20150321.0811

Once again, work continues. I picked up a freelance order yesterday, buying and reading the book I will be writing up today. I am not certain why the current text was selected; those I usually get are new releases by bestselling authors (see my comments about Steel and Patterson, for example) or books that are returning to prominence due to theatrical release (such as About Alice, which I treated not too long ago), and the one I am working on now is not, to my knowledge, part of ether category. Still, I am not complaining; the money is good, and the read was better than many I have had to do to earn that money.

Yesterday, I also managed to get a few things set up for my upcoming jobs expedition. There were a number of documents that needed to be created and produced, and I compiled and assembled them. They came out better than I had thought they would (note again that I am not complaining), and I nurture the hope that they will help me to secure a continuing line of employment that might possibly allow me the chance to return to work on my research in earnest. It has suffered against my work to keep the household finances intact, but the ideas the research allows me to express and support continue to press against the inside of my head, demanding release and treatment.

In years past, when I have had Spring Break--and I have not always had Spring Break; the school where I taught in The City did not have the holiday--I have often used it to write papers for classes or to work on larger research projects such as my master's thesis (which I may or may not try to revisit at some point). This time, I spent the days "off" on writing, certainly, but for freelancing and the job hunt. Both continue, of course, as I have noted--and the latter will continue past that, with several more applications still waiting for my attention. I am glad that the academic job cycle is drawing down, actually; I will be able to attend to other concerns since I will not have to work on drafting new letters and filling out page after page after page of HR forms, even if I do not get to leave the job market because I have landed a job.

Again, though, I nurture some hope. Two of my friends noted yesterday that they have managed to get jobs, another did a few days back, and another is approaching one, since the contract has already been signed; I am excited for them. Perhaps some of their good fortune will reflect onto me, allowing me to worry less about finding steady work and more about doing what needs to be done to keep it. It will still be worry, certainly, but it will at least be a new kind of worry, and one that has a better subject altogether.