I've heard from a number of you asking this very question since I dropped off the face of the Earth around Thanksgiving.

Shucks! <kicking of foot, bashful expression> ... I knew we were a community here, but I didn't realize or even hope anyone would notice! 

I'd love to say I've been in Tahiti these many weeks. Or that I've been sipping warm B&B in an isolated, lush ski chalet in parts unknown.

But the bare-naked truth, my wonderful OS friends, is that I have been working.

I am a writer, a speaker, an editor and a recovering workaholic who, in recent months, had little work on her plate.

I discovered OS, and I was reborn! It was a buffet of crazy, fantastic, insanely creative ideas and concepts - and it carried me through some terribly lean months (even 7 weeks there, at the beginning, when I'd broken my jaw and had it wired shut... which most of you didn't know back then).

To make ends meet since September, I took on multiple odd jobs. And still business was slow. Breaking my jaw made any communications-related work stop altogether. (There is no physical therapy for a broken jaw, BTW - just trying to eat again, which is a blog in and of itself for another time.)

Then, luck happened. I won a big client. I won another good client. And suddenly I had a bunch of odd jobs people were counting on me to complete (paint my house by Christmas, can you? cover my shift at this business during the holidays, will you? write this newspaper story on the fly, yes?) and more good-paying, honest-to-God-how-lucky-am-I business than I had seen the whole previous year.

All raining down on me in one month.

Now, between us, I worry that part of the reason this career writer/journalist is suddenly so busy is that lots of businesses are paring back. Downsizing (sometimes called "rightsizing," though I'd recommend against using that term - doesn't sit so well) doesn't always mean there isn't work to do. It means difficult financial cutbacks need to be made. I'm a stopgap. This flurry is temporary.

The good news is, I've secured what I hope is a long-term client through 2009. Additional business is great. But evening out the work schedule (80+ hours weekly since last we met) would be a blessing.

Missing you all.... And wishing you a lovely New Year. I'll be back soon.

(P.S. It's my birthday tomorrow - and this opportunity to step away from work-work-work and write to you is a birthday gift to myself. I love it here, as you know.)

(P.P.S. We are ready for a new compendium in January, yes???)

 Warmest regards to all,

 Lisa