Playing Catch-Up

It seems I have mostly been updating Twitter and Facebook the past few days, and I haven't even been doing that much. Lance's sister left yesterday and we're now playing catch-up. I'm behind on day job work, so I have to start getting caught up on that today. And I need to find time to peruse/apply for other writing gigs. I can do my current gig 40 hours a week if I want to, but I don't want to. I need to mix things up a little.

Lance is off the rest of the week, which will make things a bit more difficult in terms of me getting work done. But I'm glad he's here. His foot is in pretty bad shape and I hope a few days of rest will put him on the med. It's still very swollen, but not as bad as it was yesterday. And now he can stay off of it since we're not doing day trips anymore.

I need to update The Itinerant Writer as well. I think I'm going to stop revisiting places that I've already posted about...I don't really see the point in doing a 5th post about Pike Place Market or another post about Snoqualmie or Mt. Rainier or whatever. But I would like to post a recommendation for Ivar's Acres of Clams on the waterfront downtown...best clam chowder I've ever eaten in my life. We have an Ivar's here in Kent, and I've been there before for fish and chips (the Acres of Clams is a nice sit-down joint with a wine/beer list...the local Ivar's is just a fish and chip shop), but the local place also has chowder, so I know where to go when it's cold and I need soup.

Anyway, I'm almost done with my tea and then I need to shower and start my writing. I will probably be making a more substantial post later.

ohmygodohmygodohmygod!

Today has been probably the most interesting day of my writing gig so far, because I came across some info in my research that could be very beneficial to me.

I just finished an article on online literature degrees. I know a thing or two about this topic, having a literature degree myself (except I didn't do it online). And in my research, I came across this:

http://www.collegedegree.com/course/ms-in-education-15

Now, it's not a Library Science degree, which is what I really want. But it is an Education degree, which means I can get tuition assistance from the Air Force. They only do tuition assistance for certain programs. Library Science is not one of them.

This is the part that got me excited:

(Graduates) may also work as consultants within school districts to assist other teachers to use reading and literacy strategies in the classroom.

With my teaching background, I could so do this! While I don't want to teach, I think being a consultant would be great. I would rather do behind the scenes stuff in schools and not be on the front lines, you know?

I want to see if any other schools offer degrees like this, start requesting information, and go from there.

Today...

I love my job!

Most of the time, it's pretty boring. I have to write articles, all in the same format, about careers or degrees in subjects that I know nothing or care nothing about (mostly...I get to choose 2 articles at at time that usually reflect my personal interests, and then I'm assigned 3 others automatically on any subject). Sometimes the careers or degrees are similar enough that it's almost like I'm writing the same article, just in different ways.

But today has been productive for me. Because I am hitting on stuff in my research that actually has relevance to me, and I'm feeling excited.

Not only should I look into a Masters in Education in Reading & Literacy, but I should also look into a Masters in English Education. Because that doesn't require that you become a teacher. You can become a reading program administrator, a curriculum developer...and even work in non-academic environments as an editor or consultant for educational and publishing companies.

And here I was getting depressed about my seemingly useless English degree...

I forgot that there are so many interesting things I can be doing with it outside of teaching. When I was in grad school before, the emphasis was always on becoming an instructor or professor, which I quickly learned was not for me. I'm not the type that can stand in front of a classroom...especially in situations that call for improvising half of the time (as college classes tend to do). It still amazes me that I managed to do it for 2 years and pretty much loathed it the entire time. But I'm not averse to working in education in some capacity. I just don't want to teach.

And I can still write, right? In fact, I always thought my writing was more fresh and interesting when my mind was occupied on other things for a time. Now that I'm focused on writing as a career choice, I can't really do anything creative with it anymore (unless I'm doing travel writing, but my current lifestyle doesn't really support that anymore). All the writing I do now is copywriting (SEO stuff for websites), and not very interesting at that.

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. I miss academia so damn much and I want to go back to school more than anything. It's highly likely that it will have to be distance education this time, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I love being in the classroom (as a student, not a teacher).