Various and assorted thoughts

July 4th:
Not my usual celebration, which is to listen to or watch "1776" at some point, paint my face and light explosives on fire.

Well. One out of three ain't bad. This must be how I will celebrate the 4th as a "grownup."

Backyard barbeque, open house style. Friends, friends of friends and their families wandering through to get random meat charred on the grill. A nice round of "light and throw" firecrackers and bottle rockets. Sparklers. Watching fireworks from the back deck.

Very good, all in all.

On Children in the house:
My SO has the kids for a whole week starting today. I usually love it when they come over, but I suspect that they are going to be climbing up and over my last nerve before the end of the 7 days.
Also the 6 year old girl (Almost 7) shows signs of coming down with something. She went from bubbly and energetic to listless and easily upset, most rapidly (Within about 10 minutes.) Then the storm started and that really pushed her over the edge. Ate not a bite of supper, which she had helped to prepare, and talked about all afternoon.

Supper:
I love soup. Real soup, that is. After the last round of fried chicken (also a special treat) that my SO made last weekend, he put all the giblets and backs and random parts into a bag and tossed it into the freezer, "For Soup."

Since he also came down with something this weekend, I made chicken soup for him (and the rest of us.) This included fresh herbs and noodles made from scratch. HEAVENLY.

Here's my recipe: ( REAL soup is GOOD food... )

For those who are wondering, I do have full time employment. My once-and-future boss (and friend, and fellow costumer) called me to tell me that on the day I lost my job, his first shift worker of at least 10 years abruptly quit, with no notice. Seems that she had been collecting disability *and* a paycheck. Got busted for working full-time. Chose the disability over the meager earnings from the job.
It's kind of a communist-block job: I pretend to work, they pretend to pay me. I had told my once-and-future boss that he could have kept me at that job indefinitely for either the day shift or a $2 per hour raise.
For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, the job title is "Concierge" and it basically means low-key security and reception duties for a condo in the CWE. The condo has the desk manned 24/7 by a crack team of the usual round of idiots. I got the job when the_geoffrey switched from second to third shift (for the then shift differential) and needed a replacement for the second shift. At first I worked 12p-12a on Sunday, 5-12 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday through Saturday off. It was a sweet schedule. Then it changed to 5-12 Sun-Thurs. Even better. It afforded me all the time off that I needed for all but out of town cons, and I could go hang out at the coffee houses after work, get up at the crack of noon, and still get things done during the day.

But now I need my evenings free for troupe stuff and other mundane matters. I went from the condo to a teacher's aide position. After that finished up, I went to work in HELL for the DEVIL. After that petered out (for reasons beyond everyone's control) I worked the Candle Consultant business and random condo shifts until I started working for The Salt Mines. By now I had a taste of real money, and insurance and so I pursued that end after the Salt Mines squirted me out like a watermelon seed.
I was starting to have this "Why can't I keep a blessed job?" cycle of depression, then I realized; I lost my job at Spectrum, but I am NOT unemployed. Just less employed. Working several other jobs only works if your main source of income doesn't tax your energy. This is why I could work 5 jobs if I was working at the condo.

Here are the pros:
Practically zero stress. No coworkers to work *with*. Allowed to eat whatever I want whenever I want. Color, cable TV to watch. VCR and DVD player also. Boss is a costumer himself, so he never minds if I work on costumes while ON THE CLOCK-- using HIS machine! (Constructed my bedecked, bejeweled, and beaded 17th century royal concubine costume while working there.) And now, DAY SCHEDULE. 8 hour shift for which I am paid for 8 hours. Easy Metrolink access. Random perks such as free food or furniture. (Boss is a professional interior decorator, sometimes buys things in lots from auctions and disposes of the unwanted pieces by giving them to the desk staff. Residents sometimes give away whole cartloads of random stuff.)

Here are the cons:
There *are* condo politics that one must be aware of. Log periods with little or no human contact. No lunch breaks, we eat at the desk. If you want to eat, bring your food or pay to have it delivered; no running out to McD for lunch. Sitting on one's @ss all shift, eating. This is how I went from a size 10 to a size 18 in two years, back in my early twenties. Day schedule in the city, so this time I have to fight traffic to get there, and I live 45 minutes away. Long commute. Paltry wages, just above min. wage. No benefits. No computer (but with a borrowed or bought laptop, that can change.)

So, I will have the solitude to work on my many other projects, and perhaps I can use this as an opportunity to get my grants written, my webcomic drawn, my scripts written, my costumes finished, my head on straight, and after work, my boss will rollerblade with me through the CWE for exercise. Plus I have permission to work on rehearsals AT WORK during the day, so I can work with the actors who aren't as available at night!

Could be worse!