Well, wedding planning is going.
_Slowly_, but it's going. I'm hoping to work some more things out this weekend. I'll have George and Katie around and we've got an appointment with the caterer on Sunday. Everything that's paid for and decided all seems like very small in terms of details (besides the catering, but that's _not_ yet paid for), so I'm really hoping to have a better idea of how much it's going to be costing soon.
Then, I need to figure out where that money's coming from.
But it's moving along, and that helps me to feel much better overall.
I have been completely exhausted all this week though; I've not really exercised a stitch and it's already Friday. I'm going to try to lift some weights when I get home, but soon after we'll have some guests so I'm hoping to just chill and relax for the weekend, get back into a more full schedule next week.
Not much more to report than that, just wanted to get some thoughts down. Back to work.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Friday, July 9, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Vacation wrap-up
Well, I'm back at work.
And I'm certainly feeling vacation-withdrawal. Not that I expect anyone on the face of the earth to feel sympathetic about that (except for possibly my fellow vacationers) - such a hardship, I know. But there it is. Since I've never really gone away like this before, I had no idea what to expect. Bottom line, as should have been expected, I wish I was still back in Maine. All vacation-type elements aside (like having every meal, all accommodations, and every activity paid for, constantly doing fun things, never having to do work of any kind...), I still wish I was back there. Without certain complications, I would move there in a heartbeat.
The air is cleaner. Everything felt fresh. It was cooler and calmer. People were nice all over (although by the end I was starting to crave the intense apathy New Jersey has to offer; 'No! I don't need any help! Three other people asked me already - just leave me alone to browse and when I need you I'll walk up to the counter and you can ignore me some more until you're good and ready; that's how this works!') There was water everywhere (which I'm surprisingly drawn to, considering my fears related to water). The mountains are gorgeous. Every day, whether it was raining, sunny, I got enough sleep or not, it just felt _better_. Just being there felt better. It's gorgeous and cleaner and less populated but still not completely isolated (unless you want to be). Definitely a way of life I could learn to love.
But it _is_ more complicated. First, it will take much time before we're ready to move and can afford it. I'd need a new job, and considering my need for carpooling, that always makes me anxious. Plus, I love my job. And my boss; I'm in a really good situation here. And if it wasn't for the fact we want to move to a less heavily populated, less liberal area, I would happily work here as long as we're open. I'm comfortable and treated well and have security - that really means a lot. And then there are friends. And family. Leaving all of that sort of takes the air out of my lungs. Take that out of the equation some how, like with the addition of a private plane or a mass exodus where I bring everyone I love with me, and my reservations would probably melt instantly.
But there you have it.
Anyway, nothing's decided, but we do need to figure out where we're going to raise our family and live our life. So that's on my mind a lot.
Well, that diverged quickly from the initial point of this post. Let's recap the last couple of vacation days. Saturday we got underway nice and early. After the sunrise we only sort of saw we came back, got our stuff together, packed, and in the car. We made some breakfast, made sure the place was nice and clean, and we were on the road by 9:00. We made a couple of stops on the way and took an extended break in Freeport. We walked around L. L. Bean one last time and had dinner again at Gritty's. Completely bookended vacation ftw!
Back on the road we headed to Sturbridge, Massachusetts where we had hotel rooms to stay the night. We got there in time to use the pool for a couple of hours so Genevieve and I got our suits on and spent the evening at the pool. Genevieve started teaching me how to swim and along with some pointers from Michael, I can now keep myself above water pretty consistently and even move around a bit. If only those rude, annoying children/parents weren't around, it would have been perfect. Took a soak in the hot tub for a few and then showered and crashed for the night.
Sunday we got going nice and early; we had breakfast in the hotel and were on the road by 10:00. We made some pit stops and hit some traffic, but even with stopping for lunch before parting ways, we were home by 3:00. I unpacked _some_ (mostly the food) of our stuff and otherwise vegged with Michael watching MST3K and The State while Genevieve sat with us and caught up on interneting after only having brief moments with my laptop over the course of the last week and a half. Slept a _lot_ Sunday night, and Monday morning was much like the night before; thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable. Plus, I achieved unpacking everything of mine _except_ my clothes (which may sound like not an accomplishment, but it _is_).
Then for the late afternoon and evening we picked George up, had dinner, did some shopping, and played Simpsons Clue. Excellent cap on the almost-two-week vacation.
And as I said, now I'm back at work. Luckily, I love my job, so it wasn't much of a hardship. Still, I'd rather be home watching nerdy TV or back on Cadillac Mountain staring at all the stars I've never seen before, breathing in the fresh air. I fell in love with the south every time we went, being surprised at how much I love it there. But going to Maine felt like home. And that's been incredibly scary to me.
Today I'm working on employee profiles, getting ready for individual evaluations, and it's harder than I thought. So I should get back, just needed a break and wanted to get some thoughts down.
And I'm certainly feeling vacation-withdrawal. Not that I expect anyone on the face of the earth to feel sympathetic about that (except for possibly my fellow vacationers) - such a hardship, I know. But there it is. Since I've never really gone away like this before, I had no idea what to expect. Bottom line, as should have been expected, I wish I was still back in Maine. All vacation-type elements aside (like having every meal, all accommodations, and every activity paid for, constantly doing fun things, never having to do work of any kind...), I still wish I was back there. Without certain complications, I would move there in a heartbeat.
The air is cleaner. Everything felt fresh. It was cooler and calmer. People were nice all over (although by the end I was starting to crave the intense apathy New Jersey has to offer; 'No! I don't need any help! Three other people asked me already - just leave me alone to browse and when I need you I'll walk up to the counter and you can ignore me some more until you're good and ready; that's how this works!') There was water everywhere (which I'm surprisingly drawn to, considering my fears related to water). The mountains are gorgeous. Every day, whether it was raining, sunny, I got enough sleep or not, it just felt _better_. Just being there felt better. It's gorgeous and cleaner and less populated but still not completely isolated (unless you want to be). Definitely a way of life I could learn to love.
But it _is_ more complicated. First, it will take much time before we're ready to move and can afford it. I'd need a new job, and considering my need for carpooling, that always makes me anxious. Plus, I love my job. And my boss; I'm in a really good situation here. And if it wasn't for the fact we want to move to a less heavily populated, less liberal area, I would happily work here as long as we're open. I'm comfortable and treated well and have security - that really means a lot. And then there are friends. And family. Leaving all of that sort of takes the air out of my lungs. Take that out of the equation some how, like with the addition of a private plane or a mass exodus where I bring everyone I love with me, and my reservations would probably melt instantly.
But there you have it.
Anyway, nothing's decided, but we do need to figure out where we're going to raise our family and live our life. So that's on my mind a lot.
Well, that diverged quickly from the initial point of this post. Let's recap the last couple of vacation days. Saturday we got underway nice and early. After the sunrise we only sort of saw we came back, got our stuff together, packed, and in the car. We made some breakfast, made sure the place was nice and clean, and we were on the road by 9:00. We made a couple of stops on the way and took an extended break in Freeport. We walked around L. L. Bean one last time and had dinner again at Gritty's. Completely bookended vacation ftw!
Back on the road we headed to Sturbridge, Massachusetts where we had hotel rooms to stay the night. We got there in time to use the pool for a couple of hours so Genevieve and I got our suits on and spent the evening at the pool. Genevieve started teaching me how to swim and along with some pointers from Michael, I can now keep myself above water pretty consistently and even move around a bit. If only those rude, annoying children/parents weren't around, it would have been perfect. Took a soak in the hot tub for a few and then showered and crashed for the night.
Sunday we got going nice and early; we had breakfast in the hotel and were on the road by 10:00. We made some pit stops and hit some traffic, but even with stopping for lunch before parting ways, we were home by 3:00. I unpacked _some_ (mostly the food) of our stuff and otherwise vegged with Michael watching MST3K and The State while Genevieve sat with us and caught up on interneting after only having brief moments with my laptop over the course of the last week and a half. Slept a _lot_ Sunday night, and Monday morning was much like the night before; thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable. Plus, I achieved unpacking everything of mine _except_ my clothes (which may sound like not an accomplishment, but it _is_).
Then for the late afternoon and evening we picked George up, had dinner, did some shopping, and played Simpsons Clue. Excellent cap on the almost-two-week vacation.
And as I said, now I'm back at work. Luckily, I love my job, so it wasn't much of a hardship. Still, I'd rather be home watching nerdy TV or back on Cadillac Mountain staring at all the stars I've never seen before, breathing in the fresh air. I fell in love with the south every time we went, being surprised at how much I love it there. But going to Maine felt like home. And that's been incredibly scary to me.
Today I'm working on employee profiles, getting ready for individual evaluations, and it's harder than I thought. So I should get back, just needed a break and wanted to get some thoughts down.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Can you flatten this bottle for me? It's for a gift.
At Color Me Mine, I get a lot of odd questions from customers. Every couple of weeks (sometimes more frequently) people will come in with old ceramics they painted or made years ago that have since broken or chipped. Sometimes they've shattered. They'll ask if we can touch them up or re-fire them. We have a strict policy about not firing outside pieces which we explain as kindly as possible. Of course we're still often met with aggression over this fact. But usually it's very simple. We're all used to answering that question by now.
Sometimes people will come in and ask us to order replacement accessories (like iron holders for serving pieces or caps for travel mugs) for pieces that are over 20 years old or just simply not from our catalogues. That's always kind of weird, but I get why they would ask. We can never help them, either.
Occasionally the questions will get even more obscure like asking for a specific type of metallic paint from the seventies and wanting us to order a bottle so they can use an ounce (which they would presumably want us to fire afterwards, even though we don't fire outside pieces). We don't even use metallic paints (especially ones from the seventies since they'd no doubt have lead in them), much less have a supplier of old glazes.
We once had a woman go to a potter to get a custom piece made and then come here to have it fired. Insisted that we fire this piece which she had custom made because it was important to her. She paints here all the time and the pieces come out fine; why wouldn't this? She got increasingly more agitated as it became clear we weren't going to fire it. She clearly misunderstood our very clear conversation about not firing outside pieces and decided to threaten to get what she wants. Told us she would tell all of her friends not to paint here anymore and go to our competitor; and she has a _lot_ of friends.
We didn't fire the piece.
But today I got possibly the _weirdest_ question I've encountered. A very nice woman came in with a wine bottle that she'd carefully removed the label from. She asked me if she could rent our kiln to fire the bottle and flatten it. I'm not even sure what she's talking about. I have a very minor idea of how to work with glass (we considered doing certain glass projects here but decided on mosaics instead). But I have no idea how to flatten a bottle with a kiln and, moreso, why you'd want to. In my mind, it would just end up a misshapen long piece of glass. But I'm sure there are ways for it to keep it's shape; I just wouldn't know how. I ended up explaining to her that we both don't work with glass, only ceramic, and also don't fire outside pieces. I pointed her to Glassworks which is a similar concept to us but they work with, shock, glass. She was grateful and hopefully she'll let me know how it goes.
I was very excited. Sometimes I just _love_ the weird shit that comes up here. And I hate that I forget probably most of the best examples. So I've decided to start documenting them with a blog post every time they come up. Then one day hopefully I can write a book or my brother can make some Clerks-type movie and I'll be really wealthy.
Or at least I'll be entertained.
Sometimes people will come in and ask us to order replacement accessories (like iron holders for serving pieces or caps for travel mugs) for pieces that are over 20 years old or just simply not from our catalogues. That's always kind of weird, but I get why they would ask. We can never help them, either.
Occasionally the questions will get even more obscure like asking for a specific type of metallic paint from the seventies and wanting us to order a bottle so they can use an ounce (which they would presumably want us to fire afterwards, even though we don't fire outside pieces). We don't even use metallic paints (especially ones from the seventies since they'd no doubt have lead in them), much less have a supplier of old glazes.
We once had a woman go to a potter to get a custom piece made and then come here to have it fired. Insisted that we fire this piece which she had custom made because it was important to her. She paints here all the time and the pieces come out fine; why wouldn't this? She got increasingly more agitated as it became clear we weren't going to fire it. She clearly misunderstood our very clear conversation about not firing outside pieces and decided to threaten to get what she wants. Told us she would tell all of her friends not to paint here anymore and go to our competitor; and she has a _lot_ of friends.
We didn't fire the piece.
But today I got possibly the _weirdest_ question I've encountered. A very nice woman came in with a wine bottle that she'd carefully removed the label from. She asked me if she could rent our kiln to fire the bottle and flatten it. I'm not even sure what she's talking about. I have a very minor idea of how to work with glass (we considered doing certain glass projects here but decided on mosaics instead). But I have no idea how to flatten a bottle with a kiln and, moreso, why you'd want to. In my mind, it would just end up a misshapen long piece of glass. But I'm sure there are ways for it to keep it's shape; I just wouldn't know how. I ended up explaining to her that we both don't work with glass, only ceramic, and also don't fire outside pieces. I pointed her to Glassworks which is a similar concept to us but they work with, shock, glass. She was grateful and hopefully she'll let me know how it goes.
I was very excited. Sometimes I just _love_ the weird shit that comes up here. And I hate that I forget probably most of the best examples. So I've decided to start documenting them with a blog post every time they come up. Then one day hopefully I can write a book or my brother can make some Clerks-type movie and I'll be really wealthy.
Or at least I'll be entertained.
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