Thursday, July 2, 2015

20150702.0842

My wonderful wife and I will be traveling over the weekend to attend the wedding of a couple of our friends from The City. Ms. 8 will be staying at Sherwood Cottage--and not alone; we have family coming up to watch the house, the girl, and the cats (one of whom is likely noisily shitting as I write this). We leave tomorrow, attend the wedding Saturday, and return Sunday. It promises to be a fun time for all involved.

On our return, I will be walking into a load of work; two freelance orders popped up for me this morning. One was a bonus, a pleasant surprise, indeed. The other was a more normal order, one for which I have purchased the book but which I have not begun; I have told the client about my travel plans. I also had to turn down a proofreading job, which I regret, but there would be no way that I could get it done by the client's deadline. I do have company over, after all, and, as I note above, I am about to be on the road. Neither of these conduces to copyediting--or, really, to reading-and-write-up work.

It is not often that I am in a position to turn away work. I am usually in the opposite situation, looking for work to take on. It is for that reason that I signed up to work with a summer program, after all, and why I have been attending to freelance work as much as I have (to the exclusion of other writing projects that should be getting more of my effort than they have been). The household needs money; my wife's families and mine offer help, and I do not turn it away, but I need to do more. I need to not need the help, or to need as little of it as can be done. This past week, in fact, has been a worry, since it has only been today that I have come up with freelance orders, with chances to bring in just a little bit more money so that I can not only pay the month's bills (which I did, mind), but maybe put aside a little bit against the threat of work not coming in and me not finding more of it to do. (I have been unemployed. It was not pleasant, and I do not imagine that the resources available for support here are the equal of what I had in The City.)

I am not certain I am comfortable being in the position. It feels somehow wrong to refuse a job, even if it is one I will not be able to do. I worry that having said "No" will mean that further offers will not be forthcoming, and that is not something I can afford to have happen. Not even if I win some kind of lottery and suddenly have millions of unearned dollars to my name can I afford to have that happen; I have seen what else falls with such windfalls, and I have no hardhat to protect me against such things...

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