Fun Times Close by

I really looking forward to this weekend. It's My Birthday Weekend! Friday I have a wedding to shoot, which will be a lot of fun hard work, then on Saturday Jason and I are chilling and my friend Lauren in coming into town, there's a few street festivals that day and then we might stop by Julianna's husbands 30th birthday surprise. Sunday is the day we're celebrating my birthday at the MD Renaissance Festival. It's always a great time. A few of my friends should be stopping by. It's weird for me to finally start seeing weekends for what they really are instead of just more days off for the unemployed. I feel like I'm fully employed with my photography gigs, Our365, Arbonne start up work and with studying for the Praxis every night. I wish I could see the results in monetary form, but it will accumulate with time.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week we're going to Ocean City with Jason's Dad, Step Mom, Stephanie, John and little Jackson. That should be a great little break from all the mind-scrabbling hecticness that is my life.

Upcoming Fun

Almost every weekend this month is filled with fun activities. It's great to have fun times to look forward to. There's a camping trip with my dear friends from the South for Lauren's B-Day and a trip I might take to NYC to see my girl Brooke perform her comedy act for the first time. Then there's Julianna's birthday party at Boordy Vineyard, with live music and plenty of wine. I know I have no money, but I'll really keep spending to a minimum. I've been pretty down these days with having a little human contact with my friends, but these upcoming events will really help me out and I just can't wait to see all my friends.

New Beginnings

A new chapter in my life began today. I was let go from my job. But I now get to pursue a new profound way of life...a new adventure is around the corner and I'm not going to let this happening bring me down. Unbeknown to many, I've happily been pursuing a new career as a freelance event photographer for a couple months now. I will not be paid for most of my first events, but once I've gained enough experience I will start feeling confident enough to ask for payment.

I feel okay about what occurred today. I have been given the freedom to explore my next chapter. I am the kind of person who wants to venture into different careers. I've been in the video/film industry for 7, almost 8 years now. Yes I would like to stay close to my roots, but I would like to explore my own artistic talents now and see if I can survive off them. Cheers to Julianna, Brett, Judy, Liz and Tykia, the other victims of today's cuts. I will be in touch! Judy please send me your info.

Stay strong, life has only begun.

Taking a Big One for the Team

You already know from Kate's entry what happened today.  This is her topic to talk about, I know.  I tried coming up with something else, but any other topic felt disingenuous considering the gravity of today's events.  So I'm taking things from a slightly different perspective.

It's never a great thing to lose your job.  Even knowing that, in the end, you'll probably be happier and better off, it's still a scary prospect.  But things could be worse, at least on the group level.  Any given company could, instead of letting a few employees go, try soldiering on with a full staff, and risk bleeding dry and having to shut down entirely.  Here, sacrifices made by the few, willing or not, save the rest of us.

No one wants to be the sacrificial lamb.  And those that still have jobs as a result should be thankful to their unwilling benefactors.  I know it's sort of morbid, but I'm indebted to the few who took a bullet to save the many.  Kate and I would be in a far worse situation if Renegade had to shutter its doors and we both lost our jobs.

So thank you Kate, Juli, Judy, Brett, Tykia and Liz for falling, or rather, being shoved onto the grenade to spare the rest of us.  If there's anything I can do to help any of you, please let me know.

Girl Talk

My crazy, down-to-earth hairdresser, Nina did my hair today. My friend Julianna and I always have Nina do our hair at the same time. The three of us have the greatest talks. It's really the best girl talk therapy I've had in a while and I really look forward to the once a month session. 

Nina's been out of commission recently, since she just had her breasts enlarged (they look and feel lovely by the way), so it had been a while. I had my hair cut short and spiky and dyed dark brownish red and Jules had a choppy short cut too, dyed a nice espresso brown. We both felt great when we left and loved our new dos. I never laughed so hard. Our talks usually consist of subjects like boys, family, movies, work, and we even hit on life aspirations sometimes. They are two amazing chicks and I can't wait for my next visit.