Good:
I got to work early this morning for a change. That might have something to do with the fact that I’ve had a pretty good week at work so far. I’ve been playing a lot with javascript and completed a page yesterday that used it heavily (and successfully) as well as a few more advanced concepts of ColdFusion. Before I left last night, I sent a note to my boss saying, basically, “This stuff is actually interesting again.” Let’s hope today goes as well as the last four have.
Got to spend some time with Chris on Tuesday and Wednesday, and might even go see her tonight if our schedules allow. Don’t think I have to explain why that’s good.
I got an email from David Klausman last night and I’ve been booked to play a high-paying Easter gig with a kick-ass quintet. Really looking forward to that.
My own (very mediocre) quintet will be playing at the Atlanta Lawn and Garden show in Cobb tomorrow night. I guess that’s a good thing. It’s a chance to play in front of people, at any rate. We’re not that good, but we’ve been doing the flower show for the last 5 or 6 years now and it’s a nice low-stress gig that nets us dinner.
Bad:
I took my car into the shop on Tuesday to have them figure out what was causing a rattle underneath the passenger floor. They worked on it for about 2.5 hours and apparently managed to find the culprit, as the rattle is gone. They did this for free. Why is this bad? Because they handed me a sheet when I was leaving describing in detail all the things that they found wrong with the car which need to be addressed quickly. Little things like brakes and split seals. So my bonus, which I’ll get on March 6th, is basically already spent. Total cost is looking to be $2K-$3K.
It continues to rain every time I have an opportunity to do things that require that it not be raining. I refer, of course, to the leak in my roof. I have *got* to get that thing fixed, but – seriously – everytime I leave my office, it starts raining. I’m not going to try to get on my roof in the rain. I just won’t do it. Still trying to figure out how to just go ahead and put on a new roof. I’m thinking a 401K loan might be in order since my insurance company doesn’t want to get involved. I’m also thinking that I might get involved with a new insurance company.
Really freaking ugly:
I can’t really go into much detail about this because it involves the GBB. One of our tuba players did something stupid and was asked by his section to take a leave of absence for the rest of the concert season because of it. Our reasons for asking this of him vary – some liken it to an intervention, others to outright punishment (I’m with the latter).
Because this was a personnel issue, I thought the the personnel manager of the band should be informed about the act of idiocy. Because of potential embarrassment to the idiot, the rest of the tuba section over-ruled me. As it turned out, the personnel manager found out anyway and was/is extremely pissed about the situation. The entire board has now been informed of the details – several different versions of the details, actually – and a regular old shitstorm of emails has been flying for the last couple of days.
The sentiment of many on the board is that the half-wit was treated unfairly by the rest of the section and “forced out of the band.” I disagree with this attitude, but as far as I can tell, my credibility with the board has been destroyed and I have offered to resign if anyone would like for me to. I still am not sure if that’s what I *want* to do, but the actions of 1 total imbecile and 3 other idiots, who didn’t want to take the simple step of informing the personnel manager, may have taken the decision out of my hands.
Remember in my “Disturbed” post when I talked about how, in spite of a lot of work that was put into a code of conduct several years ago, the band still has no code of conduct? Ironically, such a document would have saved a lot of bad feelings in this situation. I guess I should have pushed harder to get it done.
And that’s enough about that.
At the end of my sophomore year in college, I won a lottery and was one of the very few people who lived on campus who was awarded a coveted single room. The school didn’t have many singles, preferring instead to put two people in each room (or three or more in some cases), and I was pumped about getting one. Juniors being awarded singles was extremely rare – the rooms usually were snapped up by seniors in the weighted lottery – so I was thrilled.
During the summer, I procured a couch, built a loft for the bed, and did various other things so that I’d be ready for my wonderful private dorm room. And then I got a message from the school saying, “We made a mistake. TWD shouldn’t have been given that room. We gave it to someone else. Tough luck on that. Maybe next year.”
Mom basically blew a gasket. I’m still not sure exactly who she talked to or what she said to them, but she was over-the-top livid mama hen in fully involved “I will eat you for breakfast” mode. In about a week, I was informed that the school had magically found ANOTHER single room that I could have.
I got the room that I’d originally wanted for my senior year – making me one of the very few people who ever had a single for two years.
Thanks, Mom.
TWD