When I’m Not Home…

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The other day, I mentioned that I had agreed to an on-site proofing gig, on one condition: I would only go in for three half days a week, rather than three full days.

It’s amazing how big a difference a half day makes. I already feel a lot less overwhelmed, and have begun settling into a rhythm of nighttime blogging, a.m. article work, and afternoons at the office.

And, of course, there are benefits to this gig. Namely:

  1. money
  2. it forces me to leave the condo

Then again, there are things that I miss:

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A Gig That’s Worth Your Time

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[$6.99, Amazon]

Last week, I found myself saying yes to a job I desperately did not want to do.

It was an on-site gig with full-time hours. The work was outside of my comfort zone. And the pay was not great. Even worse, despite being among people for the first time in awhile, I felt completely cut off from the contacts and the work that mattered to me.

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Link Love: August 7

Lordy, lord, it’s been quite the week.

Since last Friday’s angst over my stalled career and my parents’ offer of a loan, things have been  little…crazy.

On Sunday, I got my car caught in a flash flood, which required that I climb repeatedly in and out of my car window like a character from Dukes of Hazzard. At the moment, I am still without a car, and unsure whether or not my car is a lost cause.

And on Tuesday, I inexplicably accepted an on-site proofreading gig that proved to be too much of a time commitment considering the rest of my work load, leading to a less than lovely Wednesday and Thursday.

So now here we are, at another Friday. God, that came quick, yet still felt unbearably long. This week’s link love:

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My Support System

my-parents

I did not make life easy for my parents.

During my toddler years, they worried over my introversion. During my junior high/high school years, they worried over my fiery temper. During my college years, they worried throughout the course of an abusive relationship I couldn’t bring myself to leave, and then worried some more when I fell into a deep depression and dropped out of college. (I eventually went back to [a different] school and earned my degree.) Post-college, they passed me onto a possibly masochistic husband with a sigh of relief, but still couldn’t help but worry over all my ups, downs, and interminable plateaus.

Throughout the duration, they’ve (for some wild reason) continued to support me in everything I do.

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Link Love: July 31

Hey there guys. I have a slew of new posts coming atcha next week but, for now, here’s this week’s link love:

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Product Placement: The Lapsac

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The other week, my husband bought me a laptop, which was just about the most exciting thing ever in the world. (He’s so good with gifts; last year, he got me a GPS for my car and, the year before that, my Nikon D40X.)

It meant that I could be mobile…if only I had something to carry it in.

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Link Love: July 24

Can I get away with just saying TGIF?

Seriously, guys, it’s been a week, and my Optimum Triple Play failure was not the half of it. I’m gonna go watch some DVRd So You Think You Can Dance while you read through the links below:

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What To Do When You’re Disconnected

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Yesterday, at around 4 p.m., the Internet went down. When connectivity hadn’t returned an hour later, I picked up the phone to call my parents and see if I could work over there, and discovered that the phone lines were down as well. When I returned home about an hour later, my husband pointed out that the cable TV was down, too.

Triple poop.

Our lines were down for over 20 hours in all.

What I did when I was disconnected:

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Motivational Trick: Fear (of Letting Others Down)

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The other month, I joined Freelance Success, at the urging of just about every freelance writer I know. An amazing resource for professional, nonfiction writers, the forums alone made me glad I’d finally sucked it up and paid the subscription fee.

Then Susan of The Urban Muse suggested I hop in on FLX’s Summer Query Challenge, wherein FLXers form teams and earn points for every query they send out (1 point) and every assignment they receive (3 points).

Since joining the challenge, my output has increased exponentially, merely because I so desperately want to pull my weight.

You guys: Fear is an excellent motivator.

So who can you be held accountable to?

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Product Placement: The Tripod

I’ve raved about my Nikon D40X in the past. About how — even for non-photographers — having a good camera can be invaluable when it comes to blogging, marketing materials, and more.

Now that I’ve unearthed my husband’s dust-covered tripod and used it to shoot some photos for an upcoming blog post over at Nerve, I’d like to rave about that as well.

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