Well, if you’re in the city, you know it’s been HOT of late!  Not used to all this sun and heat, freelancers and telecommuters alike are seeking refuge from the sweltering (in Northwest terms, of course) outdoors.  Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti-9-to-5 Guide and My So-Called Freelance Life recently popped a great post up on the NW Jobs site that is worth a quick read.  Here’s a quick exerpt:

I’ve been working from home long enough to know that trying to be productive while beads of sweat roll down your back and drip onto your keyboard is a lost cause. Once my office breaks 80 degrees, all I’m good for is a siesta.

If like me, you’re a home-based worker with no air conditioning, there’s no need to panic about this week’s forecasted heat wave. The Puget Sound area offers plenty of places where freelancers and telecommuters can escape the 90-degree summer sizzle.

Among Michelle’s suggestions are local public library branches and coworking spaces, including Office Nomads.  Thanks for the nod, Michelle – we hope to see you in the office soon!  The AC is going, fans are a blowing, and we even have the lights off to keep the space nice and cool!

Thanks to Flickr user Powderruns for use of their photo under the Creative Commons license! This shot makes me want to head down to Crater Lake and take a dip!

A new season is here and at Office Nomads that means two things: Chris cleans his desk and we throw an open house. A clean desk for Chris is big enough news for those of us that work here already, but it’s the open house on Oct. 16 from 6 pm to 9 pm that really gets our juices flowing (and that gets Chris to clean his desk). It’s just such a great opportunity to invite our friends and family (that’s you!) to come check out and enjoy the space with us.

This open house, we have some extra added special reasons to celebrate. Along with opening up the space and expounding on the joys of coworking, we’re also hosting the launch party for a great new book called “My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.” This extremely well-written and enjoyable book is written by our friend Michelle Goodman. In it she offers practical and actionable advice to women who know they are meant for more than a standard day job and may or may not know what they actually want to do instead. I;ve seen an advance copy, and I’ll tell you, truth be told, I think it’s a book anyone–woman or man–is going to get something valuable from, in large part because it is so enjoyable to read.

As if celebrating such a book that will help you start a career that will start you on a path to working independently isn’t enough to get you out this week, we’ve got another reason to come down to the open house: It’s our first anniversary! That’s right, just about one year ago Jacob and Susan threw open the doors to Office Nomads and started welcoming their first members. Since then, they’ve added so much to the space and brought so many cool people into the community that you’ll hardly recognize the place if you haven’t been in since we first opened.

So please join us sometime between 6 pm and 9 pm on Oct. 16 to celebrate, eat, drink, and enjoy each other’s company. We’ll see you then!