Day: August 2, 2004

So Noah calls me while I’m on the road, “I need a ride to my friend’s house.” My reply, “Noah, I need to make a phoen call and call you right back.” Hang up. Noah to Mom, “Dad is busy and told me to see if my friend can come get me.” Dad calls his next stop to find out he is too late to apply anyway and will have to make it tomorrow. Dad calls home. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Hmm. Dad thinks, “Noah must be on the phone talking to his friend and unaware of how to answer call waiting.” Reminder to self: Teach the kids about call waiting. Dad calls line 2. Tommy answers, “Hello?” Dad, “Tommy are you also on line 1?” T, “Yeah. I saw you call.” Dad, “So why didn’t you answer?” Tommy, “Because I can’t have two calls on the same line at the same time.” Dad explains call waiting and asks that Tommy tell Noah that I’ll pick him up shortly.

nota bene: When I called back a few minutes later Tommy properly used call waiting! Progress!

So I ask Noah, “Are you ready to go?” He says, “All ready!” and heads out. Amy cheerfully chimes, “Baby is all ready!” and starts to whimper by the door when no one immediately comes to let her out. I decide to take her, in diaper only, along to drop Noah off. We arrive at his friend’s house and since I think it would be improper to drop and run I get Amy out and walk with Noah to the front door. I confirm his pickup time and Amy and I return to the car. Once in her seat she arches her back, turns on the tears and screams for Noah. I can’t force her into the seat to save my life. All good bribes are absent from the car so I close the door and go to the driver’s seat to turn on the a/c. Then I get in the backseat with her and sit to wait her out. Just as she calms and is ready to be buckled, the boys come running out.

As I frantically buckle the toddler, Noah opens the door and asks, “Can you take us down to the store to buy cups so we can sell snow cones?” I’m flabbergasted. Normally I’d do this in a heartbeat. However, I can’t really afford the cups but am embarassed to say so instead I jump to “I have stuff I need to be doing at the house” and “the baby is unclothed and will have another tantrum” “sorry guys.” Truth be known, I was probably just slightly above unconsciously abashed to think that the 8 year old boys would make more money today than I will.

Once home I turn off the car and go to release Amy from her car seat. Usually she is helpful and almost leaping from the car. Instead her right arm points limply toward the windshield, a single tear streaks down her face, and she whimpers, “Noooah…”

Talked to 2 out of 3 of my recruiters to hear “this vacation time. things are slow. just haven’t had a match yet. your skillset is strong. hang in there.”

I think I’ll tell the electric company to “hang in there.”

Heading out to get my University transcript and apply for 1 or 2 jobs in person.

ps. seems the garbage collection company is unhappy with me. no pickup today.

I just stumbled across some of my old marketing. I was impressed with myself. The marketing was good work. I hear that! I just said, “I do good work!”

Left a message for one of the recruiters.

Answered 2 ads in the paper. One was a definite no. The other is a perhaps.

Emailed another developer information previously discussed on the phone .. um, in May. That’s a problem. At least I didn’t let it go completely. Now learn a lesson and keep going!

Noah needs puppy training. He lives in such an electronic world that I think he just is not sure how to interact with animals. If I had my druthers, I’d take the kids, Noah specifically, out twice a week to do something with nature be it shoveling manure, catching butterflies, identifying tracks, petting at the zoo, or wrestling with dogs.

I think Molly is a good thing for him. I just hope he doesn’t get so frustrated that he pulls away from her.

Left a message with an IT director at a company I respect. My voice shaky. My message perhaps jumbled. My self-confidence is shot.

There is a book hovering over my head called “Marketing is a Science; Selling is na Art” by Paul Smith. I wish I could make time to read it.

My email sent to DC has not been received yet because of technical issues on their end. They will call later.

One job opportunity answered.

I think I’ll answer 2 and then make 5 sales calls then answer 2 and make 5 sales calls…

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

Last night I had the pleasure of singing Amy to sleep. Granted, I was singing Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler” and somehow that seemed wrong so I finished up with Jimmy Buffett’s “Jolly Mon” which has a bit of wrongness too but then again so does every nursery rhyme we ever learned.

One of Amy’s toys started playing itself at 2am. I got her settled (she never really woke) and killed the toy. Debated staying up but my anxiety was way too high so I returned to bed to try to calm. Rose at 7am ready to take on the day!

Strategy: Use my left ear to solicit immediate income; Use my right ear to solicit stability.

As long as I can keep up two phone calls at a time all day long I might just be able to save our butts. At the same I need a clone to go to UT and get my transcripts and stop off at the Plasma Alliance to give some bloodily fluids in exchange for cash.

Amy gets so offended when her brothers lock her out of their rooms. She just knocked (louder than Noah would knock) on Tommy’s door and said, “Toumme” then whimpered when he wouldn’t answer. So cute and so sad at the same time.