Day 19: When Work IS Play

This morning, about half an hour before my alarm was set to go off, I awakened and thought “I can’t wait to get to work today.”

I absolutely love my job. Yes, I work long hours. No, I haven’t had a vacation in years. Yes, I take on far too much and keep adding new projects and sometimes I’m so frazzled I want to cry and sometimes I do. But…I love it.

Many people have told me that I have the coolest job. I agree. I get to eat and drink, see theater and live music, attend festivals and throw parties, and it’s my JOB. I work from home so if I want to stay in my robe all day I can, and there are days when the only reason I put on a pair of pants is because I have to check the mail. It’s a pretty sweet life, even more so because I’ve carved it out for myself.

It’s not all just partying for a living, of course. My friend Marcia Frost is a travel and spirits writer and we’ve discussed the behind-the-scenes work that’s involved in our leisure-focused jobs. A “free” dinner isn’t free and comped tickets come with a cost. For every event I attend there’s work attached to it. I might need to write a blog post, or maybe I’m taking a picture of every course and posting it on Twitter, Facebook and Whrrl. Any time I see a band my camera goes with me, and it takes several hours to go through the hundreds of pictures. Networking events require follow up and new people often means new opportunities and more meetings. Throwing these parties, especially complicated ones like AlphaBeer and premium events like Bringing Back Venetian Night, require organizational skills this creative-type didn’t realize she had. But you know what?

I love it.

It’s more than just getting to do cool things. That’s part of it, but it’s more that I truly feel like I’m helping to spread joy. If you find a really fun thing to do you’re happy, which makes people who love you happy, which makes people who love them happy…

And that makes me happy.