I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend last weekend. We spent almost the whole weekend socializing with friends. It's fun to spend time with everyone, but at some point you feel like you've been eating and drinking for too long. It also didn't help that one of our friends made a key lime cheesecake as a dessert for their bbq. A key lime cheesecake. It was sooooooo good. It took a fair amount of restraint to keep from having a second piece. Like I needed cheesecake in the middle of this weekend! It was good to get back to normal life (and normal eating habits) when Tuesday rolled around.
After a three week hiatus, I'm back to working on my legal editing work. It's always nice to have some time off, but after a while the bank account starts to dwindle and the panic starts to set in. The impression I got from my supervisor is that this is the last project for me - really and truly the last. I've had a stay of execution for the last 12 months as he's always been able to find more work for me to do. He warned me this last time that there isn't anything else available after this current assignment. I spent some time the other day updating my resume and searching online for jobs. I even applied for one - another job submission off into the mysterious hiring world hidden by the internet. I got the confirmation e-mail that they received my submission, but I won't be holding my breath to hear from them.
My contractor status been the best possible work situation for me out here in Hawaii. If I was working a full-time office job I wouldn't be able to do nearly the amount of traveling and spending time with Zac as I do. I've heard from other Navy wives that sometimes it's better to cut back on work when they're home (shore duty) and ramp up to full-time when they're gone (sea duty). Especially as the ships have leaner and leaner manning, the guys are working longer and longer days, even when they're in port. And then they leave for months on end - why not work then? (I suppose having kids changes that equation - once the guys are underway, why pay for childcare so you can go to work to pay for said childcare? I'll debate that issue when it comes up.)
Anyhow, I'm happy to be back working, even if it is only for a few more weeks. It's money in the bank and good for my sense of self worth. Once the project is all done I suppose I could work on that children's book that everyone keeps harping on me about - it's a lot harder than you think people! Blogging does not make me good at creative writing. I've got friends that went to school for writing - and they have spent years working on their craft. I have not. I've got writer's block and I haven't even started. (And beside not knowing what to write I have other issues like, how the heck can you write a picture book when you have no pictures? 15-30 words on a plain white page doesn't make for engaged readers.) It's all rather formidable and daunting and it's like standing at the base looking up at Mount Everest.
[exhale]
Wow. Got a little sidetracked there.
Going back to the flexibility that being less-than-full-employed offers, Zac and I are in the process of trying to figure out a trip back to the mainland this fall. We'll probably spend a good chunk of time in Nebraska together, then he'll head back to Hawaii, with me continuing on to Minnesota for a while. Zac is due a long trip home to the farm - he hasn't been back since we came out here. I'd like to get him up to MN, but that just isn't going to be in the cards for 2010. I'm planning on being out in MN after Megan has her second child (in July) and my cousin has her first (in August), so I'm shooting for something in September. I should start looking for Minnesota Twins tickets and Gopher football tickets now. The thought of catching a baseball game and a football game in our new stadiums sounds delightful. Living in Hawaii is kind of like living in a live-sporting-event-abyss. Yes, I can go to Warrior football games but going to a UH football game at Aloha Stadium is like going to a Gopher game at the Metrodome. (You MN people know what I mean.)
I'll have more concrete dates as September approaches. Just keep me in mind, and hopefully I'll be able to be see everyone this time around. I missed seeing my friends last time. Hopefully I'll be able to spend some time reconnecting this time around.
1 comment:
I've got writer's block
Bah! There's no such thing. Just write. Don't worry about form or content or how to get pictures or any of that. Step one: just write.
Then we can worry about the next steps. And if you're serious about a children's book, don't worry about illustrations. There are A TON of artists out there you could pair with, artists that are the same side of the equation as you are as a writer. When it gets to be that time, they can be found, online and via networking.
But don't worry about that now. Just write. And write some more.
should start looking for Minnesota Twins tickets and Gopher football tickets now.
Get 'em soon cuz they're going fast!
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