Four Months In: Here's What Life Looks Like Now

Aug 03, 2024

I haven’t posted in nearly two weeks, which feels like forever, but the delay is mostly for good reasons! I figured today I’d take a more casual approach.

As some of you know from my earlier posts, I left my full-time job in early April, and I’ve been taking some time off to focus on other projects.

One of the main projects is trying to get pen to paper and finally crank out a memoir that’s been cooking for years. But that isn’t all I’m up to. So here is a bit of a snapshot of life these days. 📸

Structure

I have ADHD, I hate structure and avoid it at all costs. I have ADHD, I struggle without structure. ‘Nuff said.

Seriously though - this is an annoying conundrum. I go crazy with boredom when things are same-same, but my life has an extremely low level of required structure these days - and that isn’t always a good thing.

For the most part this falls into the first-world problem category, but also - I am hoping that eventually one or several of the projects I’m working on will become profitable (or more profitable) so there’s stress mixed in too.

Family

The last few weeks I’ve enjoyed a revolving door of family visits. First my son came with his wife and their two kiddos, and then my daughter joined the fun. They were all coming from Florida. I’m spending the summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which means the closest major airport is Minneapolis, ~ four hours away. Today I’ll take my third trip there in two weeks to drop my daughter off for her flight.

We’ve done hiking, waterfalls, swimming in Lake Superior, Friday Fish Fry, smores over the fire-pit, thrift store shopping and more. This was their first time to visit this new place, so I had to try to give them the full Midwestern experience, right??

I love this photo of my daughter contemplating life (or dinner?) as she watches her first Lake Superior sunset.

My son, his wife, and da cuties. Oh, and me in the middle. Those kids love ‘em some outdoors, that’s for sure.

Have I mentioned how much I adore my grand-babies??

Aerospace

I’ve been kicking around a start-up idea for a while now, but I keep forcing myself to hold off. I know myself and when I start digging into a big complex challenge it is tough not to go alllll-in so I really wanted to give myself time to focus on writing first.

But lately I found myself getting kinda… bored? Ughhh. I told everyone this wouldn’t happen. I was sure it wouldn’t happen! But I dunno, even though I have a million things going on - I’m pretty sure boredom is starting to nibble at the edges of my mind.

So I’m lifting the ban - at least temporarily - and I’m gonna start dipping my toe back into the start-up work. I’m setting up some exploratory calls over the next few weeks.

*If your work touches data, software, or space industry and you wanna chat - reach out anytime by DM, comments, or connect on LinkedIn 🚀🛰️https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandarosefadely/

Memoir

I’ve been pushing more on memoir writing lately. Thanks to

Karen Smiley

for her support on helping me think through how to get some structure around this work effort, and for her collaboration on a host of other projects and ideas. (If you aren’t reading her publications on AI, you’re missing out.)

And thanks to my mom, who is so engrossed in her new metal detecting hobby that she didn’t feel like listening to me talk in circles about this and instead asked if I had an outline written up for the story.

Of course I hadn’t written up an outline, not because I wasn’t dying to, but because everything I read told me not to. But I pondered that advice, and realized - ok maybe I needed free space to write without structure to get me started, but I’m ready to start laying this out a bit more. So I created a very rough outline. It has helped.

I’ve also finished reading three memoirs in the past few months: The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, Educated, by Tara Westover, and Breaking Night, by Liz Murray I’ve pulled strategies and ideas from each one related to how to organize my material, how to manage the perspective / timeline of my written voice, where to stick to just-the-facts-ma’am vs diving into feelings and analysis.

Anthology Book Release Progress

The Evolution of Leadership in STEM: Women Catalyzing Change

My chapter has been submitted, reviewed, revised, repeat… and approved. Theoretically it is done and out of my hands now.

My dear sweet daughter in law helped out last week to take some photos of me that I need to submit for headshots and such, so those are in the final stages of editing now.

She spoiled me and took a few extra photos just for fun because everyone should have photo of themselves blowing dandelion seeds in the woods.

Next step after that is scheduling an ‘author interview’. Something they will use for promo materials (I think?). Still need to figure out what that is all about and get it set up.

Real Estate

Rentals have been staying fairly steady both in Florida and Michigan. I’m immensely thankful for that. In fact things have been so busy that I accidentally opened the calendar availability on the apartment I’m staying in and someone booked next weekend… oops. But hey, I’ve been wanting to go camping, so maybe this is the push I need.

I’m also booked to be a podcast guest for ‘every-day’ real estate investors in September. So that’ll be fun.

Substack

I’ve really enjoyed volunteering with the

SmallStack

team. Check it out if you haven’t yet, the community there is so welcoming and encouraging to writers and readers alike.

Peek at The Team page too so you can see how internet famous I am now (ok that’s a lie, I’m not famous, but truly you need to meet the amazing team who are responsible for the magic behind the scenes!)

Oh, and I’ve signed up for a 1000 written words a day challenge for August from

David McIlroy

Erin Mercer

, is also doing this challenge - so that should help with some extra accountability. I’ll be using those words for memoir work or even here for ‘Read the Instructions’ work.

I’ve also been having an extended async written conversation with

elle kennedy fell

, yet another member of the SmallStack team, about gender topics and one of these days we are planning to collaborate on an article or poem… I’m super excited about that.

Exercise, Travel, and Mental Health

I’m toying around with jogging again a teensy bit. I used to run a fair bit… you know… a decade or so ago. Now, I’m out of shape. But jogging has a way of releasing stress and making happy stuff for me that walking just can’t do, so I’m giving it a shot again. Slowly.

I appreciate every time

Maggie Jon

listens to me vent. That counts for mental health points.

It is pretty lame that I never did a real post on my recent trip to Mexico City - but we had a blast. It was one of the most fun vacations I’ve ever had.