Monday, October 12, 2009

Where I've Been...

Recently an anonymous commenter asked, "Where are you?????????????? Please don't tell us you have swine flu!!!!!!

Ha! No, I do not, I've just been insanely busy. I believe October will be my busiest month of the year. In addition to working for Part Time Job #1 at the beginning of the month, I will be working for Part Time Job #2 for a full week at the end of this month. If that is not enough, I am also doing some new freelance work. (All this is on top of my 9:00-6:00 40 hr. per week day job, of course.) The freelance work is particularly exciting for me since it is something new - I've worked in the field before, but not in this capacity. Basically, it requires a worker and a designer. I've been the worker many, many times, but this is my first opportunity as a designer. Because I know this month is busy, I have been diligently working on it every night. I have a master list of things that must be done, and each night I have a goal to cross at least one (if not more) items off the list.)

That system, so far, has been really working well. Sometimes on creative projects it is tempting to spend 90% of the time dreaming and thinking about what you want to do and 10% in a sheer panic rushing to get everything done. In fact, that pretty much describes every artistic project I did in high school! As an adult, I know that doesn't work for me - and I am way too old to pull all-nighters. Plus, knowing my schedule, I am trying to be a little ahead of the game. I know there will still be last minute things, but if I have all the big stuff done by then, the small stuff shouldn't be too bad. ....right??

Of course, working 3 - 4 jobs isn't really all that strange for me, so you know there are other things going on...

I've had several meetings for the nonprofit I am involved in, so that has taken up evening nights, plus I have recently gotten involved as an alternate for another non-profit. As an alternate I won't be helping them out all the time - just when they really need someone, and I can do it. My first night was last Friday and I had a ball. It was great fun! That is the only I night I have planned this month for them, (so far,) but still, that's one more night taken up. Then, this weekend I needed to head up to the cabin to get it set for winter. Truthfully, I needed to get up there anyway, I needed the downtime, but as we are starting to get hard frosts here, I had to make sure the pipes will be okay, so that made it a necessity.

On top of all this, my day job has been really busy. In this economy, this is a very good thing, but it has cut down on my blogging. Usually I blog at home, but if I am running behind, I'll blog on my lunch hours. Lately I have been skipping lunches or using them to work on the freelance gig!

And finally, my sister is moving. A couple of weekends ago my mother and I went over to her house to help her pack. I only planned on spending a couple of hours there - but there is something incredibly satisfying and fun about working with family on a big project, so I happily ended up spending the greater part of the afternoon there. I was glad I did, it felt good to do! She doesn't ask for help often, so I am glad to do it when I get the chance. She and her husband have a new house and a buyer for their house, but there is going to be a gap in between places to live. Since they need to give over their old house before the new place is ready for them to move into, they are packing up their things into pods and moving in with her sister-in-law for some where from 2 to 6 weeks. I have volunteered additional storage space. One thing I have plenty of is space! I am offering her room in the garage for yard stuff, and my spare bedroom and basement for boxes and furniture. There is just one thing... those places needed to be cleared out. They weren't bad, but since I did have the room they had all acquired a miscellany of junk. Along with my freelance work, another goal has been to work in one of the three rooms a little each night and get them cleared out. And like the freelance work, it isn't that big of a task if you do a little each night. The nice thing is that I have been wanting to clean out the garage and the spare bedroom for awhile - and this is actually getting me to do it. It like having a big party gets you to clean! I spent a little time on the spare bedroom last night and it is really starting to look fabulous. Once my sister is done with the space, I will be able to actually use it, rather than it being a "catch-all" as it has been!

So, yeah... very little writing time these last two weeks. I have lots, and lots of articles I want to write though, so as soon as I get a few quiet moments at the computer, I'll start filling up the page again!



Photo by: jordanw1985
via flickr

6 comments:

Doriana Gray said...

Sounds like you are very busy and also very productive- and you are helping your sister move! Have a happy October!

Dawn said...

RML - Very busy, but good too. Actually other than that I have no time to write, I haven't felt that stressed about it... yet.

laura said...

Ok, ok you're excused for your absence...lol

Try not to over do it x

Miss M said...

Glad to know you are just busy, whenever a regular blogger loses touch I worry about them. There really isn't a great way to find out if everything is OK. Hang in there, the fall is always really busy!

Lucy said...

Glad you have been busy and not sick!

I also love helping my family and find it so rewarding. Hard work with people you love doesn't even seem like hard work sometimes.

Dawn said...

Laura - I will try not to, but no promises! Now that I am on this freight train, I can't exactly get off!

Miss M - I know what you mean, I feel that way too, so I feel bad about disappearing for awhile. I actually had no idea it was that long - time just flew by!

Frugalchick - exactly! For me sometimes my family time feels a bit forced. We get together for birthdays and things, but then we look at each other struggling for conversation. The day working together had none of that - conversation flowed naturally, or we didn't have to talk at all. It really was a nice afternoon.