Returning the Pineapple* [long and me*me*me]

After a period of relative insanity, or at least a lot of running around
with my hands in the air combined with periods of muttering at inanimate
objects, my life appears to be headed toward a return of some kind of
stability. This, coupled with trying out a netnews reader on the
iPhone, caused me to peek into this group a few days ago. I've done
this a couple times over the past however-long-it's-been, but the
reaction was always "not yet".

This time it felt more like being back, so I've been lurking for a few
days.

"Being back" is a recurrent theme in what's going on in my life right
now. Prior to 2007, I had been working the same job (for company L at
agency V on contract C, subcontracted under agency N) since 1997. Then
someone at V decided that C should be put up for rebid, and set
conditions such that N was not eligible. Into the breach came company
D, who went about signing up the contractors already working on the
project, including me--but I was not allowed to subcontract; if I wanted
to continue, I would have to become an employee of company D. When the
contract was finally awarded, we failed to come to an agreement for
various reasons, so I remained with company L, who moved me to contract
C' at agency A. And life went on.

In the meantime, employee G of company D, who had taken my place, left
rather soon after the transition, and was replaced with employee G', who
(a) had not had the benefit of working directly with me, (b) pretty much
blew off the chance to work directly with employee G, and (c) had
attitude problems. When G' left, my former cow orkers were figuring out
how to proceeed, and one of them said "Why don't we just see if we can
get Kevin back?" So they called me in early 2008, and as a result, I
finally started working for company D at agency V on contract C, again.

Company D was OK, the people were nice, and they paid me well, but after
a year I began to miss company L, which had better health insurance and
a much better bonus plan, and at which I had always felt comfortable as
an out gay man (they had a nondescrimination policy that explicitly
mentioned sexual orientation. Plus the owners are really great people).
Well, it turned out they missed me, too, and had something new (and
interesting) come up, so on June 1 of this year I returned to company L
at agency A, but working on contract C'' this time, although with a lot
of the same people I worked with before and I am in the same general
area of the building.

Of course I took some teasing at both ends, but it was good-natured.
The person who took over my job at agency V had the benefit of working
with me for almost a month (I gave lots of notice) and is incredibly
sharp, so I don't worry too much about that not working out (we talk
once a week or so, sometimes about work and sometimes about other stuff,
and he has decided to learn Perl after seeing the code I left behind and
what I accomplished with it). While at least one employee at V expects
to see me back in a year or so, I think it's pretty definite that I'm
gone from there for good.

Home life--When David and I split up in 2005, we ended up living
together for over a year while he decided what to do. He eventually
moved to North Carolina, but we had an agreement that DC would remain
his "home of last resort" (if things didn't work out for him elsewhere).
At the time, that was because I still owed him money for his part of the
equity on this apartment, but later we renewed it because we'd become
friends again. Michael and I ended up vacationing at David's two years
ago, and we spent both Christmas and Thanksgiving, along with my mother,
down there last year.

As you may be aware, the economy took a slight downturn last fall :-(,
and David was at a point where he was having problems finding enough
work where he lives to meet his expenses. Also, by that time he owed me
money, which he was going to have problems paying back on what he could
make. So after some preliminary visits to set things up, this past
February David moved back into this apartment with Michael and me,
bringing his two dogs Buddy (lab/great dane cross) and Maggie
(beagle/dalmation/pit bull cross) to join our dog Peanut (miniature
[thank god] beagle), and we began living the (sur)reality show "Ex in
the City". We are all getting along, but as you can imagine there are
issues that crop up from time to time. For example, David is doing most
of the cooking (and buying the groceries, as his contribution to the
household [as an aside, the food is wonderful but healthy, and we are
all losing weight]), but the kitchen is now Michael's and they have
different ideas of where to keep things. I have also discovered how
much my boyfriend and my ex have in common. (I have carefully not
mentioned this to either of them, because both of them would vehemently
deny it--which would prove my point, actually.)

Sometimes, like this weekend, David's cute boyfriend comes up to visit,
which lends a whole different layer of surreality to the situation.

David is not planning to be here forever, of course, just until he can
move on, or back (he still has a house in NC to take care of), but will
probably be here through the end of the year.

So my life changes, in parts, and doesn't change, in parts, leaving it
feeling totally familiar and totally strange at the same time. But,
come to think of it, that's pretty much how it's always worked.

For now, at least, I'm back.
---
* This phrase stems from a former cow orker who left the company and got
a pineapple-shaped trivet as a going-away gift. When she came back (I
am neither the first nor the most frequent back-comer here, you see),
there were comments that she should return the pineapple, and it
eventually became a stock phrase.
--
boss, sometimes i think           |  kevin michael vail
that our friend mehitabel         |  kevin@xxxxxxxxxx
is a trifle too gay               |
        -- archy                  |  wotthehell wotthehell
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Problems at work!
    ... The "agency worker" is not employed by your company, ... "fired" - the contract between your company and the agency for his ... there _may_ be breach of contract grounds from the agency, ... However, if the job has not ceased to exist, cancelling the contract with the company may also involve being forced to offer that same employee the same job through the next agency according top previous discussions here. ...
    (uk.legal)
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  • Re: Out Of Court Agreement...
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    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Out Of Court Agreement...
    ... outside of the courts. ... had to pay out for a contractor to cover my 'statutory notice' period. ... * one week's notice if the employee has been employed by the employer ... too was in breach of the employment contract [eg., often, the 'mutual ...
    (uk.legal)
  • attention regarding rubber expansion
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    (sci.crypt)