Sunday Evening

Damn, something about the last blog was NOT flowing. Earlier when I was trying to write I was having trouble too. I have now posted it to my blog, and I am about to go and cross post it on Medium too.

Okay, I’m back, I cross posted my Blogmas post to Medium…although every day I wonder if Medium is even the place for me. The idea is it gets people to come to my blog from another popular social media type blogger site… but I never get any readers on Medium, I am not some big “for money” Medium blogger, telling you the next ten ways to make money blogging on Medium.

I am a meta creative writer who also blogs, who prefers daily blogging to daily vlogging, who hopes to use her website to post her writing for people to read it, listen to it, look at art for it, whatever, to let people find and enjoy my art.

That doesn’t “sell” on Medium, it seems, but, I also know that consistency is tricky, and I do forget to post to Medium often so, going forward, I will be posting my blog to Medium when I post it on the blog, moments later. My blogs are free to read on the website, and I will continue to post them there first, but I also will post them to Medium for those people who prefer to read on Medium…I haven’t found those people yet, but alas, I post for when I do find them.

For now, I am going to do a face mask, a nice deep aloe mask, that can be left on for up to thirty minutes, it’s a sheet mask I got in a major Ipsy bundle of Tony Moly Sheet masks and so far both the other masks I got were delicious. Now I have a pack of ten of these aloe masks to try out and all three will be getting reviewed for Blogmas.

Tomorrow I hope to post a review on one of them, or the day after, depending on when I do that particular mask I have in mind for the first review of the TonyMoly sheet mask pack I got from Ipsy.

But now I need to get ready for bed, as it it long past when I need to go to bed and I cannot be late tomorrow so…I will end this here and pick it up tomorrow.

Monday Morning

Greetings and salutations, blog readers, today is Monday, and despite any of the struggles, I am kicking this Monday right in the ass.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am bringing coffee back into my daily routine, as I no longer have the time to really wait around for the tea to kick in, or to make multiple cups of tea to do what coffee would do.

So this is my triumphant return coffee. Keep reading to see how awesome that return becomes.

I have purchases high octane tea in the past, strong stuff that is stronger than coffee, but that stuff is even more expensive than drinking the fair trade coffee I love so much.

Also, since the world of fair trade coffee has opened up and more people sourcing ethically, I am able to return to my first, and longest love, coffee.

I gave up coffee when, economically, I couldn’t afford fair trade coffee everyday, and it was cheaper/easier to get ethically sourced tea.

That is not the case, anymore.

With more and more companies bowing to public pressures, and with actions taken like my own, companies have started sourcing ethically, and stores have started carrying these friendlier brands, so now, I am able to keep a freezer stocked with good, fair trade, often times Kosher, coffee.

This morning, I made it with a tea bag, which is how I make it when I am camping, so it has me feeling like I have a chill weekend camping ahead of me, and not a long week before we start digging in for the rest of the holiday season.

It’s that week when its long after thanksgiving, but not yet time for the early holiday celebrations, so, everyone can get to work before schools start closing, company comes in from “out of town” other people leave for “out of town”, and the whole city begins thinking in terms of sugarplums.

So, it is pretty busy for us, trying to finish a bunch of projects, and for myself, trying to wrap up the financial year for not only myself, but our vendors, and our clients.

The many schools we serve make having the financial year ending that much more important. Many schools need to be closed out, or else they aren’t able to pay in the new year, and don’t like that so…alas, I have to work hard to make sure we get paid.

Mind you, I am more than tired of the fact that I have no financial stake in this company, no benefits, and only five business days off in terms of ALL paid time off, and if the whole place folds, I’m not on the short list of people who would even keep their jobs/pay, so, I am very tired of having to take on the financial stress of making sure payroll is paid and that we stay salient as a company.

It just seems like I shouldn’t have spent my whole weekend stressed and exhausted, worried about “how do we make payroll” because it isn’t my company.

Maybe that seems like whining, but I will say this…I am very glad I drinking coffee again, because tea just isn’t strong enough to tolerate the bullshit of having all the stress of ownership stake in a company, minus any of the payment, security, accolades or even respect.

Anyways, despite the stress, I am handling it.

I am also glad for the coffee because I have a good deal to attack today, and I would like to get it all done.

I also know I want to stay awake and alert and get all my goals done in a good mood.

On top of my work load, I also want to squeeze in a work out, wash my hair, eat dinner, do dishes, do some blog research, finish, illustrate and post this blog, and also spend some quality time with Bret, because we really didn’t spend as much time as we should have, enjoying each others company.

You may have even noticed with this past weekends blogs that I wasn’t quite feeling like myself, because of the stress, namely from work.

It’s just all the stress I spoke about earlier, the stress I carry with none of the perks, and it weighed heavily on the weekend.

I would like to undo that this evening. Or at least make an effort to have time with my partner, because really, the stress can’t keep getting in the way like that.

So, even if it’s just a small round of video games, I would like us to be able to hang out for a bit, but it is endlessly comforting to know I have coffee to wake me up in the morning, if I stay up too late getting stuff done.

I will also be shopping for a french press so I can make coffee in the morning without too much hassle, and I will say that the coffee made waking up, and more importantly, getting moving, much easier.

So that is where I am now. It is not the afternoon, and I am pretty hungry, so I am going to see if i can get any food sorted for the day.

Later

Had some food, now I am hard at work with some year end things, trying to wrap up the books for the year.

I made some coffee because….

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I have my OWN branded merch, my coffee mug, to try. My samples from the merch line are slowly trickling in this week and the coffee mug and long sleeve shirt came in first so…I am testing the mug out!

I LOVE IT.

Coffee just tastes better out of it. I bet tea and cocoa will too. I bet I will find out too.

I will be trying on my shirt, later, and probably taking some pictures, if I like how it looks. I will also be probably trying to do a photo shoot for the items, to do a proper “Drop” once all the samples are in. I also need to order some more, because i frankly could not afford to buy ALL the samples, and Bret and I agreed to buy samples for each other for some more holiday gifts, to keep us practical.

I am beyond excited, and when I get home, I will be trying on my long sleeve shirt, and when the other stuff come in, the same. Then, I shall order the rest of the line, double check formatting, sizing, quality, do a photo shoot and do an official abbigrasso.com drop.

I will also be upgrading the blog so you can buy merch on the site, in theory, so, VERY EXCITED for all the stuff coming in, and, of course, for the new year!!!

Monday evening

Well, we just ordered some salads and pizza and I am settling into a nice evening of writing and getting stuff done, having already cleaned and worked out!

Bret isn’t feeling great so we are planning on a hella chill night!

Tomorrow he has to do a bunch of driving and such so I’m hoping a night of resting will help him out for tomorrow.

I’m not totally sold on dropping my blog in the evenings my read rates are way down but I’m gonna stick to it and see how it goes, give it at least a few days. My goal is to make it a week, but…again, we shall see.

I don’t wanna give to to vanity but I also want to make sure that people are able to read things when they want. Maybe I’ll do something like save the skin care reviews for morning posts, independent from Blogmas, or even as a part of it, since sharing multiple blogs in an day also feels pretty in the spirit of Blogmas.

This blog is actually pretty long, so I do think I may wait, and post one of my face mask reviews in the morning. I’ll wrap this up, eat, post this, finish the skin care blog after my shower, and then schedule the face mask review for tomorrow morning. Yeah.

So, that’s my plan! What an awesome Monday!

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I’m back! Now I think I will go take a shower and get this posted, then come back and do the next blog!

Happy Blogmas Day Nine!!

❤

Abbi