The Ax Falls Once More

Nothing like coming to work on a chilly, flurrying Monday morning and being met with the old "We appreciate all you've done for us, but you're canned as of a month from now" speech.

I went through this whole thing a year and a half ago when my employer decided to shut down my department and start it back up at another location a few years down the road. I took the position in Reading because it was convenient, and it was a bird in the hand. In the intervening months, I've often wondered if I should have just moved on back then. I really have felt very stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern for a while now. Maybe having a bird in the hand isn't always the best situation.

Right now, I'm kind of shell-shocked. I know there are far more talented and experienced editors out there pounding the pavement than there are positions for them. And it has become harder and harder to freelance, at least in educational publishing.

I hope one day I'll look back on this and see it as the kick in the pants I needed to put me on the right path to fulfilling work again. But for right now, it just feels like I've been kicked. Hard. In the head.

New Year... So What? Maybe Something...

So it's a new year, and true to form, nothing really changes when the ball drops, does it? Resolutions from last year remain essentially unchanged. Time marches on. But the days get a bit longer one by one, so that helps a little.

One thing is about to change, though. Our legendary red room is about to become our pretty, soothing blue room. This has been very long in coming... as in, since we bought the place more than a decade ago. Back then, I searched and searched for a color chip I liked, and I hit on the color "Wedgewinkle," a purply-blue from the Behr line of paints. It is a blend of Wedgewood blue and periwinkle--a soft and soothing color with enough presence to kick it out of the pastel range. Since we hired our upstairs neighbor (a professional house painter by trade named Will) to paint the exteriors of our sunroom windows, I figured why not throw in the red room, finally.



Embarrasing, huh? And THIS was when it was not all THAT bad!

And so tomorrow morning the old mattress and box springs I bought right before Jeff came to visit me in San Francisco lo, these 15 years ago are being collected by Will's brother. After that, I'll haul all the stuff in that room out--it really has become more a junk room than a guest room or office--set up the computer on the dining room table for the duration, and have the thing painted. The ugly and mismatched bookcases will go out in the alley, as will the way-too-big-for-my-Mac computer desk. Someone with the strength to haul them away may get a few more years' worth of use out of them.

When the paint is dry and the room still empty, I'll use the modest expanse of floor to unbox, lay out, and construct the new matching bookshelves that have been cluttering up our entryway for more than a year and a freakin' half (procrastination? my middle name). Then I'll move the computer armoire purchased about, oh, four or five years ago (which is also too big for my Mac, to be honest, but which offers some needed storage space) from its post in the dining room to its true home in the office/guest room. I'm not sure what will happen to the pink filing cabinet, one of the last vestiges in my life of my ex's obsession with pink and black, the hallmarks of rockabilly fashion and decorating. I guess I should chuck it too and buy a new and taller model. And finally, Jeff and I will select and purchase a nice futon and frame to serve as a bed for guests and as a sofa all other times.

Oh yeah--and the hideous blinds will be removed from the windows and placed in the alley for scavengers. Not sure what to put up in their place--any suggestions for window coverings aside from drapes are more than appreciated!

My hope is that redoing this room will start us on our mission to redo the remainder of the condo--the part that has been untouched (save a few new light fixtures here and there and a glass block window in the master bath) since we purchased the money pit. That means the to-the-studs master bathroom renovation, repainting and buying some new furniture for the master bedroom, a reconfiguration of the bedroom and foyer closets (which abut each other), and the bringing to fruition of our grand scheme for the living room: a wall of built-in bookcases and cabinets; stripping decades of paint off of the woodwork and hearth; restoring the gas logs in the fireplace; getting rid of the horrid popcorn on the ceiling; installing a ceiling fan and light in the main living room (as opposed to the sunroom); painting the living room, sunroom, and hallway a color that does not suck up every single particle of available light; and rigging up a nice big flat-screen TV and surround sound speakers.

So... any bets as to when all this will be finished? I'm sure it will be just in time to renovate the kitchen, yet again.

Oh, Hai!

Happy New Year, one and all!