I broke my pinkie toe last Friday night. Which is the stupidest, most ridiculous thing you could do. At least when you break an arm or a leg, you get fussed over. You get to go to the doctor and get x-rays and a cast, and people sign it. You aren't expected to do anything, because you can't do anything.
When you break a pinkie toe, you can still get around. Oh, it hurts, but you can still limp around. I didn't even bother going to the doctor, because it's not like they have a cute pink pinkie toe cast that I could get one or two friends to sign (with really, really small signatures). They would have just looked at it, charged me a couple-a-hundred bucks, and prescribed me some ibuprofen. I diagnosed myself on webmd.com. (Which I am considering for a new career: Webmd-doctor. I'll plug your symptoms in and the computer will spit out your diagnosis at a fraction of the cost of traditional health care.)
So I'm limping all over the place. After I broke the pinkie toe, I stood for 2 hours hosting a Mary Kay Party for my friend Amy. (And amazingly, found the perfect shade of lipstick to match my increasingly purple toe.) Grant had a birthday party with five crazy 8-9 year old boys the next night, and I hobbled down to the pool, so the little miscreants...I mean, angels, could have a fun party. And then Sunday, Mia had her first soccer game of the season. And you know the field needs to be 10 miles away from the parking lot. It's in the official YMCA soccer rules.
You lose a lot of power when you break your pinkie toe. Part of it is because you can only wear flip flops. Of course, I love flip flops, but for a power shoe, you are much better off with a boot or a pump or at least a killer Adidas runner. Part of it is, you can't turn around very fast. A kid would laugh or try to get away with something (smash one of my terra cotta plants, for example or try to give the dog chocolate birthday cake), and my dexterity with a broken pinkie toe was severely diminished. The whole "Mom's got eyes in the back of her head" concept fades quickly when Mom can't whirl around and give the evil eye.
But the power that I lost the most when I broke my pinkie toe, was the power of balance. Believe it or not, that little teeny tiny appendage, that doctors won't even put a cute little teeny tiny cast on, is responsible for your ability to balance. When I was at Mia's soccer game on Sunday, it was gusty. Winds of over 40 miles an hour. (Total exaggeration, but it makes the story better.) I was standing, trying to squint my eyes to the sun and reduce the onslaught of wind-born particulate. I felt myself buffetted by the extremes. An impressively strong gust knock me off my right-footed stronghold. And to the rest of the Y soccer parents, (who, of course, were not paying attention) I totally fell on my butt.
How often are our lives out of balance? We spend too much time at work. There's never enough time for the kids. Marriage? We spend an hour or two on the weekends, maybe. Faith? Finding just an hour on Sundays is a challenge. We are constantly struggling to find balance with all that makes life good. Worth living.
But from what I learned through my broken pinkie toe, that it is sometimes just that little thing that can help you keep the balance. Watching a thunderstorm roll in, with your daughter on your lap. Getting rainbow popcorn as a treat for school, just so your 9-year old can feel like a rock star on his birthday. Taking those training wheels off of your 6-year old's bike because you know he didn't really need them anyway. Having a Facebook "instant message" chat with your husband, even though he's in the next room. Saying a prayer for a friend who's dad just passed away.
Little things, but they keep you from falling over.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Call
This unemployment thing is getting old. I have now been without a full-time job since December, the kids will be going back to school on Wednesday and I swore that I thought I would have something by then. The embarrassment of it all kills me. This summer, I could focus on being a partial "stay at home" mom. There's nobility in that. Now that the kids are in school, I'm just staying at home. Kind of lazy, unless I consider the options and the two options are cleaning and cleaning. (Just thinking about it makes me shudder.)
It's been very hard to find a full time job that pays enough for child care. Even with the kids in school, most daycare centers charge almost as much for school-aged kids as they do for the little ones. I suppose this covers the costs of "Early out" days and days off. I do get calls for interviews for jobs that I am over-qualified for and get nothing from anything else. I am applying for 4-8 jobs every week. (I would apply for more, but I am not a registered nurse or a shadow shopper) I am surprised at the jobs that I don't get calls on at all. For one position I applied for, I had two well-connected people send in letters of recommendation for me, I followed up with a phone call after I dropped off my resume, and I STILL didn't get a phone call for an interview. I would be fine with not getting the job, but based on two recommendations, I would have thought I would have been able to get a foot in the door. (Who would want to work for such rude people anyway?)
I do think that a lot of people look at my resume and see RADIO. Well, what else can she do but talk on the radio and play songs and be silly? Well, of course that is what I am good at, but I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of different businesses and charities and help market their messages. Contesting and fundraising and promotion. I know audio production and advertising and from a creative standpoint I'm not just an "out of the box" thinker, I'm a "Hey! It's free! What can we do with the box?" thinker.
So you can imagine how excited I got when I saw a listing on the Nebraska Workforce Development website for an audio production specialist/marketing director. It was a part-time position that could develop into full time. (Great! What's another part-time job?) It didn't pay very well, but I figured "what the heck, if they like me, maybe I could ask for more in a few months." I sent my resume and got a call the next day! I actually got a call!
He wanted to interview me the next day. I still have the kids at home, so I told him it would have to be after school starts on Wednesday. Fine. 2 o'clock. I asked if he had a website, he said that he doesn't, that they are working on one and hope to have one dones soon and if I had any web developement experience, that would be welcome too! And then he told me the address of the office......
In the basement of a building that has an ..... (I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase this) adult pajama store on the first floor. Adult pajamas and accessories. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself. "That's odd. But it is on a hill, maybe the entrance is on the hill and......"
I did some research. And sure enough, this company was the company that owned the ....Adult Pajama and Accessories store! I would be doing audio production and marketing for...an Adult Pajama and Accessories store!!!!!!
I started to think about what if I had never done the research and just walked into the interview. You know how some companies have their products on display in the office, Coca-Cola has logos and posters all over the place, car dealers have mini-models of their vehicles on display? Can you imagine what this office might look like? And I would have just just walked in all dressed in my "Please Hire Me" outfit and made the discovery there. There on the wall, featuring the latest products and accessories! Thank goodness for the internet.
I do feel like I have become a little bit desperate, but a 38-year old mom of three kids can't really bus the kids around from school to soccer practice to Mary Kay party to working at....an Adult Pajama and Accessories Store! Imagine career day at school. My desk at the office, I would have pictures of the kids right next to the latest "product" I needed to showcase. I suppose I would be able to get a discount, which would make shopping for the holidays easier. But all the same, I decided the job wasn't for me.
I called and cancelled the interview. He didn't even ask why. But at least I got the call, so that's something.
It's been very hard to find a full time job that pays enough for child care. Even with the kids in school, most daycare centers charge almost as much for school-aged kids as they do for the little ones. I suppose this covers the costs of "Early out" days and days off. I do get calls for interviews for jobs that I am over-qualified for and get nothing from anything else. I am applying for 4-8 jobs every week. (I would apply for more, but I am not a registered nurse or a shadow shopper) I am surprised at the jobs that I don't get calls on at all. For one position I applied for, I had two well-connected people send in letters of recommendation for me, I followed up with a phone call after I dropped off my resume, and I STILL didn't get a phone call for an interview. I would be fine with not getting the job, but based on two recommendations, I would have thought I would have been able to get a foot in the door. (Who would want to work for such rude people anyway?)
I do think that a lot of people look at my resume and see RADIO. Well, what else can she do but talk on the radio and play songs and be silly? Well, of course that is what I am good at, but I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of different businesses and charities and help market their messages. Contesting and fundraising and promotion. I know audio production and advertising and from a creative standpoint I'm not just an "out of the box" thinker, I'm a "Hey! It's free! What can we do with the box?" thinker.
So you can imagine how excited I got when I saw a listing on the Nebraska Workforce Development website for an audio production specialist/marketing director. It was a part-time position that could develop into full time. (Great! What's another part-time job?) It didn't pay very well, but I figured "what the heck, if they like me, maybe I could ask for more in a few months." I sent my resume and got a call the next day! I actually got a call!
He wanted to interview me the next day. I still have the kids at home, so I told him it would have to be after school starts on Wednesday. Fine. 2 o'clock. I asked if he had a website, he said that he doesn't, that they are working on one and hope to have one dones soon and if I had any web developement experience, that would be welcome too! And then he told me the address of the office......
In the basement of a building that has an ..... (I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase this) adult pajama store on the first floor. Adult pajamas and accessories. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself. "That's odd. But it is on a hill, maybe the entrance is on the hill and......"
I did some research. And sure enough, this company was the company that owned the ....Adult Pajama and Accessories store! I would be doing audio production and marketing for...an Adult Pajama and Accessories store!!!!!!
I started to think about what if I had never done the research and just walked into the interview. You know how some companies have their products on display in the office, Coca-Cola has logos and posters all over the place, car dealers have mini-models of their vehicles on display? Can you imagine what this office might look like? And I would have just just walked in all dressed in my "Please Hire Me" outfit and made the discovery there. There on the wall, featuring the latest products and accessories! Thank goodness for the internet.
I do feel like I have become a little bit desperate, but a 38-year old mom of three kids can't really bus the kids around from school to soccer practice to Mary Kay party to working at....an Adult Pajama and Accessories Store! Imagine career day at school. My desk at the office, I would have pictures of the kids right next to the latest "product" I needed to showcase. I suppose I would be able to get a discount, which would make shopping for the holidays easier. But all the same, I decided the job wasn't for me.
I called and cancelled the interview. He didn't even ask why. But at least I got the call, so that's something.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Morgan Freeman
One of the best money-saving (and co-incidentally time-saving) tips that I can give anyone is to get rid of your cable television. It was one of the first things that we cut when I lost the job, and we haven't missed it at all. The kids have been having a ball playing with one another, playing video games and watching a show here or there on the computer. I can get stuff done at night and we are just freed up to live.
We have been going to the Redbox to rent movies though. If you haven't used the Redbox yet, you probably will soon. These little vending machines are popping up all over taking the place of traditional video stores. (By the way, the best job I ever had was at Take 2 Video in Fargo, ND. Just walking around and helping people pick out movies. Old school, but I loved it!) It's only a dollar a night to rent a movie, the only catch is that you can only rent what is in the machine at that time. So if you pull up hoping to rent the most popular movie out at that time, you may be severely out of luck.
Its hot again in Lincoln, so Mia (my 5-year old) and I decide to get some shakes from Sonic and then I decide to rent a movie for after the kids are in bed. I am not in the mood for a fluffy romantic comedy, all nauseatingly sweet with impossibly happy endings. (Seriously, as women, are we only supposed to fall for the guys that disgust us?) I am not in the mood for an action movie or a gore fest. (For some reason, I can't watch any horror movies since I have become a mother. Protective instinct or something, but I can't stomach them). So I chose Invictus-with Morgan Freeman. I still haven't even watched the movie yet, but I had a basic idea because I saw the previews.
Mia is fascinated with my movie choice. "Is it not for kids, Mom?"
"No, it's a movie for grown-ups, honey," I say
"Is it violent with lots and lots of blood?" She wonders.
"I don't know. I don't think so." I say, not really knowing. But I know that most Morgan Freeman movies aren't really the explosion, possessed killer dolls hell-bent on revenge types.
"Are there lots of bad words?" She quizzes.
"There might be a few," I answer. But I know that Morgan Freeman is playing Nelson Mandela in this movie, and it wasn't directed by Quentin Tarantino, so I felt pretty okay that there wouldn't be too much swearing.
"Well why is it only for grown-ups then?" she asks me.
"Well it's a drama, sweetie, and dramas can get pretty serious," I tell her.
She pauses for a moment to process and asks, "Like if a monster seriously wants to bite someone's head off? Seriously?"
"Yes, sweetie. That's it."
I love Morgan Freeman. (And not just because he used to be on the Electric Company.)
We have been going to the Redbox to rent movies though. If you haven't used the Redbox yet, you probably will soon. These little vending machines are popping up all over taking the place of traditional video stores. (By the way, the best job I ever had was at Take 2 Video in Fargo, ND. Just walking around and helping people pick out movies. Old school, but I loved it!) It's only a dollar a night to rent a movie, the only catch is that you can only rent what is in the machine at that time. So if you pull up hoping to rent the most popular movie out at that time, you may be severely out of luck.
Its hot again in Lincoln, so Mia (my 5-year old) and I decide to get some shakes from Sonic and then I decide to rent a movie for after the kids are in bed. I am not in the mood for a fluffy romantic comedy, all nauseatingly sweet with impossibly happy endings. (Seriously, as women, are we only supposed to fall for the guys that disgust us?) I am not in the mood for an action movie or a gore fest. (For some reason, I can't watch any horror movies since I have become a mother. Protective instinct or something, but I can't stomach them). So I chose Invictus-with Morgan Freeman. I still haven't even watched the movie yet, but I had a basic idea because I saw the previews.
Mia is fascinated with my movie choice. "Is it not for kids, Mom?"
"No, it's a movie for grown-ups, honey," I say
"Is it violent with lots and lots of blood?" She wonders.
"I don't know. I don't think so." I say, not really knowing. But I know that most Morgan Freeman movies aren't really the explosion, possessed killer dolls hell-bent on revenge types.
"Are there lots of bad words?" She quizzes.
"There might be a few," I answer. But I know that Morgan Freeman is playing Nelson Mandela in this movie, and it wasn't directed by Quentin Tarantino, so I felt pretty okay that there wouldn't be too much swearing.
"Well why is it only for grown-ups then?" she asks me.
"Well it's a drama, sweetie, and dramas can get pretty serious," I tell her.
She pauses for a moment to process and asks, "Like if a monster seriously wants to bite someone's head off? Seriously?"
"Yes, sweetie. That's it."
I love Morgan Freeman. (And not just because he used to be on the Electric Company.)
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