The year is off to a great start. Not only did we graciously (and responsibly) reimburse Ms. Taunia for her makeup, but now I think my dryer is busted.
The stupid thing turns and does it's thing, but when you stick yer hand in to retrieve the objects in there, it's cold inside... So methinks the heat thingie is dead. Which would make it the second time in a year. Well, first in this calendar year; second within 12 months.
Which is just fine and dandy. Gotta get that fixed or replace the damn dryer. What's next... I get laid off ??? (shut up! Just shut up! Don't SAY that. Now is not the time...)
Actually, were I to be laid off, I'd prefer it now as opposed to say May or June. When Doug is out of work for the summer and planning on staying home with the shorties, that's not the time for me to become ungainfully-employed. So... should I jinx myself by saying the above phrase, may it be now and not then. Else we're screwed.
I have given a lot of thought as to what I'd do if I lost my job, and I think I'd avoid getting another design job. I would look into doing something totally different for a while.
I think, as with relationships, that you fall in and out of love with what you do, not to mention where you do it. I love it here, don't get me wrong. It's a damn fine place to work... but I think I'd like to be a baker at the farm stand near my house. They were hiring recently. Wonder if they still are. I could also waitress again. I'd be worn out to start with, feel beat up from being on my feet -- but I could do it.
I have a friend who is a great flash designer. He started his own company doing flash stuff right around the time the internet shit hit the internet fan. He ended up closing shop after a year or so of trying, and got a job doing tech support for another company. He didn't want to take a tech support job. But he had to. See, there is this wife and a couple of kids and a mortgage ... so he took the job and is gainfully employed but not overtly in joy.
My dad had the same job for over 30 years. He was a laborer/carpenter for the town in which we lived, working for the parks & recreation department. I couldn't imagine working one place doing the same thing for that long. Most people I know stay in a job for about 2 or 3 years. My buddies at the college are working on a long term stint there... some of them are more talented than they are given credit and could go somewhere else for more money and less stability, so I suppose staying put and tolerating bullshit for 30 years is sometimes not so bad...
I'm not afraid of instability. We get our insurance though Doug. We've got the upstairs tenants, so our portion of the mortgage is about 600 bucks. Not bad. Were something horrid to happen like our septic tank implode, or something more horrifying than that (can't imagine what would be more horrid than that though...) we would have problems paying for things. But for a little while we could subsist on Doug's salary. It wouldn't be deadly, but it would crimp summer plans for a vacation.
Doug wants us to go to Minnesota and rent a houseboat for a week, take 2 weeks off, one for the houseboat and the other for travel needs, as it'd take us a couple days to trek out there and a couple to trek back. We shall see. I don't like making plans in advance, but sometimes you just gotta, especially when these sort of rental things get snapped up quickly.
Today is Geoff's birthday. On Saturday night after the party for Amy, we went to the movies. His request. We saw Jimmy Neutron, which I'll rip to shreds in a moment. It's easy to entertain him. He was very excited to see the movie, go to the bookstore, and go to Burger King for dinner. Tonight I'm just picking up a cake at the market on the way home, and we'll sing happy birthday to him, using the number 5 candle we used for Jessica and one single candle beside it, aiming for that next year.
I have kept all the candles from Jessica's birthday cakes to use for him. Except the number 1 candle. Jessica's is in her memory box, as is Geoff's. That one is special.
I wouldn't want to have more kids, cause it's not worth using the candles a third time. After presenting via cake top to Geoff, they're pretty used up, and it'd be an insult to bring a cake bearing these candles a third time.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, birthdays around Christmas kind of suck. My sister's being one of them -- you always get ripped off and don't get the right amount of presents or attention that you'd get if you had a June or August birthday. I don't even have a gift for Geoff, so I may be hitting the Barnes & Noble tonight too. I feel like a big meanie. But he's got a gift here from his grandma and grampa in Pennsylvania, and I think a couple little things from us will be enough. My sister is coming out here next weekend, so we'll be sure to do something fun, like go to Chuck E. Cheese or the Portsmouth Children's Museum on Saturday for him. Perhaps we'll invite the Pete Hyde monster to come down from Maine. That'd be the best gift ever for him.
Well, I know you can't read, but happy birthday pumpkin. Much love to you on this day. Much love and wishes for health, growth and joy in the years to come my baby.
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