Why Does My Wife Not Want to Be a DJ?

I had the most brilliant idea tonight.  See one thing we are worrying about right now with me going back to school is money.  I really want (and quite possibly will need) to reduce my hours at work in order to go to school.  But there is NO money to spare as is, so G. is really going to have to start earning more.  Currently she is doing childcare in our home, which is working out okay, but it won't be enough to cover our behinds when I go down in hours. 

So tonight I was talking to a member of the church I serve, and he was explaining to me how he got into DJing as a side business.  He stumbled upon it when he needed to recoup some money that he lost when he bought sound equipment for a band he was in that broke up shortly after.  He picked up one extra piece of equipment, DJ'd a few gigs for free, and batta boom, batta bing, he had himself an easy way to make a few extra hundred dollar a month.  He doesn't do weddings, as he is a teacher by day and keeps to the more low key gigs (things like kids parties and school dances LOL).  He gets all of his jobs via word-of-mouth and his initial investment was a couple thousand dollars, but he said that his charge is generally around $400.  Apparently he knows some folks who DJ at weddings for up to $1300 per job.  You have to be GOOD to charge that and still get jobs, of course (personally I think that is a total rip off to charge that much), but I was amazed when he said that his friends use the same equipment he does.

So I thought, "Aha!  That is a crazy great idea for G!"  We could invest now from our tax refund (assuming we are getting one, but that is another story...my efile has now officially been rejected twice and the reasons given make NO sense), and G would have a great job.  She LOVES music, she LOVES chatting with people, she enjoys the party atmosphere.  She doesn't like being "in front" of crowds, but having interviewed a bunch for our wedding a number of years ago, I know that some DJs are billed more as entertainers and some more as masters of music...she definitely qualifies for the latter.  I have a fair amount of confidence she could get jobs here with the number of folks we know, but I am even more confident she could get a ton of jobs out where her parents and her sister lives.  She has a lot of good networks down there, and I know she'd LOVE the excuse to head out that way on a regular basis.  (And heck, when I am in school, maybe the student network would be another good source of jobs.)

At $400 per job she could make $1200 a month with only three jobs.  Meanwhile, it wouldn't likely interfere with classes or work for me, and would really reduce concerns around the cost of childcare that we have as we look at her returning to a more traditional job.  At this point, she can't earn enough to pay for both kids in care, let alone extra on top of that.  Which means we wouldn't put the kids in care and instead both of us will end up with twice the work (I with school and she with a new job).  And as a DJ, she could even keep doing childcare in our home if she wanted.  The business side of being a DJ, as it was described to me, sounds easy enough, and I could take care of a lot of the business stuff.

So why doesn't G want to be a DJ?  Right now she is out on a job for her sister.  She worked a 15 hour day priming an apartment that she is going to paint tomorrow in another 15 hour day.  She is making $500.  Not bad for a weekend of work, but two 15 hour days like that is really hard on all of us.  I spent all day today working (including attending a church function) with two kids under foot.  She is going to get home late Saturday night, which means she is working right through my normal crunch time as I get the church set for Sunday morning.  How are we going to manage when I have the stress of homework for school on top of it all?  Knowing how sore she was tonight from painting, I am surprised she didn't feel the least bit tempted by my idea.  Instead she balked at the idea of being responsible for people having a good time. 

I wish I had half G's knowledge about music.  If I did, I would jump at my own idea in a heartbeat ;-P.

Great Visit

This won't be long.  I just arrived home from work a little while ago, and I am exhausted.  Totally exhausted.  Today I spent most of the day over at one of the schools.  It was a great visit.  (And by the way, G. came with the kids and joined me for part of the afternoon, and she loved the school.)

The Pendulum

My poor wife!  Every day I go to her and say, "You know, I think I've figured out where I should go [for school]," and I name a school and give her 100 reasons it is the best fit for me, and then all day I'll be researching and figuring stuff out about the school.  And she'll try to be supportive and research and figure it out with me, and we'll start to form some kind of idea of how it might turn out.  We'll talk it over, and I'll feel a little more at peace, and...

...then the next day I start all over, but it won't be the same school.  And round and round I go.

It's becoming predictable, and my darling wife is clearly growing weary.  She's at the point now where I will say something to her in the middle of the day such as, "This is what I think we'll do about [our family's schedule, etc.] for this school," and she will just nod and smile so as not to engage me too much.  I think she's hoping the school visits will be the end of it.  The last visit is just before the first decision is due.  Eeeks!

Honey, I know you occassionally read my blog, so let me just tell you how much I love you, and how dear I think you are to be so patient, supportuve, and engaged.  I am so lucky!

(P.S. to everyone else, can I just say how awesome "G" is?!  You know how I know that she reads my blog?  Because the day after I posted that I wanted to go to sleep for a month, she let me sleep in and gently told me I had been heard and that she knew how overwhelmed I was.)

An Explanation of Blog Changes

I added some pay-for-clicks ads to my blog because, well, I am going to need money anywhere I can get it now that it looks like I am going to pay books and fees a couple times next year (aside from the bigger stuff).  The plus side is that I get to share some book recommendations with you through an Amazon widget!  But I still half-feel that I need to apologize for the extraneous content.  So take this as my apology.

Advisement Conference Call

Since I began receiving school acceptances, a sense of dread has accompanied all celebrations.  Saying yes to one offer means saying no to the others when there are so many reasons to say yes to each.  I am, in a word, overwhelmed. 

After considering hiring out my life decisions for a while ;-), I finally realized that I could take advantage of the fact that I am surrounded by a network of really smart people who have my best interests in mind.  While I ultimately have to make this decision on my own, from my own gut, I can first seek guidance and wisdom from these people I trust.

For this reason, I am planning a conference call of advisement!  I am very excited, and if you are in my circle of "in-real-life peeps," I hope you will plan to join me.  I so very much appreciate collective wisdom of family and friends.  I am taking votes for dates and times (perhaps a Saturday, evening EST), and I'll be sending out an evite soon. 

Presidential Scholarship!

Forgot to mention that one of my acceptances included a Presidential Scholarship!

Funny Pyschology

Since last night's notices, I have been compulsively re-writing my essays in my head...from a school to which I was admitted.  The essays were good enough, but they could have been great if I only had written them now and not then LOL.