Me, crocheting on the couch – the kittens are approximately 6 months old – Mia stretched on my legs, Peanut snuggled by my knee, and Rolz sleeping by my hip

Although I’ve always enjoyed writing – you know – I was always the wacko who enjoyed essay questions instead of multiple choice, actually liked to research and write term papers, and have been the inherent “go to” girl when that perfect business letter or proposal had to be written at the office, I never really thought I would write a book. Dream about writing a book… sure, in that regard I’ve written dozens of Best Sellers. But to actually go from sentence one to twenty-six chapters later and write a book… wow… that would seem all but impossible.

Well, in my little world, the word “impossible” does not exist. I’m a true survivor and always do the best to not only face the challenges in my life, but to conquer them. So, when Zoey had her kittens, fate had something in store for me that I was not quite aware of yet. Dan and I started from week one of the birth, taking pictures of the kittens on Thursday night to document their growth. Dan would upload the pictures for me, then I would send them out via email on Friday mornings to various friends, family members, colleagues, and co-workers. At week 5, I decided to doctor up the email a bit and included a brief, humorous synopsis that described that particular growth stage for the kittens. I could not believe the feedback I got from that one little email. I got so much encouragement from people – with all of them saying essentially the same thing – you should write a book!

Okay, just when should I write this book? I had a full-time job as an Executive Assistant for a very busy company and was exhausted by the time I got home from work each week day. Weekends were spent doing errands, housekeeping, yard work and things of that nature. Let me just whip up a book in-between all that. So, although I was quite flattered by the compliments and attention I was getting, writing my book was nothing more than a, “Yeah sure, I’ll do that one day,” moment. Well, it was precisely two minutes after I hit “send” on week 7 that I was called into my Supervisor’s office. Two minutes later I was collecting my purse and was escorted out of the building, as I was now a member of the highly esteemed club of the unemployed. Dan also worked at the same company as me, and he too was laid off at exactly the same time by his Supervisor.

While it was not “personal” (the company had become a victim of the economy and was laying people off on a weekly basis) it sure felt personal. I think the closest thing I can compare it to is death. You go through all the stages – shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger, depression, the upward turn, reconstruction, and acceptance and hope. For me, the period of depression was long, dark, deep, and overwhelming. Finding a job was completely demoralizing, as I was either completely ignored in the marketplace, despite over 25 years of solid work experience, or I was “just not what they were looking for but they would keep my resume on file.” Oh joy, that will surely pay my bills. Dan suggested I start writing the book on the cats that I had briefly been thinking about doing. The only thing, my state of mind was fragile and I was completely broken mentally. Not the best place to come from when you want to write a humorous and uplifting story.

Instead of writing, I went through a frentic period of finishing every project I have ever started in my entire life and abandoned half way through – I organized all my loose photos and negatives that stemmed back to 1978, I sorted through years kindergarten to senior graduation of drawings, hand tracings turned into turkeys, head silhouettes, mementos, and report cards from my kids. I repaired all my broken jewelry and alphabetized my spice cabinet. I shredded documents I had saved from cars I no longer owned, appliances that had long since been replaced and “cherished” correspondence from people I no longer even remembered. You name it, I tackled it with a feigned passion. My biggest project, however, was an afghan that I had started to crochet in 1993 when I lived in New York and never finished due to hundreds of reasons that always seemed to take precedence. Well, 16 years later in 2009, I now lived in Florida and this afghan became a personal challenge for me to finish – almost like my life depended on getting it done to move on to its next stage.

Easy task you ask? Ha, this afghan was like putting together a double sided puzzle, solid black image, with no corner pieces. The yarn colors that I needed to finish the afghan were long since discontinued (remember the hunter green and mauve phase that was so popular, that is not any longer) and I had to “improvise” with similar colors, the directions to the pattern were missing, I had no idea what size crochet hook to use, and I literally had to unravel several squares of this very complicated pattern to write down and re-create what I thought were the correct instructions (God forbid I just made a standard granny square – this one was an intricate pattern that required an engineering degree for me to reconfigure).

This project was meant to be therapeutic, but it just seemed like nothing but a headache to get it done and I was starting to get very annoyed – my mind would wander and ponder my economic fate and I just could not relax. Dan was also going through the same mental turmoil as me, so we tried our best to be positive with one another, but it was not always possible. The kittens were completely  impervious to my bad mood and ignored my state of mind – they loved to help me unravel each ball of yarn and drop it on the floor to roll far underneath the couch for me to retrieve, therefore making me even more frustrated. My nerves frazzled, I decided one day to turn on the television to let my mind focus on something other than my own problems. Well, enter Ellen DeGeneres, my savior and personal God-Wink. When I turned on the TV, there she was – dancing over a table, laughing, and inspiring people. She made me smile for the first time in months and it felt great. I began to watch her on a daily basis (the kittens would actually hear her opening theme music and join me on the couch everyday to watch her, help me crochet, and eventually to snuggle with me for a cat nap). Her positive attitude and perseverance was contagious and I started to feel my heart and mind heal. This was during her “O yes I can campaign” when she was trying to get on the cover of Oprah’s magazine. It was my “epiphany” moment and that is when I knew I not only could do it, but I wanted to do it. So, I picked up my pen and begin the first words of the Prologue… 

Many months and several chapters later (afghan successfully completed, as well as a brand new one with a color scheme that actually matches the house created, and me with a newly acquired full time job  as well), “The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey – a Journey of the Extraordinarily Ordinary” was completed in its rough form on Memorial Day 2010.   I can assure you, I cried that day, but they were tears of sheer joy and pride. Regardless of what happens, I can always say that I accomplished something I always dreamed of doing, but never thought I would – I wrote a book… And the most amazing thing, way back when when I thought I was “too busy” with my full time job and weekend errands and chores to write a book, I now find that I am even more busy and have less hours in the day to get more done – I have a full time job again and the errands and chores continue on without any consideration to my schedule. I am maintaining a blog and am in the process of getting my book published.  But, I realize now, that when you have a true passion and calling for something, the hard work is a labor of love and nothing is impossible.