Being a home – based professional gives me the flexibility to work anytime, anywhere. Of course, for me, any time means any time that my son is napping, sleeping, or in the care of my husband or another loving relative. Anywhere does mean just that, though.
Today I thought it might be fun to talk about some of the places that I have taken my trusty laptop in the interest of getting work done when the opportunity presents itself. Why today? Well, today I am sitting in the waiting room of the phlebotomy lab at a hospital an hour away from my house. I’ve been here for almost two hours and will be here for about two more. Don’t worry, I am okay. Since I am pregnant, my midwives suggested that I have a hospital – administered oral blood glucose challenge after my home glucose test results were slightly elevated. We just want to find out conclusively whether I have gestational diabetes or not. Of course I’m hoping not.
Since I knew that I would be at the hospital lab for about four hours, I also knew that my son could not accompany me here. It would be completely unfair to expect a two year old to hang out in a waiting room for that long, not to mention that I did not want him to watch a stranger take blood from mommy’s arm four times. My dad is spending some quality time with him, exploring the city around the hospital and I am sure that they are both having a grand time. So, what am I going to do while I’m in the waiting room? You guessed it. Break out the laptop and work, work, work.
This past summer, my laptop and I got some work done in the car a few times. I took my son to a nearby lake to go swimming on a fairly regular basis and sometimes he would fall asleep on the way home. I always kept my laptop in the car, and while he napped I would find a shady parking spot with a nice breeze and work away. I also worked in a hotel room on Cape Cod during my family vacation, and while my husband was in training for his new position at work, I did work in the hotel room where he was staying.
During the fall, we lost power for a week because of a hurricane and I took my laptop out on the deck and used an extension cord and power inverter to plug it into the cigarette lighter of my car.
I’m always looking for opportunities to get more work done – any time, anywhere. Where are some of the interesting places that you have taken your home – based work?
Photo by alvimann on morguefile.com.