Work

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Kind of Swamped

Well, the dry spell is over. Or, rather, things are picking up. June has been an utter financial disaster and I don’t look forward to picking up the pieces in July. But July is looking up. My client is swamped which means that I’m swamped. I just worked through the weekend and expect to put in sixteen hour days for the next week.

I’m spending what little free time I have building my Squidoo business. I know what you’re all thinking. Um, kind of frivolous? Nope. I have sold ebooks and made Amazon commissions from my lenses there that make the time invested so far equivalent to earning just over minimum wage. In other words, Squidoo has been worth my time more than has the last two and a half months of job hunting in Lethbridge. Believe me, I wouldn’t on that site if it wasn’t making me money!

I’ve been wanting to get into Squidoo for a long time, but something told me to wait. I’m glad I did. I am putting more than five years of internet marketing knowledge and experience into building a solid Squidoo business and it’s already paying off. I am doing with Squidoo what I had hoped to do with this blog and am seeing results much, much faster. In a way it’s a shame that I’ve waited so long, but in another I’m hitting the ground running and seeing results right away.

I’m clocking out for the night and off to curl up with a good book and a mug of hot tea as the rain continues to drum a tattoo on my roof.

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Hump Day

How the heck did it get to be late Wednesday evening?!

Today was pretty much the same as Monday and Tuesday with one exception.

I got up at 8, was in the office doing my morning admin stuff by 8:15, transcribed for an hour, took a breakfast break (10 minutes), transcribed for a while, took a water filling break (10 minutes), transcribed for a while, went to answer the door sometime in early afternoon…

Went to answer the door?

It was Donna! She was heading to a nearby town and wanted to see if I was free to join her. I couldn’t believe I had to say no! But I was swamped. 🙁 So we said hellos, I gave Midnight a cuddle, and back to transcription I went.

I took a 10 minute lunch break somewhere in the late afternoon and went back to work. I was almost done with my first pass-through when Donna called on the way back. I had two deadlines to meet today and I was racing to the finish for both. I couldn’t believe I had to turn her down again!

The transcription was done coming on seven and I jumped into my rain gear. I had one batch of fliers left to deliver by 8! I raced around both neighbourhoods and flopped back in my car at 7:55. Barely any time to spare!

By this time, my stomach and blood sugar levels were about to mutiny. I wanted to make pizza, but a chicken, cheese, and pickle sandwich on homemade bread (baked by  breadmaker while I did fliers on Tuesday), was much faster!

It was 8:30 by this time and I still had some admin stuff to do. Did that, built another Squidoo lens, and then gave myself five minutes of downtime with a hiragana word search puzzle.

Now, I’m thinking hot shower, cuddle with the catkids, and some much needed Zzzzzs.

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Is It Okay If I Collapse Now?

Rarely in my life have I been as tired as I am tonight. It’s a bone deep kind of exhaustion brought on by an excess of work and worry. I’m presently getting exactly as much work as one person can possibly handle, but it’s too late to eliminate worries for June financial deadlines. I have a bill looming in exactly a week and I still have no idea how I’m going to tackle it. Monday is my deadline for transferring PayPal fees and their landing in my bank account in time for Friday, so hopefully a huge miracle will happen this weekend… I think I’ve done my share of hard work in the last two and a half months and have earned a miracle.

I’m therefore wondering how the heck I am managing to be so happily creative and productive these days.

I just landed a new transcription client whom I hope will help me solidify the base for my business. I’m putting a lot of energy into transcription, which I think I will do better with than translation, so I completely rewrote my professional website this week.

I’ve also renewed my interest, and hope, in affiliate marketing by trying out lens making at Squidoo. It’s fun, creative, and has introduced me to a whole new audience.

And somewhere in all of that, in stolen moments of time, I’ve somehow managed to learn how to read all 46 of the basic hiragana kana.

I transcribed from 4PM to midnight yesterday, barely slept a wink, transcribed from 8AM to 5PM today, and then went to deliver fliers for three hours. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go collapse now. 🙂

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Well, That was Early!

The alarm rang at 4:55 this morning. Thankfully, I wasn’t in the middle of a REM cycle, so it was easy to bounce out of bed, have breakfast, and get on the road for 5:15.

The first part of the day was flagging, which meant I had to keep the lady I’m working for alive while she laid traffic-counting hoses across a busy highway and nailed them into the pavement. At that hour there wasn’t much traffic, but I felt very powerful standing in there in my safety-yellow cover all and SLOW sign. 😀

I had to wear a cute outfit like this one this morning (image from textileinnovations.com)

After, she treated me to breakfast, then I counted cars for two hours. Tonight, I’ll be doing the reverse, starting at 4PM.

Now, I need to work on a translation contract then go deliver some fliers. After counting, I’ll try to deliver some phone books. I can’t believe how little income I have for how busy I am!

But the phone rang this morning and suddenly things are looking up… It’s way too soon to get excited, but it makes me feel optimistic.