✈️ A Most Unreliable Narrator 🇨🇦 Issue #213 The Trip Issue

Heading to Iowa and Ontario in the next few months

Dear Internet,

Last week’s experiment in adding a list of 20-year-old email addresses went off with a…whimper. One old friend (Hi Kruton!) liked the post and someone else unsubscribed. I was curious as to how Substack handles dead email accounts. Per them, there are two types of email bounces. One is hard, where the account doesn’t exist, and the other is a soft bounce, when a temporary error comes back. If the email address doesn’t exist, it shows up on your Substack dashboard, so you can manually remove it. The thing is, there is no notifier on my dashboard about dead emails. Many were still in fact in use (holy shit!), as I can see who opened the email. So, if you were part of the mass inclusion, you opened the email, and you remember me, I’m grateful you’re here.

Niagara Falls, Ontario, CANADA

I may have mentioned in recent issues that I’m teaching a class at the Romance Writers of America annual conference. Initially, I was going to drive (it’s between 7-8 hours from N. Michigan to the hotel), but when I checked how many miles I have on my Delta card, I saw I could use a mix of miles and cash to pay for Comfort+ seating on a flight. Quick summary in my head on gas cost was enough for me to pull the trigger, so now I’m flying to Buffalo as there are no direct flights to Niagara Falls.

Now, how do I get to the airport, which is on the US side, to the hotel, which is on the Canadian side? I checked the costs of renting a car plus the cost of daily parking at the hotel and it got wildly expensive. I asked around and did research and saw I could take an Uber to the Rainbow Bridge, walk the 1/4 of a mile to Canada, pay my $1 toll, and then be at the hotel in under five minutes from the toll gate. Numerous people confirmed this was doable. Plus my Amex gives me a monthly credit on Uber so that’ll help pay for the drive from the airport to the Rainbow Bridge.

The big contention with the RWA community was the number of hotel rooms at the hotel that were available at the conference price. It was spread around that the blocks we filled and RWA negotiated new blocks, and we were to wait for further information. Look, I’m a planner and I like having my ducks in a row so I called the hotel directly, told them I was with the RWA conference. I got the special pricing and booked my room. With the US dollar stronger than the Canadian, the conversion turns out I’m paying pennies! (Not really, but the exchange rate is roughly 30%. For Americans visiting, this is great. The opposite side? Not so much.

(Also, massive props to Canada for electing Liberal Mark Carney who ran on the anti-Trump campaign. The Liberals, unfortunately, did not secure enough seats to form the majority so here’s hoping it doesn’t turn out to be a fucking fiasco.)

If you’re a fan of tracking people via their pictures, head on over to my Instagram where I’ll be documenting the conference pretty heavily.

Mr. Lisa Got a Job

As most of you already know, Mr. Lisa was laid off from corporate mega corp back in early March. With jobs in the tech sector few and far between now, he was convinced it would be years before he got another job. He was also dubious of getting a remote job so many companies went back to return to office.

Well! He got a job at a local tech company! He’ll have to wear pants and go into the office with the possibility of turning it into a hybrid position. He’s not exactly thrilled as the position is not on his career path, but the pay is decent, and it’ll keep us from having to dip into our savings.

We’re moving from a one-car family to a two-car family, which he is not a fan of, but it is what it is. In the next few days, we’re heading to the local dealerships to see what we can lease. His only must-have is four-wheel drive. N. Michigan got 145” of snow this past season, and while the MINI Cooper handled brilliantly, it does have four-wheel drive.

As for me, my side hustle big client terminated our contract. The project he is working on had no direction, planning, or foresight. In short, he was all over the place with his needs and desires. He kept me, the web developer, and the consultant on our toes. He brought in a friend of his who does marketing and project management and they are currently in the process of reorganizing the project. With that being said, they have no need for my services right now which is fine. I was wringing my hands anyway because I cannot manage content if I don’t have content to manage!

I bill by the hour and I’ve put a lot of hours into this project so having this monthly income was nice and it helped with Mr. Lisa being unemployed. I’ll definitely miss the income but not the stress and demands. They are possibly bringing me on in the future when they are in a better place.

The client has been on top of paying me promptly, and now, with the dissolution of my services, I started panicking that he wouldn’t pay me what I am owed. The agreed terms is he must pay within 15 days or the work would stop. After 30 days, I can take legal measures to obtain what he owes me. We’re three days in from the day I sent the invoice but I’m already looking up small claims court in my county!

The RWA trip is funded by my side-hustle and I have the money to pay for it and not feel fucked but I have a couple of goals set for the side-hustle that I need this payment from.

I’ll try and stop worrying.

And as for the librarianing, I’m still subbing at two library systems and working in a third. The financial goal was to either get a full time librarian gig or make the side-hustle the full hustle. I’m giving it another six months with the side-hustle and if I can’t make a go out of it to sustain me, it’ll go from being a potential full-time gig to being a paid hobby.

Iowa is 75% vowels but 100% awesome.

This Wednesday, I’m off to see Erika in Iowa. We’re doing day trips around the state to see places like where James T. Kirk is from or have food at the breakfast joint Jason Mamoa goes to. It’s also Erika’s 45th birthday so we’re heading to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate. I’m also finally meeting her mom and I think her best friend as well.

I visited Erika a few years ago to go to the Iowa State Fair WHICH IS AMAZING. I told her that I’d come back in 2025 so we could spend more time at the fair but looks like I’m coming in a few months early.

I’m not looking forward to the 6 a.m. flight out of TC but it is what it is. I have to get up at 3:30 a.m. to leave by 4 a.m. to make the 35-40 minute drive to the airport. My return flight comes in at midnight and Mr. Lisa is not a fan of driving in the dark and on county roads so I’ll be driving us home. I don’t mind it, really.

Elbow is coming to town.

My chum Evan messaged me the other day to tell me one of my favorite bands, Elbow, is coming to Royal Oak (a suburb of Detroit) in October. I was genuinely shocked because I’ve been stalking Ticketmaster since the US tour was announced, and there were no shows for Chicago or Detroit. Evan pointed me to Elbow’s website (duh, I did not check there) to see that the Royal Oak and Chicago shows are handled by another ticketer. Huzzah to me! I’m meeting Evan and his wife at the show (maybe get dinner?), but I don’t know who I’m going to hang with after the show. It’s 4.5 hour drive from here to there so driving home wouldn’t be that great. I could drive to GR (about 2.5 hours) and stay at Steph’s (if she doesn’t come with me) and then drive home the following day, which is doable. Or fuck it, maybe get a hotel by myself and make a night of it.

(Mr. Lisa is not coming as he hates Elbow, was not a fan when I dragged him to a show a few years ago, and thinks they are a derivative of U2, who, ironically, I am not a fan of!)

And lastly…

I’ll be sending out The Blotter issue on Thursday (May 8) as usual, so expect that to be in your inbox. Some writing stuff has been going down so I more than likely have an issue of Lisa Writes A Lot of Stuff on May 14.

And really lastly…

Today, Mr. Lisa and I celebrate 15 years since our first wedding and two years since our second one. Mr. Lisa is a Star Wars fan, so May 4th was chosen as the first day the JOP could get us in. That’s the story.

Until then!

lisa x