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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