B. After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate. It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general. Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions. |
| What is something you like to do that other people might think is “weird?” Everything I do, someone thinks is weird. My sense of humor is off, and I often get a lot of strange looks. I like wordplay, and few people seem to get my jokes. My boyfriend says he has the same problem, few people understand his humor or think he's funny. I love his jokes and get the bulk of them, and he also gets me. I love to read, which everyone thinks is weird sort of. There are two camps on this, it seems. On the one hand, there's a collection of people who just don't think of reading as fun. The other hand is the "I wish I had time to read" group, which seems like a subtle jab at me, as though I'm not busy as a single homeschooling self-employed mom of four. Loads of free time. The difference, I think, is that I rarely watch TV, not at the rate most people consume it. Other than a random movie or two, at most I watch 45 minutes (one commercial-free show) a day, but I don't actually do that every day. I don't think I watched anything yesterday. I won't lie; I occasionally binge watch with the best of them. But those are few and far between. I can't stand to sit there and just passively watch something; I'd rather be reading. Since the lockdown, I've been playing more Twilight Imperium, a board game. This is a game that, in truth, works best with six players, though it can be played with as few as three. (I suppose it could technically be played with only two, but it's hard to imagine that going well.) My bf enjoys it, and, to my surprise, my 17 yo son does, as well. This is a game that most people only get the chance to play maybe once every month at best, and often less frequently; prior to purchasing it, I think I played two or three times. The gap between games was long enough that I tended to forget the rules between playing. Okay, you're saying, so you like board games; that's not weird. Well, this particular board game at best lasts 6 hours. With six players, even if everyone knows how to play, it can run two days of six hours each. That's kind of weird. I'm also a geek. I took up Dungeons & Dragons a few years ago. Even with the growth of popularity that came with Stranger Things, it's still considered weird. Oh here's a good one. I talk about sex with my kids. I don't think that one sex talk is enough to have with your kids, so I've addressed the subject with all four - including the two boys - multiple times. Sometimes one on one, sometimes in a group. And I also make inappropriate jokes with my kids. Just yesterday, my younger son (15) made an "ooh, 69!" comment. I was like, oh you want to talk about oral sex? And then I did. But in a jokey sort of way, not serious at that point. Initially, this made them uncomfortable but now all of them, even my youngest, who thinks kissing is gross, is more relaxed about it. I want them to have some level of comfort so that they can talk to me if they have a problem or a question. This is especially 'weird' since I'm a conservative Christian. I teach my kids not to have sex before they are married. But I also told them that they should always discuss things with their doctor. I told them that, if they chose not to listen to me, and do have sex, to make sure they use protection. We discuss STDs, or STVs, I think is what they're calling them now. I've told them if they are having sex and have any strange symptoms in their private regions, or if they think they are pregnant, that they should tell the doctor. That they can ask me to make an appointment and when I ask why, they can tell me that it's personal. I told them that I will try not to push them to tell me at that point, but that it is imperative that they discuss it with a doc. I also tell them that, sure, I would be disappointed if they had sex before marriage, but that I would of course love them, and of course be there for them to help with whatever problems they have. All of this seems to be different from how a lot of parents approach sex discussions with their kids. Which I suppose makes me weird. But if you only talk to your kids about sex once, the odds are they will be so embarrassed that one time they won't hear anything anyway. I think it's important to keep that door open, no matter what your religious beliefs. One of the things that really struck me - I know I'm veering off topic - was the Elizabeth Smart story. If you don't remember, Smart was abducted from her bedroom window when she was maybe 12 or 13, somewhere in that age. Her kidnappers sexually abused her. Eventually she was recognized and returned home. Like me and my family, Smart was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what most people call "Mormons." What I remember her saying was that she felt that, having been abused and thus 'not chaste', even though it wasn't her fault, she was too 'dirty' to go home. I'm sure that's not what her parents meant. I never want me kids to feel that way, whether due to abuse or due to their choices. I want them to know they are always loved, no matter what happens or what they do. To me, the worst thing I can imagine one of my children doing is killing their sibling intentionally. I have told them that is the worst thing I can imagine, and that, though I would be sad, upset, and disappointed, I would still always love them. Nothing that they can do and nothing that can be done to them can ever change that. I think that's something every parent should make clear to their child, and something they should do repeatedly. And if that's weird, well, then I'm glad to be that weird. |
| Music often has the ability to remind us of old memories. In your entry today, be inspired by a specific piece of music or a musical instrument. What feelings/emotions does the music or instrument stir in you? Share a specific memory your chosen song or instrument reminds you of. I am just not a music person. My daughter is home for the weekend, hence this delayed/late piece. (When she is here, she sleeps in my office, so I wind up on my computer less.) She loves music. We put her in piano lessons when she was young and she is the only one who continued with them when the choice was given to stop. Now that she's home, I'm noticing that she is more apt to sing partial tunes under her breath. It drives me crazy, but I don't want to say anything. She's not as bad as her dad's grandfather, who doesn't even realize when he is whistling. Whistling, to me, is worse than fingernails on the chalkboard. My boyfriend also loves music. He used to sing and has a beautiful voice. Now he has a burr in his throat, or something, like a node, that is keeping him from singing. I can tell that he misses it. He is also always playing music in the background, and often humming or singing. Like me, his taste in music is widespread and covers multiple genres, though his is a bit wider than mine. All of this to say, I rarely listen to music. The best time for me is in the car, especially on long drives. When I drove home to North Carolina from college in Georgia - an 8 hour drive - I would often flip through my CDs. Once I had kids who were old enough to understand stuff, I tended to play more word games and such with them. Even toddlers can come up with rhyming words, when you ask, "what sounds like 'cat'?". It's a great way to encourage interest in reading. We also did addition and multiplication out loud. And, as they got older, used the time to talk. When I drive solo now, I tend to use the time to catch up on phone calls. There are a few songs that I listen to that bring back memories. Mostly because of associations either from the time I first heard it or when I listened to it. Like most people, I suspect, I predominantly listen to music I was listening to in high school and college. Most of that time was depressing, so it's not a good thing to listen to. Perhaps that's one reason I don't listen a lot of music nowadays. I found when I listened to some of it after my divorce, it helped to hurry the depression I was already struggling with due to biology and circumstances. I know this isn't a great response to the prompt. But I think it has led me to some self-awareness. I was just chatting with my bf the other day about why I don't listen to music a lot, and I think the connection to depression is key. I've mentioned before how high school was hell for me, and I see no reason to revisit that time in my memory. |
| Not including your phone, computer, or other Googling device, write about the top five most useful items you own. Taking away my electronics leaves me hard-hit, but I'm going to have to give the most obvious answer that everyone should expect from a writing site. The most useful non-electronic items I own has to be my library card. To be honest, I considered 'books' but I would be hard-pressed to narrow it down to a handful. But my library card literally opens up new worlds to me, as well as worlds of the past. Of course, it's best used in tandem with my computer, so I can put books on hold and perform interlibrary-loan requests, but those can be done at the library, in contact with librarians. My phone is also useful here because it allows me to check out electronic library books, which has been fantastic during the lockdown. If I were going to be stuck on a deserted island, I can only hope that it houses a library, or that the library section of my ship washes to shore with me. It should be obvious why books via the library card are the most useful, but I'll state the obvious just in case. Books can be a fantastic escape from the mundane and sometimes terrifying world. Fantastic locations and intriguing characters abound on shelves of fiction. If that were their only strength, then the card might not rank among the most useful of items, though being able to escape reality can be useful at times. But even in fiction, books can raise thoughts, introduce new ideas and new ways of thinking. Nonfiction can be more direct in teaching and instructing a reader on how to perform a task. Before youTube showed us how, books of diagrams could be the best way to build, reshape, and learn new skills. I still prefer reading to watching most of the time because there's no rush through the step; I can linger over it and analyze and reanalyze however long I want without having to hit rewind. Books can help shape our thoughts and our ideas and make us into new people. I suppose along those ideas, a pen and paper would be the next two most useful. In theory, they can allow me to shape new worlds of my own, or to try to share those thoughts. You may think I'm crazy, but even though I'm out of school, I still like to write an occasional essay on a novel I've recently read, because the process helps me to organize my thoughts and impressions and make clear what has been hazy. Then of course there is the far more mundane: the ability to make lists, write instructions, and communicate that all come with pen and paper. I'm trying to think of what might fit into the last two slots. For work, maybe my Echo Livescribe pen, which records my interviews and matches them up with my notes. This makes it much easier to jump to specific points in interviews to verify a quote or statement. I'm a huge fan and am very disappointed that LiveScribe has gotten rid of its 4gb pen to stick with the 2gb. I'm also quite unimpressed by the pen that essentially works only as a mic and transmits directly to your phone, skipping the recording step. I would love to see them upgrade the LiveScribe to continue recording. Admittedly, the pen is a bit bulky and takes some getting used to, but it is a fantastic help in my line of work. I think for the last 'item' I'm going to cheat and say 'board games'. My kids are all teenagers now, and while my oldest has left and is wise enough to miss her mom, it's harder to engage my two boys, 17 and 15. I've managed to convince them to sit and play board games with me, and it's a good way to spend time together even though I'm the lame mom. My oldest really likes Twilight Imperium, a game that makes Monopoly look like a short jaunt. It takes anywhere from six hours to two days to play. It's nice to sit there with him and spend that much time together. My younger son is a bit less engaged but there have been a couple of games he's enjoyed playing. And my youngest takes the cake, she's much easier to grab the attention of. |
| If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you choose? Wow some sort of somberness going on with the prompts the last few days. I would definitely and definitively retain the mind of a 30 year old for the last 60 years, as much as my body is annoying. While I'm not as bad as my parents, who have separately stated that they don't want to continue life with their brains scrambled - my dad actually said he would run his bike into a tree deliberately to avoid it; I told him he'd wind up paralyzed and worse with this luck - I'd definitely like to keep my wits about me. Hopefully this trade-off wouldn't be a monkey-paw thing and my body would just continue to waste away as normal and not be a walking corpse, which is incidentally a good subject for a horror story. One of the things I am looking forward to when I retire is having time to read without stressing about working and all that stuff. It blows my mind that my parents, both of whom used to be avid readers, both no longer have time to read now that they are retired, though they still have time for the boob tube. I have a slew of bookshelves waiting for me to do some long-awaited catch up reading, and I wouldn't be able to deal with that if my mind faded. I also can't imagine how difficult it would be to exist with only scattered memories of my life and the people I love. While physical pain and agony can be pretty brutal, based on what I've seen, I've also known people who have cared for those who forget them. There's also the fact that you are less likely to be able to live on your own if your mind is slipping. I'd rather have nurses to take care of me than force my children to have to support me in my ancient and decrepit years. And I'd rather remember those children, and their children, and hopefully even their children. Your mind contains so much of who you are. I don't think I would be me if I lost it. |
| If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are living now? If so, what would you change and why? Ugh I'm not a fan of death discussion. The ideal would be for me to say that no, I would change nothing, and that's mostly true. There are a few things I would likely firm up, most more personal than I want to share. The biggest change would likely be in the way I allocate my time. As much as it would pain me, I'd probably spend less time reading so that I could spend more time with my kids. Of course, they are teenagers, so there isn't a ton of things they are interested in doing with me, but they're good kids so I'm sure we'd meet halfway. And hey, my oldest loves to sit and read in the same room with me, so perhaps I would still be able to add in some reading time. The things I worry about are whether I have taught my kids enough, been a good enough example, to help them find happiness in their lives. There are points of concern that I have for each of them, but right now they are teenagers and are supposed to be finding their way. I suppose what that means is that I need to do a better job of inflicting that example in their daily lives, perhaps with a bit more discussion. **** In other news, I picked up a job on Friday that was a rush deal. Editor rejected one of my pitches at the end of the day, then asked if I'd be willing to cover another one, which would be due today - Tuesday - by 10 am. I needed to not only speak with one of the authors but also with two outside opinions, on an embargoed paper (which means you're really not supposed to share it, so no blind emails). I'd have to set up all the interviews for Monday. I figured that there would be a good chance that some folks wouldn't check their emails in time, or wouldn't be available, so I contacted two authors and three outside opinions. Of course, all five responded - that never happens. Yesterday, I had five interviews - four for this article and one for the piece I have due next week. The fifth interview I did by email - I sent questions in the original contact - because he was in Australia and the time difference is just crazy to try to match up. Today I got everything written up and submitted by 11 am. <thumbs up> It was definitely an interesting piece, and I think after everything I'm glad for the large amount of interviews. I spoke with one of the authors, followed by an outside expert who raised some questions. Instead of having to email my first contact, I asked the second author to clarify some of the points made. Altogether, everything folded in nicely. When I got the edits, "show changes" was on when I opened the document. The first few times I saw a document post-edit, I was certain that my editor would tell me to shove off. The changes looked enormous. Yet many of my editors have told me that they appreciate how clean my copy is, etc, and that it doesn't require a lot of edits. I know that one issue has to do with moving things - if you cut a paragraph and paste it elsewhere, both seem to be big changes. Still, it makes my skin crawl, and today was no different. Seemed like my monitor was bleeding. But once again my editor seemed happy so another <thumbs up>. A good day. |
| What chore do you most dislike doing? Tell us a creative story about how you might get out of doing it. Seriously? I'm a mom - a single mom to boot. For the longest time, I was doing all the chores. Actually, that's not really true. I've had my kids doing chores - albeit not perfectly, for several years. When my oldest was three (and subsequent children as well), I would take the sharp knives out of the dishwasher and then have her put away silverware. I remember reading somewhere that it was basically shape matching, which is good for toddlers to do. Similarly, at about 3 I would have them load the drier with their dirty clothes; I would toss them to the dryer door and they would push them in. They got to the point of pushing them in, then moving them over, and finally doing it all. Now that they are all teenagers, I get to make them do all of my least favorite chores! The two chores I hate the most is washing dishes (by hand) and cleaning the bathtub. Not the toilet, the tub. When I was a kid, I always had to wash the dishes after dinner, swapping with my sister to rinse, or dry, or whatever. At one point we had a dishwasher, which in 1992 was the greatest thing ever. We were in that house maybe two months when there was some punishment - I think maybe we didn't properly scrub the dishes clean before putting them in - and we lost the ability to use the dishwasher for the remaining 2.5 years we were there. Also at one point, when I was maybe six and my sister was five, I bet her something - don't recall what - that I could finish washing the dishes before she could finish rinsing. I think she tried for a week to beat me but never managed.  The other chore I hate is the bathtub. It always takes forever. My youngest used to love it. She would put on her bathing suit to climb in and scrub it. She's 13 now, and I think she only stopped that in the last two years. But you reach and strain and ugh, I just hate it. The most creative thing I ever did to get out of both of them was get married. I told my new husband that I detested those chores and he promised to do them. He actually did clean the tub while I was pregnant with our first - I have always enjoyed escaping to a hot bath with a book and something to nibble - but then dropped it soon after the baby, when I most needed the peace of a bath. Similarly, we've had a dishwasher since I got out of college/got married, so I've managed to avoid that. Convinced him that if I was doing dinner, he could do pots and pans. That didn't work very well when he was on the road, which he was for the lat part of our marriage. Suffice to say, I do not recommend this as a method of evasion. I suppose I already mentioned my follow-up method of evasion: having kids. My youngest has the chore of cleaning my bathroom and hers each week, so I don't have to do that, most of the time. So second method: having kids and waiting several years. I'm not sure it's worth the trade-off strictly from a work sense, though, as I'm pretty sure I spent more time working when she was young than I am currently evading. Still a better method than marriage, though. |
| Write about a fictional road trip where you meet up with your fellow competitors from the 30DBC! Who do you visit first? Do you bring any gifts? Tell us about the crazy blogger shenanigans you all get up to! *Laugh* Oh dear. So there I was, in my car, forced by a supernatural entity (see yesterday's post) on a Writing.com roadtrip. I'm apt to be a bit disgruntled, because I'm not much of a roadtrip kind of person. I'd much rather prefer to drop in on folks when I am local, perhaps attending a conference for work in the area. Behind the wheel, I review a list of people I'm most likely to visit. Thankfully the roads are relatively barren because we're in the middle of a pandemic---wait, no, what the heck, it seems like people have decided that since politicians have declared it safe, it must be so, damn the scientists full speed ahead. So I pause to grump. Obviously, route notwithstanding, the first person I would visit would be Kåre Enga in Udon Thani   . I showed up on this site last month after something like ten years offline, made a blog post, and Kare almost immediately showed up to post a welcome back. I cannot express how touched I was by that, so on this forced-social roadtrip, I would likely intrude. Of course I'd be scrambling for an appropriate gift. I'd consider a book of poetry but my taste is abysmal so then I'd consider printing some of their poems from the site and binding them but that also seems pretentious and I'd probably pick all the wrong poems. So now I'm on the road, still giftless, freaking out about showing up empty handed. Maybe I'll grab some cookies or something from a bakery right before I arrive - oh flowers! Flowers seem good.The problems is that, while we've been browsing each others blogs for some time, I'm always awkward with folks I don't know. So I arrive at Kare's and make awkward small talk, and they are probably sneezing over the flowers I brought. I don't think either of us are into shenanigans. My next stop would probably be Robert Waltz   . Unlike Kare, he probably doesn't remember me from days past, but I remember him. I spent some time a million years ago as a mod - yes folks I once sported the blue suitcase of doom! - before retiring from the site and the position around the time of my divorce. Anyway, for Robert I would have brought some craft beer from Georga. I don't drink, so I would have to act several of my friends for their input on the best local brewery and grab something from there. I suspect we'd have a similar awkward moment, though hopefully he wouldn't be allergic to the alcohol. Actually, I might have to shove my way through a crowd around him and Kare both, which would at least make it easier to blend into the wall. Some small talk and then I leave.Which is not to say I haven't met friends from online in the past. When I was 18, I flew from North Carolina to Vegas, against my mother's wishes but I was about to head off to college, to meet a guy I met on AOL. That turned out well but in retrospect was a stupid idea. More recently, I spent several years playing World of Warcraft. In that context, I was online in voice chat almost every night talking to people, and that lends to more intimacy than comments. We were already good at making small talk and knew more details that had been shared on a one-on-one level. I suppose then that the difference is the level of engagement I entertain on Writing.com but what can I say. That's just who I am. |
| Do you believe in ghosts or other supernatural entities? Have you ever experienced something you could not explain? Crazy weekends seem to cause problems for my blogging. Perhaps if I blame a supernatural entity for the delay, it will make a difference? Alas, I do not believe in ghosts, goblins, or rougarous, so there is no solution there. As I religious person, I do believe in angels, although I suspect they are rather rare. I believe that the spirits of those who have passed on, as well as those yet to be born, are able to watch over us alive today. I suppose that means I must also believe in demons and devils and evil spirits. That said, I'd be more inclined to raise an eyebrow over stories regarding them, which I suppose is somewhat hypocritical. I suppose in some ways it's akin to my belief in aliens. I believe that, with the billions of stars in the universe, and the planets likely to surround them, alien life exists. I believe that some of that life is intelligent and that some of that life has likely been able to unravel the secrets of travel between the stars. Do I think that they showed up at Earth to kidnap people and probe them? I suppose they could technically manage to do so, but I would view any reports with healthy skepticism. |
| Write about a time when you or someone you know acted selflessly. What was the motivation and what were the results? Ewww. Well, it seems pretty fail to toot my own horn on the selfless front, so I'm not going to do that. Totally not that nothing springs to mind, it's just that I want to, you know, stay in character. Yeah. I'm going to share a little thing that my boyfriend does. It's not a huge "Selfless Act" capital letters, it's not award winning or even a super big deal. But it's something that he does consistently that I admire. What is this big thing? Typically, when he goes to restaurants, he tips 30%. Now, that seems like a crazy thing to put on a selfless list. I didn't notice it until Thanksgiving. He had been in the hospital for nearly a week after having a stroke, and literally was released on Thanksgiving day. His family was in NC (we're in Georgia, two states south and four+ hours without holiday traffic), so we went out to eat for turkey day. We had had lunch at my mom's, the quintessential Thanksgiving day dinner, but we were hungry again later so we hit up Waffle House. Because it was a holiday, and our server was working, I wanted to make sure he had left a decent tip; before that, I didn't ever really look at the check, but I feel for anyone working on a holiday. Waffle House isn't like, super expensive (though more expensive then I was a kid <grumble grumble>) so we're talking maybe $10 tip or so. It's not a huge difference between that and 20% at that level, but still. As we walked to the car, I brought up the high tip and asked if he was tipping extra for the holiday. He said no, he regularly tipped about 30% because he had previously worked in food service and knows it's a s*** job. Since then, I've occasionally checked the tip, not to follow up but because I'm curious how he shifted it based on service. For instance, we once went to Stony River, which is some stupid expensive steak place. The customer service from our waiter was horrible. At one point I grabbed another passing waiter for a water refill, and they began checking in on us. At the end of dinner, we called over the manager and told her that we were impressed, not by our waiter but by the second person who stepped in. She said that they had a large party come in unexpectedly, she had sent some folks home early, blah blah, but there were times our waiter walked right by us without even checking in. All of this to say that, after some of the worst service I've received in a restaurant no matter the price point, he still tipped 20%. Okay so the extra 10% isn't a make or break point for most people. But what makes me hug the guy his attitude. He knows that it's a tough gig even on the best days, and that customers are crap. He was working at Golden Corral while in college, paying his own way through with no help, and living cheap. He didn't do student loans and doesn't do any other debt, so we're talking dirt cheap living. Now, he's over 40 and making good money, and he feels like he should give back because he has the ability to. It's not a guilt thing but more of a compassion thing. I'm rambling, but to me, this is what is supposed to be the "Christian ideal" or the "Democratic ideal." Mind you, I'm not a Dem <don't throw anything> but in both camps, opposite as they tend towards politically, there is often a lot of talk and less follow through with actions. It's amusing to me how many politicians talk about helping the poor and the working class, and yet I can't help but wonder how many of them do something personally to help or give back. Same with Christians. Now, I know that throwing money at a problem isn't always the answer. But as a conservative and a Christian, one of the reasons I think that the government shouldn't be taking care of people is because we should be taking care of people. If every person who was doing okay reached out to help someone doing less well, think about the impact that would make. I don't just mean money. I mean babysitting or helping teach to read or something that showed that someone cared. Of course that's the ideal and who knows if we'll ever get there. Anyway, that kind of ran away from me, but I hope it made sense. I think little things can make a big difference in people's life, especially when they are done consistently. My sweetheart does a lot of other great things; one of my kids actually told me that he was a role model to them, though I'm sworn to keep it secret so don't tell anyone. Even now, when we're all stressing about our jobs and pandemics, I think reaching out to help someone else, even a little bit, can make an important difference in both someone else's life and in our own. |
| What was the best/worst letter or email you ever received or wrote? Write about the situation surrounding that letter, and why it was so significant. The worst personal letter I ever received was in high school and is very drama-heavy and only emphasizes the fact that I was super emo. It was from a boyfriend, or maybe he was an ex and we were friends, something like that. We were very on-again, off-again because I was very dramatic and super emo, if I didn't mention (we call it 'being a teenager'). Anyway, he was usually very not-emotional, but I had done something stupid and upset him (not, like, I was stupid b/c I upset him but, I screwed up and that caused him to be upset). I don't remember what. Anyway, the result was that I ran from the (high school) senior parking lot crying, into the nearby football field, and tripped, and fell down. I think I didn't actually even try to catch myself when I hit the ground, I was so upset, and maybe that was a good thing. After some time in pain, a trip to the local drive-in ER place and an x-ray revealed that I had fractured my collar bone. Talk about emo. <eyeroll> High school for me was miserable, I was emo and suicidal, having had a difficult childhood. What I can say about that boyfriend - and my other high school sweetheart - is that they both treated me amazingly and I, not believing I deserved to be treated well by anyone, treated them both like s***. Since one of my boyfriends was a football player and a giant teddy bear, by my senior year the entire school hated me. In a totally different emo drama, I also lost two of my closest friends and the third moved away. A third guy friend that I had gone to the prom with junior year after his date dumped him last minute as JUST FRIENDS also got upset with me. In short, I had almost no friends, the whole school hated me (it felt like), my cross country coach got traded out for a lame-ass CC/track coach, I had a nervous breakdown in the principal's office while interviewing him for the school paper, and my surrogate grandfather, who I was very close to, died unexpectedly. I was so ready for college. Okay but now for the best worst rejection letter I ever received, which I think has actually been previously posted on this blog. I might even still have it inbox on Writing.com, it was so bad. After several years on this site, with lots of 5-star pieces and everyone telling me what a great storyteller I was, I wrote up a humorous story, which I'll paste at the end of this post. It was supposed to be ironically funny; it was a contest entry for 'a different kind of copy story', so I wrote about a caveman cop. I sent it to some online ezine that was looking for funny stories. I suppose I should be glad that they even rejected me at all. Oh! I did have it in my folders! It read: "this is a prime example ov tha kind ov s*** we do not need. thank you." Verbatim. So really, I was glad to be rejected. Anyway, it was ridiculously and unnecessarily rude, not to mention grammatically ignorant. Definitely the worst rejection letter I've ever received on multiple levels. Anyway, if you're looking for a laugh, here's the story:
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