A Good Day

I got an email today from a new client that starts out, “Hi Amy, You are amazing.” Can’t get much better than that! Makes working until really late the last few nights totally worth it.

More soon…

Today’s Needle

Every once in a while I find such a fabulous typo that it makes me laugh out loud – it’s exactly this kind of thing that keeps work fun for me. Here’s today’s, with identifying details removed to help the author save face: “The market takes place in the lot between the car wash and the School for the Deaf and Blond.”

The View from my Desk

As can happen all too easily in the work-at-home life, I didn’t leave the house today. But my work (currently editing a guidebook for Tucson and a book of unique Christmas traditions) allows me to make lots of interesting observations from my desk. Today found me checking out all kinds of random facts related to Leonardo DiCaprio, global warming, M&M’s, the State Department’s travel warning list, Choose Your Own Adventure books, Smokey the Bear, Corning, and the Escabrosa Grotto, among many others. I was just about to start the Restaurants chapter, but have to take a break for dinner first – I’ve learned it’s a special kind of torture to edit restaurant listings when I’m hungry!

Rush Job

Just a quick post to let y’all know I was just offered a rush copyediting job, which means a good chunk of money (the client offered twice what they usually pay me) but also an insane chunk of work, due Monday! Will be MIA until then—no blogging, email, phone calls, instant messaging… Hope all’s well!

Untitled

Not sure why I haven’t been blogging much lately… Is it really that I don’t have much to say? As usual, I’ve been busy: waves of work, Spanish study, farewell parties, tango music, pub quiz (my team is getting worse—5th place last week!), tasty steak and empanadas and beer and curry (not more than two of those at once), an afternoon at the horse races (my horse came in 7th!), web stuff, my first couchsurfer, and more. Probably the most exciting/random thing that’s happened recently is getting two unsolicited emails, one from someone who found my work website and wants to hire me to edit a book, and the other from someone who found my blog and encouraged me to submit content to her website and/or a book she’s working on. Is it a complete coincidence that I just switched web hosts? I wonder if that has anything to do with how my sites come up in searches, etc. Anyway, the prospect of new work is exciting—I am also going to be helping to edit SAE’s magazine, though probably on a volunteer basis. And somehow, amidst all this work, I’m planning two getaways in the next month: one to Uruguay to renew my visa, the other to a yet-to-be-determined destination with my friend Carolynn.

Must… Focus…

I’m getting close to booking my tickets for Buenos Aires, and have started making some good contacts down there, and it’s pretty darn exciting. I have so many ideas and questions and dreams and things to do right now I can hardly concentrate on anything else. Focusing on my editorial projects is a challenge, as my mind is constantly wandering in a million directions. I go online—again—to check out the apartment listings on craigslist, log on to couchsurfing to join the Buenos Aires group, get up to look for my passport and make sure it’s current, check my budget again to see how much money I’ll have saved… It feels practically all-consuming right now. Thankfully it’s all focused on just one destination, unlike the multitude of places I obsessed over while getting ready for my RTW trip!

Soaked

Why does it always rain the hardest on days I have to go downtown? Isn’t this supposed to be one of the perks of working at home, getting to stay inside, dry and cozy, on dreary, rainy days like today?

Pumped for Winter?

After an extended fall of freakishly warm weather, winter has truly arrived (at least for the moment; it’s supposed to be 55 on Monday). And while I bundle into my warmest clothes, hoping they’re enough to protect against the 16-degree wind chill, I wonder if I’m truly ready for my first full winter in ten years. But then the other night, the forecasted snow flurries turned into a full-on blizzard for about 20 minutes, and I was enthralled, running outside to stare up into the swirling white magic. If I can see some snow, even a little bit, falling from the sky every week or so, that might be enough to keep me going.

In the meantime, I’ll try to stay pumped in other ways, like by lifting weights at the local gym (three blocks from my house) where I just started working—free membership is one of the perks of being on staff. It’s a whole new balance of freelance work and work at the gym, but I’m ready. Getting out of the house and meeting lots of people in the neighborhood is great. And a paycheck every two weeks can’t hurt either.

I Can Hear the Clamor…

How great is THIS?! I certainly can’t underestimate the value of having well-placed friends/clients who like to rave about me. Just waiting for my phone to start ringing…

Advert

Since work is slow, there’s really no excuse for not doing the advertising and self-promotion I usually push to the back burner. The result of finally getting things done? My first official advertisement just went live. Here’s hoping for a stellar ROI.