Job Juggling

I am not sure if I am getting any better at juggling jobs or not; I do know that I am trying to find some peace with the fact that this is just the way it is right now. I am in good company, I do know that--many Americans are working part-time jobs when they would rather be working one great full-time job. I tell myself I am lucky, I can do it, and there is opportunity in everything (that is the Stoic American talking, of course.)

As I continue my work as co-director of the Community Alliance of Lane County--a small, dynamic, 45-year-old human rights nonprofit, I am also learning the ins and outs (no pun intended) of marketing organic, all-natural adult lubrication products and sexual health books and products at Good Clean Love. Definitely no conflict of interest as I go from all the "isms" that I feel so passionate about changing in the realm of human rights to the heterosexual world of "love products." Meanwhile, in my freelance writing work, I have been getting more opportunities than I have been able to respond to. That's okay, I tell myself, this is abundance and abundance is good!

Alas, I also feel my age and switching gears so often throughout the day makes a gal feel a bit tired! Besides, there is life outside of work to: a garden to plant (We finally got the peas and cool-season stuff into our fabulously evolving veggie beds this past week), a wedding to plan, and a relationship to maintain. Juggle, juggle, juggle. I can do this...I must do this...

Loading up the Plate

First of all, this is NOT my desk--not in reality. It does feel a bit like my work load and life at present, however! I have accepted a position as a marketing and communications director, in addition to my work as co-director of the Community Alliance of Lane County and the freelance writing. Not to mention the fact that I am totally dedicated to planning a fabulous wedding.

There is a certain amount of overwhelm that I am experiencing currently and I hope that is to be expected. I still haven't figured out exactly HOW I will do all these things but I am certainly going to give it my best. Meanwhile, things are not exactly going smoothly on all fronts either...

I spent a good portion of today dredging out the downstairs office here at the nonprofit. Stacks of papers, overflowing piles of stuff that needed to be filed, dumped, recycled or, unfortunately, dealt with 2 months ago have all been sorted and sifted. it wasn't exactly what I expected to do today, but it is done.

There are grant proposals to be written, DJs to be contacted (for the wedding), taxes to be filed, articles to be written, AND, a garden that I am aching to start planting. Much to do, much to do and, like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I already feel as though I am running terribly late.

Arts Marketing: The Post-3D Surround Sound Live Theatre Blues (with Solutions)

Arts Marketing: The Post-3D Surround Sound Live Theatre Blues (with Solutions)

Relating...

I would love to say that I am an expert at personal relationships! At the almost-age of 44, who wouldn't like to think that she has mastered something as basic as the personal, intimate relationship? Well, that person is just not me...

I'm better, I'm evolving and I am still determined to continue to challenge myself to stay in the game, but I am so not perfect. I still bumble and stumble and have days where my relating skills are not much better than they were twenty years ago. Other days, I feel like I am SO ready to take on Dr. Phil!

The gift of my fifth decade is that I have an amazing and resilient partner to practice all this relating. Teri is also NOT perfect, but she continues to stay in the game as well. She demands a level of communication and closeness that I have not had before and while we sometimes miss each other on the communication path, we generally swing back around and keep trying until we land. With two peri-menopausal women, the whole "connection" and getting on the same page thing can be especially challenging. We are both trying to adjust to these new grown-up versions of ourselves that seem to be changing as well--we don't always feel like ourselves or know how to put words to what it is we are experiencing.

And yet, we keep trying. I feel incredibly lucky to have a partner who values communication and relatedness as much as I do and yet we still strive to find a common language with which to stay connected.

Wedding Planning Mania

Who would have thought? I don't remember putting much "careful" planning into my teenager version of a wedding. While I had opinions and I remember picking colors, napkins and the like, I also remember having a somewhat casual approach. I definitely didn't think of it as "for life"--which says something about the decision-making of an 18/19-year old but it also says MORE about where I am in my life NOW.

Twenty years of increasingly complex event planning, partnered with the fact that I really am completely committed to Teri and cannot imagine a life without her and the result is that with the start of 2011, our wedding planning has been kicked into high gear! I have more developed organizational skills and my tastes have surely changed--not to mention that Teri has opinions, ideas and definitely preferences for how she would like to see our special day too. Strange to be at this place, at this age, and coming at it with the fabulous fresh spin of being a middle-age same-sex couple!

We have lists, folders, and a few wonderful spread sheets (25 years ago, I did NOT have the joy of putting the guest list into Excel and manipulating it around!); there are diagrams and measurements and time schedules--NONE of these were part of my world 2 1/2 decades ago. I NOW know enough about event planning to know that 7 months is not very much time at all when it comes to tending to all the tiny little details that make an important day...unforgettable. And I would do anything to make our wedding day unforgettable for both Teri and me...