Category Archives: about-me

about-me, work

What DO you do?

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A question I get a lot is, “So what DO you do?” Answering that question tends to stump me a bit. How do I explain what I do exactly when its kind of all over the board?

Then, I recently got introduced to the title “Virtual Assistant” and I went, “AH HA! THAT’S what I do!” My problem is two-fold: I don’t have enough jobs and what jobs I do have tend to end up being for free. This is head meeting keyboard, over and over again. I love what I do. I can easily make a living doing what I want to do. People do it all the time! My problem for awhile now has been having a hard time explaining what I do, and within that conveying that I should get paid to do it.

So here I am to explain what I do, and within that say, “I am at your service!”

First off, I have my degree in Journalism. I have a serious love for writing, photography and page design. All of these were easily wrapped up in my journo degree, and I am proud to say I found a knack for it! I actually held an award-winning column when I worked at a newspaper, and this blog has become my continuation of that column. My readership is definitely up, and I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

I am a blogger.

I aim to be starting on a book proposal within the next couple of weeks to pitch. I have an interest in fiction writing, but I have a non-fiction book hanging out over my shoulder poking me with its sharp edge going, “Write me! Write me NOW!”

GOAL: Pitch my book to agents and preferably have one secured by the end of the year. There is absolutely NO reason why this is not an attainable goal.

I design flyers, business cards, and any other various items. I’ve designed laminates, postcards, programs and invitations as well. A few samples of my work:

See more in this Facebook photo album. I guess its pretty obvious, I’m proud of my work. Note that I use my own photos on a majority of my work.

I’ve also designed and handled various web-sites. I don’t do anything super fancy, though. Not to downplay my work! I am proud of what I have done! I’ve even successfully converted one site into a WordPress Blog that’s increased its traffic and usefulness. However, I don’t do anything with Flash, etc. I’m still fairly basic in my web-page design work, but I also think that sometimes basic is all you need. I also have done MySpace pages. I feel those are on their way out of favor, but I am still very comfortable working in that venue.

Some of my sites:

My husband’s MySpace Page || Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar MySpace Page

Trim Polish || From the Ground Up (BRAND NEW… VERY rough site. WIP)

Middle Tennessee Texas A&M Club || Schoppe’s Bookkeeping & Tax Service, Inc

I write and edit letters and email. This can be personal or business.  I’ve taken technical writing courses, and I do have the knowledge for how to put together business letters. I have recently handled multiple cease and desist letters, cover letters, and other correspondence between an agency and their clients.

Everything is guaranteed to be completely confidential.

I also offer the ability to send out Electronic Blasts, which are basically full-color flyers and announcements sent via email using your own mailing list.

I also offer any number of typical office-assistant services. Excel spreadsheets, word documents, fax cover sheets, etc. are something I can handle.

I already offer many of these services to various people, but up until now its been on a more casual level. I plan to soon have a full web-site with all of this information available, along with price lists. If you are interested in any of these services, though, please drop me an email!! With email, fax, Paypal, etc. I work with anyone any where. Most of my current clients are still based out of Texas!

Feels good to put together “on paper,” finally, “This is what I do.” Its the first step on making this truly take off!

about-me, ironic musings

Night owl

Its 4 am.

Yes, you read that right. 4 am. This is not an unusual hour for me. It’s about bed time, I suppose, and I write this from my bed. Quality time with my blog tonight, I guess you could say.

I’m a night owl. I am sure many people think this fact is due to my having married a musician who is, by profession, a night owl himself. However, I think a big part of why my husband and I ever hit it off is the simple fact that I’ve pretty much always been a night owl.

I remember back in Elementary school, I was baffled about how none of my classmates knew that at 10:30 pm, after the news, M*A*S*H came on for half an hour. Bed time was always after that show, of course, but it was perfectly normal for me to stay up to watch the show!

My classmates were all in bed by, I assumed, 8 or 9 pm. Me? I’d be up until 11 pm, mostly because there was no point to my going to bed any earlier. I wasn’t going to sleep anyway!

In high school, I was introduced to After MidNite with Blair Garner while I did homework. IF I was done with my homework, I’d still lay in bed awake until all hours listening to the radio host’s antics. If there was an artist I was really interested in being interviewed, I’d be awake until 3 am easily… waiting to hear the interview.

Now, all this being said, I’ve never been a morning person. I can remember in Elementary school, I’d get up and have cereal for breakfast. I’d build myself a fort out of cereal boxes around my bowl in an attempt to keep the light out. I already didn’t think the day should even consider starting before 10 am. At the earliest.

Somewhere along the way, I learned how to live on about 4 hours of sleep. I did that through most of college. Go to bed around 3 am. Get up by 6 or 7 am. Drive to 8 am classes. I kept this schedule up into my job at a newspaper… staying up late, though, to talk to a guy instead of to do homework.

I married that guy.

I moved to Nashville.

My night owl-ness got worse.

You can ask most of my friends here in Nashville. This fact is not unusual. It’s almost a, “Welcome to Nashville,” phenomenon.

However, its not when we go out, or if I pick up a night working downtown at the bar, that my being a night owl takes a ridiculous turn. While I’ve driven home from downtown while the sun rises, its actually when my husband goes on the road that I stay up super late. You see, sunrise offers me some sort of strange security blanket. Its like the first rays of light bring with them this sense of safety. Like I can relax and go into that vulnerable sleep-state.

I sleep as the sunrises. I wake as most go to lunch. Some days, I wake as the school bus drops off neighborhood kids. I have coffee and cereal, as they have candy bars and cokes. This is normal for me.

I try hard to adjust my schedule from time to time. I miss daylight, and I force myself up by 10 or 11 am. However, I often still stay up late after that… and I find myself sleeping even later than normal the next day to compensate! Its at times like that, that I realize that sometimes its not worth fighting the body’s natural clock. I’ll fight it when we have kids. For now, I’ll just stay a night owl.

It is what it is. And what it is now… bedtime.