So early tomorrow morning, we hit the road for San Diego; we’re heading down to meet Kristi’s cousin Andy, who will be conducting our ceremony in July. It’s going to take most of the day for us to drive down there, a long road trip down most of California. We’ve both been busy today trying to square everything away for the trip.
Kristi’s been on break since Friday. For her, it’s Spring Break – a solid week off, nothing hugely gigantically pressing, a big block of time to relax and recreate before having to go back to work.
The last two days have been interesting around here, because even though she’s home and I’m home and at first glance it seems like we’re home together, the truth is I’m still working. That’s one of the tougher parts of working for yourself in a home office: you’re never entirely at work, and you’re never entirely at home. And you’re never, ever entirely on vacation. And that’s hard on the people around you, because you’re always lugging work along, no matter where you go. The flip side is hard as well – having to remind people that, just because you happen to not be sitting at an office desk, you’re not on a forever vacation.
This lifestyle has posed problems in the past for me in relationships. It’s a hard routine to ask a woman to adapt to, because there’s no clear line for me between my life and my work. One blurs right into the other. Add to that all the other cute little aspects of freelance life – PITA clients, collection issues, fluctuating income, obsessive and often insecure work-related moods, and seasonal workflows – and you end up with a steep curve to get around. It takes a patient, loving, and about all understanding woman to be willing to adapt to that kind of life. You can never simply hop in the car and go home at five; you’re both working and not working all day, every day, every waking minute.
I have to hand it to her. It took me several years to adapt to the life, myself.. and it wasn’t the smoothest of life transitions, I can tell you. Kristi’s mastered much of it in only a few months. We’re both still human beings, which means running into a snag here and there when personal lifestyles collide and one of us needs to be reminded by the other that the name of the game is compromise. But man oh man, it could be so much worse. I’m very grateful that Kristi’s that special kind of woman who can cope with being married to a freelance writer. There aren’t many like her around.
So today I’ve been closed off in the office all day, talking to clients and working to get the last remaining deliverables off my desk. Today it was a call with a Florida coffee company, and finishing up website copy for a company that does financial market forecasting for investors – done and done, it’s all finally off my desk and everything parked until Monday. So now I’m on vacation.
Vacation.
Well, as soon as I check my email again.
And tweak that copy again.
And roll today’s coffee company call to an MP3 file for server storage.
And sort the week’s files on my desk.
And update my client records to reflect this week’s hourly billing.
And do some coding updates on my client management system.
And check email again.
And maybe tweak some copy again.
And.. check email. Again.
(*Kristi stomps in and yanks a fistful of power cables out of the wall*)