back on the chain gang

Really, I was quite productive today - but if you placed your money on me failing to get up early this morning, you won. I didn't actually go to bed as I intended, and so I didn't get up until nine, which meant I had to scramble to make it into the gym in time to see Alyssa. We did a variety of exercises interspersed with cardio, which made us both happy since it meant that we got to see enough pieces of a "House" episode to know what was going on while I did cardio and Alyssa watched (and continually increased the incline, resistance, speed, whatever). Then, I showered and drove up to the evil city -- unusual, I know. But I needed a haircut, and I took the opportunity to go to Samovar first.

Samovar was just the same as always, and I hung out there for a couple of hours, getting way too caffeinated while doing some work. I was trying to wrap up the proofreading project that I took on this week, and while my time at Samovar wasn't quite enough, I got pretty close. Then, I went to the salon, where I caught up with Susie (my fellow midwesterner who is an awesome stylist) for the first time since January or so. I've been trimming my own bangs since then because it's just too annoying to drive all the way up to the city to get it done, but it was time to get the bangs cleaned up and some fresh layers in my hair before and potential pictures are taken at my brother's graduation in a couple of weeks. The bangs will probably be just slightly too long then, and I perhaps should have waited another week, but next week looks too busy for a desultory trip to the city. My life is hard.

After my haircut, I promptly left the city, avoiding both the tempting lure of the mall and the increasing close-to-rush-hour traffic. When I got back down here, I was hungry again, so I went to Cafe Borrone and finished proofreading while eating a sandwich. Then I came home, typed up my notes, sent the project off, spent an hour catching up on romance email, and started researching what other copyeditors/proofreaders are charging.

Bottom line, I need to build out more of a business plan and figure out what the market can bear, but I think I could make some reasonable money from editing -- not enough to keep me in Stuart Weitzmans, but enough to pay the rent. It would at least slow the bleed on my bank account, which would be nice. And, I actually enjoyed the proofreading that I did, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to do it more often. But, I volunteered to read another full manuscript for someone else and do the same proofreading pass, so I'll have another set of data to look at; based on the first manuscript, I can proofread quite fast, but I don't know if this would be the norm or the exception.

However, I can't get so distracted by this that I neglect Ellie and Nick, who are currently awaiting their long-anticipated/dreaded reunion. So, I'm going to hole up and write tomorrow and try to make a dent in the mess that is the rough draft. Goodnight!