participate in a 43T working-at-home support group

if I end up freelancing or something at some point. At the moment I work in an office though, and I do hope to get more permanent work either there on in another newspaper.

I`m driving myself seriously nuts these days, sitting in the much hated apartment, worrying about my dogs health, my complete lack of career, my financial situation which is a disaster waiting to happen, and the fact that I`m pretty much stuck at home because my dog has separation anxiety. And the fact that all my friends and family thinks I`m completely insane for letting two dogs control my life like that. It`s awful. But I know if I had a job, or at least some part time or freelance work, I would feel much better about the situation in general. Right now, I spend most of my energy just worrying, which feels just terrible.
I need to get out of this bad cycle and do something. (not that I`m not doing anything at all, I am looking for jobs and sending applications, but I need to do a lot more.)

Plan for the week:
- Send at least 2 jobapplications.
- Write one freelance article. I don`t even have to send it if it doesn`t come out well, I just need to get writing to prove to myself I can and make freelancing possible.
- Send at least one e-mail to an organisation, asking if they might need someone to write something for their magazines or webpages as volunteer work. I really can`t afford to work for free, but on the other hand, it would give me relevant experience to put on my resume.
- Finish some work for the place I worked last year. They have hired me for a few hours to help them with some computer software I used to work with. Which is interesting, my computer skills are definitely average, they really should be able to figure this stuff out by themselves as I did when I worked with it. But since they don`t, I`m happy to work there a few hours and make a bit of extra money.

on this goal again! I`m over some of the things that made my life really difficult for a while, or at least things are better now. Time to start focusing on my career.

This week I`m going to the newspaper that I will be working in this summer, they are having a 2-day introducionseminar for new journalist who will be working there this summer. I`m looking forward to it, although it is also a bit scary. That is wednesday and thursday. I don`t think they will be expecting us to contribute much, the programme is mostly introductions and learning software and that sort of thing. But still, I`d like to be a little bit prepared.

So this week:
-sun/mon/tues: prepare for the introduction days, especially by reading articles from the online version of the paper, to get an overwiev of what they have focused on lately and so on.

-wed/thurs:introduction seminar

-read job ads

-start (and preferably finish) at least one jobapplication).

I just spent a bit of time at amazon again. (But not to buy this time, I promise, only to check out the recomendations for me and add about 20 more books to my wishlist, to look at later.)
And guess what Amazon is recommending for me today?? Yep. Careers in accounting! I really have joined the you on the dark side Snowleopard, even Amazon thinks so!

I just realized something. I`m going to be working in my current job for two more weeks, but I won`t have the same office, as I have been filling in for someone on parental leave this year, and she`s comming back and taking over her office tomorrow. So I`ll just have to use any other office available, there`s always some office that`s empty because someone`s travelling or something. Not a problem in itself. Except all the other offices have the computer screens facing a way that makes it possible for everyone walking past the office to see what you`re doing! I have ofcourse, very cleverly put my screen at the opposite end of my desk so noone has been able to see that I spend my time discussing bonnets and spaceships instead of working.
Looks like I`ll actually have to work on those spreadsheets now! All day! for two weeks! Eek! Urge to crish!

I`m leaving my current job on the 15th, but I have agreed to edit a report my boss wants to publish on a freelance basis after that. I`ve just started reading the report now. OMG. Why do they always make people who can`t write write these things??I`m sure the author knows what she`s doing when it comes to working with this subjects. But she can`t write. At all.

This is going to be a lot of work. Boring work. I`ve read through the introduction chapter now. It`s about a subject I`ve been working with a lot, so I know quite a lot about it. Even so, I`m seriously confused, after reading through all the information my reaction is just “What??”. And I`m supposed to make this understandable for readers who doesn`t know anything at all about this. Argh. There should be basic writing exams for people to pass before writing reports!

to be better at stating what I want in communication with bosses! Officially I`m leaving this job on february 1st. But then my boss asked me the other day if I would mind working some extra days, because the woman I`m filling in for is coming back to work on february 1st and I need to teach her about new things I`ve been working on that she`s not familiar with. So I said yes. I really don`t want to, but then on the other hand I really desperately need some extra money, and it`s only a few days, I`ll survive. But now I just had a talk with my boss, and asked her just how many days she had in mind. And she answered something very vague, she told me I could just discuss it with the woman I`m teaching this to and “figure something out. And I smiled and said “OK”. Which really isn`t good enough, I need to plan my days and my financial situation. Sigh.

She also asked me if I wanted to be “editor” of a report they want to publish this spring, on a freelance basis, and I immediately agreed. It will probably be a nightmare of proofreading boring things, working with details, finding pictures and other things I really find very boring (especially because this report is not on a topic I`m interested in at all. Plus, as we all know from my spelling, I suck at proofreading.). It was probably a good idea to say yes to it though, it`s money, which I need. But I need to learn to say things like “exactly how much work would that be” and “Let me think about it”. Sigh.

But, well, at least I`m about to become a real member of the working at home support group! I`ll actually be working from home for a while!

and I haven`t done any work. At all. None. Zero.
With everything that`s going on in my life, I think it`s quite understandable that I find it very hard to focus on incredibly boring work. But still, that doesn`t mean it`s ok to be this inefficient. I really, really need to get my act together, right now!

the days, and realized I have 15 workdays left in my current job. I`m finished there on january 31st. (And I`m on part time sickleave, so I don`t work fridays.)
I should be able to do 15 days, right? I really need to do a good job there and get the things that needs to be done done. 15 days isn`t that much afterall! Leaving with no new job is scary, but anything will be better than this. And. at least for a while, I will be a 100% member of the working at home group, not working in an office as I do now anymore. Yay!

The letter-sending nightmare is once again over. There is nothing that leaves me more stressed out and frustrated than sending out lots of letters, so now I`m not in the mood to do much more really. The most frustating thing about it is that we have secretaries here who does work like that all the time without getting stressed out, and who would do it about 10 times faster than me. But still, I have to do it. I`m so glad I won`t be doing this kind of work anymore after january!

Today (only half an hour left of the workday, yay!)
(plans moved to tomorrows list,Istarted doing it and then someone called)

Thursday:
one project payment

check one previous payment
- fint 2 missing applications and send to E
- E-mail R about two applications
- Check one (or two?) project that hasn`t asked for payment
Update fo accounts
- Start looking at kt accounts

Friday
- No work! Hehee! (I`m still on 50% sickleave)
- Send m-card
- call office about my application
transfer money for semavg to my account
- read interview book for at least an hour
play piano for at least 1 hour
- write down ideas for articles

Weekend
- pay semavg
- set up printer
- clean home office
- start working on article
- print exam application form
- check dates for ielts exam