You were always on my mind.

Hello there! I’ve been neglecting you again, haven’t I? I have very good reasons, though, and I am prepared to tell you all about them. What, you don’t believe me? You don’t remember when I mentioned that I got hired as a Guide for ChaCha? You didn’t think what having a functional car would do for my social life? Bah. You kids, never thinking ahead.

Enough of that. I did get hired at ChaCha, and I started actual work on Sunday. Wayyyy back when my jobhunt was still something kind of funny, I said that I needed to make about $300 every month. Such a small amount, such an impossible dream! I’ve been keeping things running since then with a string of ill-timed, frantic freelance gigs, and I’ve often come up short. When I applied at ChaCha, I thought about it in terms of making five or ten bucks every now and then — cigarette money, or maybe gas money. Little things. I didn’t think of it as, you know, a solution.

In the past two days, I have made over $60. I’ve worked three or four hours each day. If I keep up this pace, I will be making about $900 every month; that will more than double our income. If I scale it back to a couple of hours a day (which I will, because who works FOUR WHOLE HOURS every day? Not me), I’ll still make around $600 — which will increase our income by 75%. I can do this from home, I can do this in my pajamas, and I can do this around more interesting things like finishing up my book, applying to really cool career-type jobs, and parenting my kid. If we need more than $600 or $900 or [insert amount here], I can work six hours instead of two — or eight hours instead of six — and presto! More money.

I mean, I know it’s not a great job. I know that $600-to-$900 every month is not anything like a decent salary. It’s okay, though. It’s more than I need, financially, and it’s exactly what I need as far as time and effort and interest go. I like the job. I get to do trivia hunts all day. I get to play know-it-all. It’s nice. Also, I keep getting Chuck Norris questions, which crack my shit up.

So I’ve been doing that, and I’ve been getting out of the house a little more. The new car means all sorts of exciting things, not least of which is that Connor and I can go to the park for lunch whenever we want. We’ve taken my nieces with us a couple of times, and we all have a blast. The parks around here give out free lunches for kids (to take the place of school lunches for low-income kids or kids with busy parents), so we can have a picnic whenever we want. Tomorrow I plan to do the grocery shopping on my own, whenever I’m ready to go, instead of waiting for Michael to get out of bed or off of work. It’s going to be fabulous, and I really cannot say enough great things about this car. (Seriously. I could go on. OMG THE CAR IS SO SEXY I CAN GO ANYWHERE I’LL NEVER BE TRAPPED AGAIN. And then I’ll swoon. It’ll be gr — why are you opening a new tab? Hey, come back!)

Today is earmarked for finishing up my last freelance gig, maybe sending out resumés for a few more, ChaChaing, and fooling around in the (suddenly, weirdly prolific) garden. I know I need to take pictures of… like, everything… and I know I need to write a non-job entry soon. Once I get past the hump this month (bills are due in a week; after that, I’ll have a two-week sigh of relief before rent is due) there will be much more to say. Here’s a preview: The garden is huge! There are tomatoes and cucumbers and squash seedlings everywhere! I can’t sleep and I spend all night trudging between couch, bed, and bathtub! I think I need a new piercing and/or tattoo, because I don’t feel like a trashy enough mother yet! My head exploded yesterday and giant purple aliens flew out, which really means that Michael and I had a ridiculous fight!

While I’m in the trenches, go check out Schizodigestive. I’m running Kip’s New Mexico series this week, and I’m hoping to have a post of my own up too. That’ll keep you busy!