arts

The Big Reveal and the Beanie Baby Purge

| jamiefeinberg

Well, it’s done. I gave my notice at my full-time job. While I am not yet ready to announce my RV plans to the world yet – we need to wait until the summer so I can keep my church job – I am delighted to announce that after May 29, I set arts administration aside, at least for now, and can focus on other things.

Am I excited? Ridiculously so! I wouldn’t say a giant weight has been lifted yet – much of the weight was definitely caused by financial stress – but for whatever it’s worth, I am not as tired or quite as stressed. So yay for that.

I am also happy to report that last night, as I ran a purchase by my mom (fleece t-shirt quilt to use all my old tees) and talked about how much progress I am making with purging old clothes and my grandmother’s beanie babies, she sees genuinely happy for me. She encouraged me, congratulated me on my progress and asked thoughtful RV questions. I am so glad I got the telling her part out of the way to give her room to do her mom thing. She’s a good mom, even if she doesn’t always understand my way of thinking, and she’s usually right about things. 🙂

Handling Ross’ finances is proving to be exciting, in that we can try new things to pay down debt, but also disappointing in that there isn’t nearly as much room to trim our budgets as I’d like. So I need to get back to work for Judy and hustle some more lessons ASAP. My first north country voice student (minus a few vocal coaching sessions) is tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that.

It’s also hard to make frugal food purchases when you are trying to lose weight (both of us) and hoping your diet can help fix your body (me). I have been doing a great job so far – trying to keep my food budget to $30-40 per week – but Ross is buying a lot of his own food too…and it is just a lot of work to choose which fruits and veggies you can afford if you need a lot of dairy products, for instance. I know we will keep refining it though…lots of things will get easier when we are on the same schedule too.

The next step for Ross is promoting his solo album. Meanwhile, I need to not only make more money, but start getting on top of RV planning. Hoping we can set up an RV appointment this week for the spring.

That’s all I have for now. Thanks for reading!

Poverty sucks, but Disney is awesome

| jamiefeinberg

Yeah, I know. My poverty revelation isn’t exciting. But the more I read and research, the more I realize that if Ross and I had previously been in comfortably middle class jobs, it would be FAR easier to do what we’re attempting to do. Seems obvious, of course, but if you make more money, you can save more money.

But I said I was going to focus on practicing thankfulness, so that’s what this next post will be about. And I am researching more ways that we can do more with what we have, even if we can’t, say, retire at 40.

I’m thankful that my doctors are taking me seriously. The rheumatologist hasn’t said anything enlightening yet, but I’m still hopeful.

I’m thankful that I have a supportive family who will back us up.

I’m thankful that I was offered a job for the summer, if I want it. It may turn out that that particular opportunity goes away due to some crazy circumstances, but I’m hopeful.

I’m thankful that Judy Pancoast has asked me to musically direct her Carpenters tour this fall. I’m hopeful that between that and our own work,  we can get an exciting schedule together.

I’m thankful that my church so appreciates my work that they gave me a nice Christmas bonus as well as a raise, before I’d even been there a year.

I’m thankful that my arts job gives me the flexibility to attend appointments.

I’m thankful for my husband. He makes it all worth it.

I’m thankful for a loving and relatively sane family.

And final thought for this moment? I’m thankful that due to the generosity of Ross’ sister and husband, we just got back from a one week escape from reality aka Disney World. Since they covered our tickets and housing, we just had to save for the flight and our incidental expenses and food. We enjoyed a much needed break from real life and had a truly marvelous time. It was so good for our relationship – and it got us really excited for RVing because we LOVED being together 24/7.

Life is good. Thanks for reading. Keep at it and I’ll talk to you soon.

Gearing Up for the Long Haul

| jamiefeinberg

Well, the long-shot job was just that, a long-shot, and it didn’t happen. Bad news for the part of me that was nervous about the craziness ahead, but great news for the part of me that is anxious to get on the road and do something different, and figure out what is next for us in this crazy life.

So I’ve been busy in the past few days now that I have a clear goal in sight again. I’ve created lots of spreadsheets, including touring locations, budgets (current and when we’re touring), charts comparing the advantages of a Class C vs. Class B vs. a glorified van, tips for traveling, a packing list (including both must haves and wants, to help us discern just how simply we can do this) and perhaps most importantly for right now, an outline of the money we’re making and how we can save over the next year and four months, if we want to stick to the plan. Which is the goal, of course. I have another job interview on Monday – this is for a local, part-time church gig. It pays well, I’m incredibly qualified for it, and they seem really nice – and perhaps most amazingly, it is practically always a one-day-a-week gig.

I figure if I can get this job, keep up my part-time freelancing for as long as that pays and help Ross get some steady employment for at least a year before we leave (enough that he can sock a little money away and help a little with expenses would be perfect), we can save a LOT of money. If some of those things don’t happen, it will be harder – and in particular, if something doesn’t change quickly, we’re in trouble, as we’re currently losing $300-$500/month.

But I absolutely know we can do this, and boy, it sure seems easier to motivate myself to work (and give up some of the fun stuff) when there is clear goal and start date for the new adventure on the other side! I hope we can both keep each other motivated and be willing to make the tough choices. Ross is almost done his EP (whoo-hoo!) which will give him some extra time to devote to making money in the arts, getting the business side of things up and running and whatever else needs doing to make this thing happen.

So far I think the toughest part is keeping all of this to myself for the most part. I’m seeing big changes in store for the theater (in all likelihood, we’ll stop everything but the tours and special events, like wine dinners, after 2015) so that Ross and I can do awesome things like write shows and record CDs together. Worth it? I definitely think so!

Feeling really thankful for all of the amazing blogs and articles out in the world to help us with the planning. Will have lots of resources to share here in the coming months.

Oh, and did I mention we’re going to Disney in January for our wedding present from Ross’ sister and husband? Cannot wait. One more thing to save for, of course, but we can do this.

Thanks for reading!

Feeling Groovy

| jamiefeinberg

Okay, maybe not Groovy, exactly. But certainly healthier than I was a couple of weeks ago. Today I have a “preliminary” interview for that long shot job opportunity. Still a long shot? Absolutely. But it will be good for me to have a conversation that looks ahead.

The minuses if I were to get this job are obvious – no motorhome tour, at least right away, we’d have to move to a city that at least on the surface wouldn’t be our favorite thing, and I’d have all the typical challenges of becoming a teacher.

The pluses? A built in simplified life that combines my theater work and my need for income (at least for as long as I can keep it that simple) and maybe even a summer vacation, which would make returning to Canada for regular visits more feasible. Not to mention good benefits and a clear next step.

In any case, it’s got me thinking more about teaching and how much I like it. Whatever the ending is, I’m sure teaching will be a part of my work moving forward. Wish I had weeks to devote to cleaning and organizing my life – so much to do, so little time!

My groovy feeling usually involves rainbows -I love them – and my closet is oddly becoming less of a rainbow than it used to be. Why? Well, I’m realizing that my favorite ways to dress now involve a color palette that lets me interchange clothes and dress easily. So I think when I’m done decluttering, my goal is to have two palettes, with only an occasional dress or shirt to mess with the vibe. The colors? Probably blacks (for theater and music, of course) and brown/pink/purple/tans, which has become my go-to and I absolutely love it with my complexion and my vibe. We shall see if this holds, but I think the writing is on the wall.

Have a groovy day!

Clearing Piles, Confirming Characteristics

| jamiefeinberg

It’s been a surprisingly long week. Funny how that happens sometimes, isn’t it? You’d think that a week where you worked two days, had two days off (New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day) and then worked for one more day would fly by. But despite how busy I was, I’ve been feeling sick with the same thing I’ve had for at least a week, probably two, now, and so does Ross.

I do wonder if depression and frustration contribute to our health as much as they sometimes feel like they should. But regardless of why, we’re not feeling well, and that definitely makes it tougher to find the energy to be productive, both in my day job, in my theater company and other music projects, and in my “work on my future”, so to speak.

We have had a day or two when the idea of “running away” felt tempting. And in fact, my mom is having a hard time accepting that this is what we want – and she definitely doesn’t see it as a reasonable goal. She wants to support us, but she is just afraid for the future I think. My dad, on the other hand, was pretty supportive, in his way, saying if anyone was capable of pulling this off, I was.

I know it’s unusual. But we’ve both always been unusual.

In fact, I can readily attest to the fact that my teachers have always seen me as different – well, at least since middle school, when I had class sizes that allowed teachers to get to know me. I’ve been cleaning out old bins of paperwork and memorabilia, and my mom saved all of our report cards and progress reports, so I’ve actually been reading what my teachers thought about me and my work. It’s pretty cool! Most of them said some wonderful things about how bright my future was – but they also made a point of saying how unique I was, and by eighth grade, how driven. It’s really fascinating to read the comments after the fact, when the consequences of a particular grade are long forgotten but the memory of the class is still there, although quite dimmed.

Of my seventh grade year, my advisor said “shyness has given way to involvement with friends and faculty, and we have all learned what a great sense of humor she has”. I wish all of my classmates had gotten my sense of humor, but it’s nice to know some people appreciated it! Of when I played Glinda in The Wizard of Oz, she said “I was honestly amazed by her strength and confidence on stage in her first big role”. Pretty cool, 12 year old Jamie! And my drama instructor said, “Jamie is off to an incredible start in Drama and shows no sign of letting up. There is some major theatrical potential in this student and I can’t wait to watch her talents develop. Jamie has created some of the most wonderfully creative characters I’ve ever seen from a seventh grader. She already has a unique technique which is truly great to watch.” He also says some things about how kind and considerate I am – but how cool is that! Apparently I had a unique technique at 12 and didn’t even know it. And for the record, yes, I did do well in all of my classes in middle school (although it surprised all of us when I did well in art), but it was clearly even more evident than I realized that music and drama were the place I was most comfortable at that age.

At age 17 (same stage) playing Chava in Fiddler on the Roof. One of my favorites!
At age 17 (same stage) playing Chava in Fiddler on the Roof. One of my favorites!

I’m thankful my mom saved all of this stuff. And I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to see it all. And finally, I’m thankful that technology means I can trash this stuff without actually getting rid of it.

Looking forward to a clearer apartment and a clearer head in 2015!

-Jamie