Wow, the 2nd April

and I am still working! and more to the point, enjoying it, despite being rarely in the Frame shop. It appears that this time of year is a slow part of the year for framing so even though they are swamp with work, they don't have the hours to have more than 1 framer at a time on duty. Most days there isn't a framer in the shop until 11 which is the time the head framer arrives. So if you need a frame, goes in the pm, as that is when the framer is most likely to be in.

This "hours" available in retail still baffles me. The same thing happens in all stores from what I can gather. Basically it means if you have slack sales, the staff hours are cut and it varies each week. So if last week was a slow one, this week the hours will be cut so if the shop gets mobbed, there are not any staff available, so staff are called in at late notice ( so might not be available) and the following week there might be more hours because Wednesday was mobbed. And so the merry go round goes on and on.

So if you walk into a shop and there are no staff, it means sales are slack and you are not going to get serve quickly and if like me, that happens to you too many times, (like 3 times in row) you are not going to go back. Too many customers like me and those hours get cut even more, ending up with even more lost customers. Weird way to manage if you ask me but it seems be prevalent in all retail shops.

Anyway all this working is playing havoc with my creative time. I had gotten myself into a routine when I would settle into working in the afternoons and evenings (unless I was feeling miserable which was too often). Now I have to fit it in with the housework and an ever changing timetable. No two weeks are the same at work, which is another of the mysteries of retail. Why can't they do a regular schedule? Each week I see the person responsible for the rota, pulling her hair out putting people, here there and everywhere. Once the rota is posted (like today for next week), you see people trading times as they have already made arrangements for that day. How are people meant to organise their lives if they don't know what hours they are working from week to week. Of course, it comes back to the available 'hours' again.

So basically my creative time is screwed up which means I am not doing very much creative stuff but I am getting there. Last night, despite being really tired, I pushed myself to finish off the curtains I was making. Of course, being a complete novice at this task. it is taking me way too long.

So what else is happening in my life apart from work. Not much to be honest. Alan and Emily are at their respective colleges. Emily appears to be doing well and should pass her finals comfortably. Hopefully we will go and visit her either this weekend or next (depends on my work schedule which is unknown at this moment in time) All too soon she will have completed her first year and then she will moving into an apartment in August.

Alan? Alan, well, lets just say, its in the air at the moment. There may well be decision made re his future in the coming months but whatever they are, he will cope with it. We don't know how his future is panning out but he isn't freaking out about it, so we aren't because only Alan knows what goes on in that head of his. Basically he knows the score as far as we are concerned and only he can decide how that turns out.

Elisabeth is still in San Marcos and somehow, that town has sucked whatever life she had in her, out of her. She seems to have lost that driving force that was with her in the beginning and is settling for what she has which is not the girl we knew and loved. However, she is making the decisions now and its her life. Her father and I have given up on giving any advice because any we give, is just toss to the side. Now I know she will read this and blow hot with rage, saying we don't understand and she will be right, we don't understand. She is almost 23 now, so despite our misgivings about what appears to be a surrender to a life she hates, she is the one who is in charge of her life.

I am sure all our parents when through exactly the same things, in fact, I know my Mum and Dad still worry like mad about all their girls but that is the other part of parenting, letting go and letting the child make the mistakes. Its hard to watch and its hard not to despair but most of the time, it works out because the ground work was done in childhood.

So we are learning to let go and watch from the sidelines, just as we did when they first went to school but now its the real deal. It so bloody hard!!!