January Recovery – No, not the economy! Me!

Yes, so, it’s not all the glamorous life chez Jeannine. After the wonderful reading last week, I ended up with a brand new illness, this time with fevers so high I actually don’t remember a whole day/night interval. I am now (I think) on the other side of it, chock full of antibiotics of various sorts, with strict instructions to continue to rest. But there’s so much to do! And being sick for even a few days puts me so far behind!
On the plus side, I discovered what everyone else already had: Glenn brought me home the DVD of season 1 of “Downton Abbey,” which I am now addicted to.

I will confess I am looking for permanent places to live. After a dozen years as a footloose renter. It’s frightening – but thrilling. I’m straightening up errors on my credit report, saving money, getting pre-approved. All that kind of business. Next step: actually visiting houses we can afford. Which could be dis-spiriting. I hope not. The reality of home ownership is so much scarier than just picking an apartment to live in for a year or two. Half of the places the realtor sent us were awful, and the other half were in retirement condo communities. (Is she trying to tell us something?)

And I’m working. Revising my third (and fourth) poetry manuscripts. Writing new poems. Laboring on my prose projects. Trying to envision bigger and better things for my work life. (Paying work. Yes. More of that. See: house.) Trying to aim higher. Trying to expect more, to resist discouragement and cowardice. In the next couple of months, two big grant applications. I’m trying to say yes to the universe, to allow my world to expand a little bit, to include more people, more books, more projects. And reading reading reading.
It’s recovery time, 2012. Time for us all to recover from the buffeting of the last few years, to let the year of the dragon bring us wonder and luck.