Musings of a Blonde Muse
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
blondemuse's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | | 2:40 pm |
Crazy Like Always
Go ahead and put that down for my grave marker. That and "I'm waiting for you!" since I feel half my life is spent waiting at the front door while my girls run around grabbing last minute items, despite repeated warnings that we are leaving. The past couple of weeks have been busier than ever. With the kids out of school I barely have time to breathe, let alone do me-type stuff like type insanely long posts into my LJ. (The editor in me is screaming I used type twice. Oh well.) The kids got out of school on June 10th. On the 11th they installed the new appliances in the kitchen (range and dishwasher) and removed the old appliances and the range hood. We're still working on getting the microhood installed. I won't go there. We spent all day on the 12th doing laundry and letting the kids (and myself) relax from the last few hectic days of school, plus I did the first pass on an editing job. Saturday the 13th I had a 2 hour rehearsal for the Vivaldi Gloria with horrible allergies - I couldn't even hit an F, let alone G or A. I pretty much slept and rested the rest of the day tryng to shrug it off. Sunday the 14th we finally got to game with the locals - first time in 2 months! None of us could remember what had happened in the last few sessions and my notes were out of order so it took about an hour of game time just to bring ourselves up to speed! Still, it was fun. My character got to unload some emotional baggage. :) Oh, and my parents called on that Sunday morning to say that they would be driving up that day and would be at my house that evening. Ack! So we flurried around getting the guest bedroom uncovered instead of going to church. Oh, and I thought Sunday the 14th was Father's Day, so we surprised Clint with french toast, coffee, cards, a song, and whatnot, only to learn from my own father that it is, indeed, the 21st. Doh! Sunday night mom and dad showed up with Ying, the Foreign Exchange student they have staying with them until the 4th of July - double doh! They gave Ying the guest bedroom and then we spent about an hour setting up my RV for mom and dad to use as a guest cottage. It was midnight before I got to bed. Oh, and I had promised the editing to be finished by Sunday night... I begged off and planned to complete it Monday. Monday the 15th was the first day of Vacation Bible School for our old church, HTLC. I wanted the kids to have the chance to see their old friends so I volunteered to run the daily Newsletter for the 3rd year in a row. No big. 'Cept Monday was chock-full of technical glitches! It was delivered on time by the skin of my teeth and the sharp minds of my helpers. Then after a nice hot lunch provided by my mom I took a powernap and jumped into the editing. That evening we took the kids to Day 2 of VBS for our new church, Beth Eden. (They started VBS on Sunday night but we were gaming. Hey, first game in 2 months, we have priorities here!) After dropping off the kids I got back into the editing, and finished up around midnight. I think. Tuesday through Thursday was pretty much the same routine, except we added in a daily nap. Two VBS's was a lot of fun, but tiring, even if after Monday I had the glitches worked out. But we have decided not to do that next year - if we have to choose we'll go with our new church, of course. Oh, and mom, dad, and Ying left in the RV to go visit the mountains on Wednesday. They got a flat tire on Thursday but other than that I think things went smoothly. I keep hearing how they didn't stay at a place with hookups, though, and that they have "only run the generator for a few minutes," so I'm worried that it'll stink to high heaven and the batteries will be dead (PLEASE use the generator - that's what it's for!!!) but we'll see - they return tonight. Saturday Clint worked on the game for Sunday while the girls and I did 2 hours of yard work and rested. Damn it was hot! Sunday we celebrated Father's Day (again) with a present of a watch and a song. Unfortunately, the watch didn't fit or work. So Clint took it in today - probably to get a different one! Willard took the girls again and Clint kicked off our new game, Mutants and Masterminds system, Exiles game. It went very well - two major combats, plus the roleplay involved in bringing us all together. My character is cold, paranoid, and stiff - it'll be fun seeing her relax and unwind a little. Maybe I'll post a character list later. Finally, to today, I've been taking privileges away one by one while trying to get the girls focused on cleaning up their room. sigh. constant battle and all that. They don't even have toys, for crying out loud. Meanwhile I've spent three hours cleaning the kitchen from the mess that was Saturday's cooking, cleaned the fish tank, and scrubbed toilets. So, you know, crazy like always. Crazy Like Frickin' Always. | | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 10:16 am |
Chimney Rock, Camping, and My Baby Runs Her First Game
As sad as it is, this past weekend was the first we'd had all year to go camping. I even put camping on the calendar, although we didn't decide where to go until 2 weeks ago. I think I'll try to do that again, maybe once a month or every other month or so. My parents are trying to come up sometime in the next few weeks to visit and use my RV, so that's the next trip if it works out! ( all about the RV, campground, and hiking Chimney Rock, and how out of shape I am )T was in a bad mood all morning because she had a story idea she wanted to run for us in Faery's Tale. And she wanted us to play the game before we left for home. We weren't sure we could get out by the noon check-out time (and we were right) so after we got home, showered and took another powernap, she ran it for us here in the Den. B's character is Saferia, an animal-loving Sprite who is fierce! She was all about using her little bow and arrows to shoot things. T's character of Lavender, a flying Pixie, sat out her own game (I didn't even suggest the concept of the GNPC for her first time GMing). I had chosen a Brownie who named herself Helgina after her mistress Helga, and made sure she was the scaredy-cat. Clint's Pooka Wimblidug (and he used a cute voice, which T loved, and if he dropped it she reminded him to use it!) loved to play with Saferia's animals and changed himself into a mole, a butterfly, a bumblebee, and a Peregrine Falcon during the game. T told us that the animals had been taken by goblins, and we hid ourselves among the animals until we reached the Troll's castle. Since there were 6 goblin guards and the Troll leader, we decided Saferia would need to convince the Troll to let the animals go. She rode Wimblidug's bumblebee to the Troll's face and rolled a total of 7 successes (with his help) to intimidate the Troll into letting the animals go! It was so cute to see B take a warrior stance, fist uplifted, and say in her little-girl voice, "If you don't let all the animals go, I'll bring the whole Pixie army on you!" The Troll ran over to his guards and said, "Get them!" I looked for a rock to throw, and got 5 successes, so T (our Narrator) said I found the keystone to the entire castle! I pulled it out, called Wimblidug, and we flew out in the nick of time as the castle came down - but it wasn't enough for T just to collapse a castle on top of the Troll. Oh, no, she described how he fell into the moat, where the electric crocodiles zapped him - zzzztt!! - and then he disintegrated in the water. Then the goblins fell in and disintegrated, too. Then Saferia had to tell the animals to go home, and there was such a stampede that we were all spun around. In all, it was another 45-minute game, and when T brought out the electric crocodiles Clint and I looked at each other in surprise - we weren't expecting that! - and died laughing! I get all misty-eyed thinking about it. My baby ran her first game. It's only a small step from Faery's Tale to Hollow Earth! Or Savage Worlds! After that we went upstairs, had soup, put kids to bed, then Clint and I drank a bottle of wine and resolved to eat better and get more exercise starting, um, today. I'm happy to report that yes, he walked a half hour on the treadmill today, and I'm about to as well, now that my little girls' moment has been forever enshrined in blogdom. I'll need to put it in the baby book later on today. I'm so proud of my little gamer! | | 10:05 am |
Amusing Road Signs from our Camping Trip
When we go off the beaten path we seem to encounter many quaint signs and places that just beg to be put into a Pinebox adventure! This past weekend we drove to Lake Lure/Rutherfordton and hiked Chimney Rock all day Saturday. Here are the signs I just had to write down for sharing - more on the trip next post. Welcome Home Baptist Church Rhoads Road Mast Enterprises Logging Equipment Mountain Creek Baptist Church Roper Loop Rd. (there were 3 of these, I guess crossing the main highway twice) Gold Hill Missionary Baptist Church Scoggins Seafood and Steakhouse, Inc. (across the street from Rutherfordton Veterinary Hospital and doing brisk business, too!) Revelations Motorcycle Repair Tent Revival! Crawford Hollow Lane Full Gospel Revival Church (I guess the rest of us are using only half of the gospels) Temple of Jesus Church Point of View Restaurant Redemption Blood Secured (written on a cross so the Redemption was on the arms and Blood was above and Secured below, kind of scary really) We passed a fruit stand offering Mountain Oranges - is that a euphemism? Kritter's Restaurant Church of the Brethen (on a subdivision sign) Thermal Valley (As in they wear a lot of thermal underwear, or the hawks coast on the thermals, or what?) How we love rural NC! | | Friday, June 5th, 2009 | | 12:25 pm |
| | Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | | 11:09 am |
Concarolinas and Dance Recital Mayhem!
Yes, this was the craziest of the crazy weekends, and when I confessed to Clint Sunday night that perhaps we should have chosen one or the other, rather than do both half-assed, his sage reply was "We did the best we could with a difficult situation." First of all, we had booked the hotel room and planned to attend Concarolinas, so please don't think we just didn't check the calendar until too late! As far as we knew, we were going to enjoy the con as much as last year, perhaps even more so for staying in a real hotel room and not the RV. (Now that I've crunched the numbers, we spent $300 more on food and hotel than it would have cost for us to stay in the RV and eat out once a day. Ouch. Perhaps we'll revisit the RV idea again. More on that later.) Then B's dance teacher posted the dance recital date for the exact same weekend. Yikes! How on earth do you tell your baby she can't perform her first dance solo because you wanna game? So then we had to figure out that situation. The last straw, the one we really HAD to say no to, was the film premiere. The film Milites Christi, where my girls were pagan slave children and actually got some real screen time and real credits, was premiered that Friday afternoon at the NC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem (1 hour east of home). Red carpet, guest list, all that. And we just could not go. Whine! I really, really wanted to see my babies on the big screen! So here's what we ended up doing. ( read all about it here )The worst thing about this con was the parking, which seems ridiculous to me. It also says this was a great con if parking is the worst thing I can talk about! When we arrived Friday night Clint joined the throngs of cars circling the parking lot like sharks looking for an opening. Well, at least now I know why they wouldn't let us park the RV there - it would've taken up 4 spaces! The thing that gets me is that a lot of the shoppes around the lake were closed all weekend long. So all these cars were just for the con? I guess so. Imagine next year, when hopefully the economy improves, and those shoppes are thriving? It will be murder AND mayhem. So I have to say I'm just not that big a fan of the location for the layout of the meeting rooms and the parking, but the programming was excellent. I just wish we could've enjoyed it more. As it is, Clint won't soon be living down the fact that he went and had dinner (and left MY books at the restaurant for over 24 hours) when he was supposed to be bidding on the tickets to Evil Dead: The Musical. But we just couldn't do everything. | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 8:03 am |
Leaving Mustard Yellow Behind!
Well, we finally did it. We upgraded the kitchen. When we moved in, the kitchen was dark wood cabinetry, with yellow faded and scratched countertops, yucky yellow linoleum, and the coup de resistance, the mustard yellow dishwasher, range, hood, and refrigerator. Oh, baby! I've hated yellow all my life. It just doesn't look good on me. It doesn't look good in my kitchen either. First things first - we painted the cabinets white before we even moved our crap into the kitchen. That took about 6 months if I recall correctly. (That's when I learned my husband needs to be nagged occasionally) We lived by eating out and using the bar sink and microwave in the basement Den. We also had that refrigerator moved to the garage and took my FIL's old garage fridge (white 80s-look) and put it in the kitchen. Yup, that was 12 years ago. About 4 years after that, while T was still a baby, we decided to pull up the linoleum and the carpet in the dining area and tiled the whole thing to make it into one big kitchen. Who has carpet in the dining room? Oh, wait, I had carpet in the dining room growing up. Well, I'm just not a fan of carpets in general. It has taken us 12 years, but the rest of the appliances are being upgraded after our purchase last night! We bought a brand-new Whirlpool dishwasher and microhood (Made in the USA!) and a Maytag double-oven range (which might have been assembled, at least, in the USA, but the real reason is that Whirlpool isn't making double ovens for ranges yet). All are in white, instead of that stainless look that is so popular today, simply because it was cheaper. I also think putting appliances that nice in my dated-looking kitchen would be tacky. At some point, if I leave my kitchen alone, it'll be retro, right? The only reason we are doing it now is because the dishwasher is making these horrible grinding noises at startup and winddown. I'm visualizing a dramatic end to the probably 39-year old appliance, complete with suds across the floor and down the stairs, and water damage to the ceiling in the den below, and maybe something will catch on fire. And if you replace one mustard-yellow appliance and not the rest of them, well, it just looks stupid. Besides, the range has only had 2 out of the 4 burners to work properly in all that time, and the oven light died and could not be revived, and it bakes unevenly. But we're used to that. They should be delivered and installed on June 11th. The total cost of the appliances is $1400 - what a great deal! Thank you, Sunrise Appliance of Hickory! I compared their prices to Best Buy, Sears, Home Depot, Lowe's, and hhgregg, and that would not have even paid for the double-oven range! We still need to pay for the install, which will be about 2 hours they figure, and they pro-rated the labor at $50 per half hour just in case the install takes less than 2 hours. Even if it takes 5 hours that's less expensive than the other big box stores too. Call me satisfied. After the install, I will finally be able to ditch the ancient microwave I took with me to college 16 years ago, which is remarkably still working (things do take longer to cook than the packages say it will). Someday, maybe, we can get new countertops and do some cabinetry work, not to mention a new refrigerator. I looked at the refrigerators, but our space is so small (those behemoths they make nowadays would not let me into the pantry) that the options are very limited. And we aren't so financially secure that a $10,000 complete remodel was in line. We set aside 40% of the tax refund money for projects like this, and we don't want to blow our wad. We might get the house painted, too. I know some people will read this and wonder why on earth did it take so long? Well, to put it mildly, I hate to cook. Clint loves to cook, but he really only gets to do so on the weekends (sometimes). I spend as little time as humanly possible in the kitchen - I do the dishes from the previous 24 hours while I cook dinner each night, to limit my time to the bare minimum of half an hour on a good day! Worst. Homeowners. Evar. | | Sunday, May 24th, 2009 | | 7:50 am |
Gandhi at Midnight
Yesterday we organized a fishing expedition for 14 or so 4Hers and their parents, which was fun but exhausting. We also ended up with 11 tadpoles who needed a terrarium STAT. So by the time dinner was over and the showers completed, braids finished, and kids in bed, I collapsed at 9 and could not persuade myself even to read for half an hour. I don't usually get up in the middle of the night, but at 11:30 I was wide awake and bushytailed from my nap, so I wandered downstairs to watch some TV. Not five minutes later T joined me. She's been sleepwalking a lot recently, but she was talking a mile a minute so I could tell she'd had a good "nap" too. Oh well, time for some mother-daughter bonding. Thankfully I hadn't turned off the parental controls on the tv yet so she didn't see any salacious titles. But it certainly limits the viewing! We finally settled into watching Gandhi. I forgot how long that movie was! It was 3 am before we saw credits and went back to bed. But here's the cool part - we talked during the whole thing. About what makes a good leader. About how you know when things are right and wrong. About the caste system in India and the Untouchables. About how they were embracing a Made in India movement just like how our family is embracing the Made in USA thing (although we haven't started burning things made in China, maybe we should.) About how revolutionary his ideas were. About the fighting between Hindu and Muslim and why. About how his example led to the civil rights movement here with Martin Luther King, Jr. And T was the one to point out both men died by assassination for their ideals. Wow. I slept pretty good after that. And I'm thinking, What a great experience this has been. What an awesome kid. I just had to share! | | Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | | 2:47 pm |
Goodbye to Molly
I don't know if I've ever met Molly, but I'm saying goodbye to her. This is the last day she'll be on this earth. Molly is the last dog of my brother and sister-in-law here in town. Their other dog was put to sleep a few months ago, so having this event so close to the other one has got to be especially trying. When Gary called me this morning, I had planned to work hard on my business. I had run a lot of errands for the business all day yesterday, so today was going to be computer time. For one thing, I still haven't gone back to the problem of uploading the website. I don't know if I'll need help yet, and today I was going to tackle that, among other things. But when he explained the circumstances, well, there was no option to say I would NOT keep my nephew for them today. I was GLAD to. It's the least I could do. Poor pup. Poor Monica, who loves said pup. In the innocence of a 5-yr-old, I asked my nephew if he was going to miss Molly. He said no. Apparently he never petted the dog because she always licked him and he'd run off. So thankfully I think this will miss him for the most part. But of course it takes you back, doesn't it? To other days when you had to put an animal to sleep. You remember what you went through. I gave my current dogs a good belly rub today in memory of Molly and all the other dogs that have ever been put to sleep for one reason or another. So today, instead of tying myself to the computer, I took my nephew to the gas station, the Post Office (no mail for the new business, of course, but it felt good to check!), the Library (which was closed until noon so we planned to go back later), several other stores, and the old church we used to belong to as of December, so I could sign my kids up for vacation bible school. I put an application in his backpack so he could go too and I hope they will let him go. Then we came home, had a milk-free lunch (he has a severe allergy), took a hour and a half long nap (I don't think he really needs a nap but his parents request he have one - I laid in bed beside him and read my Sunshine book), then I let him watch tv and I worked on a few little projects on the computer until the girls got home. Now that they are home I'll take a shower so I can look more professional this evening for a small business class. Last time he was treated to a private show when I got out of the shower, which shocked me more than him. So my girls will keep him occupied this time! And if we can swing it, we'll take a quick trip to that library. And it'll be a good day. I've helped by giving a fellow doggymom time to grieve for her loss. The business can wait a day - for now. | | Friday, May 15th, 2009 | | 8:41 am |
Business on the Brain
Well, I've been hard at work with a new business idea for several months now, and yesterday I took the leap. I mailed off the "Application to Reserve a Business Entity Name" to the Secretary of the State of NC. I opened a P.O. Box at the one closest to my house. I registered a domain name with godaddy.com, got it registered, certified, and hosted. I'm still trying to figure out what that means, but figured I'd be better off getting it. I set up a sample first page of the website so there would be something to look at there. I set up an email account from that business so there would be a way for people to contact me. I also made the last half of copies of the newsletter at school, and met with a wonderful man who is going to do some amazing stuff on my behalf for this business and treated him to lunch. And I swept up the piles of dog hair, picked up the kids from school, and had a real date with my husband (first one in over 6 months) to have dinner and see Star Trek. It was great. After Star Trek I used Microsoft Publisher to design the first real page of my website - any thoughts on this program? I didn't really even know it could do that, but apparently it has several web design templates and seemed pretty easy to use. I don't need a very complicated website, at least not yet. So I'm happy I didn't shell out the monthly fee to use godaddy.com's web design template. I just figured a monthly fee for something I'd update only every now and then would cost too much in the long run. I even figured out how to embed links on the page to redirect folks back to that email. I've been using Publisher for years, so it HAS to be easier to use this than try to learn Microsoft Frontpage, which was what I was going to purchase. It was a good day, if I do say so myself. It's not every day you learn how to do new things and this was a day of learning a LOT of new skills. As for what exactly this business is, well, until I get the paper back saying the name is mine, I'm keeping that to myself, so don't bother asking. Don't worry - I'll shout it to the mountaintops when I'm ready! | | Monday, May 4th, 2009 | | 8:50 am |
Too Much Fun
Time to say no to stuff again. I'm feeling just a tad overwhelmed, but it'll pass. It usually does. I just go through phases where I over-commit and work like a dog, then regret it and back off, and then let things creep up to a frenzy again. Oh well. I honestly can't say that anything I've done in the past 2 weeks was too much - it was just all on top of each other!
( the craziness here )
I think my problem is I have too much fun! I mean, it's fun to help with the school fundraiser, fun to edit, fun to do day-long filming, and fun to do shows on stage. So, my real problem is not that I'm too busy to hold a real job. It's that maybe, if I had a real job, I might enjoy the fun things more and do less of them. Oh well, the jobs I've interviewed for have fallen through, and at this point I'm better off not looking until the kids are back in school after the summer. So I'll keep busy. Even when I don't feel like it, apparently!
| | Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | | 8:31 am |
| | Monday, April 6th, 2009 | | 1:49 pm |
Playing Catch-Up
This past weekend we welcomed Charles (sans Krista and the pups, which was a shame, but I understand) into the guest room for Old Hick Con, which is when we bring together the "old gaming group" to game all weekend. We've tried it various ways over the past year, and it seems having two games, one each on Saturday and Sunday, is best. This past time we also added in a board game for Friday night. We meet at Clint's business and use the huge conference table, ample restrooms, and industrial coffee maker. We game from 10-2, break for a huge meal, then game from about 4-10 (at least on Saturday, Sunday we wrapped at about 7). I really needed that stress relief! I feel much better able to tackle the assorted things I'm behind on. So, what would that be? Well, for starters, the house is a wreck. There are piles of dog hair against the floorboards, my bedroom stinks to high heaven because of the dog hair ground into the carpet and dog beds in their crates, and the kitchen floor needs to be mopped. Laundry is piled up all over the Den floor - and I was almost done until the girls enjoyed their stay at Pop's this past weekend while we gamed. They played in the creek and didn't bathe, they wore 2 nice dresses on Saturday, and apparently the barometric pressure changed, sending smoke throughout the house and making every single textile they own reek of smoke. So now I have 5 more loads to do. Taxes. d'oh and dammit. I got another chapter to edit. This is good news and I'm so excited about it! I just need to hear back about the contract... And I have a telephone interview this week for one job and an in-person interview in two weeks for another one. Yay! And I have a PTO meeting tomorrow, a meeting at LR (a fellow gamer is helping me with a project), and my Jobseekers meeting, so won't get any housework done. And Wednesday I have 2 meetings in the afternoon for the campaign. So I'll need to skip the church dinner. sigh. Not to mention this weekend is Easter, which means I need to brave the attic and find the baskets, plus some shopping. So... if i haven't posted in a while, it's because I'm so darn busy! At least next week I should have the help from the girls to clean, and maybe some time for fun, too. We can hope! | | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | | 7:55 pm |
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Maybe. I found two good jobs to apply for today, which doubles the total number of "good" jobs I've found this year. That means I have 4 applications outstanding right now. ("Good" meaning stuff actually in my field and/or something I might actually enjoy doing.) Not that I'm giving up on that business idea... moving forward with a fellow PTO mom to check out potential commerical properties as part of this business plan I'm writing. It's a lot like a grant, actually! But I'm following my Career Counselor's advice and only spending a few hours a week on it so I can get everything else done that needs doing. Like taxes. Ergh. Like laundry. Double ergh. At least the crappy weather this weekend means I'll be stuck inside anyway so I might get it done. That's the idea, anyway. | | Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | | 9:06 am |
You would have to be strung out on something
http://www.observernewsonline.com/content/view/90879/1/Several of you might have noticed my hometown in the news lately, with 4 family members murdered in their home last Thursday. We have a large asian population around here, and I'd wager 90% of them are descendants of refugees (or were refugees themselves) from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, etc., all minority cultural groups. I can't say I know any as close friends, but all my dealings with them have been pleasant and honorable. We've been lucky that the incident was far enough away that the school my children attend was not ever "locked down" and in fact my kids have not mentioned it at all. We've hidden the sensationalist headlines "Catch HIM" and all that, and really, this is a sleepy community reeling in shock. B is still having trouble, off and on, with fears of death. Mostly they occur right before bedtime and are very specific. Recently she was afraid that someone was going to break into her home and kill us all. My response to that was "This is CONover. Not a big city. That just doesn't happen around here." And that soothed her to sleep. So my tears fall and my heart hurts when I read the linked story just now. I am glad the killers were found and sad they will not be judged here on earth, but I firmly believe their judgement after life was swift and horrible, with no pacifying drugs to soften the blow. You would have to be strung out on something to consider a 4 year old boy, eating cereal at the breakfast table, a threat. The attacker's goal was to steal opium. A 4 year is not a threat. Eating cereal, for cryin' out loud. Just got a call, now I have to go pick up T from school, who is having tummy issues today - most likely from the slice of chocolate pie she ate yesterday. Darn that lactose intolerance! I hope I can continue to keep this from my kids. I really want them to believe they are safe and secure, especially now when so much of our financial forecast is doom and gloom all the time. Because this really was something limited in scope. That's a good neighborhood, those are good people, and drugs brought them misery. Man. | | Sunday, March 15th, 2009 | | 8:27 pm |
Another idea...
So, finding someone else to pay me seems impossible. Maybe I should go into business for myself? I've tossed some ideas around with Clint, his dad, and a few other friends this weekend, and one in particular seems promising. I think I'll crunch the numbers and write a business plan. And I'll have to figure out how to run a business, what the proper forms are, that sort of thing. One thing is for sure. People who own their own business have more money. And I think my idea will sell. And I think I have good credit for a business loan. So we'll see. | | Thursday, March 12th, 2009 | | 11:36 am |
Under Pressure
I have been working like a dog looking for a job. I know there are a lot of people out there in the same boat, but this blog is about me. It's depressing. Just when I think I have a leg up and things are going to be ok, I hear something else and suddenly the world goes dark again. I'm spending at least 5 hours a day working on the job thing. Talking to contacts, setting up occasions to network - lunch? coffee? -emailing, attending the job fair and jobseeker group, and taking career tests with two agencies, searches online, applications online with no way to follow up... It's an emotional roller coaster, no two ways about it. I can haz gud cry now? Then I have my duties as a volunteer, which I take very seriously. How can I ask people for money for one group and not ask for a job for myself? A lot of the time I do both, and I'm sure it's hurting both. Yesterday when I left the campaign meeting I was very optimistic based on some good news we got. Today I asked a local company for money for the school, and found myself rewriting the same phrases so they weren't so dour. Why am I asking for money they haven't got? And of course it's still my "job" to keep this house in order. Yeah, about that... it's not happening. I can't vacuum in my go-to-interview clothes! They'll get dog hair and dust all over them! My reminder on my cell phone is telling me to pay off the credit card today. T's last camp payment was put on there a few weeks ago and now if I don't pay it off we'll pay more in fees. At least we don't have any credit card debt! But as soon as I do that we're going to be a lot poorer. A lot closer to the "no money" place. But it's such a great opportunity for T - national recognition for how incredibly smart she is! How do we NOT pay for that? But at the same time, can we really afford to? Everyone's got problems, but of course I feel like I'm the only one with MY particular brand of problems. I bet I'm not alone, but that doesn't seem to help much. The simple fact is, a lot has changed really fast. Your taxable income determines how poor you are and whether you can get money for special programs - like T's camp. But we made too much last year, I know we did, even if it was still a lot less than we were used to. And now we make even less than that! I don't know where we're headed. I thought things were tough a year ago. Now they are worse than I've ever thought truly possible. And I'm a gamer. I can imagine still worse horrors to come. At least we still have the RV. So when the apocalypse comes and we head for the pond in Anson county, we'll have a place to live. I wonder if Clint ever learned how to field dress a deer... | | Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | | 10:23 am |
When It Rains...
I just sent memorial gifts for TWO friends who've died this week: My Great Uncle Bob, and now Lucy Arndt, a fellow member with me on the Board at The Green Room, who just succumbed to cancer. Poor dear - this was her second bout of cancer as far as I know. She was always cheerful and upbeat. I wish I could remember the name of the last show we worked the box office for, but I bet it was in the fall. But I do remember her speaking frankly about the chemo she was going through, and feeling so in awe of her hope and vitality. Since I don't know the rest of her family and it would be hard to explain my "party" this afternoon, plus we have to reshoot all of T's headshots again today, soooo I just sent the memorial based on the newspaper listing. Feeling pretty down right now, but it's a gorgeous day and there's plenty to do. Showers, drying little girl's hair perfectly straight, going to OHT, taking lots of pictures and three outfit changes for T, one for B, then looking them over on the computer and sending potential new headshots to the agent, and we need to clean the den for the game tomorrow. And I need to do two loads of laundry before I can clean the bathroom of lint and dust. So I'm not allowed to feel sorry for myself, but I agree it's probably better that way. | | Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 | | 5:01 pm |
Had fun with this today
Found this on the Science Olympiad team website - had too much fun with it today. Now, for some reason, I am completely incapable of copying the code and it pasting into something useable. But maybe you techies can figure it out. And hopefully you can tell me what on earth I'm doing wrong! <embed src=" http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/blogs/shell.swf" flashvars="s=science&a=rocks_soils&h=htt p://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/bl ogs/science/index.shtml" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="424" height="324"></embed> | | Friday, February 27th, 2009 | | 3:12 pm |
Great Uncle Bob Passed Away today
Usually, this would be where I seek comfort in a long post remembering a great man. Unfortunately, the girls will be off the bus in exactly 2 minutes, and I cannot allow emotions right now. I hope I can go to the funeral, but I think it'll just be me that goes, if we can work it out. I really hope we can. I was just talking about him to someone yesterday, believe it or not. Not sure that I'll tell my daughters about the death. B is still having her wierd dying thoughts right at bedtime. Now they are more specific. Night before last she was terrified that a meteorite would kill her like it did the dinosaurs. What do I say, "you have a point, kiddo?" "I've never heard of that happening?" I settled by telling her that there are literally thousands of people watching the skies at every minute, trying to be the next to name something. So yeah, I lied. A little. They wouldn't remember him from our last trip to Wisconsin - B was still in a pack-n-play at the time! So I'll just save the memories for later. Already cried once today, anyway, at the career counselor's office. So I don't really feel like bursting the dam gates again so soon. | | Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | | 1:47 pm |
Passion
I just finished watching the end of "Last of the Mohicans" on Encore drama while folding laundry and eating lunch. I have GOT to add that as one of my all-time favorite movies. Everything about it resonates with me. ( Last of the Mohicans fave rant )Yeah, I seriously want to try and do a camping trip to the mountains this summer and take the kids hiking, starting with the easy Linville Falls hike. Or maybe Price Park instead. I'm not as athletic as I was back in college, and even that wasn't very athletic either. But it reminds me I've been thinking about my passions the past few days, mostly in the line of what kind of job to look for. ( My Passions... ??? )I'll be taking a test at the Cornerstone Counseling Center next week to help me figure out what I'd be best for. Hopefully this introspective thought process will help me give the best answers, and hopefully the computer printout won't tell me to go be a mechanic! If any of you have insight into my passions, please do tell. I'm looking to grow my spirit. |
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blondemuse's journal