It's Done, er, Finished.

Okay! So, we had another waiting game for a bit, but it's all settled now. John got an offer (different job, yes, two offers in one week) and picked one! This is good news, however, he won't go to work until January 4th. Which is fine. A bit of a throwback, but it's fine.

It's so funny, I really need to learn to get my head around not believing anything until it is smack dab on top of me.

But it's a good job, a really good job and he's excited and happy. Now we just have a few more weeks of "broke" and then we come back, bigger than ever!

Right now I'm really working on calming down.

The business is getting me all wrapped up. It's a good thing, it really is, there's no part of me that is wondering if I can do this, I know I can, but it can be overwhelming.

I have all these questions in my head, or that other people are asking, that I don't have the answers to yet. I have some philosophical questions ("I really need to find my voice," or "I really need to say what distinguishes me," or "I have to answer the question 'why?") and for some reason I feel like I need to answer all these questions TODAY.

But then I awesome myself right out of this as best I can. Because here's the truth, I unveiled a website a week ago, I am just now getting a business license, I'm just now learning what kind of voice I want to write in and tour in. See, these are all things that come with my new partner in crime - time.

I'll have to write a lot more blog posts to be really great at it, I'll have to do a lot more marketing before I have a bajillion followers, yes, I have a lot more work to do but I have to give myself a break, because, I'm doing the work. And there are so many questions I have and so many little things I need to figure out and our lives are still so weird and upheaved (is that a word? No, it isn't) that what I really need to do is just, calm down.

Step by step, do the next thing, take a break, pet the dog, watch the Wire.

Exercise people, who am I fooling? Can you tell I need some? Why do I have chocolate cake in the house when I'm not exercising? Is Modern Family on tonight? Why am I still reading this Memory Keeper's Daughter?

See? A little out there today.

Goodness, never thought I'd say this

But oh my goodness do I miss my exercise.

I did something so evil to my ribs last week, remember that? It's better but it still hurts and I've really been working on just keeping myself quiet and resting and concentrating on making it better. But I can't really run and I can't really ride my bike and even walking is uncomfortable (although a lot less so, no worries, it really is getting better), but man oh MAN. Do I miss that focus that I get from it. Also, I tend to spend at least 15 minutes "meditating" after I stretch and stuff, I miss that too.

I put meditating in quotes because I don't think that's really what I'm doing, but it is more of a focused thinking. I quiet down and focus on what I'm going to do that day, how it's going to look, think of things I want to attract (hello money!) and just generally prepare myself for whatever day.

Without exercising or stretching that all seems so silly to me for some reason. Like I'm just going to sit in a chair and focus...it's just not the same.

I'm hoping that I'll only be out a week (I got this nasty pain last Thurs) and really want to be back to it by Thursday.

Who knew exercise would become such a cornerstone? I think it really makes a difference working from home too, its easy to just sit here and eat and walk the dog every once in awhile, but there's just something about getting myself up and motivated and my heart racing and all that before I settle down to work.

oh man, sure fire sign of getting old...I need my exercise.

Ugh.

Wow, just...wow

Amazing week, ups and downs and tears and rib pains and parties and laughter and soup and warm weather and writing and working and bah!

The big news of the weekend is that John got a job! Yes, yes yes yes. It's really great. It's really great. It's a bit stunning and fun and all those good things. My buddhist brother warned me not to let it get too "great" and I know just what he means. We weigh things with equality, if I can't let the bad times take over my mind, I can't let the good ones either.

What I can do, is enjoy it however. Appreciate what we have, appreciate the temporary, appreciate the moment. And wow are we coming back with a bang, we have learned so much, so many mistakes will not be made again, oh trust me, I know new ones will be made, but we are excited to apply what we've learned.

We also had the Chicago Elevated fundraiser, I'm writing about that on Chicago Elevated, but it was successful and awesome and so fun and just so cool.

My focus now is just to keep my cool, keep my wits about me and just keep moving forward and staying open for everything to come on in.

The weather doesn't hurt huh? Yay Chicago!

Linkety link link

So, Gretchen Rubin over at the Happiness Project said what I was trying to say yesterday in a much better way than I did, in her post "A Good Bad Day." That's exactly what I had yesterday and I'm thankful she could put it into words better than I could.

Also, I have a new post up at Chicago Elevated regarding the differences between Burnham and Sullivan. I had fun writing this post and will probably continue the fight, there's a lot going on between those two.

Also, my good friend Dan Izzo has a really great biz blog you should all check out (Dan is my friend who always has all the answers, trust me, he's awesome) and he wrote a post about Chicago Elevated's business plan, you can find that here.

That's about it for today, my paycheck came so I have to run to the bank. Tomorrow night is my fundraiser party for Chicago Elevated, thank you to those of you that have contributed, thank you to those that will and thank you to those that just think its a neat idea. Couldn't have done it without you all!

Yay!

Sigh

It's no surprise to me or anyone else that some days are going to be harder than others right? I'm ready for that and aware of that and mostly prepared for that.

Ow, I hurt myself, my ribcage...not sure if its from Jillian or from the last of my coughing but it hurts like a mother...except when I'm sitting at the computer writing...so thats a plus! Still waiting for a paycheck to come through, still waiting for phone calls, there's a lot of waiting going on in this house. That's cool universe, test my patience - I'll win every time.

Here's the thing, even though I woke up this morning wanting nothing else to do then lie on the couch and watch FNL and even though - since I'm self-employed - I totally have the option of doing that, I'm not. Which for someone with my history is HUGE people. Really. I have blown off at least half my life not doing what I was supposed to.

There is no hope of removing the woman who wants to sit on the couch and watch TV, she will always be with me, but I'm pleased with myself because even in the times where I don't want to work, where I want to hide and pull the shades, there is a stronger me who is unwilling to let that happen.

Still, Dr. Oz is on at four and John did get me Friday Night Lights and it is Thursday and Survivor is on and The Office and 30 Rock and we never did get to the Top Chef from last night....

Oh right, marketing

Whew! Wow, are things nutty in my house these days or what? My goodness.

Back before we left for Thailand John and I sat in this house every day, no work to do, nothing going on, those were hard days. Now, we're still sitting in this house every day, no money to spend whatsoever, yet...the days are so different. He's going through a whirlwind right now, I'm going through a whirlwind, but hell...at least we have whirlwinds to get through. We're both working hard, so at least we have that.

Oh blog, help again?

Now that I have set Chicago Elevated up on twitter, facebook (yes, there's a fan page, haven't gotten to advertising it much yet, but you can find me here) and the blog, now I wonder: what do I do now?

It's funny, I honestly hadn't thought that far ahead, I was so pumped about getting it all set up, I knew I could worry about marketing later. I discussed a little before about how easy it is to get lost in the social media aspect of all this, like that is somehow doing something, but in reality, it's really not. Much of the world isn't on Twitter yet, many regular Chicagoans, the type of people I'm aiming for are not on it, how do I find them?

So now it's time to get some kind of marketing plan in order. Here are some ideas:

1. I need a press release. I have someone who has offered her help here - then I send out this press release to The Reader and Time Out, both big publications that get "regular people," also Chicago Magazine, things like that.

2. I want to know who it is in large offices that plans things for that office. What are they? Internal communications people? Anyone have any thoughts on this?

3. Once I get business cards I can start hitting the pavement, business cards will happen soon, after the fundraising party...concierges, building managers? I don't know? Anyone?

4. News stations, WGN, Fox, Nick Digilio...that kind of thing.

5. Ugh.

So once again I ask you all if you have any marketing skills, what other things might you suggest I do? I reiterate, I am not afraid to market any of this and since it's for me, I'll do just about anything in the name of business.

I just need to switch my focus now.

I also need to catch up on nano, I'm doing well but a little behind, a little behind one day means alot behind the next. This is true of nano and of dieting.

Back to it - again

Like I posted yesterday, it was a great day. I just thoroughly enjoyed all the feedback I got on the site and all the attention and all the tweets and it was a really emotional and satisfying day.

The great part about it was, when I woke up this morning and I knew it was all over and it was really just about me getting back to work....I was fine with that.

In fact, it was great. I woke up and had a million things running through my mind, things to fix, things to change, all kinds of thoughts on what to do next. Working from home is really great, but I am struggling to find some sort of schedule. I could spend hours wasting time on twitter, adding people, searching people, reading lists, reading tweets...at some point I have to stop myself and move on to the next thing. This social media is tricky, I can get lost in it.

How do you guys schedule your work? Any hints? the only one I can think of is from that guy who said if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it. I like that one.

Anything else? Any hints you guys have when working on your own that really keep you in line?