Story by – Sabrina de Mayo

Saturday night and the old cliché comes to mind, my how times have changed. I remember being excited to go out to dinner and afterward for drinks and a whole lot of dancing. Black skirt, black nylons, pumps, red or white top, and silver earrings and I was good to go.

Now an exciting Saturday night for me consists of relaxing freelance writing in my extra soft Victoria Secret lounging pajamas. Twenty years ago had I known I could get paid to freelance write, I think I’d have been home writing instead of out drinking and dancing. Then again, I probably would not be married with children, as I’d be trapped in my room working away and not meeting people.

Tonight’s work consists of finishing twenty-five plastic surgery articles. I know I will be up until 3:00 a.m. Ugh. On those nights I think what am I doing to myself as I grab another snack to stay awake. My snacks are usually something sugary to help me stay awake. I’m lucky and caffeine makes me literally ill. Ya, very lucky, so sugar it is.

1:15 a.m.: rolls around. I can barely keep my eyes open. I tell myself I must stay awake! I grab a glass of water and some Sweet Tarts. My numb head feels a zap of new breath to stay awake. I need to keep looking up information on plastic surgery. I get side tracked looking at the amazing pictures. Now I, too, want to call this client and receive plastic surgery. Hmm, I had better do a whole lot more freelance writing to be able to pay for even a pinky’s worth of plastic surgery.

2:40 a.m.: I yell at myself to quit reading about movie stars who have had plastic surgery! Back to typing. Before I go back to typing, I decide to check my e-mail. I got an e-mail from my buddy who is also a freelance writer. She is freaking out that she will be up until 8:30 a.m. two nights in a row so she can finish her writing project on time. Misery loves company.

She has to write, as it is her only source of income – Single mom with two adopted children. Huge bills to pay off. I’m lucky I write as a second income. I work full-time but make peanuts. I am married and thankfully my husband works full-time, makes a few more peanuts than I do, but has exceptional health insurance. Good thing with three little boys.

I look at the 50-inch plasma screen television with the wooden cabinet and built-in fireplace that I bought with my extra freelance writing money and that is enough to keep me going. Back to work after I fire off an e-mail to my friend that I have two more articles to go.

She quickly fires back that she has six more articles to go with a lot of research to do. Ugh. I feel sorry for her but I am too tapped out to help her.

Feverishly we both work into the early morning hours as the birds start to wake up. Great. My husband wakes up early. He’ll be up before I go to bed! He thinks I am crazy but he knows he is stuck with a born writer. I am sure he figures this is better than the twenty pen pals I had through snail mail. Once we got our computer five years ago, I became a complete e-mail addict and blog addict. Blogging away about our family, sharing pictures, thoughts, venting, etc. I made many good friends all over the world that way. I learned how weird a lot of people are, interesting information about other cultures and just plain day-to-day lives of other people. Very cool. I no longer had to wait for a letter in my mailbox from a pen pal, now I could instantly read and write any time I wanted to. In my world, life couldn’t get any better than this.

One day my single mom buddy showed me a website where we could basically type for money. No way. I had to check it out. Sure enough. It is sort of like blogging but you help others with information. I saw I could read other’s poetry and share mine. No ifs, ands, or buts, I had to join this website. She did. I did. I wrote an article per day. I got paid from people reading my articles. All contacts on my e-mail list got copies of my articles. Most of them would read my stuff. Too cool. Some would comment. I made more friends on that website and we commented on each other’s work.

Then one day a friend from the website mentioned other writing jobs. I e-mailed her about it. She gave me more information and lo and behold, I started writing for that website, too. I went nuts! Writing away, working full-time, a wife with three young boys (the youngest are twins, mind you) with lots of homework. If I didn’t have a writing project to do I wasn’t happy. Thus, my addiction began and continues on today.

4:30 a.m.: I am done with my twenty five plastic surgery articles! There is nothing like the high feeling of completing a project. Sending in something I helped to create, knowing others will be reading it and getting paid to do it.

A rush of a smile takes over my face as I send my work and invoice in. Ahhh I can relax until I take the next writing project.

I promise myself I will take a shower when I awake as I missed it on Saturday. I didn’t even get my teeth brushed until 3:00 p.m.

10:00 a.m. Sunday morning I wake up. My husband has fed the kids a big breakfast of eggs, toast, hash browns and I still smell the aroma of bacon. He has saved me a few pieces of extra crispy bacon just the way I like it. We hug. The kids and I hug one by one, as we say good morning.

I push the magic button on my laptop to warm it up. I grab a piece of bread and toast it. A few sprits of spray butter on my toast, being from Wisconsin I slice a piece of cheddar cheese and pour Diet-Coke with a lot of ice in my glass.

I plop in front of my laptop screen and check my messages while I eat. Ahh another project that looks right up my alley on the website I work for. I quickly ask to take it. This time it is on tattoos.

I’m still pretty drained from the night before. The family and I decide to go shopping. We go out for lunch. When we come home after the groceries are unloaded, I check my messages to see if I was given permission to take the project. Yes! Another challenge of twenty-five articles to complete.

Sunday night rolls around and I know I have three days to complete the tattoo articles. I research the articles while watching the 50 inch television screen. I do not turn on the electric fireplace just yet. Although the fireplace is artificial, it still has a hypnotizing effect on me and every time I fall asleep within ten minutes.

At midnight, I go to sleep. Another week of my full-time job and tattoo articles to complete by Wednesday night.

6:20 a.m. Monday morning. I feel like a train ran me over. The shower wakes me up and now only half of my brain feels run over. I drive to the elementary school to drop off my three little boys and head to the Special Education Classroom where I am a teacher’s aide.

Elementary School has the usual kid meltdowns, arguments to get work done, fun playing outside, good and silly conversations. For the afternoon, I work at the Middle School and strain my brain. I have to help kids with algebra and geometry. Funny, as I never took that when I was in school. Okay, not funny but surely a mind-blowing challenge. I am learning albeit slowly.

The magic bell rings at 3:07 p.m. Ahhh I get my three boys and head home three blocks. We all grab a snack and I take a much needed hour long nap!

8:30 p.m. The house is quiet as the gang is fast asleep including my husband. Hello tattoo articles. I get three articles done.

10:45 p.m. I check my e-mail. My single mom buddy is typing away, too, and we share information and ask each other questions on our work. It’s very cool knowing someone else is out there working when you are and they are there if you need to “talk.”

11:30 p.m. my brain is feeling like there is nothing more to be sucked out of it. I love this feeling. I’ve always felt like I had to get my thoughts out. Freelance writing helps to empty my head as strange as it sounds.

12:15 a.m. I’m calling it a night after completing a total of eight articles! I say “good night” to my single mom buddy via e-mail. She replies with a stressed feeling of five loads of laundry to wash and how the house is a pigsty. She says good night and thinks she may just take a shower tomorrow.

I giggle as I read it and know exactly what she feels. I, too, have five loads of laundry to finish. The laundry is washed but needs to be folded. So what if my family is a wrinkled mess; hey, they are clean! Moreover, to think I used to iron my blue jeans so they would have a perfect crease in the legs–I call this B.W.S. which means “before (I started) writing syndrome.”

6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. I’m a little more drained than I was Monday morning.

11:00 a.m. I come home every day for lunch to check my e-mails on freelance writing work. I inhale my sandwich and walk our cute little Teddy bear dog. I wish I could have a nap.

3:15 p.m. Home again, jiggity jig. When 5:00 p.m. sneaks around I am sitting on the couch and fall asleep just like my ninety five-year-old uncle does in the middle of a conversation.

7:00 p.m. my eyes open. All three boys are happy to see me and welcome me back to the world. We finish up their homework and play a game before their bedtime.

8:30 p.m. all are sound asleep. Back to writing for me. I want to get at least five articles typed up. While looking at the websites for tattoos I see so many I think I need. Thankfully, once I complete a project my need to have fades away. Although I did type up articles on beaches and swimming pools and had the urge to buy a swimming pool for our backyard. The kids and I went to the store and bought it. Within a week my husband said I had to take it back. Sad day more for me than the kids as they enjoy swimming in the lakes by us. I got over it when I thought of all of the neighborhood kids coming over every minute of the day to swim with us.

12:30 a.m. Yes! I got eight articles done. I vow to edit the articles immediately when I get home from my full-time teacher’s aide job.

6:20 a.m. Wednesday morning. I hit the snooze button. I tell myself something good that will happen today that will make me get excited to get up and face the day. My thoughts roll to 3:30 p.m. I will get a nap.

During the school day I think I have nine articles to complete tonight. Why did I take so many?! I can do it I tell myself.

3:15 p.m. home. The kids and I bake chocolate chip cookies and complete homework. We share our days and a lot of laughter. I edit my completed articles.

I get my nap in. I joke I need a t-shirt that says “Chronic Napper.”

The boys and I go for bike ride and I let them play at the park for a bit. I have my notebook and jot down notes for the tattoo articles I have to complete tonight.

8:30 p.m. I am back at work writing and typing until my fingers fall off. I find my candy stash and pop a handful of M & M’s in my mouth.

2:30 a.m. I hand in my twenty five articles and I have an idea in my head to change my rose tattoo into something more unique. There I go, spending my money in my mind!

6:20 a.m. Thursday morning. Snooze button twice! Good thought for the day: I will spend as much time with my family and extra special attention on my husband.

School is busy as always. I am worn-out from breaking up arguments in the Special Education Classroom.

4:00 p.m. my grandma calls me at home. She yells at me for working so much. I keep telling her when I write it is not like work. I love it. I need it. Writing is like breathing to me. People like to watch TV at night; I would rather write. My grandma thinks I will become bipolar from not enough sleep. I wrinkle my eyebrows, as I’ve never heard of that. One of my brother’s has bipolar and I know why she does not want that to happen to me! A million stories run through my mind of what my brother has put our family through. I give up, and tell my grandma I will get more rest.

7:00 p.m. The TV show Survivor is on. All the guys in my family love that show. It is a tradition to make popcorn for Survivor. We all make bets on who will win and root for our person to win the game. I snuggle next to my husband without my laptop.

8:00 p.m. I read a chapter of a camping story to my three boys. We love camping as a family (although I have a few withdrawals being away from my laptop and writing).

10:00 p.m. I peek at the website for any freelance writing jobs. I tell myself “no” as I click to take ten articles on fish oil pills and ten articles on ADHD. I want to learn more about ADHD as one of our twins has it. Make money and learn, how perfect.

11:30 p.m. I go to bed after researching ADHD.

6:20 a.m. Friday morning. I jump out of bed as it is Friday morning–two glorious days to follow that I get to sleep in!

On Fridays, no matter where I have worked co-workers are generally happier. I sigh. I do love Fridays.

I promise myself I will shower and brush my teeth when I immediately wake up each day on the weekend.

10:00 p.m. Sunday night. Promise broken, but my articles were in on time . . .

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