A New School Year, A New Mentee

I am so excited! I went to Reagan High School this morning to meet my mentee and I was matched with a great girl again. The best part is that she's a Junior, which means that I'll be able to mentor her for a couple of years if all goes well.

I have really had a great experience mentoring through Project Grad and I would recommend it to any of you looking for a way to reach out to the community and to kids specifically. (www.projectgrad.org) The Chronicle is a big supporter and offers complimentary subscriptions to all the families with a Project Grad student in the house.

From the little I was able to learn today, this young lady is very active in school and is a great student. She's active in volleyball, basketball and soccer and she carries a challenging work load taking Pre-Cal! I'm always impressed by anyone who is really good at math, especially young girls. I think that is so awesome!

I still keep in touch with my mentee from last year too. She's a sweetheart! We're talking about getting together once a week so I can help her with her English. She’s a freshman at UH Downtown.

Bueno chicos & chicas, lunch break is almost over. I have to hit the grindstone again.

Quick Update

Pain is gone. It left as quickly as it arrived. Very weird. Other than that I feel like I've had a black cloud following me for the past week and a half regarding health for me and the kids and other misc. stuff that has been happening.

On a good note! I've sent out a total of 10 queries now and I've received 4 rejections. That's OK. I don't feel bad. Getting rejected means I'm doing something and not standing still. I know I'll receive one good reply eventually.

I bumped into a girl from elementary school, my Kindergarten class to be exact, today in the tunnel downtown. Very weird that I still recognized her but we were in a later grade together too. We think it was fifth grade.

Los Agentes

OK, so I've sent out eight queries to eight agents today. I received one immediate response within 5 minutes of sending it, I'm not kidding you. He said not for him and that was it. Not too bad. Another band-aid I ripped off because if you remember I submitted a query to another local agent a few months ago and she also rejected me. But I don't really count her because she was more like a practice query so I could see what it feels like to be rejected.

I may have 7 more rejections in my box tomorrow. But then again I may have one asking to see more and then what? YIKES!!! I will have to be prepared that's what.

Keep you posted. Sorry I haven't written about anything else more interesting. Maybe I'll post another poem. This beautiful weather this weekend was inspiring.

One last note. A shout-out for my primo. Check out my cousin Oscar Casares' latest article/essay in the November Texas Monthly Magazine. It's really good and thought provoking.

Shopping

I'm shopping for an agent. Somehow it's not as enjoyable as shopping for shoes.

I was reading some tips to writers on Jennifer Weiner's web page at (In Her Shoes)http://www.jenniferweiner.com/ and I was amazed to read that she sent her query out to approximately 30 agents and received 23 rejections. And she was already a published newspaper writer!! Amazing!

Point is this. If a published successful journalist can be rejected this many times that should tell you how hard it is to even get an agent. This means that my cover letter and query have to be better than good. Ay the stress!! But I'm glad for the reality check.

I've been going over the agents who accept "ethnic" and "women" or "chick lit" themes. I've highlighted and tagged several pages of the "Guide to Literary Agents." Now on to do additional research on these agents to see what types of authors they represent and if I know any of their work. I also need to make sure they are still accepting queries before I waste my time sending them something that will end up in the trash. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few who accept e-mail submissions.

I'll keep you posted. Pain is still there. Light and nagging but a lot less than before.

Update on Health

Emergency room doctor thinks it's my ovary. Primary Care Physician thinks it's either a hernia or something intestinal. Surgeon I saw today said it's not a hernia and that I possibly pulled a muscle. He prescribed Advil and rest.

My OBGYN was in (same building area) so I stopped by and saw him. He said that if the cat scan didn't show any abnormality in my ovaries he doesn't think it's that. His theory is that I had a cyst inside the ovary (which are supposedly normal cysts that are there called functional cysts) burst and that it's causing the pain and that it'll just pass.

Ironically today I haven't had the pain since around 6 p.m., when I went to pick up Seth. I usually have it an hour after I eat and I didn't have anything this evening after dinner. (which is why I thought it's intestinal) At least not so far.

THEN today by total coincidence. One of the mothers from Miranda's school, who I don't even really know, and I were corresponding via e-mail because I had volunteered to sit at our booth for the Fall Festival Saturday. I mentioned that I had a pain on my right side that they can't figure out and she tells me she had the same thing recently and it ended up being a herniated disk! And she didn't even have back pain, just an abdominal pain. Very strange! I asked her for her doctor's name. Worth a try. She said she saw 7 doctors before they figured out what it was.