Learning to Play a Trumpet

I have, in recent months, nose-dived into a number of different rabbit holes. I’m not very good at sitting still. Meditation sounds divine to me, but my monkey brain resists the challenge. The closest I can get is walking, which I try to do daily, but in the midwestern summer the humidity alone is often a hurdle my native Colorado lungs just are not up to. I still marvel at the “sauna effect” of being outdoors here. Also the gallons of fluids I shed during the two-mile trek that does not result in any sort of weight loss. Dammit.

I’m usually pretty focused when I’m doing something especially when it’s something I enjoy or am getting paid to do. Much to the bafflement of many, I still delight in cleaning for people. It’s how I have supported myself for many years now, however, my physical body is telling me it’s time to move to gentler vocations.

As I approach my 60th (another thing I am more than mildly awed by), my list of adult obligations has, by design, dwindled. I have worked hard on not needing things aside from food, shelter, water, and sleep.

Thinner air would be nice but, for the time being, I am stuck in a lease.

Still, though, I need money to acquire said necessities. So, I have ventured into more creative projects, like writing.

I’ve poured out words into a novel (currently at the editor) and the first book of cozy mystery series in Amazon’s Kindle Vella section. It’s been fun! But it’s a hurry-up-and-wait game with regard to income. I am lucky enough to have found an amazing editor/publisher, a feat many writers never achieve. And after all is said and done, there is no guarantee that my book will be a seller, let alone a bestseller. Thus, I have sought additional, more expeditious, forms of income. Multiple streams of revenue–that’s how the wealthy do it, right? Right?!

Now, like a kid in a candy shop, I am nibbling on many different things to see which ones I like.

I am working to produce a cleaning course and put it on YouTube. I already have a TikTok channel associated with my web page, this and another account on Medium.com for writing. And, as I have mentioned before, I have started an Etsy Store. 😎

I also have another HUGE project that I am working on….

I am rarely bored.

So, where does the trumpet come in, you ask? Up there ☝️. Didn’t you see all those links I just posted? LOL!

That’s me… learning to “toot my own horn”. Ba-dump, pssssh.

While I am technically, according to Google, a “Boomer”, I identify as solidly Gen X. If you’ve watched any TikTok videos on Gen X (they’re funny as hell, btw!), then you know that our parents tried to ignore us into extinction. Not seen and not heard.

Speaking up about anything was rewarded with a backhand and a “Get the hell outta here, kid!” My parents couldn’t remember our names, let alone our birthdays–or Christmas. If my mom was mad about something and was beckoning one of us, she would shout all the names followed by, “Whatever your name is…”. My parents celebrated, if you can call it that, my birthday on the wrong day for many years until one grandmother corrected them by showing them my birth certificate.

True story.

I don’t tell you this for sympathy. Truly, I could make your ears bleed from all the tales–this is to back up why self-promotion is difficult for me. I know I do good work. I write well, and definitely clean a house with efficiency and expertise. I have even designed almost 200 t-shirts as of this writing…and some are pretty good! The fact that I have managed to support myself for 50 years (yes, I started to earn money at age 10), often escapes my purview. That I am not a “millionaire” is the thorn in my side that drives me onward.

That’s another whole Gen X thing… unless you’re a gazillionaire, you’re a loser.

The obvious is often overlooked in search of a reason–or excuse.

I don’t seek celebrity. GAWD, no! I am fine being alone and solitary. It’s those damned necessities that require income, and thus making other people aware of the goods and services I offer in exchange for the bacon, scratch, clams…

To conclude, this is me… trying to learn to play the trumpet of accomplishment and squeak out about my wares!

Thank you for your continued support!