On things that are new

Okay, so it seems that I've been giving so many of those "Where the hell have you been?" updates that I might as well make it a weekly feature ("Wednesday Weekly Wherethehellyoubeen?" perhaps). Hopefully, though, this'll be the last one for a while - not because I'm going anywhere, but because I've finally gotten (God willing) to the kind of settled place where I might actually be able to get to the computer on a more-than-biweekly basis.

Anyone who's done any freelancing knows exactly how much actual work-work it takes to pay the bills (and most of the rest of the time is spent doing something known as "fervent sobbing prayer"). That's why I jumped at the chance to take on a new day job, one that would actually pay me a living wage (unlike my last one) and give me actual time off on weekends and holidays (unlike my last one) and not make me physically ill with stress and overwork (seen The Devil Wears Prada?"). I've been holding off on an official announcement until I'd actually been to work and seen that it could be a sustainable, perhaps even permanent, kind of thing. But I have, and it could be, and here I am: the newest resident of Birmigham, Alabama.

Yeeeeah. I'm not really sure myself how it really happened; it was all kind of a blur. But I know there was a job opening for an advertising and marketing copywriter in Doug's building, just upstairs, and I know that they paid real money, and I know that I was completely underqualified, and I know that they said, "Meh" and hired me anyway. So my last big life change has been followed by another one, which currently involves me crashing on Doug's couch while I look for an apartment and will soon involve some seriously nice benefits and, I hope, a non-slum apartment.

So that's where I am now, and I'm assured that I'll have plenty of time to "pursue other writing projects in the evenings" (which I think is UAB's way of reminding me that we don't blog on university time). And this is certainly something I intend to keep writing. And now I'll have time to actually do it, albeit not during the work day.

But more importantly, I will no longer be my boss's handmaiden and/or her daughter's math tutor. And I think we can all agree that that's a very good thing.