August 2, 2010

So a lot of people have been wondering where I disappeared to the past six months. Hope you're ready for a read...

As I mentioned before, my job screwed me over big time a couple years ago, kicking me from the office back to retail level, along with a 45% pay cut, basically negating my previous six years of work, like none of it ever happened.

I took it pretty hard, but I figured, hey, at least I still had a job, so I dealt with it. After a few months, however, it became clear to me that I was sent to this particular store to make my life hard, and they did a pretty good job of it, I might say. For the most part, I was miserable every day.

Since my pay was cut so drastically, I had started looking for a second job for some time. But with the economy in the state it was in, it seemed no one was willing to hire someone part time that was already working full time somewhere else.

So after working almost 18 years with my previous company, I started looking for a new full-time job. I found one... yay!?

So the good points are:

• Making almost the same money I was two years ago. Will likely be making more after the first year.
• Working by myself for most of the day. For the most part, no "obnoxious" people to annoy me, like before.
• Medical benefits will be a bit better than at the previous job.

And you gotta take the bad with the good, so:

• I'm on probation until September 1. No matter what anyone says or does, I won't be comfortable until after that date.
• Have to wake up at 1:30am to be at work at 3:00am. Which means I usually got to be in bed by 6-7pm. Six days a week.
• No medical benefits until September. I've got my fingers crossed that nothing happens to anyone before then.
• For now, I am a relief person, so I basically cover vacations, and run a different route every 2-3 weeks. Some weeks, that's a cool thing. Other weeks... not so much. (Depends on who I'm covering for in a particular week).
• I'm at the bottom of the totem pole again. It's been a LONG time since I've been in that situation. Gotta earn seniority and respect all over again.
• This isn't exactly the job that I decided that I would get into, back when I was in high school and college deciding on careers. But hey... at least I'm working, and I'm good at it.
• Every day, I come home exhausted.
• New job means no vacation time racked up, so again I missed CAEX, and in a year when it sounded like it was a really good show.

In other personal life happenings... the third week of June, my daughter graduated middle school, my older son graduated high school, and I turned 40. All in the same week.

There's other things that added to my stress level, but I don't want to write a novel. Let's just say that with everything going on, I wasn't feeling very "internet social" for a bit.

With all of that going on, I was feeling exhausted daily, but still was working on artwork. Among other things, I had a bezel for a game "done," except it wasn't. I was done because I wanted it to be done and/or felt pressured to have it done, but it was sloppy, and I was ashamed of myself for almost breaking my own rules and releasing it in the state it was in, so I took a break. I needed to clear my head, and have all of the other distractions behind me, so that I could come back and continue to do QUALITY work.

Hopefully now that I'm back, the rest of the team might decide to poke their heads in once in a while, too. This is much more fun as a team effort.

If anyone has any artwork-related questions, go ahead and post them on the forum, and I'll answer by the next day; no more ignoring posts.