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22.02.2007

standing transitions

Greetings. I'll admit, I've been horribly remiss in updating this thing lately. My last entry was over a month ago, and everything's fallen off my front page. Believe me when I say that it's not for wont of things to talk about, but quite the opposite. I've been so busy lately between dealing with work and my increasingly... complicated... family situation that I honestly just haven't had time to breathe, let alone try to coalesce my thoughts into a form that would make sense to my gentle readers.

In brief: I'm still underpaid, although recent calculations have me averaging about 37 hours of gainful employment a week for the last few months. This is good. I still have no idea where I fit into the scheme of things at ECC and I am continually frustrated by the apparent lack of initiative or drive on the part of my coworkers and supervisors. I intend to attempt to address this tomorrow in my afternoon off. Yes, I have the afternoon off. Which is disconcerting really, because it means that I am not working. Catch-22. A problem that one of my supervisors seems to fail to recognize. We don't get vacation days in the trenches. If we don't work, we don't eat. Suck on that one, asshole.

ANYWAY. My increasingly frustrating work issues aside, I do have some good work-related news. I recently was asked to do the lighting design for my first "real-world" semi-professional show! I'm very excited. Especially about the fact that they'll be paying me more than just enough to say they did! Very exciting, this. Once I know more and have some ideas, I'll update you.

The beginning of the month saw a fat tax return hit my wallet in the form of a wire transfer from the Feds. I love doing my taxes as early as possible. Means I get my money back LIGHTENING fast. For the government, that is.

With my tax return I bought myself some new toys and work-related fun stuff (that I can write off on next year's taxes!) I have recently acquired a 2GB memory card for my phone, new drill and driver bits for my screw gun, misc. black clothing for work, new shoes, and a 250GB external hard drive so I can finally create independent backups of all the computers in my household and rebuild the unstable mess that the family computer has become. Happiness is free space to play.

With my tax return I have also purchased for myself a domain name. Yep. You gots it, I now have my own little place on the web. E's hosting my site since his current provider is just throwing space and bandwidth at him, so it's only costing my the domain reg. fees to set up. The plan is to use WordPress to act as CMS for what I hope to be a nice and shiny online portfolio. I have had trouble lately getting myself into this project - it delves into technologies that I don't know and exposes the inadequacies of my web design skills, making me kinda uncomfortable while working on it. I kinda just wish that I could have someone else do it for me, but I really can't afford to pay in anything but gratitude, and that doesn't pay the bills.

I'm not going to give out my URL right away. I want to make sure that I've got something up worth looking at. I'll also be making business cards that I can distribute containing this information. Should be good. :)

Also with my Tax Return Fat Cash, I fixed the heat in my car. Chicago-area types recall the subzero temps we've had the last few weeks? Yeah. I've lived through them with no heat. Thanks to E for the donation of those self-heating glove and shoe packs. They saved my toes numerous times this month. First the fan motor resistor dies, I order a new one and get it fixed (almost a three-week process due to dealers losing parts) and then the switch in the dash that controls the fan motor dies. Another two week process. But $250 later it all works. Just in time for the 50 degree weather. I swear, the next car I buy is going to be RECENT and POPULAR so getting parts like this will no longer be the nightmare it is now. Small problems aside, however, it has been and is a great car to me. Runs well (knock on wood. KNOCK ON WOOD!) and doesn't complain much, so I'm grateful for it.

Things on the relationship front are going really well. Easily the best thing I've got going in my life right now. I love The Boy; he does wonders for me and I only hope I can do the same for him. We're not without our scuffles, but we're great about talking things through and we always seem to come out stronger on the other side. We still are trying to find a place together, but our busy schedules combined with the derth of not-rediculously-expensive housing in the area we're looking to move to has slowed our progress. If any of my noble readers have an idea about where we should be looking in the far northwest suburbs, or a lead on an apartment finding service, that would be stellar. Every day gives me more and more reasons to believe that I need to get out of this house and keep moving on with my life.

I had the realization the other day that I'm quickly approaching the "one year since I left college" mark and I'm kinda unnerved. What have I done with that year? Honestly, it doesn't feel like much. I've gotten some connections to Chicago theatre, but I'm not sure that's where I want to be. I've applied to and not gotten many jobs, some that I did want and several that I didn't want but that would pay the bills. I landed a temp-to-hire job with people that I love who can't afford to bring up even to half-time but I'd feel guilty leaving because they've otherwise been REALLY nice to me.

And I've gotten another year older.

I've realized that there's this strange sort of plateau when it comes to birthdays. (Most) people when they're little kids are very excited about their birthdays, especially as they get older and get closer to the milestones of 18 and 21. But after 21, it starts to plateau. You don't really care anymore, but you're still in your twenties/early thirties and you don't particularly care. And then it starts going down again, because the estimated years you have left are less than the ones you've had already. I realize that this isn't a particularly new idea, or a particularly profound one, but it has a new-found relevance for me, so you'll have to excuse my exploration of the concept.

Boy, do I need to read and write more. I keep forgetting that I actually do have a bit of grace and eloquence to my writing, when I actually know what the hell I'm talking about. And I need to keep reading to keep my critical thinking sharp and to continue to give myself things to talk about. ;)

Lately, my time's been filled more and more with television, a state I begrudgingly admit is noone's fault but my own. Lately I've been working late and getting up early, and by the time I have a few minutes to myself at night, all I want to do is switch off and let someone else do the thinking for me. There's a reason TV is the balm of the middle class and I've found it.

That, and there are a couple of REALLY GREAT show on now. I hope this means that the Network Execs have realized that not everyone is captivated by people voluntarily trapping themselves on an island and eating bugs while running around half-dressed.

Ah, but look at me, I've gone and vomited prose all over your screen. My apologies. If you've stuck with me this far, you must be a trooper and I salute your efforts.

One thing that I have noticed that my life has been lacking lately is social contact. There was a period of a few months in which my life was a flurry with dinner dates and social gatherings, but lately my event calendar is barren. I would suspect that it has something to do with my failed attempts at outing-planning falling flat on their face. That, and the fact that a lot of what people do to be social involves spending money, something which few that I know have to toss around. So, gentle readers, if you have any low/no cost ideas, please lay them on me.

For now, I need to get to bed. I have to be up in about 6 hours to get ready for "the day job" so sleep is calling my name. I want you to know that I miss you all and that I feel terrible about not getting out to see any of you lately. Please drop me a line and I'm sure that we can work something out!

Take care and good night!

Posted by drlynn at 23:36 in "Personal Updates".

Comments

Posted by: Heather C at 07:25 on 23.02.2007