Aerobics for Translators

Remember my post from earlier this week, about how I was expecting payment for a job? The waiting is over. The check from the agency has arrived.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s day. As such, I am not required to go to my day job today.

I have been told that for telecommuters, the first thing to go is personal hygiene. If I manage to get sufficient work as a freelancer to do this full-time, the second thing to go (because the first thing to go would be housekeeping) could be my waistline. Granted, my day job has minimal physical requirements. But at least the trips to the photocopier/somebody's office at the other side of the building/the supply closet provide a form of physical activity. Looking back at my last freelance assignment (proofreading a translated operations manual), I recall staying in my chair for hours on end, only getting up to take the clothes out of the dryer or making coffee.

Then again, who knows. When I am in the house with little or nothing to do, I can pretty much eat anything that isn't bolted down (and a few things that are not). But if I am on deadline and the clock is ticking away, I slip into a different state of consciousness. I even (gasp!) forget to eat.

Check on me in five years. Hopefully, I will have achieved my goal of becoming a full-time freelance translator but without suffering this poor woman's fate.