Interesting times
Ah the week of interesting times. Like that Chinese curse, it's been a week* of upheaval and change and being on the brink of change. *(I refer to last week. I've been too busy to write!)
Workwise for me, I've basically had the entire month of August off. Although this *sounds* lovely - who wouldn't want a month of summer vacation? - the lack of cash flow or rather the unidirectional "outness" of the cash flow was troubling. For three weeks, I sat at my computer every morning and made sales calls and researched and sent e-mails and got...crickets. Nada, niet, niente. You get the idea. Then, last week, twoprojects hit simultaneously. Both were full-time crazy projects with overlapping timelines and deadlines. Both were difficult and outside my scope. Finally, yesterday, I bailed on one of them. I am so relieved! Although it was really hard to let the money go, there was no way I could edit a 500 page manuscript by September 12 and work on 2 chapters of grade 12 chemistry at the same time. Today, I can sit at the computer and work (when I'm not writing this!), and it's much happier.
In Gmajor news, his professional life completely exploded. As quickly as his favourite boss returned to work after her mat-leave, she left again. She announced she would be leaving in a month's time, then left 6 days later. The manager who is relacing her is the one who's been hounded him for the last year. Now, with complete control of the store, she is very likely to fire him as quickly as she dares. Anyone who writes someone up for being 3 minutes late is on the warpath. And apparently, she's not interested in how losing her best salesperson will affect the store profits.
The same time as this happened, one of GMajor's scripts was rejected by his agent as having an "in your face" gay scene*. This script had been circulating for a year aleady, so it was a mystery as to why it suddenly was deemed inappropriate. Much yelling and slamming down of phones followed. Fortunately, after a long cooling-off period, she was able to explain her concerns and an uneasy truce in now in place. It's put a huge damper on GMajor's writing output and there remains the question of what will happen to a script that has more adult - and even *gay* adult - content. (* The scene in question was two adults kissing. They happened to both be men.)
Last week, because I'm the meanest mom in the world, I sent GMinor to violin camp. Because of our move and a couple of hiccups with her teachers, GMinor had fallen behind her peers. This isn't supposed to be a big deal, since each child should learn at their own pace. But when GMinor is head and shoulders taller than everyone else in her group class, it's a bit embarrassing. She's a tall girl. So we all endured a week of pre-violin-camp kvetching, tears, stress-based tummy aches and general angst about violin camp. When we drove up, GMinor finally remembered that violin camp was on a *farm*. A totally postcard perfect farm with horses, goats, dogs, kittens, and even a pet parrot. She scrambled out of the car and didn't even say goodbye. I doubt we will do it again, but she completed learning Musette and her vibratto is hugely improved, so it was well worth it.
We found out that GMinor has been invited along with the other violin students to perform at Carnegie Hall in the spring. Huge, huge deal. What an incredible and awesome experience. The price tag, however, is really steep - $1000 per person. So we have cancelled the replacement of one of our broken windows and all other home renos and we'll be trying to save like crazy to make this happen.
However, in the continuing saga of fixing our broken house, our contractor was supposed to come and finish off a few minor bits and pieces from our last big fix. There's a hole in the living room wall where one of the support columns was patched up, so the drywall needs to be repaired. After waiting about 3 months due to various contractor illnesses, he came by to patch the hole. The final repair was to have occured last Wednesday. I haven't heard from him. He didn't show up when we arranged and there have been no replies to any of my messages. Of course, he's already been paid. Damn.
A couple of days ago, we were trying to get a large bin out from behind the shed. When GMajor moved the bin, the fence fell over. We put the bin back and tiptoed away.
And finally, Saturday night. GMinor went off to her grandmother's for a few days and we were all set for some grownup time. We planned to go out to dinner and a movie at a theatre in the neighbouring town with our neighbours The Vs. Then, the Ws were also invited. So we were all going to go in the Vs' van. When we went over the the neighbours', it turned out that Mrs. V couldn't come; she wasn't feeling well. As we started piling into the van, the Ws said they couldn't go to a movie because it would be too late and they had work early. So, just dinner then and in town, rather than a road trip. As we drove the 10 minutes to downtown, Mrs. V called Mr. V for him to come home, since she was feeling really terrible. Mr. V dropped us all off and then went home. So, the Ws and us ended up going out for fish and chips. And during that meal, I got four phone calls from GMinor that she was homesick and wanted me to pick her up...in Toronto! Next time, we'll just order pizza and watch The Tudors on Netflix!
This week though is much better! I saw two hummingbirds yesterday, I'm back at work, violin camp is over and the long weekend is coming!
Workwise for me, I've basically had the entire month of August off. Although this *sounds* lovely - who wouldn't want a month of summer vacation? - the lack of cash flow or rather the unidirectional "outness" of the cash flow was troubling. For three weeks, I sat at my computer every morning and made sales calls and researched and sent e-mails and got...crickets. Nada, niet, niente. You get the idea. Then, last week, twoprojects hit simultaneously. Both were full-time crazy projects with overlapping timelines and deadlines. Both were difficult and outside my scope. Finally, yesterday, I bailed on one of them. I am so relieved! Although it was really hard to let the money go, there was no way I could edit a 500 page manuscript by September 12 and work on 2 chapters of grade 12 chemistry at the same time. Today, I can sit at the computer and work (when I'm not writing this!), and it's much happier.
In Gmajor news, his professional life completely exploded. As quickly as his favourite boss returned to work after her mat-leave, she left again. She announced she would be leaving in a month's time, then left 6 days later. The manager who is relacing her is the one who's been hounded him for the last year. Now, with complete control of the store, she is very likely to fire him as quickly as she dares. Anyone who writes someone up for being 3 minutes late is on the warpath. And apparently, she's not interested in how losing her best salesperson will affect the store profits.
The same time as this happened, one of GMajor's scripts was rejected by his agent as having an "in your face" gay scene*. This script had been circulating for a year aleady, so it was a mystery as to why it suddenly was deemed inappropriate. Much yelling and slamming down of phones followed. Fortunately, after a long cooling-off period, she was able to explain her concerns and an uneasy truce in now in place. It's put a huge damper on GMajor's writing output and there remains the question of what will happen to a script that has more adult - and even *gay* adult - content. (* The scene in question was two adults kissing. They happened to both be men.)
Last week, because I'm the meanest mom in the world, I sent GMinor to violin camp. Because of our move and a couple of hiccups with her teachers, GMinor had fallen behind her peers. This isn't supposed to be a big deal, since each child should learn at their own pace. But when GMinor is head and shoulders taller than everyone else in her group class, it's a bit embarrassing. She's a tall girl. So we all endured a week of pre-violin-camp kvetching, tears, stress-based tummy aches and general angst about violin camp. When we drove up, GMinor finally remembered that violin camp was on a *farm*. A totally postcard perfect farm with horses, goats, dogs, kittens, and even a pet parrot. She scrambled out of the car and didn't even say goodbye. I doubt we will do it again, but she completed learning Musette and her vibratto is hugely improved, so it was well worth it.
We found out that GMinor has been invited along with the other violin students to perform at Carnegie Hall in the spring. Huge, huge deal. What an incredible and awesome experience. The price tag, however, is really steep - $1000 per person. So we have cancelled the replacement of one of our broken windows and all other home renos and we'll be trying to save like crazy to make this happen.
However, in the continuing saga of fixing our broken house, our contractor was supposed to come and finish off a few minor bits and pieces from our last big fix. There's a hole in the living room wall where one of the support columns was patched up, so the drywall needs to be repaired. After waiting about 3 months due to various contractor illnesses, he came by to patch the hole. The final repair was to have occured last Wednesday. I haven't heard from him. He didn't show up when we arranged and there have been no replies to any of my messages. Of course, he's already been paid. Damn.
A couple of days ago, we were trying to get a large bin out from behind the shed. When GMajor moved the bin, the fence fell over. We put the bin back and tiptoed away.
And finally, Saturday night. GMinor went off to her grandmother's for a few days and we were all set for some grownup time. We planned to go out to dinner and a movie at a theatre in the neighbouring town with our neighbours The Vs. Then, the Ws were also invited. So we were all going to go in the Vs' van. When we went over the the neighbours', it turned out that Mrs. V couldn't come; she wasn't feeling well. As we started piling into the van, the Ws said they couldn't go to a movie because it would be too late and they had work early. So, just dinner then and in town, rather than a road trip. As we drove the 10 minutes to downtown, Mrs. V called Mr. V for him to come home, since she was feeling really terrible. Mr. V dropped us all off and then went home. So, the Ws and us ended up going out for fish and chips. And during that meal, I got four phone calls from GMinor that she was homesick and wanted me to pick her up...in Toronto! Next time, we'll just order pizza and watch The Tudors on Netflix!
This week though is much better! I saw two hummingbirds yesterday, I'm back at work, violin camp is over and the long weekend is coming!