Well, alright then.

So a LOT has happened since my last update…which I meant to do the following Saturday. I’m still trying-no, actually, I haven’t tried hard enough to keep up a schedule for regularly updating this.

My days are jam-packed with obligations. Whose days aren’t? Sure. But not everyone has a ~2-hr one way daily commute to work each morning. My default answer to this is “yeah, I know - I’m not asking for empathy, I’m just saying…”. But, in fact, I AM asking for empathy. This shit sucks. I drift regularly between grief and acceptance of this fact. I’ve had a long commute before, but it was via rural backroads with bucolic views. It was like driving through Norman Rockwell landscape paintings at times. Very peaceful and serene, even the couple of times I had to drive through scary thunderstorms at night or blinding snowstorms. Never not once did I have an issue during that commute while I was at that job for almost a year (which I quit out of boredom, I’ll blog about that later).

So fast-forward roughly 5 years later to when I started this current job, and the tables have turned. I am driving through insanely disgusting traffic of the bumper-to-bumper variety. My commute to this job while I was living in Chicago was bad, but not as bad as it is now, after moving farther out. Two-ish hours to the job from my house, then two-ish hours from the job to my kid’s (hereafter known as “G”) grandmother’s house (where she is after being picked up from school), then 40 minutes from there to our house. Crazy, right? Right.

So I make use of the time by listening to podcasts, audiobooks, YouTube videos, and then I turn on music after listening to people talk starts making me drowsy. After I pick up G, I’ll yap with her to stay present and check off all the Good Mother boxes. By the time we get home, it’s like 7 to 7:30p. WARNING: complaining ahead.

I am tired from sitting during the marathon driving session and from being in a low-grade state of boredom and mental understimulation all day at work. Still, I will chat with G, do very light cleaning up, or manage to walk on the walking pad for a little bit. Can’t stay up too late, because I have to get in bed at a somewhat decent hour to be up with the fading moon to get on the road…to head back to work. Complaining over.

I listen to a lot of YouTube personalities who push productivity and such, and they swear that using the “5 to 9” block of time after working your 9-to-5 is prime time for working on side businesses and hobbies. I am damn near still in the car from my 9-to-5 during this time, so I have to squeeze in what I can. I usually opt for the walking pad or stretching. My brain is not at an optimal state for deep work after navigating the transition from dealing with mentally unchallenging work tasks for 8-ish hours, then switching to a state of hyper awareness and focus needed for a long rush hour highway driving session.

So then come the weekends. These feature G’s softball games, mostly. I’ve committed to making sure I’m carving out time for myself during these few days, so that may include an event or two. I also have to catch up on cleaning and cooking for the week during this time, which I enjoy doing. I’ve started a culinary journal along with a culinary bucket list - of which I’ve yet to attempt. Anyway, this blog will be about me checking off some boxes, trying things, and journaling those experiences. So, probably more on the culinary bucket list later.

Anyway, the free time I have during the week (virtually nil) should start to rival the free time I have on the weekends (hopefully, ironically) thanks to the businesses I’m building on the side: nonprofit consulting and photo booth rental. The nonprofit consulting has been like 2 years in the making, with fits and starts here and there. Client acquisition is a serious endeavor! The photo booth rental business idea came about after listening to The Millionaire Fastlane while driving a few months ago. I had listened to this last year, but came back around to it earlier this year. MJ talks about “money trees” and how rentals can help you grow one. Well, I did some research on rental ideas that would interest me and learned about photo booth rentals. After going back and forth on it for weeks, I decided to go ahead and purchase one. This is my largest one-time, non-financed purchase ever. Therefore, I will make this work. The good news is I’ll make my money back after just a couple of rental events.

Both are necessary to help me get to a more solvent state of financial affairs, but the photo booth rental business will let me work the creative muscle that has lain dormant for years. Another sliver of irony here (which is common with me) is that I have a habit of not taking pictures (which I’m actively breaking), and I do not have a particular interest in photography. But the idea of designing sets and creating visually appealing experiences is an interesting one and one I think I’ll like. Again, if it isn’t, I’ll book enough events to make my money back, then just sell the equipment.

The nonprofit consulting will be satisfying (I hope) because I’ll get to use my technical and analytical skills to research and present information. I’ve been paying toward a grant writing class for a couple of years now (not cheap), and I’d like to put it to use (the idea of sunk costs, and all that). I’m looking forward to the joy and adrenaline rush from pitching my offer and getting paid invoices. And being able to live off that. The goal is to replace my 9-to-5 salary with this, which won’t be hard to do once I get going. Three clients a month will get me there. Because I do not plan to leave the 9-to-5 just yet (I’m hanging on for the overall certainty, healthcare, and other benefits, e.g., lender bias toward employment, annual bonus, etc.) and my photo booth rentals will occur mainly on the weekends (for now), I’ll have to become a weekend warrior to make all of this work. And I’m up for the challenge. I’ve done hard things before and made it through the other side just fine. This could be different, but won’t be impossible.

Anyway, all of this just to say that I haven’t designated time for regularly updating this blog. The problem is, I have designated times for other things I have to do, but I am not always successful in sticking to the calendar reminders. I’ll work on it. This week’s challenge: update after work one day this week.

Toodleloo.