Finally heard from Maliheh and am talking to her now. We’re swapping emails. She’s been sick and says she’s been sleeping a lot and it’s nothing personal. I figured that was the case.

As for Nane, I wonder if she really ever intended to read my book in the first place. I guess time will tell.

It’s been a quiet day so far, but the day is still young and so I know I’ll hear something from Jesse and his fucking dogs sooner or later. Yesterday I only heard vehicles twice, but he was out all day and all night. This meant that once it got dark, the dogs went crazy.

Wish I had more to say as I’m in a writing mood, but I don’t. Just that it’ll be in the 60s again today and we’ll be able to keep the heat off for a good 10 hours or so. I guess I’ll spend most of the day proofreading and working on my story.

Later…

I wasn’t going to write anymore today but decided to say that I decided to submit Evil Amongst the Evergreens to the publishers. I don’t expect them to accept it, but at least if they reject it they’ll tell me why. I’ll know by March.

I’m getting sick of a certain furry bastard’s destructiveness. Yeah, he thinks that if it dangles, it must be a toy. That meant literally biting off the shiny heart pendant on my necklace and running across the room with it. I chased him down and grabbed it out of his mouth, then he got thrown into his cage for a while. The chain is still intact, but he demolished the finding that held the crystal heart on. So for now I attached the heart to a pearly beaded necklace with thread and threw it on my Joy doll. It actually looks quite good on her and goes well with the shiny gold accents in her outfit.

This damn rat needs to learn to keep his mouth off of things, though!

I chatted with Maliheh today. :) Not long after I got up I received a message asking, “You there?” And so we swapped a few emails. She’s still sick, unfortunately, and says she’s been sleeping a lot and that it’s nothing personal. Hopefully, she’ll remember to scald her throat the next time around as soon as her throat feels scratchy or sore before the virus has a chance to spread.

I was surprised to learn she makes only $800 a month. If the rents in her area range from $800-$1000 excluding utilities like she said, how can she swing it?

At least she’s happy doing what she does. She charges $20 for a half-hour lesson, and could always go to full-time hours and gather more students if need be. She said she’s happy with what she makes but could use more. Same for us! Enough is never enough for us, but at the same time, we are making enough right now.

She said building up a clientele was slow at first and she doesn’t always know how many students she’ll have from month to month, and while that can get a little scary, it beats working at McDonald’s. She’s been her own boss since college and says that for her it’s the only way to go.