The paid work thing. And alone time.

I just got a little mini-job. It will take up a lot of my time, last for a week, and pay quite well.

Financially, this is great news for us, as things are pretty tight around here.

Professionally, it is pretty dull stuff, translating short sports articles (booooor-iiiinnnnnng).

Operationally, it is quite complicated, as we are having frequent power outages, which last longer than usual. Sure makes it hard to have a work schedule.

Strategically, it is a chance to snag a new client who pays well and will hopefully keep the jobs coming. I would be very happy if I could make a flexible, mama-and-kid-friendly, freelance translation career work.

Secretly, I am so happy to have a concrete, productive, paying reason to hide from my kids for a while. Several hours a day. In. A. Row. To send Macondo Papa off with them and see-ya-later-guys-have-a-great-time!

As soon as I got this job, my first reaction was I am going to get all kinds of time to myself and nobody can stop me. Glee. That is the truth.

Okay, so this partly reflects my slightly unhealthy, but only lightly indulged, addiction to computer-time, and lately, to this blog and to a few others I read. I admit it. (But come on, I'm all far away and friendless and going through a major Life Transition and all, so whatever works, right?)

My glee at the prospect of pounding out uninteresting translations is also a side effect of not having been alone in 16 months, not since the monkey was born. Not when I wasn't racing to do an impossibly long list of errands before my boobs started leaking and my little guy needed me (all in a place where paying a bill means standing in line for hours and don't even get me started on trying to buy something - anything - at the pharmacy).

So here I am now, chained to the computer, using phrases like "got an ace up their sleeve" and "crush their rival" and "pin their hopes on the title." Which isn't exactly the same as catching up on the reading and writing and emailing I would like to do, but it has given me a few moments here and there. It isn't the same as 'me' time, with which I could sleep, read, run, stretch, shower! But it also is decidedly not 'mama' time.

And, the time I did spend with the kids today was better. I paid more attention, and I didn't resist being pulled into their play. These are good things.

It seems to me like what I need to do is Decide that I want to work a bit, Get some more interesting work than this, Find someone to watch the kids for a few hours a day, and Get On With It.

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Update: I started writing this two days ago (yes, that's how long it takes me to write a few lines) and since then, the weirdest thing has happened. TWO interesting, challenging, big projects seem to have come my way. Still not for sure, still unclear how we will swing the childcare thing, but things are a-happening...