Hustling

When I sing, "Every day I'm hustlin', hustlin,'" words to a rap song I know just a little (just enough to be annoying), my son says, "Mom, I don't think he means what you mean." Of course, this is said in an eye-rolling tone, and I reply that we both mean the same thing; we just go about it different ways. We're both (Rick Ross and I) doing what we need to to be able to pay the pills. I might not be doing it for "mo' cars, mo hos, mo' clothes [well, maybe that one], or mo' blows," but I definitely do my hustle to keep up my income.

Today's hustle involves trying to add classes to my fall line-up. My boss at one of the colleges where I teach was fired, and a new interim person came in this past week. (By the way, I'm still working without a contract, five weeks into a seven-week class. I'll get back to that next week, but right now I want to get more classes.) There are twenty-six classes without instructors on the communications department fall schedule, and I'm trying to get three -- one on the Navy base and two others on the nearby campus. One big thing in my favor is that I'm sitting around on a Friday night checking my email. The interim director sent out a request at about 6:30 this evening for instructors to fill the classes. My reply/request went back to her around 7:30. The classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so I'll probably get at least two. With the one I have scheduled already at that college and the two I have at the private college, that will be plenty!

This year has been a slow one for earning money and a fast one for spending. Fortunately, I worked so much in the fall semester that I had enough to carry me over, but now -- or as of the end of August -- I'll have a car payment. I try to keep my expenses low (other than traveling) and I pay off most of my credit cards every month. I have two cards -- one from my new flooring and one for a tire place -- on which I put no-interest-for-eighteen-months charges, and I still have time on those. If it isn't costing me anything to make payments, I'm fine with it. I do hate paying for nothing, though, as in interest charges and other fees. My other cards usually don't have balances, or have small balances that I knock out monthly.

But back to the hustle . . . teaching so much last fall was horrible, and I didn't think I'd voluntarily do it again. On the other hand, if I get these classes, I would have six classes but only two different courses. That's manageable. Last fall, I had seven classes and four different courses -- a recipe for burnout. (I just checked my work email, which you know I've done three times since I started writing this! So far, no reply, but it's been only about a half hour since I requested the courses.) If this doesn't work out, I always have another hustle in the works. I have fifty-ish hours of online scoring scheduled for August in addition to the last few weeks of my summer class at the beginning and the first week of at least two classes at the end. Whew! Sometimes getting it lined up is more work than the work.