Funk

Work: busy
Family: recycling a cold for weeks
House: needs cleaning
Dog: sleeping
Friends: changing, growing, fading, lost, found, same, different
Me: wistful, anxious, hopeful, tired, need to shake this mood

More Good Stuff

Things are slowly but steadily improving around here. I'm still enjoying my job (as long as I'm not getting speeding tickets), and have recently added another bullet to my resume.

A few years ago, I began doing copy editing for a friend of mine who publishes a monthly online newsletter for her business. She recently forwarded me an email from a friend of hers. This friend has a friend (stay with me here folks) who has an online lifestyle magazine and needed a copy editor. She is Italian-Brazilian, a brilliant photographer and artist, and very creative. The challenge she faces is the fact that English is the 5th or 6th language she learned. So, although she has wonderful ideas and stories, she struggles with fluency in her writing. Previous copy editors had a habit of changing her writing so much that she felt it was no longer her own.

This has turned out to be a good fit for me. A lifetime surrounded by friends and neighbors from many different countries, and a decade working with students (some of whom were struggling to read and write in English) has given me a level of comfort and confidence that enables me to feel like I "get" what my client is trying to say in her writing. I can clarify her work and give it better fluency without changing her unique voice.

I have to admit, however, that she lives in a very different world than my own. Check it out at joellelifestyle.com and keep in mind that I have only recently acquired this gig, so posts written prior to the new year have not been touched by my hands!

Holy Cow, I'm In Trouble Now!

I've been sucked into the vortex that is Facebook. Nobody told me that within 15 minutes of signing up and accepting a couple "friend" requests from folks on my email contact list that I'd be bombarded with reminders of my past. High school acquaintances I haven't seen in two decades are suddenly back on my radar. Cousins with whom I've lost touch have popped back into my life. I love it...but it's kind of overwhelming!

There are people out there who know things about me. They can tell stories about my purple hair and nose ring. They remember nights in college that I might not remember, and the tales that go along with some of those (mis)adventures. I may have opened my own personal Pandora's Box.

Oh, what the hell. I've really got nothing to hide, just some bad fashion choices (hello, can you say "The Eighties"?) bad hairdos (or don'ts), and bad boyfriends (nobody better post photos of me with Alan).

Wow. That was a LOT of parentheses!

Has This Happened To You?

I lost something very important (no, not the 25 pounds I swore to lose a while back, darn it!). I lost a flash drive containing all the work I've done for my job over the past month, as well as the documents needed to complete said work. This means I can't even pull a couple all-nighters and recreate the work I've done, since I don't have any of the stuff I need to do so. I am in deep doo-doo!

My sweet father came to visit over the holidays, and did a wonderful job entertaining my 15 month old son. He spent quite a bit of time making sure Little Man understood and mastered the use and functionality of zippers by demonstrating on his camera bag. Little Man got it...too well. He has since kept busy unzipping purses, computer bags, and anything else containing valuable or important items. He then, raccoon-like, relocates these items. My Burt's Bees lip balm was found in the cupboard where the toaster and coffeemaker reside, and my car keys turned up under the downstairs bathroom sink, next to the panty liners and extra tubes of toothpaste.

He has not figured out how to flush the toilet (yet), so I can rule out that possibility for now. Still, the vanishing flash drive has been AWOL for more than 72 hours...not good!

***UPDATE***
AWOL flash drive has been located...thank heavens!!!