August 21, 2008 – Today (Thursday) is actually my Friday! This is the first vacation day I’ve taken all summer and I’m not doing anything! Bruce and I are actually trying to plan a full week away the second week of September, which will be nice, but the day off for no good reason is sorely needed after the last few weeks.
Lots of changes are in store for my company in the coming months. I can’t talk about too many of them because I’m not sure if any of my coworkers have found my blog. We are moving into permanent space (which I am in the process of finding), and have a lot of things planned for January 2009. It seems like that is really far away, but at the rate time passes, January 2009 might as well be next week.
The apartment is just about done. Someday, I will actually get the pictures of all my hard work up here so you will all know what I’m talking about. My spare bedroom/closet has turned out a little more childish (my mother used the word “whimsical”) than I’d planned, but it works for the moment. I did finally give into my urge to purge. Last weekend I went through ever closet in my house and got rid of a pile of stuff as tall as I am. I couldn’t figure out how I had managed to accumulate so much crap, but then I realized that I’ve been in this apartment longer than I’ve lived anywhere ever. I’m used to moving every couple of years and you always do a grand purge when you move. Hence no move, no purge.
Last night I started my first Christmas present. I’m trying to get back into doing some needle work, so I’m doing some therapeutic cross stitch. I’m hoping to turn some of my therapy into gifts for friends (thus reducing the cost of the gift giving while upping the thought that went into it), but I know needle point and cross stitch aren’t very trendy/fashionable/popular for people under the age of 197. We’ll see what I can do.
This may seem a bit fractured, but it is a good representation of what I’ve been feeling like lately. Going in a hundred different directions at the same time while trying to plan for stuff that is coming faster than I’m prepared for. Happy (almost) Friday!
Where am I and what is going on!?!?!?
August? (I also thought today was Tuesday.)
August 6, 2008 – I am now convinced that New York is located in a strange time warp whereby three minutes have passed and all of a sudden it is August! This summer has been nothing like I planned in more ways than one. I meant to go on a vacation at some point, I meant to get more done around the house and I meant to spend more time with my friends. Somehow none of that happened.
What did happen was that I spent almost every weekend at the beach (which is awesome and the thing I credit with keeping me from going insane and killing people during the week), I redecorated the bedroom (while mom was here – it looks so good that Bruce called me in the middle of a meeting the day after he saw it and just wanted to reiterate to me how much he liked it), and I’m learning how to live within my means. That last one is the most difficult and probably the most useful.
I feel a little silly because “living within my means” results in me trying to eat 2 meals at home a day. Anywhere else that sounds ridiculous, but here it is pretty much the way things work. Plus I’m counting “eating out” as any meals ordered in to the apartment. I’ll keep you posted. This month is on track to being the first month where I’ve taken care of everything that I need to and I still have money to live on. Woo-hoo!
I’ve been in the mood to drastically simplify my life recently. I keep getting the urge to go through everything in my closets and just throw away everything I haven’t used/needed. I hesitate to this because normally I do it on a whim and realize that I got rid of stuff I actually needed, however I’ve been pushing this whim down for a while, so maybe it’s time.
I still have hopes for a vacation, although the chance of it happening before the fall is not high at this point. I just need some time away. Last year I didn’t take enough time off and they forced me to take three days at the last minute so I wouldn’t implode and it sucked.
The training for the Avon Walk has been nonexistent. I really need to kick that into gear, or I’ll be hurting come October. Dallas has not been wanting to train at all and I somehow got left out of the loop for training walks (I imagine because Dallas opted out, I got left out), but hopefully I’ll be in the loop coming up and really get some stuff done. I still need to raise like $1700, so if anyone out there in blog land wants to donate to my cause, please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment and I’ll get you all the information you need.
Here’s to hoping that everyone out there in the world has been having a wonderful summer!
Hello There, It's been a while....
June 24, 2008 – So I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the dates appear on these entries, but it is beyond my technical abilities/patience to figure out. So this is my new system. Since there is no date on the last entry and it has been long enough that I don’t remember, I’m going to do a blanket update and I’m sorry for any repetitions.
Good News First:
1. I got a promotion. You are now reading the typing of the General Manager of The Talener Group. It’s been an interesting transition and we aren’t done yet, but it’s a process.
2. My cousin had a baby (Congratulations!).
3. I won the NBA Finals pool at the office (Go Boston Celtics!).
4. Saturdays have become a standard beach day for the summer.
5. I got a Wii Fit.
6. Dallas and I are on the final level of Super Mario Bros 3.
7. I will be doing the Avon Walk for the Cure in October, I need to raise $1800. If you or anyone you know is interested in donating, please visit my personal walk page: http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1660&px=4289734
8. I was the top biller for the Quarter in Q1 of 2008.
Bad News:
1. I had to put one of the cats down. It was Toby a.k.a. the angry Chinese man.
2. My dentist and I have become very good friends due to the fact that I’ve had a ridiculous amount of dental work done recently – on the upside, I like him.
3. I lost both the Masters pool and the US Open pool, but I didn’t come in last.
As you can see, the good pretty much outweighs the bad and you can’t really ask for more than that.
So last Friday afternoon I got off work early and decided there was no time like the present to start building up to a marathon and a half *for my walk in October). From my office to my house is a bit over 15 miles and my friend Dallas and I had been wandering a bit lately, so I thought "No big deal." I made it about halfway there (about 7.6 miles) before I gave up and got on a subway. I went home, sat on the couch for an hour and was sound asleep by 9:30pm because I was so exhausted.
Lessons learned:
1. This is going to be much harder than I thought.
2. Don't walk down 3rd avenue hoping to hit the Brooklyn Bridge (I always walk down Broadway, so this didn't even occur to me).
3. Don't drink beer with coworkers before walking 7+miles - it didn't end badly, but it made it harder to stay focused while passing the 9 million bars between my office and my house. More lessons to come...
Betting Pools and Finishing my Apartment…
As some may know, my office is pretty much a frat house. As a result, there is a lot of betting going on. So far, the most shameless pool we’ve had was the BKup Kidney Stone pool where we bet on the day and the window of hours when BKup would pass her kidney stone. (Full disclosure: I won.) At the moment we have a pool for The Masters (golf) where we each drafted 5 players in the tournament. I know nothing about golf, but my players are Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, and Steve Striker. I know nothing about golf, so if anyone knows how I picked, please let me know…
As far as finishing the apartment goes, I only need a bedside table to complete the furniture acquisition at the moment. I need to make covers for the two new chairs that we got, but the size and shape are great for my space. All I need to do structurally is patch the holes in the drywall in the living room from the shelves that were hanging up there before we got the new bar cabinet and patch and paint the wall where we took out the built in hanging rod (in the middle of the living room – why?) and I need to finish and paint the piece of drywall I had to replace after our White Trash Christmas in July party two years ago (we replaced the drywall about 6 months ago and haven’t gotten round to finishing it yet). After that, I think I can call the apartment done – until I find something else to do.
At some point I'll post pictures when I'm all done.
Nearly Done!
So, I recently painted part of my hallway with stripes. I liked it so much that I decided to do the whole hallway. Needless to say, that is a large pain in the ass to do alone. Luckily the BF is in town this week. Last night we taped out all the lines and it took only a little over an hour to tape the whole hallway (it took me an hour to just do the short wall I did by myself). He doesn’t like to paint, but he is a champion taper. We also managed to get the bedroom picked up and ever vacuumed part of the living room. It is amazing how quickly these things happen when you actually have help. I like it! I will post pictures of my beautimous hallway when it is done so everyone can appropriately “Ooooh!” and “Ahhh!” over the work.
All I have left to do in the house now is reorganize the kitchen, take the stuff for donations, buy a coffee table, figure out what we're doing for a bar area and then I think we're done. Maybe.
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Please, Do Not Abuse Your Recruiter...
Okay, so I realize that many recruiters are no better than used car salesmen, however, some of us are not quite that bad.
As a recruiter, I want people to know a couple of things:
1. I do not get paid unless a candidate is offered a job, takes it and keeps it.
2. My livelihood depends on my relationships with the companies/managers that I work with.
3. I do not want to waste a candidates’ time with managers/jobs that are not real or a managers’ time with candidates who are not real.
Candidates – Please do not screw over your recruiter by committing any of the following atrocities:
1. Do not cancel an interview, if you must, please allow minimally 24 hours notice or at least have the courtesy to call – emails in the middle of the night are not cool, especially when they are followed by a 24-48 hour disappearing act of which Houdini would be impressed. When you cancel an interview, we (meaning me) have to make explanations to managers. It doesn’t sound good for you or us when we say, “I don’ know, I read his e-mail when I got in this morning and haven’t been able to reach him since.” Can we reschedule, can we move it up or back at all? Who knows? You didn’t give us the basic respect of a phone call. When you are in the second or third interview phase, this means you have wasted your own time, my time, my managers’ time and now you and I both look like assholes. If a company has arranged for someone to fly in form another place, or to have someone stay outside of their normal working hours, DO NOT cancel for any reason short of extreme illness or death. (Please see items 1-3 above.)
2. Do not think that an e-mail replaces the need for a phone call, ever. If I urgently need to speak to you (or vice versa), the phone is the correct way to contact you. Would you send your mother an e-mail if you ended up in the hospital? (Actually, this goes for everyone and not just candidates – support more human interaction!)
3. If you have a job you are happy at, please do not play at looking for a new job. Decide to look or stay put, but please don’t waste my time or my managers’ time by going on interviews when you have no intention of leaving your current job.
Managers – Please be aware of the following:
1. The best candidates are those that already have jobs. As such, they cannot all interview in the middle of the day or even during the “normal” working hours. Please be prepared to come early, stay late, or otherwise accommodate these candidates if you are interested in them. We will do our best to make sure that time is worth it to you.
2. We are not god and we cannot control everything. I will make sure you are aware of a candidate’s schedule, other companies they have interviewed with and any other offers that have been made. What you do with that information is your own concern and I cannot necessarily convince someone who has an offer at $100k/yr to take your offer of $85k. When I can convince them to take it, I cannot always convince them to keep it (please see item 1 in the first section).
3. Yes, your job is the sexiest. No, I don’t know why anyone would want to work anywhere else. Yes, I understand that you have a budget to work with, but please believe me when I say that if I convince that candidate to take a $20k/yr pay cut to work for you (and I am that convincing – sometimes), you must treat them very well and resign yourself to the fact that if someone else offers them more $$ they will most likely leave (please see item 1 in the first section).
Okay, rant done. I think my head is going to explode.
Weekend in Review
So, I had one of those weekends where I know I was super productive, but I don’t feel like I got enough done. Ever had one of those? I thought I’d go ahead and post my accomplishments here and see if I feel more finished and less of a mess when I write it all down. So here is my weekend recap:
Friday night (left work at 5:30pm):
1. Went to Home Depot to buy paint, Kilz, and other painting accoutrements. (Lesson learned: Do not carry three gallons of paint and painting accoutrements home on the subway – people will run into you, it will hurt.
2. Primed the second bedroom and the hallway.
Saturday:
1. Ran to the big grocery store with ex-Roomie (she had her BF’s car).
2. Painted spare room a lovely blue called Storytime.
3. Picked up living room/vacuumed couches/created coffee table out of table top and bed stilts.
4. Mad bed in spare room, cleaned up floor.
5. Cleaned kitchen/did dishes/cleaned cat box
6. Ran to drug store to pick up stuff I forgot earlier and beer and Laundry.
7. Had two girl’s over for girl’s night.
Sunday:
1. Painted hallway.
2. Moved a bookshelf into small bedroom.
3. Took down drop cloths, moved dresser in and move bedside table into spare room.
4. Set up closet in spare room and took all hanging items out of living room.
5. Moved shoes from bedroom to spare room (my clothes and shoes can breath!)
It still doesn’t feel like I got enough done, but as my mother and my BF are quick to point out, patience is not my strong suit.
I went to get dressed this morning and I could see all my suits and shirts and shoes clearly and it was heaven. Once I finish the apartment overhaul, I’ll be able to sleep again!
Cue the Choir of Angels!
I officially have no roommate! The house is completely destroyed and no one came to help her move, but she’s out and it appears like we managed to save our friendship as well. In addition to that, I got a Wii (technically it was for my birthday, but it came last Friday, so I opened it and started playing) and tonight I am getting an iPhone (which I won from the office because we did over $200,000 in billing last month $160,000 of which was billed by my team). Given all that, things are going pretty well for me these days. I’ve picked out a color for the other bedroom and I think I might paint the hallway the same color. I cannot wait to get started on that project.
Even Bruce is excited. He said that he hesitated to do anything around the house before because he didn’t want to do anything for her or that would benefit her. Now that she’s gone, he says things are going to be different. We’ll see. Both he and Justin have said that I seem noticeably happier just in the day or so since she’s been gone.
Hopefully this is just the beginning of more wonderful things to come!
Halleluiah! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
She has an apartment and she has a move in date and, God willing, I’ll have my apartment to myself as of the weekend of March 1st. I am thinking about buying the paint to repaint her room this weekend so that I can be completely prepared to take over that room as soon as she is out. I’m taking suggestions on the color (it is two different colors of bright green now). I was thinking of just doing a much lighter green, but maybe I should let the BF pick the color since I picked out all the other ones. Maybe I’ll just give him some options to choose from…
I’ll have a closet! My clothes won’t be hanging in the living room and I’ll be able to see which suits are where rather than trying to figure out what is hanging in the bedroom and what is in the living room. I’ll have a spare room that is more than a junk room and I’ll have some storage back!
Can you tell that I am very excited?
Grr. Arg.
I was trying to wait to do another posting until I was feeling a bit more upbeat and positive. The bitter isn't quite ready to depart yet, but I don't want to get out of the habit of posting, so I thought I'd just kep it short and sweet.
There are a couple of things that really tic me off.
1. People who don’t do what they say they will (especially if they later make assholes of themselves by trying to pass it off on you or anyone else because it’s never their fault).
2. Companies that do not do business in good faith. Especially large companies who take advantage of smaller companies just because they are small. (Credit Suisse we are not going to beg to do business with you!) So far I have two companies on this list – one might come off the list if they stop being ridiculous and rectify the situation.
3. Dell. My less than 2 year old Dell computer has stopped being able to access the internet. A fun problem that started just AFTER my warranty expired.
There are also a couple of things that really make me happy.
1. Alcohol with bubbles (Champagne/Prosecco/Sparkling Wine). The bubbles make me smile.
2. My new bedroom furniture and my TVs I got for Christmas.
3. Going on vacation. This time next week I’ll be in Arizona get rubbed, scrubbed wrapped and polished.
There are deeper things that make me happy, but at the moment I’m concentrating on being superficial. Sue me.
Just had to Share...
So, FNG at work just called her brother because we can across a job that she thought he might have a shot at it.
A bit of background: FNG’s dad is a rocket scientist (no sarcasm, he’s actually a rocket scientist), her mom is on the board of a couple of companies and is a self-made millionaire. They completely support both their children (supply them both with their own private apartments in doorman buildings on the upper east side in Manhattan), but at least FNG has a job. Her older brother is trying to “write a screen play” but is really just smoking a lot of pot.
Back to our story: So FNG calls her fat slob brother and says, “Hey, we just came across a job at Forbes paying $40k/yr are you interested?” Her brother says, “Would I have to work 9-5?” FNG says, “Of course, it’s a job. People who have jobs generally work 9-5.” Fat slob brother says, “The only way I would ever consider working a 9-5 job is if I knock up my girlfriend.” His girlfriend was sitting next to him at the time.
Do I even need to point out how many things are wrong with the above situation? And can I just say that this is what happens when parents continue to completely support their adult children (especially if they put no parameters or time limits on it).
Welcome 2008! (I don't hate my life like I did this time last year!)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to 2008 and I hope that it holds only wonderful and fantastic experiences for you all (and when wonderful and fantastic are not an option, I hope they are at least interesting “growth” experiences). My 2008 was rung in at a fantastic loft party. I apologize to anyone who was there who caught me in my bitch stage – by the time we made it to the party I was ready to be at home on my couch. Justin put it all into perspective for me by saying this:
“Deep thought for the evening: You really want to be at home on your couch right now, but instead you are in a $4 million dollar loft at a party thrown by your friend who owns an asset management firm and invites you to all his parties because he thinks you are fun – on New Year’s Eve and in New York City… How many poor slobs at home on their couch want to be you right now?”
Thank you Justin for making me feel very petty and like everyone wants to be me (strange feelings to have at the same time).
The holidays in good old Atlanta were quite interesting. I met my dad’s new BF (who I like a lot, BTW), my dad tried to convince me that I was really totally over NY and really wanted to come home, and then my grandmother was informed that if she’s not going to do something about the things that are making her unhappy that my dad wasn’t going to invite her to stay over any more. He’s trying to get to a point where he is limiting the negative influences and the drama in his life – all I can say is “It’s about damn time.” All in all, it was just another happy family Christmas at the Herron household.
I did get my first week off work since we opened the company in April. That was certainly very strange for me. Having so many days off in a row makes me feel like I have no idea what is going on now that I am back, but I had forgotten what it was like to sleep in. Also, before we left for the holidays my two bosses took me out to dinner and gave me a raise. That was pretty great and they both got completely smashed (I was a bit tipsy, but thanks to the 2-1 ratio that is the golden rule for drinking with your boss – you only have 1 drink for every 2 your boss(es) have, that way there is much less chance for embarrassment). The next day (Friday before Christmas), I walked in right on time and my boss looked at me and said, “I wasn’t sure we’d be seeing you today.” I replied, “I wasn’t aware that not seeing me was an option.” (Because in my world when you get a raise, you definitely show up to work on time the next day – call me crazy.) Apparently the big boss couldn’t quite make it, the e-mail we got was sent with the subject line “I Tried – too much Tanqueray and tonic”. Brilliant!
I don’t really do the traditional New Year’s Resolution thing, but some areas I’ve decided to focus on in 2008:
- My Money: I’ve finally figured out how to pay all my bills, still have some fun and start clawing my way out of debt all at the same time. Next step is contributing to my shiny new 401k and building some savings (stay tuned next year for the next installment of our adventure – investing! Coming in 2009).
- My Health: In Q4 of 2007 I started making strides in this area. I joined a gym and I started paying attention to what I eat (not really changing my eating habits or modifying what I eat at all, but I can tell you exactly how badly I do eat). The next logical step is actually going to the gym when I don’t have a session with my trainer and changing my eating habits. I think I’ll try eating at home (I swear I can cook something in my kitchen besides cookies).
Good luck to me and good luck to all of you in whatever you’ve decided to focus on.
Have you seen my free time?
Have you ever noticed that when you have everything planned perfectly is when things suddenly start to get away from you? I am leaving to go to Atlanta on Saturday and I made a list of everything that I needed to do and parceled some of it out for each night in the week. I figured a bit at a time would be a great way to make a dent in my list and not feel overwhelmed. Great plan, right?
FNG (F-ing New Girl/Guy) at my office does volunteer work with an organization called Safe Space which does work with inner city and at risk youth in New York and they are having a fund raiser on Wednesday that she asked us all to go to. I figured I could move some of my plan around and told her I’d love to go. After all, it is a great cause and a chance to meet some new people and support my co-worker. So I call up Crazy and see if she wants to go with me and thus my Wednesday night is set.
About 20 minutes later, my boss throws a post-it note pad at me with a note that says “Leave Thursday Night Open”. When your boss tells you to leave an evening open, I tend to feel like it is a good idea to do so (especially if you are REALLY hoping for a raise)… Good bye Thursday.
So here is what I have to get done between yesterday night and tonight (besides the fact that I am working 12 hour days):
Monday night: Got home at 8:30 after trying unsuccessfully to puck up my down coat from the dry cleaners (they swear to me they will have it tonight); I had to pick up, break down, bind up and take out all the cardboard boxes and packaging from the new bed, dressers and TV table; take out all the garbage in the house; organize the clothes in the drawers of the new dresser before putting away the laundry that I picked up earlier in the week; separate the laundry I can drop and that must be done by hand so I can take care of that at a later time; hang 3M hooks in the bathroom for the new hanging baskets I got at IKEA (and hang the baskets).
What is left for Tuesday: Finishing the last minute wrapping of all gifts; putting together the baked goods for my office; hand wash laundry; drop of dry cleaning and laundry that can be dropped; pick up cat food and key rings for the new sets of keys I had made today; pack (or pack what can be packed at this point); put together clothes to take for Thursday night (staying in the city); take shower (and everything that goes with that); put together a 30 minute meeting about my keys to success in my job; and finally (please, God!) get to sleep before midnight, preferably by 10:00pm.
The up side is that I feel very accomplished this week because I do seem to be getting it all done and really the only side effect has been a slight dopiness from lack of sleep. Tonight will be the test.
The ‘Keys to Success’ meeting I have to give tomorrow (we are each required to give one and we are going in the order that we started working at the company Cool Breeze first, LeClare second, me third (they call me Herronater if you are curious), The Kid is fourth, Krolleosis will be last). FNG will not be participating because Cool Breeze does not feel as if she has been here long enough to really have her ‘Keys’ yet. It should be interesting and at least I get mine out of the way quickly. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I'm not dead!!!!
So, obviously I’m not so great at keeping up with the blog. I’m going to do my best to change that, and I apologize for going MIA for almost a year. I thought about spending time catching everyone up on all the fantastic and exciting things that have happened since last I typed, however I realize you all have better things to do and if you are really curious (or something is very confusing), please feel free to let me know and I will clarify as we go along. Just to give a brief overview:
- I did not in fact get fired, although I did quit and start a new job at a start up IT recruiting firm. I like to think of myself as a pimp or a trafficker of people – it sounds much more dangerous.
- The theatre company is on hiatus. Our lives have all changed so much from when we started and with me working 12+ hour days pretty regularly we are trying to figure out how to keep things going with QED and keep us all friendly and happy in our own lives. So far that has meant QED on the back burner, but no one has completely written it off yet.
- The roommate is moving out and the BF is half moving in. He can’t totally move in because his daughter lives in another state and he really wants to be there for her, but he’s moving stuff into the apartment and we’re fixing it up a bit (although he really wants to just move to another apartment, I’m just tired of moving).
So, I am going to try and update this a bit more regularly. Happy holidays and hopefully you’ll hear from me soon!
So...I think I'm getting fired....
I think they are going to fire me before I get a chance to quit. That actually works in my favor because then I can file for unemployment if the job search takes longer than I can handle, but I've never been fired before.
I found an org chart in my boss' office today that had my name crossed out and in the revised org chart I found later, my name was there, but with a 'T' underneath it.
She asked me if I was going to be in on Monday and I said yes and asked her why and she said, "No reason." If they have me come in on Monday just to fire me, I am going to be supremely unhappy.
Wow. I've never been fired before. This feeling sort of sucks. Not because I'm not ready to leave, but because I know it's totally ridiculous and there's not a lot I can do about it. Did I mention that I've never been fired before?
January (dear lord, how can it possibly be the end of January already?!?) Update
More than a month since I’ve blogged? How can that be? Where on earth did January go? How can February be only a day or so away? If you can’t tell, things have been sort of getting away from me lately. In an effort to get back on top of that and figure out what the hell is going on with my life (in so much as anyone ever figures out what is going on with their lives), I am taking some drastic steps.
1. I am quitting my job and I will probably be doing it without the safety net of another job. I have been unhappy for a while and things are not getting better (although after a series of rather pointless meetings, things seem to have reached plateau). There is no reason for me to stay unhappy at a company where I so obviously have no future when I could go be happy or at least have a shot at something bigger than an admin position at another company. I keep almost chickening out and changing my mind, but I keep telling a few key people who I know will give me shit about it if I chicken out. This is the right choice and it is the best decision for me…right?
2. At this point I am not going to stage manage Scenes from an Execution. Zander’s thoughtless remarks concerning his ability to do without me and not wanting to adjust the rehearsal schedule by a half an hour to indulge my need to have a day job that makes it so I can eat has really pissed me off. I’m not going to say that I definitely won’t (because I said that with Mad Forest and look how that turned out), but at this exact moment, I find it highly unlikely.
I guess that is about all when it comes to drastic steps.
In other news, I am stage managing Mad Forest. I didn’t want to and I fought having to do it, but in the end I’m doing it and I’m actually very happy that I am. It is an amazing group of people and they have a wonderful vibe. Julia (the director) actually values my opinion and wants me to be an active member of the team she has created as opposed to sitting in a corner reading a book until someone needs something. It is wonderful and amazing and I am enjoying it a lot. I am just VERY tired. My BF hates it because he’s lost me to another show, but he’s tolerating it amazingly well considering.
On the whole, especially since I made the decision to make those drastic choices (they may not be drastic to you, but they are to me, I’m Miss Responsible, remember?), life has been pretty good. Hopefully it will keep going that way. To close, I want to post an e-mail that my friend Veronica sent me. I hope all these things for all of you:
My Wish for You in 2007 May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills. May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips! May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires and may happiness slap you across the face. May your tears be that of joy and may your problems forget your home address! In simple words............May 2007 be the best year of your life!!!
Christmas has Come!
1. The America’s Test Kitchen Book.
2. The most current season of America’s Test Kitchen on DVD.
3. Magazine subscription to Real Simple
4. Smithsonian Membership
5. A lovely journal and a book mark and some beautiful pens
6. Boots
7. A new digital camera, the Canon PowerShot SD30 in a beautiful Rock Star Red
8. A new cell phone because I HATED MY RAZR. I love my new Samsung t619.
9. A new white down jacket.
10. The new Product Red iPod Nano
11. New Coach sneakers (brown and gold)
12. Beautiful Veuve Cliequot Champagne set in a beautiful cooler case with flutes.
13. Dual Membership to the American Natural History Museum
I gave Bruce the book that Dallas helped me make and he got really emotional about it. It was the perfect gift and I’m glad I could pull it off for him. I will actually be spending the holiday alone in my house with the boys, so it should be interesting. We have our first real Christmas tree this year and so far the boys haven’t tried anything more annoying than trying to drinks the tree’s water out of the stand. Also, Pyam sent me the first Christmas card sent to Bruce and I, so (if you are reading this) thank you for that. It was really uplifting and Bruce has decided he likes you even though he hasn't met you yet. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday!
Long Time in Coming
Hello again from the craziness that is my life. The last few weeks have been crazy and strange and most of it in a not so great way. In my last post, I mentioned that my Grandmother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her jaw. My Grandmother - Marie Hieser - died on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My mother went up to IL to help her siblings make arrangements and do whatever it is people do when someone dies. I tried to get to IL for the funeral and ended up stuck in Detroit. Bruce managed to get to me in Detroit so I was at least not stuck alone, but it sucked a lot (I HATE DETROIT AND NORTHWEST AIRLINES) and I felt like I let my mom down. Somewhere around the second or third weeks of December (whatever two weeks ago was), Mom had surgery in Houston. It was going to be exploratory surgery but ended up being a hysterectomy. She was in the hospital for a couple of days and couldn't drive for a week. She came through it fantastically, however it was a little difficult for me. Times like this, I wish I had a sibling or two running around to help take care of some of this stuff. I did, however, get to reconnect with Pyam while I was home and that was fantastic. I was with Mom until she got out of the hospital and then I went to Atlanta where my dad met my boyfriend for the first time. I also got to go to the GA Aquarium (which was AWESOME!) where I got to touch a little shark.
I was really worried about my dad meeting Bruce for the first time. Bruce had no idea what Atlanta traffic was like, so he was actually like an hour late (of all the times to be late, right?!?) but in the end I think it worked out fairly well. My dad went from being adamantly against the whole thing to just wanting me to be happy and not get hurt. I especially loved the part where I was sent away for an hour like a child so they could have a man-to-man talk. I'm glad they seem to have come to some sort of understanding, but I'm really worried about my dad.
Come to think of it, I'm actually very worried about both of my parents. With mom's friend Tom moving to Africa, she doesn't have much of a close support group left and I worry about her. Daddy wants to be happy and doesn't know what it would take to be happy. They are so much more alike than they think they are. In case anyone wonders where I get that whole philosophy of "if you let people get close to you, they can hurt you" - it came from both of my parents.
The best things that happened since my last post if that the show opened and closed, I finally got to spend some time with my boyfriend in daylight, I got to see both of my parents and already got all my Christmas presents, and at my office people seem to have been handing out bottles of champagne like water. More on the Christmas presents to come in a few moments in a separate post.
Change is afoot! (or is change a foot?)
So much has been going on in the past few weeks. Antigone is up and running. Bruce and I had another go 'round about our situation and now we're trying to make things work, there are only 10 days until Crazy is out of my house. I feel like I haven't slept more than two hours in a night for weeks on end. I don't even know where to start.
I guess the exciting stuff is that Antigone is up and running. It is always more fun to finally be doing all the things you’ve been planning and talking about for months on end. The action feels good and I feel like we have a really great cast. There is a gentleman in the show named Angus (who is playing Creon). I want him to live on my bookshelf and come down to read me Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter. He’s Scottish with the accent and everything. It’s awesome.
Bruce and I got caught at work and almost got fired. It was stressful to say the least and I was very unimpressed by the way my company handled the whole thing (especially since we weren’t breaking any rules or company policies or laws, Barry just didn’t like it). The secrecy of all of it is wearing on me and it gets harder and harder to handle. We’ve come to terms with it for the moment, but I know that little issue will flair up again in the not too distant future. Now the theatre company has started up in rehearsals again and I warned him about the time commitment and told him I’d be constantly busy and he’d never see me, but I’m not sure he believed me. It should be interesting to see how we find our way through this one.
My Grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her jaw and has been undergoing treatment for the past few weeks. She had an operation and she's been having a lot of set backs, so if anyone is reading this, please send some good thoughts towards Bloomington/Normal, IL and my family there.
That the update for the moment. More to come.
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