Progress?

I am spent. I am exhausted. I am using two words to say the same thing. My eyes have mild pain behind them after so much staring at my computer.

I woke this morning at 2:30. WTF? 2:30? Wide awake, wondering, suddenly, why I have not gotten a call from my old high school about any substitute teaching. Then I remember that I was given paperwork to bring back with me on the day of my first sub job. It occurs to me that perhaps I was misinformed. Maybe I have to bring that paperwork back, completed, in order to get on the sub list?

Now I am up and out of bed, looking for the paperwork.

Next thing I know, I am at my computer, contacting a local school who's adult education curriculum did not include photography. Did they want me to teach it? I ask in my proposal to them.

I manage to fall asleep after about an hour and a half of wandering the computer and tossing in my bed, which really consists of me laying on my stomach, then switching to my right side because I'm still to much of a wimp to attempt to sleep on my left side, even though the doctor told my my shoulder should be OK with it.

I wake later in the morning with a few emails. The school that is lacking in adult ed photography has emailed me back to tell me they already have photo teachers. Then why are you not teaching photo? I have a rate request from a possible wedding client, a very inarticulate email from a guy looking for a 'cheap photographer' to do some pictures for some health organization. I ask him to elaborate. What is it he's looking for? Do you have a website? He does, he emails me, and send me the link to a site which has something to do with discount cards and has no mention of health care workers at all. I decide to just end the annoying game of email tennis and send him my rates. I am relieved when I stop hearing from him.

Then I went for a walk in the freezing rain because I just need to do that. Period.

I returned, soggy, with an idea on how to tweak my future photo classes, and I sent an email out to my first photo class, my guinea pigs, to get their thoughts on my idea. They were very receptive.

Then, I got an email from a guy looking for a photo lesson. I am meeting him tomorrow.

I was doing some work for Dad, organizing his office by labelling some manuals and files when Dad and I got to talking about selling prints. "Can you link on your website to a place where people can buy prints?" Great, Now, I had a bee in my bonnet about that and spend a crazy amount of time figuring out how I would do that if I wanted to do it. I haven't figured it out yet.

I do have to say that I feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I feel a spark of "Maybe I can make a living doing this!" And then I do the math and realize there's no way. What I need to do is find some kind of part-time job. But, I'm afraid. I don't want to do some receptionist job because Excel scares me. It just does. I don't want to go work at some ice cream shop because I'll just shove my face in the tubs when no one's looking. Very unprofessional. Other jobs I think of are unimaginable to me because my shoulder still isn't ship-shape. Now there was something I wasn't expecting - that this shoulder thing would screw things up as much as they have. Hello, I'm a nuisance. Have we met?

At least I'm 33 on Thursday. Yeehaw.