henroy’s Neighborhood

As the pipe clamp blisters began to pop and heal on my hands, I knew I was in a race against myself to find my next gig in woodworking. I had just quit my job after I was put on a mandatory 72-hour work week schedule, which was neither safe nor necessary in the warehouse where I was a full time furniture maker. From my first taste of sawdust, I was hooked. I loved everything about it, especially the aches & pains associated with putting in a hard day of manual labor.

I had moved thousands of miles from my industrial Michigan factory roots, only to go to college and decide the blue collar life is what I wanted. I quit my job, only when it was obvious that it would either kill or permanently injure me...but it was still one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. Besides the fact that I love it, I realize now how wrapped up I was in the identity of being just one thing...In my working life, I have always had to have at least three side hustles going on and I've done everything from nude modeling, to being a maid, a well-paid executive assistant, an extra in movies, a make-up artist, to an apprentice sander in a woodshop.

When I call home to update my family, typically, whatever it is I describe is met with unconditional love & acceptance, even if there is a tinge of it not necessarily being understood. As a woodworker, I was finally able to align myself with an identity - one thing that I loved being and doing...and it was so much easier to explain that!

Predictably, when the job fell apart, I scrambled for any paying gig I could find on craigslist. As it turns out, it was a good time to be involved with film making and I even signed up for acting classes. Being involved in the process is as exciting as it seems like it would be - even the long hours of waiting, while being completely dressed to the nines for a 6:00 a.m. call time, shouldn't be exciting, but it still is.

Around this time I also found work as a fit model, working for a local design house. It's a job that pays very well but the work is inconsistent. Still, I am extremely thankful to have it, even if it is a bit weird for me to use it as an identifier at the dentist's office and have the receptionist squeal and ask me a bunch of questions about the job. That's a rock star moment, I'm not going to lie, but it's completely foreign to me to identify myself as "model" in any capacity...especially when "factory rat" was a closer signifier just weeks ago.

I'm not sure if all the discomfort in lacking a fixed occupation or identity squarely rests on my shoulders, or if I am reacting to other people's confusion when I try to explain, "Well, I'm actually a furniture maker, but I'm out of work, so I'm doing the acting and modeling thing, while looking for another woodworking gig." Who does that? I'm not sure if I even understand myself anymore.

In the long run, it's probably a good thing that I am so versatile & adaptable - I always have something relevent for any type of resume I'm creating for myself (and I have at least 3); but I long for the day when I have a short answer to the question, "So what do you do?" 

My first job was working as a make-up artist in my mom's cosmetic shop, which was located in "the dead mall" across the street from the mega-mall, where everyone respectable went to shop. The only folks who ventured into the dead mall were those with bizarre fetishes they wanted to try out in "public" without actually being too far out into the public sphere. My four hour shift was often punctuated with high school principals and construction workers in drag, trying out the new high heels they just scored at Payless; a 60 yr. old woman dressed as a naughty school girl being led around on a leash by her husband; your occasional flasher; foot fetish guy who would creepily make me show him the colors of "toenail" polish we carried and on & on...

Anyway, it appears that Vox is now the dead mall. Of course, I'm sure there are still many "respectable" folks on here...but more so, there are a lot just letting their freak flag fly. And I love it. You are my people and I'm happy to be back. But don't send me pictures of your penis. Thanks.

Hello Members of Girl Germs,

I am very sorry that I went MIA for so long and spammers have been allowed to contaminate this space. I'm back now and ready to lay the smack down. I nuked as many spam posts as I could find and members that are clearly robots...but I'm sure I didn't catch everything. If you see something that should be destroyed, please let me know so that I can take care of it.

Thank you so much for adding all this wonderful content to the group - I have enjoyed catching up with everything I missed and have learned a lot. Also, you have inspired me so much! I can't wait to start writing again!

xoxo,

Miss Scotch

On Tuesday, we took Kumi to her new school, Macy Elementary in La Habra.  I know she was a bit nervous about the new surroundings and the size of the school.  There were hundreds of kids in the playground all wearing their new backpacks and shiny new shoes.  We met her new teacher for the first time, helped her settle into her classroom and then said goodbye.

On the second day, Mika took her to school in the morning and Kumi asked her not to get out of the car to walk her into the school.  She wanted to go in by herself.  She already had friends she wanted to wait with and she didn't want mommy hanging around.  That was fast.  I guess Lumbini trained her well.

One thing I thought was funny was she told us that in the afternoon, they had a time to go to the restroom called PE.  I said what?  For PE time, everyone went to the restroom and then they did an activity outside.  I had to hold back the laughter and said "No Kumi, PE is the activity that you do outside.  It's called Physical Education... P. E.  "No" she said,  it was PE like in PEE.  Oh well, can't win.

Book fair, picture day, carnival, teacher conferences are all coming up.  It's the big time for Kumi, and she thrives.

This is a picture from the top of Mount WIlson above Los Angeles.  The "Station Fire" is threatening (and will probably consume) the broadcast and communications towers which serve the Los Angeles area.  After 4 days, there is no containment in sight with estimates as far off as September 15.

Towercam

Kumi is attending her last day at Lumbini Child Development Center today.  I'm going to go pick her up and help her clean out her stuff in a few minutes.  It seems only a short time ago that I wrote about her first day of preschool.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and read up.

http://etamura.xanga.com/weblogpreview?nextdate=10%2f31%2f2006+10%3a59%3a15.407&direction=n

Last Sunday, she graduated from Kindergarten.  Kumi is the one in the middle next to the girl doing the Batman dance.

013

She starts first grade at Macy Elementary in La Habra this fall.  Where did the time go?

Ha!  Daily journal huh?

Well anyways, an update:  I picked up the Civic from the body shop and it is all fixed.  Other driver changed his story and now the entire claim is in arbitration...

I dropped off Kumi for her last day (kind of) of kindergarten before her graduation on Sunday.  I say kind of because she'll be back at Lumbini on Monday and Tuesday to finish out the month before saying goodbye to Kindergarten.

Kumi is on Youtube now.  Search for Kumishow.  Her cousin Weston (thewestonian on Youtube) is producing a video series which she will host.  Right now it's just video clips but stay tuned...

It's been a bad week for celebrity deaths with Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson passing away and now we hear that newsman Walter Cronkite is also near death.  Very sad.

Heading for the weekend.  See you on the other side...

This is as close to a daily journal as I will get.

May is finally over.  Here comes June.  Lots of thing are going on right now.

First of all, some idiot tried to go straight from the far left (of 2) left turn lane on the Foothill Offramp of the westbound 210 fwy yesterday.  We were in the  middle left turn lane which also goes straight into the Sears parking lot.  Well he hit the rear driver's side area of my car.  Good thing he has insurance.  Mika was driving.  The adjuster already called and got Mika's statement.

Other things going on:

This is Kumi's last month at Lumbini.  She graduates from Kindergarten on June 28th and will go to first grade at the public school in our neighborhood in the fall.  She is happy and sad at the same time.

USC is moving our offices to a new building... err another building this summer.  The design is in process and the political and budget jockying for our preferrence in the new space is going on.

We are planning our vacation to Hawaii in October.  Prices are very low right now.  More on that later.

On a shorter scale, I have been asked to do my own annual performance review.  Hmm what should I say about myself?  The review and discussion will be tomorrow.  Tuesday is also my 5-week haircut day with Vanessa. 

I have a sleep study on Wednesday night at the Hoag Sleep Center.  I check in at night, they wire me up and then monitor me as I sleep.  I'll let you know more about that later.

"High" view on a inline Hockey match (La Tour de Peilz) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/twen/3524697697/

International House of Environement : http://www.flickr.com/photos/twen/3545401681/