Today's big goal was to START organizing our office. Hey, if I'm going to work here again, I require significantly less clutter and chaos. And possibly some yellow accents. But that's a project for after all this filing is finished.
I had some music to keep me company, and a few old favourites came on - some mid-90s awesomeness from my girls Lisa Loeb, Natalie Merchant, and OF COURSE The Cranberries (old stuff because everyone knows the last couple of albums were seriously subpar) - and then this piece of FABULOUS that is still one of my all-time favourite songs.
It made me smile. I like that it fit me then, and it still kind of fits me now. That tells me that there's some fundamental truth in it that matches up with my essential Lindsayness. And that's why music sometimes gives me goosebumps.
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My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall It reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad
I drank too much last night, got bills to pay, my head just feels in pain I missed the bus and there'll be hell today, I'm late for work again And even if I'm there, they'll all imply that I might not last the day And then you call me and it's not so bad, it's not so bad and
I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life
Push the door, I'm home at last and I'm soaking through and through Then you hand me a towel and all I see is you And even if my house falls down, I wouldn't have a clue Because you're near me and
I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life
I made Pumpkin Spice Muffins today. Without gluten, dairy, or refined sugar. And they're actually pretty good. You may bow down and worship me now.
Our beloved babysitter Katie has her arm in a cast, and I *may* have momentarily panicked when I got her text. Which is hilarious, because her original text was immediately followed by a second text that said LINDSAY, DO NOT PANIC. Am I so transparent + predictable? :)
My parents are chock full of awesome. They went grocery shopping last week and stocked up on things like vegan butter and honey and organic brown rice so that I can come and visit - and eat while I'm there. I can't even find words to describe how much it means to have them supporting this freaky eating thing I'm doing right now.
I had to un-follow a bunch of girls on Twitter this week - fellow chronic illness babes who were just WAY TOO NEGATIVE. All the time. Yikes. I totally understand how hard it can be, but I still believe that life is more good than not and I just don't want to dwell on the 'not.'
Remember the creativity course I took this past fall and was all fired up about? Well, real life reared its ugly head and I didn't end up finishing due to flare ups and client deadlines and just general ickiness. The artist who runs the course knew this and offered me a spot in the class re-run this winter - for free. Is that not the coolest thing EVER? I sobbed when I got her email. Just finished my first assignment (again) and I'm SO EXCITED for a second chance.
Two separate people have attempted to headhunt me for high level marketing jobs this month. Of course, they're full time and I needed to say no. But talk about a boost in self-confidence :)
Briony called me Lindsay today for the first time ever. She's been occasionally calling Geoff 'Geoff' for a loooong time, but it took her this long to attempt 'Lindsay'-ing me. And so it begins.
It's probably not a huge surprise that I'm less than loving this whole reduced-income thing in the aftermath of that whole pre-holiday job loss thing. The part that's bothering me the most? As the person who provides 'bonus' income into our family's finances, I was The Savings Person. And you know what's been decimated? The account that holds some funds for vacations + trips out to the west coast. It did its job and got us to NYC and back, with virtually the entire trip pre-paid. But it's in a sorry state right now, and IT'S HAUNTING ME.
I read a fabulous little tip on TodaysParent.com this week and implemented it immediately. It's super simple... Every time you login to your online banking, take a look at your primary account balance and then transfer the amount that would round that down to the nearest 5 or 10 into a savings account. So if your account had $11.75 in it, you'd move $1.75 into savings and have a new balance of $10. You'll never move more than $5 at a time - not enough to even notice that it's gone (unless you're the unfortunate soul in my example there... he should probably hang onto that pocket change for food).
It's not much, but it has the potential to seriously accumulate. It's not getting us back to NYC anytime soon... But it's helping me feel like I'm doing SOMETHING.
I'm blaming Katie a little bit for this one, but this song has been stuck in my head nonstop since Friday morning - kind of a theme song as I pick up some pieces and make a new plan to move forward.
It's actually not a bad theme song... This might end up being more than temporary. It maybe should have been 'mine' a long time ago.
Something has changed within me Something is not the same I'm through with playing by the rules Of someone else's game Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep It's time to trust my instincts Close my eyes... and leap
It's time to try Defying gravity I think I'll try Defying gravity Kiss me goodbye I am defying gravity And you won't bring me down
I'm through accepting limits Cause someone says they're so Some things I cannot change But till I try, I'll never know Too long I've been afraid of Losing love I guess I've lost Well, if that's love It comes at much too high a cost
I'd sooner buy Defying gravity Kiss me goodbye I'm defying gravity I think I'll try Defying gravity And you won't bring me down
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I'm linking to the Glee version instead of the *authentic* Wicked version, just because it's awesome :)
No 'Friday Smile' this week... I kind of lost my job today. Over the phone. On the last Friday before Christmas.
FA LA LA LA LA.
I still have a few clients, but this was my major income source - a guaranteed 20 hours of work every week.
I wanted to get upset. I wanted to crawl back into bed and stay there. I wanted to cry and have terribly hurt feelings (even though it was totally a budget thing and nothing personal at all). But that's not Lindsay style. So I hung up the phone and jumped into the shower. I made myself presentable and went to go meet a potential new client for lunch. They signed our contract on the spot and I'll begin work right after Christmas. I'm really excited about it - I think they're a really fabulous fit and we're going to work really well together. Then I got an email from a friend with another really good lead on some freelance writing work starting in January.
These contracts won't totally replace the one I lost this morning. But even the most hardened pessimist would call that a very promising first six hours of quasi-unemployment. It's as if God knew that I was likely to panic about this, and just wanted to reach down and let me know that it's all going to be okay. Maybe MORE than okay, because I really wasn't happy with the contract anyway - I was taking one for the team to provide my family with some stability.
Maybe it's time to really take this 'running my own business' thing for a spin and see where it can go... Briony's older now and I feel like I'm in a really good place. WE'RE in a really good place.
I'm feeling a little bit excited. Also, a little bit like I just got punched in the gut (hey, this is SCARY). But I'm choosing to dwell more on the 'excited' part :)
"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." (Marilyn Monroe)
Getting to work mostly from home = THE BEST THING EVER
Always feeling like the new kid (who doesn't get any of the inside jokes or have any idea what's going on) every single time I work from the office = THE SUCK
Stopped at our friendly neighbourhood Starbucks today, and our 'regular' barista came around the counter to shake my hand and introduce himself. 'I want to know your name. Right now, to me, you're Double Tall Nonfat Vanilla Latte Girl - and you're married to Scooter Guy.' It made me smile. And the smile turned into a full-fledged grin when he gave me my Double Tall Nonfat Vanilla Latte for free. My usual. I have always wanted to have a usual somewhere. Given how I'm *so* much a creature of habit, I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone caught on :)
Took Geoff for his follow-up appointment with the surgeon today. He got his staples out and the surgeon is super happy with how it's all looking. Geoff got permission to increase the angle of his leg brace. It will be sloooow and steady process, but today was a step forward.
While I was sitting in the waiting room during Geoff's appointment, someone came out of the clinic area holding his leg brace (he's gone in a few minutes earlier wearing it). He had the biggest smile on his face. He walked right past me, then turned around and came back to tell me that we'd make it - that my husband would be the one walking out of there holding his brace before we know it. Kind of random, but it totally made my day.
Woke up more tired and in pain than usual today. It feels like I've been trudging through quicksand as I've been working through my to-do list. I HATE THAT.
Tomorrow is our last day with Libby here. I drop her off at the airport EARLY on Wednesday morning. It's going to be sad to say goodbye... We've had a great time with her, and she's been such an incredible support for us over the last two weeks.
As I'm sitting here, I can smell beef barley vegetable soup in simmering in the slow cooker and an apple pie baking in the oven. I AM A DOMESTIC GODDESS. Even if the soup is pretty much just last night's leftovers repurposed and the pie was totally just pulled from my freezer ;)
And speaking sarcastically of my Domestic Goddess title, I hit up M+M and Safeway with Geoff today to pick up some prefab meal components to help get us through the next couple of weeks. And another salad kit (turns out they're actually kind of good... and Safeway sells organic ones!). I'm done apologizing. It's not like I'm running through the McDonald's drive-through every night to feed my family. Some chicken breasts that have been pre-stuffed by some factory machine rather than yours truly will probably not kill us.
All my clients collectively decided to wallop my inbox today. It's going to be a crazy week. OF COURSE.
An eNewsletter that I've been working on launching for MONTHS finally went out on Friday and it felt GOOD. Just about ready to wrap up the content for Issue 2 and it's going *so* much more smoothly so far. That makes me happy. New projects are fun, but so is finding your groove.
Briony's been tippy-toeing around the house in her ladybug tutu off and on all day today, waving her wand and twirling around. And wearing my cat ears. I love her.
I was Bitchy Paranoid Mom today and cancelled Girls Night because my friend's daughter (who was going to tag along) was sick yesterday. Crazy? Maybe. Responsible? I like to think so. I was super sad to have to reschedule but I cannot imagine dealing with ANY of us being sick right now on top of everything else I'm attempting to balance this week. Seriously. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!
We totally bought some discount Halloween candy today. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I have a bowl of candy on my dining room table. And a few leftover cupcakes from yesterday. And the aforementioned PIE. I have a sneaking suspicion that this won't be my best-ever eating week.
Brainstorming ideas of things that Libby could take back as a little treat for her family that would be distinctly Winnipeg-ish. Any ideas?
Seriously. You think you're soooo clever, don't you?
A few weeks ago - back before our childcare fell through and my flare up really gained some momentum - I signed on to do a BIG project for one of my smaller regular clients. It was supposed to start last week, and I've been checking my email (and even sending a few tentative 'hey, what's the status on this?' emails myself), dreading the day when they'd be ready to go because I was not quite sure how I was going to manage it. But I was seriously not willing to back out of something I'd committed to work on. But I was scared.
Tonight, the client emailed and apologized about a hundred times in three paragraphs as they let me know they'd decided to take care of it in-house after all.
The bad news is that I'd been kind of excited about the money. Just being honest. We're not hurting, but it would have been AWESOME.
The good news is, um, EVERYTHING ELSE.
This means that I should be able to keep my working hours down to 20-25 hours a week between now and our vacation, instead of the (seriously) 45-50 hours a week I'd been thinking I would be dealing with. Without childcare in place. With two chronic illnesses in full flare mode. OH MY GOD. I am going to start crying again in a second here.
A super apologetic email - including an offer to pay full rate on my hours spent prepping the project quote and going in for a preliminary meeting - was absolutely the best possible scenario here. Guess that was my one good thing today, huh? :)
Okay, I'm just going to come right out with it: I'm scared to death of potty training.
Potty training BRIONY, you doofuses ;)
I don't think there's another milestone (that I'm aware of) that intimidates me more than this one. Seriously. I would take eye teeth, first period, learning to walk, and first broken heart ALL ON THE SAME DAY over potty training. And it's funny, because for someone who's never potty trained a kid before, I know an awful lot about potty training. Last year, I began working with a client who I do a significant amount of copywriting work for - and I write a handful of articles for them every month giving advice to moms who are potty training their toddler. I've done so much research to be able to do my job... I have access to some leading potty training experts who've shared their wisdom with me. And still, I feel like I don't know what to do.
If that's not irony, I don't know what is.
Adding to my stress about the whole thing is the fact that potty training is likely to be very physically demanding for me, like is for every mommy - and I'm really hoping to be able to be in a better place health-wise before we attempt it.
Fortunately, some of the terror is balanced out by the fact that we've been hearing some awesome success stories lately - and our pediatrician has given us every hope and reason to believe that Briony will rock it too, if we can be patient and wait until she's super-ready.
Anyway. We're not quite there yet. She's definitely interested, but I'm like a redneck mom who pushes over her kid who's learning to walk just so that she doesn't have to get up and chase her - I am REALLY hoping that we can push this off until after Christmas at the earliest, when life should be become much quieter and more predictable again. Then I'm fully prepared to just suck it up and figure it out - calmly, confidently, and all that stuff.
This question's for all my readers who've been there done that already: What is the one thing you wish you'd known about potty training, that you think every mommy of every diaper-wearing toddler in the world should know?
Today was kind of extraordinary, in that super special ordinary way. You know what I'm talking about. It was one of those days where it felt like the whole universe was conspiring to just kind of lighten my load a little bit.
Geoff forfeited sleep after a night shift to let me sleep an extra two hours this morning.
My clients were surprisingly non-needy today.
I got THREE amazing leads for casual childcare this year, all in the last 24 hours.
I found the boots I'd been coveting last winter on sale for 60% off - IN MY SIZE.
The upcoming scary day in Geoff's schedule that I'd been panicking the most over in terms of not having any help with Briony (and me needing to work) got covered today.
Briony went to sleep easily tonight. THANK YOU, GOD.
Josy was here and cleaned my house today. I still have a hundred things I feel like I need to take care of, but just knowing that my floors are all clean and my bathtub has been scrubbed is kind of incredible.
I found some new glasses frames that I like, and I'm ordering them tomorrow. WOOHOO!
I got to sneak in an hour with friends who I love - not nearly long enough, but enough. I don't think they have any idea how much it helped me for them to just spend some time loving my daughter (and helping me load up my car after).
A client who's behind on payments finally touched base with me today and is taking care of things.
I had a TWO Pumpkin Spice Latte day today.
Oh, and Katie's back in Manitoba again! YAY!
It was a remarkable day, but I didn't know that it was going to be while I was living it. In fact, today also contained some terribly low points - including my attempt to give Briony a bath by myself for the first time in months. Let's just say that there are compelling physical reasons why I don't usually handle bath duty. And I'm not likely to try again for a very long time. I ended up crying on the bathroom floor.
As I write this, I'm fighting pain along with waves of nausea and a little bit of a fever. Healthwise, today was incredibly difficult. Making it until my appointment in October is going to be really, really hard. But it's these little moments and random pockets of joy that make me believe that we can do it.
Hands up if you now have 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' stuck in your head.
Oh, really? Just me?
Okay.
What a difference a couple of hours makes. Briony had a nap this morning (WHY OH WHY do I feel so superior for having outsmarted a NINETEEN MONTH OLD?) and woke up happy as a clam. Then Katie came - and she came bearing flowers, having read my depressing Facebook status updates. Briony waved happily as I left and I was totally thinking happy thoughts again (in place of the thoughts I had previously been having about animal mothers eating their young).
A quick stop at the bank was followed by a visit to Indigo on Kenaston, where I planned to set up shop in Starbucks for a couple of hours. Here my day was very nearly derailed.
Fun Fact: Apparently, I picked the one Starbucks location in Winnipeg without wifi.
Surprised? ME TOO. So I did a quick shop in Chapters and then headed to the next Starbucks over. Deep breath. No big deal. Shake it off. I felt like a little bit of a loser walking in with a coffee and scone already in hand, but I managed to find a big comfy chair, an electrical outlet, and the wifi I was seeking.
One client project and one volunteer project down, and one client project to go - then MAYBE JUST MAYBE I'll have time to stop and look for a summer jacket before heading home again. I know, I shouldn't push my luck :)
I've been working a lot lately on spending my time consciously - on working more efficiently so that I have more time and energy left for MY LIFE. It's so freeing to start to ask questions like 'how does this fit with my goal of having a balanced life?' and 'will this make my family happier?' and 'why am I doing this in the first place?'
It's kind of amazing, actually. Yes, I'm saying NO a little more often. But by saying NO to the things that don't have a place in the life I want to live, I'm able to say YES to some other things - things that make me happy. Of course, BALANCE isn't a destination - it's a journey. But every decision I make to live my life more consciously keeps me on that path.
I think we can all do a better job of pursuing balance. This week, I'm making a promise to myself to keep my work inside boxes of dedicated Work Time - and to walk away from my laptop and live my life in between.
The entire population of chatty weirdos in Abbotsford is at Starbucks this morning. The same Starbucks where I am seriously trying to get some work done, away from my adorable but noisy eighteen month old and my husband who is annoyingly on vacation right now.
Here's the list so far (and I should note that I've been here less than an hour):
An older woman with a bowl cut and a rainbow scarf who sat down in the open chair beside me and talked to me AT LENGTH about how close our chairs were together ('It's so funny how they would put these chairs together. Our feet are almost touching! And we don't even know each other! They're really very close together...'). I finally moved mine.
An older man with a mullet and gold chain who immediately informed me that I was endangering myself by working on my laptop without a pad in between the computer and my legs. I smiled my thanks, and the advice just kept coming... Don't swim in public pools. Don't take a bath (but if you need to, stand up and shower right after). Only buy Rolex watches. And that was seriously just the tip of the iceberg.
Another older man with a mullet (REALLY?!) who had to tell me all about his own business success, his wife's success (she's a paralegal who types 165 words per minute... much faster than he had observed me typing, though I'm a pretty faster typist in his opinion), and his kids - including a son around my age who is currently trying to sell a screenplay he wrote about a man with a blood disorder who lives among vampires. Kill me now.
A kid in his early twenties who wanted to know if he could use my MacBook to do something with his broken iPhone. I said no, and he proceeded to tell me a five minute long story about how he just got it yesterday and let his daughter play with it and she pressed something she shouldn't have. I suggested bringing it to wherever he bought it from to see if they could help, and he said something about 'getting it off some guy'... Of course. Buddy, this is SO NOT MY PROBLEM.
Now the seat nearest me has been filled with an older gentleman wearing slippers (WHY GOD WHY) and a black, white, and emerald green knit sweater. He's eating a scone in such a way that his lips and chin are literally blanketed in crumbs... But he's sitting quietly and reading a newspaper and so I'll take him.
Back to work...
UPDATE 11:17 - Buddy with the iPhone came back to ask me AGAIN if he could use my computer to restore his iPhone. Said no again. Now slightly concerned that he'll come back and kill me. On the upside, Crumb Man is now doing a crossword! A glorious crossword that requires SILENCE and CONCENTRATION!
It's cool to be your own boss and all, but what people don't always say about self-employment is that while you get to be your own boss, you also get to be your own assistant. This morning, I'm putting together a very basic project timeline and formatting it... It's not exactly rocket science, but super annoying to actually have to sit down and do.
This must be how Paris Hilton feels when she has to drive her own car or fix her own roots.
I've pretty much given up hope of ever catching up here, so here's a collection of randoms from the last week or so for your reading enjoyment (or more accurately, for my own documentation of our life).
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Geoff's parents have a baby bunny in their backyard. Like a TINY baby bunny. Like a tiny baby bunny that would totally fit in the palm of your hand. Briony has been on Baby Bunny Watch all week, and we spot it a couple of times a day. ('Baby bunny! Baby bunny! Where did it go?')
Our child is *slightly* obsessed with Miga - the black and white Olympic mascot from Vancouver. We resisted buying one for her, but got a tip from friends out here that there is an Olympic clearance warehouse open on weekends and basically impossible to find unless you know people who have been there. Even with very specific directions - and a street address - it was kind of crazy to find, but we were not disappointed. We scored a large Miga stuffed toy for Briony for $6. Awesomeness. Even better was the look on her face when we handed Miga to her. They've been almost inseparable ever since. Briony calls her 'Mugga' and is constantly hugging her and telling us how much she loves her. I think there's a Visa 'priceless' commercial in there somewhere (and not just because of the whole Olympic sponsorship thing). In any case, it's been $6 very well spent.
I'm a little concerned that I've gained weight on this trip, but I'm not checking until we get home. We've been active, but we've also been eating... UGH. Time to get responsible again when we get home. Better have LOTS of fun in the next two days! hehe
I got my first major assignment from this course back with a mark of 78% and a comment of 'fantastic work, Lindsay!' Um, what?! Clearly, we have different definitions and standards. And apparently, I won't be finishing this program with an A+ (or anything remotely close). Ah, well.
Briony has been encountering a series of weird and socially awkward older kids in playgrounds here lately. My guess is that they aren't capable of making friends their own age, and maybe babies and adults seem like easier target. They're inappropriately friendly and just ODD. Today, one of these girls was trying to hold Briony's hand as she navigated some very uneven ground covered in woodchips. I could see that she was throwing Briony off balance - by her proximity and by the fact that Briony was rather forcefully trying to avoid holding the weird girl's hand - and so I asked her not to. Then I told her not to. Then I kind of yelled at her not to. She did it anyway, and ended up falling on top of Briony on the woodchips. I demanded she apologize, and of course she just shrugged and wandered away - and her parents were too busy to notice or care. If my own child hadn't been so hysterical, I would have tracked down her parents just to yell at them for being so careless and raising such a careless child. SERIOUSLY. (Okay, I'm climbing off my soapbox now...)
I'm physically attached to my BlackBerry at all times - second only to Starbucks, and then to my MacBook. If you know me in real life, this is the farthest thing from news. It's partially because I'm admittedly a tad bit obsessive about work, but it's mostly sheer force of habit because when I'm really flared up I need to have a phone within reach at all times, just in case. But I experienced a first today: I accidentally brought my laptop into the bathroom with me instead of my BlackBerry. I'm still trying to figure out what this means. But I've discovered that there is no good place to put a laptop inside of a bathroom. I realized what I'd done just seconds after locking the door and I stood there for a minute like an idiot, trying to figure out what to do with it. (The answer, if you're curious, was to place it on the mat in front of the sink. Not sure what the *correct* answer is, but that's what I came up with at 10.30 at night.)
I started off today with a 07.30 am conference call. It was kind of my idea so that we had the rest of the day unscheduled, but it was NOT one of my better ideas. What a ridiculously depressing way to begin a week (even though I'm happy and excited about the project). Memo to Self: DON'T DO THAT AGAIN.
Lots of people have been asking about how I'm feeling, because I talked so much about being sick at the beginning of our trip. The truth is that I've improved, but I've never really found my balance here - which is freaking me out because if I can't balance here with all this support, I'm not sure how I'm going to do it at home. I'm crossing my fingers that it was just the weather and atmospheric changes here, but we'll see for sure over the next week or two. In the meantime, we've been SO BLESSED to be surrounded by friends and family who pitch in and help out with Briony without us ever needing to ask. Between Geoff's mom and Cait and Hannah and Vicky and everyone else who has given my daughter some extra love at one point of this trip or another, it's been very manageable. I've said it before, but it's as true now as ever: what a lucky little girl to be so very loved.
Two days left before Travel Day. How is it possible that three weeks can fly by so quickly? I blame it on having so many people here who we love. We're sad about leaving but excited to come home again, which means that it was all perfectly timed again.
Okay, so the truth is that there's very little to say about today. Our life here is very, very normal. We've been getting up early, I've been doing a ton of client work and homework for my course, we've been going for walks and picking up groceries... I'm currently finishing up a paper while watching So You Think You Can Dance and waiting for a load of laundry to come out of the dryer. That should pretty much sum it up, I think. I have a paper to finish tonight still, then a conference call at 07.30 tomorrow, then I will *hopefully* be able to enjoy a couple of days OFF. Woohoo!
Hoping for lots more stories and photos from this weekend. We're heading up to Whistler tomorrow with Rob + Vicky + Ava. I'm so excited for a couple of days of *real* vacation time - and of course, checking out this town that we saw all over everything this past winter during the Olympics.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit nervous about bears, though... EEK.
We're not having a baby. We're not moving. We're not switching toilet paper. I'm not cutting my hair (I have very little left to cut at the moment anyway).
I am, however, getting a real job (again). Kind of. SIGH. I'm going to explaining things a lot, I can tell already :)
You are looking at the newest member of the Blacksheep Strategy team. I am officially coming on board as their Communications Specialist. I signed the papers this past weekend.
I'm more excited than I thought I would be about having a real job again (probably because this new job is half time, entirely flexible, and working mostly from home). I'm not totally abandoning my freelance business - though I have had to say goodbye to a couple of clients who would have presented a conflict of interest. I'm also keeping a couple of them and will continue to accept projects for clients I like who are doing things I am passionate about. Or clients who are willing to write LARGE CHEQUES (hehe).
Freelance wasn't about needing to be my own boss or being a lone wolf. In fact, I didn't love either of those aspects of freelance. I feel like I've learned the most about what I do and how I can do it better through collaboration. But this past year of working 100% freelance was a means to a very important end: getting to work around Geoff's crazy work schedule and spend as much time as possible with the non-writing-related loves of my life. This job still accomplishes that end goal. It just does it with a twice-monthly direct deposited paycheque :)
I'm getting to continue to build my career with the kind of flexibility that moms drool and weep over. And I am NOT taking that for granted. It's a combination of absurd luckiness and hideous amounts of hard work. I've been laying the foundation for this over the past decade. It's just nice when the universe takes all that hard work and hands it back to you, gift wrapped, at some point well before you're lying in your grave.
So that's what's new. And we're all pretty excited about it here. And with that, I am going to return to my triple grande nonfat vanilla latte with cinnamon dolce sprinkles. And some invoicing. With a foggy view of the mountains outside the window here at Starbucks. I know, I know... IT'S ROUGH.
It's 20.18 on a Friday night and I am bribing myself - with ice cream - to work until 21.00. At that magic and entirely arbitrary hour, I plan to power down my laptop and then proceed to gorge myself on said ice cream (and maybe some popcorn too, because that's the kind of week it's been) and watch reruns of Law + Order... or whatever else is on television on a Friday night.
I suspect that most people my age are probably out doing something more fun than working, eating ice cream, and watching reruns of legal shows that are probably based on 'current events' that happened four years ago when the episode originally aired... And while I may be behind on my Law + Order, I am most certainly NOT behind on MSNBC / The Daily Show, so I have at least one foot still firmly planted in (sarcastic and US-centric) reality and will realize this as I stuff popcorn in my face and wonder why I took FRIDAY night off instead of a superior television night earlier in the week.
This is my life now. I suspect my blog was more interesting when my life was more interesting.
PS - NBC announced this week that Law + Order will not be renewed for its upcoming 21st season. BOO. Before you get your panties in a knot, the spinoffs are all safe. There's even a new spinoff approved for the fall. But I don't know what television (and NBC) will be without Sam Waterston. And this means that it only *ties* for the record of longest-running drama, which seems kind of tragic. Hmph.
Sharing the journey that has taken me from being a single girl in the advertising agency world to a married mommy running my own freelance writing and consulting business (and every random adventure in between).
THINGS I LOVE: Thunderstorms, power ballads, princess camping, exploring new cities, Jon Stewart, greatest hits CDs, clever ads, packing for a trip, George Clooney, impractical footwear, movies about spies, Starbucks, reading an entire book in one sitting, a house full of friends, movies about spies, buying presents, a perfect French manicure, warm modernist architecture, getting flowers for no reason, being faux brunette, Mary Poppins, making lists on Post-It notes, decorating for Christmas, having a brilliant middle-of-the-night 'aha!' idea and then actually remembering it in the morning / THINGS I HATE: People who whine, wearing sweats in public, 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner, birds, American tourists in foreign countries, taking down the Christmas tree, poems that rhyme, the misuse of semicolons, being lied to, unpacking after a trip, being closed-minded, naming your kid something common but then spelling it stupidly, cowboys, overly cautious drivers, fake curse words, ridiculously long surnames, strangers who start awkward conversations with you in places you can't readily escape
