The guilt has been bugging me. I haven’t been feeding and nurturing my blog, my social networking  and marketing, much less my family very much this calendar year.  I’ve been doing the best I am able. After all, I don’t have a clone of myself.

But the upside is that my voiceover business income has increased over 50% of what it was last year. And so far this year, this has meant long days (12+ hours/day ) and most weekends… plus a myriad of other twists and turns in the journey of life.

Words to describe the past few months of life and work in this voicegal’s reality come to mind, like, “incredible, unbelievable, stressful and frustrating.” So here’s the breakdown of what’s been happening. (Funny- I use the word “breakdown) hahah.

Coaching & Training

I’ve also been trraveling and training hard. I spent two weekends in Los Angeles doing some incredible study with Marice Tobias, and an another participatory workshop with Pat Fraley and Scott Brick on the  “Patrick Scott Smokin’ Mysteries” series soon to be released to the audiobook world.  I’ve just signed up here with a very reputable theater group t(New Village Arts) o take a Meisner Acting class for the next month or so. Yeah, making a schedule and checking it twice.

The Workload

I’ve been booked like crazy with ongoing work with a government contractor,  and another international e-learning company, and became the voice of a huge commercial radio campaign for the largest online flower retailer. Because I have signed NDA’s, I can’t discuss any particulars whatsoever. But to say the least, it’s crazy busy on the voiceover business.

The Remodel

We also took on a home remodeling project  in the form of the master bedroom/bath remodel that lasted two solid months. We still haven’t moved completely back into the space, but hope to get that done this weekend.  Anyone who has been through this understands the dust, the time, and how the voiceover artist learns to schedule sessions, and record takes during the crew’s lunch hour, or between hammering and saw cutting. Not to mention the continuous dust clean up and interruptions that take place throughout the process. Oh yes, all those trips to the Home Depot. Scarey. I actually know  my way around that place as well as my local grocery store now!

The Real Estate Stuff
Let me just say that I also manage two properties in addition to my voiceover business, and all of our family’s financial affairs. Deep breathing helps.

The Technical Problems

A few weeks ago, my aging (3+ year-old) laptop screen went south. I hooked up an external monitor to continue working,, but it wouldn’t work as a mobile computing solution. Rather than invest in the repair of the aging laptop, I purchased a fantastic Dell 500 GB with 4GB SDRAM screaming machine. But my very touchy audio recording software cannot get Pro Tools to operate on the new machine, even after tech support. Still an open/ongoing issue that I’ll either resolve or put my MBOX away forever and move into Adobe Audition or something else. A lot to think about there, and to reconfigure my audio chain, mixer preamp with some new usb interface. My head hurts to think about it.  But I was so frustrated about 10 days ago I broke down in tears.

Traveling /Unplugged- Somewhat.

We own a second home on a little lake in southeastern Wisconsin. I just returned from spending a week there to get the place ready for summer rental. (I rent by the week during summer) I went with my new laptop, and had loaded Audacity and Adobe Audition’s Trial version to check out while away. I also had a little recording to take care of while away, plus some auditions. All went well until I accidentally compressed one of the boot drivers and couldn’t start the computer! And the boot CD was back in California.  Rather than melt down, I just accepted the situation, and did my other work around the place without the computer. I planted flowers, painted, cleaned, mowed the lawn, etc.  I exerienced the vibrant beauty of a Wisconsin Spring, and stoped to smell the Lillies of the Valley and Lilacs growing in my yard. I don’t have those here in California. 
And at least was able to read and reply to my email via Blackberry.  So I was unplugged, somewhat, which is a little bit like what’s been happening in my world so far this year.

I need to just accept what’s happening, control what I can and roll with the rest. I believe I just may keep my sanity throught the process!!

So I am freshly back in California, and a blizzard of items all related to all the items mentioned here await my attention and resolution, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to write here again.  I may just be pluggin items of community interest for a while until I can take the time and get back on track here with the blog, one of the many priorities I will resume. Promise.