I'll Be Away From Home Again Soon

Jackie will be holding down the fort once again while I take a day and a half to house-, horse- and dog-sit in Eatonville (about 22 miles away) for a 36-hour stretch while a couple I know gets away for a quick wedding anniversary retreat at Cannon Beach, Oregon. I should have Internet access there this time, and so may be able to continue to blog and do my Elance work from there, but no guarantees until I actually get there!

I took on another role at a divorce assistance website today. I'll be doing their e-newsletter, too -- with talking points provided by the owner of the site. The site is being re-launched later this month. When I know the URL, I'll let you know what it is so you can glean information from it if you're going through a divorce or know someone who is.

I'll be writing articles for a cosmetic surgery company here in Tacoma in the not-too-distant future. They found me via Elance! I'm looking forward to that... And I'll be writing for a life coach soon, too, God willing and if everything goes forward as planned... all via Elance!

I'm at the tail-end of a large project for a Canadian company right now. I've written 95% of the material and now just have to make any edits that are necessary after the client reviews it. I hope that'll be all put to bed before I head for Eatonville the day after tomorrow.

Today is Jackie's birthday so we've been celebrating that for about three days with various family members and friends. It's always a lot of fun. There were 13 people here for the Super Bowl yesterday while we celebrated Part One of Jackie's Birthday Gala. What a game at the end, huh?

By contrast, I hide during my birthday. Always have, even when I was a kid. I don't even remember any birthday parties for me; I have blanked them out of my memory entirely, although I know I had them, as did Laurel and Jackie. I don't like being placed into a spotlight. It's too nerve-wracking. I've been that way pretty much forever -- which is probably why I love to write! I have lots to say, but am too freakin' shy to say it when I'm around other people!

The funny thing is, I register as a very high "I" (along with a very high D and S) on the DISC personality insights scale. I used to be a Shirley Temple-type sparkler when I was very young. But it got it "corrected" out of me by my parents, who viewed me as "over-the-top." The correction stuck and kinda crippled me: I guess I figured there was something intrinsically wrong with being a sparkler!

But I wanted to be an actress (and always a writer!) as a teenager, after I worked my way out of the corner of every room, where I usually hid. I started with puppet shows, then graduated to debate and speeches. (If you can survive debate and speeches and not have a heart attack, you're doing fine in the public arena, even if you're still feeling scared spit-less.)

What else? Our next Writer's Edge class gathering is this Saturday at church from 10-1 so I'm very much looking forward to that. Pastor Ken Ecker (my former boss at Church For All Nations) is going to give the class a refresher course on proper written English and grammar using all those fancy terms that teachers use when teaching, most of which I have long since forgotten. He was an English teacher before he became a pastor, so we've corralled him for a few sessions every few months or so.

The student I'm taking notes for at Clover Park wasn't in class today. Her teacher told me that her husband suffered a heart attack this morning. So please keep him and her in your prayers. Her name is Cheryl. I don't know his name, but God does, so your prayers are much appreciated, I'm sure.

Guess that's all the news that's fit to print for this time...