My so called week off wasn't

much of a holiday. It never was intended to be one anyway. Anne and my situation had me running around "all over the place." Our jobs are such that they are mostly late afternoon/evenings, so up until Wednesday we were up at 7:30am to get to emergency for my iV therapy. We don't normally go to bed until 4am and up about 11:45am for me. So now currently the Doctor from emergency has me on oral meds and suggested I not go into work this last week. Other then a Saturday shift getting up at 7:30am is rare hours for Anne and I. Both my employers knew what was going on and were updated last Monday. Thursday I tried to get a cheque from one of my employers in the West end but when I got there about 5pm the place was closed. The following day (Friday) they just started a major project and ran out of work everywhere else Thursday. I had Friday night to myself and Saturday afternoon/evening. Anne's here all day so that was it. Saturday night!

This part of my post today is a bit lengthy and includes a grey/personal side of things in my life, which I don't usually talk about. I hope this doesn't sound repetitive. This could be all over the place and a bit disjointed in places, bare with me.
        I'm still struggling with Fl. Studio to work with my Novation Circuit. I'm getting advice from the Novation Circuit's Facebook users group, which is a great resource. My main problem with Circuit isn't so much with Circuit itself its my licensed copy of Fl. Studio and my 2009 laptop but the laptop meets Circuit's system requirements for using software to record Circuit's audio. For some reason I can't even get a Circuit mono signal into Fl. Studio. I can get mono everywhere else like my iPad 2 but I need stereo so I can post YouTube videos of my Circuit tracks. I never had a problem with Maschine into my laptop but that was software/hardware. No Ts cables were needed in that situation. I removed Maschine from my laptop hard drive awhile back to make room on my hard drive. That was a mistake. There's other laptop issues I have not with  Novation's Circuit. I tried installing Maschine software again yesterday and Auto play isn't responding properly enough to even load a cd so I'm reluctant to uninstall Fl. Studio and load it again. One thing is for certain: I don't know what I'm doing.
        My channel "Shannon on Sounds" is supposed to be about music production using a combination of iPad apps and hardware. I consider the iPad/i0s as hardware. My laptop is mostly software like Fl. Studio. Its a learning curve and there are so many hours in a day. Did I mention I don't know what I'm doing?
        This laptop I'm using came with a licensed version of Windows as all pc laptops come with a preinstalled OS, but in late 2011 I had got a major virus and my unofficial tech guy/co worker installed a *ahem other copy* of Windows. He said something like a short term solution not to depend on it and ASAP buy a Windows license. Then in late December 2012 life hit me with a setback: I lost my steady job at Xentel. My tech guy/co worker at that time cautioned me to get a licensed version of Windows 7 Ultimate but this was working fine until one day late 2013 my laptop wouldn't let me gain access. I'd need to go into safe mode and work from there to do a system restore, or a restore point. I must have done a dozen system restores since then. Even at that time other then CPU underruns, Maschine worked with my host software, no issues. 
         Now I got major internet issues (adware) with my laptop no Windows recovery cd. Late 2012 a licensed copy of Windows Ultimate was on my radar before I lost my steady job and disposable income I was enjoying with Xentel. I didn't lose my job due to the economy or anything but because the parent company wanted to consolidate their brick and mortar locations. A lot of good people lost their jobs in Edmonton and Calgary and elsewhere December 12 2012. But that's life.
        I got a market research job with Malatest in February 2013 a few months after losing Xentel and my severance package dried up and that was enough to keep our household in the black but no room for luxury's until I dropped the ball there, February 2014. I got the current job where I am now a month later (Malatest's competition) up the street and that's where I've been ever since. it's been a struggle. Still not enjoying the steady income I received from Xentel pre 2012. I miss that place and I'd still be there pulling in 37.5 hours week even today. In a way I kind of saw Xentel's Edmonton office demise when we moved offices from the Baker Centre down the street to the Energy Square building. For awhile Xentel had a work from home option until this current Government raised the minimum wage. That shut a lot of people out of work.
        For now I'm just 6 months from pension and I'll have that and my job, without any penalty to our household's bottom line barring anymore health issues. Our household income doesn't even come close to the threshold where there would be a income/pension penalty anyway.
        After doing a lot of research and following Novation's Circuit updates, I got Circuit last week on a payment plan for $40/month because my credit is good at where I bought it. I can afford the payment plan over the next several months and the summer until my situation changes near the end of September. If this was a year ago, no way would I even consider a payment plan but I'm 6 months away from pension and I have enough ei hours over the summer, without compromising our households income situation. So leading up to pension, its going to be a short term balancing act for our household. My short term goal is to set aside at least $120 for when work dries up (maybe mid June) so I can have July/August/September covered and ei should keep us barely in the black until late September. Playing around on Circuit will keep me occupied over the summer etc and the Facebook Circuit user group is helping me identify some issues. I'm reluctant but I might have to uninstall Fl. Studio but its this Auto play that could cause me some grief.
      My life over the past 6 years has been plagued with ups and downs and setbacks. Admittedly some of this was the choices I made along the way and choices life tossed at me. In the end its all good. At least the Oilers look like they could be making a trip to the post season.

So, I'm back to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, at the Southside job and that's only 4 hours/night. I'm home by 9pm if I get a ride from one of my co workers. If she's there. Thursday, Friday I'm scheduled to go in from 4-9pm at my market research job and Saturday its 10-2:15 at my Southside job. That's a good full week for me. Anne doesn't want me to pull any more long shifts. hopefully I can relax a bit over the summer. Anyway, that's all for now.