OK, I haven't posted in like forever. The first 2 weeks of January have been a blur. On NY eve, we slept over at a friend's house so they could go to a nearby town and party while we kept their little boys. My friend sweetly got us some sparkling juice and hats so we could "party" before putting the boys down for bed at 7:30 or 8. We had lots of fun playing with the boys and when our friends got back home they surprised me with a very large and generous gift certificate at the nicest restaurant in town.
On the third of January, I went for an interview at this small town's only art museum. It is a non-profit and has been without a development director for quite some time. On the fourth I interviewed at a business owned by folks who go to our church.
The museum made me an offer and, after a little negotiating, I accepted. I started the following Thursday, the 11th I think, and have been on the hamster wheel ever since.
DH has been awesome. He left work early several days to pick up Little One and her carpool (we are trying to change things as little as possible in that world) so that I could get established at work. My director is letting me leave at 3 for school pickup when I have to, so in return I go to work at 7:30 in the morning, even though I am not due til 8:30. There are only about 7 or 8 days a month when I do have to leave early, but I am banking up those morning hours towards those days, so that no one can ever "throw it back" at me, and also so no one else there can be resentful that I get to leave early. So it makes for quite a long day, and add on to it days like yesterday, when we had an opening reception, and I got home at 9pm.
But WHAT a day. The show is a collection of pieces owned by folks all over this small town: Dali, Matisse, Picasso, and on and on. All owned by folks in this little town. All week at work, I saw these amazing pieces go up. The folks who worked on the exhibit did such an awesome job. Last night my job was to shake hands and meet folks, and enjoy the evening. I certainly did that.
I spent the week studying records of giving, to see who gives, and infer who does not. I have identified our biggest untapped market and devised a strategy for them.
This work is fun and gratifying and the folks are great. I feel like I am in a new world.
All this was further complicated by a class I promised to teach at the church months ago, on Wednesday nights. It started this week, which was not the best timing in the world.
I am *not* cleaning the litter box every day any more, and laundry has been quite a challenge. Even though I cooked several items and froze them ahead of time, DH has already bought lots of frozen burritos and our quality of food will definitely deteriorate. He has been an amazing sport about it all, though, and I find myself depending on him for moral support, physical support, and household help. He has been wise and quiet and strong as always.
Today I must clean and shop, and my wonderful DIL1 and her two babies are coming to spend the day while DS1 packs up their house to move to the triangle. She is a good sport and will not mind that I am pretty busy. It is great that we will see her -- and the babies -- as they will soon be TWO hours away rather than one.
I realize this blog has been a miasma of good news / bad news. Anytime someone returns to work after 3 years at home it is going to be a challenge with compromise in store for everyone, but overall the workplace is lovely and I am quite excited.
The newspaper story about the garbage man retiring ran on 07.January. I have since written another story about the lady who runs the planetarium here, but I do not know when it will run. Next, I am writing a story about following in your father's footsteps. For that story I will interview several town leaders who are doing just that. More on that later...
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