There are those who have called me a pessimist because I always aim to be prepared as best as I can… Careful planning and a healthy dose of reality tend to keep me from being devastated when something goes awry… Don’t get me wrong, I am a hopeless romantic, and, as such, my spirit is bent toward the fairy tale ending… Life, on the other hand, has too often, it seems, had something else in store for me…

With three teenagers who are all active in and out of school, I often find myself sitting, waiting for some type of practice to end. My work sometimes requires me to transport students on field trips, where I also find myself sitting for hours on end.

I have turned that drudgery into productivity and profitability, for lack of a better word. Prior to changing careers, I had discovered how slow and, well, at times down-right daunting the process of breaking into the publishing industry is. When I began this line of work three years ago, I could finally proclaim that I was getting paid to write… maybe not in the traditional sense, but, hey, who cares?

While I am waiting for my charges to finish their pleasure trips, I frequently get in my exercise, read, or do things like write. This past Friday I took along some accounting work that I have put off for a month. And whilst I tallied those tedious numbers, I was earning money. Cha-ching!

Now I am getting paid while I write this blog! Which brings another thought to mind. I am one of the world’s best procrastinators. I am also one of America’s few who do not have cable or DSL broadband and am relegated to the slower form of satellite broadband. Combine those two elements and I often find my time in between my work split-shifts being sucked up into the cyber vacuum. Before I know it, my free time is up and I’ve accomplished nothing but the lazy person’s version of surfing… How did they come up with that analogy?

But I digress… On Monday of this past week, I became very frustrated with myself and that little voice in my head began chastising me, again. This time, however, her nagging finally made some sense. Rather than become defeated by all I haven’t accomplished, I decided that I was looking at my life all wrong!

My inspiration came in the following form: I need to see writing and exercise as a form of rewarding myself, as something I really want and enjoy and an am besotted with and can hardly wait for! Not that thing, Oh, my God, I have to write and I didn’t do it today…

This week I have been living the following motto: Once I sort that pile of receipts into manageable piles, I can read the web and then set up that blog I’ve been thinking about for the past two years. Once I reconcile one of those piles of receipts, then I can write that first blog entry! Once I fold those two loads of laundry that have been sitting on the sofafor three days … (doesn’t everyone have a laundry sofa? We have two love seats: one for sitting and one that most often holds laundry in need of folding…)

A book, walking shoes, my journal, a trusty pen, my laptop, and now a blog!… life is portable… life is good…