Telecommuter's first Christmas, my crazy work from home holiday

I promised myself I'd never do it.

I would never sit down and type an "I'm sorry, I'm really lame and haven't updated my blog in forever post." I vowed to line up guest posters and have a slew of posts written and ready to go in the event I became otherwise occupied.

Hopefully, after you read about my crazy first holiday as a telecommuter, you'll excuse my lame blog post so that I might go on with life.

I took full advantage of my work from home status this holiday season. My sister called in late October with a request. Could I pick her up for Christmas? After 10 years of holiday flying, she's had enough and also worried about what to do with her two dogs. I eagerly signed up for the chance to get out of the Midwest and make the drive to New York City with the excuse made to myself I'd work 15 hour days the rest of the week.

Soon one trip turned to two and before I knew it I was making the trip to and from New York twice in one week. In between, I was smacked with the usual Christmas craziness. I need a new word for exhaustion to explain how that felt.
But, we did manage to have much fun. I lived in NYC for a bit and enjoyed acting as a full fledged tourist this trip. Pictured above are my sister (on the right) and I in front of the tree in Rockefeller Center.

As for lining up guest posters, I did, I promise. But, shortly before I left for the trip, my blog started to reject Internet Explorer, and I didn't want to shortchange my next day in the life guest poster, Web Betty from 10 Things I Hate About Your Site fame.

Now that I'm up and running in IE, I'll be posting Web Betty's day Monday to make sure her posting gets the attention she deserves.

I do some great thinking on road trips. A few random rambles from the road:

• On the trip to NYC, my partner in crime, Nicky, did manage to work from the road. He brought his laptop, plugged it into the car cigarette lighter and tethered it to his Blackberry Pearl for internet access. Nothing like rolling through the hills of Pennsylvania with internet access. The web really is world wide.
• I've been seeing more work from home job leads lately. Are companies turning to telecommuting to cut costs during the recession?
• During the 12 hour car trip, Nicky was telling me about success his sister has had with Associated Content. Apparently in one month she made enough money to finance all of her Christmas shopping. I'm in the process of begging her to do a guest post to fill us all in on her success.