The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 182): Sketchup Madness

Spent the entire day revising Google Sketchup plans of our house in preparation for meeting with a lot of contractors. #1GF! found errors in our closing documents which is always nice after a closing is finished.

Monday (Day 183): Contractor Calls

Called some contractors and spent two hours with one going over plans before going home and getting a little writing done.

Tuesday (Day 184): I Am The Earth, Not the Sun

Waited for a contractor who didn’t show up. I spent the time listening to my Walkman phone and driving myself crazy by going over various floor plans in my head. After an hour, I gave up and left him a message. Rather than acting like the center of the universe and getting all huffy, I simply said that I hoped everything was Ok and asked if he wanted to reschedule. Turns out that he just got lost, and agreed to meet with me a couple hours later. As I get older, I’m learning to give people a little leeway. It seems to work out a lot better for everyone.

I spent the rest of the day catching up on my reading and doing some social networking because I’m low on ideas. The break gave me a bit of a recharge.

Wednesday (Day 185): Social Networking

I had a contractor cancel on me and another ask to meet with me a few days early. Everything worked out, and I ended up talking to one of the contractors for a couple of hours before heading home to do a ton of social networking. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I belong to well over a dozen social networks now, but they really can help you to connect with potential readers or networking partners. I suck at social networking, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Thursday (Day 186): Not a Good Day

#1GF! started the day off by telling me that she hated my beatboxing. Now I have to beatbox when she’s out at work. I’m so exclusive and have been pushed so far underground that only no one in the entire world can hear my beatboxing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, my site went down and I thought it had something to do with my “2 Girls 1 Cup” post. It turned out to be a screw up with the Bad Behavior plugin for WordPress. The plugin was telling all my awesome commenters that they were spammers and into illegal activity. Good times. I spent the rest of the daylight hours building social profiles.

Got a call from a contractor who agreed to meet us. He really wasn’t interested in anything I had to say, and spent most of the time talking. He would ask questions and then either answer them himself or tell us what we wanted was wrong. He also wouldn’t give us a price because he said that someone would have to spend some time with us to figure out what we wanted. He was the sixth contractor we met with, and they had all spent the time finding out what we wanted so that they could give us a price, so we weren’t sure what this contractor thought his role was. We also weren’t sure what possible factor he thought would lead us to hiring him.

At one point I can remember the guy cutting us off and arrogantly asking, “Look, do you just want me to tell you what you want to hear?” If there was any slim bit of hope that we would hire him, it scurried into a crack in the foundation. That’s when #1GF! asked really nicely, “Forgive my ignorance because I’ve never done this before and don’t understand the process, but if someone else is supposed to find out what we want, and other people do the actual work, what exactly do you do?” We all stood there for a few seconds enjoying the first bit of silence since the guy showed up. He left soon after without so much as offering a business card.

Friday (Day 187): Christmas Shopping

#1GF! had the day off, so we went out to an early bird special breakfast before heading out to get some Christmas shopping done. The owner had a baby sitting on the counter who was really cute, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a law about babies sitting on restaurant counters on the books somewhere. I have nothing against kids or babies, but they aren’t the most sanitary little people in the world.

I gave my parents a call and found out that they tried to watch the 2 Girls 1 Cup video that I warned you all against watching. They got grossed out and couldn’t get through it, which is good. It’s better than having them say that they watched it a number of times, I suppose.

In the evening, we met with a contractor who had canceled on us twice, and he spent about fifteen minutes with us before rushing off. It was snowing and he probably wanted to get home before it got really bad, but it was a little strange. After that, we ordered pizza and watched a movie.

Saturday (Day 188): Floundering

I spent the day looking up architects because the plans I have don’t exactly work. They’re close, but I don’t think that “close” cuts it when you need to have a building inspector check things over. We don’t have any clue about how to choose an architect, so I spent time researching them on the AIA and other web sites. After a number of hours, I had a mere five to call. I have no idea what they will cost or if they can even take on the work, but I thought it was a good idea to have some names ready because not a single builder has gotten back to us yet. I felt a little like I wasted a week and was now taking steps backwards, but #1GF! reminded me that we at least found a few contractors who we get along with and seem to know what they’re doing.

I woke up several times during the night to stop myself from dreaming about researching contractors and architects. If my brain were only plugged into the net, I could more efficiently use my sleep time.

What I learned

• I’ve been officially out of work for over six months. The time has really flown.
• Giving people a little leeway usually works out better for everyone.
• Some social networking sites allow you to link to your site and have a “dofollow” policy. If such sites have higher page rank than you, that link can theoretically help to boost your page rank, so fill out those profiles.
• I’m enjoying Mixx a lot more than I ever liked Digg. It’s sort of the same thing, but for some reason, Mixx feels more natural to me.
• When you don’t know what you’re doing, pushing forward is better than getting locked up with indecision. By doing something, you make mistakes, correct, and learn. By merely thinking, you can lock up and waste a lot of time accomplishing little. It all comes back to “It’s not what you think, it’s what you do that matters.”
• Doing small, unrequested favors and being nice will do a lot more for you than remaining aloof. You’ll eventually realize that no matter how much you want to, you can’t do it all yourself.
• I remembered that I’m not the Sun and the world doesn’t revolve around me. The thought created an environment where there was less conflict.

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