A Portable Office (or How to Work When You Are, Essentially, Homeless)
This post brought to you by BIC 4-Color pen. All opinions are 100% mine.
A few weeks ago, I talked about how we are going to Spain in the fall for four months, but I skipped right over the summer portion of the year.
We went straight to Las Vegas the same day we finished our Outer Banks trip and spent the weekend with my family.
Last Monday, we drove up to Utah and we’ll be here through May while Bart works on a start-up with some friends for a few weeks.
Then, in June he’ll be heading to Phoenix for a 12-week tech internship while I stay in Las Vegas with my parents and the little girls.
Because if there’s any time you want to spend in Las Vegas, it’s for sure June, July, and August.
I’ll also be going to Alt Summit in Salt Lake and to ALA (America Library Association’s big annual conference) in June. Our whole family will also be going to visit Merrick and her family in California over the Fourth of July. Plus, we’re contemplating squeezing a little trip to Disneyland in for Ella’s fourth birthday.
(Yes, our summer plans make me tired too).
All of this is to say that I showed you my office in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago, and about ten minutes after I took those photos, I packed it all up and put it in boxes until we get back to North Carolina in January.
Now, I’m doing all my work at the kitchen table and my whole “office” packs into a super swanky laptop bag that Bart got for free at some MBA event last fall.
Fortunately, I don’t need much in the way of office equipment. (I’m feeling really glad I’m not a DIY blogger – it would have been tricky to cart a bunch of craft supplies all around the globe for the next eight months).
All I have is:
- A laptop
- A phone (which I mainly use to listen to audiobooks – I like blogging because it requires virtually no phone conversations)
- A notebook for keeping track of my posts
- A Bic Pen (the new BIC® 4-Color™is perfect for color-coding all my lengthy lists. 4 Inseparable Colors in 1 Pen).
If you’ve read my blog for a couple of years, you know I am the world’s biggest Bic pen fan. I included them in my first $5 or Less Gift Guide, and then mentioned them again last fall when I was in back-to-school mode. Bart put a new pack of them in my stocking this past Christmas. It was my favorite thing in that stocking.
I don’t even like to use other pens. I like that they are super inexpensive, that you can buy them almost anywhere, including Amazon and Staples, and most importantly, that they WORK.
At this point, we don’t even own many other pens, except the slew of free ones Bart has picked up at various MBA events – I think we could open our own waterbottle/knapsack/notebook store at this point, and he’s only halfway through.
I was hugely amused when I saw the new video ad clips for the BIC® 4-Color™where each of the four colors has its own personality (I’m something of a cross between blue and red so. . . purple?).
Ella watched this second one with me, and didn’t get it at all, but I thought it was quite funny.
Office supplies aside, the other thing that keeps me going is having regular nap and quiet time for the girls in the afternoon.
I really thrive on routine, so it’s no surprise to me that they do too. Life is much easier for all of us when they are getting some scheduled down-time every day.
Also, working at the kitchen table means the fridge and pantry are only about three feet away, which isn’t the worst working condition I can imagine.
P.S. You can follow BIC® 4-Color™on Facebook or Twitter and see all the funny things the four colors are up to. Plus some sweet giveaways.
The "new" BIC 4-color looks just like a pen I had in the 80s. Nostalgia, man.
I think it's great that you are taking advantage of this time in your lives and really making it amazing. What a great life!
The pens that Netapp orders are from bic and I'm constantly having Derek snag some to bring home to me, their definitely my favorites
I have a friend who swears by Bic pens. She only uses green, so she usually gives me her pink (my preference). It works out well!
All through high school I took every test with my "lucky" purple bic-clic. It served me well.
Ok you are seriously a woman after my own heart! As an English teacher, all I use are Bic pens! Red for grading and black for everything else! We use the colored ones for peer commenting on journals. I love when my students comment on how much they love using my pens!
I'm not sure which is worse, Las Vegas or Phoenix!
I'm so in awe of all your travelling with your girls. I, for one, could never do it! Good luck with all your travels this summer and can't wait to follow along! and I totally laughed at the part where you love that blogging doesn't involve phone calls. I hate talking on the phone, too!
whoaa i'm so behind on your blog (sorry)…. your in vegas for the summer (not ca) and spain (what a great opportunity for your family) the fall…. keep reading backwards.