It’s official–I just accepted a position with the University of Wisconsin Medical School as administrator in the Department of Neurology for a fifteen month project position. The job itself sounds pretty easy as I’m responsible for coordinating med students during their six-week rotation through five departments in the medical school. Basically, it’s my job to make sure the doctor’s lecture materials are prepared and distributed to the students and that neither the doctors nor the students are overlooking any minor details.

The pay isn’t great but the rest of the perks make up for it. It’s about a ten minute walk from home, it’s just upstairs from where Amy works, I get University and State Employee privileges and, most importantly, no overtime! Just a straight forty hours per week. The job ends on November 30, 2005 when it will either be eliminated or turned into a regular position for which I would need to reapply. We’ll see where we’re at that point and reassess the situation.

All of these factors allow me to have plenty of energy for writing when I get home from work. I am absolutely bubbling over with writing projects right now. I actually think a structured routine will help me produce more writing in a more regular fashion than trying to write full time. For some reason, I’m finding more things distracting lately than I did before so I think there are diminishing returns in continuing to write all day anyway. So I’m actually excited to make a little money to ease our financial straits and spend my “free” time writing. This situation should allow me to enjoy myself a little more, too. I was starting to feel the pressure of needing to get something published. While I still want to get paid for what I write, the immediacy of the goal has been lifted and now I can relax a little and work on making each story the best it can be without feeling the need to ship it out post-haste.