Balancing Life and Work... Harder When You Actually Like Your Job!

Ignoring the fact that I even had a job!

I've never really had trouble separating my work and home lives. When I'm at work, I do my job... whatever it is... and when my hours are up or I'm off the clock, I just sort of forget about it all.

That's what I've done historically at least. But I think it's beginning to change, and there is a simple reason for it - I actually like my job now! When I head home after a day's work, I keep thinking about what I'm working on and sometimes even break out my laptop later in the day to continue my work. I'm writing, editing, and developing content (not to mention posting on and monitoring our Facebook page) for a living now. Not my dream job yet, but it's on the road!

(For those who are wondering, my ultimate dream job is to work as a full-time writer for HowStuffWorks.com. That would be AMAZING. Just sayin'.)


The best part about it is that I am happy to keep thinking about work and doing my job beyond the typical 8 hours.

Ah! You see the paradox too, didn't you? If I like my job and am willing (and happy) to take my work home with me, how does my regular life fit into the equation?

I'm Back! (and) Am I a Jealous Lover? Discuss!

O! Hai thar!

I bet you thought I had left this blog to rot in its... not... being... uhm... posted in...ness.

Ahem.

BUT ALAS! You were fooled by my mere busy-ness with other aspects of life and blogging! To begin with, I've finally gotten Fun and FlirTea off the ground and begun posting there. This is where much of my writing time has disappeared to, so my personal blog has indeed fallen by the wayside for a brief time. Never fear, kind friends and readers! I am back and do intend to post with at least semi-regularity once more.

Other than the release of my tea blog, I have been quite busy in life and work as well! I've been spending more time with friends, going out dancing, attending an occasional concert, doing yoga more regularly, and... oh yeah. GETTING PROMOTED AT WORK! Success indeed!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before or not, but I've been trying to get back into copywriting for quite a while and, after years of hard work and doing what I can in my company to get there... and suddenly I am! It took plenty of time and work, but I am the newest Copywriter (and Social Media Clerk) at Build.com. Yay!

Naturally, to celebrate my new position, my body chose my first full week in the job to get stupidly sick with a gnarly cold! Fortunately, I am getting over it now, but I still have a dry throat and slight cough.

But enough of the updates! Part of what brought me back to this blog at this time is something I've been thinking about lately. Not long ago, I finally was able to establish a friendship with an old ex-boyfriend I had very little contact with over the past 3 years since our relationship ended. And this friendship is a real one, where we are comfortable around each other and can even make jokes about the years we were dating.

Chapter 4: Discovering Felicity, the Fierce Amazon Nook Within ("Amazon" in the Xena: Warrior Princess sort of way, not the company)

Introduction and Prologue
Chapter 1: The Rise of the eReader
Chapter 2: In Which Dinah Veritably Salivates Over the Nook
Chapter 3: How Magic and (Dare I Say) Karma Resulted in a Spur-of-the-Moment Indulgence (Or How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love Purchasing My Nook)

I don't know about you, but when I get a new gadget I always feel like I'm learning everything about it from scratch. It doesn't matter if the new item is a replacement, if I had played with other ones before, or if I had never touched one a day in my life. All I can say is that a new gadget is a new experience every time. For me, at least.

Despite the number of times I had handled the display Nooks, there was something different about beginning to use the one that was to be my boon companion. Once I set it to charging, I naturally began to register my Nook by connecting it to my BN.com account. When I started this process, it prompted me for the name of my Nook.

Chapter 2: In Which Dinah Veritably Salivates Over the Nook

Introduction and Prologue
Chapter 1: The Rise of the eReader

At this point in the story, you may be thinking about just how fickle I seem to be. Why did I give up on the idea of an eReader with the Kindle around but immediately transfer my former feelings for the Kindle to what amounts to a different version of the same thing?

It sounds petty, but I can’t deny that a major attraction for me was the Barnes & Noble name. I have been going to Barnes & Noble stores my entire life and have always loved the atmosphere, the new book smell, the chairs provided for sitting and reading, and the overall helpfulness of the employees. Most of their employees are also great lovers of books and tend to provide fun and interesting suggestions based on what I’m browsing, carrying, or reading a few pages from. I have rarely been disappointed with a recommendation from a Barnes & Noble employee.

Another aspect of it being a Barnes & Noble eReader that made it so attractive is the fact that there are plenty of physical locations that I can go to at a moment’s notice. Once the Nook was officially released, there were tables set up in almost every Barnes & Noble store where there was an employee waiting to answer your questions and there were Nooks on display waiting for you to try them out.

Oh! The glory of that first time I held a Nook in my hands!

Chapter 1: The Rise of the eReader

View the introduction and prologue here

When eReaders were first announced, I was intrigued. I had no particular desire to own one, but I certainly had an interest in playing with one to see what they were all about. This was made difficult by the fact that the only well-known eReader on the market was the Amazon Kindle. Since Amazon is a purely online company, there were no brick and mortar locations for me to drop by to see what this Kindle thing was all about. Despite that, I continued to keep an eye on the progress of the Kindle, reading about updates, improvements, and (after not too long) the rising competition. The only real draw these eReaders seemed to have for me was the fact that I could put so many books on it at once (there was also the little gremlin in the back of my mind jumping around shouting, "New gadget! New gadget!" in a shrill voice). All the eReaders I had seen at that point seemed a bit on the bulky side (with a surprisingly small screen), none of them looked attractive to me, and I didn't even want to think about the prices on them. The e-ink display was intriguing, but I'd have to see it to believe it and, as already discussed, that just wasn't an option.

After a while, I think the aforementioned gremlin in my mind worked his way forward enough to convince me that I should assemble an Amazon Wish List containing a Kindle and all the accessories that appealed to me or seemed necessary.

Introducing a Short Series

As many people already know, I recently purchased a Barnes & Noble Nook eReader, which I absolutely adore. Not long ago, I read a short article titled something along the lines of "An Avid Reader Who Loves His Kindle More Than His Real Books". While that is certainly not the actual title, it is reminiscent. After reading that, I felt inspired to write up my own story of why I love my Nook so much for my blog. To say the least, I got a little carried away and now I have quite a long story. Due to its length, I've decided to release it in pieces. Today I present.... the Prologue.

Why I Love Felicity (My Barnes & Noble Nook eReader): A Short Story

Prologue: Why I Love Physical Books
In recent years, since eReaders grew in popularity, I've noticed a development in the book industry. Publishers have been forced to offer their books in a new form: eBooks. Welcome to the digital age. Now the consumers have the option between physical books and eBooks. Note that I carefully avoid referring to the physical books as "real." I believe this would leave the idea, somewhere in your mind, that I consider eBooks as less than real or less than adequate. Since this is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to get across, I want to make the distinction clear. To some, the choice is simple - they love the physical books too well to give in to the digital age. I want you to understand just how much I, too, love physical copies of books before I explain to you why I love my eReader so much.

I'm one of those people who will walk into a used bookstore just so I can breathe in the scent of books that have been handled by no-one-knows for however many years, picking up dust, absorbing the scents of the houses they have lived in, and, without exception, becoming the perfect blend of age and wisdom. Before you ask, the answer is yes. I am still discussing how I perceive the smell of books.

A Recurring Theme

I know I've done this before, but I always seem to come back to it. I think it has something to do with the fact that things never seem to get resolved. Or maybe I just can't seem to exhibit enough patience to allow for a real resolution to come about.

Most likely, there is just no such thing as a "resolution" to the way my life works. You see, I can't help but be preoccupied with the status of my love life, if you will. This is not to say that I feel the need to jump into anything. I just feel like it would be nice to get back on the horse and have some kind of legitimate... something. I'm not entirely certain. I'm not ready for anything serious, but I'm getting tired of being so lonely and, when I'm not totally lonely, I feel like my options are, to say the least, limited. Not always in a good way. In fact, usually not.

I went so far as to spend months thinking to myself that, while my options seemed many and varied, my actual possibilities were few and far between. Overall, a pretty cynical outlook. I like to think I've gotten a bit more optimistic (though I admit, it hasn't been much of an improvement).

Things You've Always Wanted to Know About Me

I posted this on Facebook as well, but wanted to put it here to get the full spectrum of ideas and topics to discuss:

In an effort to write more in my personal blog, I'd love to hear some questions or topics that my friends would like to hear me talk about (even though I'll actually be writing and you'll be reading, you get the point, right?). So if there's anything you'd like to find out my opinion on, any stories you'd like me to tell, or just curiosities about me you always wondered about... now is the time! Let me know and I should get to it at some point!

Double Post!

Woah! What could I possibly be thinking with this double post!?

I do have a point. I swear... I was just looking through my older posts to see when I last posted and what kinds of things I posted when I realized... I'm not very creative. Seriously. And I seem to drop the ball on multiple occasions. If you don't believe me, look at the titles of my posts from June this year and then look at the titles of my posts this month so far. Also, check out what I'm doing.

I need to actually complete things now.

Some input, please?

x-posted from a note on Facebook

Hello Friends!

I have decided to try an interesting project. I don't know how well I will do it, but hopefully it will be awesome! What I'm doing here is looking for input (positive, negative, and constructive are all welcome! Especially constructive. :P). Additionally, I am trying to figure out WHAT to call it. I honestly haven't a clue at the moment. So maybe title suggestions?

So here's the idea:
I want to choose a different Wizard Rock band each day of the year for 365 days. Each day I would listen to as much music from the chosen band as I can, provide a helpful list of their songs and/or albums, review the band, reflect on Wrock as a whole in relation to this band or as brought up by the band, potentially make a vlog once a week or something along those lines.

At this point, I just have a vague outline of what I'd like to do. So what things would you like to see happen with a project like this? What would be a good name for it? What are your thoughts on what has been going through my mind so far?

Thanks for your input, everyone!

UPDATE: Suggestions I've received so far have essentially been to go for it, but have a few ready in advance for days when I can't make it to the computer.

Because I'm Lame