Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Back in Circulation

This week went by so fast that sometimes I wonder if I didn’t dream my parent’s visit.  The wedding vow renewal went off without a hitch and if you guys are really good I’ll let you have a peek at my favorite picture at the end of this post:)  

So, my parents didn’t spend umpteen dollars on tickets just to watch me sit around my living room.  (Although I think me in my natural habitat could very well be ticket worthy)
 
In seven days we:  Had a wedding,  Drove to Normandy to see the American Cemetery and the D-Day memorials,  Went to the Palace of Versaille, and  Spent a day in Paris seeing the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. 

I opted out of the Paris day.  I’ve seen it all a million times and dragging my three kids around the monuments on the hottest day of the season was not my cup of tea.  


I apparently missed a tense moment when my little brother (age ten) got the top of his head stuck in the revolving doors at the Louvre.... ahem.  What more can I say?  As someone who has walked repeatedly into sliding screen doors, I don't think I'm fit to judge.

I admit, I set small goals for myself this week.  I wanted to be sure I: 

1. Kept my house clean. 2.  Stayed away from the computer 3. Kept my parents happy  4. Prove to my parents that I’m ‘alright’!

 It’s hard for them.  I live in France and we don’t see them often.  For a number of years my father tried to convince us to move back..…pretty much every time we spoke.  But they’ve come to terms with it in the last couple years and they were pleased at the way we’re living and raising our kids.  So score there.

As I’m sitting here, my feet propped up on the coffee table and the kids completely ignoring their morning cartoons, I feel a tinge of satisfaction. They were small goals but I met them. 
And it made me realize that the goals I’ve set for myself with writing and publishing are pretty huge.  Instead of feeling like a big ole faking failure because I haven’t acquired representation-  I should be looking at things differently.

 Every query I send out is a goal met.  The manuscript itself is a goal met.  Every request for material is a small step forward.  And every rejection a small step back.  But my biggest goal is to know I did my best-  That I really looked at my manuscript objectively and it’s the best it can be,  and to just keep going and not lose hope.  That’s probably the hardest goal of all.

What are your goals and do you feel like you’ve met them ?  or like sometimes, you might never meet them?

Oh yes, and because you guys were so patient with me this week, here's the promised wedding photo.  I feel it's pretty representative of our future together.  My husband is apparently begging God for mercy and I look every bit the conspiring blonde psycho.  Have a great day ya'll!

36 comments:

Avo said...

Ha, that wedding pic is ten shades of awesome.
It reminds me of "So I married an axe murderer" in which there is a blond bombshell who occasionally has these murderous looks and ambiguous turns of phrases, and hilarity ensues.
-
I'm tempted to argue that rejections aren't steps backwards, but small steps forward instead, at worst they are stand stills.
-
Congrats on meeting your short term goals! And making conceptual progress on your massive goals!

My goals are to be be happy and to strive to help those I care about to be happy as well. It's an ever ongoing goal, but so far things are going well.
-
Eiffle? Damn? Triumphe? Were those intentional?
-
Welcome back Katie! : j

Vicki Rocho said...

A successful parental visit is a HUGE goal. Unhappy parents can make things so difficult.

Beautiful dress! It really does look like your husband is praying, hahaha.

Slamdunk said...

Congrats on surviving the parents visit. I can relate to bailing out on the Paris trip. We take short trips in the heat with the little ones.

Seeing little brother with his noggin stuck in the door may have been worth it for a future laugh. Glad he is was unharmed.

Laura Pauling said...

I'm so glad your parents could visit you! And small goals are good. Writers do not need to feel like a failure! We can only do our part.

Anne Gallagher said...

Love the wedding picture but that is NOT what I thought you would look like.

Glad you met your goals. I'm always trying to at least keep the kitchen clean in case my father comes by for spot inspection, like yesterday.

"But my biggest goal is to know I did my best- That I really looked at my manuscript objectively and it’s the best it can be, and to just keep going and not lose hope. That’s probably the hardest goal of all."

That says it all in a nutshell. Don't lose hope.

Unknown said...

Wow I love the wedding photo, I have a few of those around the house that are hidden from the world, I figured people wanted happy photos, not "Jen almost passed out" photos.

I'm with Anne when I saw your profile picture awhile back I did not expect that of you!!! Super cute nonetheless, don't go thinking I thought you were some ugly bimbo.

Great job on keeping the parents happy and thinking you're sane, that's hard sometimes! I'd love to visit France, Paris, all of it... sounds like too much fun, but I know to you it's just another day in paradise ;)

Dianne K. Salerni said...

That is a really funny wedding photo! I laughed and laughed.

Great post today! At first I thought about all the things I *wanted* that I haven't gotten yet, but then I realized that they are not *goals* because they are out of my control.

When I considered the things that are within my control, I realized that I am well on my way towards accomplishing those goals this summer. (Except weeding the flower beds, but I don't know why I put that on my goal list to begin with. Let's just take it off.)

And that's all anybody can ask: to accomplish the things that are within one's power to do.

Candyland said...

Ahahaha! That's the best wedding pic I've ever seen!!!!

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Loving the wedding photo, girly. Hey, and every rejection is not a step backwards. It's just another bump in the road you had to hurdle to attain your goal. ";-)

Karen Jones Gowen said...

So far this is my FAVE post of the day. The wedding picture made me laugh, but not until I read your interpretation of it. Before I read that i simply thought, Awww! Then I looked again and was ROFLOL. It sounds like you had a wonderful time! And how wise to celebrate small successes (although hosting one's parents and 10-year-old brother for an extended period of time and completing a novel are pretty HUGE successes)instead of thinking yourself a failure since you haven't yet found an agent.

Old Kitty said...

Awww Happy Happy Happy Wedding Vow Renewal!! That pic is brilliant - LOL!! You both look very happy in an insane sort of way - but a good insane!

Good luck with all the querying - keep positive and keep strong!! You've acheived so much already - it's just a matter of time - you'll see!!!

Take care
x

Jaydee Morgan said...

Oh my - that is the perfect wedding picture ever!!

Glad the visit with the parents went good - and be proud of what you've accomplished so far. Some don't even get that far.

Lindsay said...

*waves* I'm back from my hols. :)

Glad the parental visit went well. I had to laugh about your little brother getting his head stuck. Sorry. Congrats on the goals too.

I met one goal with writing the MS, then with editing. Eventually the query is the next stop. Although, like you said, sometimes it feels like I'll never get there. Got to by like the little engine that could. :)

Tom M Franklin said...

wow. that wedding photo is... scary.

okay, beyond merely "scary," but you get the, erm, picture.

...

Susan Fields said...

I love your wedding photo! I noticed the look on your face right away, but not until I read your description did I see your husband begging God for mercy! Too funny!

Hooray for celebrating successes, even if they're not the "big one"! I should do more celebrating, I suppose. Maybe when I get this wip submission-worthy I'll feel more like it.

Have a great day!

Meredith said...

I love that wedding photo! Candids are always my favorite :)

I love that you view sending out queries as a goal met--I do the same. Every little step counts.

Walter Knight said...

Pick your parants' brain. Write down everything they can remember about themselves and their parants and grandparants and growing up.

Time with them is precious, and then . . .

Melody said...

"I apparently missed a tense moment when my little brother (age ten) got the top of his head stuck in the revolving doors at the Louvre..."

This made me laugh out loud, and I may or may not still be laughing. Not at your poor brother, but the imagery this evokes is... I mean, there's something funny about getting your head stuck in a revolving door, but then at the Louvre...

Sorry. Now I'm feeling bad for laughing. I have a little brother (12). And if I were you, I'd probably be saying right now, "Hey, I can laugh at my brother for getting his head stuck in a revolving door at the Louvre, but you CAN'T!"

Anyway. Great wedding picture! Glad you had a good - albeit crazy - week. :)

Nicole L Rivera said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicole L Rivera said...

Congrats on the vow (I haven't had my coffee yet and accidently spelt this: vowel, lol) renewal ... and for surviving a week with the fam. Welcome back to cyberspace. Looking forward to your posts :)

P.S. - Cute pic.

Tamara Narayan said...

Great picture, thanks for sharing. I'm so impressed you went through all that effort for your parents.

Rejections do smart, but I try to imagine the agents are like me, in the car, flipping through stations like crazy, not looking for an okay song, or a song I kinda like, but a song I LOVE. I drive my family nuts with my endless search for such songs.

LTM said...

LOL! love love love the wedding picture--expressions = priceless; congrats on surviving parental visit and BAH!!! little brother got his head caught? OK, ehrm... hope he's not injured. (sniggle)

good stuff~

Lisa Gail Green said...

A. You're gorgeous even with the psycho look.

B. OMG You live in France?????

C. Congratulations.

Alexandra Shostak said...

Hahaha, that picture is priceless!

Goals... I have so many of them, I'd eat up all your comment space talking about it. But, since I'm not going to look too far in the future, I would like to finish this manuscript I'm working on, and query the one that's been in revision. :)

Erin Kane Spock said...

Glad you're back.
Glad no one exploded.
Yes, you do look a little bit insane in the pic -- thanks for sharing it.

There is a milestone's blogfest coming up sometime soonish that, the way I chose to interpret it, dealt with meeting goals.

My sister used to work with mental health patients and she would set baby-step goals for her clients. Instead of "I will query 10 agents today," the first goal would be to get out of bed in the morning. That's not too challenging (most of the time). I can handle those sorts of goals without feeling sick. And they still give you a sense of accomplishment.

VICTORIA SAAVEDRA said...

Your dress looks beautiful. So shiny! Congrats :)

dolorah said...

My smallest goal: get to work every day no more than five minutes late.

Most days I make it. :)

Shoot CQ, this would have been an excellent post for my Milestones blogfest. Such simple sounding goals are rarely uncomplicated.

But you made such a beautiful bride! Thanks for all the wonderful pictures and the chance to see into your everyday life. That was cool.

........dhole

Ricky Bush said...

Oh. My goals. Query. Deal with rejection. Write new stuff. Rinse. Repeat.

Dawn Ius said...

Gorgeous dress! Congrats on your week's goals. I am impressed :-) Missed you...

Anonymous said...

Hey, Creepy Query Girl!

A very interesting post and good job with all those queries that you sent out and scoring points with the folks.

As for what my goals are, I have many. One of them is that I want to be a great writer someday and I'm working on that right now...I might never meet it, but it's a dream of mine.

Another goal of mine is to stay fit, because I used to be overweight A LOT, but I conquered all of that and became an average looking person the right way through diet and exercise. I feel like I've accomplished this goal, but I could always improve by gaining some muscle, so I'm working on that.

Lastly, write on and keep up the good work!

Clara said...

Squeeeeeee, wedding picture!! Ok, u guys could have been a bit more romantic lol, but its still so cool, thanks for sharing it!

U were gorgeous by the way!

And I think u r right: we have to take joy in the small things in life. Thats the key to true happiness!

Hart Johnson said...

Congrats on the vow renewal, and on surviving your parents' visit! Maybe the key is that you have a sibling still at home... I should have made my parents have children so they had somebody else to pester, and not obsess about me and how I'm doing everything... (cracked up at your brother's head stuck in the elevator)--and LOVE the picture!

As for my goals? I'm queen of making lists--breaking things into pieces... don't always FOLLOW, but I like to make a plan...

Shelley Sly said...

Congratulations on your wedding vow renewal! You do look very pretty in the picture, as amusing as the picture is. :)

Talli Roland said...

LOVE the wedding photo! I'm amazed you managed to fit so much in. Welcome back to the computer. :)

MTeacress said...

Oh that's a good one, but your description of it makes so much better. :)

It's great to see you had such a good week. Welcome back to the bloggerhood.

Alexandra said...

oh! oh! that picture and your caption are the best!!!

I have to see that again.

I think the fact that you stayed away from the computer is the only goal you needed to meet. WOW.

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