Today is one of those holidays that feels particularly ironic.  Everyone gets a day off, except those of us with no work days.  It almost feels like I should get more done today than I would normally (aka: nothing).  I do think that I can’t really afford breaking my schedule, so I went ahead and followed it today.   Of course, it was helped that our family’s wage earner went to work today, probably getting overtime pay.  So I have to honor that by doing my own part.

Ultimately, getting back into routing was what cleared my head last week. I got a lot of comments from various sectors about keeping your mind clear and not abolishing hope — which wasn’t my intent, but it can feel that way when you’re depressed.  I spoke with one of the connections I had, and learned that I did make a good impression, there just wasn’t work (or money for work) yet.  That job may not be full time, but if things come up, it can be a source of much needed income.  Plus, it feels much better to know why you’re being rejected (at least when it isn’t about you.)

This week, I’m putting together my consulting profile, and I’m going to see if I can get some of those kinds of jobs.  I’m reasonably good at doing them (it’s keeping them coming in the pipeline that is hard).  It also means I can work from home, which I like — but which I don’t prefer.  It depends on who I’m answering to — I’ve found driven small business owners to be good bosses in that respect: they demand excellence and feedback, which keeps me on my ‘A’ game.  It’s a good synergy, if you will.

I also got good news about the unemployment situation which looked like it might take another week or two to resolve.  The good news is that it’s resolved.  We now have some cash flow, that will keep the rent paid and food on the table. It’s still going to be tight, but we’re making strides there.  It concerns me a bit how we can get by on half what my take home pay was.  It implies to me that we weren’t being good stewards of our income.  And that we can do some of the things we thought weren’t possible, if we’re more careful.

Finally, I got invited to the StoryNexus beta, which is interesting, and which I doubt I’d have done much with if I’d been working.  Now, however, I’m considering entering their Fall contest.  It gets me some recognition on the site, which might ultimately turn into profit.  (They have a plan for story creators to be able to monetize their work.)  I’ve also almost completed the novella for Amazon.  Drafting that is today’s big goal.