How can it be Labor Day??!

Hi there...

It's the world's worst blogger here! You know you need to do a better job keeping up with friends when you start to get emails saying, "Why haven't I heard from you? What's wrong? Are we friends anymore??" Yikes!

First, I'M SORRY to everyone I've neglected communicating with. It's not you! I love all my friends and family members dearly and wouldn't trade any of you for anything. I will try to summarize this year thus far so that you might understand my preoccupation a bit better.

The main thing that has consumed me this year is re-evaluating my career. The ad agency I co-own and operate with Dave is still afloat, but the economy has taken a huge toll. We will soon be attempting to renegotiate our deal with the theater chain for whom we do 95% of our work. If that doesn't fly, then we will have some serious decisions to make about the future of the company. I have mixed feelings about that. It's not that enjoyable working with Dave; but when the business was doing well, it was tolerable. So pray about this for me... that the future of the business will become clear soon and we'll be at peace, no matter what happens.

With all this brewing, I started to do some job hunting early this year. I needed to bring in some income from another source so as not to take as much out of the business. After several months of hunting in the worst job market in decades, I took an on-call position with Edward Jones, the financial services company. Each Ed Jones branch is a two-person office, a financial advisor and an office manager. So the company keeps its own pool of temps, ready to step in as needed when the regular office managers need time off. There are about 20 offices within a reasonable driving distance for me, so I've been promoting my availability so as to get more hours. So far I'm averaging about 5 days per month, which isn't much, but every little bit helps. The people are all really great to work with and the company is solid. I don't think I'd ever want to do this job full time, but who knows. I still have my radar on, looking for other job possibilities.

During my job search, I got the impression that even though I have a BA in Communications, my skills could use some updating. So I looked into the class offerings at my local community college and decided to work towards a certificate in Web Design and Development. I took my first class in summer school, Web Design 1. It was HARD because the pace was incredibly fast! Six weeks to learn HTML and XHTML--the coding language of web pages. But I did it, and found that I enjoy this type of work. Now it's fall semester and I'm in two classes: Digital Imaging (Photoshop) and Web Design 2. The pace is much more manageable, though still challenging.

So to summarize thus far... I'm working two jobs and back in college part time.

The next big life change that's happened recently is that Breanna and Cassidy moved in with me in July! The house where they were living with Christie and her baby, Christie's parents, brother, and assorted other people (adding up to 10-11 people at any given time) eventually got to be an unsustainable situation. Highly dysfunctional group, to say the least. So Bree asked if she could stay with me "for a while." I have a 2-bedroom townhouse, and the second bedroom is my office, which I need to keep as an office. So Bree and Cassy sleep on an aerobed in the living room. I can't park in my garage because there's furniture piled up in there. A friend of hers is supposed to move it into his new place sometime soon, but this friend is not the most reliable... Soooo, even though we are cramped here, we are getting along OK. Cassidy is so very cute, and very entertaining to be around. She's now 2-1/2, and very chatty. She likes to sing, especially the "happy birthday" song. She loves her dolls and stuffed animals, particularly Minnie Mouse. Cassidy can definitely pitch a tantrum as only 2 year olds can, but most of the time she's happy and cooperative.

Breanna is in school full time this fall, working on her AA in Child Development--at the same college I'm at. She doesn't not have a job at this time, as it seems to be all she can handle being a f/t student and mommy. She gets public assistance for essential living expenses, plus some financial aid at school. She chips in as much as she can for rent and groceries. She really doesn't seem to have any viable leads for other housing, either on her own or sharing a place with anyone. So it's possible we'll stick together for some time, although that could mean moving to a bigger place. I'd hate to leave my little townhouse; I put a lot of effort and money into fixing it up just the way I like it! It's really just right for me alone... but not the best with two others here. So that's another item for the prayer list: I could use some clarity on this housing situation.

Brenden is doing pretty well. He's also at the same community college, focusing on math classes. He wants to transfer to a 4-year school, possibly Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and get a degree in math. He wants to teach at the college level. He works as a tutor in two different tutoring centers on campus and seems to enjoy it. Brenden lives in Oceanside, renting a room from the owner of a pizza place where he hangs out and sometimes works. So he's pretty well situated for the moment. Oh, he earned his black belt in karate in April.

In other family news... My dad will finish radiation therapy this week for prostate cancer. He's done really well with the treatment, having very minimal side effects. We'll know soon how the treatment worked. Mom is going to need spinal fusion surgery in October. She's been dealing with bad sciatica pain for the last few years and no other treatments have given much relief. Other than these health issues, mom and dad are good and just celebrated their 52nd anniversary on August 24.

So what else...? Social life... I met someone named Doug around New Year's and we dated steadily until August 7, when I figured out that he was smoking again. I won't date smokers. (He had said he quit for good....) So I ended the romance, but we're still friends. He's working on quitting again, which is good, but I don't know that we'll ever be more than friends. Right now I really don't have time to devote to a relationship anyway. When I want to get out for an evening, Kelly (my chiropractor and cruise roommate) and her husband, Tyler, are often willing to go wine tasting or out to eat. Or I'll meet up with Robert Cadman (who was once my boss at K-Wave Radio) for a movie. He lives in Dana Point now, so one of us has to commute a little distance, but we have fun.

If you're on Facebook and we're not connected, please find me! Try "OceansideKim" in the search bar. That seems to work better than my name. I'm relatively new to FB and don't have much time to spend on it. But I've linked up with a few old friends from the past and it's been great to catch up.

Well, it's Labor Day, and I need a catch-up day at my desk. So I'll close this post for now and try to keep it up better in the future. No promises, though! You know me... the world's worst blogger. ;-)

Lotsa Love,
~Kim