First of all, my youngest daughter was married on Saturday. Her husband is a non-member; so, the marriage was performed at church by our bishop. It was a very nice ceremony, a wonderful reception afterwards - and I was dead tired when it was all over. The groom's family was a little miffed that we weren't serving ice tea at the reception (and one family member was overheard during the reception asking where the liquor was); so, they brought an ice chest full of coke and dr. pepper - don't see that in an LDS cultural hall very often. And, I should point out that it wasn't just the non-Mormon's who had a can of coke or dr. pepper sitting in front of them at the table. :)
The only negative is that I was informed the day before that I am being laid off from my job after 28 years of service. I'm still processing this bit of news. Fortunately, I'm in a better position than many who face this challenge seeing as how I no longer have young children living at home. I'm thinking it's time for a career change - any suggestions? How about a wedding photographer specializing in Mormon temple marriages and gay weddings? Seriously, pursuing a career in photography is one of the options I've been looking at. Another is going into teaching - high school math. But, that Walmart greeter job looks mighty enticing.
My youngest son is getting (temple) married later in April - he will be the last of my children to be married. Now it's time to start pumping out the grandchildren :) - we're up to 4.
So, that is what's going on in Abelard's life - we're having a busy spring; and, I'm feeling pretty stressed - some good stress, some bad stress, but stress none the less.
And, I'm starting to think that perhaps it's time to consider inching out of my closet a bit more. Not that I want to go to church wearing a pink shirt and rainbow tie - but, I'm just tired of pretending to be straight all the time. So, stay tuned, although I'm not going to rush into anything.
On that note, if you've ever wondered what I look like in real life - there is a site called My Heritage: Celebrity Look Alike where you can upload a photo of yourself and, through face recognition, it will tell you which celebrities you look most alike. So, you simply have to reverse engineer these faces to derive a picture of me :)
17 comments:
Ouch, sorry to hear about your job. :( That's never good news. I hope you can get something else quickly, something you enjoy.
As far as I understand, I'm the only MOHO to have had the privilege of seeing you in person, no?
So, I can honestly say that I can testify that you definitely have that "Enya / Colin Firth" kind of thing going on! :)
Big hugs my friend with all the stress...
Amanda - I appreciate your concern and support
Beck - Yes, you are in the unique position of being the only MoHo to actually have met me in person - to date. I'm not all that familiar with Colin Firth, but I do like Enya.
Sorry to hear about your job, but I like the idea of you being an exclusive gay-wedding photographer. I'd hire you... if only I could find a groom... hmmm.
Oh, Abelard, you're a great guy. I'm sorry to hear about the job. It's nice to get a glimpse into the life of Abe every once in a while, but it's much nicer to get a happier, problem-free glimpse. But we'll take what we can get.
I hope you know how wonderful you are.
Christopher
Boo about the job! I liked being able to chat with you when I could on Monday afternoons during work... In May I'll be leaving as well though to work in San Antonio again.
I still need to make it up to DFW. Seriously, there are at least a handful of mohos in the metropolitan area. We need to have some kind of get-together every now and then in this state.
Wow, so much stuff!
First of all, congratulations on the weddings. My sister and I were married within six months of each other, and it almost killed my mom. Which temple is the wedding going to be in?
Second, I'm sorry to hear about your job. It sounds like you have a lot of fun ideas for your future. Can I suggest one more? Come back to school! I know a lot of people here that have either come back to get a bachelor's or a master's recently, and they get a lot of respect in the classroom! Plus, school is cool. End of schpiel.
Finally, I loved the My Heritage thing. When I did it last year, my number one match was Gisele Bundchen. I was so proud!
Good luck. Don't be afraid to use caffeine to get through the hard times :)
Hugs
Austin - Seriously, I would love to photoshoot a gay wedding to add to my portfolio - so, let me know when you find that husband :)
Christopher - I really appreciate your support
Evan - Are there really that many of us scattered around the metroplex? You and I are a couple hundred miles apart - so how big of a radius are we talking about?
kevin - I don't know if I could do the school thing again. Truth be told, I didn't really enjoy it all that much the first time around. But, I am open to some retraining. In fact, my company will even pay for it as part of my package - so I'd be foolish to not take advantage of it. And, I've never been afraid of caffeine :)
I'm really sorry to hear about your job situation. Hopefully you have a decent severance package to buffer you for a while.
A high school math teacher?
Why, oh, why, would you EVER consider something like that?
:P
Good luck, and thank you for sharing a bit of you with us. Wish we could "beam" you here for our moho parties!
MoHoHawaii - Yes, I got a severance package that is, at least, as good as other companies are offering these days (although, not as good as was offered in years past).
Sarah - I guess I'm a gluten for punishment :) I've worked with the youth for most of my adult life and I have a BA in math - just seems like a good fit. Maybe I should give some more thought to what I want to be when I grow up.
Abe: Don't grow up. Just think about what you want to do next. Sorry to hear about the layoff, that's tough. You'll be in my prayers.
I enjoy working with youth, and I love math. It is the Principal and parents that I don't get along with. :)
(But I THINK the good times still out-weigh the rough times.)
And fortunately, job security is pretty good for a math teacher, unless you go around talking about your gay blog friends all the time. ;)
(It is just so hard to keep my mouth shut--I love you all so much!)
Alan - I don't think there's much chance of me growing up at this point :)
Sarah - I will admit that I would not look forward to parent-teacher conferences. In our school district, parents have been known to bring their lawyer to a parent-teacher conference.
Well Abe, what can I say? "Sorry about your job loss" sounds so hollow, because you know I've 'been there, done that.' All I can really say is "Enjoy the time off and the opportunity to re-assess what you want out of life." Then go for it.
I think school would be fun to try again. You would be a great math teacher. For me, there wasn't anything else I really wanted to do, so I just kept trying to get a job in the same field. I'm glad I waited and that the right job came along.
Abe, I'm just guessing, but I think the math teacher job might suit you, and it's something where you can really make a difference. Your tech background might also help you get the job; sometimes the math teacher takes on computer science. If you enjoy working with young people and are the kind of person who understands adolescents (which you seem to be), this could be a great opportunity for you.
It would be a pay cut from your current job, but you might get a lot of satisfaction out of it.
P.S. Being laid off just 8 months before vesting in a major retirement benefit doesn't seem accidental to me. That would piss me off, too.
i don't need a program; dozens of people have told me i look like billy crystal. then again, maybe i will try the program and see if it agrees.
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