#185 - Mentors and My Way

I chose to sleep in the extra half hour again this morning in lieu of bacon and eggs at the diner, more out of need than a choice really.

I made it on to the eight twenty-four train with ease as it was late again for the same reason it is late everyday. You’d think they would change the train times or come up with a new excuse. I was too tired to write and the seating wasn’t ideal.

I picked up a blueberry muffin at Rooster’s Coffee on the way to work to treat myself. I made a tea when I arrived and sat down to enjoy that while I started up the machines.

The day was going well, and I was getting some work done. At about eleven thirty I was getting peckish and I wanted to write at lunch. Figuring an early lunch would allow me to miss the crowds and then sneak on over to the couches without being seen. A co-worker sat down and joined me and the idea of writing died on the vine right then and there. And although I enjoyed our conversation, my hope to get some writing done was shattered.

And to put the final nail in the coffin, I received an invite to a last-minute invite, so I headed back to my desk to prepare for it. From there it seemed like anything I wanted to get done was going to be interrupted by various distractions.

I managed to finish my work by five PM and walked to the station and jumped on the five-twenty-six express. There weren’t many seats available, but I found one in the corner. I sat with my eyes closed and tried to rest amongst the multitude of overly loud phone conversations the seemed to surround me.

People were driving incredibly slow leaving the station and that frustrated me to now end. I arrived home and took a few minutes to myself to look at the tulips sprouting through the soil. In the last few days, they have doubled in size.

I transplanted another sprouting bulb from the backyard to the front to thicken up the tree planter.

Once inside, the aroma of a fresh meal greeted me. Robyn had made roasted vegetables and sausages for dinner. A nice treat to come home to.

My order of black cardamom seeds arrived today, I couldn’t find any locally for some reason. But I have all the ingredients now to make Dishoom’s Ruby Chicken.

But I will have to wait until Friday to make it since we are likely to visit friends’ tomorrow night after work and order pizza. Just means extra time for that chicken to marinate.

The kiddo texted me at work today to secure a tres leches cake for his birthday. It’s not for three weeks, but he likes to plan ahead.

I printed out my tres leches recipe tonight and gave it a protective lamination. Already for the birthday baking.

I received my comments from my mentor for the story I wrote on the weekend. It was a mixed bag, but mostly positive.

She made some great points, and I appears to me the main issue I am having is leaving the writing to the last minute and not having enough time at the end to add in certain details. As she put it, I have all the tools, I just need to make sure I am using them.

There were some other smaller points she made, and I agree with them all. I can fix these issues fairly easily.

She did write that she loved my character and the setup. We both agreed that the story felt like it could be a series. And that’s exciting to create characters and worlds that I can imagine going back to.

For my next assignment I get to write some science fiction, which is something that has been off limits with this mentorship for very good reasons. But I am secretly pleased to be able to dabble in some sci-fi with my mentor’s guidance.

And she offered me a six-month extension to the membership. When I first took the mentorship, I wished it was for the full year, like some others had with her. Yet, I took the six-month slot because it was there for the taking. So, I am incredibly pleased and lucky to get the full year. I feel I am learning so much and the real learning is still to come.

I completed the word challenge last night for the month of March. For the first three months of this year, I wrote 182,501 words! That tens of thousands of words more than what I wrote in 2024 and 2025 combined. If I wondered if I was making any improvements, that’s a good metric to show it.

The Artemis II had a successful launch and is now doing what they refer to as Proximity Operations. Which I believe is Nasa-ese for kicking the tires while we are still close to home. After a couple of days of this they will head out to circle around the moon.

Life has been a bit crazy of late, we actually had to schedule some cuddle time and that meant I had to put away this laptop and enjoy some time with my wife watching a few shows. We had Paradise, Shrinking and an episode of The Daily Show to watch. But after that we switched into a reading vibe and I read my book until about midnight.

I also decided to renew my mentorship and sent of emails in that regard and another one with my word challenge results for the month. Part of the challenge is being accountable to someone on a monthly basis. It’s all on the honor system, but I treat it as if the fate of the world hung in the balance.

My plan is still to aim AM wake up and get my EASY, BACON, BROWN from the The Patrician Grill, but my ability to pass up the extra half an hour’s sleep is notoriously untrustworthy.

As it was, I went to bed having ticked everything off my to do list. I am short for the 2026-word challenge by about 900 words. Not an ideal way to start of the month but today was not working in my favor in the writing part of my life.

I’ll make up the time on Friday, a day off, after I sleep in to at least nine thirty.

But with the warm glow from wifey cuddles and the sure knowledge of my continued mentorship, I think a good night’s rest will come easy tonight.

Night all.