Wow! Just snagged a freelance editing job. My dream jobs basically boil down to the following:

1. Writing.
2. Fixing other people�s writing.

The problem is, in my experience, as soon as something I love becomes my job, I stop loving it so much. For example: I loved children�s literature, so I worked at a children�s lit store for five years. I love SF and Fantasy, so I worked at a F/SF store for four years (RIP, Nebula� sigh). I�m Pagan, so when the F/SF shop closed I transferred quite happily to an occult bookshop. I�m coming up on two years there, and you know, it�s a way of life, all right, but coming home from work to settle down with the same books you sell daily just isn�t a mental respite from the 9-5 haul.

I�m reading more SF and Fantasy again, though. So it�s not a complete loss.

Anyway, my point is, if all I did was write or fix other peoples� writing, I might not enjoy it so much. I don�t know; I�ve never had the opportunity to find out. I�d like to find out. I do manage to do a lot of writing in my current job: communication sort of stuff, like press releases, info pamphlets, short articles on aspects of Pagan life, that sort of thing. (It occurs to me that if I did this freelance I�d be paid $20 more an hour. Hmm.) The main thing I have to deal with in my current job, however, is customers. Customers are my downfall � constantly interrupting the writing-type things I�m supposed to get done on the computer, calls pulling me away from the in-store customers interrupting those things which are waiting on the computer� you get the idea. Customers in a retail setting and clients for whom you complete writing contracts are not the same thing in my opinion, which automatically promotes freelance writing/editing to a higher position on my desire scale.

The only drawback to this freelance editing job is that I have 90 or so pages to get done on Tuesday night, since it’s being sent to me Tuesday afternoon, I don’t get home until 7.30-ish, and it�s due Wednesday morning. Ergo, my date to watch the video of The Gondoliers with the cast and crew to pick it apart has just been cancelled. This is sad. The paycheque at the end of it all will soothe the disappointment, though. I blow many kisses to Amanda for thinking of me!

I had a chat with the PoohBah last week about blogging. It�s an interesting pursuit. It�s sort of like a diary, only not, as you�re writing something that people will eventually read. Yet, it�s a solitary thing; you write for your own benefit (at least I do), knowing that there is a theoretical audience out there, but the actual writing is to satisfy something inside you.

Personally, I blog because it�s discipline. I�ve been a writer since I could hold a pencil. I�ve finished a novel. I�ve written for magazines. (Unpaid, of course. Sigh.) I have piles of stories and articles that no one else has ever seen. I�ve got a non-fiction book on the back burner, simmering away. (Blame MLG for that one too!) The one thing that successful writers tell people is to write for a certain period every day, even if you think you have nothing to say. (The other thing they tell you, of course, is to write what you know.) So posting to a web log is my way of disciplining myself. It�s easier to type the torrent of what�s in your mind than to write it out longhand. Although, I�m a fountain pen girl, and I adore blank books; when I do research I write everything out on paper, and then I undergo the frustration of retyping it all. I�m very slow at retyping. Voice recognition software is currently one of those things on my priority list.

Blogging is also a way to keep in touch, and to share my thoughts with people I don�t necessarily get to speak to that often. Of course, then you occasionally run into the problem of someone asking, �So what�s new?�, and when you start to tell them they say, �Oh yeah, I read that on your page�, so you have to change gears. There�s always something to share, though. I find that blogging helps me organise my mind, and gives me an outlet for things niggling at my brain. I write it down; it gets posted; I can move on. Whether you read it or not is immaterial; it�s out there now. Of course, having you read it is delightful too, and comments interest me as well.

Ultimately, I think blogging is a way of giving back to the world which sparks so many thoughts in my mind.

I’m sure it will amuse you all to know that, just as I do at work, I forget about the cup of tea that I’ve reheated in the microwave at home.

I have had a fantastic weekend!

Leaving out the fever last night with the really bad aches, pains, and chills, that is. So if we cut the weekend off at around three o�clock Sunday afternoon, I have had the best weekend in months.

Friday night I had a three and a half hour dinner with MLG at Hurley�s. Not only was it not crowded, they actually had cider this time! We had a window seat so we could watch the funny people outside, the sun go down and the stars come out. We talked and talked and talked about all sorts of stuff – I haven�t felt that comfortable and carefree in quite some time. I laughed a lot too.

Three hours into the evening I confessed that I had thought this dinner meeting had been to plot in further detail the return of my original RSW character in the next day�s NSW game. (MLG is, of course, the brilliant architect and GM of NSW.) Struck by the coolness of this idea, he paid the bill (for which I thank him yet again) and we went back to his place to game for almost two hours. Bliss!

This being married thing is okay � it has its pros and cons � but one of those dual pros/cons is that constantly have someone to do stuff with. Hence you don�t necessarily go hang out with someone else for six hours on a Friday night very often. (Particularly the ending up at his place bit � I know that a lot of people would have gone ballistic over that part. Even though there was a net-fest going on in the next room.) I have, however, decided that I will indeed do this more often. It felt glorious to know that I didn�t have to be somewhere else.

The secondary bonus of having Friday night out with MLG is that it made the return of Ambassador-Jedi Saiyedra Dubh a complete surprise in Saturday�s game. Okay, it was a desire expressed by three of the five players at different times, but no one technically knew it was actually going to happen other than myself and the GM (who had asked me privately to bring the character back). As wonderful as it is, I�m a bit miffed and amused that the game took a sudden shift earlier in the session and I actually began to enjoy the pilot character I had been having difficulty playing. An added and unexpected bonus! All in all, a wonderful session.

Saturday night we went from the game to my in-laws� place for dinner: barbecued ribs, red wine or Alexander Keith�s (depending on your preference), and East Coast music. Divine! I fell asleep on the couch an hour or so after dinner, and we went home.

Sunday morning I had that guest speaker spot at a local group�s brunch meeting. Designing Rituals went as well the second time as it did the first! Lots of very interesting discussion, a wonderful cat, good bacon (I�m really picky about my bacon), mini quiches and apple muffins. The time change played a bit of havoc with the starting time, but everyone was nice and relaxed. A wonderful experience, and a terrific group of people.

We then came home and curled up with good music and books. I started to get stiff and a bit cold, so I decided to go lie down for a while. When my husband woke me up two and a half hours later to get ready to go to the ritual scheduled for last night I couldn�t move without severe pain, couldn�t stop shivering if I wriggled out from under the pile of covers I had on top of me, and couldn�t string three coherent words together. So he called our host and sent our regrets, which really annoyed me because I�d been looking forward to this meeting. Instead, he made me chicken noodle soup with crackers, and he even got me ice cream later. At 9 pm I felt better enough to get out of bed and curl up under a blanket to try to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture when it came on, but not well enough to watch it past the point where they entered the cloud. The commercial breaks every four minutes were driving me insane.

So I slept good and hard, woke up this morning, changed more clocks (how many clocks do I have, anyway?), made a pot of peppermint tea. My day�s schedule includes correcting exams and assignments for tonight�s class, and most definitely a nap.

I have a lot of people to thank for such a fun-filled weekend. Thank you, all!