Chris went to New York today for his first actual job interview. He was emailed by a guy who owns a company called Production Glue. The company does large scale production management projects in New York. The emails Chris exchanged did not promise a job, but instead jumped right into salary negotiations and gave him the choice between two different positions. The conversation today was with Chris and the company founder to discuss a start date, salary, details, etc.
SO FRUSTRATING! Nothing was decided. Chris said the conversation went well and he had a good feeling, but no details were given. A salary range was agreed upon, but a figure was not offered. Chris said in a nutshell that the company wanted to hire more staff, they just weren’t sure when to do it – now or at the end of the summer. So Chris has to sit tight for a few weeks while they line their summer work up and decide if they want to bring him on now or later.
I’m trying to be patient and respectful that production, theater, and entertainment run on very different time frames than the corporate world does, but inside I’m thinking, “Just sign a contract and call it a day!!” I know they say New York has limitless possibilities, but sometimes it feels like finding a job there is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
14Mar
We are going out of town next week and have to board our dogs, Molly (the big black one) and Lucy (the little brown one). So today we took them to the vet to have their shots updated and to make sure they were healthy as a horse…er, dog.
The first vet technician came in to weigh them. She put Molly on the scale – 56 pounds. She’s not skinny, but she’ll do for a lab. Then she put Lucy on the scale – 18 pounds. Now, Lucy is a chihuahua dauschund mix. She’s supposed to be small and dainty. She’s supposed to fit inside purses and wear cute pink sundresses. She actually weighs what a cocker spaniel should weight and looks more like a pissed off linebacker when we try to dress her up (which we stopped doing about a few years ago when she began to eat the clothing).
The vet tech smiled at Chris and me and stood up saying, “Looks like someone is going to get the Fat Lecture…” I tried to argue – her legs are too short, her head is shrinking, it’s winter weight. Nothin’ doing. She’s a fat weenie dog and she has to lose weight.
The vet was actually nice when she came in. No condescending remarks and I don’t think she roller her eyes at us more than twice. She asked if we had any health concerns with the dogs (other than their glaring weight issues) and I said that, yes, we had noticed several small lumps on Lucy’s back that were sensitive when we poked at them. The vet felt around for a bit and then looked up at me with sympathetic eyes that said, “You dumb, dumb dog owner.”
“Those, my dear,” she said, “are fat pockets.” Great, Katie. How about you make the situation even worse by pointing out the fat on your dog? Chris shot me a look like, “You just HAD to open your mouth…”
In the end, we have to go on diets. Our dogs have a limited calorie intake everyday and we have to put them both on diet dog food. Its a bummer and I know its going to piss Lucy off. She already sits around next to her food bowl if there isn’t any food in it, barking and howling like she’s dying.
This is going to be awesome.
16Mar
Last night Chris and I had a few friends over for Game Night. Traditionally, I have always been against any kind of “couples themed” get-togethers. While I love my husband, I hate it when people lump us together just because we are married. Invite us over because you like us, not because we’re a matching set. We do have lots of friends that are married or living together, but I’d say we have just as many friends who are single and fantastic and when we have people over or we go out, we try to get a healthy mix of both.
Last night though we gave in to the “matching set” scenario out of necessity – couples just make games easier to play! I’m sorry, Single People! We had our two friends Lisa and Justin over. If there were such thing as twin relationships, then these guys would be our twins. Although, I think they’d be the cooler, more popular twin. We had our friends Amy and Chris over, too. We don’t get to hang out with them as much, but there’s nothing like fighting over whether “Really Annoying” is a character trait in a good game of Scattergories to bring you closer. And we had our friend Steve, who was single last night because his wife is out of town. And except for taking too long to pass the Catch Phrase thingy/remote/controller he was a lot of fun!
As the night got later and later and the beers flowed, I have to admit that I got a little sentimental. For three years, these guys have been My People! When Chris brought home that 500 pound card catalog from the Yale library, we called them to help us move it. When we had too much to drink and missed our train home from New York, we called them to let our dogs out. When we couldn’t afford to fly home for Thanksgiving or Easter, we called them to bake a ham and stuff a turkey with us. To say I’m going to be sad to see everyone move away after graduation is an understatement.
In honor of all our friends here in New Haven, I give you the first Brown Top Five List:
THE TOP 5 THINGS I’LL MISS ABOUT
THE 3RD YEAR YSD TD&P GROUP:
1. Poker night – how else and I going to make my lunch money for the rest of the week?
2. Beers on Friday nights at the theater – although we rarely go anymore, its just a comforting thought to know that its there if we wanted.
3. The TD&P Offspring – you just can’t resist toddlers walking around in Tonka Toolbelts (DISCLAIMER: This does not mean I am ready for a Tonka Toddler myself, Mother.)
4. Boomer McDaniel - Justin and Lisa’s crazy dog who has alleged “aggression issues” walking around parties with his Hannibal Lecter muzzle on. The only person I have seen him have issues with is Steve, and who can blame him? I mean, that’s just a dog’s sixth sense (sorry, Steve…).
5. BBQ’s - there’s no better feeling than seeing two or three pick up trucks pull into our driveway with a couple grills in each one. I don’t think I remember how to have a BBQ with only one grill anymore!
As much as I am going to miss these things and, especially, these great people, there’s no time for sadness! We’ve got 2 and a half months left! Break out the boxed red wine and fire up the grills! I think I’ve still got a few “dancing on the bar” nights left in me…
Chris, Justin, and Steve at Sea Shanties in Essex
Lisa with the claymation Beaver during an intense game of Cranium (*Note the flat beaver-like tail…)
Here’s the thing – before I got married I loved to do laundry. On my Facebook page, laundry used to be listed as one of my interests. Thats how much I liked it. I considered it an interest. I like going through all my clothes, making them clean again, folding and putting them back in their proper places. That’s just good clean fun.
Then I got married to a dirty boy and it all changed.
Now, Chris is not a smelly dirty boy. He actually smells pretty fantastic when he’s all sweaty – like firewood and soap. But he spends much of his days in either a wood shop or a steel shop building theater sets. Its a dirty job. So I expect a certain level of dirty clothes. But the amount of laundry that is generated in our small two-person household is unexplainable, uncomprehendable, unacceptable. Its like an act of God.
On any given day, the hamper and/or big blue chair in our bedroom is overflowing with laundry – socks, pants, undershirts, bras, sweaters, blouses. And it doesn’t have to be clothing either. Shoes, belts, and purses are all part of our Great Laundry Pile in the Sky. Sometimes, we lose our dog Lucy in a laundry drift.
At the heart of The Great Laundry Pile in the Sky is the fact that neither Chris or I feel like we should have to do the laundry. It’s a big waiting game. He feels like if he does the laundry, then he’ll be stuck doing our laundry for the rest of our lives. I feel like if I do the laundry its because I’m the wife and, honey, that ship don’t sail in my house. So, TGLPITS continues to overtake our bedroom, our home, and our lives.
I mentioned to my mom one day that I was making a statement in our house and had chosen not to touch the laundry until Chris did something first (this would be the picture at the top of the page…). My mom said that I should try to do one small load a day so that it didn’t feel so overwhelming (lets pause to appreciate that my laundry is actually described as “overwhelming”). But I refused. Clearly this is a mature decision. All that happened was Chris didn’t wear boxers or undershirts for a few days and I continued my silent seething. Finally, I gave in and took the laundry to a laundry mat, paid $100 and had them do it all. Chris got mad. We had The Fight of 2007 and called it a day.
Recently I’ve given up the ghost. The fact is, I need clothes more than he does. I can’t go to work without a clean shirt and pair of pants without drawing some serious looks, whereas he is right at home in a dirty shop in dirty clothes. So, I give in. I’ll do the damn laundry. But lets be clear: This is not a wife submitting to her husband, this is an independent woman cleaning her clothes so that she can to go her professional career and make money to support her family.
Nevermind the boxers with hammers on them in the hamper.
