Day 2 - The one where I write and make you jelly

Well that was fast. I say that I am going to relax. That I am going to pamper myself. That I am going to be stress free. And then the typical Virgo neuroses kicks in and yells "wanna bet?" So, two days into the new year, instead of going to bed when I get out of work at 7 in the morning, I sit at the computer and work on revamping my old abandoned book blog, in anticipation for starting reviews again. The blogging itch is back, and along with it the guilt of ARCs that were sent but never reviewed. In most cases, never even read. I just kinda fell off of the wagon and did not want to think about it. But lately, I find myself wanting to read again. And since I lost most of my tangible, hard copy books in the flood, that means it is time to turn to the folder in my email that I have avoided for several years. The one full of e-books sent to me by aspiring new writers hoping to get their names out there by way of any blogger that would have them. These are the writers that I love most. Still rough around the edges but so full of hope. Okay, so some of them are probably not considered "new writers" anymore. Some of the books in that abandoned folder are second or third in a series from writers that I had previously reviewed and had come to consider fellows. To be honest, these are the ones I look forward to the most.

This is how I imagine the books look after sitting in my email folder for so long. Coincidentally, this IS how the books in my house looked. >.<

Even though these requests are outdated, I still look forward to reading each and every one of them. I get to see the beginning of their journey. Then I get to research and see how far they have come. It is possible that some have flourished and are doing amazing things. It is equally possible that some of them gave up after a solitary, ill-received attempt. But in my eyes they are all equals. Putting yourself out there for others is not an easy thing to do. Maybe my random, out of the blue review of someone's under-promoted six year old debut novel will absolutely make their day. Maybe it will inspire them to pick up a pen. Though it is probably more likely a keyboard at this point. But I digress. My blog is all tweaked, with links updated, and I am confident that it is ready to be posted to without looking like a broken relic of the past. So now it is time for the relaxing, right?

Haha, yeah, no. That's not how this brain works. I got a bit of sleep. I always have to force myself to sleep a bit, so that I can function to work again by 11pm. But most of that down time is spent with my brain racing, yelling at me the next project that really, REALLY needs finished. In this case, it was making a new Facebook page. Not for the blog. The blog has had one for years. Which I made a point to update this morning as well, along with the web site and the companion blogs. No, now we have moved on to something completely different - Jelly.

But not with SPAM in it.

Jelly? This is what keeps me awake? Sure, why not. You see, I love jelly. Jelly is cool. It's like a jar of sugar you can eat with a spoon without anyone judging you for eating sugar with a spoon. And I do love sugar. It's a one-sided love, but most of the best ones are. Where was I? Oh yeah - Facebook. So one of the things I love about jelly, more than eating it, is making it. I learned how to make jelly from my mom when I was really young, but I hadn't done it in years. But while I was at work thinking the strange things that one thinks when they are forced to be awake at 3 am with no coffee, I had this idea for a jelly that was awesome. I mean, probably not, because sleep deprived awesome is way different than normal awesome, but I needed to know. Unfortunately I had not made jelly in a very long time, and my tiny galley kitchen was not equipped for cooking of any sort, much less such a spacious venture. So one day last March, I called up my mom and asked if we could get together and make some jelly. It was a fun adventure. I loaded up everything I needed and drove 3 hours to her place in Waco. Over the next day and a half, we got to hang out and laugh and canned 101 jars of jam and jelly. And you know what? I was right. It was awesome.

How many times can someone say jelly in one paragraph before it gets awkward? 

So I had all this awesome jelly just sitting there. Way more than I could ever eat. It was like some diabetic nightmare. What was I going to do with it all? I went to a little farmers market, but we got rained out so I only sold like three jars. So I loaded it into the van and drove back up to Waco to do this fun farm days thing that my mom had booked to sell her quilts, and sold a few more there. I sold some to friends. I gave some away for the holidays. I planned more festivals and farmers markets. That should have solved the issue. But in the process, I had a lot of fun and decided to make more jelly. Oops. So, here I am, sitting on a giant cache of preserves, running out of storage space already in my shiny new kitchen.

Helping you to prepare for the jelly apocalypse

In comes Miss Amanda. She runs this quaint event called the Houston Tea Festival. I go to the event each year that she has it and do lectures on lolita fashion. In exchange she gives me a vendor table. Usually I sell tea related things - teacups and strainers. Oh, but not this year. Those tea ladies are getting a table full of jelly in the most absurd flavors that their proper minds can fathom. I told her this and she inquired if I was interested in sponsoring a jar of jelly for each of the tables at the event's tea party. Of course! It's not like there is a shortage. But then she asks for a web presence to link on the sponsors page. Web pages are my kryptonite. But Facebook pages I can do. So here I am. I suppose it is a good idea anyways. Now, almost a year into the impromptu jelly black market, I may as well have some semblance of promoting.

The tea is divine, but the scones taste oddly like Mountain Dew...

So, by the end of the day, my relaxing has boiled down to the creation or complete reworking of three blogs, two Facebook pages, and one actual web site (thanks to some instapage thing my hosting provider offers). I should be bummed. But I am not. I was working on things in anticipation of doing things that I love and to promote things that I love. And that makes me happy. So I call it a win.