Archive for August, 2008
08/30/2004
by aaron on August 30th, 2008
Today is my 4-year anniversary being on staff at BCC. Not that my boss or anyone will recognize that, but I’ve got it on my calendar :) Michelle convinced me to interview for the job when we saw a flyer in the program one Sunday, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Since then, there have been LOTS of ups and downs, the most insane of which was the lead pastor getting fired two years ago and half the church left. But I’ve met some amazing people, worked alongside some of the greatest talents in the business, and made some lifelong friends. It’s a bittersweet anniversary, to say the least. I’d pictured it being different. You know, without the impending job loss.
But it’s almost over, and that’s both good and bad. I’m tired of it. I’ll miss what it could have and should have been. I may continue with them by doing contract work, I may not. I’ve told them that any contractor worth half their salt will cost at least three times what they were paying me.
Anyway, in other news, I bought my new camera. I feel like a badass now. It’s a Canon 40d. Not completely top of the line, but far from the bottom. It’s awesome, and it’s the first real camera I’ve ever owned.
Thoughts
by aaron on August 29th, 2008
• Do I really want to be where the rubber meets the road? Really?
• I still can’t really understand why McDonald’s is always a proud sponsor of the Olympics … because when I think of an Olympic athlete who has trained their entire life to be the best in the world, I think of a number 3 combo.
• There is a big difference in the quality of photo from a cheap lens and an expensive lens. BIG difference.
• I’m trying to figure this out: If I ever get to the point where I need to convince someone to leave town because there’s just not enough room for the both of us, is Bellevue really just a one-horse town, or is there more room here than I realize?
• I’ve woken up hungry plenty of times. I can’t remember ever waking up simply because I’m hungry. Especially not screaming about it at 3am.
• Obama’s acceptance speech last night was great. Here are some things that might have made his speech even better. Or at least more hilarious.
— If only he’d used the word “Sucka” more.
— If he’d come out wearing one of those little red Chuck-E-Cheese bowler hats and a matching tie.
— If he’d hopped onto Biden’s shoulders and challenged McCain to a game of chicken.
— If, in an exact recreation of the 1983 Motown 25 television special, he’d moonwalked across the stage, flipped his hat into the crowd, grabbed his crotch, and then disappeared into a cloud of smoke, never saying a word.
— If out of nowhere he was sporting a ‘Fro.
— If the entire time he made absolutely no reference to the Presidency at all, but instead only focused on his insatiable love for some baby back ribs.
— If the speech had been given by his ventriloquist doll, Little ‘Bama.”
— If he’d been holding the little chihuahua from the Taco Bell commercials the entire time, never mentioning or making reference to it.
— If, after all the time and millions of dollars spent on the campaign, he’d simply declined the nomination. What would they have done?
Best of Nashville?
by aaron on August 28th, 2008
All I’m saying is that if you happen to be walking along, trip, fall down, and find yourself accidentally voting in the Nashville Scene’s Best of Nashville Reader’s Poll 2008, and you mosey on by the Best Local Visual Artist choice (category 114) and just can’t think of who to pick, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if my name ended up there. That’s really all I’m saying. I just had a baby, I’m venturing out on my own now, it probably wouldn’t hurt anything, you know?
Deadline for voting is Sept. 10th.
P.S. It’s spelled “Aaron Grayum”
4am Medley
by aaron on August 27th, 2008
Sorry about the lact of activity lately … my life’s just been weird. Here are some random bits and pieces, in no particular order:
• Yesterday was Sebastian’s 11-week birthday. Last we checked, he weighed 10lb. 6oz. so his weight is back on track.
• Saturday we went to Murfreesboro to help Michelle’s brother move into his dorm at MTSU. We actually missed the “moving in” part of the day, so basically we just got to hang out and have fun. We had lunch at local favorite Toot’s, which is basically a more family-friendly version of Hooter’s. It was completely packed, and we’ve learned that the more people and the busier the restaurant, the better for Sebastian. He gets very interested in the things going on around him, and there was LOTS to look at in the restaurant, so he was pretty happy the entire meal. Plus, when he starts crying in a busy restaurant, nobody really notices or cares.
Michelle also at one point today put him into the Baby Bjorn as we walked around campus. He was turned outward this time, and he absolutely was thrilled. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him grinning from ear to ear so consistently as I have today. He really enjoys getting out and being around people. He’s noticing so much these days, we love it. Which also means he can keep himself occupied a little longer than he used to.
Michelle’s brother, Justin is 18. We moved him onto the 7th floor of Corlew Hall. It was a very bizarre feeling walking around MTSU again. We seem to make it back there at least once every year or two for one reason or another. My brother went there for 4 years after I did. Sometimes we go to review student work, and I was part of an art show there a couple years ago. Sitting there in Justin’s dorm room while he was talking to his new roommate (Michelle’s brother is Justin Wright … his roommate is Justin Wilson … trippy), it really started to hit me not only how excited I was that first day I moved into Felder Hall, but also how LONG AGO it was … considering I feel like I’m the same person I was then, and remember it like it was last week, it doesn’t feel like I started college 13 years ago. We ate dinner in the cafeteria with about 2,000 other freshmen, and it felt strange watching people around the room, remembering what they are feeling right now, thinking that I’m really not that different than they are, but also realizing that I don’t exactly blend in anymore.
• Buying a new camera is giving me a new headache. DPReview.com is the premier resource for comparing and learning about cameras, and I’ve spent a lot of time there in the past week. Also Flickr groups and Google.
• It’s spelled “In Memoriam” not “In Memorium”
• I met one of my favorite local artists last Friday at the Frothy Monkey on 12 South. Admittedly I’d always been a little intimidated by Trevor in the past, because in social circles he always seems like a bit of a rock star. But after sitting down with him and talking for awhile (it’s a coffee shop, although we both drank juice) I quickly realized he’s actually kind of shy and one of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time. He can’t help it he’s just THAT popular right now :) He was the headliner at Harding this year. The impetus for the meetup was a painting trade. He actually agreed to trade a painting with me and seemed excited about it too, which blows my mind. I told him I bought Michelle a small painting of his a couple months ago, but I wanted something larger for Sebastian’s room. So he painted him a rocket ship. And it’s awesome.
• I’m going to go around downtown and photograph 17 different people for awards they are receiving. Still no clue what I’m doing. Kind of exciting though. The scissor-lift photo shoot was interesting and I think went well. Got a few good shots out of it. Organizing 100 people early on a Saturday morning along with 13 buses and tons of equipment took about 3 hours of setting up and about 10 minutes of shooting. Wouldn’t exactly call it fun, but there are plenty of worse jobs. I’m not photographing all 17 of these folks at the same time … I’m going to get some of them today. And I think I’ll be doing it on about 2 or 3 hours of sleep. Ouch.
• Lettuce has absolutely no business anywhere near nachos.
• Our staff had it’s off-site retreat this Monday and Tuesday out at Montgomery Bell State Park. I could have gone if I’d wanted to (maybe, unless they decided not to pay for my room since I’m on the way out) but I had too much to do here and also didn’t want to leave Michelle and Sebo alone overnight yet. Plus, a staff retreat considering I’m getting canned would just be weird and kind of hard to handle. I used the fact that everyone was gone as an opportunity to clean out my office. This was both infuriating and depressing. I keep getting waves of being upset by how ignored I feel now by the very people who did this. After 4 years of my life and a new baby, you’d think they’d be treating me with a little more respect right now. I think they have completely moved on … they’ve had someone else do a logo that I was supposed to be working on (actually I had already worked on it) and yesterday I saw a stack of t-shirts with this art on it. That I didn’t do. I would have thought that they might have waited till I was out the door before replacing me. But I think they are just “letting” me stay on until Sept. 15th as a courtesy.
• Our health insurance dilemma may have been solved. I signed up to be a member of AIGA the other day (the national graphic designers association) and we’re going to get a great rate through them. I’ve just got to call my agent and get signed up for reals.
• Want your life to seem a little more manageable? Watch an episode of John & Kate Plus Eight.
• Our condo is an absolute disaster zone right now. The maid hasn’t come by in years.
• The baby’s needing me. Gotta run.
Early
by aaron on August 20th, 2008
Went to bed at 9:30pm and got up at 2:15am to work. Don’t think this will be habit-forming.
Stats
by aaron on August 14th, 2008
This is what happens to the number of people reading your blog when you mention losing your job and Bobby Flay on the same day.
To Subway and back
by aaron on August 13th, 2008
This evening I drove down to a new Subway here in Bellevue on Old Hickory at the bottom of the hill. It’s in a tiny shopping center that consists of the Subway, an Allstate insurance agency, and a sign shop. It’s kind of weirding me out that the sign shop is the only business without a sign.
And on the way back up the hill, I passed two teenage boys walking on the side of the road. The one of the left had his jeans pulled down buckled (with the belt he was actually wearing) somewhere just below his butt cheeks. Which meant he was basically wearing (from top to bottom) a shirt, white boxers which could be seen in their entirety, and jeans. It all looked so deliberate that I can imagine that he got dressed, looked at his boxers out there for all to see, adjusted his belt to make sure his pants wouldn’t fall the rest of the way down, and said, “Yeah, this looks good.”
This fad has been around for waaaaaaaaay too long. It was at my high school in the early nineties, and I’m sure it’s been around longer than that. How does it keep sticking around?
Las Paletas
by aaron on August 13th, 2008
Be sure to watch my friends/clients tonight on Throwdown with Bobby Flay … Norma and Irma own a Mexican popsicle shop called Las Paletas on 12th Avenue South. The episode airs tonight at 8pm on the Food Network. In fact, they are also having a viewing party on a big screen in their parking lot tonight if you’re in the neighborhood.
Drama
by aaron on August 13th, 2008
Yesterday was our anniversary, and one of the most fun and exciting things that happened is that we are pretty sure Sebo had his first laugh. He’s been smiling a lot lately, and every day we try and have some “happy time” with him, just loving on him and making him smile. He is noticing all sorts of things around the house and is still fascinated by my curly hair. We had dinner at Zola, one of our favorite restaurants on Earth. That might have been my first good glass of wine since he’s been born, and I could feel it later, because it was really rough getting out of bed this morning at 9.
And Michelle surprised me by sending me a cookie bouquet in the middle of our office staff meeting. That was awesome :)
Oh, and something else also happened yesterday. I got laid off.
You may remember in February I got downsized to part-time. Well, apparently the boat can’t sail with me in it, so they told me yesterday I have 30 days and then I’m out. Same thing happened to one other employee, too. So in about a month, I’ll no longer be an employee of the church. And on our anniversary … the timing — beautiful.
So what now? I’m going to do exactly what I’ve felt called to do for well over a year now … I’m going to work for myself. Basically my website says it all: I’m going to split my time between graphic design and painting. About two years ago, when they fired our pastor and the church went into a tailspin, for the first time, Michelle and I wondered what on earth we would do if the one job we were depending on went away. We had no other alternatives at the time. Because of that, over the past few years I have built a fairly good freelance client base that I think I will be able to handle more effectively once the part-time job is out of the way. Also, over the past several years, my painting career has been getting better and better, I’m selling more and getting more exposure each year, and I think that this may free up some time to really take it to the next level.
Just have to figure out the insurance situation, which is no small or inexpensive task.
And we’re still reeling from what feels like being punched in the gut. I think in the future, I would think twice about working at my place of worship. It mixes two dynamics which i would rather have nothing to do with each other.
I was at a Leadership Summit last week and one of the things that I heard and stuck with me is that if you take a risk in your life that requires an enormous leap of faith, God will recognize that, be thrilled that you’re having faith in Him, and He will bridge the gap. He wants nothing more than for us to have complete faith in our hearts in him. That doesn’t mean that we won’t necessarily be tight or have tough times, but it does mean that having just become a new dad, I am taking a risk by not going out and getting another job, but instead I am listening to every fiber within me that this is the RIGHT path to take, and that God will provide for us as he always has.
So once again, we’re about to embark on a new chapter in our lives. There’s so much to learn and very little time to learn it. If anyone has any serious knowledge in starting and running a business, I’d love to have a conversation about it.
I just keep going back to my wife, and all the years that we’ve survived, all the storms we’ve been able to get through. And my new son who is smiling back at me and is beginning to laugh. Those images make this all seem doable. I know small businesses fail all the time, but so do every other business. In my heart I have no doubt that this is the right thing to do. And Michelle is 100% behind me, which in case you didn’t know, makes ALL the difference in the world, because this decision affects her as much as anyone.
Peace.