6:30 a.m., Monday, January 4, 2010: a new year, a new adventure, a new life. I jumped out of bed, determined to make a positive first impression on my new boss. I’d heard she was difficult; volatile and demanding. I searched through my closet, pulled several possibilities and finally decided on just the right pair of sweats. My commute was a nightmare but after dodging toys on the stairs, weaving around my fellow commuters rushing to make it to their destinations on time, and stopping by the coffee bar to grab a much needed cup of Joe, I finally arrived at the office only a few minutes late. I found my new boss standing in my office tapping her foot. She pointed at the computer and glared at me sternly. I bowed my head and pushed myself into my chair. My new boss stood behind me like a dictator as I logged on to my computer. I held my breath as I went to work and breathed in relief when she saw I had logged on to Facebook and gave me the thumbs-up sign. Everyone knows you cannot be productive until your priorities are taken care of; i.e. your CafeWorld customers served and your Farmville crops harvested before they rot.
Finally, I could get down to real work. I turned on my telephone, checked my calendar and contemplated my next move. My office was cluttered with boxes and artifacts from my previous job so I decided to get organized. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning my office. Frankly, I thought it was rude of my new company to stick me in a dirty office but didn’t mind the chance to eavesdrop on the water cooler conversations and learn the new politics. By 11:30 a.m., I had made an appointment to meet with a potential new client and was exhausted so I decided I deserved the afternoon off. I took my kids on their last day of winter break out to lunch then shopping to spend their remaining Christmas gifts.
Tuesday was a day filled with research for the young adult novel I am writing. After taking the kids to school, I made the long trip to Blue Grass to my subject’s home. There, I worked hard. I visited, held her adorable baby, had homemade spaghetti and meatballs for lunch, perused some pictures and left at about 1 p.m. Proud of everything I accomplished, I stopped at Wal-mart to browse for office supplies and refill a couple of prescriptions. One would think a day that productive would command an evening of rest but not for me. I decided it was kind of nice to have my office clean and tidy so I moved on to the rest of my office building and spent most of the rest of the week eradicating three years of dust bunnies from under my furniture.
On Thursday, I got my first project offer and turned down my first project offer in a span of a few hours. I was cleaning when my business phone chirped. I answered professionally, “This is Jodie.” It was the administrator from my former employer’s office with a project offer for next week. But there was a catch; the job started early Monday morning, took place approximately 100 miles from home and involved staying overnight potentially throughout the entire week. Not wanting to break my scheduled meeting with my potential new client, I had to decline unless they could delay the project start time; they couldn’t so decided to handle it internally. So that, as they say, was that.
Friday morning, I took advantage of my flexible schedule and went grocery shopping. I was in good company and felt like I’d just joined an exclusive shopping club composed of mothers with young children and other business owners. I finished my shopping, carried in and put away my groceries by noon and had a nice business lunch of a little angel hair pasta with a can of Italian diced tomatoes. I continued my cleaning for the afternoon and looked forward to my first weekend after my first long week at my new job.
Ironically, Saturday ended up probably being my most profitable day last week. That afternoon, I attended a meeting to discuss marketing ideas with other authors at the Midwest Writing Center (MWC). I volunteered to moderate a book marketing discussion board and to head the program committee for a book fair hosted by MWC scheduled for May 8, 2010. This, in itself, is a marketing technique: getting my name out so when someone sees a book I wrote or needs a freelance paralegal, they will gravitate to me because my name is familiar. In addition, another author at the meeting is an attorney who teaches in the paralegal program at a local college. When she asked if I’d be willing to speak to her students about being a paralegal, I accepted. Again, this will get my name “out there” plus I truly enjoy speaking to an audience that has no choice but to listen to me. This is indeed an exciting prospect and who knows where it will lead.
I filled in the rest of my weekend cleaning my house. I didn’t get through my whole list but did clean my entire first floor including actually washing the floor and dusting the areas I normally skip because I am not tall enough to see them. My basement is clean and back in order; again somewhere I actually feel I’d like to spend time. I ended the weekend with cleaning my master bathroom; a disgusting job complete with shower steam glued on dust and hair. Yuck!
It is now Monday morning again. I wasn’t as excited for it this week and overslept by a half hour. And, yes, my boss was all bitchy when I finally got in but I’m not worried. I know what buttons to push and I have her right where I want her. My meeting with the potential client is scheduled for 11 a.m.; I hope it nets some, but not too much, immediate work. Also on my agenda so far is to work on my two in-process writing projects, research the local newspapers on microfiche for one of those projects and offer my completed young adult novel to literary agents and publishers for rejection. It should be a good week!
