Sloth, take 2

So, if you thought yesterday's sloth was cute (it was pretty cute, right?), check out this specimen! It's a bear, actually – a sloth bear! Who knew such a thing existed? I only found out by chance, while searching for a stock photo to accompany a story about a teddy bear tea party.

Yes. A teddy bear tea party. This is what it's come to. My so-called career is officially ... well, in need of some attention.

Lately my aching wrists (in addition to the aforementioned general angst and enui – plus, my ever-widening ass) are prompting me to give some thought to the question of what I might like to do for a living, besides working at a computer all day. I've done this kind of work –editing, writing and designing various kinds of visual materials – all my life. It's the only way I've ever really learned to make money. But I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it's just not feasible for me to plan on doing it full time for the rest of my working life – by which I mean the rest of my life, period, since I don't expect to ever be able to afford to stop working completely, even if I wanted to.

In short, my wrists are killing me pretty much all day every day now. Ibuprofen helps, stretching helps, taking breaks helps – but I know what's really going on in there, and I know that the only thing that's really going to solve the problem is to stop spending so much time working on a computer.

But what else is there to do? More to the point, what else could I do? What would my days be like if I were no longer able to spend most of my eight hours cozily holed up behind a 24" flat screen monitor – if I had to actually do something physically active, maybe even interact with other people not just from time to time but all day long?

I have long thought that some kind of more people-oriented work would be good for me. I naturally tend to gravitate toward solitary, creative and introspective activities, but spending too much time working or playing alone makes me feel disconnected and unreal. And the longer I go without seeing people, the more stressful it is when I do see them. Working in a situation where I'm forced to interact more helps me keep my social-skill muscles from atrophying, and I've always loved the little interim jobs I've had where being with people is the main thing you do all day. Unfortunately, those jobs don't pay enough to live on.

There's gotta be something, though. Some kind of teaching? Or counseling? I'm drawn to the idea of doing these things, but when it comes right down to it I always sort of balk at the idea of People Bugging Me All Day. Then again, this is just the rut I want to consider busting out of.

More money would be nice, too. Actually, if I were making more money (by working from home instead of selling my labor for peanuts – nay, peanut shells! – at my current "job"), I could keep doing this same kind of work and just work less. That might be the best solution of all. But until the *&^ cable company deigns to offer service on our road, that isn't really an option, either. Moving graphics files across a dialup connection (or even wireless, I've been told by local friends who use it) is just too slow.

Such abundant naysaying! I'm not taking it too seriously, though – it just means I haven't thought of a good way to say Yes to something new. Yet. But it's gotta be out there somewhere.

In the meantime, I am percolating away ... thinking, doodling, daydreaming ... When the time is right to make a decision, I always seem to know it. I try not to get impatient with myself. But this – this hurts. My wrists, right now, are throbbing. A friend of mine who's also a commercial artist has been crippled by pain for almost a year and just took six weeks off for carpal tunnel surgery. I don't want to go through that.