the first entry

After I quit my full-time tech writing job last year, I thought of starting an unemployment blog, much like Dipu's The Layoff Times. I even set up a LiveJournal account for that purpose. But, you know me, queen of procrastination, one thing led to another and I never did. I'm sorry about that, because I would like to look back and see how things progressed (or regressed, some days).

It's been about four months since I resigned from my previous place of employment (on amicable terms) and decided to work as a freelance writer, editor, graphic designer, Web designer, whatever, make me an offer, sure I'd love to learn to be a projectionist if anyone would train me ... a person without a stable source of income, that is. I haven't had a shortage of things to do, especially things for which I am not actually paid. Since September, I've volunteered for two film festivals and a local film group, submitted essays for anthology publications (one of which was accepted, yay), written a ton of movie reviews, seen a ton of movies, done a smattering of Web design and consulting, and sold a lot of stock to pay for it all.

I've also sent out a number of resumes. My goal is to balance a part-time regular job of some sort that helps to cover the bills with freelance writing work that might not pay so well. I am having trouble finding the part-time job. The cynical part of me believes that part-time jobs these days go to mommies who want to continue working for a particular company after giving birth. Certainly at my last place of employment, the only writers who were allowed to work part-time were the mommies. Perhaps I should pretend to have a child at home when I interview for jobs, but that's a little too Christmas in Connecticut for my taste.

I applied for a number of full-time jobs, too, either because the jobs were so very tempting that I would be willing to put in that much time on them, or because I was feeling anxious about money. I've been through a few job interviews, which have been pretty dismal, although one may lead to freelance editing work that would be preferable to the part-time job for which I interviewed in the first place. I am realizing that I don't quite have the portfolio for graphic design jobs, but those are more plentiful than part-time or contract writing/editing work, so I keep trying.

Working at home has been quite different from the no-walls atmosphere at my last job. For one thing, I did not realize I would spend so much time placating a needy cat, since my previous jobs all had cat-free workplaces. Around the time I started to work from home, my boyfriend left an unsatisfying contract job and started working from home too. I moved my workspace into the master bedroom, dividing it nicely with a room screen so I would not see the bed and feel tempted to nap. It's worked quite well. My boyfriend got the fuzzy end of the lollipop; he worked out of the living room, so he had to steel himself against the distractions of me walking to the kitchen to get water and snacks, or worse still, me needing to watch movies on the DVD player. Fortunately, we both had laptops and knew all the best nearby places for free wireless access.

The Beau started working in an office again in January, so the house has become much quieter. That may be why it is only now that I am starting to realize I need to keep up with friends and ex-co-workers more. I keep thinking about emailing people to go to lunch, but I hesitate because it is cheaper to have a sandwich at home. I need to balance the money thing with the social thing, though, and start setting up lunch dates. As long as we don't go to Green Pastures for lunch, I think the budget can handle the expense. If I don't get to talk to anyone all day long except the cat and maybe my boyfriend, for days on end, I start to feel restless and lonely and cranky-ass.

Also, when the weather improves, I want to start scheduling a nice walk on the days I don't go to the gym. I need to get out of the house more. Running errands doesn't exactly count, and I don't work as effectively in a coffeehouse as I do at home. We live in a wonderful neighborhood for walking, because you can not only walk around the residential area, but you can have destinations: a small grocery, the gym, a movie theater ... even the Dairy Queen. It's one of my favorite things about this neighborhood, and I should take advantage of it.

I set up this Web site a couple of weeks ago right after I renewed the domain. I don't want a place to detail every day of my freelancing existence. But I realized that my old personal Web site ... isn't, anymore. It's a film blog, which is referenced on my resume and my online portfolio. I want it to be more professional, not less. It's no longer the best place to tell weird stories about my family, and it is downright dumb for me to mention anything there about my work that isn't positive. I may still tell the occasional New Orleans story there only because I started writing about New Orleans there post-Katrina and it seems almost expected. However, I hope to shift that kind of storytelling over here, in time.

This is a Web site with no real theme. It's just a place for me to tell stories, or maybe to vent a bit. Will I update here regularly? Not sure yet. We'll see.

Posted at January 28, 2006 09:36 PM