Day: June 26, 2015

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Carpe Occasionem

There is major good stuff happening in my life right now in regards to work. One of you lovely readers gave me an incredible gift that I wouldn’t have even dared to wish for — a dream job. It’s all rather surreal and I am infinitely grateful! I have no idea how long this opportunity will last, so I don’t want to say too much right now, only that it involves proofreading.

It’s no secret that I have been growing more than a tad disillusioned with the transcription field. I’ve determined that it’s nearly impossible to make a decent living in that field without working inordinately long hours to make up for low pay. Other fields that require the same strong language skills pay a lot more, but transcription clients just don’t seem to get that and only pay very low wages. I work too hard and have too much education to settle for being this poor (in a purely financial sense).

One of the things that transcription gave me was an immense freedom of schedule, which is why I stuck with it for so long. When this latest opportunity came up, I had to decide if I was ready to be a little less temporally free to gain some financial freedom. The answer was yes. I’m at a part of my life where I’m okay with working weekdays, having weekends off, and having to request time off for vacation… since said vacation will be for me to travel between my Canadian and Mexican homes! Everything falls into place, doesn’t it? I truly believe that.

I’ve finished basic training and am starting this coming Tuesday. At this time, the job requires me to be at my desk 24 hours a week split up into eight-hour shifts Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I really need to be at my desk during that time. I can’t slip out to switch loads of laundry, go to the post office, or do chores, just like being at an onsite job, only without having to deal with other people and a commute! It’s a good schedule in that it still leaves me four days a week to do other things and I still have two week days for going to town. There is a possibility of getting more hours later that will restrict my schedule further, but I’m just taking it a week at a time.

I am still an independent contractor/freelancer and am still doing transcription part-time for now. But this new job will really pad my resume in a field that I’ve been trying to break into and so I will likely leave transcription behind as more opportunities in proofreading develop. Since I’m not an employee, I don’t have any sort of job security and so I’m loathe to put all my eggs in the same proverbial basket and drop my loyal transcription clients. Once burned, twice shy, and all that.

Who knows if my new schedule will be visible in my blog posts over the next few weeks and months, but I thought that I might as well give a heads up in case I go quiet. Some of you actually worry when I do that! 😀

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Double Town Day

I hadn’t planned to go to town today, but my second warranty replacement for my Western Digital drive was waiting for me at the post office and I needed some things at the home store, so I had ample reason to go.

I’ve had a Western Digital drive for five years now that has never failed me, but haven’t had any luck with the My Passport brand. My first one crapped out on me in Mexico and I got it replaced while I was traveling through the US last month. A month later, the replacement failed! I asked them to send me something different and they sent me a My Passport Air specifically formatted for Mac, a significant upgrade. If this one lasts, it will have been worth all the money I’ve spent in returning the old drives!

Since I’ve been craving a hamburger since I got home and have made some more weight loss progress, I decided to go to 121 Steakhouse for lunch. I went all out and ordered a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries! The kitchen goofed and sent me curly fries instead, which are just as good, so I told the server not to send them back, but to please remove the substitution fee. That fee has jumped to $2! No more substitution, even to salad, for me! But because it was a mistake, they actually reimbursed me $2.79, not $2. So I picked a good day to have lunch there. 🙂 Their coffee is absolutely mindbogglingly amazing, so I pretty much had a huge pot of it, too. I need to remember that and get a to go coffee from there instead of at the gas station!

After lunch, I went to the home store to get some things for my cell phone booster antenna project (thanks, Croft!). More on that when I do the project on Sunday.

Then, it was off to the grocery store to get what was on sale this week. I really like that when they are having a good deal on avocados, they put the limes on sale, too!

I also stocked up on almond milk, which was surprisingly inexpensive ($2 regular price for a container that will last a week!). Friends in Mexico left me a bunch of almond milk that they didn’t want to bring on the plane and I’ve just finished using it up. I never thought that would be something I’d need or want in my diet, but it’s fabulous! It’s low calorie, tastes great, has protein, and is wonderful in smoothies. I’ve also been using it with a high protein cereal topped with a banana for breakfast, which is funny because I normally turn my nose at Western breakfast foods. But this really works for me. I can have it at 7AM and go all the way through to lunch (between 12:00 and 1:00) on just 300 calories! Wow!

No sooner had I arrived home than I got an email from a client regarding my Windows computer, which crapped out on me last weekend. They asked that I mail it back ASAP so that they can reinstall Windows and do other maintenance on it. Because of their holiday schedule and the fact that I will have a lot less flexibility in my own schedule due to new work commitments starting next week, we determined that I needed to get to the post office today. So I quickly packed my post office kit that has a marker, scissors, and packing tape, as well as the computer and power supply and headed back to town!

The gals at the post office were helpful and found me a box and free packing material! I packed the computer and sent it off (you do not want to know what it costs to send a well-insured and packaged laptop across Canada). I had missed the truck to Regina, so it actually won’t head out until Monday night. Bummer.

Today was our first really hot day in ages and I was burning up by the time I came out of the post office. I decided on just one last treat for the day and went to the Village Food Store to see if they had ice cream. Yes! I got a ‘small’ cone for $2.10, a fair price. That’s it for treats for me for the next little bit!

Off to do some plumbing. I found another leak under the sink. 🙁