Ups and Downs and Ups Again

I've been through the wringer lately. My new job was going very well ... I was being trained, learning new things, all excited about living my dream of being a secretary, blah blah blah. Then it all crashed.

I'm being trained by the woman who has worked as my boss's assistant for the past year, but will be leaving in June. The training was going well, I was told I was doing just fine. Then my boss had a talk with me, and offered me the option of having a second assistant to share the load with me (once his original assistant, who is training me, leaves in June). I hesitated at this, because I didn't want to 'give my job away'. After a lot of thought, I told him that since he's planning on expanding his business, I would be fine with him hiring a second assistant, as long as it didn't mean I would be pushed out of the picture. He assured me this wouldn't happen. But ... I haven't been asked in to work since! I haven't worked for two weeks! And he hasn't even hired the second assistant yet.... I've been very upset - kicking myself for going for the deal of having a second assistant (I thought I'd been set up), pulling my hair as I tried to figure out what I keep doing to cause me to be rejected, sleeping too much because I was depressed....

Anyway, after several emails back and forth, today I found out that I do still have the job. It's just a matter of arranging everything. So I've decided to relax about all of this. It isn't easy, but I'll try.

There are some very cool things about this new job. Besides the main part of the job, where I work as assistant (which is really fun for me, and everything I ever wished for in a job), I'm also working from home, creating brochures and flyers and things to help sell my boss as realtor. So I have two jobs in one.

This whole brochure making thing got me thinking about starting my own home business. So I've started building a new website. My plan is to have people email me with the text, pictures, etc. that they wish to include in their brochure, flyer, poster, or whatever they decide. I'll create the document, and email them the finished product. All the client has to do is have it printed. My boss is very happy with the brochures I've created for him, so I'm positive I can make others happy with my artisitic creations as well. I've been told by others around the office, that there are many business people who don't know how to create brochures or flyers (etc), so apparently, my gifts are in demand! And to top it off, it's fun for me! It's not even work, it's what I do for fun. I'll also be offering my skills to make non business related things like baby announcement cards, invitations, etc.

If anyone wants to see my site, you can find it here www.creativoice.net I have more work to do on it, it's unfinished, so please keep checking back.

I've also started a new site for my photographs. www.inmyview.net I had a yahoo site, but for some reason, I can no longer get into it to edit, so I've abandoned it. This site is also in the process of being built. There are many more photographs and things I plan to add.

By the way, I've been doing something very exciting, concerning my photography. My great friend and I figured out a way for him to take pictures of me, using my digital camera, even though he's in another country! I set up the background material, the lighting, and my camera, and then, using 'remote capture', and a bunch of other options, he was able to see what my camera saw as I posed in front of the camera, and click the shutter on my camera, using his mouse! We created hundreds of photographs this way. They came out so well, I'm amazed every time I look at them. I'm looking forward to doing this many times more. It added a new dimension to my photography. It's fun taking photographs of myself, using my timer, but having another artist involved makes it so much more so. So cool to have another insight into what is created, and to be able to share this experience with someone who is as enthusiastic as I am about fineart. His ideas and mine combined, resulted in some very beautiful art. I plan to include some of the photographs from these shoots in my new site, so please keep checking back as I build the site.

In other news ... I now have two computers. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've quit smoking. I had been putting the money I would have spent on cigarettes, in a jar. Well I decided to use the money to buy myself a gift. My original computer was so full of programs for my art, and downloads in progress, and photographs, etc., it was running very slowly. So I bought a second computer just for my art. It's a beautiful machine - an Emachine that came with a 17" flatscreen monitor, and a canon pixma 150 printer/scanner/copier. I have a year to pay it off, so I'll just keep putting my antismoking money in my jar, and at the end of each month, I'll hand the money over to the store to pay down my debt. As long as I don't take up smoking again, I'll have the computer paid off before the year is up. It's a great incentive to keep myself from smoking again.

So I've been spending hours and hours transferring my programs and things from the one computer to the new one. The new computer will not be connected to the internet. It's strictly for art. All my bulky programs and photographs and writing stuff are going into the new computer, creating more room in the original computer for online stuff, helping it to run faster. So cool.