Meeting my Financial Advisor

E: "Why do you look so cranky and worried?"
Me: "I have no idea what I'm doing with invoicing/taxes, etc. and it's freaking me out."
E: "I know a good financial planner you can talk to"
Me: "I don't have any money - he won't want to talk to me."
E:"Yes, he will - that's what he does"

I always thought financial planners were for people who had millions of dollars to put 'somewhere' but just weren't sure where. This guy was a strategist - tell him where you are, what you're doing, where you want to be and he'll help you come up with a plan to get there.

Me: "I'm broke and working all the time and not getting my book done. I'd like to be not broke, not working all the time, finished with my first book and working on the second."

I have 3 initial things to do:
a) schedule my time and stick to the schedule. no more agreeing to last-minute rush jobs that require me to write all day. ridiculous.
b) clean my office. It's causing me undue stress.
c) network.

Parts a and b yes, I probably could have figured out for myself. It was part c that I was thinking of in the wrong way. I still need to mull over this networking stuff, but it's starting to make more sense.

So here I am, cleaning my office. Or blogging...

Technical Difficulties

The BIGGEST Word doc that I've been working on is now un-openable. I don't know why. I have several copies, backup versions, versions sent as e-mail attachments,etc. etc. The only one I can still open is so old it will require re-doing A LOT of work. damn damn damn. I guess that's how the writing projects crumble. It's part of a freelance job, not my book. grrr.

I should have posted earlier because I WAS doing much better - head clear, getting stuff done. grrr.

mood: cranky
listening to: myself complain

Brain Fog

Current location: Ile-Perrot. Status: permanent : )

I am sooo f-ing tired...

Cause?
1. driving from Plainfield to Ile-Perrot and having a flat tire and flat spare en route
2. working full days as soon as I got here
3. going away for the weekend- fun, but nothing on the 'to-do' list got done - see 5.
4. adjusting to new surroundings
5. not being unpacked
6. going to a bye-bye barbecue for another friend who left as soon as I arrived
7. more work to do, deadline quickly approaching
8. zero book progress
9. 99% humidity
10. less than fantastic nutrition the last week
11. leaving my sister and her family
12. seeing my ex-college roommates, having a great time, and having to accept that we might not see each other again unless we magically manage to keep in touch
13. pms

Poor E. I might barricade myself in my office with a book until my black cloud passes.

Reprieve

I got a 2-week deadline extension on my current project - yay! I'm still work-work-working on it, but now it' s more of a midterm in a big class kind of stress instead of an omigod I have to study for all the finals for all the classes I didn't got to all year kind of panic.

I love this: go here, then scroll way down to the bottom right to see the stick figure at a computer.

My world

I feel like I am always on the move, but I apparently just keep going to the same places over and over. The map of countries I've visited is pretty limited:


create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Thanks to Stephen for the link. (tried to link to his Mac account - got an erorr page - no more Stephen on the net?)

I think it's kind of funny that I've been to opposite ends of the earth.
No in-between for me.

Next on my list:
Cuba - this year? All talk so far, waiting for action.
Europe - hopefully Italy for a nice cycling trip
Africa - the leisurely tourist stroll up Kilimanjaro - hopefully by the time I'm 50

All these fancy trips require moola so for now my world is the size of my desk where I am busy writing.

She Works Hard for Her Money

The sun is shining, the kids are outside splashing in the wading pool and I'm at my desk working. Yes, the glamorous life of freelancers isn't all hakuna matada.

I have a ton, yes TON of work to finish by the 15th, not to mention that I need time to shop for an outfit that makes me look glamorous for my reunion with my college rommates on the 16th.

So I am either working, working out or webcam skyping the infamous e because I miss him so much. If you have any long-distance friends and family you must MUST go to skype.com, download it and use it to talk, and then hook up a web cam so you can see each other. It's the best. E told me to get a web cam months ago. Talking and seeing each other makes a HUGE difference. Why don't I listen?

Back to the grind.. my boss is a task master, and she wants me to get back to the firggin' book!