FYI

I’m afraid I don’t have the originator of this oh-too-true graphic, and I truly apologize for that. But I don’t care as much as I usually would, because I am cranky today. I am cranky today, as I have been off and on for the past week, because PEOPLE JUST GET ON MY NERVES.

Which I mean, can I tell you how so not true that usually is? I love people. I accept and embrace all people for all their flaws and weaknesses, because it could just as easily be me as you in most situations. People are pretty much the bomb in my book.

But lately, oh lately.  I pretty much want to grab every single person I come across firmly by the shoulders and gently ask, WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU!?  Then maybe give them a good hard shake for good measure.  I don’t know if it’s the lack of sleep, the fact that I’m one more year older and crabbier (happy birthday to meee next Wednesday), or if my life has truly been overrun with idiots and assholes lately, but let me tell you. This is not a feeling I am interested in pursuing for the rest of the summer.

So, dear people of the world, namely strangers who come fleetingly into my life just long enough to ruin my whole dang day, I ask you to please, just, stop.

JUST STOP.

Thank you for your consideration.

Oh Also PS

The five jobs I currently hold are:

- Reservation line lady for the B&B

- Assistant and social media awesomeness for the Sewing & Design Studio

- Assistant on one, and Lead Stylist for another, opera at my alma mater

- House Manager at the theater

- Temp worker extraordinaire

You may notice a certain heinous job missing. It is, and I’m not sad about it. That’s all there really is to say about that. I mean other than that abusive companies run by heinous and/or shady people seem to be flourishing in this recession, and I hope they all get their come-uppance when the economy gets better. I’m talking mass exodus, peace out cub scout.  People deserve to work to live, not live to work. (Oh hey whoops here’s an awesome article about just that.)

I think my temp job may be ending soon, which is scary, since it’s my main source of income.  But thanks to my amazing and wonderful dear friend/financial advisor (with big ups to the future hubs), I won’t die by the side of the road when this happens.  This is MAJOR NEWS. Because I am REALLY BAD WITH MONEY, Y’ALL.

So I mean, yay for small victories.

Hi, No, I’m Not Back

Newsflash: Having five jobs sucks.

Ummm but to be clear: not as much as not having any jobs. And not as much as having one job that makes you come home at lunch and cry. Both of which were true for me within the past eight months. So there’s that.

I’m taking a swift break from being productive (?*) to not promise you anything, because when it comes to blogging I can be like the deadbeat dad I never had, all broken promises and no cards on your birthday.  In the mean time, here is a pictoral representation of some awesome things that are NOT job related…

celebrating Holi

Annapolis

New York

cherry blossoms

Aaand here are some that are.

the studio

a burgeoning arts district

my makeup station

Work pants are still the worst, though.

*I’m currently forcing myself, kicking and screaming, to actually sit down and apply for scholarships. Asking for free money should not be this hard, y’all. It just should not. But hey man, needing five jobs sucks.

The Problem with Too Many Jobs

Is that if one goes wonky, all the rest are thrown off and suddenly it’s a scramble to make everything fit. Welcome to this week, in which I have two separate situations in which I am supposed to be in two places at once. Consistency is key, people… this ain’t no after school movie money job, y’all!

Being part time, it seems many employers assume you’re just hanging out at home, facebooking your hours away until your husband or roommate or parents come home with all the money for you to live. Or maybe they don’t even think about it that much. One of my (now former) part time job bosses had a nasty habit of calling me while I was at work for my other job and freaking out when she couldn’t get ahold of me, because I don’t know about y’all but I try very hard to work for the company I’m working for that day, not everybody else. Now, that was a particularly poisonous situation that I won’t get into here because they did finally pay me and also I’m just classy like that, but I’m learning it’s not extremely uncommon for employers to assume they’re your only mistress, so to speak.

I’m not sure why this is, though. Even if this part time job is my only job, it’s probably part time for a reason, like maybe I have kids, or am a caregiver for an elderly relative, or am in school. So if my schedule is to change I think it’s only fair to be warned ahead of time, or, even better, have my opinion considered before said schedule change goes into place*.

The economy is rough right now, and I know for the most part most of us will take all the hours we can get. But some consistency would be greatly appreciated, and some consideration for our non-this-particular-job lives would be even better. When we’re happy, ie. not stressed and freaking out to pull it all together, we’re better, more efficient, more dedicated workers. It’s as simple as that.

*I’m using the royal we/I here, and mixing my own experience with a few other stories I’ve heard from fellow freelancers lately

I’ll Use My Own Words Someday

Since I seem to be speaking in infographics at the moment, here’s a (slightly) brighter one than the other day

Quick Hello from Part-Time-Desk-Job-Land

What’s that you say? You CAN’T read the handful of half-finished draft posts I’ve started and abandoned since last we spoke? Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.  In that case, here’s an infographic of what I’ve been doing to myself lately:

Week 2 of Too Many Jobs: Update

Hello my lovelies. We have officially begun week two of too many jobs, and thus far this is what I can surmise:

LIKES

• working within my skillset and feeling awesome about it
• remembering how much I like to mess around with graphics and code (what’s that, blog? you need a design? WELL GET IN LINE)
• having a reason to get up early
• gettin’ paid

DISLIKES

• work pants
• being set up to fail by a boss (only one though) who thinks he or she hired me for something completely different than what I said yes to
• getting up early
• not gettin’ paid

So yes. I am having some trouble with one of my jobs.  Enough trouble to actually leave said job and pursue another? Perhaps. I’ll let you know on pay day. It is currently of my opinion that the way employees are treated in this particular establishment is clashing against my high self esteem and sense of self worth in regards to the quality of work I do.  I have absolutely no desire to be upwardly mobile within this specific sect of work society, but that doesn’t stop me from being frustrated when I am not allowed to do well because I have a lack of materials, training, and previous knowledge and made no claims to have as such. Anyway that’s all the bitching I’ll do tonight. It is nice to only have two days of a crappy job, rather than five, and to not have all my eggs in said crappy job’s basket. It’s quite freeing, actually. Especially when my other twenty jobs are pretty much the bomb diggity.

Also, is there an excess of two-day-a-week tech writery/graphic designery jobs on the market or have I just been lucky? Ooor am I just lucky that I’m the only person in the world who actually prefers two-day-a-week desk jobs?

Also: OMG I HATE WORK PANTS. I had forgotten. But now I remember. Oh, how I remember.

When It Rains It Pours

So remember that time when I had no job, no prospects, and no money?  Well that’s old news. Now I have way too many jobs, some prospects, and, well, okay so that last part is the same.  I knew applying to twelve jobs in one day, and then five more jobs over the course of the rest of the week may result in an eventual avalanche of part time, but I needed the monies, and I needed them ASAP.  So then I secured a part time job, and then I secured another, and then another started paying me so I was motivated to work for them more often, and so on and so forth until today. Today I got a call from a temp agency that I forgot I had applied to, asking me if I could meet in an hour to go over the specs of a potential job. I could, so I went, and from there I went straight to the potential office for an interview. I got it, and now we’re debating $$ and days.  It’s only a four week gig, but it’s a really well-paying gig that I am exactly qualified for, so I don’t want to lose any other source of income, but this is something I would very much like to be a part of.  Cue balancing act.

To illustrate the wall of ish that I am suddenly facing, let me break down my current freelance career for the month of February.  I am presently working:

*As a house manager at a local theater (Friday nights and Sunday all day, if there is a show going on. Which there will be at the end of this month)

*As an assistant, stitcher, and social media manager for the design studio I very well may one day run (10-4 or 5, once or twice a week)

*As a business and proposal assistant at a healthcare IT company (9-5, twice a week)

*As the main reservation line for a B&B in Harpers Ferry, WV (paid per booking, so technically on call all the time)

*As the social media manager for the same B&B (paid hourly, I make my own hours)

*Soon-to-be a web designer for a family friend (I’ll make my own hours)

*As a merchandiser for the company my mom works for, that I have also worked for on and off since I was a teenager (once a week, for about an hour)

So yeah I mean, it’s a lot. But I haven’t quite figured out the balance of the feast or famine lifestyle of the freelancer, so when work comes, I takes it. At the moment, very few of my jobs are art-related, but that’s because school is such a game changer. If I know I’ll be doing art 24-7 by the end of the year, I’m more comfortable taking non-art jobs. Also, I need the cash, y’all. What with possible moving to new cities and weddings and whatnot.

weddings. Squee, etc.

A Thing I’d Like to Share with You

Mr. B and I are now officially affianced.

Occupy All the Facepalms

As you well know by now, I am an artist. But I am not the kind of artist who only hangs out with other artists; in fact most of my closest friends are artists by hobby only, if they are artists at all. One such friend is a cop, which I love and respect about him, but can be a source of conflict when politics are the topic of discussion. While we both belong to groups of largely college educated people performing physical, blue-collar type work, his job-that-spills-into-his-real-life is to serve and protect laws and society as they stand, and my job-that-spills-into-my-real-life is to observe and often question the same. Both are extremely important, but can clearly clash. Discussion of the Occupy movement has been such a source of conflict. As a person who struggles to make ends meet with neither a steady source of income (because the government does not fund the arts) nor affordable health insurance (not at least after I turn 26… thank you Obama healthcare bill), I empathize with the frustration of overeducated, underworked (or overworked, underpaid) people across a country that seems to care more for its corporations than for its citizens. As a police officer, my friend empathizes with policemen across the country who are harassed (sometimes violently) every day by protestors with agendas that are not always pure or aligning with the group with which they are protesting*.

I have always vehemently stood by Occupy, especially whenever my friend would scoff at their antics. But then a couple weeks ago Occupy marched on the Supreme Court. This is the first really big event Occupy has held in DC as far as I was aware, so I paid close attention. And honestly, what I saw was not something I felt I could stand by. I had heard the rumors of people crowd surfing the day before, and when I sat down to watch the videos I was so embarrassed. The woman creating this video, and several people around her, were so clearly searching for conflict, and so clearly misinformed or confused as to their rights to expression on federal property, that instead of pride in my people, all I felt was a great big facepalm.

Example: Woman with a webcam who is way too high up on her horse to realize she’s acting like a total dick:

The frustrations stemming Occupy are real, and important to address. The abuses of corporations on the middle and lower classes are real, and extremely important to bring into a national conversation. But while we’re being real, let’s be real, people. This is not Montgomery, Alabama in 1960. This is not even Tahrir Square in 2010. We have a stable government and our police are, as a group, trustworthy. Protest is a great way to show the people with power who are hiding inside buildings with blinders on that people are upset and demand change. But no one will take you seriously if you’re acting like a spoiled child, if you are acting like you’re at a giant party, or if you’re clearly searching for any reason to become a martyr. Control yourself; it’s embarrassing.

Example: destroying property bought by our tax dollars to protest/party on the grounds of a federal building, which is (rightly**) against the law:

*Also run-of-the-mill jackasses, but that’s a different story
**Because, um, I’m not tryna deal with tea partiers swarming my federal buildings, so it’s only fair to hold my side of the political spectrum to the same standard