So here it goes – I started a new job. WHAT!? I know, that was my reaction too! I went in for a meeting with this company about blogging. Yes, a meeting. I figured, like most of the companies I blog for, they wanted to discuss some blog topics, my writing background and then send me back to my office at home to get started.

WRONG! Before I knew it, I was in a full-blown interview with the founder and business manager of the company. “I think we will have enough work to keep you pretty busy,” says one. “Uh huh, great,” I’m thinking. I was excited because it seemed like such a cool company. Very young with young, passionate employees all involved in something very cutting-edge.

Then my thoughts are abruptly interrupted by a spiel about how they like their employees to work there – in the office. “We’re a close knit team, we all get along and we’re all involved in each project so it’s much easier…” That’s when the sirens went off WEEEooOO WeeeOOo.

At this point my thought process went something like this:

I’ve been working from home for months and love it! -> I would have to wake up before 8 every morning! -> Do I want to drive to Creemore every day? -> Would I be a hypocrite for taking a 9-5 job when I’ve bored many with rants about my anti-9-5 view? -> Who would look after my dog? -> Creemore’s a cute town -> These people seem like they’d be great to work for -> I would learn so much – > I can work here 4 days a week and still do my favourite freelance jobs -> This is an awesome opportunity -> I’d be an idiot to pass this up -> YES!

So there you have it. I started my new job as Social Media Director at Switch Marketing & Communications Ltd. at the end of September and I love it! I’m still trying to balance it with my freelancing as you can tell from the delayed blog post, but it’s all coming together now.

It is 9-5 – no arguments there, but I’m getting paid to Tweet, Facebook and all that good stuff, AND next week I’m even going to NEW YORK to meet with some awesome clients! SO maybe 9-5 isn’t totally terrible if you love what you’re doing and don’t feel like you’re always trying to slug your way up the corporate ladder. What do you think?

I have two feature articles coming out next month in both the Southern Georgian Bay and Orangeville editions of Our Homes magazine and tomorrow I’m driving up to Lion’s Head to write another one on this amazing cottage for the spring issue of the Grey Bruce edition.

Life is certainly more hectic than it was, but it sure is good!

This past week has been full of changes and though I’ve always stood by the saying that “the only sure thing in life is change”, that doesn’t mean it isn’t disheartening at times.

For the past year, Mr. T and I have been planning to travel to New Zealand and Australia at the end of this year. Six months to a year was the original plan and a year seemed like plenty of time to save enough money and get everything organized. However, life happened and we started new jobs, moved to a new town and had a number of events to attend.

I’ve known for a little while now that it was going to be a struggle to pull it all together in time and the truth is that it was becoming more stressful than I wanted the trip of my dreams to be.

Our little Cora has elbow dysplaysia

Then a couple of weeks ago my dog started to limp on her front right paw. She’s not even three years old and we just found out she has elbow dysplaysia in both elbows with more severe arthritis in the right. I was already distraught with the idea of handing her over to loving caregivers for the duration of our trip so the thought of doing it while she’s getting treatments and all that jazz was unbearable.

So as you’ve probably guessed we have decided to put off our trip until the time is…. well, better for us. I think the hardest part about it is feeling like I failed to get it together because that’s just not who I am. When I want something really bad I always go after it wholeheartedly; so I can’t help but wonder if there’s a piece of me that just didn’t want it the way I did in the beginning.

I love to travel, but for the first time in my life I think I feel like I’m at home and that a few weeks away at a time is enough to satisfy my hunger for the unknown. I am doing what I love, living with the man I love in a place that I love, surrounded by loved ones – I don’t think I can ask for much more. Do you?

Another saying that I have been genetically programmed to believe in is, “When one door closes, another one opens.” Well along the bumpy road of the last few weeks, I have been approached about a number of writing jobs that I am SO excited about! Some of them are for local media and companies like OUR HOMES and Switch Marketing, which would be a little difficult to complete from thousands of miles away, and if you read my last post you know how I love my local stories!

There! I feel a lot better already. As I read this over I really think I am making the right decision. I guess because I have always been a bit of a meanderer, it just feels a little weird to feel content in one place.

I know this post is a little less structured than the rest, but I’d definitely like to hear your thoughts on my decision and stories of similar situations. Do you believe that life is what happens when you’re busy making plans?

The best part about picking up a community newspaper is reading about something going on down the street from you, someone you know doing something great or something terrible, or an event coming up that you can actually walk to.

When I went away to school in Toronto I missed that connection with writing – the ability to get worked up over things like commercial vehicle zoning by-laws and funding for a new soccer field. Being a journalist in a smaller town puts you in touch with so many people that you may otherwise never know and gets you involved with all kinds of interesting events and stories that would never make headlines in a big city.

It’s amazing the new things I have learned about the very town I grew up in. Right now I am working on a story about all the new pet businesses and events popping up around town – a short, simple story right? Wrong. Everyone I talk to adds something new and interesting and tells me I must talk to so and so about this and that. It’s not nearly as hard to find a story here as I thought it would be.

Making connections is essential in almost every line of work – especially journalism and I’ve found that it’s pretty much impossible to NOT make them in community reporting. I’ve learned that a 5 question interview that shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes quickly turns into an hour with a cup of tea and snacks, and usually drifts into a conversation that starts with, “Did you hear about…”

I thought this might drive me crazy and some days it does a little, but for the most part I love it. I’m finally starting to break out of my city shell that has inhibited me from saying hi when I walk down the street and getting to know the people that live next door.

A lot of the work I do is online, but since I’ve moved back to my home town I’ve got involved with local media. I am currently working on a few stories for different publications, but the ones that have been published thus far have been with the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin.

Click here to read about the three million dollar clubhouse being built for a local home development called Tanglewood, or here to read a short story about this year’s annual Terry Fox Run at Harbourview Park.

There will be plenty more where they came from so keep checking back!

Mother Nature is surely suffering from a fatal case of multiple personality disorder, especially in the Georgian Bay region of her brain. The day started out beautifully as one of the hottest, sunniest days we’ve had so far this summer. I got up early to write my guest blog post for If You Give a Girl a Pen and organize some story ideas for On the Bay magazine before heading into town to meet with the editor of a local newspaper.

By the time I got to the story ideas I was in short shorts and a tank top with my hair pulled back and still working up a sweat doing absolutely nothing but typing! While blow drying my hair I couldn’t help but think of the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz screaming, “I’m melting! I’m melting!” Needless to say I cranked the AC on the way to my meeting (I’m usually a window roller) in hopes that I wouldn’t walk in looking like I’d just participated in week-long sexcapades.

Within minutes of pulling back into my driveway, Mother’s other half (who I will refer to as Your Momma) had been unleashed. The sky turned the darkest of grays with hovering black clouds and the rain began to fall in all directions.  The bay that I swim in everyday turned every shade of green and suddenly looked scary like it would swallow me whole if I dared dip a toe in.

The rain stopped. “Come look at this,” my boyfriend yelled. A dark cloud was moving fast across and down from the sky over the bay. “Doesn’t it look like a tornado?” he asked. “Yeah it kind of does,” I agreed. We both watched it move toward the water as if being pulled from the sky with incredible force and then “WHOA!”

It hit the water and we watched as the water splashed high in the air around it. We could see white capped waves so far out and we both just stood and stared until it disappeared. My first reaction was to say, “I wish we could have been closer to see more.” But a pair of binoculars would have sufficed I suppose.

Once Your Momma had her reign, the sun began to shine again and I started to get antsy with the power being out and having so much to do (not to mention Big Brother was coming on). I had no idea that what I had witnessed across the bay was also happening down the street! I don’t know if it was the same twister that I watched with nothing but awe that struck fear into many of my neighbours, but once I saw the carnage I felt relieved that I hadn’t actually seen the twister any closer.

On Sunday we ventured down the path of destruction to see hundreds of trees pulled out from their roots like a giant had weeded his garden. The roof of the ski club was completely torn off along with a neighbouring home’s roof and beams. Many other homes lost shingles and windows; insulation is scattered through the broken trees on both sides of the highway. It looks like the world’s largest cotton candy machine blew up – we’d only be so lucky.

People are hard at work fixing up their homes, repairing power poles and cleaning up the Georgian Trail while traffic builds up and people stare in disbelief. This is certainly not an area familiar with natural disasters and perhaps we’re all a little naive because of it. Although magnificent from afar, I don’t wish for Your Momma to make another appearance anytime soon.

It sure does make for some exciting writing though, don’t you think?

For the last few days I’ve stared at this screen and hemmed and hawed until I finally realized that this is a writing adventure in its own. Writer’s block – oh joy.

We all have our own personal methods of clearing our minds and moving on with our day whether it’s going for a run or loading up on double espresso shots and some of these methods stick with us while others change as we age. One that has stuck with me since teething is going for a drive – except now I’m hopping into my own car rather than getting tossed into a baby seat as a last resort to maintain parental sanity.

However, this doesn’t always do the trick and unless I get up what I consider to be crazy early and drive my loving boyfriend to work, I’m left carless for the day. So what’s my new solution you ask?

SWIMMING!

Before moving into this place I never realized how much a dip in the Bay could really cool me off and reenergize me. It doesn’t matter if I’m frustrated with something or someone, losing momentum with work or just having a hard time keeping my eyes open; the water just washes it all away.

I was complaining to my roommate about my frustrations this morning so she handed me a deck of oracle cards (to shut me up I’m sure). Each card sports a different goddess that represents different advice and virtues. She tells me to shuffle the deck face-down and think of a question, then choose one that sticks out to me. I shuffled for maybe a second when one just fell out of the deck. Okay, I guess that one sticks out.

I turn it over and it’s the goddess Sulis -  Bodies of Water. She says, “Spend time near water, such as a lake, river, or the ocean, to recharge your batteries.”

That’s it! I haven’t been swimming in a few days…

My mum would be proud of me as my spiritual side has been slow to develop, but what the hell?

It only takes 10 minutes to get refreshed and focused and thanks to the oracle card pointing to my affinity to swimming, I was finally able to get this blog post out! Now I’m ready for a productive day (okay, afternoon) and probably a pre-dinner swim later on.

What do you guys do to clear your head? Any bizarre methods out there? And if you’d like to see me write about something specific – don’t be shy.

When I started looking for places to move near my hometown I had these beautiful visions of a cozy little cottage with a big front window overlooking the water that I would spend all day writing in. I could hardly believe it when I came across an ad on Kijiji for this amazing beach house right on Georgian Bay that wouldn’t put me in the poor house.

I sent my mum to check it out, “Yes Shelby that’s the place for you, you have to take it!” I’m sure the idea of me moving back home from six hours away had nothing to do with her excitement; so sure in fact, that I sent my dad to look at it too. “Yes Shelby that’s the place for you, you have to take it,” he said.

So, I did.

At this very moment I’m listening to the waves crash against the rocks outside and adoring the cool breeze wafting through the patio door off my office. Of course it’s also sweeping up the odour of my stinky dog who has turned my office into his personal sleeping courters, but that’s all part of the fun.

People who come to visit always comment on how inspired I must feel to write living in such a great place and while I absolutely love waking up here every morning, the truth is that it’s distracting. When the sun is shining it’s not easy parking myself in front of my computer; I want to swim and relax outside. Sometimes I have to remind myself that writing is the only reason I’m able to live in this place at all.

I’m sure you’re feeling real sorry for me about now… no, I wouldn’t either.

Five months ago I was living in a teeny tiny apartment waking up each morning to go to a job I loathed and now I’m where I always pictured myself. For the first couple years out of school I thought I had made a big mistake and that I was never going to make a living from writing, but somehow I snapped out of my quarterlife crisis and made it happen.

Life is too short to spend 40 hours a week doing something you’re not passionate about. I’ve learned that it’s truly what you make of it so why not make it everything you want it to be?

That one thing… is a library.

Yes, a little nerdy I realize, but when I start to think of a big bright room with solid oak shelves stretching 10 feet high filled with all my favourite stories and a big giant couch to read them on, I can hardly control myself. Add a sliding ladder into the picture and I can’t fall asleep.

I once told my boyfriend to forget a diamond ring; if he really wants to marry me build me a beautiful library and I’ll carry a photo around in my pocket. It’s not hard to figure out that my favourite Disney movie of all time is Beauty and the Beast. Who wants to live underwater and have crabs for friends when you can sit by a fountain and read a good book?

Since I’ve started freelancing fulltime I’ve fallen a little behind on my reading list, but writing that blog today really made me think of how I would characterize my home with the most gorgeous library I could, so I better get back at it so I have stories to fill the shelves with!

Just starting An Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life – any reviews or suggestions for my next read?

There’s something about blogging that’s so much fun; it makes it possible to take the most technical and professional subject and break it down into something that’s personable and easy to relate to. I always find the best answers on blogs and love that it’s so easy to ask questions and share all my crazy opinions with comments. Blogging gives the average person a voice and a medium for businesses to reach out to their customers with the written word.

My blog is going to let you share in my writing adventures (whether you want to or not) and take part in my “occasional” rants because everyone loves a good rant now and again!  I’ll post links to helpful and interesting websites and send shout-outs to businesses I really believe in.

Writing has been my one true passion for as long as I can remember and my career as a freelance writer is a dream come true. If you’d like to learn more about my background please visit my website. Here you’ll find my bio, portfolio and a list of my services with detailed descriptions and rates. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my new blog and keep checking back for what promise to be fun and insightful posts!