It's been an interesting year. Then again, aren't they all?
Most importantly, we are all healthy and relatively happy and everyone still speaks to each other, for the most part. As I type, Marci is in the kitchen getting dinner ready; Riley is at Target, working until about 7; Haley is downstairs with her "friend" John; Kody is on his bed snoozing; I am on the couch typing this up and watching the Packers vs Vikings.
For me, it's been a meh year professionally. Job ended in January with Amazon as my contract was up. I knew that was the case as that was what I accepted. What I didn't realize was that after my job ended, the bottom fell out of the tech industry and 1000s of people lost their jobs all over the country. I figured I'd be able to find a job, but with the economy in the toilet and everyone on a hiring freeze, that became difficult.
As a result, it was back to unemployment for the second time in my life. Unless I count a week in 2019 when we were asked by Atos to take a week off for something, in which case, it would be my third time. But, I digress.
Thankfully, I got unemployment and that helped us to get by. But the trouble was, I couldn't get a callback or an interview. I had plenty of connections, but no one was hiring. I had a little thing going on the side and considered starting a business, but I didn't and I just did some odd jobs here and there to help out.
Through the job drought, I kept it up with bass in Planets and the Sunset Grooves. Kathy dialed me up, but only once for the year; her SPT seems to not be gigging out as much anymore. Planets did 7 gigs, Sunsets did 10, and then my sideman gig with Forest Ray did 12 over the span of 2 weeks through Oregon and California. Despite playing 31 gigs, I would like to do more.
Come May/June, I got a call to go back to work, but also was able to finesse that road trip with Forest Ray. Though I had a bunch of fun with those guys, I don't know if I'd do it again, at least not under those circumstances. Maybe a shorter tour, or if there were lodging and food guarantees in place, but I definitely understand the situation better now. I was hoping it would open things up network-wise, but so far, nada. Which is fine; I love the 2 bands I'm in now and hope I can get more gigs with them in 2024.
In early June, Marci and I visited Haley up in Bellingham. We basically spent one night there, having an AirBnB gift card that we used to book a place. That was a fun getaway and nice to see Haley there doing her thing. We had only seen her in Bellingham in January when we dropped her off to start school. As far as I can tell, she seems to be thriving a bit there, compared to her experience at Concordia. She lived in the dorm for the first part of the year and had a roommate that seemed pretty cool. She came home for the summer and worked at the Coal Creek Y and had some HR drama there, which was super lame, but she seemed to get through that OK enough. She's now renting a place up there with 4 or 5 other girls, and seems to get along with all of them.
Add in this John guy, and she's growing up a bit. Though Hay hasn't told us that they're dating, it sure seems like they are. He's been here 2-3 times this week and she's spent the night at his place a few times as well. But, as with all things Hay, we pretty much need to let her come to us; asking her could put us in a bad position, as lame as that is. She does come to us for help with finances, as challenging as that is for all of us, but we try our best to help her out.
Riley has gotten in his groove at Colorado Mesa. He's doing well with his double major, with Tech Drama and something else, I forget. He seems to be a guy that the professors are investing time and energy with, sort of like the teachers did at NHS. He has his car at school and though that's helpful to him, it's gonna be a pain in May when I have to fly out there and help him drive it back. Better start saving now!
He and Claire are still together and she's been over on the regular as well. They're both working at Target again. Riley gets a lot of love from Target; they appreciate his hustle and leadership. Don't think he has a career in retail but I love that he's learning so much there. He's got a few more weeks here until he goes back to CMU. Hopefully the money he's making helps to carry him through the rest of the school year. He has taken out a loan for school, which sucks, but it is what it is now.
Marci is carrying the house these days. She's teaching like a beast and picking up a couple hours here and there doing tutoring, including our backdoor neighbor's kid, George. I wish we were in a position where she didn't have to work (or at least go to work), and could just be at home and do her thing, but until I can uplevel my career, this is her lot in life, I guess. :/
With the kids out of the house most days now, I feel like Marci and I are stronger than ever. I realized that when the kids are here, I have an "audience" and do act a little differently, and sometimes joke a bit too much at her expense. At the same time, I feel like I'm the one that tries to learn and evolve, where she sort of just goes along, without trying to grow. I don't know who is right or wrong, but it doesn't matter too much. We are good most of the time and I'm happy with that.
I don't know if there's much else to add here without getting too specific about anything. I guess it boils down to my usual response when someone asks me how we are doing. I always say that I can't complain, for the reasons I mentioned above (healthy, happy, etc). If the main drama in my life is the need to find a job, well, I'll take it.
Speaking of jobs, I have a hot lead again at Microsoft, possibly for my old role. Last year at this time, I was talking to those dudes and it was positive. They all agreed they'd like to have me back, but I was a "nice to have" not a "need to have," and they had no budget to make it happen. This year, I am a business need, but it's still under discussion and seeing about budget. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and have a good feeling. Hopefully by this time in January, we are green lit and I am either working or starting work again.
And rather than make this any longer than it already is, I think I'll stop here, start different entries for other stuff. To sum it up, another year in the books, things are good, let's have more of the same.
