Eating cereal and waiting patiently

Honey Nut Cheerios and Cocoa Pebbles. This has been my dinner every night this week. I sit in my room eating cereal from a (very cool looking) green bowl waiting for at least one of the checks I am due to receive sometime this month to come in.

Completing five projects in a week and a half was hard work and quite stressful! I learned that most people understand what it is like to have a full plate of work to do – and they will agree to move deadlines if you ask. (Tip for writers: Don’t overwhelm yourself. Be honest – tell them it is 3 a.m. and you are a crazed maniac dying from eyestrain and research.)

While I am waiting for my checks, Time Warner has decided I don’t need internet access, I mean, I did finish my projects for now right? Cingular Wireless has been gracious enough to give me time to relax and spend with myself. They turned my phone off so that I have no access to the outside world. Thanks Time Warner and Cingular Wireless.

If you are wondering if I am being sarcastic, I AM. For a writer to have no Internet or phone access is, well, scary. I don’t know what to do with myself. Sure, I need to relax and relish in the fact that I have no upcoming deadlines, but I can’t. There are more articles, newsletters, memoirs and book reviews to be written. I must write! Okay, I am slowly stepping off of my soapbox now. Slowly.

I am now in the beginning stages of writing for a living – ONLY writing for a living. No bosses, no clock-in clock-out, no asking if I can take a vacation or be sick, no sitting in a 5 ft. cubicle with no windows. By the end of next year I will be working for myself. I imagine I will wake up at dawn, have a spinach and feta cheese omelet (I have not tried this but it just sounds so good!), write in my pajamas in a room full of open windows until I am tired, manage my money, and wrap everything up by the time the mailman comes so that I can focus on how many checks I get. This will be a good day. Most days will probably be me waking up, drinking decaffeinated tea, still sitting in my pajamas but writing vigorously, being constantly interrupted by the phone and e-mail, realizing I have something due that day, writing more vigorously, frustrating myself, stopping after I am so stressed I am shaking, and watching the mailman smile as he hands me a stack full of bills and no checks.

To be honest, I don’t care what kind of day I have. It will be the day I can say I’M FREE of corporate America.

Would you like writer or state job, Miss Brandy? Writer, please, thank you.