Pacific Coast Party!

I have a lot of stuff going on right now, and luckily it's all good stuff!

Remember the post from two days ago, when I was talking about needing to be more positive, especially about my career? Well somehow, in those three days I managed to land three new writing projects! These are my first paid, commercial gigs. I've had commercial gigs before, which were unpaid because I did them as a favor in order to build my portfolio. And of course I get paid for writing, but that stuff has been local magazines and online content writing. But I knew that some of the higher paying gigs were available offline, aka in the REAL WORLD. Contacting these marketing agencies, sending them my resume and writing samples was a pretty big leap for me. I stepped away from the world of low-paying, but consistent online writing jobs. I feel a lot more accomplished now that I'm working with REAL people in REAL offices. Its nice to get out of the house and coffee shops once in a while, and feel like part of the working world. Plus the people at the small marketing and ad firms that I met with have been great. I love to surround myself with creative and enthusiastic people. It is also a huge relief to take a small break from LOOKING for work and to actually be doing what I love: writing.

Now that news was exciting, but what I'm really excited about is the fact that I'm leaving on Friday for a ten day trip to California! This is huge for me, as I have never been west of Indiana. I'm definitely an East Coast girl. I'm a bit afraid that once I get to the west coast, I won't want to leave. But then again, they don't have this guy west of the Mississippi:

Yeah, I think I'll come back for him.

We are flying into Sacramento, then driving to Napa, (where we will be checking into our bed and breakfast (here's the link so you can drool over it). It was on Oprah, so it has to be spectacular, right? )
Day 2 is  a second day in Napa, touring the wineries
Day 3 and 4 are in San Francisco
Day 5 is Monterey and Carmel, plus another bed and breakfast
Day 6 Driving through Big Sur and spending the night at Pismo Beach
Day 7 Driving to LA and stopping at places on the way like Solvang, Santa Barbara, Malibu
Day 8 Spending a second day in LA, the driving to San Diego hotel in the evening
Day 9 A full day in San Diego, hopefully spending the majority of the time poolside, because we will be exhaused at that point
Day 10 back home

I am beyond excited for this. It will be amazing to spend ten days with my love, not thinking about work or his school or bills or anything else. Just driving the beautiful coast, seeing the pacific, exploring new cities, eating amazing food and drinking wine.

I asked my husband last night, "Are you ready to spend ten days with me, 24 hours a day?" The thought scares me a bit, but i'm sure we'll be ok. It will be strange though, not hanging out with another person beside each other. It will be a lot of "quality time" ha. Although we do have a friend in LA that we might hook up with.

My goal is to try to blog once a day if possible, just so I can remember what I did each day. If I don't have time though, I'm not going to feel pressured.