A Surprisingly Sane Blog

Today’s rare (but incredibly beautiful) cool,  cloudy weather calls for a change of blogging pace.  A real time-out from the norm.  I’m going to attempt to- *gasp*- tell you about what kind of things go on in my life other than just the twisted thoughts rambling through my head.

A vast majority of  people have no clue what I actually spend my days doing, and I have heard all kinds of interesting rumors floating around about what it is I really do for a career.

Well, there’s no simple answer to that, to be honest.  I’m one of those people who consistently have way too much going on at any given time.  But I wouldn’t change that for anything.  I am much too spontaneous and ADD to spend my days doing one thing.

I stay home with my kids.  I teach dance out of my home.  I am the music director for the swing dance club in town.  I design websites, write website content, and do all sorts of projects related to that.

Currently, we are in the process of forming an Limited Liability Corporation, or LLC, for our web design business, a.k.a. Dancing By Design.  As soon as it legally goes through, hopefully sometime this month, our website (http://www.dancingbydesign.com) will be up and running.  If you click on that link right now, nothing cool will pop up.  But you’ll probably do it anyway and still feel a moment of disappointment when nothing cool pops up.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I promise you, our *really cool* website will pop up as soon as we’re done with all the legal crap of forming your own business.  You’ll see a blog about it, I’m sure.

Okay, so now for some FAQs.  I’ll try to answer them without being too much of a snot.  And yes, I really do get these question all the time.

So, have you always been a stay-at-home-mom/website designer/content writer/dance teacher?

No.

What did you do before all of this?

In a former life, I was a full-time ballroom dance instructor at a studio, and later, a fourth grade teacher.

Wow, a ballroom dance instructor!

No, it only sounds glamorous.  Don’t let the title fool you.  It’s basically a glorified sales job with a few rhinestones added for sparkle.

Are you going to try out for Dancing With The Stars or So You Think You Can Dance?

No.

Awww, why not?

Because I have two kids and a husband and two stupid dogs to take care of.  And a LIFE.

Oh, and I’d much rather air my dirty laundry by way of the internet.

Why did you stop teaching dance?

I didn’t.  I stopped teaching at a studio.  The reason being that I was tired of selling my soul to my job.  It was a great studio, but the 10-to-12-hour days were just too much.  I couldn’t do that and stay married and start a family.

So how do you teach out of your house?  Do you roll back a rug or something?

I have a small dance room at my house, a perfect size for West Coast Swing.

How do you advertise?

Word of mouth.  I am very selective with my students and refuse to work with the high-maintenance type.  It’s one of the perks of working for yourself. You get to be picky.

Why did you stop teaching fourth grade?

Because the kids were miserable shits and the school system here is jacked.

Oh… you mean the real reason?  It actually just worked out that way.  I got pregnant and was due in August… and at the same time I had to tell my principal that I needed to take the year off, she was forced to lay off her two newest teachers.  I happened to be one of those two teachers.  It couldn’t have worked out better.

When are you going to go back to the classroom?

I haven’t thought that far in advance.  Right now I love what I’m doing, and I am excited about our LLC.

Who do you do websites for?

Small, privately-owned businesses and individual personal websites.

How did you get started doing that?

We fell into it.  James is a computer engineer/software programmer, and I specialized in Journalism layout/design while working on my first degree in college.  Between the two of us, we realized we have all the skills needed to do websites, and we started by doing one for a friend of ours while we were still in college.

Once people found out that we’re cable of getting a real site up and running, they just started asking if we could help them out with their own websites.

Did you design this website?

Yes.

So what’s the website content thing you do?

Basically, it means that I write the stuff you see on a webpage.  Mostly, I do website content re-writes.  I focus on making the website content interesting and easy to read, which helps with marketing and makes the site more professional.

What kind of websites do you do revisions for?

Every kind.  Education-focused to non-profit organizations to Optical Engineering.  And everything in between.

So when do you do all of this?

Well, I teach dance in the evenings when James is home.  I restrict it to only one or two lessons a day during the week.

As far as the websites stuff is concerned, I do it on and off during the day in between taking care of my girls and blogging and posting to on-line forums, etc.  I sort of just fit it in there.

Do you work out?

Yes.  I go to a cardio-weight class a few times a week.  I also walk and dance a bunch.

Do you ever have time to sleep?

Not really.  I survive off of caffeine.

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And there you have it.  Now you know why I blog about other things.  Talking about what fills my time can get a little boring after awhile.

Phew.  That was a lot of FAQs.  Did I miss any?  Feel free to ask.  I’ll probably answer ‘em.

Current Mood: Cool

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Daily Ramble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.