Insomnimusing: Allons-y!

I've been wallowing in unemployment hell (well, I WAS freelancing the whole time though) for more than six months. My son (age 19) lost his job at a fast-food joint a couple of months after I lost mine. So the household has been pretty down looking at the financial situation for a while. Then today - I started back to work at my old newspaper office. (Lower pay, but still, back to work.) My daughters (ages 9 and 11) got a job walking a neighbor's dog each evening. My son got a call from the census bureau saying he was hired to be an enumerator. Suddenly, the entire household is employed! The girls start their dog-walking venture tomorrow evening. It all started because Munch got it in her head that she wanted to take care of animals - although she doesn't even feed our cat. She started making up these preposterous signs advertising her "Pet Care" service and posting them in our front window. It offered such things as walking, pet sitting, washing and even flea tre...

Work back at the office begins tomorrow morning, and I'm looking forward to it. Yet tonight, though, I still have to write my last freelance (sort of) assignment. It was meant to be a story on stamp collectors (yes, really), but thanks to a ridiculous comedy of errors, that's fallen through and been pushed back for another month. My editor asked for a replacement story, so I'll be writing up on social media, localized appropriately. It shouldn't be too terribly hard - I know the subject. I had to go to a singles dance Friday night for another freelance assignment that's actually due a little later. THAT was an adventure. I'm 37 years old but generally am perceived to be in my 20s. The clientele at this singles dance (it gets about 250 people at each week's dance) probably average somewhere in their 60s. I was hoping not to be there too long, and I did manage to get out in one hour. But it was an eventful hour. I found a couple who'd started their romance...

Here's a timeless classic. :) It's The Knack singing My Sharona for Flashback Friday.

I've gotten the official word now that I'll be returning to work March 29. I'll be going back to my old paper - where I worked for almost seven years - as a half-time copy editor/paginator and half-time reporter. It's really the perfect arrangement for me. I always liked copy-editing and paginating, because it just comes completely naturally to me. And I've rediscovered a love of reporting during my last six months of freelancing (though I still and will probably always hate writing feature stories). When I got the initial verification, my old boss told me that I'd be working at the same wage that I started at eight or so years ago. Then I got a follow-up call from him today. It seems the publisher signed the personnel requisition without really reading it, and now he's informed my editor that the job was only budgeted for a dollar less than that rate. My editor's still arguing for the higher rate for me, based on my experience, but it's unlikely he...

Man, I almost forgot! How about some Good Times for Flashback Friday this week? Belt it out Jimmy Barnes with INXS! (And it's timely too, isn't it?)

I've been battling my insomnia with some pharmaceutical assistance lately. Don't worry - I take only one pill a night, only if I'm able to sleep at least six or seven hours, and it's non-addictive medication. It's been working for though, and even though I still feel tired when I wake up, at least I am getting actual sleep. It's got to be better than sleeping only an hour or two a night. At the very least, my eyes don't have that sunken, corpse-like look to them anymore. I had a raging headache when I woke up this morning. Part of that might have been that I waited a bit late to take the pill, and part of it might have been that the girls were especially slow and difficult this morning, so I woke directly to stress and anger as I tried to get them moving to go to school. I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours after they left for school, and when I awoke again, the headache was completely gone, though I did feel extremely tired still. I'm ne...

Ok, so I forgot to post a Flashback Friday last week. I'm making up for it this week by giving you a double dose of Naked Eyes. It's Always Something There to Remind Me, and Promises, Promises (with both the US and UK versions, so it's a triple today!). Enjoy!