My Working-At-Home Oath

A few weeks ago I alluded to my working-at-home oath. Now that I'm no longer facing people every day, I wanted to give myself some ground rules so that I don't become too much like a caveman.

(1) I will shower and dress daily. Ah yes. The luxury of working from home is that no one will ever know that you haven't brushed your teeth or gotten out of your jammies. I could easily throw my hair in a ponytail and consider myself "dressed" wearing the same clothes I had on the night before. I could skip my usual routine of blow drying my hair and putting on makeup, but I won't. There's something about seeing myself in the mirror looking like I was being held hostage in a dungeon that zaps a little bit of my confidence. Right now, I need all the confidence I have left to place bids on projects that have a high probability of being awarded to someone else. Plus, it seems kind of unfair for Steve, who is currently my financial backbone, to go off to a client and come home to someone who looks like Pepe the Prawn from the Muppets. Just because I may not be making much money doesn't mean I have to look like I'm homeless. With that said, my rule is that I must be dressed and groomed enough that I could face Steve's business partner, the UPS guy/gal, or the stay-at-home moms at Costco.

Caveats:
• I'm sick enough that I'm unable to work.
• I will be doing some form of manual labor such as resealing the deck. Of course, if this is the case then I'm technically not working anyway.

(2) I will continue to work out. This involves setting the alarm and getting to the gym or the trail just like I was doing when I actually had to go into the office. BTW, I am sleeping in until 5:00 a.m. these days; it's amazing how that extra 30 minutes in the morning makes me feel more human. Yes, there will be days when the snooze button wins and I oversleep. Just like before, I'll have to make it a point to either work out later in the day, or make up for it later in the week. "Why bother?" you ask. Just like getting showered and dressed, working out makes me feel more alert and better able to tackle the day. Now that we're paying for our own health insurance, it's even more important for us to maintain our health. Case in point: Steve's high cholesterol reading from two years ago resulted in his premium being almost $100 more per month than mine. Exercise also ties into rule #3 below. Since we're living on a tighter budget, I can't go buying bigger clothes for my bigger self.

Caveats:
• Sickness.
• Looming deadline that requires extra hours.

(3) I will not shop for new clothes. I have a lot of clothes. Scratch that. I have an obscene amount of clothes. This is partly due to (a) I like shopping for clothes, and (b) I keep stuff forever. Forever as in I still have jeans that I bought from Kohl's when Steve and I first bought our house in 1997. They've got holes all over and are about as outdated as Obama's infamous mom jeans, but I love lounging around in them. Plus, they're now short enough that I can wear flat shoes with them. Anyway, back to my point...

I don't need any more clothes. In fact, since I no longer have to dress to go into an office, I could probably get rid of some. I've been reading more about recycling/redesigning your existing clothes on sites such as Made by Lex, Wardrobe Refashion, and Turn-Style. I have to admit that this refashioning business appeals to my crafty side so I may have to try it.

Caveats:
• New workout gear only when my existing gear starts to cause bodily harm to me (chafing, gagging because of imbedded stink, lack of stability/support) or to others (you can see through material, smell me before you see me, public indecency due to shrinkage).
• Someone gives me a gift card.

How goes it?

I got a call from my Dad last week that went something like this:

Dad: How are you?
Me: Great!
Dad: How's the, ya know, um, er going?
Me: Work?
Dad: Yah. That.

We had a similar conversation yesterday and I'm sure we'll have it again next week. While my parents outwardly show their support for my recent employment decision, I think they're worried and I can see why. These are the same people that have always encouraged me to go the safe, conventional, low-risk route in life. I'm surprised they didn't try to ground me or take away my car keys when I told them I was quitting my job.

"So how are things going?" you wonder. Pretty good. Don't get me wrong; I won't be running off to retire on some tropical island any time soon, but I am loving my new life. I finished up the bartending project and am waiting to hear back on a few other projects that I bid on. Somone from my last company contacted me and asked me to work on a few training packages for them so it looks like that'll keep me busy for a few months.

I think the hardest thing to get used to (besides the steady paycheck) are the "Now that you're not working...." comments and references to my "unemployed life" from people I consider friends. At first these comments really got under my skin, but I've just come to realize that these people will never understand wanting to get out from under "the man" to do your own thing. Their snide remarks are noted and dismissed.

Then there are those of you who have been encouraging and sincerely concerned. I find it funny that the people who I've gotten the most support from are former co-workers. I'm not sure what that says about the places I've worked, but it's an interesting observation. To you peeps I send a big thanks and a hug!

Week in Review

My first week of unemployment, freelancing, rebirth, or whatever you want to call it has been great. This training manual that I'm working on is actually taking up a lot of my time so I've been spending 6-7 hours a day working. As I mentioned before, it's a bartending manual so the content has been really interesting. Today I'm researching and writing about whiskey.

If you're wondering if I've been spending the days in my jammies, the answer is no. I've been forcing myself to still get up early and have been up at 5am to get to the gym (except for today when I slept until 7:30am). I'm abiding by my Working At Home Oath; I'll get to this in another post.

Yesterday was the first nice day of the week so I decided to work outside: loved it.

Steve has been working from home most of the week, but since our work areas are on different floors of the house, we haven't driven each other crazy yet. Having lunch with him most days of the week has been nice.

The only downside so far was something I knew when I took on this project. That is, it doesn't pay squat. Squat as in I could make more money working at Target or Taco Bell. Squat as in I'm not making minimum wage based on the time I've put into it. Do I regret doing this? Heck no! I've never had this much fun writing for work. In the long run I know I'll have to reconsider other options for getting assignments that will at least get me out of the slave labor category. For now, I'm enjoying the work and hope to get a decent reference from the employer.

That's it for now. Back to whiskey....