Siddity in the City

Work. Gigs. Lot of ‘em. So much work has cropped up in the next few weeks I’ll have to turn some of it down, because I cannot be in two places at once, and yet this is so sudden and it’s all so piecemeal I’m afraid to turn any of it down because I need to hoard what I can for leaner times.

*bewildered happy face*

Well, at least I’ll be okay for another few months. Now really is the time to finish that novel. I’ll have to shoehorn it into my schedule, drafting on the bus or something.

*wanders away staring intently at cell phone calendar, muttering*

In great news, I got to walk 3 feet from Greg Puciato (mucho mas sexy in person), had a heckuva time with K, and no one stepped on my face. In all, the DEP show was grand.

In better news, one of the higher ups at the old company (in fact, the person I always joked I’d want to work for if anything happened to my mags/team) has offered me a part-time position. It’s less money than I was making hourly FT, no benefits, and only a few days per week, but it’s better money than most other temping I’ve done, and it should result in about a 40-50% increase in my monthly income. God bless her. I’ll be turning up to my first day on Monday with a thank you card and freshly-baked loaf of strawberry bread in hand!

Wednesday evening, I will be enjoying the musical stylings of the fine gentlemen in The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Mom, relax. I have a mouth guard. And I will be as far away from the stage and pit as I can possibly get without being outside the venue.

Still, I was recklessly eyeballing full protective gear at Sports Authority.

The last few weeks have been eventful.

I’ve been working a good bit. Lots of odd jobs, some writing. Some longer term part-time work may be on the horizon. It occurs to me, though, that much of this work has found me rather than the other way around, thanks largely to friends and former coworkers looking me up or putting in a good word. Some has resulted in a teaspoon of help, some a cup, but it has added up to enough to remain comfortable, if not flush with cash. Every now and then I am reminded that on the whole, the universe provides. I may not get exactly what I want, but I usually get at least as much as I need. I am grateful. (Dear Universe: Please also provide some Y chromes if you can, thanksomuch.)

I just wrapped up a weekend working Chicago’s Ribfest for the old company, and got to meet someone from NYC I had worked with via phone but had never met. In person, she was just as full of win (!!!) as she was from afar. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really am sorry the old mag folded. I got to work with really wonderful people, and I can only hope to find a group that great again.

Funnily enough, I’ve also been given a jolt of small-world reality: that coworker knew someone I’d gone to high school with, and I’d reconnected with him because a friend from Chicago met him after she’d moved to New York. (I blame [thank] the internet. Six degrees and all that.) I also met a friend of a friend over brunch last weekend who’d grown up in my parents’ smallish town, and who’d attended a rival high school (minor boohiss. The guy was nice. I just feel it my duty to maintain some semblance of crosstown rivalry. Heh.). I ran into some folks at Ribfest sporting a bunch of Sox gear and some serious Boston accents, who, upon my questioning, confirmed they were from a Massachusetts burb just a town over from where I’d spent much of my childhood. (Welcome to Chicago, folks. The weather’s about the same, the real estate is cheaper.)

And…I’ve run out of blogging steam. Tomorrow and the day after, a new gig. (Great, because pyscho felis, who has been exceptionally well behaved the last few weeks, is nearly due for a round of boosters that will set me back about $100.) I’m alive, treading water, and contemplating my next move. And about to fall into Zzzzz.

I have officially reached the point where I feel I have too many online properties. Between this blog (occasionally tended), the safe-for-people-who-know-my-name-but-aren’t-my-friends blog, the public radio blog (to which I infrequently contribute), the goofy consumer edit I churn out (a few times per week), and the occasional food/drink work I do (in drips and drabs), I feel scattered. Spread thin, doing a bit of everything, so I feel as though I’m accomplishing something, but not producing anything I’m terribly excited to have a hand in. I’m on the fence; do I walk away from all the web, or should I become more entrenched? Some days I’m less inclined to engage than others.

But I love the internet, for so very many reasons. There’s a new reason every day. Currently, I am loving it for providing such clear and frequent windows into the lives of truly, magnificently, grandly creative people. In the last hour, I have toured the writing spaces of various sci fi and fantasy authors, peeked at Amanda Palmer’s process during the recording of Who Killed Amanda Palmer, and checked in with Neil, who has won an Audie (I think this post is Neilean for SQUEEEEEE!) and who has lots of nice cats and a pony-sized dog named Cabal.

And seeing all that, and the ever-ready determination of folks like KDC/TLF, I get the feeling I should always, always be doing more, not less.

I’ll try. We’ll see how that goes.