Sum of all Years - 4

War with brother began.

It makes the world go 'round

I’ve been supremely busy lately at my day job (ick) – as well as doing voiceovers and hosting the “IHN-Independent Horror News” podcast on iTunes (yay). So I apologize to you readers that have been checking my blog and not getting anything new.

In light of that, I have decided that it’s again time for me to push for a raise. I’ve been composing a letter to the Powers That Be at my day job. But first, I thought that if I draft my rant FIRST, and get all of the sarcasm out of my system, then maybe I will be able to create a letter that’s professional and concise and not snide. So here’s the rant:

“Dear Mr. and Ms…., et al;

I have come to the realization that I have certain materialistic needs and desires. There is a house in Malibu with a pool and a cleaning lady in my future, however I'm questioning whether XXX is the employer that will provide the financial security I need in order to obtain these goals, and with good reason.

A year ago I was told by (unnamed boss person) that I was being considered for an "undetermined" management position. That never happened. In November of 2005, I received a review that was so glowing it was almost embarrassing... but no raise. I have since taken on additional responsibilities, and yet, still no raise.

Now, while lip service makes a person feel a little better at the time; once one realizes that's all it was, it ends up leaving a rather sour aftertaste.

It is currently my responsibility to myself and my family to ensure steady financial gain and provide insurance benefits and other living essentials. I am married to a writer. Now, while my husband's profession has nearly unlimited earning potential and I support his creative enterprises one hundred percent, he and I both know that it is not by any means a secure or reliable manner of income.

I am beginning to acknowledge that my current position with XXX has very limited earning potential, and that I have quite possibly hit the concrete ceiling that separates the "below the line" employees from the upper ranks of management. It's not clear to me at this time as to when or if I will make the move up, even though I believe that I have earned my way into management consideration and that I am very deserving of that status.

At my current position and rate of pay, I am getting by. But I want to get ahead, as well as substantiate my goals and my full potential. I would like to give XXX the opportunity to help me in that pursuit, and my personal preference would to be to continue working and growing with the company. At the same time, however, I am actively investigating all possible resources outside of XXX, and I must inevitably take the path that best suits my needs. I feel that my extreme attention to detail and my advanced multi-tasking skills are a highly valuable commodity in today's business world, and I am confident that any employer would find these skills worthy of appropriate compensation.”

Now that I got that off my chest, I can begin the REAL letter that I will actually send. However I AM getting really weary of corporate lip-service.

The Friendly Skies

Just when I was almost over air travel woes... I was sent on an unexpected cross-country business trip for my day job. It was silly -- I was originally supposed to attend a meeting across the continent via conference call but the client decided at the 11th hour that it would be better if I attended in person. So before I could blink, I was confirming travel and hotel arrangements from LA to Florida. Sixteen total travel hours (airplanes and airports) and two night's stay in a hotel for a three-hour meeting... Thankfully, I was able to make my own plans, so I could choose my own preferred airline, departing airport (Burbank or LAX) and times, as long as I was fresh and ready for the meeting.

Two days before I was scheduled to leave, my husband's so-called "business partner" (lip service just so he could get my husband to do the dirty work and not complain) decided that he wanted out of the venture and was planning on selling the business lock, stock and barrel. It threw my husband into still yet another tizzy of uncertainty, stress, and fear. It's still not totally resolved, but here I was, getting ready to leave on business when he needs my support the most. Timing is everything.

So Tuesday morning I get to Burbank (now called Bob Hope) airport. My flight is on time and there are no problems. The flight to my connection in Denver is uneventful, and we land in Denver a few minutes early, which will give me about an hour to eat and hang out before I catch my connection to Florida.

However... once we're landed, we simply sit on the runway. After a few minutes, the captain comes over the speakers, saying that there seems to be a bit of a backup at the gates, and there's no room for us. So we sit. And sit. For 45 minutes. When we finally are allowed to taxi to a gate, I see the planes lined up three deep, like a grocery line at rush hour. It took forever but we finally got to a gate, and then I had to sprint through the airport to a different terminal to catch my connecting flight. I barely made it. So much for eating -- I didn't even have time to hit a bathroom.

The hotel room was glorious -- there was even a washer/dryer in there (warm towels!!) and I was exhausted, so I grabbed a bite to eat and basically passed out. The meeting was a whole two hours (all this for a 2 hour meeting), and I still had one more night in Orlando.

The next day I got to the Orlando office and got some work done. My Orlando colleagues and I took the client out to lunch. On the way back to the office where I was to pick up my luggage and go to the airport for the ride back, I got to see the most amazing thing... the Pluto rocket (the launch of which had been postponed for two days due to bad weather) rose up out of the horizon right in front of us and began its fifteen-year trip to the plant Pluto. It was beautiful, and I got to see a little moment of history unfold right before my eyes. It made the whole trip worth it.

Now for the trip home. I was supposed to go from Orlando to Denver and then to Burbank. No such luck -- Denver was in the midst of a lovely January blizzard, and the ticket people determined that my outbound flight to Denver was SO late that I would have missed my connection in Denver (as if my connecting flight wasn't late). So after much debate, I ended up on a standby flight from Orlando non-stop to LAX. Have I mentioned that I HATE flying in or out of LAX? But that's all there was, so I called my husband and gave him the bad news that instead of picking me up at the relatively calm and easy Bob Hope airport, he'd have to pack a meal and drive in circles around the LAX arrivals area until I located my luggage and was able to find him.

Lucky for me, I was the first in line for a standby seat -- the flight was packed and only two of the standby people got seats. Had I been five minutes later, I would have been stuck in Orlando for another night. But I got onto the flight and it was reasonably uneventful. And most importantly, I got home.

But I sure hope I don't have to fly anywhere for a while.