trying, trying again

Well. Hello there. Happy January, how is yours going, mine is just fine! That sentence was an intentional run-on because, as you might know, I actually teach English!

Here is a list of things I have been doing:

1. Getting close! so close! at presses, but missing.
2. Pasting up the nice rejection letters that said presses send back.
3. Trying, trying again, and closing in on those ten thousand hours.

4. Lurking on NYPD officer discussion boards.
5. Polishing up that chapbook of Law & Order poems.
6. Clearing out my browser history of searches like WHAT GETTING SHOT FEELS LIKE and BEST HANDGUN CLEANING TIPS and MEDICAL EXAMINER FAVORITE AUTOPSY TOOLS.
7. Thinking about where to send #5.

8. Getting some work up on the web, and an anthology.
9. Teachin'.
10. Talkin' bout coelacanths in public.

11. Taking a jaunt to Myrtle Beach on the coldest weekend of the year to see some visiting Minnesotans and win Skee-ball at something called The Gay Dolphin arcade.
12. Taking a jaunt to Savannah to see some visiting Wisconsinites and drink beer in the sun in City Market.
13. Taking the dog to the vet to make sure his new chest lump is just a fatty deposit, and not, you know, cancer.
14. Calling the cancer-free dog Cancer Dog because irony, that is a valid way to deal with real feelings.

15. Thinking about what comes next.
16. Enjoying myself, if I may say so myself.