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"I want you so incredibly much I can barely stand it," said the cat to the oblivious squirrel who was licking bricks.
Living extremely frugally can be monotonous. So today I welcomed a little variety in my normal routine.
Met with The Author for iced tea. We easily killed nearly 3 hours talking! The Author continues to get freelance jobs doing interior decorating, which she's come to really dislike, mostly because of her demanding clients.
It turns out she's working for a husband and wife in town. The husband was my boss at a job I held a few years ago. He and I got laid off at the same time, and his wife, who always made extremely good money negotiating leasing deals for commercial tenants, still wears the pants in that family. My author friend was telling me about a bathroom renovation she's doing for them. The vanity alone cost $2,700. The wife wants the best of everything. Money is no object. At the same time, she told me how stressed and unhappy the wife seems to be. And the husband, too. Kind of made me sad, thinking about my former boss who was always so kind to me, often bringing me back my favorite slushies or iced teas from Starbucks. He was a very kind and soft-spoken man. She, on the other hand, just made me grit my teeth. She often acted like I reported to her, not her husband. Grrr.
She travels constantly for her job, and even when I worked for her husband, it was clear he was the more loving and available parent to their three children.
Now the kids are nearly grown and getting into college. The youngest, a girl, has chosen to do missionary work in Africa. Talk about a statement!!! If that isn't a clear rejection of her parents' values and lifestyle, I don't know what is. I understand the wife is very upset about it. Much of Africa can be very unsafe, even for aid workers.
This afternoon I went down to do an easy product study that will result in a $40 check in the mail. On the way there, cognizant of gas prices, I stopped at the landfill since it was on the way. On the way home, I stopped at an Agway and got a haybale to so I can successfully reseed an area of my lawn where I dug up two large shrubs. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon. I also stopped at Stop & Shop for some sugar for the hummingbirds and milk for my breakfast cereal.
Tomorrow is some sort of taste test study. I wasn't positive I wanted to do it becus it's a 50-minute drive (1-way) and they don't pay cash, they give you product samples supposedly worth $5o to $100. I checked out their website. They are a nutritional supplement company that makes about a dozen different tinctures. It would be nice if they let us pick which ones we want, but I guess not. I'm curious to try this once, and if I don't like the gift bag, I just won't go back to this particular company.
Mixing Things Up
August 23rd, 2011 at 09:42 pm
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:00 pm 1314136818
Good for your former boss' daughter. I hope she stays safe and has some wonderful, formative experiences in Africa.
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:09 pm 1314137369
& then I also see it with my clients. Interestingly, I can think of 3 very successful women clients I have. In one case, the husband is very sweet and she is kind of a "not so nice" one, but in the other 2 cases I kind of see the married boss thing in reverse. The husbands want respect and power, and are real PITAs. I see the psychology replicated in the boss's wives I have worked for. & yes, they seem very good at spending money while the one who does all the "real" work gets all stressed out!
Anyway, in both the boss cases, my male bosses were very reasonable and aware of how crazy their wives were. So, if it ever became an issue (often did), a quick talk would clear things up. Which is the only way I could handle it. & I felt sorry for them, yes.
I have a friend (a CPA, actually), who worked for a married couple who both thought they were the boss - and drove him insane! I think I was lucky that my boss knew he was the boss (both times). As much as their wife might have thought different - the wives were really no more than secretaries.
Needless to say, never work for a couple. But, since I like working for extraordinarily small businesses, I suppose that it comes with the territory!
August 23rd, 2011 at 11:57 pm 1314143826
August 24th, 2011 at 12:44 am 1314146659