Real Estate, Dentistry, and Book Launches: When Life Gets in the Way of Plans for Poets
- At February 26, 2015
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 3
Well, it’s been an eventful week. We bid on a house, rushing to get ours ready for sale, only to have the (very reasonable, I might add) bid rejected, so then we promptly stopped rushing to get the house ready. In the process of getting the house ready, once again I divested myself of things – shoes and jeans that never quite fit properly, books I hadn’t (and probably never would) read, back issues of cooking, travel, and literary magazines. It’s become quite a habit, moving and getting rid of things, then making a home in a new space. I’ve enjoyed my time out here but am ready to move a little closer to the city. The neurologist’s news that I probably won’t recover my ability to do stairs fully also kind of pushed us in the direction of getting rid of our two-story townhouse, however charming.
Yesterday I spent two hours at a downtown holistic dentist, who was perfectly willing to give me fillings without giving me general anesthesia, which I found quite comforting. (They told me about another patient allergic to Novocain, who brings a little flask of liquor with her for things like extractions.) They stuck mirrors in my mouth and took pictures of my teeth, took digital x-rays (more x-rays – so many this year – eek!) and tapped on all my teeth with sharp implements – but overall, I am very thankful to find someone who will work on someone with all my strangeness. They even gave me a little laser treatment for TMJ (which, this morning, did help the TMJ, but left purple welts on both cheeks – eep! Remind me never to have Fraxel!) Have you even heard of such a thing? Holistic and full of lasers – seems like a microcosm of Seattle.
And what does any of this have to do with poetry? Nothing much, just that, a few days before The Robot Scientist’s Daughter official launch, I’m still behind on getting the word out, getting postcards in the mail, writing e-mails to friends about upcoming readings. I should be writing poems, sending out work. (See Kelly Davio’s post here on “What I wish I knew about launching my first book…) AWP is approaching, which I’m going to miss this year, sadly. You know how I’ve probably said here on the blog before, you can do so much for your book, but you always feel like you’re not quite doing enough? That’s how I’m feeling now. I’ve got a few readings lined up (March 15 on Bainbridge Island, April 16 for Seattle), scheduled a blog tour (thanks to Serena – see previous post) and have a box of copies ready to go out into the world. I kind of wish that life would quiet down for each book’s launch, like, say, March 1st might be a holiday just for poetry launches!
Serena
you are welcome and I would love to do more!
Jessie Carty
I was so happy to receive your card and I went to Amazon to pre-order immediately 🙂 I try to buy more local, but since I am receiving a lot of freelance payments via Amazon gift cards it is just an efficient way to turn around buying things like books.
So glad you found a dentist, but sorry to hear about the house 🙁 We keep putting off decisions on moving for so many reasons. Our dream would be for one of us to find a job in another state and move away, but I don’t see that in our future, especially since neither of us know where to look!
Look at me babbling on. Can’t wait to read your book, and good luck with the househunting!
Jeannine Gailey
Thanks Serena!
And thanks, Jessie! I hope you enjoy the book! (PS You should look out in the Pacific NW – the job market out here is pretty hopping, even if the real estate is pricey!)