When Jupiter Aligns With Mars

It’s the middle of January and I haven’t yet written about my intentions for 2012. They are not resolutions. Gasp! None of that malarkey for me!

It’s simply that I want to put myself out there more — not in some obscene, exhibitionist way, I’ll spare you that horror. And not in some reveal all, do all, kind of way. Instead, I want to take the risk to do the things I’ve been putting off while:

• Waiting for the right moment
• Or until I’ve taken enough classes
• Or done enough research, so I know enough and won’t screw it up
• Or had enough validation
• Or when just the right door opens
• And when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars 

No. I’m done with all that. In 2012:

• I will submit a query to a magazine. That’s a scary one because I don’t like queries. I want to write something and send it in. I don’t want to send an idea and then see if I can follow through on it. But I will do this dreaded query thing before the end of the year.
• I will send a story to a literary magazine once a month. A friend already gave me a suggestion for a LM that is taking submissions from Polish Writers. I’m not Polish but I thought I was until I was twenty and learned a little about my biological parents. Yes, a story about the severe trauma of an adopted child, who after many years of eating golabki and kielbasa, and having her head wrapped in her babushka, alas discovers she is actually (music crescendo) Irish, French, and Norwegian.
• I will take a short story or excerpt from my book to an open mike night and do a reading.
• And to do most of those things above, I’ve been making myself get up at 4 AM to write 750 words a day, the objective being that a book will emerge out of the glop. The holidays and work stress have thrown me off more days than I like, not to mention that washing and drying my hair takes forever. I am thinking of shaving my head just for this reason. Anyway, the point right now is simply to write a lot, which I’m doing.
• I will learn how to do a podcast. This is a small part of my larger “grow my skills” endeavor, brought about by the bad messages I receive at work, like: “The team you work on will only be around for another two years.” I’ll be 56 years old then and have worked for the same company for 35 years. Won’t that look amazing on my resume? So I’m hoping that if I do get my chicken coop or my beehive that I can do some tutorial kinds of podcasts and videos to show that I can do more than train on computer software. If nothing else, I will learn how to live off the land.
• And I have this crazy idea that to overcome my shyness and fear, I will sing at a karaoke bar. Now I no longer hang out at bars so this seems like a stretch and perhaps being on self-produced videos and podcasts fits the same bill, but still, I may do this just for the life experience of it.

And now on to more serious matters and what’s really been on my mind all day… When I went to see Luke and ride him yesterday, he had a cough that was different than what I’ve heard before.

I’m hoping it’s nothing as he wasn’t in distress, no runs or snotty nose, just a dry cough that was unlike anything I’d ever heard a horse do before. He was fine while standing or walking as you can see above. But he started coughing when trotting and cantering, and wanted to keep his head down low.

As you can see in last weekend’s photos, he looked fine then, even while trotting and cantering.

I’m going with the belief that it’s nothing serious since he was fine a week ago, but after worrying and talking to people about it today, I’m calling the vet tomorrow morning.

So please keep Luke in your thoughts and fingers crossed that I’m just being a worry wart over nothing.

I must end on a light note and this video made me laugh. It has a little bit for everyone, including some horses.