Things are getting busy. Busy is good; there are lots of reasons to love busy.

For one thing, someone as precariously balanced as myself can really benefit from having absolutely no time available to actually THINK. The thinking and me, we don’t get along so well. It often leads to bickering. I’ll be okay, well, FINE, I’ll be ONLY SORT-OF MENTAL, and then I’ll start thinking, and the thinking, it leads to absolute conviction that things are EVEN WORSE than I first supposed!

So in that sense, I’m thrilled to be busy. Instead of my usual feeling that life is hard and then you die, I am instead mostly just longing for naps.

The freelancing, it is GOING. I can’t say it’s going WELL, at least not OUT LOUD, because, well, I just can’t. It would cause pianos to fall from the sky and my hard drive to short out and a swarm of locusts to deliver ebola to my doorstep. So when people say, “How’s it going?” I pretty much respond “It GOES!” That wards off any possible problems, and my manic grinning and waving over my shoulder as I dash off again pretty much gives the message that–at least right now–the going is in a general upward direction. Now shush.

I have this upcoming article assignment where I will interview real people and it suddenly occurred to me that I need to be able to record phone calls for these things where I may want to write something more specific than “This person I talked to said something along the lines of something.” So I queried a writers’ list I’m on and basically said, “Hey, what do I use to do this?” and was thrilled when the many lovely participants let me know that the device which I seek is called the “little suction-cup thingie you can get at Radio Shack.” Those sorts of responses… they tell me that I am amongst my own kind.

Then I have this other assignment which is causing my eyeballs to bleed. Not that I am complaining. Bleeding eyeballs, they put hair on your chest! That’s my motto! Well no, it isn’t. And no thank you to hair on my chest. And to improperly mixed metaphors, come to think of it. But I am working, and frustrations and ocular hemorrhaging aside, I am learning. For example, I am learning that I don’t want to take another project like this one in the future. But I never would’ve known that if I hadn’t gotten this one. So! Soon it will be over and I will be smarter!

And in the “being self-employed doesn’t actually cure you of being a tremendous dork” category: My business cards arrived, and I spent several days fondling them at every possible opportunity. They’re pretty. I’ve been handing them out like candy; not because anyone I give them to is likely to hire me, but just because it makes me happy. They read: Mir Lastname, Professional Dork. (Irony check: None of the folks for whom I’m currently working have received said cards.)

Tomorrow is picture day at Monkey’s school. Last year’s picture day spawned what is quite possibly my favorite blog entry. This year, the forecast claims it’s going to be 80 degrees, so I did manage to talk him out of a shirt and tie. But I was clipping his fingernails after his shower and he reminded me to be sure to make him handsome. I started to say that I doubted his picture was going to be of his FINGERNAILS, but opted to tickle him, instead. It seemed the more prudent choice.

Chickadee is still loving school and generally holding herself together much better than I’d expected. She’s been invited to her first slumber party–about which we are both experiencing some ambivalence, I think–and women I’ve never met before are calling to find out if she can come over and play with their daughters. This is wonderful! But it’s very time-consuming, and something of a balancing act. Not that I would have it any other way, you understand. Well… maybe I would have it this way, but with more chocolate. Hard to say, really.

Tomorrow I’m doing something Very Big and I am… ummm… excited. Yes. I’m excited. And maybe a little nervous. (Those of you who know what I’m talking about, hush up; I’ll post tomorrow.) Okay, it’s possible I’ve lost my mind entirely, but OH LOOK! OVER THERE, SOMETHING SHINY!

Things are changing ’round here. It may even be better than sleeping. I’ll let you know.