Freelancer's Day Off

It was my turn to walk "safety patrol" outside one of my kids' schools. Since it is an activity occurring for several hours in the middle of the afternoon, the obligation required my taking off from work--in my profession, it's not necessarily okay just to disappear in the middle of the afternoon.
 
It is not an easy thing for a freelancer to take a day off. A lost day of work, after all, means a lost day of pay, and a freelancer never quite knows when lost days of pay will come too frequently, causing "freelance" to turn into "not working." So, day taken, I was determined to use all of its minutes, not just the safety patrol ones, to the fullest. And what does a freelancer do on a "day off"?
 
1. Schedule appointments. It can be tricky to handle personal appointments on a TV production schedule, so the day off is prime time.
 
2. Make a "to-do" list, almost a waste of time on a work day, as nothing would actually get "done."
 
3. Call the people who can't be called from work--because it's too personal or too complicated or requires having too much paperwork in front of you--but who can only be called during work hours.
 
4. Homemake. Normally seen in the noun form "homemaker." Do things like cooking and cleaning and laundry. Very glad there are not too many of these days off. I'm not that good at the homemaking.
 
5. Have a long-intended coffee with a friend. Because you both need it.
 
6. Observe family life while in the middle of it, not by phone or text. I kind of like this one.
 
7. Check off all the items on a "to-do" list, a list that would ordinarily have many things undone at day's end. Turns out there were a bunch of things left today too.
 
Today, I patrolled school streets (wearing a nifty vest and everything!), generated a few meals and a great deal of clean laundry, handled a leaky faucet and a few appointments, and even had a cup of coffee. Not bad for a freelancer's day off. And as for the "to-do" list? I'm a freelancer, not a miracle-worker.