Debi: Other Things I Shouldn't Take for Granted

Well, I'll be! Stori is writing again! Hooray!

It's been a few years now that we've been friends, and I've come to recognize that, come about May, she disappears into the outdoors for the few glorious months of nice weather in her neck of the woods. The first summer of our friendship, I thought she'd just gotten tired of me, but then when the weather turned, I suddenly started getting instant messages from her again. Now, I'm used to the pattern but wasn't sure how it would bode for our blog. I've been meaning to write to her for the last couple of weeks to ask if we ought to just put a "WENT FISHING" sign up for the summer. I guess she's able to squeeze in a post here and there after all! Glad to see you back, sis!

Things around here have been a bit low for me, I'll admit. That freelance work that had started dropping off a couple of months ago still hasn't picked up, and I've had to start really hustling. While we can pay the bills comfortably on my husband's salary, little luxuries definitely disappear if I'm not bringing in any money. I'm so spoiled; I miss my mochas from the coffeeshop! I think it's less about the mocha itself and more about getting out, seeing people and chatting and feeling like I have some purpose each day. I love our house, but staying in it all day drives me, as my now-seven-year-old-daughter would put it, "cuckoo banana head."

I feel like I've been sitting around waiting for something to happen. Last week I decided to redesign my freelance website, order some new business cards, and start "networking." That means going to meetings of local businesspeople and figuring out how this town fits itself together, like a puzzle, with everyone knowing everyone else and connecting pieces that need each other to be complete. The meeting I attended yesterday included an Equal Opportunity Employment consultant, an accountant, a business coach, the marketing manager for a local coffee roaster, and me. The discussion was interesting -- more interesting than I had expected -- and made me more hopeful that I could use my own business to make a difference for other people, someday. It's hard to explain...but if I am patient, and cultivate more relationships, I think there is hope.

It occurred to me, at one point, that we were all trying to figure out a way to share the pool of money in Evanston -- I know someone who needs an accountant, and the accountant has a client whose brother-in-law is starting a business and could use a coach, and the coach has a friend who needs help with a database, etc. I had this thought in the middle of the meeting that this was a little bit ridiculous; if we all just grew our own food and shared our basic life-sustaining knowledge, we would not need to swap money for first-world-skills all the time. And then I giggled, called myself a pinko, and passed out some more business cards.

Debi: Time to Get Serious

Today, I'm going on my first job interview in at least four years.

When I got out of graduate school in 1996, I got my first web geek job. It was during dotcom mania, and while the company had hired me to write "web content," between my interview and start date, it had completely changed business plans. I got there, and within a few days, someone had handed me a book on HTML and asked me to start building the web site. During the heady ten years that followed, I switched jobs every time something bothered me even a little. Raises capped at 15%? I'm outta here! New boss not as fun as old boss? Buh-bye! Between 1996 and 2005, I had at least five jobs. Some made it onto my resume and some didn't.

I always left on my own terms, usually with friends and good references. I saw one company get closed by the government for tax and regulatory issues and one company close up shop completely, but the majority of the places I've worked in the Chicago area are still running, at least somewhat. I've been working freelance now for three years, though, and I'm slowly watching my work dry up. Some of my clients are former employers, and they're just not investing in new web projects right now. In the space of ten years, I've gone from a hot commodity (along with everyone else who wasn't frightened of computers in the late 90s) to one of a gazillion out-of-work programmers.

So, off I go this morning, in my five-year-old black business suit, to interview at a creative staffing agency. I am good at what I do, and I genuinely like helping clients achieve what they want, so I hope that I can get some work through this company. It's for 1/3 of what I normally charge, and I will be lucky and happy to get it.

Welcome to the "economic crisis" in the Chicago area. It's not so much about meeting my basic needs; we can pay the mortgage and eat and all of that, no problem. It's more about, as my husband describes the investment world, the landscape having changed completely. I used to look out my window and see a city full of possibility. I still see that city, but the line to get in is a lot longer than it used to be.

Wish me luck.