Tag: #NewYear's

  • THE END of THE YEAR

    So, 2021 comes to close, and just like how I was feeling over Christmas, I have no excitement for the coming year. I am quite sure this is due to having three shitty years in a row. And if I really think about it, 2018 was a craptastic 12 months as well. It is fair to say that me and the wife have had a really difficult five years, if we are to be honest.

    I feel awful for saying that, mainly because it’s our daughter that is getting the short end of this stick. The first two years of being a parent aren’t easy, but we handled that time of our lives, I think, rather well. But these last five years… She’s had to deal with parents that have had a high level of anxiety. And I know that we aren’t the only people who have had a hard time. But I would like it to lighten up a little for the kid, if nothing else.

    She asked me last night as I was tucking her in how long she’ll have to keep wearing a mask.

    Just a while longer, I said.

    I had to give her some hope. I needed some hope as well.

    It’s a very fine line when hope goes from optimism, and crosses into a lie.

    But, there is still a chance that things can get better. A chance that optimism will return. That we can start planning for longer than a week, or a month.

    As my grandmother would say, you gotta have goals; something to look forward to.

  • The Week In-between Christmas and New Year’s

    (Note: No editing on this. You have been warned.)

    When I first moved to New York, and I was temping, I was one of the few people who was willing to work on the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I worked for a company that was in a midtown tower that had an amazing view of Central Park. At the job, I sat at a reception desk for eight hours, and did nothing. No one called, and except for a very sad office manager, I was alone. I couldn’t do anything on the computer; no Google searches, no looking at social media, and being that it was December 2006, no smart phones. I had a journal and a book to read, but even that annoyed the office manager. It was painfully boring week, but at the same time, the easiest $800 I ever made.

    By the time the next Christmas rolled around, I was working at Shetler Studios as their office manager. As I was the newest guy on the staff, that first Christmas, I was the guy who worked the In-between week of Christmas and New Year’s. You may wonder, who uses a rehearsal studio during that week? The answer is virtually no one. There was one guys who practiced piano every day, and he would come by during that week, and he was a good guy who could play, so it was fun having him there. Other than that, and the night manager who came in at 5pm, nothing happened during that week.

    As I started this in-between week, I thought back on those two jobs today. Sitting someplace, all alone, working but for what purpose? It most likely was true for that company in midtown, and was definitely true for the studios, that being open for that week was a loss for the company. Being closed would have made more sense, and saved money. But no, both companies spent a dollar to make a dime. I never asked the office manager at the midtown company why they were open, mainly because I needed the job and they were paying $5 more than I normally earned. When I asked old man Shetler why the studios were open, his response was that they were always open, no matter what.

    Just a thought that came into my head this morning.