In the engineering world I worked 43 hours all in front of my computer screen this week. I am in the perfect situation to learn HyperMesh and the intracasies of finite element simulations as they relate to stress analysis. In other words, I'm getting paid once again to get even better at one of the things I do. Yeah, life is good.
About working more than 40 hours a week, the way my contract schedule works I am hired to work 40 hours a week, but I can work extra hours and take time off later so that the total comes out to about 40 per week, I can also get paid a quarterly bonus for the extra hours I have at the end of the quarter. So I'll probably be working more than 40 hours every week that there isn't a Holliday. In fact, after my marathon I'll probably bump up the weekly hours even more for a few weeks. In other words, my salary isn't limited to 40 hours per week or restricted to five days a week.
Other than that I ran 73 miles. It took me like four days to recover from my 30 miler run but I backed that up with a great 16 mile tempo and a 4 by mile workout where I even ran a 5:11 mile! I haven't been doing that kind of pace (5k personal record pace) very often lately. With two weeks until Green Bay I feel that I prepared well. Not incredible or ideal, but better than I could have.
I got on my bicycle for the first time this year. Just to ride around town but Dubuque is small enough and I live close to the center that I will probably be biking for errands quite a bit this summer.
My unemployment book is headed in the right direction. I queried two literary agents this week. Thus far sending an electronic query seems to be much easier than applying for a job. Instead I am saying, 'this is what I have do you think you can sell it for me?' This stage of the process is all about querying scores of agents until I find one that wants me while I continue to edit my 54,000 work patchwork manuscript. I feel really good about this. It's a feeling like writing a paper for school and when you hand it in you know you did well. That's how I feel about my manuscript. By the way, if anyone does know a litern agent I would love a personal introduction or recommendation. Plus, if no one else ever reads more than the first chapter (typical of a query) writing all of this down has helped me immensely.
A few people have offered to be beta readers and help edit, that's probably a good idea, but I still feel like I have my own editing to do before that. The publishing process typically takes around a year so there is little need to rush, plus unemployment is still high, which means it will be easier to sell my book to a publisher.
When I write all of this stuff down it looks like I am super busy but most nights after 8pm I am as unproductive as anyone. (Except that here it is 10pm Sunday and I'm blogging with my thumbs like most nights...)
Question of the week: Is Osama Bin Laden really dead?
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