🩺A Most Unreliable Narrator 👩🏻‍💻 Issue #197 Welcome Fall

This week: Bluegrass state, NGI business, and trashy TV

Sep 08, 2024

Dear Internet,

Well, well, well. I’m back. But have I really been gone? You lot are reading “Lisa Writes Stuff” and the “Blotter” so it’s not like I was totally gone gone, ya know?

The last few months have been busy! I have a tendency to write long as fuck missives and I can only imagine how long this one is going to be so perhaps get a cup of something and settle in!

Note: Substack is telling me the post is too long for email so click on the logo above to read it in the browser. You should be fine if you’re on the app.

Nerd Girl Industries

The process of getting NGI off the ground is exhausting. Getting the business organized in KY, filing taxes, and getting IRS EIN number was easy peasy. Everything else has been overwhelming. My seed money (not money from Mr. Lisa) is minuscule so web development, advertising; almost everything came down to me. The one bit of smart I had was having my pal Anne design my logo in palettes as illustrated below:

Anne’s been terrific in working with me as I needed the logos shaped for different social media avatars and banners. There is no fucking consistency across social media! I’ve got variations of the same thing in a variety of sizes. For smaller work, I’ve been using Adobe Express (Adobe’s answer to Canva) and it’s been great. I’ve been using it to create content for all my projects and client projects. It is free and there is a paid ($10/mo) version. The free version is very robust! I only upgraded to paid because you can post three accounts per social media channel (free is one account per channel) and I’m posting for several clients so it’s worth it to me. I’m moving those clients over to another app in the future and then I’ll drop down to free and save myself $10/mo.

My business website has seen many incarnations over the last few months. I connected with a web developer recommended to me by another contact (Look at me! Networking!). If I had the cashie, as my brother would say, I’d hire them in an instant to do my website. I do not have the cashie so I picked their brain on a few questions and taught myself Elementor, a WordPress plugin that allows you to develop your website without knowing how to code. I paid for the plugin, a yearly cost, but there is also a free version. Since I went straight to paid, I have no idea how robust the free version is. I’m going to redo lisarabeywritesstuff.com using the free version. If it does what I need, then I won’t renew the paid version next year.

Any who, the web developer said when people visit your site, they are looking for personality and how you’re different from your competitors. The last old version was pretty blank so I designed it with the Thursday “Hire My Mom” image on the landing page, and wrote short paragraphs about why you should hire me and what a NGI client is. I created an about page about me and NGI as well as a services page. I did not list my rates as I keep adjusting them. Right now, I’m selling per hour rather than packages but that will change in the future as I get my feet wet. (I’ve been researching package contents and prices and jesus christ, it’s all over the place.)

I fucked up on the advertising and because of that, barely gained new clients. It’s been a struggle because I really don’t have money to burn. I am keeping a web banner over at Leelanau Enterprise because it’s fairly cheap and keeps me in people’s minds.

I’m networking like crazy and thanks to that networking, I’m starting to get clients. I’m working on plans to fortify my business.

I kicked off NGI’s newsletter yesterday and starting this upcoming week, I’m posting a weekly video to NGI’s TikTok / Facebook / Instagram and LinkedIn. It will be a series of trials and tribulations of starting and running your own business. The videos will be 10 minutes or less. The list of topics has started to grow and it’s going to be great.

The newsletter will also be weekly, posted on the same day as the video. The newsletter will contain link to that week’s video, the weekly Thursday the Pug photo, meme/gifs, and lots of other content. I’m a wordy bitch so I’m going to keep it short and to the point.

Jobs

My job at the library ended before Labor Day. They only budgeted me to the end of summer but I’ll be on call when they need me. The director recommended me to two other libraries in the county who use the same system and I’ll be following up with them in the next few weeks. I did interview for a part-time position at another library but they opted to go with another candidate, which is fine. I have a forthcoming interview with a local bookstore so hopefully that’ll come up with something. I need to supplement NGI’s income.

On that same topic, Mr. Lisa got notice to return to office (he’s been working from home for over 20 years) or be laid off. The location they assigned him to was in Georgia. He needed to notify the big wigs of his decision within two weeks.

We went through all the permutations of moving vs not. We would not buy as the market is shit so we’d rent. Renting is very expensive in that area and added to the top of our two mortgages, we’d be drowning in debt. We’d have no idea how long we would be there. We would possibly have to give up the cabin as well as buy another car since his office is way the fuck out in the burbs.

If he chooses to turn down the offer, they will lay him off with six months of income, health insurance for six months, and either partial or full upcoming bonuses. It would buy us some time. Living in N. Michigan is cheaper than KY and we could also sell the condo if shit gets bad.

He wrestled with this during the entire two weeks and ended up turning offer down.

The shit show that is his company, there is no eta when he’s being laid off. All he’s told is he’ll be given two weeks’ notice.

Things are a bit stressful around here.

He’s applying to positions within his field and recruiters are calling but the tech market is sunk right now.

Send us good juju.

OA and Fat Girl Surgery

I’ve been struggling with food for a few months since we are under a lot of stress and it doesn’t seem to let up. I’m making poor choices and when I had my physical last month, I was genuinely shocked I weighed less than I thought I did. I’ve got a sponsor I work with, and she’s been great. I attend meetings at least once a week, but I try to sneak in at least two. OA uses AA’s “Big Book” since OA was founded on the same concepts of AA and my sponsor has me reading passages out of that and other OA approved literature.

I accept that I have a food problem and fat girl surgery did not cure me of that problem; it just made me eat less. Food is an emotional tool for me, and I eat under all kinds of stressful, and who am I kidding? joyful, conditions.

The first step in OA is accepting you have an issue. The second step is to surrender to a higher power. Now, this is where I have issues.

OA claims boldly on their website that “higher power” can mean whatever you want it to mean but the language used in their literature swaps between “higher power” and “God” (with a big “G”) so regardless of their public stance, it can be confusing. When I read the literature, and god with a big “G” is used, I swap it out with “higher power.” There is a secular OA group which I’ve also joined.

My spirituality has been in conflict for decades. I grew up in the Catholic church and allegedly an aunt told me a few years ago I questioned the existence of God at age eight. I asked her what she said, and she said she didn’t remember. I was impressed with young Lisa asking the hard questions at a tender age.

I’ve half-heartedly dipped my foot into various lines of spirituality over the years, but I’ve never really committed to any one faith. I believe there is something bigger than us, but I don’t believe it’s one god hanging out there. I also have a hard time reconciling that God has a plan, but the plan includes killing babies and the infirm. I’m tired of the angle that humanity caused all its problems and God is staying out of it as we come to accept we are sinners of our own making. Plus, big “G” god is male and when have most men in charge done anything that’s good for the sake of not men?

In a recent OA meeting, we talked about this specific topic and one of the attendees said they also struggled with the idea of god with a big “G” because it was not their faith. So, what they did was write a want ad of who their spiritual power would be.

So, that’s what I’m going to do.

One of the quotes I pulled from OA literature is,

“The company of OA members is a precious gift, available to me anytime I want it.”

And I can dig that.

I canceled my yearly fat girl follow up appointment. I had such terrible care with them and their support was also awful. When my N. Michigan GP heard about their care and how they never run blood tests on me at any of my appointments, they were genuinely aghast. She ordered a full panel, and everything is great though my cholesterol is a tad high but can be controlled with diet/exercise. She also gave me the contact info for a local to N. Michigan bariatric clinic and I’ll make an appointment when we get back home to have them do my care.

I’m emailing my sponsor my daily food intake but I’m not counting calories or weighing myself. I want to live in a body neutral world and if I’m 275 for the rest of my life, so be it. I’d rather remain Rubenesque and have a good relationship with my body then being thinner and feeling like shit.

There is a lot to unpack here, for sure.

Mr. Lisa Was in The Hospital

We were only planning on staying in KY for a week but four days into our stay, Mr. Lisa called me home from the coffee shop I was at to take him to the ER. Long story short, the cyst on his back, one that two dermatologists told him was harmless, ruptured internally and was infected. His temperature was spiking over 101. We went to a hospital 20 minutes away rather than the one five minutes away. The one five minutes away gives shit care and we were both afraid he’d die in their care.

Seriously, no joke.

We get to the hospital and we’re in triage within an hour with nurses and PAs poking and prodding. They lanced the cyst and milked it which was pretty cool. They believed he was good to go except his white blood cell count was high so they had him spend the night.

This turned into seven night stay.

He is allergic to the antibiotic they put him on which caused kidney issues with his creatinine levels super elevated. They put him on a steroid to help with this which spiked his blood sugar.

In short, everything that could possibly happen, happened. The whack a mole effect drove him to stay in the hospital for eight days. He’s home now but he’s still not feeling great. I change the bandage on his wound (don’t click if you get squeamish!), he checks his sugars three times a day and he’s shooting himself up with insulin when needed.

Continue to send good juju our way!

When the Hell Are We Heading Back to MI?

You ask very good questions, internet! Mr. Lisa has doctor follow ups this week so could be as early as next weekend but no later than the last weekend in September. I have an author reading on October 3 and the blinds and furnace dudes on October 7. Your guess is as good as mine at this time.

Meh.

A Most Unreliable Narrator

🩺A Most Unreliable Narrator 👩🏻‍💻 Issue #197 Welcome Fall

This week: Bluegrass state, NGI business, and trashy TV

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