Moving Out, Moving In, and Other Matters (Warning- this post's a doozy!)

Oh Google Images, you've done it again!

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My blogging absence has been due to a massive influx of insanity. One part of this insanity is from yesterday when my roomie and I moved out of our cute bungalow midtown home into a slightly time-specific (think 70s) duplex in an even better midtown neighborhood. Why did we move you ask? Well.... naturally, there's a bit of a story behind that.

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Our little bungalow home, while cute, and colorful, has a multitude of issues that took us to a breaking point. Well, to be fair, my roomie hit the breaking point more than me as I took refuge at Jon's nicer house. We always knew our house was leaky, but, when we discovered that the air ducts from the heating and air unit are leaking and providing heat and air in the attic; and the wood rot is so bad on some windows one can push a finger through it (plus the lack of proper insulation in the walls, attic, and the crawlspace being open) we had an explaination to our abnormally high gas and electric bills.

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Then there was the smell and the sound of rats. This problem took us months to get our landlord to address as he kept insisting it was a 'mouse' problem and we just needed to spray. The oven since roughly November has smelled of burnt urine everytime we turned it on. Yes, that is as nasty and gross as it sounds. Later even turning the stovetop on to boil water would cause a foul smell. We mentioned this to our landlord in December, to which he said he'd replace it. Yeah, that hasn't happened. Don't even get me started on how bad things got, but, an exterminator was finally hired and confirmed we had rats. In fact, he said he could smell the urine as soon as he walked intp our house (can you blame me for being at Jon's?). So traps were laid, an attic door finally fixed (you don't want me to go into that whole expedition- you really don't), but, then came the smell of rotting dead rats and flies, and the monthly inspections we have to take time out on our schedule to take care of.

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Yeah, we were ready to move. It's a big, big shame such an adorable house has been cheaply maintained! A bit of a remodel and some upgrading to make it more insulated would go a LONG way. Ugh. So there you go, we found a nice little, though slightly dated, duplex for about the same price with a landlord who has proved to be really responsive and helpful. On top of that, the previous tenants showed us their monthly bills. Let's just say we'll be saving money. I nearly fell over when I saw the electric in the summer!

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I promise pictures to come soon. It's mass chaos over there. At least we had tons of guys to help make the move as smooth as possible. Yay for friends! Now onto the next bit of nasty business I've been dealing with....

Thanks to the cool artist who put this on deviantart.com and allowed Google to find it.

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Work. In the past three weeks work has becoming nuts, even brinking on insanity. Last week I was so frustrated and upset at the various situations I was shaking!

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Okay I should back up and explain huh? Keep in mind, I LOVE my job. I don't get paid a lot, but, I get friendly co-workers, understanding bosses, lots of flexibility in my schedule, and of course the joy of teaching kids music in turn for a modest salary. So the week before, while I was battling my infection, imgaine my surprise when I recieved an email stating, "As per your contract with MSPA you are required to work at the summer camps we are putting on". No one asked, no one talked to me, nada- just came out of the blue really. Huh???

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First off I never signed a contract. I know, I know I should've and I realize that now. We're such a small business I think some of those more technical/legal ends sometimes get overlooked. Still, I don't recall being told I would be required to work at these camps. Which, okay, I did offer to help at some if I needed to- but did I get assigned one camp? Oh no... no no that would be civilized. I have to be at three camps. Each is a week long. Back to back. Two weeks I work 8:30am-12pm roughly. Not too bad, but, it will be tiring especially since my private lesson load is remaining the same! The other camp is from 8:30am til whenever I need off to go teach. So some days I'm going to start the day with 10-30 kids to herd and teach, then going straight to private lessons which sometimes end around 6pm.

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Let's not even start into how I'll manage all of that, plus Leo's training, plus dance stuff. I'm going to be dancing at OK Mozart in the midst of all of this for pete's sake! On top of all of this there are my usual duties assisting my bosses and keeping things afloat at the studio. I don't know how this will happen. Just the thought of juggling it all and my blood pressure goes up. No joke.

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That leads me to the next part of work related stress. Communications have all but broken down it seems. We rely a ton on email to communicate at my job, plus, weekly meetings with my boss so we're on the same page on a lot of things. The past three weekly meetings have been canceled for one reason or another. The emails have become inconsistent with my boss as well.

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Except to tell me what I have to do. Oh a list I was given either from an email or through another person. Last week I was in charge of basically hiring a new piano teacher, her paperwork and getting it to the proper people, calling new students, trying to get teacher's summer schedules straight, labeling envelopes, etc etc. I also ended up making decisions that are out of my realm, but, only because teachers were left without answers and as I knew some thoughts of my boss on these matters I went ahead and made the call.

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So I am extremely frustrated and stressed out. I feel completly walked over. I've tried to line up meeting with my boss to discuss the camps and the conflicts and issues it will probably cause for me, but, as you probably guessed, no dice. I am thinking that that a lot of personal stuff in her life has come up, as well as, concerns about saving money this summer have led to these decisions and the breakdown in communications. However, I would just like to talk things out, feel like someone who has value in our workplace- not just someone who will do it because I can.

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Or maybe I should talk to another boss? I dunno. I'm rather lost how to approach this situation. However, I'm getting the shaft, especially with an added 20+ hours onto my workload for three weeks, with private lessons thrown in the mix! Sorry to unload, it's probably rather confusing. I have barely been able to keep track of things to be honest!

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I am trying to make it work, but, I don't know how. I really would like to keep my sanity through June! It's a thing.