Help me out, people.

So my personal life has gone from the usual stress to overwhelmingly logistically complicated. Nothing is awful in a big way, but a myriad of tiny awful things drives me batshit insane, like death by a thousand cuts.

We're moving, to a much smaller place -- so.....house found, movers booked, packing commenced, possessions jettisoned, etc.

The kids lose their health insurance as soon as Hub leaves -- so......paperwork ready to get them on mine, at (gulp!) great and unexpected expense.

Hub's organization will pay for tickets to Japan for the family, but only one-way tickets (since technically they're repatriating us), and those have to be used within 180 days of Hub's return -- so....I'm now scrambling to plan a trip to Japan this summer.

Summer day camp? No money for that! See above -- plan to stay in Tokyo as long as possible.

But wait! There's a tenant in our Tokyo apartment, who's not leaving yet. Okay, scramble to stay with friends. We are PERFECT houseguests -- three kids who will be left unattended while their mother goes to work. Yes, work -- do you think I can get my company to agree to let me go to Tokyo all summer, unless I do my currencies job and cover Japan, too?

Oh, right -- I had better clear the working-from-Japan idea with people at work! Heh -- just a little detail there! Well, since the Big Boss himself was the one who proposed the idea, I should be able to pull it off somehow.

Even before all my logistical problems started, I was wondering how I was going to fit in at work. I've been struggling a bit during my first months in my new job, to try to find my niche both on my team and in the San Francisco office.

One challenge is that I am on the markets team, and market coverage has always been the bane of my existence at every financial news job I've ever had. A few years ago, I told the Big Boss himself that instead of covering markets, I would rather be beaten repeatedly with an iron shovel -- in those very words. Bless the Big Boss, he either doesn't remember that I said it, or he chose to believe I was kidding, because he hired me back, to feel the sting of the iron blade once more.

At my last wire job, I was known as somewhat of a high maintenance employee. Um.....actually, my nickname, given to me by the second of the four bureau chiefs for whom I worked, was "freak show." I was pathologically unable to keep my big mouth shut, and given the intense, pressure-filled (often poisonous) atmosphere of a financial newswire bureau in Tokyo, I had (1) lots of things to complain about, and (2) a dearth of people who wanted to hear these complaints.

One of my co-workers once said to me, "You know, you're good at your job -- otherwise, they would fire your ass in a second, because everyone thinks you're really irritating."

Learning from my past mistakes, in my current office I've tried very hard to be "That Quiet Employee Who Just Does Her Job and Works Hard and Then Goes Home to Her Children and Doesn't Bother Anyone."

(Note: This tactic recently backfired. I suddenly found myself at risk of being, "That Quiet Employee Who Just Does Her Job and Shows No Leadership Ability and Risks Being Viewed as Spineless and Less Capable Than Other Louder Members of Her Team.")

Anyway, what does all this blather have to do with you, my blog readers?

STORY IDEAS. I need them. FROM YOU, all you darling normal average people on the street.

I'm writing for the masses now, not for Cow Bones' institutional wire subscribers who want to read all about currency forwards and options volatility curves and candlestick charting and technical crap.

I love writing for a general readership, but the scope of my beat is a bit narrower than I hoped. I thought, hey, I can write about how the weak dollar affects investing in international funds! No, wait -- a fund reporter already did that one. Oh, how about how the weak dollar is bringing more foreigners here to shop! Hmmmm, that's obviously a retail story, and a retail reporter already wrote it.

Today, for instance, I thought about writing about the currency of a certain small Asian nation, and I first cleared it with our Emerging Markets reporter, to make sure she wasn't already on it. She told me a reporter in Asia is working on stories about this very country, and that I had to check with him, too. I also proposed an idea about a certain policy-related subject, and our Washington bureau chief told me I needed to run my idea past our brand new markets/econ editor as well. Sigh.... But least it looks as if I will be able to do those stories, once I get everyone's okay -- so far, no one is getting all territorial on me, thank god.

So what do you want to read about? I can't guarantee I'll write about it, but if anyone has any suggestions, I would LOVE to hear them.

I am not yet a "freak show," but lately I am in danger of turning into "That Employee Juggling All The Personal Logistical Stuff"--- so I need to come up with some really great stories, to compensate for this.

Over the years, I've consistently gotten some of my best story ideas from cab drivers. Alas, I don't take cabs in San Francisco.

But maybe I should start....?