Dear Internet,

I’ve been up for an hour, and so far I have:

• Done dishes

• Cleaned the kitchen

• Get the dough started for bread

• Had breakfast

• Put the Forest game on (at 61:45, they are 1-1 with Crystal Palace)

• My period started (GOD. When the fuck can I start menopause?!?)

• Started my weekly Sunday write-in group

Which is where I’m at now!

So, what’s new?

Work has been busy as the summer winds down. I’m constantly amazed at how busy we get for such a small library. Granted, it is tourist season, and we do have non-resident cards that tourists can use, which increases our daily patron count, but we’re also busy in the winter, too.

Updates on Nerd Girl Industries

I’m changing course over at NGI, and I’ll be leaning more into teaching classes than consultation. The reason? People want the information, but they don’t want to pay for it. It’s frustrating. They try to be sneaky when I have my consults with them. Like, I’m not that fucking stupid to see what you’re doing!

I recently gave a class on research beyond AI (popular with writers and researchers), and I had a few people ask questions in class about finding materials for their books. In my head, I’m thinking, “I literally just showed you how to do this on your own.” I, stupid me, offered to help them, but I made it noted to the coordinator that this is it and that if anyone wants research materials, the cost is $100/hr.

I also scaled back what I’m offering for free over at NGI by removing some of my free resources and discontinuing my “buy four hours, get one free” option. People were abusing it. I’ve also now instituted a deposit before work begins, or if they are just buying a class, the class must be paid in advance.

The other day, I had to be the asshole and write a “where the fuck is my money” letter to the coordinator of the group I recently taught because payment has not been forthcoming. It’s been six weeks! It’s only $40! I informed the coordinator that if payment was not received within 72 hours, they would need to pay me my flat rate fee (rather than their sliding scale fee which is shit); otherwise, the class would be canceled.

I got a very apologetic note from the coordinator about this near immediately. It’s been 17 hours. There are 55 more to go.

This experience prompted me to put together my own contract in that payment must be made within 30 days of the class, or they will incur a $25 fee.

This is a business I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into, and my time, expertise, and education are valuable. My instinct is always to help people without cost because my librarian-ing is always on, but I cannot do that anymore because I’m fucking myself over with doing work for free.

I’ve been networking with vendors, mainly website designers and developers, that I can refer my clients to, since website design and development is not my jam. I was put in touch with a WordPress developer, and as I was going through her site, I saw she offered a few services that I offered as well, and she was pricey! I felt aghast on her potential clients’ behalf. But then I realised it is not pricey, but she’s doing a lot of work, and this is what she believes she’s worth. I was going to offer the same service for nearly 1/2 the cost, and now I’m reconsidering my own pricing.

I have a meeting with my business mentor this week, and I’m excited because I verbally dumped on her all of this, and she has ideas! I’m also attending a class for start-ups in a few weeks.

NGI is 18 months old and I was so unprepared for when I started, thinking I knew so much when in reality, I did not!

But there is good news! I booked a class for October 2026 and the pay is amazing, so I’m hoping that I can continue working with them into 2027 and 2028 (which they are currently planning for).

The other good news is that I’ve been approved to teach at another site. I can set my own prices, and classes would be on demand. I need to check their stance in their statements about IP because if I cannot sell on other sites (which SavvyAuthors does allow), then I’ll probably not go through with it because I need to be able to sell on my own site.

Getting dumped by my psych nurse

I’m too lazy to look, but since I dropped down to 200 mg of Lamictal, my mania has come back with a vengeance. I called my psych nurse’s office and said, “Hey, I’ve dropped to 200 mg of Lamictal, my mania is out of control, I need to talk to my psych nurse.” The response I got was, “He will be able to see you at his next available appointment.” There was no mention of upping to 300 mg, no mention of seeing him that day, nothing. I upped my Lamictal to 300 mg and within days, felt so much better. When I called his office, he couldn’t see me for nearly two weeks (wait, I do remember bitching about that)! I took the appointment and huffed.

Appointment day arrives. My notes say I went down from 400 to 300 to 200. His notes say 400 to 350 to 300. He thought I was at 300 mg, not 200 mg. He also told me he could have seen me that day I called (which is not in my messages from his office), so I was a bit pissed about that.

After all of this is sorted out, he drops the bomb that he can no longer see me since I’m rarely in Kentucky and spend most of my time in Michigan. He lives in Oregon, for fuck’s sake, but it seems since his clientele are Kentucky or Indiana-based, he can still prescribe since he’s licensed in those states.

He gave me three months of drugs with one refill, which brings me to about six months’ worth of meds. Plus, for reasons I can not figure out, I have about two to three months extra from previous scripts. I take my meds every day! I should not have extra! Yet, I do.

I also got a script for Seroquel because not only is it a sleep aid (which I sometimes need, but tbh, I’ve been taking 5 mg gummies), but it can help bring you down from a manic episode. No one has ever told me that. Ever.

Now, I know in case a manic episode gets triggered in the future, I can bring myself down.

And after he talked about my meds, he dumped me.

I’ve got it on my to do list to look for someone to manage my meds. I need to make sure they are authorized to send their scripts to CostPlus because that is literally the only way I can afford my meds. Latuda, street price, is $1500 and generic, which I take, is $100-200 with insurance.

But yes, overall, I’m feeling much better. With all the mania up and down, I’ve not taken my new script of ADHD meds because I’m afraid something may happen.

That’s the update on Lisa’s brain.

Before we end…

Since I signed up to walk for AFSP and raise $1000, I’ve been promoting my walk on my newsletters and on the socials (when I remember). I am less than $350 to go before I hit my ask of $1000. Please, please, donate if you can (link below) or share the link. I’m so close to my goal I can taste it.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Fundraiser

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for a walk on September 14. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 46 this year.

My goal is to raise $1000 USD. I've got around $350 more to go. Go to AFSP’s website to donate. I'll be posting an announcement in every issue of my newsletters and regularly on my social media until the day of the walk. If you can donate even $5 or share this link (https://bit.ly/AFSPWalk2025), you will be an amazing human being and doing me a huge solid.

More stably yours,

lisa x