Freelancing Fun

Well, it's my penultimate day with my current employer. How am I feeling about it? Honestly, my emotional stability rates a "Meh." I'm not jumping for joy that I'll be unemployed very soon, but I'm not panicking--yet. I had my moment of panic earlier, and I'm sure I'll have many more as my employment search stretches out. But right now, I'm rather ambivalent. I've been here twice before, so I know what to expect by and large. The only thing to do is keep on rolling.

Speaking of my job search, I've been contacted in response to two of the growing number of freelance writing inquiries I've sent this week. Both opportunities turned out to be...a bit on the questionable side. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and waaay behind the times (a dinosaur at 32!), but I don't think submitting my personal information through an online system that's largely designed to capture such information and then essentially spam that person or through a site that requires paid membership (don't let that $3 introductory fee deter you!) doesn't strike me as the appropriate way to handle a relationship with a contractor, even if that contractor is just one of who knows how many freelance writers working for that company.

Am I surprised? Not too terribly much. I'm well aware of the numerous scams out there. With the economy the way it is and the growing number of people looking for either primary employment or supplemental income through work-from-home opportunities, the sector is probably brimming with, well, suckers looking for whatever they can get. But as I told Mom when she asked if I'm filing for unemployment, my family's not in dire straights (yet). The husband assures me (now) that I can take my time and find a position that is right for me.

Aside from taking care of the last few duties for my soon-to-be former employer and sending out queries to potential employers and clients, I've been doing some recipe reading. Here's another transition I've been making since April or so: kitchen outcast to culinary competent. Strange how dropping 35 pounds and essentially transforming your body will make you suddenly very keen on controlling what goes into your body, isn't it?

Well, after a string of relative successes, I did a really, really stupid thing. My pan of pumpkin chocolate chip brownies I made Sunday met an unfortunate end when I failed to refrigerate them while forgoing air conditioning during these slightly unseasonably sweltering early summer days. I went to cut into them last night and noticed a strange smell and certain lines of black on the pan that hadn't been there before. Smeared chocolate? I asked myself. Heh, wrong! So today I'll be trying an orange butterscotch cookie recipe from my Weight Watchers Quick and Easy Menus book--one of the recipes I've been wanting to try for a while but keep putting off to make things for the boys. (Have to stop doing that. Just like I've been taking smaller portions of the protein component of our suppers so they have more of it because the FSM forbid they eat any vegetables!)

But I also managed to snatch a mild success out of the jaws of defeat yesterday as well. Inspired by Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, I grabbed out the leftover green dal (whole, not split) from the pantry along with a jar of tarka masala sauce we'd picked up...FSM knows how many years ago (unopened, of course) and started experimenting. I followed the directions for preparing the dal from another tarka dal recipe I'd found, but I wound up with a greenish-brown mush instead of the "pale...soup like [sic] mixture" described. But that mush smelled wonderful, so I then partially followed the directions on the tarka masala jar and voila! I wound up with a very tasty dish that I'm pretty sure was low in fat and had some protein to it. Pairing it with a wee bit of jasmine rice (not too much--the boys can have as much of it as they like since I really shouldn't be eating too much of it) and the curried salmon cakes we've made before (this time doubling the amount of curry powder, with fabulous results) made for a great Wednesday meal.

And yesterday was only Wednesday. Today is only Thursday. It's not Friday yet. Sheesh.