Early Morning Kinda Thoughts

A funny thing struck me yesterday, at around 7:00 am - I was having a nice, leisurely, coffee and baked good at a local bakery/internet cafe (pictured on the left). Sitting and focused on my computer, although frustrated at the lack of wi-fi (no place is perfect, is it?), I realized something that I hadn't realized in awhile....

...my life in Chicago was slowly, but surely, beginning to resemble my past life in St. Louis. For the better.

Much of it is the fact that I've settled into a routine where I'm able to explore my neighborhood. Although the corporate freelancing gig keeps me busy most nights and weekends, much of my freelance work for a local business development company has me working with a variety of businesses in a variety of fields....in a variety of languages. That's meant working with people who can speak a variety of languages, and it's helped me feel a lot more centered. Mom's health notwithstanding, things have been feeling a little bit more routine.

It's also a unique feeling freelancing - I'm so used to gearing up in the morning to head to the office that I'm back to an old cycle. Working by 7:30, breaking at 10:00 am, and gearing up around 4:30. In other words, "St. Louis time". Granted, the corporate gig means that 4:30 pm leads to e-mail, then Facebook and Twitter monitoring until 8:00 pm on select evenings....but there is still that tangible sense of feeling settled.

In addition, although my professional networking has gone down, my extracurricular activity has been decreasing, with a major obligation ending within the next week. Thankfully, I'm taking charge of Chicago Net Tuesday, since I would like to get back to doing the whole "community organizing" thing (even to the point of releasing a community survey). Plus, with the Zone 4 podcast, and live broadcasts of Whoverse (archived episodes here, Facebook fan page here), a Doctor Who-related event next week...well, it's not as busy as it was in the past, but I'm not complaining. (In fact, a phone call this afternoon has led to a really cool thing happening in 2012....but more on that later)

Only two things are possibly bringing me down - my cat's health (she's not doing too well), and the holidays. Last year, I spent December 1 - 23 commuting back and forth between Rush and home, thanks to a mystery illness of Mom's. So consider this my not-so-subtle way of telling my Chicago pals.....you better do something really nice for me this year.

But enough of my emo ramblings - tomorrow, it's back to the usual malarkey.