off to a flying start

I feel like I've bolted out the gate of 2009 and haven't stopped. My temp job "ended" the last day of December, and I spent a week relaxing over New Year's and feeling great about having some time off. After going home for Christmas and talking to some friends, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and start my own reiki practice (been meaning to write about the reiki classes I've taken and just never got around to it!). I'm now writing content for my website (using an awesome e-business system called SBI), which will include reiki as well as the spiritual topics I'm passionate about.

SBI has gotten me excited about becoming self-employed, so I've been reading books on the subject. It turns out that self-employment is perfect for me. It's what I've always wanted, but I had this idea that you had to have a lot of experience or expertise in one field before you could be self-employed at it. Creativity and brainstorming are really the necessary skills, and expertise is secondary.

But anyway, I got so excited about my new projects that it occurred to me I was job-FREE, not jobless. I was thinking about this and feeling great when I went shopping the Tuesday after the new year, and while I was shopping, my temp agency called and said my work wanted me to come back for a couple of weeks. So back I went, and two weeks turned into two months (though likely not any longer). I'm kind of tired of working here now, so it'll be nice once I finish here and get to work on my projects full time while I job search.

i'm taking this blog thing way too seriously...

...that's why it took me so long between posts. I keep thinking I want to write something that's good and "writerly", and then I don't end up finishing anything (plenty of drafts though). That and I've had one issue or another with my computer and/or Internet connection since I moved to the new apartment, so I haven't been on the 'net much except at work.

My work has been a source of stress for the past two months because of the constant flux. The manager who hired me has been laid off, but they were nice enough to find me another department that needed my help, so I've been shuffled around doing random projects for them. It hasn't been all boring, though, and I even got to do some writing (ad copy for an online auction). My new manager is very impressed with my performance and sings my praises to everybody who passes through her office (she has a loud voice). I was training with another team today on using their customer database, and they praised me for picking it up so quickly. That's all really nice and I'm grateful for the comments - my previous managers never appreciated my work like they do. But I'm still a temp and the company is still in bad shape, so I'm job searching once again.

"fitness season"

As you may or may not know, I work for a company that markets infomercial products internationally. The first half of the year, from January through May or so, is we call the "fitness season" -- that is, when people make new year's resolutions to exercise and lose weight (people who go to the gym regularly know about this). It lasts until May or so because as the temperature warms, people start exercising outdoors, or they go on vacation, so the sales of exercise equipment drops.

I mention this now because for some reason reading this phrase today, it felt icky. I felt sad that so many people start exercising each year, fail to keep it up, and then start all over again the next year in the hopes that this year they'll finally lose those 10, 20, 30 pounds. And some people make money off of this cycle and call it "fitness season." I swear, probably a good half to two-thirds of the infomercial products out there are either exercise equipment or something that promises weight loss in some way. Not that I begrudge people making money when the opportunity presents itself, but it all just seems so pointless.