If your boss is an S.O.B tell him to S.H.O.V.E the J.O.B - new job thrad

[milesofsparks]

go mixed cats!  can you have a part-time job to transition?  I would like to hear more about it! 

I always like reading the Etsy Quit Your Job posts for day-dreamingness.

and jm, my office is many degrees colder than outside--maybe we can average them out with some kind of complicated duct system.

[Ignatius]

DOOO IT

(that's for Mixed Cats, but you guys should definitely DOOO THE COMPLICATED DUCT SYSTEM too)

[mixed cats]

My day job is already only 30 hours a week - I think all I really need to do is Get Serious.

My idea is to become an active studio artist, and to sell small things on the side of that. Like, I dye fabric to use in my artwork, so it isn't a big deal to throw some scarves in the buckets too. I already embroider animals and stuff for my work, so converting practice pieces into little wallhangings is no big deal. I've been steadily making things and working on stuff since January, which is the best I've done since getting out of school and having a day job. Motivation is still there where it was not before. The "well you can make art and sell the runoff" was kind of an epiphany, in that I don't have to dedicate my life to making things just to sell, that I can indeed continue to work on the things I want to make as well.

I also have started having small craft-related get togethers.. I've done two small tie-dye things with friends and in May I'm going to try fabric painting with them. I guess I am also testing the workshop teaching waters.

[nonotyet]

I would go to one of your workshops.

[jess]

Me too! Well, assuming I had free time, which is not always a good assumption, but I would try to make it for a workshop like that. You could also try doing it more as a party—when I was a kid, all of my birthday parties were craft-centric, and they were great.

[mixed cats]

haha I was calling them dye parties - only one person came to the first one and we drank a bottle of wine and went out for Mexican food and fancy ice cream. I baked snacky pastry things for both. There may have also been nail polish involved. And playing with the cats.

[jess]

That sounds awesome and makes me wish you lived closer to me.

[mixed cats]

If you're ever around, let me know, and we'll make a mess of the basement.

[milesofsparks]

dude, there are so many places in Brooklyn you could teach classes like that. 

[hannah]

in Iowa City you could apply to teach workshops through the parks & recreation department—it didn't pay much but it was something. could you do that?

goooooooo mixed cats!!!!!!

[mixed cats]

Thanks everyone.. The major roadblock is insurance and also if we are going to have a baby(!)
Blergh insurance why you gotta suck so hard, why can't you just be cool

[jess]

Boo to insurance and !?! to baby. Oh man, I can just imagine the mounds of baby-related crafts now—that would be awesome, ha. Totally a reason to do it of course.

I found out today I officially got the research assistantship I've been trying for, so today is my last day teaching (not counting exam proctoring) for quite some time. I'll miss some aspects of teaching a lot, but I am so excited to be earning my stipend/funding from a project where my main responsibilities will be to analyze and publish data. So awesome. My CV will hopefully thank me.

[mixed cats]

We're on the insurance I get through my job, because it is WAY better than Bill's - his has no employee contribution to the premium, but it has a ridiculously high deductible, like, you would have to spend $10,000 out of pocket before the benefit kicked in. So it's only really useful in catastrophes.
Mine's a pretty standard thing that I contribute some money to, and the copays are $25/35/50 plus prescription coverage.. We did a cost analysis when we were getting married to see which would be better, and now that we're old and falling apart and actually see doctors regularly and have allergy prescriptions, my coverage was worth it.

We've been talking about a kid and I've always been a fence-sitter but I'm leaning over the pro side for various reasons.. So it's coming down to
A) work on establishing self, quit job to do art full time, then try for a kid but will have to pay $$$$ for everything, be awesome
B) try to have kid before quitting job so we can use my better insurance for all that stuff, work on establishing artist self at the same time, transition out of job after baby arrival, be awesome

Obviously there's the unpredictable 'trying' bit going in there that would affect the timing.. Bill got a referral for a back xray to see if he's got a pinched nerve, but he psyched himself up by reading about pre-conception xrays and birth defects so now he's sitting on it until we decide what to do. We are financially secure and our families are generally supportive, and Bill is definitely taking my working artist thing seriously. I turn 30 next year..

SRY2HIJACK but I have been whining about this mentally all day and I have a physical tomorrow so I could just ask the doctor a million things and blah blah I don't really want to talk to our families about it.

Jess, that is awesome about the assistantship - it's always sounded like you were super excited about research and stats and all that.

[clare]

Yay Jess! r/a job is a good thing...

Mixed cats, babies=awesome! craft-job=awesome! I'd go for your option B myself, as insurance is pretty necessary from what I hear. Of course, if it all goes to plan there will be a good 6 months that are craft-free intially, but it all comes back slowly after that. The possibilities of work-from-home-parenting are endless too.

[elpollodiablo]

I found out today I officially got the research assistantship I've been trying for, so today is my last day teaching (not counting exam proctoring) for quite some time. I'll miss some aspects of teaching a lot, but I am so excited to be earning my stipend/funding from a project where my main responsibilities will be to analyze and publish data. So awesome. My CV will hopefully thank me.

Man, that is boss.

Also cats maybe instead of a baby just another cat, whaddya say

[mixed cats]

"I only have two hands, that is why we have two cats"

[Greg Nog]

Have you considered some kind of cat/baby hybrid?

[mixed cats]

Garage science hasn't come up with good cross breeding solutions. Except that kittens are great.

[nonotyet]

After like a million years of waiting and complaining and complaining in this thread and it practically becoming a weekly joke between my boss and I, I have my raise.

And it is 30 cents.

Someone please kill me, or hire me somewhere else. 

[Ignatius]

Hey does anyone work in a non-profit and know a thing about fundraising databases? Just sort of creating a running list of options at this point, to be refined later.. I'm googlin' this and whatnot, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask you guys.

[auto-da-fey]

I'm married to someone who works at a non-profit. she's offline at a conference all day, but will ask her about this tonight and report back.

[milesofsparks]

I used to be in charge of a fundraising database years ago, and helped another nonprofit choose theirs.  What kind of questions do you have?

[Ignatius]

I will let you know in the *AHEM* in a minute! Thanks for the quick responses.

[auto-da-fey]

my lady only knew the ones you mentioned, and then the one her org uses, which I guess they paid to have devised? so not much help after all.

[Em]

I'm a fundraiser at a nonprofit, so if I can help I will, but I didn't see your list and obviously I'm only super-familiar with the system I use (which is a custom database). But, you know, I read a lot of fundraising periodicals with articles about fundraising tools, so I do have some opinions.

Edit: Oh, I see where the list is. Duh. Will respond there.