By Sue DiFranco
Copyright © 2001 Sue DiFranco/Fun Facts Publishing

6.      Cooking Meals. OK, you might be wondering about the contradiction between #5 and #6. Productive and cooking meals? Yup, it’s true – I’m Superwoman. Whereas diner delivery was the only possible dinner option when I was a lackey (sometimes even the thought of punching the speed dial button was too exhausting to contemplate), I have now morphed into Martha Stewart. My boyfriend, still a member of the Full-Time Workforce, is, needless to say, ecstatic. Especially when I told him the only thing I wanted for Valentine’s Day was a new wok.

7.      Running Errands on a Day That’s Not a Weekend. I don’t know about you, but weekends for me were never the relaxing thing they were supposedly cracked up to be. Weekends meant laundry, grocery shopping, and errands. And don’t even get me started on wasting my lunch hours going to the bank or whatever other place that was only open on weekdays. Now, however, I can stroll to the drugstore whenever I please. And I never feel that forced feeling of “Ugh, I have to get off the couch and go to the store because if I don’t I’ll have to wait until next Saturday.” Nope. I go today. And if I don’t feel like it, then I go tomorrow.

8.      Rediscovering Background Music. I was able to listen to headphones at most of my other jobs, but sometimes it gets a little hard to concentrate when Madonna is techno-two-steppin' in your ear. Now I have the perfect volume of music that still allows me to think. And I’m rediscovering my dusty CD collection. (The TV, however, stays off. I’m only human, you know.)

9.      Unlimited Access to a Wide Variety of Foods. Unless you bring food to work, you’re usually just stuck with the unappetizing selections of the snack machine. Now, with the refrigerator just steps away, I can eat what I want when I want. Hmmm…wait a minute. Maybe that’s not such a good thing. How about more time to work out? There, that sounds better. Not that it’ll happen, of course, but at least it’s an option.

10.  The Chance To Sit Down And Write An Article Like This. Would the brain power have been able to handle something like this when I was shackled to the Mac? Nope. And how do I feel now that I wrote it? Awake, alive, and ready to tackle the housecleaning, whip up a meal, and continue being the Sole Proprietor of Me.com!