☃️ A Most Unreliable Narrator ❄️ Issue #203 Winter Wonderland
This issue: housing and jobs update, newsletter schedule (again), returning Etsy store, and lastly, snowpocalypse 2024
Dear Internet,
Last weekend was busy. We left KY to come home to MI with a pitstop at my brother’s house on the way here. I got to hang out with my five-year-old nephew, who drew me a Christmas tree with presents underneath and a castle with a dragon.
Not long after we got home, I cleaned off the left side of the fridge to hang Joey’s work. I Facetimed with my brother so I could show Joey he has his own art wall, and he was so pleased! I asked Joey if he would be down to draw me a new picture every month, and he seems really excited. I have a reminder set every month to give him ideas.
He starts playing basketball in January with my brother as an assistant coach. I’m hoping I can catch his games on the Saturdays I don’t have to work. I can always swap hours with someone if it comes to it.
We spent the last week in Kentucky celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving, and two birthdays with my in-laws. We had a feast of a dinner and then spent nearly two hours opening presents. The way they work is that starting with the youngest person, they open a present, and then it goes up to the next oldest person, and so forth. Mr. Lisa is the youngest, and his mom is the oldest. There were six of us, and this is why it took nearly two hours to unwrap presents.
Mr. Lisa and I celebrated Happy Colonizing Day with ourselves. He’s been craving homemade pumpkin pie. I offered to make one but he knew I would buy the pumpkin puree in a can which he does not want. With gourd season ending, finding a bakery that does such a thing was fairly easy. The bakery we chose offered mini pies that are slightly smaller than a slice. We got ½ dozen mini pies as a taste flight. The only one I wasn’t a fan of was the chocolate pie. Way too much whipped cream.
We watched Thanksgiving Day parade and then Rankin Bass version of Frosty the Snowman. It was a pretty chill day.
I worked Black Friday and that Saturday we set off for KY and came home last weekend.
In MI, we packed the car to the gills to bring stuff up to the cabin. I started a list of items we needed up here (serrated knife, small frying pan, etc.) and packed it around Mr. Lisa’s Herman Miller office chair. We did pretty good! Except for the chair, we packed Trader Joe’s shopping bags with stuff. I meant to cross-check the list when we left, but I didn’t do that until we got home. We missed a few things, but they were not of a need. We’ll survive.
Except for a few odd clothes and ends, most of my clothing is up here. I’m narrowing down my Chuck collection, and I’m donating the rest. By collection, I mean I have close to two dozen pairs. I will post on the local Reddit that if anyone is a size Men’s 9 / Women’s 11, they can go to town at Goodwill.
As time ticks on with how often and how long we stay up here, it’s been a stark reminder I can survive with so little. With the fabulous interlibrary loan the state of Michigan has, along with my local library, it’s beyond rare that I can’t get a book I need, so most of my collection will be donated or sold to Half Price Books. Other stuff will be donated, tossed, or sold. There is so much I do not need.
We have very little storage space at the cabin. I have a closet that is jammed with tubs of stuff I have no idea is in. At my brother’s last weekend, he was open for me to keep my tubs at his place. He remembers growing up and our mother used to go into mania and throw so much shit of our lives out. I keep as much as I can. Mr. Lisa grew up in a house where everything was saved, so he’s more of a minimalist. We butt heads on this topic, as you can imagine, but we allow each other our space. And some grace.
MERCENARY LIBRARIAN
My director at Library A is the president of the library board for Library C, the library that would bring me on as a programming librarian. He confirmed that everything was approved, and I was highly recommended. Despite that recommendation, a few days later, the director of Library C emailed me to say she was putting a hold on the hiring. Not going to lie; I was super bummed as I put the cart before the horse and counted on the money to supplement my income. I’m going to follow up with her in February.
I contacted Library D about subbing, and they will interview me sometime in the future.
(Library A-D are in the same county but independent.)
Library E is in the next county and has six branches. They didn’t have any jobs opened but were taking applications. I sent in my resume, and the following day, I was asked to complete a test. I passed the test with flying colors and scheduled my interview for last Monday. I interviewed with the director and she was really chill and super nice. I did not get bad vibes off of her. Considering the bookstore ghosted me, I asked the director straight out if they were going to ghost me to let me know if I got the position or not. She did not look surprised at this question and said that’s a question they get a lot. She had no idea that employers were doing this! Yes, employers are assholes. But hey, I need to make money.
If I get the job, I’ll get paid training at the main branch and across the other branches in a variety of positions. There is also online training I’ll need to complete, such as workplace behaviors and dealing with the public. Since Library E is in a decent sized town, they do often deal with those in severe crisis. I’ll also be trained in using Narcan! Woohoo!
I feel like I scored this job because of my banter with the director but I am not sure yet. I’ll find out next week.
A few other perks is if I don’t want to take a sub job, I don’t have to and it won’t count against me. This is a relief because a few branches are over an hour away from me. Definitely will turn down a four-hour shift, but probably not an eight-hour shift at the long distance locations. My pay rate is higher because I have my MLIS, which is nice. Permanent staff are unionized, and she gave me a list of benefits of being in the union, which made my mouth water.
Send me good woo!
Newsletter Schedule
Well, I fucked that up, didn’t I?
I’ve adjusted the schedule and starting this week, I should be back on track.
Etsy
I’ve promoted this on my socials and Excessively Diverting socials and now I’m promoting here.
In 2010, I created an Etsy store selling Jane Austen and other bookish accessories. The store blossomed and I continued it until 2012 when my day job took over and I didn’t have time.
Over the years, I’ve thought about kicking the store off again, but all of my supplies were up here in Michigan, and I was living in KY. With the huge growth of followers on Bluesky in the last few weeks and activity across all the ED accounts, and it’s close to the holidays, I decided to kick off the store again.
I sign into my Etsy shop and start filling it with product. Past Lisa saved all the tools and accessories. I just needed to order bulbs and packing supplies. Viola! I’m in business.
Things were going along swimmingly until I checked the payment tab. Seems that I did not update my checking account from 12 years ago, which I need to do to get paid. The fucking issue is Etsy now uses a third-party payment system, and the only way to update your checking account is to confirm its account number before entering the new account number. Since I don’t have that information, I can’t update the payment, and thus my store is useless.
I dug deep into Etsy’s help center and their solution? Create a new store. What the ever-loving fuck. It’s 2024! Etsy has my blood type with my social, why can I not do this?
By creating the new store, I lose my ratings, my reviews, my orders, and the length of time I was on Etsy, which is nearly 15 years. I’m always trepidatious buying from stores with little activity, but maybe the Etsy gods will grant me grace.
I created the new store.
I changed the URL of the old store to prevent confusion. (I’ll be using my old account for shopping so I’m not deleting it just not selling form it.) I made sure the avatars, headers, and bios were the same. For the page announcement, I directed people to the new store which is:
https://excssvlydvrtng.etsy.com
Is that big enough for you?
I’ve had to readjust the price of the ornaments to reflect the upswing in ten year old cost but it’s not terrible. There are a lot of local stores that want Michigan made goods so I’ll be hitting them up after the holidays to see where I can sell my wares. There is also a lot of craft fairs during spring, summer, and fall (with a few holiday fairs in the winter), so I hope to be vending there.
Why yes, I do hustle a lot. Honestly? All the hustle is better than working a soulless corporate job.
Snowpocalypse 2024
Mr. Lisa and I have not lived a Michigan winter in a decade, especially a N. Michigan winter, which is more brutal than the downstate. But anyone who has talked to me in the last decade knows I hate Kentucky, and it is 50% the reason why I don’t want to sell our cabin.
Things have changed in the last few years, and the idea of living in a cabin has become more of a reality. There were quite a few things we needed to do to winter-proof the place, which was condition the crawl space, get rid of the electric baseboard heat, install a heating gas stove, replace the windows, and get new blinds. We accomplished all of that in the last two years, and with Mr. Lisa working from home and my hustle for jobs in the county, staying here is a no brainer.
When we left for KY on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it had started to flurry. There had been no snow so far this season, so this was a long time coming. The flurries lasted on and off as we drove south. The weather in KY was cold that week we were there, but N. Michigan? Yeah, they got 30” of snow while we were gone. Our plow guy told me they plowed our driveway twice and once more before we came home.
Now, it’s not even a week since we’ve been home, and another storm has hit us with about 15” of snow over the course of two days. Mr. Lisa and I are prepared with snow pants, heavy puffer coats, trapper hats, gloves, and scarves. We bought Thursday fancy snow boots which she tolerates having put on and wearing. We heard that you could use your leaf blower as a make-shift snow blower, which works! Since the snow is fairly light and fluffy, he was able to clear a path to Thursday’s business spot as well as clear the spot itself. It took about the same amount of time as me shoveling, but Mr. Lisa seems quite pleased with himself.
I always tell people how excited I am in N. Michigan permanently, but I add the caveat to ask me in deep winter to see if I still love it. I have everything I need, I’m a part of the community, and I feel welcomed here. So much fucking better than KY, which I hate with a passion.
Mr. Lisa lamented the other day, after asking me if I was happy, that up here is fine (he’s a sourpuss), but he missed all the conveniences in KY. Those conveniences were the ability to walk to a score of restaurants around our condo. We have tried to integrate ourselves in KY to no avail. We don’t like the city or what it offers. We hate Derby and don’t drink bourbon. We do not belong in KY.
I pointed out to Mr. Lisa we’re homebodies, but we do do things like go to the indie movie theater, take hikes, and have lovely drives. These are things you cannot do in KY. He reluctantly agreed.
As I said, ask me again in deep winter if I feel the same way.
PS: Plus, this is my view from my desk in MI. In KY, I’m either staring at a cement wall, sitting uncomfortably on a couch, or spending too much money at a coffee shop.
Wonderful Thing
Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas
Watching Hallmark holiday movies (as well as holiday movies on Netflix, Hulu, Lifetime, and others) has been a thing in my life for many years. I’ve long thought I was one of the few who used the movies as a balm against the fucked-upness of the world. Turns out I was heavily wrong.
Watching schmaltzy holiday movies is now a thing that a lot of people do. There are memes, groups (of which I run one!), Discords, and hashtags.
Mr. Lisa and I have been cutting down our streaming services as we have many and watch few. Peacock was on the chopping block until I got a great deal: $20 for the upcoming 12 months! I canceled our old plan and signed up with the new one as it is far cheaper than paying for a few extra months so I could watch the movies, AND THE NEW BRIDGET JONES MOVIE WHICH COMES OUT IN FEBRUARY!
Hallmark movies continue to give me peace. They are formulaic, typically have the same actors so now you have “favorites,” and are just cozy. And if there is anything I’m about these days is cozy things.
Happy hot chocolate and marshmallows to you!
lisa x