Free time? What the heck is it, and what am I supposed to do with it?

So, any of you who know me know that I have never fit into the 9-5 lifestyle. I have always had at least two jobs at any given point, and between that and caring for my family, there just never seemed to be enough hours in the day. Well, now I find myself in a completely different predicament.

I had a recent, entirely too long stint in the land of the unemployed. I went from May of 2010 until January of 2011 without being gainfully employed. Then, in January of this year, I found a great job with a company I love working for. It is the perfect environment for me, and I love every aspect of what I do, a feeling I thought I would never have again with regards to the transcription industry.

The downside? You did realize there would be a down side, right? I mean, with the tone of the above, you had to see it coming. Well here it is. It is an employee position with a company that has a no overtime policy currently. Wait, I have to work a 40-hour work week and that is it? That so does not compute to my little workaholic brain.

Of course, I have an infant at home who, as of this posting, is 4 months old. So this should be a good thing to have that extra time, right? Wrong. Doesn't work for me. I am able to attend to my child's needs whether I work or not. There really is no difference to me, save for the fact that I work third shift so the sleep thing is interesting at best some days. However, I do not know how to work only a 40 hour week and then call it done. I never learned how. I cannot recall a time in my adult working career that I was not working 60-80+ hours a week, and loving every minute of it.

So, after beating my head against a wall because I don't know how to process "down time," I took a part time job. Yep. Sure did. Yes, it is doing the same type of thing as my primary job, but a little more low-key and not as intensive. Slight down side. It is only a couple of days a week, and the days off there coincide with my days off at the other job. So, still two days a week of thumb-twiddling, with nothing to do.

So then, I remember having had someone send me a link to something a couple weeks ago about being paid for blog posts, but I lost the link. I had been looking for some freelance writing gigs for quite a while, and just never found anything that appealed to me. So, off to Google I went to see if I could find whatever there was to find. End result? Some of the pay to blog sites are crappy. I can't seem to make sense of them, and their "hundreds of topics to choose from" are often very narrow sets of variations on the same crap worded a hundred different ways! Much frustration.

So now, my baby is sleeping, I am not scheduled to work for several more hours, and I am bored out of my skull. If anyone knows of any freelance writing gigs hanging around, or even any p.r.n. transcription work available (preferably medical, although I have done a little general, but can't seem to handle more than two speakers without getting confused or having some kind of reference point), drop me a line.

Also, if anyone has any topics they would like to see me write on, feel free to tell me. I am open to pretty much anything. Well, I don't think I could write "adult" content with a straight face, but, other than that, I am open.

Seeing as how I am in complete boredom mode, Send me an email/comment/carrier pigeon with a topic and I will see what I can craft out of it under my "Random Musings of a Crazed Writer" blog. Or here on this one. Or both. Come on. Bring it on. Anyone? Are ya out there?