Fat and 40 Lady Still Hasn't Sung Yet

Oy! So here I finally graduate, and as I start to think I may actually have more free time, I gradually realized that's not the case. Or, at least, if I want to beef up my academic writing stuff it shouldn't be.

I'm already working on an abstract to submit to a journal for an article on women's weblogging, and it ocurred to me that...hmm...I'm writing another paper. On the one hand, this is cool. It's like I'm back in school again. On the other, I realize, crap! I usually spend all semester on my papers for school...that's...16 weeks...min.

I went to an academic publishing workshop yesterday (long drive but I was good and brought sandwhiches, not exactly diet food but not Burger King either), and they pretty much confirmed what I had been starting to realize. It ain't over yet.

For the past year, I've dedicated at least one day a week - Tuesdays - to writing my dissertation. Obviously, I worked on it other days here and there, but Tuesdays were my do or die write it days. Before that, Tuesdays were my homework days; again, yes, I worked other days, but Tuesdays, no matter what, I made myself work on school work.

I thought I'd get my Tuesdays back, silly me. But noooo...if I really want to take a stab at this academia thing, then that means no free Tuesdays. It also means my plate is way too full again. So, what to do?

I have to make some hard decisions. Right now, here's what's on the plate starting in 2007:

• Teaching two English classes on the web
• My jewelry blog at Creative Weblogging (10 posts a week)
• My wine blog at Creative Weblogging (10 posts a week)
• My jewelry and beading blog at b5media (6 posts a week)
• My About.com site (2 newsletters and lots and lots of other stuff)

All of these are paying gigs, and fat and greedy me really doesn't want to lose any of them. BUT, I think it comes down to realizing that while something may not pay me via paypal today, it could pay me in different ways in the future, and I don't necessarily mean with money.