Had an intensely long work day yesterday — got up early, worked all morning on SLF stuff, went into campus and taught my classes, came back to Oak Park and went to a long and productive library board meeting (three hours — they’re not usually that long, but we had some complex and nuanced material to work through), came home and dragooned Kevin and Kavi into helping me straighten up the first floor and the mudroom, because I can’t think when it’s messy, and with everything that’s happening today, I needed it to be in battle-ready shape; also Kavi helped roast spices, so those have cooled overnight, and are ready for grinding.
I think I worked roughly 6 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. Oof.
Plan for today:
• 8 a.m. publicity meeting with Mascot about additional outreach services for cookbook; they’re going to get back to me Monday with a package, roughly $2K or so, which I *think* is a worthwhile investment, though that really will completely tap out the book budget for some time. They also will let me know when the first payment would be coming in (maybe April? maybe May?), if any distributors actually pick up the book; that’ll let me know at what point I’ll have any additional funds to possibly put towards promotion — DONE
• write a recommendation letter and send it — DONE
• grind and pack up curry powder — DONE
• at 9-ish, Stephanie gets here, also grinds and packs up curry powder, then we pack a bunch more orders and get them out the door; that’s the morning
• 1 p.m., meeting with independent study student here (read his new packet of fiction first)
• I run some packages over to the post office (also a return at Kohl’s for a lamp I bought that doesn’t work, sigh)
• this afternoon, assess groceries for Thanksgiving, pick up anything else needed, run more cookbook orders out if needed, get car cleaned
• 5 p.m., my sister flies in and borrows car for Thanksgiving weekend; she’s driving it out to visit in-laws in Iowa; we only have one car, so trying to finish everything car-related before then!
• evening: relax, and stop thinking about work for a while. Make cornbread-sausage stuffing, Sri Lankan ginger-garlic chicken stuffing, and pumpkin pie with kids, for tomorrow! We’re not having a huge Thanksgiving, more of an open house, and if you’re local and didn’t get an invite and would like to stop by for a bite and/or board games, drop me a note!