First summer off in 15 years
Hey everyone, after joining facebook I totally forgot about my live journal. I was also working at a place that used stoopid mac computers (don't judge me I just can't wrap my head around how they are organized) and I avoided contact with the computer if at all possible, so I wouldn't have to re-learn where everything was every time I went from home to work.
My contract to manage and teach for another studio ended in June so I took the summer off dancing to rest and recharge. I have been unemployed for the first time since I took maternity leave, my son turned twenty this year. I have had some time to reflect on what I have learned.
First,I have a great work-ethic. I didn't think my work ethic was above standard until I met some people with a work ethic that would make "Garfield" management material. I like working, so I have been making job hunting my job. I have applied for tons of jobs, some in my usual field of arts administration and some in other not-so-related fields. I had one great interview, but did not get the job because of the possibility of scheduling issues...lesson learned, don't make scheduling requests until after you have a job. Honesty-1 Job search-0. Got it.
Second, I love my garden, I have had the time to grow herbs for the first time in years! (Big thank you to Margaret Lee, Bev Johnson, Angela Conrad and Nancy Webber for giving me slips off their herb plants) I also have tomatoes, garlic and peppers growing in the veggie patch. (I am growing marinara sauce) Next years goal: Asparagus, lots of it.
Third and best lesson I have learned: my life is out of balance. Working a fifty hour week for a piddling amount of money is not a good idea even if you love what you do. Because it will make you eventually think you hate what you do, because it is ALL you do. I would gladly be unemployed all over again for a few weeks to learn that particular lesson! I had no idea I was a workaholic, but I guess I am. Now I have to get my life into some kind of balance so I can be ready when the inevitable retirement from performing/dancing comes.
(Don't panic it isn't coming soon-but I don't want to get there and freak out because I don't know how to do anything.)
Now that I have taken the summer off dancing I feel refreshed, and I have decided to start up my independent classes again, at a rent-by-the hour venue in a church. The schedule is up on the website, if you want to see it. The classes are filling up so call me soon! I think teaching extremely part time while I look for and find a day-job is going to vastly improve my well being. I am teaching so few classes that I can continue once I find the right job, and THAT will be perfect. Dancing will become my passion again, not my job. (For those of you who have known be a long time you likely remember me saying, "If it ever starts to feel like a job, I am outta here.")
I am also preparing my (twenty year old) fledgeling to go off to college this September. I am so proud of him. I am going to miss him, but he is totally ready to be out on his own. The whole process has been incredible, watching him get himself accepted to the course, doing his own legwork on getting into residence, making lists of what he'll need, (which includes copies of the recipes to make some of his favourite comfort foods). He totally stepped outside his comfort zone and accepted a place in a course way out in the boonies. This experience will do him good!
He will only be two and a half hours away, but in the dead of winter in Nova Scotia that may as well be the moon for an uncomfortable driver like me. I have a great friend who lives just about half way, so I can at least stop for a coffee and a pee at her place, or over night if we get caught in the weather.
Any way, the point of this entry is to catch you up a little and to say I plan to journal regularly again, because I feel like my life is taking a little turn, 90 degrees at least, and I want to record what happens. I am looking forward to this little re-invention of me...
Talk to you all soon,
Belinda
My contract to manage and teach for another studio ended in June so I took the summer off dancing to rest and recharge. I have been unemployed for the first time since I took maternity leave, my son turned twenty this year. I have had some time to reflect on what I have learned.
First,I have a great work-ethic. I didn't think my work ethic was above standard until I met some people with a work ethic that would make "Garfield" management material. I like working, so I have been making job hunting my job. I have applied for tons of jobs, some in my usual field of arts administration and some in other not-so-related fields. I had one great interview, but did not get the job because of the possibility of scheduling issues...lesson learned, don't make scheduling requests until after you have a job. Honesty-1 Job search-0. Got it.
Second, I love my garden, I have had the time to grow herbs for the first time in years! (Big thank you to Margaret Lee, Bev Johnson, Angela Conrad and Nancy Webber for giving me slips off their herb plants) I also have tomatoes, garlic and peppers growing in the veggie patch. (I am growing marinara sauce) Next years goal: Asparagus, lots of it.
Third and best lesson I have learned: my life is out of balance. Working a fifty hour week for a piddling amount of money is not a good idea even if you love what you do. Because it will make you eventually think you hate what you do, because it is ALL you do. I would gladly be unemployed all over again for a few weeks to learn that particular lesson! I had no idea I was a workaholic, but I guess I am. Now I have to get my life into some kind of balance so I can be ready when the inevitable retirement from performing/dancing comes.
(Don't panic it isn't coming soon-but I don't want to get there and freak out because I don't know how to do anything.)
Now that I have taken the summer off dancing I feel refreshed, and I have decided to start up my independent classes again, at a rent-by-the hour venue in a church. The schedule is up on the website, if you want to see it. The classes are filling up so call me soon! I think teaching extremely part time while I look for and find a day-job is going to vastly improve my well being. I am teaching so few classes that I can continue once I find the right job, and THAT will be perfect. Dancing will become my passion again, not my job. (For those of you who have known be a long time you likely remember me saying, "If it ever starts to feel like a job, I am outta here.")
I am also preparing my (twenty year old) fledgeling to go off to college this September. I am so proud of him. I am going to miss him, but he is totally ready to be out on his own. The whole process has been incredible, watching him get himself accepted to the course, doing his own legwork on getting into residence, making lists of what he'll need, (which includes copies of the recipes to make some of his favourite comfort foods). He totally stepped outside his comfort zone and accepted a place in a course way out in the boonies. This experience will do him good!
He will only be two and a half hours away, but in the dead of winter in Nova Scotia that may as well be the moon for an uncomfortable driver like me. I have a great friend who lives just about half way, so I can at least stop for a coffee and a pee at her place, or over night if we get caught in the weather.
Any way, the point of this entry is to catch you up a little and to say I plan to journal regularly again, because I feel like my life is taking a little turn, 90 degrees at least, and I want to record what happens. I am looking forward to this little re-invention of me...
Talk to you all soon,
Belinda