Misunderstood

I'm not sure people understand my life.

To me it's very simple.

I have a day job M-F 9am-5pm. I work in a cubicle shuffling papers and handling electronic financial reports.
After work I don't usually go home and prepare dinner for the kids, or veg on the couch watching prime time TV like many Americans.
Instead I go back to work on things that I love doing.
Art, Photography, Recording Music, and Writing, which I hope to make a living from so I can quit my day job once and for all.

So when coworkers come up to me at the day job and ask me if I saw something on TV, 95% of the time the answer is NO.

This weekend alone I was working on a movie set for a total of 27 hours between Saturday and Sunday. When you factor in eating and sleeping you have no time to watch TV or even hang out with friends.

It doesn't bother me that I'm always busy, but it drives me off the wall the fact that people don't understand the crazy hours I work.
I love that my friends want to see more of me and that they invite me to hang out but sometimes I feel like they don't understand that my schedule simply doesn't allow me much free time.

After the movie shoot schedule is over (this Saturday) I will have hours and hours of post production. I also need to finish a CD cover and art work for a singer songwriter I started a month ago. That, in addition to retouching some work I did for other clients, and making sure I prepare for the Sherry Vine/Francis Legge video launch party where I will raffle some of the photos I took of Sherry.

This of course means going back to the recording studio will have to wait. I only ask patience from my music producer. I can't wait to have a few tracks finish. I'm happy with the direction we are goin. Especially since I might be able to use the songs for a video project I was approached about. I think that will all start taking shape in 2009.

With all this work I might not make my self-imposed deadline of April 19th, 2009 to have the book I'm writing completed.

Often times I ask myself if all this work is really worth it. And time and time again I tell myself "Yes, yes it is."
I've seen great talent around me, much more talented than I, all my life but with little to no drive, no ambition. I don't want to be them, ever.
I have to keep working on reaching my goals.
Being stationary, settling, is never an option for me.

When I was younger my family was on food stamps. We picked up furniture from the streets. When people threw out their couch, night stands, etc me and my family picked them up and used them because we didn't have money to buy new furniture.
That's my past, but I don't want it to be my future. I want something better for me and my family.

To start, I want $2 million dollars in the bank. That's the price I've placed on my financial freedom. It makes sense mathematically taking into consideration how low maintenance my life really is. I could live a very humble life with $2 million for the rest of my life. And yes I've consider inflation but I have a plan for retirement which I'll have to tell you about another time.

With $2 million in the bank I could live a humble life doing public services and not have to worry about paying my bills. That's why sometimes I don't understand why Oprah needs soooo much money.

I wish I could stay and chat but I have to go back to work.

-A
ps - if anyone reading this wants to assist me with my photography, music, book, or simply do my laundry :-) let me know and I'll make sure you are well compensated ;-)