I Miss Blogging!

I haven't been a good blogger lately. That goes for both reading others' blogs and writing my own.

During the ten months since I'd been laid off, I blogged more and more regularly and I really tried to focus on writing something of substance every day. I had plenty of time during those months and I not only blogged here, but I found a few paid writing jobs as well. It was a very writing-focused time for me and I hoped that I could somehow put three kids through college on the very small amount of money I'd been making from my writing.

I was clearly delusional.

Last month I found a good full-time job with good people, good benefits and incentives, interesting and challenging work, and a schedule (10 - 4 and 8 - 10 daily) that I hoped would allow me to continue to write thoughtful, considered posts on a daily basis.

I was clearly delusional.

Have you noticed that for, oh about a month, I have written very few thoughtful, original posts? My readership, which has dwindled considerably, shows it -- but I promised myself a while ago that it's not really about readership; it's about writing. I miss my both my readers (please, don't gooooo!) and the opportunity to write (not just post) daily!

I hope to be back. Really, I do! But for now, my new job is all-encompassing, with little time for anything else. My days have become quite predictable, with a schedule that looks very much like this every day:

7:00: Up, clean, work.
9:00: Stop working at home and get in the car to drive to work.
9:30: Work. At work.
12:00: Eat lunch. While working.
4:00: Leave work. Drive to gym.
4:30: Swim/work-out. Mentally work while working out.
6:30: Home. Cook. Work. Clean. Work. Think about work.
7:00 Dinner with family (from one to seven other people). NOT working or thinking about work!
8:00: Work on phone with Mumbia. Or work alone in my home office.
10:00: Space out in front of the TV until...
10:02: Fall asleep while thinking about work.

Do you see blogging in there? Neither do I.

Any new job is demanding, and project management tends to be especially demanding because the details and organization of the project is dependent on the PM -- and I have four separate projects that are focused on a technology that I am still very much learning. This should eventually calm down and I should be able to eventually relax, not feeling that I need to be "on" my projects every minute of every day.

But at this company someone IS working every minute of every day, because we have a presence in both India and the US. So when I pass off a task to our (wonderful!) people in India at night, I wake up to a finished task when I check my in-box first thing in the morning! It's a bit like the Elves and the Shoemaker! I love that... and our clients REALLY love it because it means that we can literally do the job overnight!

And now I really need to... work.