What I Do For A Living...

It’s late and the taxi arrives in under 5 hours. I can always sleep on the plane and am almost a bit too wired to sleep anyway. I am SO looking forward to DragonCon and yet tonight, I had to put my littlest one to bed in tears. Bethany has always minded time spent apart from me, though she’s happy as a clam to play somewhere else in the house just knowing that I am here when she wants me. Tonight, amid sobs, she asked me why I had to go away for “days and days” for shows.

I explained that one of the reasons I can be there to get her off the bus every school day and help her with her homework every afternoon is because I don’t have a job that’s like most jobs. She has a few friends who have to go to daycare after school every day and so can sort of understand that the time she gets normally is offset by me having to go away now and then for 3-5 days at a time.

This time, having just been to Charlotte for a show as a family, she kept asking why we couldn’t ALL go. It’s rather blunt to have to tell your child “We just don’t have the money to do that.” but in the end, it is a lot more real. Erin is aware of how angry many of the adults are in town today with gas hitting 1.39 cents a liter. That’s about 4 dollars a gallon. Still cheap by European standards, but Moncton doesn’t have that great a transit system, so people are really wondering what they will do.

Would I change what I do for a living? Absolutely not! Do I sometimes wish that I could trade some of the creative freedom for a bit more financial security? Of course! Am I going to have a great time wearing a sword or painting myself green this weekend? YOU BET!