Guest Author: Jayne Grey

It seemed like a great idea at first.  I’d always had at least one job since I was 13, so driven that I was back to work precisely six weeks to the day after giving birth to my daughter even though it was a Sunday. Years later, a lawyer-saturated divorce and custody battle while attempting to hold a senior level corporate position had left me exhausted and running on fumes.  I knew it and so did everyone else around me.   I was ready for a change.  


When I found myself unemployed in April 2009 I was surprised at the sense of relief that washed over me.  I updated my resume and applied to a couple of jobs but truth be told, I was in no hurry to brush my teeth before noon.  I felt like I was on Summer Vacation again and this time it was with my amazing seven year old daughter and a nifty little severance package!


There is something to be said for going to sleep at night knowing that you don’t have to wake via an alarm.  We spent the summer making Mickey Mouse pancakes each morning (and sometimes for dinner).  I watched in awe as my daughter learned how to do back flips in gymnastics class while the other seasoned stay-at-home moms played on their iPhones.  We took golf lessons together and spent ridiculously long amounts of time splashing in the pool and reading trashy magazines.  OK…I read the trashy magazines…Holly just splashed around.  She’s seven, remember?


Before long it was Back to School time and I decided that I was ready to join the workforce again.  Little did I know that my timing was tragically flawed; apparently while I was busy sleeping in each morning dreaming of back flips and pancakes there was a nation-wide economic downfall going on.  Instead of landing a serious interview my Inbox was filled with news of friends who had lost their jobs as well.
  

I’m not sure which of us first used the term “FUnEMPLOYMENT”, however it quickly caught on with my motley crew of corporately displaced friends.  Sure, we were all scared to death at first.  That first COBRA bill is a reality check on steroids.  Despite the loss of everything material we’d ever accumulated (401K plans, luxury cars, monster credit limits and what I like to call “Mc Mansions”), somehow it felt better knowing my colleagues were in the same boat.  Besides, I’m not so sure that I would have found the discipline or inner strength to downsize and re-evaluate what truly means most to me in life had I been able to immediately renter the workforce.  Yes, to me a half-filled glass means it’s time for a refill.


So what does one do with their bad ol’ self after applying for every single job on the Internet just short of door-to-door perfume sales?  Online dating you say?  Funny you should mention that because that’s exactly what all of my single unemployed friends and I did, for better or for worse.  Let’s just say that after sharing some of our collaborative stories I can honestly say that very little shocks me.  


It was right about that time that a promo for The Office came on smack in the middle of the nightly news featuring record unemployment.  I found myself wondering how many people just like me were watching a show about people at work and about to have their cable shut off?  Where was our story?  


After ten months of an empty Inbox and hearing nothing but crickets chirping in mockery, I was thrilled to land a great job even if it was a 110 mile of round trip commute. Who was I to be picky?  Holly had four new cavities and I hadn’t paid the COBRA bill (gulp).  So as much as I hated to do it, I rejoined corporate America.  Farewell, FUnEMPLOYMENT…and thanks for the “Do Over”.  Let’s catch up later!


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It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

"It's Monday! What are you reading?" is a fun meme created and hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey. This is where we share what we have read last week and our reading plans for this week. 

Last Week Read and Reviewed

Night Machines by Kia Heavey (4-stars)

Pandora's Box (Immortalis Series Book #2 by Katie Salidas (5-stars)

Pilgrimage of Love by Anaiya Aon Prakasha (3-stars)

For Posting Book Review

Currently Reading

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

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Guest Author: Spargo Postle

Why on earth would you buy my book…???


I could tell you all about my new book Alone Among Many…  I could cleverly link enticing snippets and pieces of the work to this guest post so that it urges you to read it, makes you want to buy it… I could explain to you why the first poem in the book intentionally uses words that are repeated too often… I could provide reasons as to why most of the poems use words very sparsely… I could perhaps give a background to each and every poem and why I wrote it… I could… I really could… Perhaps you think I really should… But I won’t…


You see the problem I have with poetry, and poetry has with me, is that once the work has been read it no longer belongs to poet. It is now in the possession of the reader, to own and think what they like about it. They can hate, loathe, love or appreciate each poem ever written in equal measure. If you find no connection with the words used then you will hate or loathe it. But, if you connect with the words you may appreciate what is being articulated, you might even love it.


Poetry is a unique and eccentric form of literature; it has rules and layouts, forms and structures that must be abided by so that poets conform, it is as open and accessible as you want it be so that it can be written in any way, shape or form you wish to use, and it can be as long or as short as you want it to be. Poetry style then, in essence, is as totally contradictory as the thoughts that tumble around our busy minds. The only thing that can be said about poetry with any certainty is that people will loathe or appreciate a poet from one poem to the next. The balance that every poet has to consider is do I write for my own vanity or do I care what the reader thinks???

Well… Do I care what readers think…??? As the English poet John Keats is quoted as saying “Poetry should… should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.” So yes… I do…!!! Once I have passed my thoughts to paper, and they find someone to connect with, the meaning and understanding conveyed in the poem belongs to the reader. Any emotional impact a poem once had for me, when I penned it, is now connected in some esoteric way to the reader. But, if the reader hates the poem, it is all mine and mine alone.


From my experience poetry, not just my book but all poetry needs to find a connection with the reader more than any other writing medium. “Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own” a quote from Salvatore Quasimodo. 

So… Why on earth would you buy my book, or any other poetry book for that matter…??? Poets sit alone among many waiting for someone with a poetic mind such as theirs to connect our thoughts with theirs, and then a reader may just buy our book. Because as W.B. Yeats is quoted as saying “The true poet is all the time a visionary and whether with friends or not, as much alone as a man on his death bed.”