Sparks and Butterflies...

But aside from that, she's still completely normal

The Juggle

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The carpet installers are hours – yes HOURS – late.

I’m juggling three clients.

I got a call from school that Joseph is refusing his lunch.

I have to finish the three clients’ work for the day, pick up the kids, supervise the installation, and help move all our living room furniture back into the house.

Tick tock…  Tick tock…

How do you juggle?  I suppose that’s the age old question.  I don’t care if you stay at home, work a paying gig at home, work a paying gig outside of the home – juggling.

It’s absolutely great that I’ve landed these gigs.  Absolutely.  Now how do do I keep everything in the air?

And please.  No flaming torches please.

I’m doing NaBloPoMo, are you?

A Break?

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There’s got to be a break in here somewhere, right?

We just found out from Poe’s friend that the grocery store job fell through. The one he’s terribly overqualified for, but he needs a job? Yeah, not hiring. That was sort of our ace in the hole. He could work nights and still look for a job in his actual career.

Not gonna happen.

Which means we’ve got nothing with 6 weeks to go on unemployment.

There is another choice, which we’re fighting against tooth and nail. My closing my business and going to work full time while he stays home and manages the kids.

This is not the right choice for us for a whole host of reasons. On the other hand, there’s no money left. And we’ve paid enough ahead to maybe have Cobra through September. And then – nothing.

I don’t WANT to close my business. I don’t have a bunch of clients, but the ones I’ve had are very very happy with my work! I can do this!!

I’m so frustrated. All the things we worked towards are gone. All our savings is gone. All our debt elimination progress is gone. Our credit is back in the toilet. All those years of work, with nothing to show for it. All gone.

I’ve got one last thing that I might have to go for. Our retirement. I haven’t touched it because we’ll take such a hit on the money due to taxes. I don’t know. That’s money I’ve been saving for retirement since I was 18 years old with my first 401K. And if we tap it – it’s gone.

God, I hate this. I hate it. I feel desperate and stupid. I shouldn’t feel stupid, I’ve done nothing wrong, but I do.

Pins and Needles

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Oy. Poe is up for a job. This is GOOD. He had a pre-interview over the phone. Went well. Went in for an actual interview. Went great. Now they’ve asked for a portfolio – anything that can be sent at all? You see Poe had his portfolio of personal drawings stolen. And all his work for companies has been company intellectual property. So, we cobbled some stuff together and sent it (along with the explanation.) In addition we found some online galleries with the locations clearly labeled so Poe knew what was HIS previous work, and we were able to pass that on as well.

I think they really want him. But they’ve never gone into this computer thing before, they’ve only done hand drawn. And the software as well as other components are about $10,000. That does not include the cost of Poe himself. So, I think they’re trying to justify the cost of going this route in the first place, not to mention Poe himself.

ARG!

Worst is, we still don’t know any details of salary or benefits yet – both of which are important points for us. You think?

And so we wait. One thing I have to say, though, is they move very fast. None of this terrible waiting on HR. The guy who owns the company emailed Wednesday night. Poe called Thursday morning. Owner called back Thursday night. Interview in person Friday, with a promise to call on Monday. However, we sent some software pricing information on Friday night. And they called Monday morning (today) at 8am. Sheesh. Cobbled the portfolio together, condensed the files and as of 10 am knew they were in the right hands.

In case you haven’t been in the world of job hunting or Human Resources, lately – that’s FAST. Which in my opinion is a good thing – it means they want to make a decision, and won’t hem and haw about it. It also means they’re communicative, and they also follow through. So – while he may not get the job – I think we’ll know about it, they won’t leave us hanging, and we’ll know why. Conversely, if he does get the job, it’ll be soon.

I don’t have much else to say. Basically the job hunt is sucking up all the brain cells in my head lately. That and the kids are in their final two weeks of school, and this is scaring me.

Welcome to the Economy

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Three posts in one day.  That may be a record.

Announcement:  My husband, Poe as you know him here, came home today with his box of belongings in hand.  Yes, he was laid off.  No, there was no inkling ahead of time at all.

That makes two unemployed people in the household.

There have been tears.

I feel myself going into fix it super project assistant mode (cue superhero theme music.)  Which is good – I’m good in a crisis.  But seeing as this here is my journal it seems only fair that I warn you that whining may be ahead.  Also ahead, posting of Poe’s resume (hey – you never know!) and upping the marketing of Vineyard Virtual Services as well.  Please be patient with me.  And maybe gentle and kind as well.

Things are a little raw.  There’s the money, yes.  But well – money’s money.  The more stressful tidbit is that we have a heart patient who will have surgery in the house (Logan) and no medical insurance as of today.  The ax came down hard.

It seems stupid now, but Poe and I talked about it.  I’m still going to SXSW.  The networking possibilities for my business are countless, and since he can now take me to and from the airport (ahem) the only costs will now be food and gratuities thanks to the fact that I won the trip.  Thank you Wal-Mart.  Let’s face it – my business is a service, and I need to get it in front of the eyes of the people who can use it.

So.  If you’re the praying sort, I have a few specific requests:

1.  That I don’t lose it.  I cannot lose it.  I need to remain calm and functional.

2.  That Logan has no immediate issues that need attending to.

3.   That Poe keeps his self confidence intact, which is so necessary for the interviewing process, not to mention as a man.

4.  That we are good stewards of what we have, and that our physical needs are met.

5.  That the family remains healthy and whole, both physically and emotionally.

My thanks in advance.

Blissdom – Friday

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I cannot believe I didn’t finish my blissdom updates.  I’ve been really sick, and I want to catch up.  So now, we’ll just have to have Friday & Saturday smushed together and just mention the highlights.

I finally met Deanna.  We’ve been corresponding online for years.  YEARS.  But I didn’t know who she was.  I just stared at her, ’cause she looks just like someone from my old work.  The synapses in my brain were misfiring.  Anyway – she introduced herself.  She thinks I’m sweet.  heh.  And she MIGHT be helping me with the site a little bit.  A little bit of refining, let’s say.

I met and saw a whole bunch of people.  People that I needed to meet, that I wanted to meet, and folks who were new to me, as I didn’t follow their blogs.  All of it was wonderful.  I even got to squish a baby girl, which was bliss.  I’m not going to list everyone – ’cause it’s DAYS later and I’ll forget someone and hurt their feelings.  Which I know how that is, so I don’t want to do it.

The swag was fabulous.  Especially the bag – it was a GREAT bag.  No blazing logo, and really sturdy (Land’s End.)

I finally ditched my laptop in my room.  It was great in my room as a setup, but I think it might be time for an iphone or blackberry.

The sessions were really helpful.  I followed the Maven track.  I really got a lot out of them.  I wrote down good ideas to follow up on in the future.

Of course, I had to pause in my blogging conference goodness to take care of a baseball issue for Joseph.  Remotely.  Because it never stops.

I ended up skipping Friday’s cocktail party.  I was people overloaded for one.  I was really tired from not sleeping well on Thursday.  I did NOT want to dress properly.  I didn’t want to make nice or be somewhere loud.  So I took a nap in my room.  I slept better in that hour than the whole of Thursday night.

I got into my moo-cow jammies and hit up the pajama party.  Watched Mamma Mia.  Has to be the cheesiest movie ever – however I loved it, so what does that say about me?

All of Friday and I still had yet to take a picture.

Saturday was a huge day for me.  Huge.

The sessions were great.  The presentation of Yanni Voices was great…  As well as those beautiful men who were there for questions after.

In the session on PR, there was an announcement that Wal-Mart was going to sponsor two people to go to SXSW.  I entered the contest on a break between sessions.  The becomes important later.

If there was a complaint to be had – I’d say that it was the customer service of the hotel in terms of food.  I truly believe that the hotel had no idea WHAT to do with all of us.   So – I had lunch on Saturday – grabbing and going to the next session, ’cause I had to wait for the whole lunch break in line for the food, since they ran out.

After skipping the last session on getting published – that’s when I was writing my angsty post in my room – I did attend the Chris Mann concert.  His music was great, yes.  But he made it a lot of fun.  He actually took the time to research who we are, and what this conference was about.  He was making twitter jokes, and pausing between songs to read the tweets about his performance.  He actually connected with us – made an effort – and that was really impressive to me.

Jen Lancaster was the keynote speaker.  Which of course was great.  And I was able to meet her as she’s friends with Deanna, so that was a lot of fun.  Deanna and I will probably go to her next book signing in the L.A. area and meet up.

Also during the day, I met up with White Trash Mom.  Dude.  She reads me – how cool is that?  We talked about some business she might like to do with me (?!) and parted ways.  I can’t even tell you how excited I was about that.

I went to the cocktail party that night, but did NOT dress up.  Probably an etiquette faux pas, but had I gone back to the room, I would not have come back down, and I knew it.  I had two Blisstinis – which were actually quite good for this total lightweight.  Watched some karaoke and the electric slide.  No – I didn’t dance – we didn’t want anyone injured.  I was at the bar trying to get a drink when Christine was pointing to me and pantomiming “I need to talk to you!”  I don’t know her, and was first introduced to her blog  in a panel I watched, so  I did the whole look around thing and pointed to myself, “Me?”  “Yes you!”  Okie dokie.  I slowly made my way around to the other side of the bar, at which point she informed me that I had won one of the trips to SXSW!  ME!  I was floored.  And then immediately went outside and called Poe.  Can you imagine a better place to pass my business card around?

I called it a night soon after that.  I had my morning flight home the next day.

All in all?  I will SO go next year if I can budget for it.  It was worth it in information, it was worth it in reinforcing some existing friendships, and it was worth it in terms of networking.  Awesome.

Unfortunately, these are the ONLY two pictures I managed to take the entire weekend.  BAD BAD BLOGGER.

Vintage Squirrel (who was gracious enough to have lunch with me on Friday) and I.

VDog and Tanis.  Trust me to make sure that one of the only two pictures I take has boob grabbing involved.

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