Musings from an overworked translator

Everybody’s working for the weekend… August 15, 2008

I finished my 11,000 word translation shortly after midnight last night, so after finishing up some administrative tasks (like e-mail, sending invoices, paying bills, and setting the autoresponder for my e-mail) I am taking the rest of the day off. My dog was so neglected this week that she woke me up at 4 AM two nights ago just to play and was really clingy yesterday when we took some time off to visit the neighbor across the street and raid her garden (mmmm… fresh tomatoes!). If time allows I will head to the dog park with her later today.

When I get busy I tend to let the housework slide. My place looks like a bomb hit it, so I am spending the afternoon doing laundry, washing the floors, dusting, running errands and grocery shopping (I ran out of soy milk three days ago and literally have nothing but beer, wine, two lemons, condiments and a bag of shredded cheese in my refrigerator). It is so important to balance work and free time, and this is something many freelancers forget. I took the time to have a facial, attend an identity theft presentation at the local recreation center, get my car serviced, and go out to dinner last night in the midst of all the craziness this week. I even made a point of watering my drooping plants and doing two sinkfuls of dishes yesterday. Yet somehow the more mundane, time-consuming housework gets ignored.

This weekend is the local Donauschwaben club’s Sommer Oktoberfest, and I will be spending tonight and Saturday night there with my German Meetup group. I hope you have a great weekend planned as well!