Now Title this Post and Get ON with It!

I'll just warn you: my main incentive in writing this post is simple procrastination -- both short and long-term.

I should take Shasta for a walk around the block again. I promised her I would, and she's hanging out at my feet right now, doing that weird dog-yawn. You know the one that screams, 'Aw, me? Nuttin'. Just relaxin' here, not doin' much, almost asleep... waiting for you to take me on that FRIKKIN' WALK that you promised we'd do daily, bee-atch!' That's my immediate morning procrastination.

My all-day procrastination is finishing a very odd contract gig. The work itself isn't odd at all; in fact, it's a lot of fun. I'm writing about throwing great kids' birthday parties. This is content I know! And it's just a simple Word doc. No Wiki. No Basecamp. No Confluence. Just a Word doc about birthday parties. So why the procrastination? Well, because the circumstances around the gig are a bit baffling. I have applied for the open position of Director of Product Development for the same toy company that just hired me to do this writing gig. In fact, they hired me to do the freelance work AT my second all-morning-and-into-the-afternoon interview! The interview after which I was thinking, 'Here comes the offer...'

(Ha!)

Of course I obliged, thinking that this gig would, in actuality, just be my first assignment in my new director position and that I was being asked to work freelance so they could get something back quickly, before all the hiring details were complete. But it turns out that they're still interviewing people for the position and they have four other "strong candidates" to talk to next week before they'll even get close to make a decision! And yet, I've been asked to essentially start in on the work! Isn't that just a tad bizarre? It's like I'm being given an additional qualifying task that none of the other candidates are being given, and I can either assure myself the position if I do well, or disqualify myself if I screw up. I'm either at an unfair advantage or an unfair disadvantage. Are the other candidates being given this assignment as well? I seriously doubt it, as I am charging the company for my work, and my fee times four is a hefty sum to pay for an "interviewing activity"!

So I'm procrastinating on writing this birthday guide because it all feels so daunting -- and confusing. I think this is the position I want, more than any other I've interviewed for since April, so what I submit has to be really, really good. It has to be damn near perfect. But how will they judge me with the other four candidates, who apparently don't have an additional contract assignment?

This afternoon at 3:30 I'll be talking to another organization about some freelance work -- writing a guide for teens about leadership. The content is definitely up my alley and I'd actually like to do the work. But this gig isn't just writing; it's also art and production, which I'd need to hire out. It's MUCH bigger than the birthday guide, in all respects , but chances are it wouldn't pay much more because it's for the organization that I interviewed with a few weeks ago -- the one with the open Director of Development position that pays very little, forcing me to withdraw my candidacy. Still, they want me to consider creating this leadership guide... before I leave for Germany!

I guess I could do both guides. But I sure would prefer that going that route ends up with one good job offer!

OK, so that's today's procrastination. I'm writing about why I'm not writing. Riiiiiight.

The long-term procrastination is... scrapbooking. I absolutely LOVE to scrapbook! So why have I completely stopped doing it? I even have the time now to work on the two scrapbooks that will definitely be expected next June -- Aleks' and Kat's high school graduation books! These will NOT be easy, since they will chronicle their entire lives. So why haven't I started on them yet? Scrapbooking is something I love, so why is this table not completely buried in ribbon and paper cuttings? Hell, I even have the perfect printer for it now!

I have no answer. Maybe I've just become lazy. That is a distinct possibility. That, or maybe I have trouble chronicling a linear account of a life when my own is in such disarray. Nah -- that's entirely too complicated and Freudian and psych-majorish. It must be simple laziness.

Shasta's completely given up on getting a w-a-l-k this morning (I have to spell it or she'll go back to the yawny thing). I think I'll surprise her and grab her leash after all.

And when I get back I will sit down and write (and maybe even scrapbook!) about birthday parties like a good little girl.