A chronology.
Travelling with Paela can sometimes be easy and sometimes be an experiment on boundaries of social space. While we are able to arrange ourselves to a position in which she won't kick anyone sitting next to us on the plane, trying to restrain her from offering half-eaten crackers to her neighbor is a bit more of a challenge. read more »
We prepared during the first half of the week.
Early in the week, I tied up the last loose ends at school, and here's to hoping that next semester will be the last. Even now the weight and pressure of job hunting rests on my mind as painfully as my sinuses. But this is what the holiday break is for.
After packing on Tuesday, we spent most of Wednesday in airplanes. Thankfully, Paela was a little angel during both legs of the trip. She even became friends with the college student sitting next to her for the 5 hour leg, constantly offering him slobber-covered toys and half eaten crackers. While I anticipated a melt-down due to the lack of mobility, Paela was a trooper for the trip even though she was only able to walk around the crowded plane for a bit near the end of the trip due to turbulence during most of the trip. read more »
Okay, so maybe this is still fall. But I like to think it is winter so I can tell the truth when I sing along with Larry the cucumber and his silly, silly songs.
This week, I left Wayne and Paela to their own devices and hopped a plane to Boston for a job interview. They survived the two days I was gone, and so did I. read more »
Who knew hand, foot, mouth disease was a real thing? Or that it was "fairly common"? I've never heard of it before...until Friday.
We noticed Paela had a fever Tuesday evening, and she was obviously feeling icky all day Wednesday. A pretty nasty fever of 103, but tylenol helped a little. Thursday the fever was gone and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief that we didn't have to figure out what a doctor visit without insurance would run us. Note to future self: move "figure out what we should do about insurance" a little higher up on the to-do list. read more »
Paela says no a great deal. We didn't think we were saying 'no' to her all that much, but she has been having many more tantrums lately which we have tried to address. At the beginning of the week, we decided that a more appropriate way for her to ask for help [rather than breaking down into a screaming fit on the floor without warning] was to use the sign language word for help or please or to knock on doors she wants entrance to. read more »
It was a busy week this week, but not a lot to report. I had several meetings: one with a "career transition counselor" and one with state unemployment folks but two different days. I don't mean to complain, but -- when the letter the state sent me said I had to come in promptly and that "late arrivals will not be accommodated" -- why did I have to wait an hour to be seen only to be told everyone was in a meeting and to please reschedule for another day? I ask you? All I can conclude is the maxim "there's no such thing as a free lunch" is what we're seeing here. 
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We were busy all throughout the week. Rebecca hasn't slept much each night because she has stressed about finding work. [By the end of the week, I found stopping job hunting tasks/thoughts an hour or two before bed helps tons in being able to sleep. Perhaps there's good reason for the typical work schedule of the salaried employee. -bec] Rebecca has gone to many meetings with Lee Hect Harrison and reviewed her resume. Most of the meetings are, oddly enough, supposed to help people find their way around the company's website for job listings. I am still trying to put my faith in this company and what they say, but if they are catering to the lowest common denominator and Rebecca has only gotten more frustrated and worried about job hunting since participating in their seminars, I am beginning to doubt. I doubt the economy will rebound as well as people think. I doubt people have any idea how bad it really is. read more »
One of the parting gifts from my last company was some meetings with a career transition consultant at Lee Hecht Harrison. I started with the orientation meeting last week. Wow did I learn a lot. It was both enlightening and discouraging at the same time.
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The show was up Monday, but attendance was light. I had three or four professors bring their entire classes by my pre-thesis project for quick demonstrations and participation, but a bug was rampant through the code and the performance was not ideal. All morning long I was calling Rebecca desperately pleading for solutions, however none came until after we shut down and could debug the issue. (It was funny that the bug seemed to disappear when Rebecca showed up after lunch. She was the good luck charm.) New media work is always broken, they tell me. Zero1 festival kind of proved that -- the percent of functioning pieces was well below 50%.
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Mostly the week was filled with ATC prep work. There were a few other things throughout the week, but mostly it was last minute touches and setting up the show.
We got the shocking function added in early in the week, and Wayne made sure we bought/rented the equipment we didn't have already (projecter, thing to put the projecter on, thing to put over cables so no one trips, etc). Friday and Saturday were spent setting up in the gallery. It was the first time all the pieces were together at the same time, so of course it took more work than we expected. The good news is, even though we hit quite a few snags, we solved them all relatively quickly. read more »
