The Keg Celebration
I’m taking BF out to The Keg for lunch today (apparently the food is quite good there), to celebrate my new contract.
I told him he could even order a $3.00 iced tea (inside joke — read “The Cheap Opportunist“)!
I guess this can also be our Valentine’s thing too. ๐
BF is really the sweetest guy, EVER
See, we don’t really celebrate commercial holidays like Valentine’s Day.
Only Birthdays and Anniversary really matter to us.
I don’t believe that only one day a year can be the day you tell someone you love and appreciate them — it’s the whole YEAR.
Same goes for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, in my opinion.
So in the spirit of not celebrating and falling into the commercial trap of the holidays, I am always pleasantly surprised or pleased when he does something out of the blue, like now.
His idea was not directly related to Valentine’s Day, but he mentioned to me today (Feb 13th) that he is going to cook Poulet Marengo (Chicken Marengo-style) for tomorrow, and make extra so that I can bring 5 days of breakfasts and lunches to work without cooking for this week.
Isn’t that wonderful? ๐
Such a keeper.
Working on Contract
I. Love. It.
I am thrilled that my interviews fell through (yes, that’s why I was in Toronto), and for (unsubstantiated) reasons I will not go into, they felt that I wasn’t good enough to join their company.
Pooh to them, because I started on a contract the week after I was rejected, and I love working in Ottawa even more.
The client is great and the work is challenging and fulfilling.
I am covering my own expenses in my rate while I am at the client, so a post on how I am saving money while traveling on business is coming up.
I also talked to them about flexible hours, and I will be working Monday to Thursday, with my Fridays off.
They even mentioned on more than one occasion that they will need to keep me on past March, so this might be a full-time year long contract.
Right now, I am going to net about $20,000 and if they keep me on for a year, it’ll be an extra $150,000 net after taxes and expenses.
And after living expenses for a year, perhaps $120,000? Nevertheless, I think I’ll hit my goal of a $100,000 net worth this year.
Overall, a pretty good start to a great week.
If you’re in Ottawa now, we should (if you’d be interested) get together for a coffee or something when I get back from Africa.
Sort of like a blogger meet-up except I can’t have a blog!
How are you able to find these contract jobs? I work in IT also and have always wanted to start going independent…not sure how to go about getting work though.
Any tips? What type of work do you do exactly, if you don't mind sharing?
I just browse Monster & people call me from LinkedIn.
My only tips are to set up a profile on LinkedIn, and let everyone know you’re thinking of becoming a freelancer — people might remember that, and call you.
Also, try keeping in touch with the client after the fact, especially if they were happy with you. In my contract, a full year later was all I needed to be able to work for them on my own.
Also, I’m sorry, but I am not telling you what I do.
The Keg is awesome. I might be going there tomorrow for dinner.
It sounds like things are looking way up for you, girl! I'm happy for ya. :3