I'm still here!

Wow. It's been a busy few weeks. I started this blog post two weeks ago...
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We had a wonderful week away though we've agreed that we need to build in two days of 'nothingness' on either side of vacations.

For this trip, we bought Brex a plane ticket. He's too restless to sit peacefully on our laps, but is used to being in his car seat for road trips. Apparently they no longer have families with small children pre-board the plane! Poor Jrex had to haul the car seat over head to the back of the plane. To add insult to injury, the one that had the anchors we needed for the car seat trolley has a leopard print seat cover. Jrex is the kind of guy who only wears blue, black, gray or tan colors and here he was flaunting an animal print.
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In conclusion: vacation was fun. Brex had a great time and was able to roll with all the new faces and places fairly well. My back started killing me mid-trip since he wanted me to hold him every time we encountered new people.

Camping went really well. I thought he'd be unable to sleep until dark, but once he reached his manic phase (his indicator that he's beyond exhausted), we took him in the tent and did the bedtime routine. He was fine. We bundled him up in tons of layers and piled blankets on top of him and he seemed to sleep well despite the drop to 50-degrees at night.

He LOVED his cousins. They gleefully tromped around the campground, played stomp rocket and didn't have any fights or issues. It helps that my sister's kids are really cool, kind and generous. My 5-year old nephew seemed to delight in his mentoring/teaching role. "OK, Brex. Hold my hand now so I can show you how to walk on this path." I'd expected that from my niece but was happily surprised to see my nephew do that, too.

Once home, I got buried alive by work and am finally coming up for air.

During the momentary lull, I'm working on my logo/identity/website. Jrex and I are in total agreement that it's time for me to look for work locally. One of the reasons that graphic design works better for me than fine art is that I LOVE people contact. I like meeting with the clients and the internal teams to figure out the best solutions. I miss that. I don't like who I'm becoming in isolation and my design is getting stale. I'm not having fun as a designer anymore.

Of course the biggest factor (that I won't say in public) is that the new Creatv Directr is chaos on wheels. He doesn't manage well though he is good at the big picture thinking. Once he has a team in place, I think that department is going to be doing some wonderful work, but he's terrible for me to work for. He doesn't do verbal encouragement, and honestly, I don't think he likes my design style. I don't think I'd do my best work for him.

We're both excited to see what comes next, but first I have to get a LOT done. In addition to the website/business cards/resume, I'll need to buy or borrow an iPad for showcasing my portfolio in interviews. Plus buy some interview outfits. It's not cheap to look for work!