the ongoing saga of my job

Freelancing Update

Looks like the HR issues I was having with my contracting job may have been ironed out. I wasn’t able to connect with the contact person to do the training on how to use the online timeclock, but she had sent me the Word file that explained the process. I had thought that a phone conference with this person was a requirement… but it seems that I am able to log in and record my hours, so that issue may be resolved.

This is good, since I finished a four-hour project this past Wednesday and have already been presented with another, more involved but similar project due by next Thursday.

My main contact there said that they could potentially give me enough work for a 40-hour week, but also mentioned that the summer months are the slow season for their firm. I’m not comfortable with the idea of relying on freelance and contract work to keep me financially afloat, even with a relatively steady inflow of work from this particular firm. Like I’ve said before: if it were just me, I might be more inclined to take the plunge. But I’m beyond the carefree “oh shit how do I buy food this week” days of my youth, and I can’t afford to jeopardize my half of the mortgage and car and insurance payments, or my student loans and credit cards and whatnot. That narrow window of financial spontaneity has officially closed, and I now crave stability.

I also have new comps due to my freelance client by Monday. They happened to choose the design I liked the least, but because its main features (rounded corners) matched some of their previous marketing materials. Once I had a copy of their existing flyer to give me ideas, and vector versions of the logo and logotype, along with their ideas on what they wanted to incorporate into the new comps from the old, I felt much more prepared to give them what they wanted.

It’s shaping up to be another working weekend of sorts. As long as I’m getting paid, though, I’m OK with it.

randomness

On Blogging

I was looking through my old archives today, seeking out the tattoo of my name in Elvish that I really wanted to get back in 2002:

when it occured to me that I’ve been doing this blogging thing for quite a while now. Nonstop. Since September 2002, and sporadically before that, before blogging had a name (that I knew of, anyway). Reading Dooce‘s entry from today about the anniversary of her own website made me think about it again.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be trying to “make it” in the blogosphere. If I should get some Google Ads going on, and write more carefully-crafted entries that read more like essays on Life than normal journal entries. And I realize that this is still what it’s always been: my journal, but online, for my long-distance friends to read.

One of the main reasons I started this, besides to get back into daily writing and journaling, was to keep in touch with all my scattered friends in Michigan, Missouri, California, Illinois, Arizona, and various places in Ohio, amongst others. That random strangers and new friends find my blog is just a bonus.

Do I wish this thing were bigger and more popular? Not really. Keeps the pressure off. Keeps me honest. Keeps me writing about normal things I’d write about in a normal journal, like how my weight loss is going or what I had for dinner or OMG Japan vacation in the works.

I’m content just being one singular, generally grammatically-correct thread in the giant tapestry that is the blogosphere. You all read my drivel, and comment on occasion, and that’s all I’m really here for.

randomness

Good Day.

Proof (first draft) of contracting project? Done in three hours’ work. Hopefully my peeps don’t find too much wrong with it; it was my first project, after all, and I’m sure I screwed *something* up. Still, though, I got it done by the imposed deadline, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything drastically wrong.

Got my annual merit raise today. I’m content with what I got. Other people, not so much. I’m trying to be supportive, while still feeling slightly guilty that I’m happy with my own pay increase.

Despite extreme soreness in the quads, I did my beginning kickboxing workout today. Yesterday I did PUSH DVD #2, Session #2, and really focused on my legs, since my knees are not currently giving me crap. (Maybe that glucosamine / chondroitin supplement I’ve been taking really does do something.) Tomorrow, I’m planning to do Yoga For Dummies and get my stretching on.

Started round two of thumbnails for my freelance client. Their favorite wasn’t exactly mine, but I’m rolling with it. I’m conbining my idea with some of their existing marketing materials, and that’s got a few more related ideas working in my brain.

Getting into an evening groove that I’m enjoying. See Aaron off to work, change clothes, feed the cat, check for vitally *important* e-mail (like, from a client), start dinner (if it’ll take a while), work out, eat dinner and watch national news & Good Eats, work on something important, then work on stuff that isn’t so important (like blogging).

I should go shower and go to bed right about now, but I’m interested in checking out the special on Bob Woodruff tonight (ABC news anchor who recovered from a head injury from an IED in Iraq), so I’m gonna go veg in front of the TV for a little while.

I’m feeling pretty good. I feel weird about feeling good. And that’s kind of sad on some level.

food

Homemade Thai Rules.

Made some Thai Red Curry with Shrimp and Pineapple for dinner tonight. Actually, it was green curry. The Cooking Club recipe called for red curry, but Aaron couldn’t find red curry at Meijer yesterday.

Once we find some red curry, I’m totally making this again, because it was SO good with the green that I’m curious how much better it would be with the red.

Now that I have green curry paste and fish oil in my cupboard, I’ll be on the lookout for more Thai recipes that I can make and serve over brown rice. I can’t believe how yummy that turned out. And, since I didn’t try to halve the recipe, Aaron gets to have it for dinner tonight when he gets home, and I get to have it for lunch tomorrow, and then someone gets to eat the last Gladware containerfull of homemade Thai.

*swoon*

weight loss 2 Comments

Diet & Fitness Update: Weekends Are A Bitch

As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to start being more diligent about my weekends. It’s really not that hard: take a scrap of paper and a pen along and write down everything I eat.

Saturday wasn’t all that bad. Lunch was Panera, and dinner was Applebee’s. Panera has their nutritional info online; Applebee’s was more of a guesstimate. I ended up at the low end of my recommended calorie range (by SparkPeople standards, between 1510 and 1860). Didn’t exercise, only drank six glasses of water. Still not horrible for a weekend.

Sunday was another story, and it was screwed by one poor decision: lunch at Red Lobster. See, Aaron had this idea that I could pay for lunch, since I had cash in my wallet leftover from an ATM run before a con back in January.* (I rarely use cash anymore.) So, since I was paying, I decided we were going all out.

I honestly didn’t make a very concerted effort to be good; I was kind of curious what kind of calories and carbs I’d end up eating if I just ate a nice lunch at Red Lobster. So, I did. And I ended up eating as many calories as I should have eaten in one whole day, from what I can tell. I tracked what I could; the piña colada dipping sauce was nearly impossible to track for nutritional info, as Red Lobster doesn’t publish theirs, either.

Dinner, while low-carb, was NOT low-cal. My half-pound Schnuth-made burger had more calories than the fried shrimp I had for lunch, and helped me rack up about 2700 calories today. Again, no exercise, but I did at least drink my eight glasses of water.

The lesson here, for me, is: 1.) always track my food on the weekends, because it makes me more aware of what I’m shoveling in; 2.) eat simple: just say no to the heavy sauces and appetizers; and 3.) look at the big picture. One day does not a failure make. I’ll get back to my normal, healthy groove tomorrow, and soon I’ll learn how to avoid losing my groove on the weekends.

Learning experience. Identifying issues. Planning solutions. I’ll see 165 lbs eventually, and it’ll be effin’ sweet. Hell, seeing 190 before our Japan vacation will be pretty effin’ sweet, for that matter.

*Turns out that I did not, in fact, have the fifty dollars cash on hand like I thought I did. I ended up paying with my debit card and leaving a hefty cash tip, instead. Still have a little cash in the wallet, which is good for emergencies, I suppose.