Matt's wedding is in one week. I am beyond excited about going to Vancouver, BC to see him get married and to have a little fun. And sleep all the way through the night. And not change diapers for a few days. And not cook or clean. And be around friends I don't see enough of these days. I am STOKED! I need to invest a few hours in prepping Anne & Russ for taking Josh during that weekend. They need to know his eating preferences (it's unpredictable), his wake/sleep routine, what works, what doesn't, etc. I'll have a bag packed with instructions by Wednesday when Josh goes to school.

I got my mom the coolest Mother's Day gift my mom could ever imagine. I got her a lawnmower! But wait- it was painted on top as a lady bug using black spray paint, coils for antennas and jeweled eyes. On the bottom I painted flowers and grass. Better yet- it's an electric start and self-propelled mower. I got to thinking about my mom's health (back problems, arthritis, etc.) and decided the extra bucks in an electric start was the way to go. Now she doesn't have to wait for the neighborhood kid to come by and she can get rid of her broken mower. She LOVED her gift.

The same day UPS delivered my mom's mower, I was getting my hair touched up. I wanted to get the roots redone on the blue streak of hair. I decided to try a place in the mall from a friend's recommendation. The color came out so indigo-blue it looked black that first day. I washed it twice that night and about twice each day since. It's still waaaaaay too dark blue. And the blue stuff stained my scalp in front and turns my fingers blue when I wash it. It's just an awful product they used, which was Paul Mitchell's Ink Works. I complained to the salon and they told me to wait a week before they would work on fixing it swearing to me it would "wash out to a brilliant blue" in a week. I told the lady a week was too long. I also talked to my normal salon guy, Richard Flores, who agreed to see me on Sunday to help fix the problem. He looked at it the next day and agreed it looked all wrong. From now on, no more surprises. I'll go to Richard instead of chancing another screw up.

My midwife appointment on Friday went well despite having Josh with me. I know this sounds tacky but the kid is VERY active! I was worried I wouldn't be able to relax or focus on the appointment with him getting into everything. And he did get into everything. But Dinah was so good with him and patient with him despite his destructive 2-year old self. We heard the heartbeat loud and clear this time. Everything is normal and healthy so far. Just the way I like it!


Here's the last of the lay-off saga. I sent Dan my hours and activities for my last week of work and requested full payment within 30 days. His response:

Hi Sarah,

This looks fine. There are a couple of requests or considerations I would like to ask of you though:

Could you please reduce several of the hours for the time spent on addressing the errors in punctuation, spelling and such? It seems a bit much for us to proof the work and have to pay for it also.

As well, could I also ask that I spread the total due to you over the next two months? I will be able to give you half at the end of this month and the remainder at the end of June if that is ok?

We loved the work you did and appreciate your help. I am not easy to work for on these things and you did wonderfully - but I hope I did not raise your stress level too high!

Thanks again,


To which I replied:
Dan,

I will not change the hours for this last week. I did spend more time proofing than what I recorded in the hours that you are not being billed for catching several errors beyond the few items that Jeremy communicated to me. Proofing is part of the process of building a website. I will accept half of the wages due at the end of May and the remainder at the end of June if this is easier for you.

You did not raise my stress level working with you until Monday, April 30th when you essentially stabbed me in the front. Rather than trying to work through our problem as I would expect from a manager, you opted to cease our working relationship altogether. I did not have the chance to complete all of the objectives we both wanted to accomplish from the start despite the nearly "year's worth of work to be done", as you put it in January. I feel you did not budget properly when you hired me either in your expectations of how much I was to be paid per hour nor in the amount of time we estimated I would work (as laid out in an email to you on Jan. 30th), resulting in delayed payment of my wages and a premature end to working with you. I have learned several lessons from this encounter that I never wish to repeat. I do not feel on good terms with you and wish to simply be paid and move on with my time and energy.


To which he replied:
Sarah,

Your feedback is good and important to hear. You are right in that I did not budget mainly because the revenue side is difficult to project and we hit several obstacles that decreased our expected revenue greatly.

In part, I don't think I asked or conveyed the the right amount of information to you. That probably added to the issue. You feeling 'stabbed' is not something I desired to occur, but I did want you to know of my concerns with where things were. Estimates were estimates and that is why they are called such - that I understand. Frankly, we needed to end quickly so I did not keep the meter running with you. It wasn't a matter of budgeting, but of revenue short fall. I couldn't guide you and produce at the same time - as well as train Jeremy. So my efforts were split too thin.

So to put it out on the table so you get it from my standpoint, I have yet to be PROFITABLE in the last 4 months. So your time was important to us, but I needed to be able to pay for it too.

Hope that makes sense and gives you an idea of why things are what they are.


I didn't reply to this last email despite a strong urge to do so. Nothing kind or productive would have come of it. What ticks me off is that rather than own up to not having enough funds to pay for me, he preferred to blame me for something as a reason to get me off his payroll. He questioned my integrity in front of another worker instead of being up front and honest. It was fun while it lasted but I'm glad to be moving on now knowing his true colors.

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