Turn Your Head and Cough

Life is - interesting? Erik and I went hiking at Grafton Notch State Park (near Sunday River) Labor Day weekend. Some of you, especially those in New England, may know that area from recent news reports on the four people who were murdered up that way (the same weekend we were there ironically enough.) It was the first time we had been hiking in about 2 years. We took advantage of the fact that we actually had a day off together to do something that we like to do. Well, I have always had issues with altitude changes, no matter how subtle, so I of course huffed and puffed my way up and down the mountain, but I managed to do it with no problem. The two days following the hike I went to the gym, and noticed that my breathing wasn't as controlled as it usually is, and I ended up not finishing a good chunk of my workout both days. That night, after the second day at the gym, I noticed that my chest was still tight from my workout, a good 6 hours after I had gotten home from the gym. I decided that the next day I would call my PCP and make an appointment, just to make sure I was fine.

Well, my PCP wouldn't take me. They told me do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars, go straight to the ER. I was hesitant because I really didn't feel like I was going to have a heart attack or anything, but Erik convinced me to go. So I spent 6 hours of my life in the ER. They took x-rays of my chest, took blood, did a CAT scan, couldn't find anything wrong with me. I guess my oxygen levels did dip at one point, but that still didn't help them explain what was going on. I was then recommended to see a cardiologist, which I did two days later. They did an echocardiogram, and on first glance, could not find anything alarming. In typical fashion, the ER didn't order all of the tests that the cardiologist needed, so now I have to go back to have a stress test and have bubbles injected into my blood (weird).

Why do I never get anything common or normal? I mean, some of you will remember the weird spot on my eye. While they think they know what it was (sort of), they still don't know what caused it.

In other news, I started my Management in the Non-profit Sector class. The professor is a bit...dry. I'm not sure if I like the class or not, but I didn't really get much of a chance to make that decision. First day of class, the fire alarm goes off about an hour into the class. Since the firemen couldn't figure out what the problem was, they couldn't let us back into the building, so class was over for for the evening.

Dude!

Yes, we are still alive up here in the wilds of Maine. You can call us Karla "Work" (last name) and Erik "Work and Class" (last name). It's been insane, but it looks like things are slowing down a bit, at least for me. I opted a few weekends back to the be the site manager at Victoria Mansion, essentially working 14 days in a row without a day off. Needless to say, it wasn't good for my stress level.

While things are getting better for me, they are just beginning to get busy for Erik. His summer classes end next week, but then he's off to his two weeks of active duty for the Coast Guard (required of reservists), then back to work AND class full time as soon as the two weeks are over. Insanity I tell you.

There is still a month left of summer, but looking back, this summer has been pretty much consumed by work. Not thrilled about this, but hey, what can you do. The highlights for me have been my trip to Connecticut for a high school friend's wedding party and our annual trip up to Castine. Be greatful for the small things, right?

Momentary Bliss?

Yo!

It's been way too long since I wrote something on here...April to be exact. So I figured I'd give you all the skinny on what's shaking. Erik just started classes at Southern Maine Community College - financial accounting and macro economics. Makes me want to curl up in a corner and snore, but good for him for getting back into the swing of things. And hey, the Coast Guard is paying for it, so hoo ha! His plan is to obtain an Associates in Business Administration in the next year, then move on to the Landing School in Kennebunk where he'll obtain a Professional certificate in Marine Systems Technician. Pretty cool, huh?

As for me, it's time for school as well. Oh no, I haven't taken up the GRE's again, hell no :-) I figured I'd start off slow and do another certificate program. Given my attraction to non-profits (I am the non-profit queen you know) and my newly appointed position at Maine Preservation, I have decided to do the Certificate in Non-Profit Management program and the University of Southern Maine. Application goes in the mail tomorrow. I'm excited. And yet again, I have Dos to thank (she's the one who inspired me to apply for the gift shop position at Victoria Mansion). Dos is the one who told me about it, so I did my research and thought it looked perfect for me as well. I figure, I haven't taken a class in two years now, so it'll be a good starting point before I make a decision about actual grad school and the GRE's and all that.

Memorial Day weekend was good. I actually had Monday off PAID! Believe me, this is a new concept for me since I've been the part-time schmo for the past two years. Erik and I had one of our notorious BBQs on the Saturday. Sharon and Sandra came up from CT; Vivian came up from MA for the day; Anne, a friend of Curtis' from Prague (she's American) who is moving to Portland joined us as well; and of course Uno since she now lives in town. Fun was had by all as we devoured greasy meat, potato salad, pasta salad, and cookies. Sunday I was at the Mansion, but Sharon and Sandra stopped by for a tour (luckily not mine), and I met up with everyone after I got out for a ferry ride to Long Island (in Maine, not New York). Monday we all relaxed.

Also had my last day of Old York. As much as I complained about the commute and having to pay for gas, it was bittersweet to leave. The girls in the office got me a really cool, colorful beaded bracelet. And the big shocker before I left - Drew, my now former boss, is leaving too!!!!! I almost fell out of my chair when he told me! And apparently I wasn't the only shocked one in the office! His last day is June 24, the day of a huge fundraiser that he had helped plan and promised to stay for. So the entire development office, all two of us, are moving on to bigger and better things. Apparently the new job just fell in his lap and he wasn't necessarily looking. I feel bad for the executive director, but hey, people move on I guess. I actually trained my replacement for 4 1/2 hours today. She caught on very quickly, but there is yet another catch - today was her one and only day before she officially starts June 23rd, the day before my old boss leaves!!! She apparently booked a trip to Africa before taking the position, so she is going to be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. I'm half expecting to get a call from Old York, begging me to help them out, but we'll see. Craziness all around!

And that's it for now.

I'm Still Keeping My "Non-Profit Queen" Name, Damnit!

Well, I got the job at Maine Preservation! It was almost anti-climatic when I heard the good news, probably because nothing could compare to all of the stress I had been going through, looking for new jobs and what not. My biggest fear was telling Old York. In fact, I only slept 2 hours the night before! My boss and the director were surprisingly non-stressed or vocal about it, so that was a HUGE relief! They both said that they know people need/have to move on and that, if anything, I picked a good time to bail since it's in between crazy seasons. While I officially gave them two weeks, I'm looking to work a deal with Maine Pres so that after the two weeks, I would come down to York one day a week for a few weeks to train the new person. There's no way they are going to get someone in this position and have me train them before I leave, it's just not possible. Still waiting to hear what Roxanne thinks about this, but I think she'll be accomodating.

I think this is a good move, despite the drama that unfolded during the past month. Not only will it get me on a real career path, it'll also give me the benefits I deserve after a year and a half of having multiple jobs - paid holidays! vacation time! sick time! I have to tell you, I was more excited about the paid holidays bit than I was with the pay raise ;-) And the money saved on gas alone is going to be fantastic! So that's that.

Blah

Just thought I'd give a quick recap of the past few weeks, but there really isn't anything exciting going on. I'm still waiting to hear from Maine Preservation and in the meantime have been applying to other jobs. Erik signed up for his first two classes at Southern Maine Community College that start this summer. The Coast Guard is paying for the whole thing (minus a $6 fee and books). The condo search is off for awhile I think, which is fine by the both of us. I am working this upcoming weekend for Victoria Mansion again, so that'll be fun.

Victorian love...it's driving me mad...it's making me crazy!

I had my first on-call site manager gig today. I f-ing loved it!! I told Erik, at one point I thought of the guy who is taking the job in a month, and I just wanted to find him and push him out a window. I just had such a good time! For once I actually felt like I had some responsibility, even though I really didn't do a heck of a lot. I met the deputy director at the door at 12:30pm, she showed me how to use the alarm system and what the procedures are for opening up the place, and that was it. She left me there with an hour and a half before anything was going on. I was in this historic 1860's house, by myself, for over an hour. And I loved it! Part of my job when I'm the site manager is to open up the blinds in all of the rooms. Basically you take off your shoes (as to not damage the carpet), go around the rope barrier, and do your thing. It was cool because I got to see things up close and personal that I wouldn't normally get to see. I also used that time to make sure I knew what key worked with what lock and to make sure I knew how to work the doors. I mean, you can't mess with old doors. The key for the very front door to the Mansion (which I don't get to take home) is this 3-4 inch antique key that I thought was so perfect for the opening key to the Mansion. It literally looks like an old skeleton key that someone would use to open up a dungeon door or something. That took a little getting use to.

My volunteers showed up at 2pm. Two of them were board members, so that was nice at least because it meant I had seasoned pros working with me on my first day. But at the same time, I felt like I had to do my best work so that they wouldn't bring me up in a bad way at a board meeting.

Truth be told, I wasn't completely on my own. The giftshop manager is technically the second site manager, and she was there, but she was handling the giftshop. So it still felt like I had the most control over the house, with major backup from the board members.

So the event that was going on was a Victorian girl's tea. The actual tea took place at the Holiday Inn by the Bay since they have more space for that kind of thing. After the tea, all of the girls and their mothers were invited back to Victoria Mansion for a self-guided tour. All I have to say is, holy shit. There were a TON of girls running around the place! Most of the mothers were pretty good at keeping their children in check. Others, not so much. It was definitely a madhouse, but we had enough help with three volunteers and myself. I handed out self-guided tour sheets at the door (actually where the above picture is being taken from....minus the green carpet, that no longer exists), but made sure to do damage control every so often to make sure people weren't overstepping their boundaries or leaving garbage where they shouldn't.

At one point the giftshop manager was apparently so bogged down with sales, she tried to call over to me to come over and give her a hand. But the phone that I was near wasn't working! I felt so bad! I guess she was literally wrapping up one person's stuff and had another person shoving merchandise and money in her face! There were two tea sessions, so for the second one I went over to the shop. Murphy's Law of course, she didn't need my help at all. Oh well. I still had fun and can't wait to help out with Mansion in Bloom at the end of the month.

Btw, not to end this blog entry on a bad note, but it's news (although bad) - there is a very good chance that I'm losing my job at Maine Preservation in a month, so that's been weighing heavily on pretty much my entire existence right now. If you want the scoop, send me an email if you have it or leave a message on this blog.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So I'm going to this workshop in May and I'm very excited about it! It's a three-day workshop in Concord, NH on how to preserve and archive photographs. Granted, I'm sure, to quote Erik's coworker when he found out I was going to the Antiques Roadshow, that you'd rather watch paint dry, but it is totally up my alley! And get this - three-day workshop from 9am to 4pm PLUS lunch is included...for only $150! There was no way I was going to pass it up. And yes, I'm doing this on my own, independent from either one of my jobs, so I guess that truly does make me a geek. And I have a free place to stay, so I'm psyched. If you are interested in learning more, visit http://www.nedcc.org/wwwtp/wklog.htm.

In other news, Erik is home from work today because he messed up his back at work. He has a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so let's hope he didn't screw it up too badly. We're also going to look at least one place tonight (FINALLY). The definite is a condo in South Portland (on a bus route and a bike path, both pluses). The indefinite is a ranch in Westbrook (suburb of Portland) that is actually in our price range. So we'll see what happens.

Bring on the Inner Martha Stewart!

Okay, so I finally have some news! I've been holding out on everyone until I could see where things were going (no, I'm not pregnant). Anyway, Erik and I are looking to purchase a condo! Now, I'm sure you are currently starring at the computer screen, thinking you may need to get glasses or a new prescription, but yes, you did read that correctly. You are also probably thinking wait, aren't these the same people who owe $2,000 in taxes (if you don't know that story, send me an email). But yes, both are correct, and it's actually the whole taxes thing that got the ball rolling. I mentioned our tax crisis to the bookkeeper at Old York because I had thought they were the culprit (it's actually looking more and more like it's Erik's job's fault) and she said to me well, you need to buy property for the tax deduction. It wasn't oh, you should THINK about buying property, it was you NEED to buy property. I of course laughed since she has no clue where we are coming from, but she assured me that as long as you have stellar credit, you can get a mortgage for no or very little money down (she's also a realtor in her spare time). I wasn't even positive about the state of our credit. She told me the worst that could happen is that the mortgage person tells us to hold off, and she assured me that there would be no laughing on the part of the mortgage person (which is what I had always assumed would happen).

So anyway, long story short (ha ha), we got pre-approved for more than we can even afford! Apparently our credit is excellent which, believe me, was a total surprise! After hearing that, Erik decided to look into the VA loan through the Coast Guard (he's still working on that) and we found a realtor in Portland who seems really nice and is not car salesman pushy. I mean, I wouldn't say get out your addressbooks anytime soon, but with the pre-approval, we are well on our way. It'll of course most likely mean not living in Portland, which if it means owning something, I'm all for it, but we will have to see what happens. In the next week or so we are planning on looking at places in South Portland and Old Orchard, so we'll see how that goes.

Given what we know we can afford, we are obviously going the condo route. And yes, as some of you will point out, I use to make fun of condos, but now that I see the buying potential and had the whole condo fee explained to me by someone a hell of a lot more knowledgeable than myself, I see it as a good investment. We will obviously keep everyone posted. As we both have said, at least we love our apartment and where we live so if there isn't anything exciting out there, we still have a very enjoyable living situation.

But truth be told - I'm already picking out paint colors in my head! ;-)

Non-Profits RULE!

I actually have some good news to impart. Good news hasn't exactly been abundant lately, so we'll take whatever we can get! Anyway, I got my one year anniversary raise from Maine Preservation today, over a month before my actual anniversary date. It's only an extra $1 per hour, but hey, it's a floundering non-profit, so I ain't going to complain! Plus last year at this time I was making $2 less per hour than I am now. Good deal if you ask me.

And the other piece of good news is that Victoria Mansion has already asked me if I can cover the site manager position! It's not till April, but they wanted to give me plenty of advance notice. I guess the Mansion is having an event the last weekend of April, and the guy who took my job isn't starting till the first week of May. Thus, they need me to help out. They didn't mention anything about what was going on with the second site manager (which is the gift shop manager), but I'm thinking that maybe they want me to get some experience. I have training for the job about 2 weeks prior to the event (scheduled before I knew I would be doing the event), so that's good. It's something, right? I didn't think they would need me, despite the fact that they asked me to be the on-call site manager, but I ain't going to complain that this dude can't show up till after the event is over :-)

Nothing new with Erik. I'm the only one that has a "dramatic" life ;-)

Whatever!

Not much to report, but I figured I should post something so that the horrible job debacle posting isn't still at the top of your screen :-) I'm over it now, and decided to take the on-call position. I've been in this industry long enough to know that you don't burn bridges with anyone associated with museums. While they sort of did that with me, I'm not going to do it back to them. The bridge may be rickety at the moment, but I'm sure that a construction crew will be called in soon to restore it back to its original form :-) I have three training sessions in April for the position, so after that is when I'm truly on-call. I haven't told Maine Preservation about any of this yet, but I don't think it's going to effect them anyway.

Erik had his first Coast Guard drill weekend. He is VERY glad to be back in. I dropped him off and picked him up over the weekend, so of course I went on the base. Erik and I both have id's, but I still found the whole thing very lax! Granted, I know that it's only 1) a Coast Guard base, and 2) in Maine, but I had Dos in the car with me when I went to pick him up, and no one cared! I joked about how I could have been part of a coup and I was bringing Dos in to blow up the place or something. Sigh, those silly Feds ;-)

In other news, I've started studying for the GRE's again. D-Day is set for April 15. Let's see if I finally go through with it.

An Apology

As some of you may have noticed, a previous blog about me getting a job at Victoria Mansion has been pulled. That's because it came to my attention that I had been led to believe that I had the position, when I did not. The position ended up going to someone who use to have the job, has some time between now and when he starts his Ph.D program. So of course they rewarded him for his past efforts by giving him his old job back. As someone pointed out, you should never think you have a job until you have it in writing. I guess she was right. But given my past experiences, I have always been offered jobs over the phone or in person, without having signed anything until way after the fact. Call me naive that this job was mine I guess. I feel betrayed, but what can I do. They have offered me an on-call position, meaning I would do the job they originally offered me but on an on-call basis, but I haven't decided what I should do. One year from now Old York will be over, and I will have half a job at Maine Preservation. If this guy does indeed go on to his Ph.D program, then I was told that the job would be mine (again, in my mind). While I'm not going to bank on that, the appeal is definitely there. I have some thinking to do. Several people have told me to find out how much they are willing to pay me for "on-call" and then make my decision from there. We shall see. But I am sorry for misleading people into thinking I had the job.

Score!

Some news, finally! I have scored a talk/interview with Victoria Mansion for the Site Manager position! For those of you who don't know, I worked in their giftshop on Sundays during the holidays, so I got to know the staff and volunteers pretty well. So when I saw the Site Manager position posted online, I had to go for it! The funny thing is that I know the girl who is/was in the position, so I'm wondering what happened/is happening with her. Anyway, it's another part-time gig OF COURSE since it's my life, however it would replace one of my jobs that I haven't been happy with lately, plus I would manage some of the operations of the house which would be so cool. It's obviously not totally a done deal, but I'm very excited that I at least have an interview. So be thinking of me 4pm on Friday!

A curator and a registrar walk into a bar...

I'm probably the only one that will find these funny, but I had to share.

You might be a museum professional if:

You find yourself compulsively levelling picture frames in restaurants and department stores.

Your first thought is that a mime in the park is a collection manager who has absentmindedly forgotten to remove their white cotton gloves.

You obtain a "non-profit" status for your home.

You take notes while watching Antiques Roadshow.

You think $40,000 a year is a lot of money.

Your co-workers quiz each other to see who can identify more accession numbers.

You arouse anxiety in museum security staff because you pay so much attention to the anti-theft devices.

You pay more attention to legibility of the labels than the contents of the cases.

The United States Coast Guard is a military, multimission, maritime service and one of the nation’s five Armed Services.

Not a ton to report, but I figured I had to do a special posting just for the occasion - Erik finally has his first drill scheduled with the Coast Guard!!! Woo hoo!! He's reporting for duty President's Day weekend. About f-ing time if you ask me. I'm planning on hopefully going down to Boston that weekend, but we shall see. Some of you may recall the last time I tried to go down President's Day weekend - I ended up bailing since I had to spend almost $400 to get the brakes on the car replaced. Dumb.

Sushi in Portland

All I have to say is that I hope that I get sushi the next time I visit y'all in Portland. And some crab Rangoon. yumm.

xoxox to all the Riders and Happy New Year's.

Yo, 2006! With a special post-New Year's addition of Karla's Tales...From the Gym!

Happy 2006 everyone! The consensus so far is that everyone thought 2004 sucked, that 2005 was a transition year back to some good for once, so that means 2006 is going to rock! Let's hope we all agree come December of this year.

Anyhoo, New Year's Eve was a fun time in the Rider household. Uno and Dos came over and Erik made the best Asian spread this side of the Mason-Dixon line! We had 5 courses of yummies, which included pot stickers, crab rangoon, and spring rolls (store bought, not going to lie) which ended with homemade sushi and homemade green tea ice cream. Sushi was a first for Erik, but he has been dying to try it, and he did very well for his first shot at it. He stuck to California rolls since they seem to be the easiest.

So 2006 doesn't seem to be much different so far, but holy crap, the gym is another story my friends! This is the first time I have ever had a gym membership, so I have never really witnessed the post-New Year's mad dash to get fit. The gym was beyond packed, to the point where I swear it had to be a fire hazard! I parked in timbuktu and had to wait for a treadmill. There was a line of people at the counter, frantically trying to sign up for a membership. The gym was full of people practically squeezing into their spandex, obviously not seasoned gym people who should KNOW that spandex was not made to look good on about 99% of the population. It was insane! Erik tells me that the average gym boom lasts for about 3 weeks of the New Year and then peters out, so if I can make it another few weeks, I'll be able to enjoy what use to be with the other diehards come February :-)