It’s like any other morning here in my office—the kids are still asleep, I’m sitting here in my pajamas, coffee by my side, tapping away on my computer.

But actually, this is unlike any other morning in my office, because today I’m sitting in a camper in the Adirondack mountains, 1100 miles from home, and the sleeping children are about ten feet away on their bunks (and thankfully they slept through me banging around our tiny kitchen, figuring out how to use my new French press). We’re at a very nice KOA campground that has free wireless, which is a Very Good Thing because it turns out that there’s no cellular signal up here to speak of. And that means my MiFi is useless.

Today we’ll go hiking and maybe fishing, and the grown-ups will sit around chatting while the children run off to play, and I will marvel over the fact that I can sit in the midst of it and both relax and get some work done as needed.

Here’s the nitty gritty on how my mobile set-up is working for me:
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Well, the time has come to test my mettle as a freelancer on the road. I’ve amassed everything I need—I have a brand-spanking-new Netbook, my trusty MiFi, my cell phone, and a bagful of office essentials—and this week, I’ll find out just how well I can juggle in the woods.

Juggle the family, our vacation, working, and s’mores, that is.

That’s right—the Big Summer Camping Trip is upon is. I’m really excited. We’ll be hauling our trailer thousands of miles, visiting family, sightseeing, and having our first real vacation in a long time.

I’ll also be working, because as a freelancer, I really don’t have the option to just take a couple of weeks off of work. The trick is going to be keeping the work to a minimum so that I can still enjoy our trip.
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I don’t know about you, but my patience for this recession is really starting to wane.

I mean, sure, I talk a good game about how great it is to be a freelancer in times of economic downturn; we’re relatively secure, job-wise, because a single layoff isn’t going to render us completely unemployed… plus we tend to be less expensive than salaried employees, so we’re less likely to be laid off in the first place (and, indeed, may even find ourselves being hired as a direct result of a “regular” employee’s termination. That’s all true, and it’s all good, but I am tired of The Speech.

The Speech starts like this: “Mir, we really love the work you’re doing for us. We wish we could afford to keep you.” It goes downhill from there.
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I probably shouldn’t complain about this, because at least I sit at a desk all day. I don’t have to carry heavy things or put together buildings. I’m not wrangling preschoolers or even just standing on my feet for most of the day. I sit. If you have to have some sort of back injury, my career is probably the “best” one to have it in.

Still.

I was in a car accident four years ago where I sustained a terrible case of whiplash. And ever since then, periodically my neck decides to stop playing nice. It makes me feel old and grumpy, to have a chronic neck injury, and it makes working rather difficult, being in constant pain, and don’t even get me started on the doctor situation. Except that I’m going to tell you about it anyway, because that’s what I do. And my neck hurts and that makes it hard to think of anything else to tell you about.
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Sometimes neat things happen in connection with this blog. Like, I’ll say something and someone will email me and say, “Hey! I feel that way, too!” and that makes me feel moderately warm and fuzzy. Or someone will email and say, “Wow, I never thought of it that way. Thanks!” and I’ll feel even more warm and fuzzy. And then still other times, I’ll say something, and someone nice will email me and say, “Hey, want to try my product for free?”

It’s hard, being me. But not when that happens.

So, you may recall that a while ago I was going on and on about the office tools I adore, and I mentioned my NeatReceipts Scanner. And then a nice woman who works with Neat contacted me to ask if I’d like to take their newest baby, the NeatDesk for a trial spin. I said of course, because it’s shiny and you know how I like shiny things.

And so the NeatDesk showed up at my house and was promptly buried in one of my bazillion piles and it took me a month to dig it out.
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Every now and then I’m asked to come give a little guest lecture at my local university, and I enjoy doing this because it tickles me to no end that anyone would find me an expert on anything. Also, many college students seem to regard professional bloggers as something roughly on par with unicorns—everyone’s heard of them, but they are regarded as mythical, for the most part.

And then I show up. And I’m neither flashy and glamorous nor some big, fat unwashed hermit who rarely leaves her desk. I look like… an unremarkable, regular person. Probably because I am. I didn’t set out to be a blogger; I didn’t go to school to learn how to do this. And yet, I make my living behind the laptop, and they find that interesting.

Every time I go in to do this, I wonder what to tell them. I’m headed in to a class again this morning, and I’m sitting here pondering what to say.
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So, remember when I was agonizing over portable wireless, and whether or not I really needed it, and perhaps even wondering if I would ever learn how to take a real vacation where I, you know, stop working.

Honestly, I was still on the fence. My husband was researching campgrounds that offer wireless internet. I was still thinking that $60/month was a little unnecessary, deductible business expense or not.

And then it happened. I read about the new MiFi portable Hot Spot. Now—to be fair—this is really no different for my uses than getting a wireless card for my laptop. It does exactly the same thing. Except that it also allows for up to five users to get online at a time, which suddenly made it seem more reasonable. Because both my husband and I could use it. And the kids, even. It’s for the family while I work, really.

Also? It is extremely shiny. Ahem.
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My children are pretty well past the Dr. Seuss stage, but we all still find it endlessly amusing to frame discussions involving choices in the manner of Green Eggs and Ham. Could you, would you, in a boat? Could you, would you, with a goat?

Using this context for a discussion that’s apt to make my head explode is a nice way to attempt to keep it light, I think. And so, today, I ask my fellow writers:

Would you write crap and append your name?
Would you extol a product that’s lame?
Could you, would you, on your blog?
Could you, would you, for a client’s dog?
Where’s the line when “selling out?”
Does it make you want to scream and shout?

(And yes, I’m aware that it’s a very good thing I’m not being paid for my poetry.)
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This past weekend we took a huge step as a family. You could say we’re trying to restore our work/life balance. You could say we’ve decided to embrace nature. Or you could say we’ve completely lost our minds.

We bought a travel trailer. Camping, here we come!

And the big joke, of course, is that I’m perfectly willing to go camping as long as I have a real bed to sleep on and air conditioning at night. Which, of course, the trailer provides. And then I said that as long as I have internet access, too… I definitely need internet access so that I can work a little while we’re gone, right? Well, it turns out that many campgrounds now offer wireless, so that was okay, too. One could argue that I may just be missing the point of a vacation, but as we know, freelancers don’t actually get to take vacations in the conventional sense for more than a day or two.

But then I find myself on that slope again.
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This is a topic I keep coming back to because I see it coming up again and again, in various forums, and it’s something about which I feel very passionate. I talked about steps to setting your freelancing rates last year, and now I’m going to do it again.

On a discussion list for writers I frequent, it came up innocently enough: “A major parenting publication has asked me to blog for them,” wrote a fellow writer, “and they want to know how much I’ll charge. How do I decide? I’ve heard everything from $5 a post to $25 a post.”

And then I put my head down on the desk and wept in frustration, because I don’t want to hear “major parenting publication” and “$25 a post” in the same sentence. Ever. Yet it’s still very common, and that’s because writers are not demanding their worth. So consider me your esteem coach for the day. Ready? You might want to have a mirror handy.
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