reading

Entrepreneur

/ Lisa Poe / 1 Comment

I love being challenged. As you read from a previous blog, I’m being challenged to afford, keep, and pay for my “Affordable Care Act” catastrophic, high-deductible health insurance, as well as afford gas and groceries. I fear I have retired too soon.

This is why you have not heard from me in a while. I’ve been busy on my solution (and not substitute teaching, which I am awful at).

Solution. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

I started my own business. I’m going to write off lots of stuff, including my health insurance.

Lisa Poe LLC, Professional Organizer, licensed and insured. I did it all. It is legit. I registered my LLC with the state, bought liability insurance, supplied my tool kit, and bought a step ladder. I’ve had two clients so far. One is done and paid, the other is ongoing for now and prepaying. As of this writing, I’ve made $2,140 in revenue!

What is a professional organizer? I declutter your space. Drawers, closets, pantries, garages, storage units, bills and paperwork, craft rooms, etc. I give you space to relax, peace of mind, a fresh perspective, and a love for the space where you live. The projects you spend days procrastinating on, I complete in four hours. I give you respect for your emotional attachment, while at the same time helping you dispose of the clutter that nobody uses anymore. Whether you are downsizing, moving, or cleaning out a recently vacated space that you have inherited, I will show up with boxes, labels, and lots of trash bags. Downsizing is hard. I am also the emotional support and that little push you need to remove all that does not serve you anymore.

Oh dang? I like it. How’s that for a quick elevator pitch, to basically say, NOBODY WANTS YOUR SHIT.

I’m taking new clients. Ask about the New Client Promotional Rate. My headquarters is located in Darby, Montana, and I have satellite offices in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Patagonia, Arizona.

I’ve also been spending my time getting my novel finished. I wrote it eight years ago, and it’s been sitting in my closet waiting for a professional organizer to get rid of it. I’ve had it proofread, made the corrections, and will read through the draft one last time before self-publishing it for the Writer’s Day event in Darby on August 1st. “Lucida Sans” will be available this summer.

I’m also working on my greeting card business. Affordable, non-traditional greeting cards. Poe’s Tits Notes. Do you need a card for a lesbian wedding? A thank you card for a ride to your colonoscopy? A Baby Genitalia Reveal card? There will still be Birthday Cards and Mother’s Day cards, too, but not what you would find in a store. Unusual, slightly inappropriate, quirky. Oh wait…. that’s how people describe me! Send a little note with a Poe’s Tits Note.

I’ve been biking. I signed up for the Get Lost Gravel Bike Ride in Hamilton, Montana, for August 2nd (an anniversary day that will forever be burned into my psyche). I’m in over my head. Forty-seven miles and 4100 feet of elevation gain. I will have all day to do it, and my goal is to beat Heidi, who is doing the 82-mile ride with 6,100 feet of climbing. Yeah, in over my head, but I am training for it. Putting in the miles, climbing the climbs, soaking up the sun or rain or wind, all the weather, sometimes all the weather on the same ride. It is Montana, that’s what you get. I’m excited to participate in this basically in my backyard ride, and better than how I spent last August 2nd.

And….I’ve been reading. I have several books to recommend. Not just recommended reading, these are required reading.

“Star Spangled Jesus” by April Ajoy: Thanks to my favorite Jesus Freak, Linda, for gifting me a copy. I’ve underlined my favorite sections and plan on sending it to my other favorite Christian, my dad, for Father’s Day. Yeah, spoiler alert, daddy. Follow the author as she is raised an evangelical Christian, but starts questioning the turn of events as the Christian Nationalists create their own Jesus that bends to their self-imposed rules. An entertaining and educational read.

“The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans: This novel is told only by letters and emails to and from the protagonist, an elderly woman who lives on her own. This is a real treat to read.

“Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke: This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Talk about weaving a bunch of story lines into a masterpiece. I could not put this book down. It got my attention right from the start, and I struggled to get anything else done besides reading this story. The book itself is like nothing I’ve ever read. I highly recommend “Yesteryear”. Let me know what you think.

More great adventures and book recommendations can be found at Wild About Books. You can also read about August 2, 2025, and about my health insurance.

Book Review Part Two: “The Lost Journals of Sacajawea”

/ Lisa Poe / 1 Comment

I can’t stop talking about this book. In this short blog post, you are getting a more detailed report on “The Lost Journals of Sacajawea” by Debra Magpie Earling.

For the first time ever, I feel compelled to write an official review on Amazon for a book. This book is getting mixed reviews, and I want to set the reader straight as this book is not what it appears at first glance.

I give this book a strong 5 plus! Writing is an art, and this book is a masterpiece. Debra Magpie Earling is truly a literary genius.

I started this book and struggled. Struggled to find meaning. Struggled with the clunky, non-structured, “abnormal” writing. I kept reading. This was a book club book. I read it as if it were an assignment. I had picked this book for the group. I had read and loved Earling’s book “Perma Red” and wanted to love this book too. I felt like I was reading a foreign language that was in English.

Around page sixty, things started to flow. I was getting into a rhythm. I stopped trying to decipher this language and let the words pour over me like a lazy river over rocks. Then the words took on a life of their own as they danced across the pages in a finely timed choreography. This book is so intelligent. Once I gave in to it, the book and I were one. Zen reading. I’d never experienced this before. Look what Debra Magpie Earling had done! She has given us an experience, a taste of the essence of not only being a native American woman, but time travel as well. I was part of the earth and all living creatures, not separate, no hierarchy.

I am so grateful for this experience. I read the last page and immediately started over. I wrote down my own dictionary of words to help me keep things straight. I tracked the characters and their relationship to Sacajawea. I paid attention to who was alive and who was in her life via spirit. The first sixty pages did not seem difficult now.

My literary bar has been raised. I was challenged and took that challenge head-on. Please give yourself the courage to keep reading and the grace to let the book enter your soul. Do not try to control this one; the book is in charge, let it happen.

Retirement Rocks

/ Lisa Poe / Leave a comment

My friend Allison is in 4th grade. She told her mom, who replaced me as the business manager at Darby Public School, that Lisa couldn’t retire. Her mom asked her why not. Allison said Lisa bikes, skis, snowboards, hikes, and in Allison’s eyes, this was not what “retirement” meant.

I’d planned it this way. I would be done when I turned 60, and I could collect my public employee’s retirement. And when it worked, I was in shock.

Here I am. Not in an office, not answering phones, not dealing with passwords, a multitude of software upgrades and changes, computers, internet, sickness, and people coming and going. I stayed for the pension. And now here it is.

I have ginormous plans. I have not stopped. I own four bikes: a road bike, a mountain bike, a gravel bike, and now a fat tire bike. I’m lifting heavier weights at the gym, finally increasing my weights. I have a season pass to Lost Trail Powder Mountain. I mean, I did. What?

When I turned 18 years old, it was legal to drink alcohol. While I was 18 they changed the age to 19. When I turned 19 I was legal to drink. While I was 19 they changed the drinking age to 21. When I turned 60 I was able to get a discounted golden age season pass at Lost Trail Powder Mountain. While I was 60, they changed the age for the golden age pass to 65. UGH! I can’t win. Yes, I had a season pass, but now I don’t. I mean, I AM retired, on a fixed income and all.

It has been a learning curve to realize I don’t have to plan everything for the weekend. It has been a learning curve to stop rushing, to slow down. But I’m there. I’ve planned my first backpack of the season.

I’m able to ride bikes with Carol and all of her retired friends. The great-grandmothers. Yes, Carol and other Lisa are both great-grandmothers and they are also the two strongest riders in the group. There are men in the group too. This is not a pavement-pounding kind of group. They enjoy sharing the adventure, sharing the outdoors, and sharing the camaraderie. You never know who might show up for the ride. There is a core group of about 10 people whose average age is probably 70. It is my dream now to be as strong as they are. To be able to keep up. For now, I’m at the back of the pack. Maybe one day, when I’m a great-grandmother, I’ll be able to lead.

I have two part-time retirement jobs to supplement my income and pay for massages with Kaylee. I’m the Adult Education director at Darby Public School, and I’m the Adult Programming Director at the Darby Public Library. The library groups that I attend include drawing, knitting, writing, and book club. My couch in the living room is more of a large seat of activities. Sketch book, ink pens, pencils, yarn, books and a tea mug. I love retirement.

I am also able to read a lot. OK, not as much as you think, because of my new hobby of drawing, mostly pencil drawings, some ink too. I was just in an art show for beginning artists.

My mom gave me a bunch of inserts from her 100 Lipton Tea Bags box which neatly divide the tea bags into organized sections and also make great bookmarks. One side is slick paper and is perfect for my ink pens. I made bookmarks to give away at the art show.

I drew my dog Molly too.

But yes, I am still reading. I lead the library book club. Last month, we read a book I had not only already read, but I had also already recommended it on Wild About Books. For the first time ever, I’m recommending a repeat.

I highly recommend reading or re-reading “City of Thieves” by David Benioff. It may be the first book in which everyone in the book club gave the book two thumbs up.

More great book recommendations and retirement adventures can be found at Wild About Books. You can also find the compiled adventures in my new self-published book “Montana Wild Woman,” available on Amazon.