Unmitigated

Need Your Votes!

My new boss has supervised a team of students from the Henry Ford Academy high school, the magnet school that is built into the museum grounds. They have produced a really stunning, eco-friendly, tech-integrated dashboard design for a national contest called DASH+.

The three designs that were submitted are being voted on until Monday at the end of the day.

I need all my bloggy friends to leap in and VOTE! At this link, their design is on the left. You can vote once per day until tomorrow! Feel free to pass it along, too!

The Catching-Up Post

Still dancing crazily at the edges of the Tornado.

Two days ago, I started my new position, Associate Curator for Education (I like to shorten it to ACE). One of the challenges I am facing is taking it slowly. I really want to dive right in, but this is an INSTITUTION. Yes, all caps. There are politics involved.

Teachers fend for themselves. Though a good principal will run interference for his/her staff, there is nothing wrong with approaching the superintendent of schools to ask questions or voice concerns.

So. Very different mindset to learn. My boss will 'formally introduce' me to the upper echelons, but not until after we have had a departmental meeting at the end of next week. Then the ring-kissing and prostration ceremony can take place.

I kid.

A little.

I am also still working a few last shifts at the retail location, wanting to get started right away on the new thing, but not wanting to leave my other boss in the lurch. I was able to farm out two shifts next week, but will still work tonight from 6 until about 11 p.m. (Civil War Remembrance Days, so the Village is open until 10), and again on Tuesday from 2 in the afternoon until about 6 p.m.

Tuesday, like the Friday just past, will be a very long day, as I will work the new job from 8 -2, and the old from 2-6. Not that the hours are overwhelming, but the new job still has that 'new job smell' of trepidation and unfamiliarity, and the old one requires me to run my old, but pert increasingly ass off in a very, very warm and crowded place. The store is air-conditioned, but the toy department, where I seem to end up mostly, is always full of sweaty kids and their chaperones. The store temperature (and mine) in that department is customarily ten degrees higher than that of the rest of the store.

I think that once I get through tonight, and have Sunday and Monday to relax and recover, the prospect of next week will feel less daunting. I have another post planned out, but since Monday is a holiday, I'm thinking there won't be too many readers, so I'll put it up on Tuesday.

Enjoy your long weekend, unless you are not in the U.S., in which case, "Get back to work!" Slackers.

p.s. the root canal sucked. big time.

Ed: Although I am employed by The Henry Ford, this post, in now way, reflects the opinions of The Henry Ford.

Strange Things are Happening!

I feel as though I have been living the last week inside a tornado. Not the calm, center part, either.

Yesterday, I learned that I was selected to be the new Associate Curator for Education at the Major History Attraction where I work. I am excited beyond my capability to describe.

Today, I will come right back down to the surface of the planet, as I am scheduled for a root canal around noon. A root canal is an unpleasant procedure that you are willing to undergo because the pain you have been experiencing for the last week is beyond the pale.

This weekend, 20-year-old-Daughter and her fiance will be moving into their new home, directly across the street from us (yes, I have heard all about Everybody Loves Raymond and Marie Barone). We have been sanding, painting, cleaning, and reupholstering over there for almost a month now, and it's looking great.

Next week, I start my new job, and am currently busy rearranging appointments and store shifts to accommodate that. My new supervisor sent out a really wonderful internal memo about me joining the team. It made me very proud to read all those really wonderful things about me! My best friend has been telling me these things for years.

And this is completely out of chronological order, but last week, the company that I do film extra work for offered all their clients between 30 and 50 a chance to get a new headshot for only $15. It was too good to pass up. If you are in a reader, click through and take a look at the new profile picture. I have never had a photo taken that I really liked until now.

Spin Cycle: Stress and Relief

I haven't done a Spin in awhile, and I thought the topic of stress was right up my alley. Jen at Sprite's Keeper is out hostess...

Click the button for more Spin Cycles.

So, yeah, stress. It's there. I live with it, daily, but I am getting good at it. I traded in the stress of teaching for the stress of worrying about the household budget minus my teaching salary. Turns out that was a good deal. The last year I was in the classroom, the stress started to make me ugly. Not physically, you know, I'm still just as cute as a button, just emotionally. It began to make me impatient with the children, which I had never been before.

Stress made me VERY cranky in meetings, which was a step beyond just dealing with all the garbage that meetings include. I have never been very good at doing things by committee, and everything in a school district is done by committee. 

The initial cause of my back pain issues was physical, but stress exacerbated the pain to a surprising degree.

So this won't be a total downer of a post, let's talk stress relief...

A good cup of coffee

Photography

Blogging and commenting!

Crossword puzzles and 12 X 12 sudokus

Bookstore trips with the girls

Stand up comedy

Going to the movies

Digging up dandelions from the lawn

Naps(!)

Sunshine and warm weather

Reading

Listening to Jim Dale read Harry Potter stories

Going for walks with Ellie

Going for walks around the neighborhood with my Buddy .

RTT: Rainy Day OFF!

Keely is the UnMom

It's time for another Random Tuesday! And the reason I have time to do this is that my shift was called off at work today, owing to the rain. Yay! I love my job, but it exhausts me. 

So, instead of working today, I will be re-covering the kitchen corner booth from 20-year-old Partly Cloudy's new house. So far, I have painted three rooms there, two bedrooms and the kitchen. The bathroom is next, and the living/dining room. That's how I will be resting on my day off. Something is a little off there, I just don't know what.

Last night, I dreamed I was a homeless person. Not to worry, though. I had found a BOX. And my box was all I needed. At one point, the cops were questioning me and my sanity, but I told them I was a good friend of Captain Dumbass, and that seemed to calm their fears.

My Tigers have won their two most recent series, 3-1 vs. the Yankers, and 2-1 vs. the Red Sox. Beating the Red Sox is always nice, but beating the Yankers? That gives me a girlie-woody. Heh.

My Red Wings didn't survive the second round of the playoffs. I was counting on the Canucks to take out Chicago, but they failed, sadly. I will not be surprised to see the Blackhawks go to the finals. In any case, I am now rooting for Club de Hockey Canadien. La Coupe Stanley (which is female, apparently, to the French-speaking Quebecois) has not been won by a Canadian team since Montreal won it 17 years ago. It's time.

Now that the Caps (Ovechkin) and the Pens (Crosby) are out, the network announcers won't know who to spend all their time talking about. Major networks really know bupkis about hockey. Thank goodness we get the CBC here. Remember, every night is Hockey Night in Canada!

Considering the amount of time I spend discussing sports, you'd think I would have some aptitude PLAYING a sport. ANY sport. But no. I am a passable bowler, an inept golfer, and I used to play softball. I was a decent catcher, and a lousy hitter. Zero upper body strength. Tried and enjoyed martial arts, but repetitive movement of any kind is just a killer for my back. 

And on that happy note, it's time to post....go visit Keely for more random stuff!