Those who know me know I rarely write about myself as I am about giving you info you can use. But this post looks at 2008 from my perspective. Plenty sites and folks shared theirs. I thought 2008 would be grand because:

1. It’s an even number. Always had better luck with even numbers.
2. My youngest started kindergarten.
3. My oldest started high school.
4. It’s not a year ending in “7″.

The one thing that bugged me about ‘08:

1. 20 years after graduating high school makes a gal feel older.
2. My family dealing with the loss of my fabulous dad at the end of ‘07.

Well, it turned out to be a memorable year, but not quite for the reasons I imagined. Thankfully, my business remained steady as ever, although some things got in the way.

Good things:

1. My son’s preschool graduation. It was adorable complete with singing and dancing and little caps ‘n gowns.
2. Blog turning eight and giving away lots of great prizes and welcoming even better guest bloggers.
3. Jumping out of a plane because of the blog birthday and inspired by skydiver Peter Shankman. Now I have a story to tell! OK, I admit it that we put up the skydiving bet in hopes it would spread the news a little further.
4. My daughter’s high school volleyball team winning the city championship.
5. Working with the greatest clients.
6. Getting sucked in twitter and Facebook where I met lots of new friends and colleagues plus renewed old acquaintances (Whoops…. there goes “Auld Lang Syne” in my head).
7. Dumping Sidekick and its lousy network service for the TitaniumBerry (hey, it’s not black!). It does a better job helping people reach me away from my computer.
8. The end of the election campaign.
9. Gas prices dropped.

The icky parts about 2008…

1. My youngest started kindergarten (It means he’s not a baby anymore).
2. My oldest started high school (It means she ain’t no baby no mo’).
3. Health challenges for my middle child and his needing to attend a program after school four days a week. Tiring for him.
4. Herniated disc leading to ESI and a spinal headache (more painful than it sounds) requiring a blood patch.
5. Hurting my thumb within a week after the last injection leading to an UCL tear known as skier’s thumb. This mean I couldn’t type articles and blog posts for over six weeks. Still can’t until pin comes out next week — had to do blog entries in a few sittings. Talk about feeling guilty about many things — work, getting things done in the house, not being able to play tennis.
6. Dealing with the election campaign.
7. Economy. Economy. Economy. Family member was laid off.
8. Gas prices.

I’m looking forward to a fine ‘09 as it begins with getting the k-wire out of my thumb. I hope soon after that I’ll be on the road to returning to my previous working and athletic schedule.

How about you? How was ‘08? What do you expect in ‘09?

I write this a few hours before heading to Whitewright, Texas, to Skydive Dallas for my first tandem jump appointment. Ever since I posted I would jump out of a plane if we collected $5000 worth of prizes by this blog’s 8th birthday, I’ve fretted and regretted my offer. Sometimes publicity forced a person to do stupid things and this was mine.

I blame Peter Shankman. I watched a video of his skydives and listened to him gush about his love of the daredevilish activity. But it was my own stupidity for letting that talk and desire to share prizes with the world to influence my decision. In truth, Peter put up with my rants and supported me throughout this chicken phase. He’s a busy guy with over 11,000 people following him plus he travels often — yet he makes time to push me and responds to my yadda yaddas.

I made the initial appointment on June 20. But bad weather postponed it another week. Two days before the jump, I joined my girl friends for a game of mah jongg. Big mistake.

“Jumping is a big deal!” one said.

“My sister is a daredevil and has tried everything. When she went skydiving, they had to pry her fingers off the plane’s edge and she almost peed in her pants!” said another.

“Why don’t you just go to Planet Pizza (kids’ party place with rides) and jump out of the airplane there? That way you kept your word!” said the first one. This sounds more like deception than comical and I won’t do that when it comes to something tied with my business.

To make it worse, my mother kept reminding me I have three children and should be responsible.

By the end of mah jongg night even after I won the last hand, I decided I couldn’t do this as a pit in my stomach formed and visualizing being in the plane frightened me. But how do I get out of this after telling people I would? I found a way out of this whole mess. One prize sponsor who pushed the prizes over $5000 by June 1 never responded. But it didn’t feel right, either.

Ironically, the biggest supporters come from my own family. My oldest and my husband. Both said they would do it if they could. Oldest isn’t old enough yet and husband (at 6′4″ tall) passes the weight limit. I know hubby would do it as he mentioned it years ago before I ever considered this.

Back ‘n forth. Dilly dallying. Wishy washing.

So how this skydiving mess like writing? It’s exactly how many of us feel when we started freelancing as a writer. Your mind comes up with many similar thoughts…

Can I do this?

Everyone thinks he or she is a writer. What makes me a real one?

Aw, this is crazy. Forget about it. How the heck am I going to stay busy and keep clients coming?

It’s too risky!

What if the client hates my work? Then, I’m done for.

But you have to deal with all the other stuff like marketing, bookkeeping, preparing for the dive…

What if I enjoy it?

Sometimes you just have to do it! The last time I remember freezing out of fear was on top of a mountain at a camp in Colorado when I was about 11. I was strapped and on the edge. I guess it was about 30 feet to the ground. I stood there stiff and gripping the rope not trusting it to hold me. My foot dragged a few inches backward without coming off the mountain’s edge. The other followed. By the time I reached the middle, I pushed gently and eventually glided down like an inexperienced pilot flying a plane.

I did it! I did it! I did it!

It was a breeze the first time I went indoor rock climbing thanks to this experience. Freelance writing — like all things we try for the first time — gets easier with experience. Quoting rates, doing certain types of writing (white paper, web content, case studies, etc.), bookkeeping, providing expertise.

The folks at Skydive Dallas (especially Ernie, my instructor and my glue) were wonderful. They know how to put a gal’s mind at ease. It didn’t help that we had to wait because the winds were too strong. More time to chicken out and fidget. I mostly paced and tried texting in an area where my phone service barely breathed.

It was time. I did what Ernie told me to do and paced more until it was time to head out to the plane. Unexpectedly, my heart beat at normal speed. My stomach growled (lunch time) rather than knotted. I just sat in the small plane and watch the ground grow smaller. Didn’t think about much except wonder when the heck we would reach 2.5 miles high in the sky.

Tired. More about the tale another time. This entry wasn’t meant to tell the whole story.

-Gulp- Did I mention the thought of jumping out of a plane frightens me? We raised over $5000 in prizes for the 8th blog birthday bash and I promised to jump out of a plane if that happened. Am working on scheduling it — trying for June 22. If anyone has any fear pills for sale, let me know.

Skydive Dallas (not really in Dallas, but no one has heard of Whitehurst, TX) takes about an hour to get there. So I need to plan at least a half a day. With baseball and other kids’ activities, it can be tricky.

But this post holds me to it. I will do it. At least, I’ll have at least one interesting story for my grandkids.

Today is my wedding anniversary. So Happy Anniversary, Paul!