This has been a great week!

Yesterday, The Husband and I went to see John Lithgow perform a reading at the library. He was charming, gracious and just plain wonderful. He did book signings after and I had a copy of one of  his books inscribed for my Goddess Nieces and told him, "You know, if this acting thing doesn't work out, you should be a teacher." He smiled and said if he hadn't been in the arts, that's what he would  have done. Just a delightful, positive, creative soul.

After hanging out with my new artist acquaintance, I had a serious case of creative space lust. I used to have my work area on a desk I built from two old cabinets and a door and it worked well for me. I had space for all my supplies and the computer, but as the kids got older, they needed the computer, so I moved to the dining room table. It's worked okay as a work space, but it's a mess, because I keep thinking because it's the dining room, I have to keep it looking nice for company. Then I realized we hardly ever have company, and just use the table once a year at Christmas. So I'm in the process of completely making it my space. It will probably look strange, but I'll be able to spread out  more. I have to take down the existing light fixture, as I keep bonking my head on it, but I'll learn how to take down a light fixture.

Can't wait to make new messes!

I tried two new things today. One not so good, the other, really good.

I bought a Groupon several weeks ago for 10 classes at a gym for $40. Four bucks a class is a great deal, right? Only if you are already a triathlete. Before I went, I contacted the owner, stating I needed a class for old, fat people. He suggested the boot camp class. Took me nearly a month to muster the courage to go and I wish I'd used the pass for yoga instead. Seriously, why are there no BEGINNING fitness classes, only classes for semi-professionals?

The second thing was to visit the local school district's vo-tech facility's bake sale. They offer culinary classes for high school students and every Friday afternoon, have a bake sale of what they've made. Gorgeous pastries and breads.

I'll use the rest of the class passes for  yoga and think about pastry while I'm doing it.

Had a great day yesterday!

Several weeks ago, I contacted the woman who is creating a new artspace in my town, asking if she needed any volunteers. She did, so I met with her and helped her set up a filing system and got started on getting her paperwork in one place, and she offered me a paying job!

She's an incredible artist and has many projects going on and needs someone to sort out her portfolio, photos, etc. She's also writing a book about a family member and needs me to sort out her research, notes, etc.

It will be part-time, as  needed, but this is one of those opportunities that I can't turn down. Since I'm a research and family history junkie, this is tailor-made for me. And I think it fell in my lap because I don't see this lay off as a tragedy, but opportunity.

And that, dear reader, is the power of optimism.

Unemployment, Week One

So I made it through my first week of unemployment, and am still in great spirits. I have gotten so much accomplished that I feel like I've done more in the past week than the past two years. I've finished up so many projects around the house, applied for jobs and actually cooked.
 

The Big One, The Husband and I went to the KC Improv Fest on Saturday, in which a friend was performing. Colin Hanks, son of Tom, also performed and it was scary how much he looked and sounded like his dad. They even had the same haircut. 
 
The Husband has been so supportive, and even suggested I go back to school for my MLS, which I've wanted to do for about 15 years. He said to me on Day Three how glad he was to have his wife back. That shows how toxic my work situation was.
 
And I figured out how to put space between paragraphs in Blogger. For some reason it stopped. Now I just have to figure out how to get the text consistent. 

Unemployment, Day 2

Second day of unemployment, and still feeling euphoric. I plan on taking the next few days to catch up on stuff I’ve put off since 1998, then blitz out applications and resumes. I feel like I’ve been hustling and scrambling to take care of my kids and house for the last 14 years. I think I’m entitled to a week off. So today was even more productive: • Did laundry in the middle of the week • COOKED dinner for the second time in a row (baked ziti, and The Little one liked it) • Painted a frame for The Big One’s room • Watched two episodes of Doctor Who • Cleaned out all the dead flora in the flower beds that were burned up in the summer drought. I didn’t even know it was possible for hostas to die. I have about 6 of my 40 plants left • Crocheted this little guy

• Watched the next president of the United States blow it out of the water Tomorrow looks to be even better!

Czarina Obviousa on Unemployment

So I got "let go" from my job two days ago. I would like to say, I'm embarrassed, depressed, panicked,anxious and desperate. I am none of these. I think the best word to describe how I feel is ecstatic. I hated my job. It was for a law firm owned by Idiot Boss, his idiot brother, Massenbill, and Idiot Boss' wife, Airhead. Idiot Owner has the worst adult ADD I've ever seen in my life, and the three years I worked there was a happiness-suck. The only real saving grace was my co-worker, Kathy with a K, and the two Cool Associates. However, one of the Cool Associates was also let go about a year and a half ago, so that sucked even more happiness out of me. Plus, there was literally NO WORK for me to do. Seriously, I was three months ahead on everything I'm supposed to do, so for the last year have been researching my family tree to look busy. Idiot Boss is so clueless with his own business it took him a year and a half to figure that out. I am feeling so optimistic about this, and it's very out of character for me. I think having dealt with The Ex and his unemployment record, I got the tools I need to get by. Plus, this time, I have The Husband who is really a partner, rather than an opponent. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm not sure I want to go back to an office job. Too much sitting around, too much office politics, and no creative thinking allowed. I'm hoping to get on part time somewhere, maybe at a bookstore, or a business I LIKE and go from there. I went to paralegal school so I could learn marketable skills, so I could support my girls, and I accomplished that. Even in this economy, admin jobs are two a penny. And my first day of unemployment was more productive than the last two years at my job: Had lunch with Cool Associate Bought paint and repainted holes in my living room Picked up The Little One from school Mopped kitchen COOKED dinner (gumbo from scratch) Detailed vacuum cleaner which yielded a bag and a half of vacuum cleaner jetsam and flotsam Cleaned out one of the many rat piles of paperwork that are scattered throughout the house Finished painting and attaching hardware to a table I'm repurposing for the upstairs TV Watched three episodes of Torchwood Crocheted two feet for the Andipose amigurumi I'm making for a young friend who just went to college Painted two piggy banks for a friend Applied for two jobs And that's just the first day.

Czarina Obviosa on Procrastination

So The Little One asks if I’ll take her to Target, so she can get something for her iTouch. “Sure, honey, I’ll take you. Just as soon as your room is clean.” Note this is around 9:00 AM on a Sunday. She was in her room most of the day, with me sticking my head in, “How’s it going? Are you about finished?” “Almost” was her answer every time. We had to leave for a couple of hours in the afternoon and when we came back, she went back into her room, and I assumed she was cleaning it. At 7:40 PM, she comes into my room. “I’m ready to go to Target now.” I explain to her that Target closes at 8:00 PM on a Sunday night and, the “Sherlock” season finale starts in 10 minutes. She got all huffy and mad at me, and I said it really shouldn’t take a person almost 9 hours to clean one room. I’ve been doing a lot of “your actions have consequences” with her a lot lately. I was cleaning her room a couple of weeks ago, and found her order form for a yearbook under her bed. The form that was supposed to be turned in in December. Five months ago. I told her, “I guess you won’t be getting a yearbook this year, because I never got this form. FIVE MONTHS AGO.” She’s been doing this a lot with other events. Last Monday at 6:10 PM, she announced she wanted to go to the school skating party. The party that started at 6:00 PM on Monday. The only reason I acquiesced on that one was because she found her own ride to and from the skating rink and paid for it with her own money. She’s been forgetting a lot of things like this lately. Part of my slacker mom philosophy is to not continually check up on “Do you have any paperwork from school, scouts, band, etc. that I need to see?” so that they will take responsibility for it on their own and if they miss out on something, it falls to them to sort it out. This has worked pretty well so far. A few missed events will cure them of that. However, I remember her older sister, who is almost anally responsible, did the same thing at about the same age. I have a theory that because their bodies are going through all these hormonal changes, energy and blood flow is diverted from the brain. Hopefully I can just wait it out and when the hormones have run their course, her memory will come back.