So Far, So Good!

How did another month go by without a post from me? I know you've been waiting breathlessly! (Yes, I DO hear those crickets chirping.)

How am I supposed to get any work done
with THIS under my desk?

Freelance work has continued to keep me busy. I'm happy to report that I've actually been able to earn a living (so far) as an independent freelancer. Don't get me wrong... I'm still stressing about earning enough to pay the bills, but I'm starting to relax a little because I've got a couple good clients who have sent me a fairly steady workflow. In fact, I've so busy I still haven't had a chance to finish updating my portfolio and get my self employment biz stuff in order, other than filing my self employment tax a few days before the April 15th deadline. (Oh joy... I get to write that big fat check to the US treasury three more times this year! Ouch!). And I haven't yet had the time or wherewithal to put together a comfortable workspace... I set up the "Big Mac" on my old drawing table in the spare bedroom. Not exactly comfortable, but at least it's functional for now.

Every time I think it's slowing down and I try to take a day to catch my breath and catch up on domestic chores, things get busy again! The house is usually a bit of a mess, as I've only had time to keep up with the necessary tasks like doing the dishes, laundry and grocery shopping when we run out of something.

A recent Tuesday afternoon with a pal.... Lingering over
chips & guacamole and an ice cold cerveza. Lovely.

But I've also enjoyed some of the perks of being my own boss. Though I've had to pull some late nights to do it, I've been able to take an afternoon off here and there to enjoy with pals, and I even took the whole day off (well, most of it anyway) and spent it with Mr. Remarkable Monkey on our recent 10-year anniversary. Even if it's just an extended lunch hour with a friend, it's been great not having to stick to office hours.

My "assistant", taking his duties seriously.
It's hard work making sure the futon doesn't float away
in case there's an interruption in gravity service!

Plus, I have an excellent assistant. He's not very productive and doesn't get much done other than making sure the floor doesn't move, but he helps keep the stress levels down. We both enjoy our afternoon "board meetings" in the park.

Ya know, I think this freelance thing might suit me! Fingers crossed I can continue to find enough work to get the bills paid.

So far, so good!

You Ain't the Boss of Me!

"Where the hcck have you been for six weeks, Remarkable Monkey?" I just know that's what you're asking... all three followers of this blog! (Hi, Mom!) So for those who don't know already, I'll tell you where I've been.

Remember a couple posts back when I told y'all about the uncertainty of my work situation? Well, the inevitable happened. I was placed on a "freelance as-needed" basis, effective February 25th. Truthfully, I fully expected that to happen, but it came much sooner than I expected. The good news? I've logged a lot of freelance hours with my now-former employer so far, and have also had the good fortune to land some other freelance projects as well!

When the change first happened, I was really anxious about whether or not I could find enough work to make a go of being self-employed. But March has been a very good month, and I'm beyond grateful to my new clients! I've been so busy for the past few weeks that I haven't had time READ any blogs, let alone write any posts for this one. I've been working nearly my regular (though shortened) schedule for my former employer, and then coming home to anywhere from 2-6 hours of work for other folks most nights. I'm tired, but an overload of work is a good problem to have right now! Gotta make hay while the sun shines. Especially since it looks like the workload at my former employer's will be drying up quickly.

They're down to a handful of employees now, and there doesn't seem to be much new biz coming in. I'm not sure why... but I honestly think it may just be that they're having trouble adjusting to the "real" world of advertising/marketing, now that they've been forced out of the niche they'd been in for 20-some-odd years. I really hope they figure it out and get business rolling again. They're good people. Plus, if they're successful, that could mean more freelance work for me. A girl's gotta earn a living! They've said I'll always have an office there and that I'm also welcome to use the color copier from time to time, which is very much appreciated. Things aren't pretty there right now though. Everyone is stressed, naturally. I'm really not sure they'll survive, but I hope so.

Ya know what really sucks? I would have celebrated my 10th anniversary with the company a week after my change to freelance status. A year ago, that would have meant a nice cash bonus. Since that perk evaporated (wouldn't have gotten one even if I had still been staff), at my suggestion the president of the company agreed to give me my Mac workstation as a token of appreciation for 10 years of loyal service. I had been negotiating to purchase it anyway... it's five years old and was in need of a few hundred dollars in upgrades, which I got done last week.

So now I have a nice big iMac on which to work as I embark on my self-employment path, which will be much easier than squinting at this MacBook Pro screen. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my MacBook! It served me well when it was the only functioning Mac I had at home and the freelance work started rolling in, and it will continue to serve me well as a portable workstation when I feel like working out on the patio. But it's a whole lot easier to work when you can see your entire page layout on a project without it being microscopically small! Now I just need to find a comfortable workspace to set up the "Big Mac" in. As soon as I have time to do that spring cleaning and reorganize the house.......

So.... it's been a very turbulent and hectic few weeks, but overall pretty damn positive for me! Again, I can't thank my freelance clients enough for helping to make this such an auspicious start to my new independent endeavors! Is it too early to start singing the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" (season 1) theme song?

Celestial Reasonings?

We drink a fair amount of tea here in the monkey cage, and quite a bit of it is herbal. We usually have several boxes of Celestial Seasonings teas in the house. Are you familiar with that brand? It's pretty tasty tea. Honey Vanilla Chamomile is one of my favorites, along with Sleepytime and Sleepytime Vanilla.

Now, Celestial claims, on every box of tea bags mind you, that they save 3.5 million pounds of waste every year by not having a string, tag, staple and wrapper on their tea bags.

But they also make their tea available in K-cups, which are NOT easily recyclable, and therefore must be contributing to waste. (Only two-thirds of each K-cup is recyclable.)
So... is it just me, or does it seem kind of hypocritical for them to brag about not having strings, tags, staples and wrappers on their tea bags when they also provide their tea in non-recyclable K-cups?  How can they have it both ways?

Mr. Remarkable Monkey says they're still saving waste, but I think if they're now creating more waste with K-cups, they should stop making statements about how much waste they're saving on the tea bag boxes. But maybe it's just me.

Don't get me wrong... I'll still drink their tea. Just not in K-cups. (We don't have a Keurig anyway.)

Monkey at the Theater: Billy Elliot The Musical

Our stereo looked something like this, except my mom
painted it green at some point. I don't know where it ended up,
but I'm sure today's hipsters would probably drool over it.

My mom is a big Broadway musical fan. I can't tell you the number of times she'd play a soundtrack record on the turntable of our big green console stereo cabinet when I was a kid. She'd also sing the songs or play the cassettes in the car on long trips. I grew up on the songs from Camelot, Oklahoma, The Music Man, Man of LaMancha... my brother and I even snuck a listen to Hair when she wasn't home once. She rarely played that one when we were little because of the "adult" content. Later, when we kids had left home, she and a friend or two would get the Broadway season ticket packages at her city's performing arts center. 

Now that she lives in a small coastal NC town, she has to travel all the way to Raleigh to see a broadway show... or she comes to visit me in big city Florida, where we have a couple of great places to see Broadway shows when the touring companies come around. She's come down to see a few shows here, including Legally Blonde, Wicked and A Chorus Line. Mr. Remarkable Monkey and I also try to catch a Broadway show on our own now and then. (Cuz we’re classy like that, y'all.)

This year, she decided to skip a trip down since she and her wonderful husband just went on a nice long cruise. But she wanted to make sure Mr. Remarkable Monkey and I went to see a show this year, and so for Christmas she gifted us with tickets to see Billy Elliot the Musical, in part because she knows the original movie is one of our most favorites. (Do check it out if you haven't seen it.) So went to see the musical version when it was in town last week.


My opinion? It was good, but I didn't like it as much as the movie. I felt like you didn't really get to know Billy as well. Another difference: in the Broadway version, they spent a lot more time on the miners' strike situation, which they probably needed to do to provide more drama and background for the story. But it also made the story a little more political, which some could argue drew focus away from Billy's conflict and struggles with entering the world of dance. Some of the musical numbers also seemed a little... disjointed and unconnected. Like Grandma's only song... it was funny and interesting, and I guess it was meant to explain her love of dancing, but her involvement in the story kind of dead-ended there. Mr. Braithwaite is also pretty much a background character for the whole show, except for one number that he pretty much steals! But then he's relegated back to the background again.

The boy who played Billy for the performance we saw was pretty good, but the boy who played Michael seemed to be a student of the James Brolin School of Acting Junior Academy... really bad over the top overacting. The girl who played Debbie was a little better, but also apparently a fellow JBSA-JA alumna. The other ballet girls, as a group, were hysterical! Scene stealers, they were.

I also thought the staging was pretty cool. The way the sets were designed and used was simple but efficient and visually effective. And the closing number was a ton of fun. So overall, not the best show I've seen, but pretty good. Unless you're a big fan of Broadway musicals, you might want to stick to the movie. (Which has a fabulous T-Rex-heavy soundtrack, by the way!)

Is it the Beginning of the End, or Just the Beginning?

I debated whether or not to write this post... in part because nobody really wants to read about whatever personal drama is happening in the monkey cage at the moment, and also because my employer may not be comfortable with it. But since this blog is still fairly anonymous, I think I can give you the gist without divulging too many details that might upset my employer.

I've mentioned previously that my once-secure job is no longer very secure. The dynamics of the company I work for have fundamentally changed due to a major budget restructuring by our clients' parent company, effective as of January 1st of this year. We've known it was coming since August, and efforts have been underway to generate new business since then, but after over 20 years with a unique and cushy niche it's been difficult to attain momentum in a new direction.

About a quarter of the 24 employees on staff left the company on their own before the end of 2012. Since the beginning of this year, another 5 have been laid off and the rest of us have had our hours and pay cut by 20%. Office morale is pretty low right now, and things are looking fairly grim.

It's not all doom and gloom though... While it's slow going, we have made some encouraging progress on the new business front. I'm not sure how much work will result from it, but it's a start. Will the company be able to survive? I really don't know. We're all trying to be optimistic, but I have a feeling that things may get worse before they get better.

I feel very fortunate that my current situation enables me to better ride this wave of uncertainty than some of my coworkers. Things are going to be extremely tight, but with Mr. Remarkable Monkey employed and our house six months away from being paid off, we SHOULD be okay... barring any unforseen financial calamities. As the only remaining employee in the art department, the company will probably need me to handle whatever creative work trickles in, so hopefully I'll be employed for at least a little while longer. I'm also slowly trying to get my portfolio updated in the hopes that I can pick up some freelance work soon. (Yes, I'm a graphic designer if you haven't guessed that already. "Really? Then why the hell haven't you customized the design of this blog, Remarkable Monkey?" Because it hasn't been a priority, pal! This blog is mostly a writing exercise for me, but now that I have extra time on my hands........)

Truth be told, I was already considering cutting back to part time work when the house is paid for so I can go back to school and get my bachelor's degree. I don't know if I actually WILL do that, but this may be the last best chance I have to do it. So maybe fate is trying to tell me something. Either way, while it's a little scary, this shake-up could turn out to be a good thing. All I can do is try to make sure that it DOES turn out that way. Wish me luck!

Either Way, It's a Catchy Hook...

Is it just me, or does the hook in the song in the current Kia Soul hamsters-in-space commercial ("In My Mind" - Axwell Mix) sound a lot like the hook in Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World"?

 

 (Couldn't find the short version of the current Kia Soul spot, but this has the song. You can watch the full original "Opera" version here.)

You be the judge. (Love that Wreckless Eric song!)

"Truth" in Advertising?

The other night, Mr. Remarkable Monkey and I were watching Top Gear on BBC America (is it just me, or is the British version of Top Gear the only one worth watching?) when one of those wonderful cable-only commercials came on. You know the kind... low-budget production, excitable voice-over announcer, overly obvious acting, etc. The ad was for a certain lightning implement.

Now, I was playing around on my new MacBook Pro and only half paying attention when the commercial started. But the over-emphatic announcer caught my attention. Without looking up from my laptop, I commented to Mr. RM about the "James Brolin School of Acting" quality of the voiceover. (The James Brolin School of Acting tag is a fond moniker we've given to any example of tin pan alley, obvious or just plain bad thespianism. No offense intended to James Brolin, but it was based on a few poor examples of his acting that we've witnessed in the past, but that's just our opinion.)

The ad was full of enthusiastic declarations about the amazing features of the product, delivered with such gusto that one would believe this item is the be-all and end-all of the lighting world! The greatest thing since the electric lightbulb! Truly, this spot could almost be mistaken for a parody of those "seen on TV" ads, but it's for real. And then, without warning, the announcer made the astounding declaration that this particular lantern was made with "genuine metal".  GENUINE METAL! WTF? Mr. RM and I immediately stopped and looked at each other, and then burst out laughing. Genuine metal? Seriously? What other kind of metal is there?

In defense of the copywriter, I'll grant that there probably are many products made from plastic embellished to look like metal, but the exuberance with which the statement was made was completely over the top and comedically ridiculous. Or maybe it was just us. I don't know. Here's a link to the spot... I'll let you be the judge. (The metal magic happens at 1:17.)

On top of the genuine metal claim, the lantern also features an "authentic antique dome"... whatever that is. Have they recycled the dome part from old lanterns? Other versions of this spot say "authentic shatterproof dome" instead of "authentic antique dome"... I wonder which version is the the "legally approved claim" version? The mind boggles.

Apparently, this ad has been around since last summer, but somehow we'd never seen it in the monkey cage. At any rate, we might be late to the party, but we got a solid chuckle out of it! Maybe you will too. I think they may carry these at some big box retailers now too, so feel free to run out and buy yourself one! Be sure to let me know if it lights up the night for ya, and lasts 10,000 hours.

Let's Get This Year Started...

I can honestly say I wasn't sorry to see last year end. 2012 was not very kind to me... it was a year marked by loss: I lost my grandma, then my father, I lost the bulk of my job security and Mr. Remarkable Monkey lost his job altogether, and we lost a dear friend just before Thanksgiving. We've also had to deal with Hobey's diagnosis of Cushing's (along with the expensive testing and ongoing treatment), and watch him struggle with arthritis issues as he gets older. All in all, as I sat here on New Year's Eve, I mostly just felt like bidding 2012 goodbye and good riddance.

But it wasn't all bad.... Mr. RM and I are both reasonably healthy, and I even managed to lose 15 pounds in the past year (ten more and I'll really be a skinny bitch). And although my employment status is a bit shaky, I DO still have my job for now, and Mr. RM started his new job last month so we both have paychecks coming in at the moment. Our mortgage is really close to being paid off, so I'm hoping our employment situation will remain stable for at least another few months until we get that knocked out. But if not, we'll be fine. We'll figure it out.

We also enjoyed some fun with friends and family last year. We saw some good movies and one rockin' Broadway show. We had some great meals and tried a couple new restaurants. We got to paddle down the river in a dragon boat, a truly cool experience. I got to visit with some family I haven't seen in years, which was fun despite of purpose of the trip being to spread my grandparents' ashes. And I was able to find that lost puppy a good home last month. We got an update from her new mommy last week... she named the pup Zoey, and she's adjusting to her new home well and getting lots of love.

In the grand scheme of things 2012 could have been much worse, and it was for a lot of folks. I mean, I wasn't shot at while at the movies, and none of my friends' kids were shot at while at school. My nephew is in Afghanistan and may or may not have been shot at, but so far remains safe and uninjured. Our home wasn't flattened by a superstorm, or by fire or flood. None of our friends and loved ones were mangled or worse in a car/train/plane crash. We haven't gone hungry and have all the necessities, most creature comforts and even a few small luxuries. So I'm trying to focus on the positive as we move into the new year. Lucky 13? Maybe. I'm just hoping it will be a better year for all of us.

Happy New Year, y'all.

Every Dog Has Its Day.

We had a houseguest for most of last week, and she was a real bitch. No really... she was a little female puppy that was running in the street when Hobey and I were walking to the park on Monday morning. She had a collar but no tag, appeard to be healthy and maybe six to nine months old. Nobody was running after her, and I couldn't just leave her roaming the street, so I got her to follow me and Hobey home. It didn't take much coaxing. She was very friendly and happily joined our conga line.

Mr. Remarkable Monkey took her to our vet to see if she was microchipped. She was, but the chip was still registered to Broward County Animal Control. We called them with the chip number to see if they could tell us who had adopted her. As it was Monday, they were closed, and the person who answered the phone didn't seem interested in being helpful. All he said was "the chip was never updated after adoption." Duuuuh! Ya think? But they have to have some record of who adopted her, right? I figured we might get a better result if we called the next day when they were open, so we posted some flyers around the neighborhood hoped we could find the owner quickly.

The next day I called Broward County again, and this time a very helpful gentleman gave me a name, phone number and address of someone here in Tampa who had adopted the pup. I called the number and got a generic voice mail greeting. I left a message saying we found his dog and gave our cell and home numbers, thinking surely he'd be relieved to know his pup was safe and sound, and waiting to come home. We didn't hear back, and because the address we were given was slightly off (the street we were given doesn't have the directional designation that was included), I wondered if the phone number might also be a digit or two off. So I Googled the name, and found a few area residents. We tried to contact a few of them, but got no response or the dog wasn't theirs.

On Wednesday I tried another internet search again, and this time found a listing with the same name and the correct street address. Bingo! That allowed me to determine the apartment complex the guy lived in. Since we still hadn't heard from him, I called the complex manager and explained the situation. I knew they wouldn't be able to give me any information, but I asked if they could get a message to this person if he did indeed live there. The manager was more than happy to help, and even called me later to let me know she had left a message for the guy.

He finally called us back on Thursday morning and said "Oh I gave that dog away a couple months ago." We asked who he gave her to so that we could get her back to them. He said, "I don't know... somebody in the dog park who said they wanted her." Riiiiiiiiiight. It's pretty obvious that douchebag dumped her. Poor pup! In the meantime we'd been fostering her, reluctant to take her our county animal services as the Humane Society requires for any strays found so that their owners can locate them. I wondered if they'd now make an exception since we already tracked down the owner and he didn't want her.

Hobey displayed an amazing amount of patience
with our exuberant visitor!

Now, she was a very sweet and affectionate pup, but the monkey cage is ill equipped to handle an energetic and poorly trained young dog. She wasn't fully housebroken but had the general idea. She also seemed pretty smart, but mischievous! She was a playful little thing, and she absolutely adored Hobey and wanted to be right next to him all the time. Little Goo (short for Goober) as we called her, would get in Hobey's face wanting to play. Hobey would growl at her, which she took to mean "Game on!", and she'd start swatting and jumping at him, wanting to play. Poor old Hobey is starting to have arthritis and mobility issues and couldn't get away from her. She was really too much for him. As sweet and loving as she was, it wouldn't be fair to him to bring a rambunctious pup into our home, nor would it be fair to her. So we had to find her a home quick, or we'd have to take her to a shelter or rescue.

Thankfully, after spreading the word and photos to all our pals and asking them to pass it along, a coworker of a friend called on Friday to ask if she could come by and see Little Goo. Said she'd been thinking about getting a dog for a while and wanted to come and meet her. She came the next day, and I think it took all of about 30 seconds for her to fall in love with her. Five minutes later, she said she wanted to take her home. Yaaaaay!!!

We kept the pup a while longer and packed up a bag with some toys, treats and food while her new mom went to get a crate and other necessities. And then she came back, loaded pup in the car and we had to say goodbye to L'il Goo. Honestly, I was a little sad to see her go, but so very happy and relieved that she was going to a good and loving home.

Little Goo... behave yourself, obey your new mommy, give her lots love, and grow up to be a good doggy!

As for the feckless wonder who abandoned her, I can only hope Karma repays him tenfold. Personally, I think he should be hitched to a truck bumper by his ankles and dragged naked through a cactus field, but maybe it's just me.

Where Did the Time Go?

I'm not quite sure how over a month has gone by since the last post. They say time flies when you're having fun... not that I was having loads of fun from late October until now. (Although I did have SOME fun.) So what has kept me from this blog so long? Hmmm...

At first, I was reluctant to blog so close to the election. Just didn't seem prudent to open up THAT can of worms. I would like to say this though... to all the Republicans who pledged to make it their mission to see to it that Obama was a one-term president: your juvenile plan failed. So now will all of you... BOTH parties... stop acting like a bunch of schoolyard idiots and work together to resolve some of our country's issues? Please?? Can ya do that?? Riiiiiight... I'll be here holding my breath. And just so ya know, if I gotta hear the phrase "fiscal cliff" one more time I'm gonna lose it. Seriously... do your effin' job!!

Employment here in the monkey cage has been a mixed bag. My job status is shaky... our company is facing a major financial drop due to a huge cut in our clients' advertising budgets. We're working hard to generate new business, but we just don't know what the future holds. I'm trying to stay positive, but I may be out of work myself in a few months. Fortunately, Mr. Remarkable Monkey is tentatively scheduled to start a new job next week! Wooohooo! He's just waiting on the official paperwork. Of course, neither of us will be able to really relax until it's a done deal. As long as one of us has a steady full time gig, we'll be okay. But the past couple of months or so have been a bit stressful to say the least, leaving me mostly just wanting to veg out in the little bit of down time I have.

We celebrated Mr. RM's birthday a couple weeks ago which was fun. But then a few days later, we suddenly and unexpectedly lost a good friend and former hockey teammate. It was quite a shock, as we had just seen him at the party. He was a great guy... the guy we all wanted to be like when we grew up. He was older than most of our group of pals, but you'd never guess it, and we expected he'd outlast us all. It's hard to believe that he's gone. We hadn't seen him in a few months, and we're so thankful that we had that last chance to enjoy his company at the party. You always think there's plenty of time... and then suddenly you realize that anything could happen in no time at all.

I was reminded of that again this week, on what would have been my father's birthday. Another example of time that slipped away... he ran out of time before I managed to make my way out to Hawaii to see him after so many years. Mr. RM and I raised a glass of Glenfiddich and toasted his memory. (I still haven't acquired a taste for scotch... that bottle will undoubtedly last me for years!)

And so I find myself hoping that I can pay more attention to making good use of my time moving forward. It's easy to put things off... life has a habit of getting in the way and screwing up your priorities. Don't get me wrong, vegging out is still a necessary exercise from time to time. But I hope I can be a bit more mindful of the important things and make more time to spend on them: friends, family, learning new things, professional pursuits, even simple pleasures like reading! I can't remember the last time I did a crossword puzzle. I've been meaning to learn how to really use my sewing machine for a couple years. And I still haven't finished knitting the baby blanket I started for my grandniece last year.

Where DID the time go? I guess I just don't manage it well. I don't know if I'll really be able to get a better handle on it, but I'm going to try. And all that lost time? Maybe someday soon I'll find it. Wish me luck!