Sunday, November 04, 2007

Whew!

I finished planning and executing the last major event of my career (an awards banquet) and am greatly relieved. I didn't sleep well all week, though this is normal for me during this kind of thing. This time, between worrying about whether leaving the position was the right move, stressing over every award I was or was giving out, fulfilling all my normal job responsibilities, coping with my husband's newest schedule change, teaching classes on Friday morning, and the car's newest problem (a failing heater core--just in time for winter too), I averaged maybe three hours a night.

Last night, I came home from the banquet exhausted and sick--also normal apparently. Today I'm running a fever and have a horribly sore throat. My house looks like a tornado with a predilection for candy and Halloween decorations went through it, and I'm too fried to care. Somehow I've earned a reputation as someone who likes to be in charge and who love organizing events. When I figure out who started that rumor, I'm going to kick them in the shins. I don't want to be in charge of anything for a while--well not anything other than my kids anyway.

The awards ceremony went very, very well. I think everyone walked out the door happy, though I imagine there will be a phone call in a few days from some parent wanting to know why their kid didn't get such-and-such award. I work hard to make this event a "feel good" exeperience with every kid's accomplishment acknowledged as well as that of the volunteers. This year was especially fun as I was able to give a plaque to an outstanding individual who worked overtime last year to make sure that the kids he worked with were winners, who planned our first county livestock show all from the cab of his truck as he drove across country.

The kids and parents got together and made a quilt with a picture of all the kids on it and everyone's signature as a going-away present. It nearly brought me to tears.
What lovely people.

I spent a three hours studying agents this morning. When you search out an agency's name, not only do you have to research who they've represented, what genres they prefer and how they want their query letters, you also have to research their reputations. So far, I've got three names.

3 comments:

Scotty said...

Glad to hear the ceremony went well, Mary.

Not so glad to hear that you're feeling run down though, so get well soon eh? Take some time off to slow down and look at some clouds, maybe...

:-)

Unknown said...

One name per hour? Not bad. Isn't it funny how sometimes you can be looking through a listing, see three agents in a row that sound really promising, and then you don't find any for the next couple hours?

Mary O. Paddock said...

Thanks Scotty. Still sniffling and coughing today, but not as tired.

CD--I'm not at all sure what's average here, but I'm hoping that querying five or six at a time will yield something. The hard part is the screen of distrust you have to put in when you start searching through their names.