Saturday, September 7, 2013

Waiting is Hard Sometimes


This isn't about writing; not directly. Although pretty much everything which happens in my day to day and even exceptional day life does affect my writing. The quality, the quantity, the ability to put a word after a word after a word and have it make sense. Or not.

I've been waiting for six weeks for the contracts to be ready at a place where I interpret and coordinate the interpreter teams. There was a big shake-up in the personnel and the way they do business at the end of last season. This included my contact person losing her job - and she was excellent at her job, at being an advocate for the Deaf Community and made huge strides in increasing the size of the interpreted performance audiences. After the personnel shake-up, it took awhile for them to get someone assigned to be the one who deals with the access teams. The meeting went well. And then I waited.

And waited. They were reviewing the contracts. I waited.

I did more than just wait. I reconfirmed availabilities for the season, I plotted out who would go where, I checked in with a couple of people who I wanted for a couple of specific things. And I waited. I emailed and I called.

And waited. The contracts were under review by HR. Oh, they're on vacation. They're back but the legal team needs to look them over. Oh, they're out of the office. 

We should know later this week. No, by the end of next week. They're still reviewing. By Friday; definitely. Well, end of next week I will get an answer for you if they're not in hand.

At 4:45 pm the call came. Temporary contracts for the access team for the first show being interpreted in two weeks. And my coordinating contract. But not the master contract from which all the others will be made.

Soon, I was promised. Very soon. But first we have to meet to look over these contracts which are very different in wording than the previous, what, ten years? Fifteen years? Supposedly no major changes in process or payment - but the legalities of being involved with this place. Something.

So I'm still waiting. 

But I have moved ahead with contacting the interpreters and coaches to make sure dates and teams and plays all match up; I still need to hear back from three of them. And all of this is contingent on the contracts being acceptable to the team members because - well, I don't know what the changes are. None of us who aren't employees know.

Fingers crossed. I'm waiting.

There has been a flurry of activity these past few days around this issue. And that's okay. Even with the other activity I did meet with my Tuesday writing partner and I met with my Friday night writing group. I wrote a piece, which looks like it it going to be a spoken word piece and that makes me happy. I also edited another story which I was planning to submit but I missed the deadline. And that's okay; it probably wasn't the best fit or this story. This week I've also been looking for a home for that story - it's going to be a little hard to place, though I think it's good, it just needs the right home.

I'm happy that even with the waiting for the contracts and the busy-ness of the coordinating piece, I've still be able to write. It does help having writing partners, a writing community. Even though writing is a solitary activity in most respects, having a community helps keep it present and real and alive.