Halfway through

It’s almost unbelievable that I’m halfway through with my busiest season of the year, Scarborough. It’s been a whirlwind of fun, busy, and some stress over the changes at my pays the bills job.
The day job has settled into more of a routine, and while I’m still on “probation” until, umm Memorial Day, I’m not particularly concerned because I’m proving myself (again), and getting everything done that has been asked of me. My goal this week, while the T is on vacation, is to finish getting everything that was waiting for me when she left completely entered, so that next week I can hound the boss and get the pre-emptive paperwork processed to keep us from getting nastygrams on the 15th. She can never manage to do it, and as a result on the 12th of last month I worked a 13 hour day with no real lunch break. That is NOT going to happen this month, I am determined! I am a bit frustrated by one co-worker who’s sort of abusing her absence by spending more time than usual talking to her boyfriend on the cell phone and trolling the internet for barrel racing videos. Hopefully tomorrow that’s going to get resolved, but we’ll see.

The Faire job has been fun, as usual, and I’ve done pretty well with not overdoing anything. We’ve made it through 2 weekends on our own, without any incidents, and I’ve learned a few new recipes to mix up existing scents, as well as making up a few more.  This coming weekend is my last weekend with my awesome friends from Galveston, which kind of makes me sad, but next weekend is the weekend that my BFF and identical twin from another mother will be in for our jaunt. We missed it last year, and it was a real downer.

For now, it’s off to bed for a good night’s sleep so I can get up and get an early start. Tomorrow’s laundry night, so I can get packed to leave Friday morning.

The Madness Has Begun

Yes, it's that time of year again, Scarborough has begun, and so has my 61-day work week... It's all good, because I don't hate my weekday job, and I LOVE working at the perfumery on the weekends.  This weekend should be interesting, because the owner will not be in town, so my co-worker & I are on our own, which means minimal breaks and virtually no time to run amok. I've always worked a part-time schedule on the weekends, instead of full-time, so we'll see how my system manages that!

 One of my co-workers is umm, militant about her beliefs, and is relatively intolerant of other people's opinions and beliefs.  Last week, another employee asked her about Easter eggs in conjunction with a program she's involved in at her church. Her response was to look directly at me and say "I object to the use of Pagan symbols in relation to Christian holidays". Yeahhh, she's made an assumption about my beliefs, based entirely on the fact that I am part of the Renaissance Festival community. Never mind discussions we've had over the last 18 months about my CHURCH. I refrained from pointing out to her that 1. my beliefs are none of her damned business, 2. My Bibles (I own at least one KJV, a RSV, an NIV, and a Living Bible) ALL include "Judge not, lest ye/you be judged", and 3. I object to Christians believing that they have the right to judge others AND cram their beliefs down everybody's throat.   Hmm, perhaps she thinks I'm a Pagan in the Spring, and a Christian the rest of the year? So yesterday, I noticed that she'd clipped a tract to her wall-mounted inbox entitled something like "Becoming a Christian is as E.A.S.Y  as A.B.C".  Yeah she's a passive-aggressive B!#(H, and her life truly only consists of Work, Church, and living with her parents & 2 dogs. She lives to get a rise out of people, and she's not going to be successful with me.  I have no doubts about where I stand with God, and I also know that on my WORST day, I have an amazing support system of friends and family from diverse walks of life, all of whom love and accept me for who I am, without trying to make me conform to what they think is right.

Last Tuesday, I came home after the storms that were in the area, to find that the mama kitty that's been hanging about (I believe she & her boyfriend were abandoned, as they are way too social and keep trying to get into the house to really be ferals) had delivered 5 kittens. 4 have survived this long, and even on my cranky mornings, seeing them in their box on the porch brings a smile to my face.

On that note, I think it's time to shut down and head for the bed with the kitties.  Sleep is kind of hit or miss these days, and tomorrow's an early morning.

CRASH

I knew going into the season working Scarby that it would be a long road, and that I would need to be extra careful to get appropriate rest, since I was going to be on the go for 75 days in a row, with no days off.  As it turned out, my schedule at faire the last 2 weekends of the season (this past one, and the coming one) are "breaks only" schedules, because my boss's sister-in-law is helping her with breakdown and hauling everything back home on Monday or Tuesday. This is excellent, as it gives me closing weekend to play with my bestie, assuming that she makes it out, at least Saturday & Sunday, plus part of Monday, and it gives me a chance to go run amok with Angela as she's  planning to be out & kiddo free on Monday. 
Throughout the season I've been trying and adding to my yes/no list various scents.  I've found several wonderful new things, and a lot that I LOVE in the bottle, but they just aren't wonderful on me. I've tended to have one on my left wrist and one on my right.  One day a couple of weekends ago, I had on Sun and Thunderstorm, and my boss suggested I mix them together. I wasn't crazy about it, but it did give me the idea to find a water scent to mix with the Sun, and I started sniffing the scents until I found the right one, and Liquid Sunshine was born. It's sweeter and more floral than I've been wearing, but it's garnered compliments from all but one person, and she's not a fan of the floral scents to begin with. The first weekend, we sold 8 drams of it, so this past weekend I got to mix up a vial sized bottle of it for sale. I know that at least 4 drams sold, but beyond that I have no idea.
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I knew I was going to have to choose between lasting a whole day out there, or going to work Monday morning (yeah, like there's actually a choice there). When the boss told me that there wasn't enough business for them to need me, even for breaks, I packed up my cooler, and headed home. Yeah, it was bad, I was POOPED, and by the time I got home, I fell into bed for a short nap before I got up and did as much of my household chore for the week (cat cages) as I physically could.  I slept another 9 hours and managed to drag myself up and to work, only to discover that my computer is DEAD. Yeah, it was a rough couple of days, but today's severe weather has completely missed us, and it doesn't look like anymore is on its way, so we're all safe, dry, a comfortable temperature, and ready to face another day!

Scarby 2011 Begins

I'm home, after my 14^th day in a row of work, and I'm looking at more of the same… at least 54 of them. Last weekend, when I was in Norman, inhaling a year's worth of fiber and 3 seasons worth of dirt, I was offered a part-time gig working at Scarborough for the season. It's not glamorous, but the people are awesome, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE fragrance oils, which is what I'm selling. I'm working at Majikah Perfumery, about 15 hours/weekend, and the rest of my time on shire is my own, which is great, it gets me entry, allows me to save on water, soda & food costs while I'm on site, and it's going to give me the opportunity to try some new and interesting scent mixes. I am TOTALLY not in standing on my feet for more than 30 minutes or so at a time shape yet, but I'll get there by the end of the run, I'm sure. Last night my feet were fairly swollen, but today they're not quite so much, but by the time I got off, they were screaming "HEY LADY, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!" The location of the shoppe ensures that I'll see a lot of the folks I usually get to see, because while it's off the main path, it's very near one of the bridges, so we see everyone who goes from the gate across that bridge. It was much hotter than it usually is for opening weekend, but all of our regular crew managed to stay hydrated, and as far as I know, we didn't lose anybody to the heat.
It's going to be an interesting season, with some of the entertainment and vendor changes, and we'll see how it all shakes out! For now, I'm off to bed so I can get up and function tomorrow!

Trying to get better

I'd gotten pretty lazy about posting, I suspect, mostly because I was too tired to do anything by the time I got home from work. Now that I'm back out on the jobhunt again, perhaps I will get better about keeping up with my thoughts and ideas for posts. I've decided to break my Fibro posts off to a separate blog, more to consolidate them and keep them a little more organized for me, than anything else.
A lot has been going on, and this may wind up being a much more rambling post than originally planned, but hey, I've got a good bit to put into words, and it's my blog, so I can do that…
Scarborough:
For the past 8 years or so (admittedly only the past 3 of them full runs), Scarby has been a place of magic and joy for me. It's been an escape. Home. Family. Comfort. Love. Acceptance. Magic and Music. I knew going in that this year would be different, several acts that I enjoy are missing, either entirely or present only in limited runs. There has been some drama that affected me indirectly. My funds have been limited. Opening weekend there was an almost eerie silence in Pecan Grove. My schedule is all messed up. Oh, that's right, I don't have a schedule this year, because my favorite performing friends aren't on shire. I have never been at Scarby without full time bagpipe shows. Sure there's a piper in parade every day, but since I am not about to put myself into the Death March, I get about 5 minutes of bagpipes as the Scottish Regiment goes by. Even if I was willing to do the Death March, walking a mile over the course of almost ½ hour, hearing the same bit of tune on endless loop would likely put me off the pipes for a bit! I've adjusted over the past 4 weekends to the lack of pipes, and that's not nearly as annoying as it was the first weekend, but overall, the energy of the festival is just off somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but it's there. Vendors have moved, or been removed. Some of the new additions have been umm, questionable. I've elected to forego even walking into one of my favorite shoppes as a result of behavior exhibited by one of the owners at another festival. The last 2 seasons, I've not missed a single day. This year, I'm only going to make 1 full weekend of the remaining 4, the rest I will miss one of the days, in an effort to conserve $, gas, and make sure I can make my #1 boy's HS graduation over Memorial Day weekend. Surprisingly, it's not as heart wrenching as I thought it would be to begin with… perhaps on some level, without the usual magic, it just doesn't seem as if I'm giving up as much as I would have, say last season…
Work:
When I started the job in February, I was excited about the possibilities and opportunities I believed were opening to me. The early mornings and long days were hard to adjust to, getting up at 5 a.m. so I could leave by 6 and be at work by 7, and not getting home until 6:30, IF I didn't have any stops to make, but worth it in the end since I had 3 day weekends every week. I adjusted, and I thought things were going along just fine. A couple of weeks ago, I was assigned to go out into the field with an inspector, to give me a better understanding of that side of the work the company does. Monday and Tuesday were fine… not terribly warm, poles we had to check were not difficult to access. Wednesday, we had to go to a site that had 3 poles in a river bottom sort of area. I made it down to and up from the first one, huffing and puffing. The grade to get to the 2^nd & 3^rd was just more than I have the balance or stamina for, so I didn't even try. The inspector told me not to worry about it, it's not like I was going to be out in the field anyway. Monday after that (April 26^th), I was called into my manager's office and terminated. I was under a 90-day probationary period, which had not yet passed, so I don't know that I will get approved for unemployment, but we'll see. In the meantime, I am going back to Ebaying, and hunting for a job, and trying to get blogging better. I am also going to look at perhaps making pins or something that I could sell online…
Other stuff:
Last weekend was hard, physically and emotionally. I suspect it was a combination of the stress of the wedding, losing my job, and general blah-ness that made it hard on me. Sometimes I HATEHATEHATE being the strong one. It's been a long time since I was part of a couple. I truly thought I'd gotten past the heartbreak of last fall, when I decided that I would stop beating my head up against a wall that was not ever going to come down. I was wrong. It just annoys the hell out of me that everyone wants to hang with and make sure that the ones who have someone else taking care of them are taken care of… Sometimes I just want to smack them and say "HEY, WHAT ABOUT ME?" I don't know what it is about my personality that makes me try to hide my frustration about the situation, but I recognize that I do need to work on being more honest about what's really going on in my head or heart when someone asks me what's wrong, instead of just saying "meh, I'm tired"

Final Countdown

YAY! We are finally in the home stretch of the countdown to Opening Weekend at Scarby! Cannon is in 29 hours. In 26 or 27 I'll be in the parking lot greeting friends and getting ready for a lovely day in the shire. I should totally be packing my stuff and getting the house picked up so I can leave at 10:30 this morning to get some errands done before I head down to Waxahachie, but of course I am sitting on my ass, watching the news and blogging instead. I have managed to narrow down what to wear and am leaving all but 2 outfits at home, in an effort to not have quite so many decisions to make when I wake up in the mornings after a late night. I suspect that tonite I’ll be helping my motel roomie work on alterations for a friend’s costuming. Hopefully the changes will be mostly straight seams being sewn so we won’t be up all night. The cats know something’s up, and my sweet boy is sticking very close this morning. The good news is that the house won’t be unattended this weekend for the crazy bitch to get in and steal me blind, because some of my friends are staying here, though I’ll be closer to faire at the motel. I’m also hoping to get some good sunshiny photos of my front yard before I head out, because I’m quite happy with what I had my nephew put in on Sunday. I am going to have to get a better shepherd’s crook for one of my fuchsias though, because the one I’ve got keeps leaning down, and won’t stay upright for some reason. The more time I spend trolling the net looking at plants, the more I want to do with my backyard! I suspect, however, that I need to slow down a bit, lest I bust the bank account. This weekend is also Race Weekend in north Texas. Several people I know are going to various activities out at the speedway, but even if I wasn’t going to faire, I would probably not be heading that way. Traffic makes me crazy, and as much as I like watching on tv, and keep up with where my driver is in the standings, I’m not willing to be driving in that mess. If someone else wants to drive, we can discuss it, but it’s not going to be me behind the wheel. A few years ago I went down to Sundance Square on Friday to get an autograph for a friend’s birthday. I realize that Nascar is considered by many to be a redneck sort of sport, and I find it hugely amusing that it is the only professional sport that openly acknowledges a supreme being, and addresses that being prior to every race with a prayer. I think it’s kind of sad that other professional sports don’t publicly acknowledge faith in any way. I also appreciate the fact that generally, Nascar chooses vocalists that can do the Star Spangled Banner who can actually sing it without mangling it or jazzing it up, or whatever so many of the others I’ve seen at other events are doing. I mean, I get that everybody wants to leave their mark, but come on people, it’s our national anthem, and as a military brat, I have certain expectations with regard to the flag, anthem and other patriotic things/ideas. Among those expectations are basic respect for the flag, which means face it, men should remove their hats, and if you choose not to participate in the pledge or anthem, please just sit or stand quietly. If I am at an event hosted by your country, I will afford your flag and anthem the same respect I offer my own. It annoys the HELL out of me to see or hear people talking or giggling during the anthem. OK, that rant’s over now. I’d better get off my butt and get the sheets in the dryer, clean sheets on the bed, and finish packing so that I stand half a chance of being on the road when I want to be!

I LOVE TEXAS

But the weather drives me batty sometimes! In the last 48 hours it's been in the upper 70's or lower 80's, and currently it's 43 degrees in my backyard, and the temperature is still dropping. Sigh. It's a good thing #2 is just back from Alaska so the cold won't bother him too much while he's mowing, etc. And my evening plans, ladies sewing while the fellas are rat pucking up the street at the park I think are about to be adjusted, as I'm pretty sure the fellas aren't interested in frozen pucking. Not a huge deal, we all have projects we can work on inside and still have visiting time. Or we can just visit... I think I'm taking my cold little self to bed, with an extra quilt since I already took the blanket off and put it away. And we are within the '10-day forecast' range of Scarborough's opening day. Sure it's only marginally accurate this far out, but the current call is 55-75 with showers all weekend. NOOOOOOO! Colder than that with snow, sure that's fine, we managed just fine in our own little snowglobe on opening day 2007. In the predicted temperature range with sunshine, FABULOUS, we couldn't ask for much more perfect Faire weather. But RAIN? EWWW! It won't keep most of us diehards away, but it will certainly rain on our parade, literally. OK, I think I've rambled plenty for tonite... off to bed so I can get an early start tomorrow.