Thursday, April 26, 2007

Stand Down Red Alert

Ok, things are now under control, more or less. For those of you who were in on last week's crisis, thank you for your support. For those of you who weren't--believe me, you do NOT want to know. It was the most fucked up awful week I have had in recent memory (I can think of only 2 other times that compare even slightly in my life) and in the middle of it I had The Big Job Interview, followed by The Interview With The Person Who Was Out of Town During the Big Job Interview But Was Still Important. The fact that I managed to remain coherant and relatively poised during both of those Importances still amazes me. I had a big fall-apart on Wednesday night, but have been picking the pieces up and sticking them together since then and I think things are going to be OK. I hope. At any rate, it's out of my hands.

And the capper on the story, of course, is that I did get the job. Which makes me very happy, and of course also apprehensive--not that I will do it well, I'm actually pretty confident of my abilities. More just the nervousness of adjusting to a new situation after years of being my own boss, more or less. And it's going to be a big mental adjustment as well from a financial standpoint; after years of living pretty much right on the edge of insolvency, and before that having been comfortable but not having a huge disposable income, I am about to have a huge disposable income for the first time in my life. Not just from this job (which does pay well) but my parents are insisting on continuing to give me my "dole" payment that I've been living on in recent years--their argument being I'll get it eventually anyway, and this way I don't have to pay taxes on it. I am not an extravagant person, and I'm pretty good at managing my finances; I have a few things I want to spend money on, when I have it. But I've never even really thought about things like travel..... or investments. Or major home improvements instead of frantic emergency minor ones. Suddenly all this stuff is lurching into my head, and while I'm not going to fly off the handle and just start buying a ton of random shit and taking trips to Timbuktoo, the sudden opening of possibilties is a little mentally overwhelming. A month ago, getting carpet in the downstairs room was a source of extreme financial anxiety. It's going to take a while to not have a panic reaction to the thought of spending dough on something I don't desperately need. I know, poor old me! I'm not complaining, I'm just being my usual nervous self. The squirrels in my head are talking to me again. :)

Friday, April 20, 2007

Please Stand By....

I have been experiencing technical difficulties this week. Will return to posting when my blood pressure returns to normal. That is all.....

Friday, April 13, 2007

Mrs. Peel, We're Needed.


What Sort of Hat Are You? I am a Bowler Hat.I am a Bowler Hat.


I'm very proper, often politically correct, precise and dapper. I generally look down on the masses, but I usually try not to let it show. What Sort of Hat Are You?

Saturday, April 7, 2007

High Finance

Thanks for all your kind words of sympathy and occasional snorts of laughter regarding the great fence disaster of '07. My neighbor informs me it will probably be around $500 to fix.... So whenever he gets around to doing it, I'll need to hand him a check. Which is totally fine; on one hand, I feel like I ought to ask for a receipt or something just to know he's not rooking me, but on the other hand I destroyed his damn fence, and he's fixing it himself, and I should really be glad it's not worse than $500. So it'll be no questions asked, I think. That plus the $1200 in taxes, plus the $800 in dental work, has me wound up a bit tight this month.

I find out about the big job next week. Right now I'm doing contract work for them, so I keep getting sympathetic glances from the people in the office who know I'm up for a job.... I actually found a page from one of my competator's "tree briefs" on the copier on Monday, and I was all like, "Hmm, I probably shouldn't read this.... oops! Too late!" It made me feel better, it wasn't all cool lookin' and stuff (obviously, that applicant didn't know Bushi!) and the content was.... well, let's say it was kind of scattered. Part of the fun and challenge of exhibit design, for me, is needing to keep a focus on a Big Idea--what's the point we're hoping to get across here to kids and adults? How does each element of the exhibit point back at that idea while expanding on it in some way? It reminds me a bit of theatre design, back when I thought I was going to be a drama major and design sets and lights--because your space is limited, and you have to achieve purposes X, Y, and Z with your set or your lighting, you have to stay very focused and keep asking yourself, "Is this necessary? How can I make this work in the context of the play?" So I tried hard to keep my project tight, and made a point to clearly relate everything back to my big uber-idea. The person whose project was on the copier? Not so much. So who knows? I could be top of the pile, or someplace in the middle... but don't think I'm at the rock bottom. Small favors, eh?