Something Creative » Work/Job Stuff http://nil17.com Ruminations on my life... Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:59:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Dream Vacation (& Job) http://nil17.com/2009/12/dream-vacation-job/ http://nil17.com/2009/12/dream-vacation-job/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:37:13 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=1096 review for Shadow Gallery’s “Digital Ghosts”.  It is an album I truly enjoy listening to & it seems I discover something new every time I listen.  Going to see SG in concert would be a great thing…too bad they don’t perform live.  Well [...]]]> A couple months ago I wrote my first ever album review for Shadow Gallery’s “Digital Ghosts”.  It is an album I truly enjoy listening to & it seems I discover something new every time I listen.  Going to see SG in concert would be a great thing…too bad they don’t perform live.  Well that is until this past week when Shadow Gallery announced their first ever concert coming in the spring of 2010. This concert is HUGE news.  For such a great band (with 6 rocking albums) they have never toured etc.  Of course like everything else about Shadow Gallery their debut is going to be done with style!  They are going to be among the groups performing on the first ever Triton Power Cruise.  Without elaborating too much (go check out Shadow Gallery’s website etc for all the juicy details) the band is going to perform on a cruise to the Bahamas.  Now that is debuting with a bang! By now of course you are all wondering what I’m on about…great, some band she likes is giving a concert in the Bahamas.  Well hearing that little bit of news sent me on a flight of fancy.  Since I’m currently unemployed (and have no real plans to get a job after the move…I’m burned out from my last job & with being pregnant won’t work that long anyway) I have the time to go on this cruise.  Living in the nice “warm” section of the country that I do a nice vacation to the tropics sounds like a great way to kick off my spring/summer.  Not to mention that I dream of traveling & writing so this would certainly give me the opportunity to do both.  Of course I don’t really have the resources to head off on a fabulous musical cruise (*hums* I am the very model of a modern major general….) so that puts me at a distinct disadvantage.  However, I have a plan that could solve this little snag. If just one (or several) groups got together to pay my way I’d happily write an article on the cruise line, cruise ship, concerts, activities and anything else pertinent to the trip.  All I’d need is round trip airfare (for two…can’t go without Hubby to help me.  I mean after all I’d be almost 7 months pregnant), hotel in Miami for 2 nights, the cost of the cruise (this includes all my meals & the concerts) and that’s it.  I’d of course pay for any souvenirs etc. Then after spending a few days soaking up the sun & music I’d write a review of the Shadow Gallery concert (and all the other concerts too if necessary), along with any other articles/reviews that I owed my benefactors for the trip.  Sounds like a good plan right?  I mean it’s a win/win situation.  They get a great article/review on the topic of their choice & I get a sun-drenched vacation to help me relax before the baby arrives.  Now if only I could find the party(ies) willing to pony up the dough.  (Any good suggestions on how I can accomplish this may be entertained.)  It could be just what I need to get a new career/job off & running.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/12/dream-vacation-job/feed/ 1 This Old House http://nil17.com/2009/12/this-old-house/ http://nil17.com/2009/12/this-old-house/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:08:16 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=1086 Well it’s official….we’ve found a new place to live.  Over the last week/weekend we made plans to look at some potential houses for the big move.  There were a lot of places that sounded like they’d be great.  One was a nice double wide with some additions…it looked really nice.  It was on 17 acres which was something I really wanted.  However I wasn’t willing to share it with the other tenant who lived in another trailer on the same property.  It just seemed like a bad idea to share space with a stranger. Another place we actually went to look at was a nice looking (from the pictures) 2 story farm house on four acres with a fenced in pasture & a barn.  Not that we need a barn but with dogs it is nice to be able to put them outside & yet know they have a nice sheltered place to be if we are gone for a few days.  Walking into this house gave me the idea that things would be difficult living there.  The front corner of the house had settled quite a lot so there was a pronounced slope to the entry & kitchen.  I’m fairly certain that putting an egg on the (miniscule) kitchen counter would have led to the egg being smashed in the corner of the room.  The dining room was very nice…easily the nicest in the house…with beautiful hardwood floors, built in cabinets & really nice wood throughout.  However, there were supposed to be 3 bedrooms…well since the upstairs was not available (some lady likes to come & stay there from time to time I guess.  And there isn’t a separate entrance for her plus she’d have to use the main bathroom & kitchen) they had taken the formal sitting rooms (which were divided by a giant pocket door) and closed them off creating 2 “bedrooms”.  This meant that there was only one common living area (the dining room) which was NOT large enough to hold our living room furniture let alone a table & chairs.  So that left us with one more place to inspect before we were back to square one. The final place we actually went to inspect is 30 miles west of Sioux Falls.  A bit further than we’d like but still easily in reach since it’s interstate driving.  It’s in town (another thing I especially wanted to avoid as I like my space, don’t really like people, and I want to have plenty of room for our dogs) but it was the right size & the right price!  We ended up taking the tour in the dark (the owner had the power shut off & our appointment was for 7 PM) & cold.  It was an adventure navigating the house with only flashlights.  Still it was a really nice house.  There is plenty of space of us & we will have room for guests as well (if we ever have any).  There is a teeny back yard so it will be a huge adjustment for the dogs but we have a nice large garage so they can be in there too.  Overall we are very happy with the house & know that it’s only temporary as we have a one year lease & then can look for something else if we want. Now comes the packing which I hate.  Our house is a jumbled mess (one because I am a terrible housekeeper & two because we’ve started packing already) & we’ve got 3 weeks to pack, clean & move 400 miles in the winter.  I have no idea how we will manage to move our stuff (there’s a lot of furniture & things like the grill, lawnmower, dog house) without stealing an 18 wheeler.  I can’t think about it too much or I end up crying/having a panic attack. I will miss our old house.  It isn’t perfect but it is our little world.  We can sit outside without people seeing us, there’s a fire pit & lots of room for the dogs.  We have gorgeous trees that flower & turn bright pink in the spring.  There are lots of birds & even an occasional deer will wander through.  It is my haven, my Fortress of Solitude & I will miss it greatly.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/12/this-old-house/feed/ 1 All Signs Say “Huh”? http://nil17.com/2009/09/all-signs-say-huh/ http://nil17.com/2009/09/all-signs-say-huh/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:55:39 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=809 I’m going to tell you a little tale about a girl, the boy she loves, the job she has, the commission he is given & the villian who tries to dash their hopes & dreams. This girl, Lin is an average looking girl with glasses.  She loves Troy, a boy who works hard with his hands to provide for their life together.  She works as an office girl: answering phones, greeting customers, writing letters & filing papers.  He is a finish carpenter by trade (although he’s been out of work for a while) & a furniture maker.  They live quite happily on a little acreage surrounded by giant pine trees with their dogs.  It’s a mostly happy life filled with all the usual ups & downs. One day Lin’s boss asks if Troy would be able to create a sign to hang on the front of the building.  Lin says yes & her boss begins the long process of getting a design approved.  Once the inital design is approved by Lin’s boss & also the bank that shares the building (the bank has to be in on everything as they think the world revolves around them) Troy gets to work.  He spends many hours in his shop selecting the proper pieces of lumber & planing them down into smooth boards.  Then Troy joined the boards together to make the signs.  After months of waiting for a decision from the bank (they were given the task of choosing a font for the words) Lin made a decision.  She urged the two businesses to use the same font as their logos— this was met with a great deal of surprise as it had not occurred to anybody else that this was an option.  Lin & Troy had the local print shop make up the letters in the appropriate size & soon the letters were ready to be routered into the signs.  Before making anything permanent Troy arranged the paper letters on the signs, took pictures & sent the files in for approval.  After a month of waiting the bank finally reached an agreement (after much discussion & a vote of 3-2) & Troy was able to begin the task of actually putting the letters into the wood.  During this process Lin asked what color the letters & signs should be.  Nobody responded…but Lin was persistant & finally got the okay to use a nice forest green color for the letters & the rest would be left natural with a clear protective coating. After months of work the signs were finally ready.  Troy had worked many hours & carefully planned the project.  He had made certain that each step was approved before continuing.  Over all the project took 6 long months but looking at the finished product Lin & Troy were proud of the work.  Since it was close to the end of summer so Troy made sure he got the signs mounted on the front & end of the building.  He got it done just days before the town would be full of people for the annual town festival.  It was hard work too.  The big sign for the front of the builidng weighed in at nearly 300 pounds. The day after Troy hung the signs he & Lin stopped by the building to deliver the invoices for the signs.  When they arrived they saw 3 people standing at the front entrance looking up at the sign.  Before getting out of the truck Lin said to Troy, “I’ll just bet they are complaining about something.  You know how they are…if it wasn’t their idea or they didn’t do it then something must be wrong with it.” Lin was right.  As she walked into the building the people standing outside were busy trying to figure out how to “improve” the signs.  When Troy came back from fueling up he walked right in blissful in his state of being totally unaware of what was waiting.  It didn’t take long until this was shattered by multiple people suggesting ways to improve the signs to make them “pop” more.  (One of the suggestors had been watching many home improvement shows on cable television.)  Angered by the lack of appreciation at delivering a product that was exactly to the specifications requested Troy & Lin left and swore that if that’s how Troy’s hard work was going to be treated they would take the signs back. The next day Lin had to work & she was prepared to do battle for the boy she loved.  It made her feel sad & angry to see Troy’s hard work dismissed so easily.  The two businesses had asked for signs that matched the log building that housed them.  They wanted something nice yet not too modern so that it didn’t look incongruous with the surroundings.  Troy had obliged with a beautiful wooden design…now the same people who commissioned the work were saying it wasn’t at all what they thought it would be.  When Lin’s boss arrived that day he immediately brought up the signs.  Lin was cautious & curt with her answers at first.  Finally she told her boss how upset & hurt Troy had been at the seeming disregard for all his hard work.  Lin said that it was beyond rude to treat someone in that fashion.  How would he feel if after putting in hard work to create something based on a vague design there was nothing but criticism?  Lin’s boss thought about that & agreed that the presentation of questions & suggestions could have been handled in a nicer manner.  Lin also let it be known that Troy was so upset he had insisted on working the night before to correct some minor alignment issues so he wouldn’t be subjected to more opinions on what wasn’t “right” with the sign.  After more discussion Lin’s boss said that he thought the signs were actually quite nice & that the craftsmanship of the signs was indeed very good.  While there could have been some things done differently with the design it wasn’t anything that was critical to the appearance & that next time Lin’s boss would have a better idea of what to ask for when having a sign made. Lin passed all of this on to her beloved Troy & the two of them felt appeased.  They set off for a long weekend content that the drama had been resolved.  Little did they know what the next week had in store for them.  It was just as well they didn’t because it would have ruined the relaxing weekend in the country.  After the weekend Lin went back to work & Troy went back to his shop.  Their lives fell into its regular rhythm.  Lin stopped in to ask when they could expect the payment from the bank for their portion of the signs.  It was with great dismay & anger that Lin learned the bank president had made it known that the sign invoice was not to be paid  until the owner of the bank (and Lin’s office) approved the signs.  Lin was shocked & nearly in tears…how could she pay the bills?  The rent was due and Lin had counted on that payment.  With Troy essentially unemployed her small income wasn’t enough to take care of everything.  Troy’s work on the signs & some upcoming projects were their only hope of making it.  Lin’s mind raced as she tried to adjust to the news & not cry right there.  After a moment she looked at the lady who had reluctantly shared the news.  ”Please let Prez SL know then that I will not be paying my rent until the signs are approved”, Lin bit the inside of her lip to keep her voice from cracking.  Finished with her errand at the bank Lin stalked across the hall, past her desk & into her boss’s office.  She explained the dilemma that she & Troy were now in.  Lin’s boss was so pissed off when he heard that the bank was refusing to pay on something they had approved already that he marched over to the bank.  Unfortunately the prez was with a customer but Lin’s boss did talk to the VP & came back reassuring Lin that the bank would indeed pay & in a timely  manner.  Lin felt a bit better that she had more people in her corner.  The longer Lin thought about the matter the more steely her resolve became.  She was risking not only her job but also her home going toe to toe with the bank president.  Of course when weighed against the hurt Troy would be caused if the bank got away with refusing to pay Lin knew that nothing was too great a risk…. 2009-09-09_00008 2009-09-09_00006
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/09/all-signs-say-huh/feed/ 2 Holding Me http://nil17.com/2009/05/holding-me/ http://nil17.com/2009/05/holding-me/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 16:03:38 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=523 My desire to travel, move around & explore this country is growing.  I can feel the wanderlust taking over a little more every day.  This of course makes it harder to get up & go about my daily routine of work & home.  I feel this hunger for adventure: new sights, sounds, tastes & smells. To use my senses again & feel myself fill with some unknown essence I feel that I’m lacking recently.  My lungs feel cramped, not quite expanding when I inhale the sameness of my current life. When we moved to northern Minnesota in 2005 (Halloween weekend to be exact) it was because there were no more ties to the city life.  I was unemployed (again—victim to a 2nd company being reorganized) with little desire to change that.  Hubby had a great job & so he commuted to the Cities.  For 2 long years he would leave me early on Monday morning & come home Friday afternoon.  I hated every moment of it…we are a couple very used to spending a lot of time together.  It’s not uncommon for us to text each other several times a day with the minutiae we just need to share.  We can also spend days in the house without really saying much just moving together in a well-oiled routine.  This pas de deux is second nature & we take it wherever we go….if we visit you it’ll be apparent in our every movement, comment & look. Moving to our little community created new ties & strengthened some old ones.  We got to spend time more time with Hubby’s dad & stepmom.  We found a church we enjoyed attending—for the people as much as anything.  New friends were made & I was able to introduce Hubby to some friends I made long ago.  As we adjusted to living in a small town we changed our habits.  Once a week trips to “town” to get groceries, shopping in the small local market in between, doing our best to spend our money in the local businesses.  Our money followed us (what little there is) and so we bank with the local bank, I work for the adjacent insurance agency. Now with employment opportunities being virtually nonexistent for Hubby, my need to find fulfillment in some type of job and the fading of other roots we were content to put down I’m wondering what is holding me to my life. I’ve been mulling this over in the back of my mind for some time but today I actually asked the question out loud as we left Sioux Falls.  Hubby answered that he wasn’t at all sure.  I can think of only one real solid tie that is left there. We have been so blessed over the last few years to grow into a wonderful relationship & friendship with Hubby’s brother Pete & family.  We have done so many fun things & been privileged to watch their boys grow.  It is something we enjoy very much and our delight is matched every time we see the sunshine smiles of the boys when they see us.  If we were to ever make the decision to move it would be made much harder knowing we’d most likely be leaving that closeness behind.  The shared meals, trips to Duluth, hiking through our favorite state parks at a moment’s notice, movies and all the other random things we are able to do whenever the mood strikes.  Of course we’d be able to visit & make plans to do that stuff but it would lose something in the planning.  Having the ability to call Anne & set up a quick girls only trip to the local Maurices is something I usually enjoy.  It’s been so nice having a sister when mine live too far away to do those things. Right now everything seems to be suspended in mid-air & I’m waiting for the crash I sense is in the offing.  Not being a person who handles the unknown or surprises well I find myself holding my breath.  Can the tie I feel continue to hold me or will it snap—
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/05/holding-me/feed/ 0 A Quick News Bulletin http://nil17.com/2009/04/a-quick-news-bulletin/ http://nil17.com/2009/04/a-quick-news-bulletin/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:46:48 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=386 The big news this week is that after months of waiting to hear about the numerous job applications Hubby finally has an interview.  Next week he’s got his second job interview (first one went really well….they never called back) in over a year.  We are hopeful that this is the start of something good on the employment front.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/04/a-quick-news-bulletin/feed/ 0 Soft Spring Days http://nil17.com/2009/04/soft-spring-days/ http://nil17.com/2009/04/soft-spring-days/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:15:13 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=305 At last I can see the end of winter on the horizon.  After last week’s freak blizzard (it’s always a freak blizzard in MN unless it happens between Nov 1 & March 31…we don’t want to admit that snow at any time of year is perfectly reasonable) I was starting to think maybe it would never be warm here again.  My very soul seemed encased in the thick white of a Minnesota winter.  So much darkness is hard to fight no matter how hard you try.  Carrying the weight of the world is a task I am not equal to (although that didn’t seem to stop me from attempting to do so fairly often). With everything that transpired over the last year, and most of it bad…(if you want to know ask or read the archives here as I talked about most of it.) I had high hopes for 2009.  So far things have not improved in the areas where we needed to see it most.  The job search has become even more difficult and moving is not an option based solely on the cost associated with a relocation.  There would also be the need to find employment for me and while I long, yearn, pine for greener pastures in that department I must content myself for now.  We’ve had some good starts toward jobs but with so many people desperate for work it’s a battle we have not yet come close to winning.  Right now he has an application in to be a civilian deckhand for the Army Corps of Engineers in Duluth.  We shall see what happens there (hopefully his experience tying & casting moorings from the Navy days will count for something).  My hope for the year is returning (well my personal hopes at least). Slowly the days are lengthening here in northern Minnesota.  The trees seem sprightlier & I can see my yard.  (Of course looking at the yard reminds me I need to do a lot of work before I’m ready for the long heady days of summer.) The light lingers more in the west now & as night comes it creeps easily across the tall line of pines that guard my borders.  The boughs make softer sighing sounds, more lulling for the descent into dusk where the calls of geese, ducks and other water fowl echo.  Even the morning frost is not a headache when I run for the Jeep, 5 minutes late as always.  A few swipes with the wipers & some washer fluid clear it enough so I can take off on that mile trek to the front desk. Night time is more pleasant if still quite cool. A light frost covers the lawn which is still fawn brown.  The moon has been high & clear and the scent on the air is that of late fall.  The smell of leaves long dead, their ghosts still waft in the air and rustle past my ankles as I stand for just a second on the driveway.  I can feel it in my bones though that the soft spring days that will renew my roses, hostas & lilies are inching, creeping, scratching their way back to me.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/04/soft-spring-days/feed/ 2 I Want This Notarized http://nil17.com/2009/04/i-want-this-notarized/ http://nil17.com/2009/04/i-want-this-notarized/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:08:53 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=293 I was in the middle of helping a customer with a payment when my nose twitched.  It wasn’t the cute Bewitched twitch, nor was it a sneeze sort of twitch.  This twitch is the one I dread more than any other—the “there is a very smelly person in the office & now I’m going to have to smile at him without breathing” twitch.
Sure enough as I glanced up & surreptitiously past the current customer I could see the source of the stench.  Our most paranoid customer (seriously this dude makes anybody who thinks they are members of the Tinfoil Hat Society look like sane, upstanding members of the world) was standing nervously by the door. Picture a man somewhere between 50 & 175, about 6 feet tall dressed like a homeless lumberjack.
His hair is in long, grey dreadlocks that haven’t been washed since before I was born…he hasn’t bathed in that long either I suspect.  Winter or summer he wears a minimum of 3 shirts each caked in decades of grime, sweat and stench.  In fact sometimes it sounds like he’s also got paper of some kind stashed between the layers of filth.  My guess is it is probably cash since I’ve heard him rant about how the banks are trying to steal his money (News flash guy—the banks are trying to steal money from all of us). My customer leaves (much to my dismay) and Mr. Stenchy Stencherson we’ll call him strode to the counter.  He waved a sheaf of papers in my face, wafting his tantalizing? (okay gag-reflex inducing) natural odor into my face.  Seriously this is toxic stuff…bottle it & drop it on our enemies.  It will knock them out & we won’t even have to use chemical agents. Anyway, being the consummate professional I am (no matter how much I might dislike this particular office & job right now I do my best to smile & greet the customers cheerfully.  I smile when I answer the phone too.) I smiled very pleasantly at Mr. Stency Stencherson, “What can I help you with today”?  The papers were pushed at me & I struggled a bit to control them before I was able to tell what they were.  As I looked at the papers his unused voice scratched my ears, “I want this notarized too.” I glanced up to see copies of his payment spread out on the counter.  “I’m sorry, what do you need”? I smile again holding my breath as best I can.  Louder & more quarrelsome he jabs the papers, “I want these notarized, I wanna make sure it shows I paid my bill”.  I call my boss over who brings the officious stamp. After a few minutes of trying to understand why the man is insisting on having copies of his money order notarized, my boss manages to explain that unless there is a signature involved a notarization is unnecesssary.  “Well I don’t want that cheap receipt she’s writing out. It’ll fade & then I won’t have proof I paid anything if I have to sue them”, Mr. Stency Stencherson manages to croak out. “Oh, well I can stamp the copies with the date & write on them if you’d like”, hoping my breathless sounding voice isn’t readily apparent (and if it is he doesn’t get the idea I’m trying to flirt). Finally, I manage to write out 3 receipts for the payment (all while trying to breathe through my ears), hand him the papers back & smile.  I continue to smile after his grunge encrusted hand brushes mine when he takes them from me & walks out the door.  I sit frozen in place at my desk for a good 5 minutes, smile plastered on my face like a Mardi Gras mask in case he comes back. Luckily for me it was lunch time so after spraying a crop duster sized amount of air freshener I left to go home where I could scrub myself with lye & bleach. Don’t you envy me?  I know you want my job…come visit & I’ll train you in.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/04/i-want-this-notarized/feed/ 2 All These Things That I’ve Done http://nil17.com/2009/03/all-these-things-that-ive-done/ http://nil17.com/2009/03/all-these-things-that-ive-done/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:24:53 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.com/?p=257 The last couple days while sitting at my desk I started thinking about all the jobs I’ve had.  There have been many across a wide range of fields.  From the time I was a teenager I’ve had a job in some way.  My first jobs were babysitting jobs naturally.  I was good at it (still am) and had a regular group of people who called on me often for my services.  During the summers I would often do a full-time nanny gig for a couple. During high school I also worked part-time at the local grocery store, did home health care for a severely disabled girl at night so her parents could go to the casino, worked as a waitress in a cafe’ (mostly elderly people who wouldn’t tip more than a dollar….except my grandma—she was always good for a fiver or more even for coffee). When I went to college I didn’t work during my first year.  I did secure a nanny job for 2 little girls that summer after freshman year though (it was an okay job but I lived in the ‘hood…drive-bys etc night & day.  Told my parents it wasn’t so bad because I didn’t want them to worry.  Small town farm girl comes to the big city).  I was a nanny for two other families in the course of my college career.  Of course I went to a private college so I had several other jobs as well.  I worked as a janitor cleaning the athletic building (the men’s soccer & football teams took great delight in creating disasters for me to clean up), I worked in admissions calling high school students who were interested in learning more about the college. Then too there was the summer after my sophomore year…I worked as a line worker in a meat packing plant. That was an interesting if disgusting job…(No we didn’t slaughter the animals.  They came to us looking like proper food.) I mostly worked on packaging frozen hamburger patties on the evening shift (4-11:30 or so).  Mind-numbing work if you can get it. Of course no mention of my job history would be complete without some mention of the many offices where I’ve worked.  I’ve been a temp in more places than I can remember.  In fact I have even worked myself out of a job by being too efficient & meticulous. (Only I could do this…my OCD & upbringing force me to work hard at whatever job I am given). My first job out of college was working for a New Age/Health publishing company.  There is was introduced to Tai Chi, Qi Gong and many other things.  I quit there though when I discovered the owner (my boss) was having an affair & wanted me to lie for him. After that I worked for a computer training company that taught classes for IT certification in Cisco CCNA, CCIE, Linux, routing/switching and much more. I learned a lot there…of course I remember none of it now since I didn’t use the knowledge.  I did get introduced to some interesting people because of that job…and it led to my next office job. I did just under a year at an online promotional items company.  I was the only employee & my job was to enter product information into the website database.  It wasn’t terribly exciting but I could show up in jeans, sweatshirt & baseball cap if I so chose.  And I chose to do that a lot!  Of course being a small business in a booming online world we didn’t last a year.  Soon it was on to a totally different office (one that required dress clothes) and a different field to study & embrace. Working for a company that designs & sells eyeglass frames was a dream come true to this nerdy girl with the coke-bottle lenses.  Finally I got to learn about something I’ve had to wear most of my life (I had glasses at 5, bifocals in junior high, and back to super thick single-vision lenses now).  Not only did I get to watch new styles of frames emerge but I also got to be pretty good at helping people find the perfect pair of glasses.  One of the best things was all the fun frames I got for myself (free of charge…BOO-YAH!  I certainly miss that perk because I’m in desperate need of new ones right now). Now I am working in insurance…I find some of the job interesting but mostly it’s just me shuffling papers around a desk & answering phone calls in a quiet, efficient manner (yes I said quiet. In fact people seem to love my phone voice). I know my job & do it by rote.  I get the feeling that something bigger is in store for me in the future though…another job, possibly another office.  I’m curious where I’ll end up next.
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/03/all-these-things-that-ive-done/feed/ 0 Nothing Challenging, Nothing Creative http://nil17.com/2009/03/nothing-challenging-nothing-creative/ http://nil17.com/2009/03/nothing-challenging-nothing-creative/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:38:53 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.wordpress.com/?p=198 I don’t like my job.  Wait I think that’s an understatement…right now I hate my job.  It’s sucking my will to live.  Getting up on days where I know I need to go to the office is depressing.  One reason is that it’s not even close to a challenge for me.  Sometimes I honestly think that my dog could be trained to do the job if only it didn’t have to answer the phone.  There is nothing but tedium waiting for me when I walk through the doors at 8 am.  My brain is mostly going to waste…all I do is answer the phone, take payments & type form letters.  Nothing challenging, nothing creative. Every second I sit in that chair in front I feel suffocated.  Every move I make, every task is exactly the same as the day before.  I feel like an automaton…everything by rote, staring at my screen but seeing only the abyss.  I wonder where life went all screwy that I ended up here.  My job wasn’t supposed to be the administrative assistant to some small insurance agency.  I wanted to be a writer, adventurer, and historian.  Sort of Indiana Jones meets Jane Austen with better clothes.  My job was supposed to take me across the country & around the world…. I need a change….a new direction, a new lease on my work life.  Now if only I didn’t need my job so we could survive…
]]> http://nil17.com/2009/03/nothing-challenging-nothing-creative/feed/ 1 More Unemployment http://nil17.com/2009/02/more-unemployment/ http://nil17.com/2009/02/more-unemployment/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:37:43 +0000 Nil17 http://nil17.wordpress.com/?p=166 Well Hubby had a promising interview early in the month.  It was the perfect job for him.  Everything seemed to be lining up so that he could start working again.  Instead we got a letter saying someone else got the job.  So now we’re back wondering what to do.  He does have 2 small jobs for sure & a 3rd is a possibility but they won’t sustain us for very long. I know he’s struggling with the whole unemployed thing right now.  It’s so unfair but there just aren’t many jobs to be had here.  In fact we are hearing about more layoffs every day.  The local winery where we have been displaying the Black Ash & More stuff is shuttering for a while.  Like many small businesses here they are struggling.  We are very sad since they have been very very good to us in the last 9 months.  Our hope is they will be able to open for the summer. Mostly I’m struggling with God’s plan for us in all this.  I know He wants what’s best for us & will provide for our needs but lately it seems more like we’ve got to do this on our own.  I feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.  Every time it seems we are going to catch a break something else happens to drain our hope & resources.  It’s been a hard long year from 2008 and it doesn’t seem like the load has gotten any lighter. One thing I am very thankful for is Hubby’s excellent job of taking care of household chores.  I’m terrible at keeping up with things like dishes.  He does a great job of doing that while I’m at work.  It’s been so wonderful to have him around to share lunch times with over the last several months.  Just seeing him still makes me smile & makes going back to the office tolerable. I am praying that my voice shall be heard in this wilderness & that something wonderful can still happen in our lives.  I need my faith strengthened & Hubby needs his restored.
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