The Mystery Bag

I'm sure it isn't just me...

Typically we are really good about labeling things before we shove them in the freezer. Even in our chicken scratch, we almost always put the date and contents on the bag.

Almost.

When cleaning out the freezer, sometimes we will find the mystery bag. Today, I brought one up and started thawing it. It is a brown saucy-looking something, and we think it may have particles of chicken in it. There was a thin layer of ice crystals on it, but not enough to classify it as wholly freezer burned. Do we eat it? Do we throw it away? Do we place bets about what it might have been?

Or do we just try and do better about labeling things in the future? Yeah, I'm voting for the last option.

Rubbing two brain cells together

My job is a combination of "regular" day-to-day work from a steady freelance client along with large projects that pop up, make for a busy couple weeks, and then disappear for a few months. About a month ago, I accepted one large project and got a huge portion of it in all at once. I cleared out most of it, only to get offered another project. No problem, the first one was put to bed, so I could take on the second one. Well, due to some interestingness with the project, I ended up getting most of the first project back in my lap while the second one was coming in. The good news is that I work with some of the most amazing writers in the business and have totally awesome project managers to provide support every step of the way. Because of how awesome they are, I feel an above-and-beyond obligation to go the extra mile for them. That has meant working from 8 AM to 11 PM for multiple days in the past few weeks.

The good news--wrapped up the big project last night (or at least most of it). The better news--the second project is now coming in, and at a very reasonable pace with incredibly well-written and clean files. The best news--it will be a good payday once I get the invoices for those projects turned in, and I'm very satisfied with the work that I've done for them.

But, yeah, that's why no deep insightful blog this week. I'll try again next week!

Resume resumé

I'm a very lucky freelancer. Most freelancers end up having to spend large amounts of their time tracking down work in the hopes of nailing something to pay the rent. (As the saying goes, freelance writers/editors get paid per hour, per page, or perhaps.) For many years now, I've had plenty of work from steady clients. Still, all things change, and with the challenging economy, some clients have run into problems this year that have meant cutting back on their freelance and contractor staff. Cutbacks for them means reduced income for me. Although we're a far cry away from lacking due to adjustments in income on my part, I'm looking at adding clients to my base--and perhaps going back into writing if I don't like what I'm seeing in the editing options.

That means dusting off the ol' resumé. I think the last time I updated it was....2010? 

I'm pretty much using the same resumé that I've been using since I got my first publishing job back in 1997. It is a work experience resume that most people use for their careers--I worked here from these dates doing this. Before that, I worked there from these dates doing that. You know the kind.

As a freelancer, that really doesn't fit anymore, because I have so many jobs that overlap. I don't have a single employer right now--I have multiple clients. My publication list turns more heads than my academic degrees. With that in mind, I've started redoing my resumé from scratch. It will be a more freelance-friendly version, and really highlight just how many pots I've had fingers in for the past decade or so. Trying to figure out what all I worked on has been quite the challenge, but once I get it done, I know I'll be proud of it. Hopefully that will also lead to some interesting gigs, too.

Bullet ----- Us

Yep, we dodged a bullet with the DC derecho of 2012. We kept power (except for a few minutes at the height of the storm), and we had supplies on hand to get us through after the fact with water restrictions in place (bottled water for drinking and plastic/paper goods so we wouldn't rack up dishes). Because we had so much stuff purchased for the cruise, even not being able to do laundry wasn't the major setback that it could have been.

Around this time last year, more or less, we had a pine tree leaning at a pretty troubling angle towards our back porch and driveway. We also had an oak in the backyard that had died and was starting to show signs of rot. When we called out the tree people to remove those two, we pretty much had them remove every tree up to the property line, except for a few saplings and the healthy big oaks between our property and the neighbor's property. Seeing all the stories from people who had trees fall into their houses or on their cars, I am so grateful that we spent the $700 to remove the trees, lest we would have had to spend a hundred times that piecing a house back together.

We still back up onto a forested area, and that forested area still has very big trees. It is possible that someday one of those trees will fall, and there's a remote possibility that they will hit something more than just trees and dirt. For the meantime, though, I'm thrilled that we made it through this bit of interestingness with nothing more that stories to tell for years to come.