Musings

I wonder how big the sweater would be that I would knit from all the hair you leave on my floor.

The Quest

As an under-employed resident of high-quality-career-lacking Prince Edward Island, I have tried my hand at a variety of contract work over the past year.  I've written before of the number of different things I'm doing, but what strikes me as most interesting is thus:   the things I like to do best, I am not getting paid to do.

"They" say (them, those people) that for a happy career you should find something you love and then figure out a way to get paid for it.  Well, "they" (them, those people) must be much smarter then I am, because I for the life of me cannot find a way to get paid to:

Read - I love to read.  Current readings include the archives of a completely inappropriate, but hilariously funny website whose url I am not going to post here for fear my mother or aunts may actually look it up and realize the kind of not so nice, potty-mouth stuff I read in a day.   But it's a really good website, honest.  The author was profiled recently on Oprah so it has to be good, right?  Actually it is very good, and very well written if you can overlook the potty-mouth trash talking.  The website started in 2001 and in the last week I've read daily archives through to August 2004.  Three years down and five more to go!  

I once read about a job that was posted by the producer Brian Glazer (Ron Howard's producing partner)  that would pay someone $100,000 annually to read on-line and off-line about current events, pop culture AND also to watch television and listen to radio!  Said job posting required the consumption of these materials so that the successful job applicant could then summarize a report to Brian Glazer on a daily basis all that is going on in the world so that he could "keep current".  Now there's a job I could do!  I love to read and I'm a fairly good writer (in my mind anyway).  And who could turn down a job at $100,000 annually to do this??  Alas, no such producer lives on PEI and no such job exists here - but a gal can always dream, can't she?

Publish - Since I purchased my new MacBook 45 days ago I have lost countless days to the evil thing known as I-Photo.  This wonderful, beautiful software application gives you tools to edit your photos and make extraordinary creations.  Creations like my own portfolio book of black and white winter photography.  Creations like a "complete with maps" photo album of our Trip of a Lifetime.  Creations like cards and calendars that I have populated with my photos of PEI - who wants a 2010 calendar full of island shots entitled 12 months, 4 seasons, 1 island?  I'm taking orders now people!  

Since I discovered the joys of on-line publishing where you edit your photos, upload onto a series of templates and then press the "send" button to order a printed copy of your work I have discovered I have a knack for photo publishing.  At least I think I do.  Of course I know just enough to be dangerous and am of no real value to anyone that might hire a photo editor, but again I say, a gal can always dream, can't she?

Cook -   Again with the countless hours lost.  Overall, I'm a very good cook.  I can follow a recipe with the best of them.  But where my creativity really shines is in the making of soups, sauces, stews and one-pot meals.  I make a mean soup.  You need a soup, a stew, a one pot meal - I am DEFINITELY for hire.  It is amazing to me the variety of ways you can take the same first 4 ingredients (onion, carrots, celery & garlic) and transform them into savoury soups and scarily delicious sauces.    They're really good - honestly - my husband says so.  

I don't think I'd want to be a cook every day, but certainly there are many days when the hours fly by while I play around in the pantry, figuring out which flavours will combine to make a simple pot of vegetables into an extraordinary dish of goodness.  

Write - Ah writing...Since starting this blog I have written almost every day (except for the days when those college students suck the life out of me).  I do not lack for material.  In fact, while doing other things in my day I often think "oh that would make a good blog subject" and I think about writing it down, but somehow I can't find a pen when I'm flying 80 km/hour down Rustico Road and then before I can find a pen - whoosh - the big idea is gone.  So every day I sit down at this computer and think, think, think "what do I write about today?"  It's not as easy as it looks people!  But the Gemini in me is silently screaming "yes it is!  it's easy to write!  it just flows from your fingertips with nary a stop in your brain for processing".  So occasionally you'll see ramblings on this blog and that's when the fingers have taken over and the brain has become disinterested (like now).

But I digress.  The whole reason I started this blog in the first place was to have an outlet with which to write about something every day.  I have long dreamed of being a writer.  And for much of my career I did a lot of writing (being a marketing type person and all).  But I've never figured out how to take the first step in becoming a writer full time.  Well, maybe this little blog is that first step.  "They" say (them, those people) that the best writers write everyday.  They don't necessarily like what they write, but they sit down and have the discipline everyday to write something (I imagine those writers do not have college kids sucking the life out of them 4 or 5 days a week).  

So that's what I'm doing.  Writing every day.  Often about nothing.  Sometimes about something.  I hope you find it interesting enough to keep checking back here.   Maybe someday I'll figure out my next career and maybe it will involve being a writer.  A gal can always dream, can't she?