Moved.
Sore.
So quiet.
Here is my newest piece. I am using a corner of the rooftop revolving lounge as a little gallery.
I’m going to apologize in advance for this as it’s 100% venty and not as constructive or light worker-y as the rest of the forum but - tomorrow I’m going to initiate a difficult conversation with my new boss and you’re my community so - if anyone wants to send some light to the situation (particularly to keep me focused and strong and to suppress that Italian blood in me that has been boiling for the past week or so - great!)
There are three people in my department. Two are funded completely by our ISD, and myself who is funded by 10 ISDs. This means I work around the entire northern region of my state. The rest of my job has always been going from grant to grant to make me a full time employee which - I have appreciated the full time work, but has always left me with the impression that people think “Boy that DannyBoy - nice guy but man, his job changes every year so he must be terrible.”
One thing I was really excited about this year with the new boss coming in was that she was going to wean me off that into local work. Unfortunately that’s 40 days of my contract this year and maybe 60 in future years, which means the rest of it is still regional (which I LOVE and don’t want to get rid of)
We have weekly consultant meetings where she asks us to keep her up to speed on what we’re doing. As the weeks have dragged on she’s started listening to my updates less and less and continually praises my two coworkers for all the great work they’re doing. This week it came to a head with her interrupting me halfway through my report and telling me “What you need to do is start meeting with local principals.” (Who I’ve worked with for 11 years - they already know who I am…). I’ve continually brushed this off but in talking with one of my other coworkers about it she’s been reading the same messages I’ve been getting from my boss. “Those two are doing great work. You aren’t doing enough.”
So tomorrow at my evaluation meeting I’m bringing all my receipts to the table. All the work I’ve done that I’ve informed her of that she hasn’t come to to see what I do. All the prep work for my 40 days of local time. Data galore. I’m going to be nice and productive about it but my plan is to also head this off at the pass now before it becomes ingrained in her - my job is not the same as my coworkers, and even if she’d really like it to be, 10 other ISDs pay for my time too and I have to be equitable with it. The 40 days of time at the place I’m housed out of will go really quickly if I’m being instructed to just “go meet with local principals” who already know what I do and know to reach out to me when they need me.
The ace in the hole (though I know from a reading with Jeanne I don’t need it but I will allude to the card if I have to) is that all 10 of those other ISDs would scoop up my contract in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. If she continues to not even make an attempt to understand my position I will tell her she can be rid of me as early as next week if she wants to lose all that support she’s been promising local districts I’m available to offer. It is an interesting time to be a worker during “The Great Resignation” (a term I just heard in the Atlantic article)
My hunch is she’ll be appalled that I took her comments the way I did, but she needs to understand the issues at hand, and that the entire department is seeing it too.
God I hate change at work. ?. So again, if anyone would like to send some light my way at 11 a.m. EST Thursday morning I’ll need all the “calm and patience” I can muster.
@dannyboy, I'll send some your way tomorrow morning since I have plenty of "calm & patience."
For example, this is how crate training is going at my house:
@cindy this brightened my evening immensely! (Though I also broke my perfect state of ketosis to have two beers with a superintendent friend and her principal husband, as well as a bowl of bar popcorn. And when i got home I found a bag of Girl Scout cookies - just in case I hadn’t reached my maximum carb intake for the day.).
Thanks for the light today gang! I definitely felt a lot calmer than I would have without it having the conversation with my boss. Unfortunately, even though we had an hour blocked I only got about 10 minutes because she double booked. I have no idea if the "You've given me something to think about, thank you" was honest or just something to get me out of her office since she was waiting on our Superintendent but the words were said and I was polite but firm. Thanks all. Time will tell I suppose.
@ghandigirl, that's lovely! Do you have a special area to house all of the small pieces you use in creating your mixed media artwork? Have you collected them over the years?
I picked up a hot glue gun about 6 years ago, and learned to paint a few years before then at those painting parties you go to with your girlfriends.I do have a variety of art supplies. I keep them in cloth bins on a large bookcase. I LOVE to organize things.
People send me their unwanted/broken jewelry and buttons. I also frequent a few thrift stores and pick up beads and paint, glitter and other items to use for next to nothing. My art originals, and art gifts (...mugs, calendars, t shirts, 2 children's books I recently wrote, and many more items...) are artfully stacked in the corner of the spare room.
I am fortunate to have been hired back to an after school art job, and teach art in the summers at a local camp.
Some of my art work is for my private collection. (Don't be too impressed... I'm only talking about decorating the house) I have hopes of one day having one of my pieces of a close to life size goddess displayed in a museum. That's my whole bucket list I think!
I have no formal training. My mother is a great artist in her own right, and is and was my greatest inspiration.
She cutely viewed one of my "Opulent Birdhouses", which are birdhouses I collage with all sorts of objects, and asked, "Did I have something to do with this?" Yes mom, You had EVERYTHING to do with this. :)
I can’t remember who I had the conversations with but I think it might have been @enkasongwriter
only a few weeks left before the “the wheel of time turns and ages come and pass…”
And we finally have some trailers!
let the dragon be reborn on the winds of time!
full trailer: https://youtu.be/3Fus4Xb_TLg
Moiraine’s Quest: https://youtu.be/gp9kTVhIWwU
The Moiraines Quest one is even more amazing than the full trailer!!!
I love a miracle. I have a friend who nearly died. She was in a coma for many weeks. They thought it was toxic shock syndrome. Before she fell ill, she had left a lucrative business career to ride horses and operate a horse barn. While she was in the coma, a riding friend showed up and started talking to her, telling her she should wake up so they could go riding together. Deep in the coma, she heard her friend and after a few days, she woke up so she could go riding again. The friend's words were the only words she remembered hearing while in the coma all those weeks. She believes the friend's call to ride horses awakened her.
Well, I just read about another miracle that happened early this year when an unvaccinated pregnant woman contacted Covid and, unable to breathe on her own, was intubated for weeks. During that time the doctor performed a c-section birth while the young mother lay unconscious. The miracle happened weeks later, after they started bringing the newborn to lay against her, skin on skin, every day.
“It’s like her body just knew she needed to fight for her baby,” Borkowicz [the nurse who cared for the child while his mother was on life support] says. “I honestly have never witnessed anything like that before.”
Spoiler for those who hit a paywall: the mother recovered. She tells people to get vaccinated.
Here's your Monday moment of zen, courtesy of the Instagram account SubwayCreatures. I couldn't stop laughing when I first saw this video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGFcxKQBMn_/
@ghandigirl, I love collage and mixed media pieces. How cool that you and your mom share that talent and love of art. Some of your pieces made me think of an exhibit I saw a few decades ago in DC of New Orleans/Creole primitive art. Among the various paintings and sculptured pieces were different-sized chests that were elaborately decorated and painted inside with scenes and symbols that chronicled the story of one's life. It was the artist's generous invitation to peek inside his/her psyche, and how they processed their history and life experiences. We all have a story to tell, and I thought it was a beautiful way to communicate it.
@coyote, totally kooky! What's especially funny is how everyone is ignoring him. Just another day on the subway!
Here's a youtube video I received yesterday and thought y'all might enjoy.
How animals would run if they were people:
https://youtube.com/shorts/DlqXePe4Hpk?feature=share
What's especially funny is how everyone is ignoring him
I know, right? New Yorkers doing what they do best. I especially start cracking up when he/she starts whipping the American flag. (I think the person wearing the Trump mask is a woman?)