Mainly it was after grabbing coffee with my friend who’s son has been in the HG program since last year. Apparently for jr high there is only one HG magnet in LA - and it’s way out in the Valley, probably an hour and a half drive in the morning. And for high school there is also only one HG magnet, in North Hollywood. I’m not terribly interested in him going to either of those - and my friend wasn’t a fan of them, either, and is probably going to send her kid to just an ordinary jr high & high school anyway - so, why disrupt Bobby’s life just to send him somewhere else for one year and have him go to the originally planned jr high and high school anyway…? It just stopped making sense. I had to remind myself that the magnet counselor who called me, like all magnet counselors, is basically a salesperson. Her job is to fill those seats for sixth grade as many of the kids abdicate for junior high. She doesn’t really care about us; she’s just doing her job. I need to remember this about a lot of the business relationships in my life - these people have their own agendas and they may not align with mine, and that’s ok.
On that note, I unexpectedly got an email from the contracts person at my event’s hotel, telling me she had gotten a promotion and would be moving on in a week. She told me to contact her if there was anything I wanted her to look into before she left, and on Friday I did. I asked if the hotel typically had events around July 4, and she said no (phew). Then I asked if I was correct in assuming Labor Day weekend was becoming a hot commodity because of the new SoFi stadium and that when it came time to renew my contract I might be priced out. She said yes and no - that this year was exceptional because of the Beyoncé concert filling their rooms at high prices, and it may not be the case every year but it may. But mainly what I should be concerned about is that they’re going to want to start charging me a rental fee in the future if I can’t come up with banquet orders, something I’ve never done. There may be a way I can push food instead - lord knows food options there are severely lacking - to at least help offset whatever rental costs they want to throw my way. But she was interested in my move to July 4th, and I asked a pretty hefty buyout in order to do that starting next year. She’s going to “run it up the flagpole” . I had emailed the amounts I wanted and so didn’t get an immediate reaction. I have no idea if what I asked was reasonable or if I’ll get laughed out of the room…it took a lot of balls to send that. But you have to ask for things. They could make hundreds of thousands if I were to move right now. Surely that’s worth something to them.
Hopefully I’ll hear something soon. I’ll be on pins and needles. I’ll also be on pins and needles about the desert construction which is supposed to start on Wednesday. Also, about summer camp registration which was such a breeze last year but now requires me to line up first thing tomorrow morning and just pray that I get there early enough to get them spots. If not, I’ll have to figure something else out, or even, the horror, not send them to camp at all.
I also need to call my tax guy tomorrow and see what he estimates my tax burden will be this year so I can make sure I prepare accordingly. I would like to pay a portion of my house down while I can, but I want to make sure I don’t screw myself, too.
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