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So I have spent the last few weeks working at the company where my husband works. They are building a Sharepoint Site. I was so lucky that they needed an extra set of hands when I was out of a job. They have been very flexible with my schedule to allow me to interview. Of course the process starts with every recruiter grabbing a copy of your resume off the job sites…well, I did not go on one interview generated by one of them. I did get three interviews. The first I found on Craig’s List, the second was through a friend of mine, and the third was a company that found my resume on Dice

Company number two and three just made me competitive job offers…but ultimately number two wins. I have never felt like this before….I tried to keep my emotions out of it…but it was really hard. The funny thing is part of the reason I decided to leave the theater was to be able to negotiate my own salaries. I would say that I have finally made my goal of earning more than I did during my best year on Broadway. Wow…

So, stay tuned…more good stories to follow.

It’s April. 

This picture is from Central Park.  I was fascinated by these swans.  So serene.

I’m still looking for a job.  I think, I hope, I am close to finding one.  I have had a few really good interviews.  What has been interesting for me is the process.  The questions, how much more I know now vs before working for CG.  How much I prefer being a consultant vs. working at one place.  So, we’ll see what happens.

I started my career in IT by attending The Chubb Institute in 2005. I left my 15 year career in the theater as I was sick of the hours and the diva chorus girls who treated me like shit.

Last fall I landed the most incredible job with a consulting firm found here …unfortunately they had one big client that just went belly-up. Along with that my company cut 20% of the workforce. 5 members of my team alone were layed-off…including me.

It was a shock and I am very sad. But I must keep in mind where one door closes another opens. I have a strange way of always landing on my feet. I just have to keep that in mind and take away the great experience that job was for me.

I miss you guys…

I work as an IT consultant in New York City.  I travel to different clients during the day and meet different kinds of people.  There is one client I go to on a regular basis and at that client a woman who I have great admiration for.  I haven’t seen her in a few weeks as she was in a bad accident.  This woman is inspiring to me.  She is a breast cancer survivor, and in the past few years has lost 100lbs.  She is about 5 foot 2 so I can’t imagine what she looked like with that extra 100lbs.  She has osteoporosis (my grandmother died from complications of that) and short platinum blond hair.  To me she looks like a former Broadway Dancer…even though she was not…but her Mother was a performer.

More on Andrea’s accident.  She was waiting for her dentist and decided to go get a cup of decaf coffee.  She tripped over a raised piece of floor, smashed her face into the ground, passed out, bleed all over, and was taken by ambulance to one of the Manhattan hospitals….that does not take her insurance.   So my poor dear friend, with a smashed orbital bone and the threat of going blind, now has to battle the insurance company to cover those bills.  Her insurance also at first was refusing to cover the surgery to save her eye.  She had broken the orbital bone so her eye had no support…she now has a titanium implant to support her eye, double vision every morning from the swelling, she has to use artificial tears 20 times per day.

She also has to cancel a trip to Italy that she had been planning with two friends for over a year.

I just think it is disgraceful how she is being treated by her “health” insurance company.  I truly hope she wins a million dollars and can rest.

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 25% Conservative, 75% LiberalSocial Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Defense and Crime: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

The other day one of the guys at my company posted the story of how he came to the company (he was one of the first employees) and that it was the company and his 6 year anniversary.  This got me thinking.

I am one of those people that remembers dates.

January—8th, the day we moved into our new apartment (07), 31st, moved to NYC (99), Last Day at Beauty (05), Last Day at Chubb (06), Adopted the Dogs (05)

February 17th—Got married (04)

July 3rd—-Mom and Dad’s Anniversary

September 11th—the day that changed the USA and NYC (01), the day my Grandma Myrtle died (03)

October 17th—the day my Grandpa John died (90), 11th–the day Peter Socci died (05)

Holidays, Birthdays, Anniversaries…all mark the passage of time.   Life seems to go faster and faster the older I get.  And, I remember my father once saying that he still felt like a 25 year old in a 50 something body.  I think I understand what he meant by that now that I am nearing 40.

Passage of time leads to the passage of pain and the healing of wounds.  And sweet remembrance of what was dear about the event or the person.  I need that.   Especially during the dark days of winter when battling the grey clouds away is more difficult.  So I remember the people and the events and that bad times and bad moods do pass.

Which Movie Mom Are You?

My Result: Freaky Friday’s Tess Coleman

So you might not be a psychiatrist…and you most definitely haven’t switched bodies with your kids (right?), but when it comes to parenting, you’ve got a lot in common with hardworking Tess Coleman. You’re passionate and driven about your family and your career, and you do everything in your power to make sure that your family has it all.

Even when you’re juggling a million responsibilities, you take most things you do very seriously. But you can certainly find that kid inside and cut loose when you need to. You just have to remind yourself every once in a while that doing cartwheels in the backyard can be just as educational as homework. Give it a whirl!

Take this test>

In the theatre we had a saying “leave the drama on the stage”…and then there are the people who attract drama….as much as I hate to admit it…I am one of those people.

My usual modus operandi is to stay as calm as possible when the drama breaks out.

Tonight I received a call from my husband that my stepson had been kicked out of the house and was sitting in his mother’s car outside.  Apparently he had found a bag that was full of old coins and also an antique bracelet that was his great-grandmothers…and worth $10,000.  My question is if it’s worth that, what is it doing in a bag with a bunch of old coins?  By the time I got his mother on the phone he was back in the house and hunting for the bracelet.  I told him he better turn that house upside down until he finds it.  Luckily for him, he did. 

I hope it would sink into his head to stop going through other peoples things. 

So, Alex if you are reading this,

STOP FUSSING IN OTHER PEOPLE’S THINGS! 

KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF OR I’LL MAKE YOU SIT ON THEM TILL YOU ARE 18!

 The second piece of drama has to do with the coop I live in.  It has gone through a huge change over the past two years with the coop winning a suit against the sponser which resulted in the sale of many apartments in the building.  The board elections are this week, and I’m running.  The drama is that there is a guy who has served on the board who decided he wanted to challenge the president of our boards position.  WELL…he went far enough to call me and try to recruit me to vote her out and him in as pres if I was elected to the board.  Again, luckily, all involved have decided to come to a compromise as to not rip the coop in half.  Not to mention that the woman who is currently the president of the board is a dear, dear friend who is just one of my favorite people on the earth.

So, the drama seems to have subsided for the moment.  I’m gonna go eat some chocolate chip cookies I just baked.  Cuz, where there is drama, there is comfort food!

It was our first Thanksgiving in our new apartment.  My parents flew in from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.   Charley’s mother and kids were driven down from Connecticut Thankgiving morning. 

When we moved into the apartment the former owners were nice enough to leave us a table and chairs…the table has two leaves to expand it but only 4 chairs.  I was a bit concerned that we would have enough seating for everyone but then remembered that the cart I use for the microwave has two stools hidden inside of it and there was the piano bench and once wooden folding chair.  I was also thinking that we should move the table into the living room…but it worked out that everyone could fit in the kitchen…thanks again to the renovation that the former owners did that made more open spaces in the apartment. 

I preordered the turkey from Fresh Direct.  It was a 13lb no antibiotics added turkey.  It had been a few years since I handled a raw turkey and I forgot how much handling the neck and giblets freaks me out.  My mother made many turkeys but I don’t remember the “extra parts”.  I discarded the giblets but did use the neck for the gravy stock in a bath of free range chicken stock.  The first time I was planning to make a turkey my co-worker told me about using cheesecloth when making the turkey.  I used this method again this year and the turkey was perfect.  I also used the cheesecloth to strain the gravy.

 The menu also included pepperidge farm stuffing, mashed potatoes (yukon gold), green bean cassorole (yep the kind with the canned fried onions and cream of mushroom soup), dinner rolls, cranberry/pear relish ( a new recipe), and pumkin pie (from the Libby’s Pumpkin Pie recipe…flawless).  Everyone was happy and stuffed.

Charley spent a lot of the day playing the piano.  After dinner my Mom played Monopoly with Norma and my Dad played Chess with Alex.  We also watched the Green Bay Packers.  Lily talked non-stop until she fell asleep in Charley’s big chair.  One of our favorite neighbors stopped by for a bit.

It was a great day.

I am a dangerous backer…

I spent many years driving VW’s; I had a Rabbit, Golf, and Cabrio.  So, I was used to driving small cars.  Now I drive a 1995 Volvo Wagon.  It’s a TANK.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the car, I have never had one handle so well in the snow before…but, when it comes to backing up it’s a whole nother animal.

So, today I was in a parking lot outside of Best Buy.  After starting up the car and putting it in reverse, I noticed a Jeep Cherokee with it’s reverse lights on as well.  I paused and then started backing up very slowly.  I was halfway out of the parking space and then I heard a “HEY!” and saw a brown suede jacket directly behind my moving car.  I slammed on the breaks and this “chic” with her husband and daughter and one other teenage looking kid were directly behind the car.   As they sauntered past she was learing at me.  I rolled down the window and said; “Why are you walking in the middle of the street?  There are two cars both backing up!”  She responded…”you should look and if you hit my daughter then it’s your loss, not mine.”

NICE

I don’t think I have ever walking behind a car that is backing up.  Ever since moving to the East Coast I just can’t believe the sense of entitlement that pedestrians have.  No one in my neighborhood seems to know the meaning of the orange hand at a crosswalk.  Does she step in front of a moving train?  A moving bus?  Why then take your 8 year old child and walk behind a car that is backing up!

It’s up there with when I see a mother pushing a stroller and has the stroller with a baby half way into an intersection.

If you want to be an idiot and walk into traffic, at least do it with out your child!