My First Meme

So far I've resisted the urge to post a meme here, but I saw one on dooce's website that I actually liked, so here it is! (edited to add what Sarah reminded me that I forgot! See below in the TV, movies and vacation sections to see what parts of my life I completely forgot about.)

Four jobs I've had
1. "Area hostess" at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, VA. This was my first job ever, and if you guessed that an area hostess is the person who walks around in a stupid costume and sweeps up cigarette butts all day, you were right! But I was 16, and it was a job. And I was outside all summer, so I got a great tan. Um, on my face, upper chest and forearms, because that's just about all that was in the sun. Moving on!

2. Front desk clerk, at various hotels in Williamsburg, VA and two here in Central New York. This is an interesting job when you work for a large hotel with over 200 rooms, not so fun when you work at a small hotel with only 20 rooms (boring). But 3-11 is the perfect shift for a just out of high school 18 year old. Staying up until 4 a.m., sleeping until Noon, and laying in bed watching TV until Days of Our Lives was over and it was time to get ready for work. Ah, that was the life.

3. Teller, at Crestar Bank in Virginia and one here in New York. It was a fun job, and I met and dated a few guys while I was working there. It turns out that sitting in the teller window is a great way to meet men. Who knew?

4. Secretary, at a lame country club here in New York. One of the worst jobs I have EVER had. I hated it from the first minute I walked into the office. Yuck. I quit it to go back to school, which led to a job in my current company, so it all worked out for the best!

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. While You Were Sleeping. I love this movie so much - I can quote every line and I still want to watch it over and over.

2. The Sure Thing. 80s John Cusack. I loved it as a teen, and I still love it now. How can I not love a John Cusack movie?

3. Dirty Dancing. Of course! Baby! Johnny! Dancing! What's not to love?

4. Moonstruck. I always try to say "Snap out of it!" like Cher does, but I just can't get it right.

5. And I'm cheating and adding a fifth, because how could I forget Serenity! Man! It's a good thing Sarah reminded me.

Four places I have lived
1. Bouckville, New York, from birth to age 10.

2. Newport News, Virginia, from age 10 to 12.

3. Williamsburg, Virginia, from 12 to 24.

4. Various small towns in Central New York, from 24 to now.

Four TV shows I love
1. Medium
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Monk
4. The Ellen Degeneres Show
5. And hello! Smallville! Man, I suck at remembering my life.

Four places I've vacationed
1. Orlando, Florida
2. Oahu and Maui, Hawaii. Two places, but during the same trip.
3. Central New York, when I was living in Virginia
4. I haven't got a fourth place, because those are the only places I've vacationed. Good thing the Hawaii trip was huge, huh? And I have been other places, but for work, so they don't count.
5. And I hope my oldest brother never finds this site, because I completely forgot that I went to visit him in Tennessee over July 4th last year, and that does count as a vacation. Oops!

Four of my favorite dishes
1. Sweet and sour chicken. Yum. With egg rolls and white rice, with the sweet and sour sauce on the rice.

2. Chicken and hush puppies at Long John Silver's. We just got one of these restaurants here where I live, but I grew up eating it in Virginia, so I knew of the love way before it came here. I don't go very often, but every once in a while my grease level gets low, and Jamie and I go for lunch.

3. Boiled dinner. Ham, cabbage (which I don't eat), potatoes and carrots all boiled together. Yum. This is what I ask my sister to make for me for my birthday most every year, because it's just not something I ever make for myself. What single girl is going to go out and buy a ham?

4. Lasagna (just cheese) or cheese stuffed ravioli. Two more dishes I never make for myself (or at least not often), and ones I don't eat very often because of the cheese (I'm lactose intolerant, but can usually handle cheese okay - but I don't like to push my luck with it).

Four sites I visit daily
1. Sarah. She doesn't update every day, but I check anyway.
2. Bitchypoo. She does update just about every weekday. And she has very cute cats (I want to steal Sugarbutt).
3. I'll put these as one - frontiernet.net and gmail, because they're my e-mail providers.
4. Netflix, because I'm always checking to see if they've received what I mailed back and if they've sent my next disc.

Four places I'd rather be right now
Well, I'm home, so this doesn't really apply. Home is my favorite place. But I'll dream big and say:
1. Hawaii
2. France
3. Ireland
4. Maine

Four people I am tagging
No one, because I won't do that. It feels too much like a chain letter. If you want to do it, do it! If not, don't!

First Week

I'm in my first week at my new job. It's kind of a bizarre one, because my new boss is out at a training thing until Friday, so I'm here by myself most of the week. She left me a small list of things to do and people to contact, and I have a couple of meetings set up already with various people, but it's still pretty strange. I'm finding myself with a lot of time to sit here and try to find things to do. I don't enjoy that too much, but I am sure that it won't be that way for too long. Once I get settled into the position and people start piling stuff on my desk to do for them, I'll be plenty busy. So I'm trying to enjoy the relative calm.

It's a little strange being here, though. I am once again at a job where I am sitting at a desk for almost the entire day without getting up for much of anything other than to get something off the printer and to go to the bathroom. And I find myself getting very antsy! I didn't realize how much I moved around at my other job, but I guess it was a lot. Between checking on laptops and phones that are being repaired and popping in to the store to say hi to Jamie (hi Jamie!), I was moving around quite a bit. That's no longer true, and it's going to take some getting used to.

But I don't want any of this to sound like I'm complaining, because I'm not. Or at least I don't mean to. The job really is going to be perfect for me once I get into it. I just wish I knew more about marketing. I'm really going to have to work to learn about that side of the job.

School is also underway once again. I have an accounting class and a graphic design/animation class this semester. The former promises to be rather boring but not too taxing, the latter looks like it might be fun. And neither of them seem to involve any group work, so woo! I really needed a semester where I didn't have to deal with groups. They really suck a lot.

And now I think I need to go find a reason to walk around. My legs, they are so jumpy!

Is the World Ending?

Okay, be forewarned everyone - the world may be ending. It is Saturday, the day that I generally spend sitting on my butt watching TV and playing the Sims, and for some reason I have been spending the last hour and a half completely cleaning and rearranging my living room instead. I'm not sure what happened - I was just sitting, looking around and thinking about how dirty my house had gotten, and the next thing I knew, I was cleaning.

Remember - I warned you. If the world ends today, you knew it was coming.

Happy Birthday Mom

Sixty eight years ago today, my Mom came into the world. Happy Birthday Mom! I thought of you all day, especially every time I wrote the date. I love you and I miss you.

This is her high school graduation picture. Isn't she gorgeous? Thank you again for scanning it for me, Sarah.

Winter came back today. I never expected the nice, unseasonably warm weather to stay - I never expected it to be here in January in the first place - but man, do I miss it now. It's snowy and blowy and I had to drive home from work at 30-35 miles an hour and I had to park on the side of the road and get out and shovel the driveway before I could park, and I really hate that. Oh well, at least it's exercise. And I'll get to do it again in the morning, because I was just out with Willow, and the snow has all blown in again - my car is completely surrounded. Stupid snow! Ugh.

Anyway, enough grumbling. My sister called me tonight. She hasn't called me in a long time, and I've only talked to her once since Christmas, I think. And we never mentioned that it was Mom's birthday, but now I have to wonder - is that why she called? And she told me she loved me before we hung up, so now I'm thinking that was definitely in her mind. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that she cares. I mean, I know she does, but she gets very wrapped up in her husband and kids, and it's hard not to feel like I come a distant eighth (she has six kids). But she loves me, and I like when she reminds me of that. I love her too.

Busy, Busy

I'm at my old job this week, and man are they keeping us busy! It's nowhere near as bad as the beginning of the fall semester, but we aren't getting many breaks between customers. Which is exhausting, but nice, too. The days go by really fast this way. And I'm enjoying my last week at my old job. Sarah will be in tomorrow and the rest of the week, so it'll be fun. We manage to have a good time at work, which is always nice.

I'm also managing to do work for my new job while I'm here, which is good, because I'm getting a little bit more of an idea of what I'm going to be doing. I have meetings set up with people, and have been doing small projects that I can fit in between customers, and I get the cutest e-mails from my new boss. The latest one said, "Everyone is so excited that you're here!" I ask you, when was the last time you got an e-mail like that from your boss? Because that would be a big fat never for me, until today. I think I'm really going to like working for her. Now I just hope she remembers all thiese good comments come raise time. :)

I got my school loan refund yesterday, which means I will once again be fluid financially. Yay! It's so exciting when I can send off big fat checks to pay people off (I sent two out this morning, woo!). Money is good. Until I have to start paying those loans back, anyway. Ugh.

And now it's just about time for me to go to my accounting class. I hope they let us out early. Have a great night! Or day, or weekend, or whatever fits when you read this.

Realizing

I just realized that I didn't post about Wayne yesterday. My step-dad, who raised me since I was about four (along with my Mom, of course), died 13 years ago yesterday.

Wayne gave me a necklace the Christmas before he died. It is a gold heart with small rubies and diamonds (rubies are my birthstone). He died of cancer, and was very sick before he died, and was bed ridden most days. But one day in December, he was feeling well enough to get up and out, so he asked my Mom and my brother (the one from that entry, back when he was sober more often and still nice to be around) to take him to the jewelry store. So they loaded him, his wheel chair and his oxygen into the car and they drove him to the store. He got out of the car and into the wheel chair, and stayed upright in it long enough to go in and pick that necklace out before he had to go back to the car where he could lay down in the seat. That necklace is one of my most prized possessions, and I've worn it almost daily since that Christmas when I received it, but I haven't been lately because the chain broke and I haven't been able to afford to replace it. I kept reaching for it all day yesterday, though.

I love you Wayne, and I miss you every day.

Morning Update

I'm on day two at my new job. The next couple of weeks will be a little weird, because my old job and my new one are in the same building, working for the same company, and they're kind of sharing me until after the first week of classes. I was at my old job on Monday, my new job yesterday, today and tomorrow, then back at my old job Friday. I have to work at my old job on Sunday, when we do laptop distribution (working on Sunday sucks, but it's better than the fall, when we had to do both Saturday and Sunday, so we ended up working twelve long, busy days in a row), then I'm back at the old job all next week because they're going to be really busy with the first week of classes. After next week I'll be back at my new job permanently.

Anyway, the first few days or weeks in a new job are a little weird, because you don't really know what you're doing yet, and you may not have many things to work on yet, and that is true here. I did two small projects yesterday all day. which really didn't take that much of my day, but that's okay. First days are like that. It'll get a lot busier, I know.

Okay, people are floating around, so that's all I have time to update this morning. More news later!

Sundayness

This day did not start off well at all. I had the most horrible night of sleep last night. It took me forever to fall asleep. I shut the TV off at about 11:30, and I was still awake two hours later. Then I was up at 2:30 for a trip to the bathroom and I'm pretty sure I was awake on and off from then until I finally got up at about 8:30. I got up exhausted, but it wasn't any good laying there - I just couldn't sleep. So I started off my day physically exhausted.

There are probably a couple of reasons that I couldn't get to sleep. The simplest is that I drank a soda yesterday, and since I don't drink too many caffeinated beverages, they actually keep me awake if I drink them too late. I thought I finished it early enough, but it could have affected me. The more difficult reason was that when I was laying there waiting to fall asleep, the heat kicked on, because the weather turned cold again. I am almost out of fuel oil, and I was hoping to be able to wait until the 24th to get a new delivery, because that's when I'll be able to pay them. And I wasn't sure if I would have enough, so instead of relaxing and falling asleep, I was tensing up about the possibility of running out of fuel oil in January. I swear, I never used to be a worrier.

(Oh, and I went down and checked my fuel oil this morning, and I am almost out. I just called and left a message on my fuel company's machine, asking if they would deliver the fuel to me this week. I so hate having to ask for favors like that, though.)

Anyway, the day did get better after a while. I'm still cold, because I have my heat set on 58 degrees. I don't dare turn it up, because even if they do deliver to me this week, it won't be until Tuesday, and I really don't want to run out of fuel before then. So I'm layering and covering up. It won't kill me. And the animals have the fur coats going for them, so they're okay.

And I spent the day playing the Sims, and watching TV (General Hosptial and Veronica Mars, and man, season one of Veronica Mars was so good! I wish I got UPN so I could watch season two. Alas, I'll have to wait for it to come on DVD.) And I baked a pan of brownies. Brownies can make just about everything better.

And tomorrow is back to work, and I guess I'll find out how the schedule is going to pan out for when I start my new position. I hope I do well in it. It's nice to have something new to look forward to, though.

Okay, I've rambled long enough. I'm off to enjoy my (admittedly chilly) Sunday night. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Job News

Man, I got home today, took care of the critters and changed into my PJs, sat down, and instantly felt like I wanted to go to bed RIGHT NOW, I was so stinking tired. I'm not sure why - a combination of high emotions all day, what with the Photoshop test this morning and then finding out that I got the job this afternoon, and a little bit of physical tiredness as well, because Sarah and I skated again today. And let me tell you, my legs are not happy with me. Yowza. But it's fun, so whatever - shut up legs.

I don't know too many details yet about when the new job is going to start. I think for a couple of weeks I'll be going back and forth from my current job to my new one. Then, once they get their shift coverage firgured out and hire a new person, I'll be at the new job full-time. I am glad that I have this weekend to relax and absorb this whole development, though.

I called my sister when I got home to tell her my news, and I mentioned to her something that I kind of touched on here, badly I think, a while ago, and I just feel the need to say it again. This whole situation that I have going on at work and school (mostly work) just seems so fated. I'm not sure if I believe in fate, but it just all seems too good to be true. I had a job that I absolutely hated from the very first day. I worked (suffered) there for almost a year, and then I left to go back to school, because I couldn't find a better job and I was desperate to do something different. And I went to school full-time and was jobless for a couple of months, and took a desperation job at a local grocery store, which also sucked donkey butt, and then this part-time, temporary job came up. I applied, I got it, it turned full-time, and just over a year later it's turned into this job that is going to be more challenging, will allow me to be more creative, and will pay me a little bit more than I make now. Not much, but enough to buy a couple of weeks worth of groceries for me and the critters. And all just 8.5 miles from my house, as opposed to the 30 miles I used to drive to get to work for the job I hated. Seriously - how much better could things get? Especially when you add in that I work with mostly fantastic people, two of which have become really good friends, and will still be working just next door to them after the job change. I really am counting my lucky stars, believe me.

(I'm also thankful for the last few days of gorgeous weather that we've had. I went outside in a short sleeved sweater twice today, and didn't need a jacket. In January. In Central New York. This is basically unheard of.)

And now I've babbled long enough. Have a great weekend, Internet people! And because I haven't included one in a while, here is my picture of the day, which is actually a panorama (series of three pictures, knitted together) that I took last year. These windmills are across from my house.

Oh, and I just realized that today is Friday the 13th. I think this may be the best Friday the 13th I've ever had!

Job Update

I got the job! Let the partying begin!

Jumping Through Hoops

I have another little test to pass tomorrow for that job I'm up for. I have to go in to the HR's office sometime tomorrow. They're going to put me on a computer and have me do something for them in Photoshop. I have a little bit of experience in Photoshop from a digital photography class that I took my first semester, but I haven't used it since. I told her that in the interview, though, so she shouldn't expect miracles. I did go in and refresh myself on the tools, so I think I'll be okay. Still - I hope they let me stop jumping through hoops after this. Just hire me already! You know you want to. :)

Sarah and I skated during our lunch break again today. It's so fun! I didn't want to stop when our time was over. Sarah might have been happy to, though, because she fell today. I didn't laugh at her too much. Hey, it'll be me next.

And in other news, I have rediscovered my addiction to the Sims. Yes, I have been sitting at my computer playing it every since I got home from work. Well, that is, after I took care of the critters and put on my PJs, of course. I lost my entire saved game when my desktop had to have a new hard drive, so I'm starting over in Pleasantview. I created a family called Breeder, for the precise purpose, surprise surprise, of seeing how many kids they could have. They had five before they ran out of time and I ran out of patience for raising their Sim kids. I'm playing three of their kids through college right now. I really love this game. It's a good thing I'm poor and have to work, because if I were rich enough to have a life of leisure, I would be playing all the freaking time. We all have our addictions, right?

Anyway. It's about time for me to close down my Sims and my laptop and go watch an episode of Veronica Mars before I go to sleep for the night. (But not until one of my Sims proposes to her love. And THEN I'm shutting down, I swear!)

Upsides to Stomach Bugs

The thing about having a stomach bug is that it sucks all kinds of donkey butt. However, it has its upsides. First, not being able to eat means you might drop a couple of pounds before you get your appetite back. Second, if it happens during the week, you get to miss a day or two of work. Third, on the second day you miss, you'll start feeling well enough again, finally, that you'll be able to do something other than lay in bed and run to the bathroom. In my case, that means I'm able to play the Sims and read my book. And that's pretty nice.

And also, if you're lucky, you'll even have concerned friends take the time to call to see if you're okay and if you need anything, because they'll gladly stop by after work. I'm that lucky. Of course, I e-mailed him back (because I was in bed when he called and didn't answer the phone) and told him that I don't need anything, and I'm already feeling better than I was this morning, and I'm sure that I'll get even better as the day goes on. But he's very sweet to worry.

And now I'm going to go back to laying down. I hope you all are healthy out there, and if you're sick, I hope you too have concerned people watching out for you.

Sims, Hard Drives and Cuteness

I wasn't planning on updating today (first day off after holidailies!), but I felt the need. My computer person came and picked up my desktop yesterday, and I e-mailed him today to see how it was coming. He had to replace the hard drive, and couldn't save anything off of it. I didn't have too much on it - just ALL OF MY SIMS GAME! All of the people, all of the houses I had built - all gone. I came really close to crying. Sims players understand what I'm saying - everyone else is just skipping this entry altogether.

Anyway. That's really all I had to say. Also, I wanted to post a picture I took today. This is Kate (gray), Zelda (black) and Lucy (calico), all sleeping together in my living room chair. Aww, so cute!

Sim Deprived

Why is it that as soon as you don't have the ability to do something, you instantly want to do it? In my case, my desktop computer is temporarily broken down, and since it's the one that my Sims game is on, with it out of commission, I am currently unable to play (I have the game on my laptop, up to the University expansion pack, but I loaned the discs out to my friend, since I wasn't using them, and you can't play without the CD, so I'm out of luck). So of course all I can think of is wanting to play it. It kills me.

Today is the last day of holidailies. I managed to make it through the whole month and only missed one day, and I made that entry up the next day. Yay me! Anyone who found me through holidailies, hi! Welcome! Thanks for reading me, and I hope you'll stick around now that holidailies is over. I wouldn't expect daily posts from here on out, though. I may need a break after posting 31 in a row.

And to show how much I really am running out of steam, I am going to end this entry now and go watch the last disc of season four of Smallville. I am now caught up with the DVDs. So when does season five go into repeats? I'm going to miss my Clark Kent fix! Have a great night, and weekend in case I don't update tomorrow!

(p.s. Thanks for skating with me today Sarah! It was fun!)

Interview

So the interview went pretty well. I wrote yesterday about the whole situation, and touched on what a weird feeling I was having about it, and that feeling carried into today for sure. I just keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to even consider changing jobs, and unfortunately I'm still waffling even after the interview.

Anyway, the job is a marketing position that would entail some writing, some design, some editing, and various other duties that go along with marketing. It definitely is something that would challenge me for a while, but it is also definitely stuff I would be able to do. It just means leaving the comfort zone; you know, how when you've had a job for a little while, you get used to it and learn how to do everything well enough that you don't have to think about it much anymore, and it becomes very comfortable. That is where I am in my current job - comfortable, but not yet bored. Taking this job, if it is offered to me, would rip me out of that comfort zone and put me into a position of being challenged and having to work very hard to make sure I am doing everything to the best of my ability. Which is definitely not a bad thing.

So I was in the interview, and the talking portion of it went fine, and she had me do some editing and look through some folders of stuff the previous person had done, and the whole time I was doing the editing I was thinking, I don't know why I'm doing this, I'm not even going to take this job. But then when I was talking about it to the people I currently work with, I was thinking how fun it could be to have a job that was creative and challenging. See? Waffling.

And everyone at work (with the possible exception of Jamie, who has this week off and is probably not reading this) knows that I had an interview for the job. I told my boss this morning when she came in (she was out yesterday) and she was like, "that's great!" And I thought, wow, I'm glad you're going to miss me. But I know she was just being supportive. And she started giving Sarah some things today that I usually do, like she was training her to take over when I left, which I thought was funny. And our phone technician was very much not wanting me to go, saying that she was happy for me, but being very clear that she didn't want me to leave, which was very sweet. And she said before she left, "why do they have to take her now? Why can't they wait a while?" Very sweet. And Sarah doesn't want me to go, even though there is a chance that she might able to go full-time if I do, because she is my friend (also, she doesn't want to have to work with annoying boy three days a week, hee). So the reactions of people have been very nice. Even though I was sitting there all day thinking, "I don't even know if I want it!"

But I think I do. If they offer it to me, even though I wish it paid more than it does, I will probably take it. So we'll see.

And I was given homework, too. I have to write up a fake press release to give to the HR person tomorrow. So I'm off to search the web to find out how to write a good press release. Have a great night! I"ll let you know how this all turns out. Although it may take a couple of weeks to find out. (Oh, one thing that I thought was very funny and positive - at one point the HR person asked me what skills I want to develop, and I said I would like to learn more about graphic design and about the publishing programs that I don't have much experience with, and she actually clapped her hands and smiled and said, "this would be perfect for you!" So, yeah. I take that as a good sign.) (Now watch, just because I'm being so positive, I won't get the job. Isn't that how things work?) Okay, I'm off to write my fake press release. Bye!

(Oh, and Sarah - we got the okay to skate in the gym. Did you get your skates from your Mom?)

Interesting Tuesday

If you read the post titled Interesting Monday, you'll know that the human resources person at my place of employment pulled me into her office a week before the holiday break to tell me about a marketing position that was going to be posted the next day. And just so you'll all know how many times she contacted me about this job, she let me know a couple of days later that it was taking her longer than she had expected to get the posting out, but that it was coming. And then the day before we left for break, she asked me if I had seen it, because it had come out that day. And I had in fact seen it - Jamie printed it out for me. (That's three times that she had talked to me about it, and none of them were prompted by me.)

That was all before the holiday break. Then we had 10 days off to relax, and I didn't think much about work at all, including this job opportunity. Until this morning, when she e-mailed me to ask me if I was interested in interviewing for the job (that would be four). The job that I had never really told her I wanted to apply for. I said yes, of course, because I'm no dummy, and asked if there would be on the job training and what the pay scale would be. The answers were yes, and an amount that is only $1.07 more per hour than I make now. She set up an inteview for tomorrow at 3:00.

I have such conflicting feelings about this whole thing. I've never in my life been pursued like this by an HR person for a job opening. And I have to consider it being pursued - wouldn't you agree, based on the above info? And the thing is, I really like my current job. I am perfectly content there, and don't have any desire to leave. That being said, I am not about to turn down a job with more potential for growth, if it is offered to me. So, like I said, I'm conflicted. But only in a good way. I mean, I can't lose no matter what the outcome - worst case scenario, I keep a job where I am perfectly happy. Best case scenario, I get a new job with new challenges and a dollar more an hour pay.

But I can't help wondering - what alternate universe did I fall into when I got this job? I haven't written about this yet, so you guys don't know the history of this. I had a job I loved at Syracuse University, but I lost it when the journal I was working for moved to Illinois. But I had been there for five years, the last three of which were during a time when I was fighting a pretty mean depression after the loss of my Mom. So I wasn't too sad to say good-bye to that job (the time had most definitely come). But it was followed by a summer of unemployment and then a job that I hated from the moment I walked in and sat down on my first day. Seriously, I hated that job from that first moment, and had to fight everything in me that was telling me to run in the opposite direction. And yet I stayed there for just about a year, at which point I couldn't take it anymore, and I wasn't having any luck finding a better job, and I decided to go back to school.

When I made the decision to return to college to pursue my bachelor's degree, I was kind of jumping off a building without a net. I didn't have a job to go to, my school loan money would only take me through part of the first semester, and I had no guarantee that the situation would work out to my benefit. I was again unemployed for a couple of months, and then I took a job, out of desperation, at the local mom & pop grocery store - another job that I hated. And I had been there for a couple of months when I saw a listing for the job that I have now, only it started out part-time temporary while someone was on maternity leave. So I kept the grocery job and worked both while still going to school, until it was decided that the woman wasn't coming back, and the position was made permanent. And then someone got fired and I was made full-time (and they kind of pursued me for the full-time position, too), and I've loved every minute of it. So see what I mean? It just feels like I was somehow meant to end up in this organization. And since I work for the same college where I'm taking classes, I'm able to both at the same time, although I've gone part-time on the classes.

Sorry for the long winded story. The point is, this job I have seems almost too good to be true, after the jobs that came before it, and now this other position seems almost over my head, but I know I can do it if they'll train me, and it seems like they will, and that seems too good to be true. If someone wakes me up now and this whole thing turns out to be a dream, I just may shoot them. I'll update with interview news tomorrow, and after that whenever I find out what happens. And now, I have to go recreate my resume, because I don't have an electronic version, and I need to come up with a writing sample. Because, did I mention? This job includes writing as part of its responsibilities. (The one thing I've ever really wanted to be was a writer. This may not be the kind of writing I had in mind, but it'll do.) Wish me luck.

Summer Vacation Plans

I mentioned in passing the other day that my sister and I are planning a trip this summer. We've been talking about taking a sister's trip for a couple of years now, but it has never worked out - I usually have money problems, and she usually has family things to attend to. This summer, though, if I have anything to say about it, we are actually going to go. I am determined of this, because our destination is Williamsburg, VA. That doesn't sound all that exciting, does it? Land of history, where there is a whole section of town where people dress up like they still live in colonial times, and then they proceed to bore you with all the details of how people lived 400 years ago. Yawn. But! Williamsburg is also the home of Busch Gardens.

When I was ten years old, my parents and I moved to Virginia. We moved because my step-father, who was a brick mason, couldn't find much work up here in central New York, and what he could find was seasonal, meaning that he was unemployed for four or five months out of the year. He and my Mom decided to move so that he could find more regular work, and they decided to move to Virginia because at the time my oldest brother was stationed there with the Air Force. We moved to Newport News and lived there for two years, and then we moved to Williamsburg.

Now, I never really felt at home in Virginia. I liked it well enough, but I always seemed to feel something pulling me back north. But one thing I did love while I was there was Busch Gardens. I started going with my friends, and in fact had season's passes every year while I was growing up - once my parents could afford them, that is. I rode my first roller coaster there - the Loch Ness Monster. I went with some high school friends, who convinced me to try it. I was terrified, but I got on. I probably wouldn't have if they weren't with me, but they were, so I did. I must have had more adrenaline running through my body than I had ever had before, because when I got off my legs were literally shaking. But I loved it - I was hooked. We walked off the ride, went back around and got right back in line to go again. It was fantastic. To this day, the Loch Ness is my favorite roller coaster, for admittedly sentimental reasons.

Then, during the summer between my junior and senior years in high school, I worked at Busch. I was an "area hostess," which was a nice way of saying that I walked around with a broom and dustpan, picking up people's cigarette butts and garbage. My least favorite part was cleaning the bathrooms (although they were air conditioned, and a nice place to retreat to when the weather got too hot), my most favorite was working when there was a concert - I could stand outside and do my job while hearing the concert for free. Not that they ever had anyone great - it was a family park, that very rarely got any rock musicians. Still, it was fun.

I only worked there that one year, but I continued to go back as often as I could every summer that I lived there. Then my Mom and I moved back north in 1994, after the death of my step-dad, and I haven't been back since. But then at Christmas my sister brought up the idea of finally taking that sister's trip, and we decided to go to Virginia and go to Busch, and I've been amped about it ever since. The map is my current desktop wallpaper (and is at the top of this entry). I've been going over it, and not only have they added two new roller coasters since I was there last, they've also added a whole new country! (The park's theme is the old world, and the park is separated into European countries - Italy, Germany, England, etc. I worked in France that summer.) To the right of England is now Ireland.

Obviously I am very excited about this trip. I have figured out how much money I will need to take with me (way too much, it's kind of scary to think about), I have downloaded the map and read the whole Busch Gardens website - if my sister backs out this time, I may have to shoot her. Busch Gardens here I come! We'll be there in June, so you had better start preparing.

Social Monster

In the past, I have been a very anti-social person. Not because I didn't want to have people around me, but because I didn't have many close friends who lived within a reasonable distance, so I just tended to be by myself a lot. It got old, but I was used to it. Lately, however, I have had the chance to be more social by making friends who actually live in the same county as I do, and it's ruined me.

Take this week, for example. I have had a total of 10 days off (well, tomorrow is the tenth). Out of the last nine days, I've spent part of one with Sarah, two with my sister, and two with Jamie. That has only left me alone on four of those days, and I at least chatted online or spoke on the phone to someone each of those days. Except today.

Today I have been at my house all day. I got up super late (for me - 9:40, my personal best for this vacation), and since then I've been completely without human contact. No phone calls, no IMs, no visits here or elsewhere. In fact, I haven't even left the house except to let the dogs out. And it's killing me! I have to get together with someone tomorrow, or I think I'll go insane. Sarah, Jamie, Sally and Donna, you've created a social monster! And she needs attention. I may have to name this social monster, if she's going to stick around. Jamie called me skater chick in an IM yesterday. Maybe we can call her that; SC for short. What do you think?

Ahem. Okay, sorry about that little break from reality. I'll go back to my Sims now. And wait for my phone to ring or my IM to bleep. :)

2005 Recap

I've never been much of a baseball fan, but I sure do love baseball movies. Or at least the ones that are on tonight. I came home tonight after hanging out with Jamie for the afternoon, and Field of Dreams was on. I love that movie so much - I really don't understand why I don't have it on DVD yet. And that movie has been followed up by A League of Their Own - another great baseball movie. What a great way to spend part of New Year's Eve! Add to that some Sims and some IMing with friends and it's a pretty great way to spend the last night of 2005. Although, I would have loved to have some company. :)

So as the old year prepares to end and the new one begin, I thought I'd do the typical recap of the last year. In 2005, I went full-time at my current job, made two great friends (hi Sarah and Jamie!), finally met an old friend in person (and loved hanging out with her and want her to come back and visit again soon), lost my dog Bailey in June, lost my dog Bo in July, adopted my dog Willow in August, adopted my cat Sable after she turned up in my basement last winter, got a new computer (mostly so that I could play the Sims the way it was meant to be played), watched lots of great TV, got addicted to caffeine and then quit it for a while, and didn't have any kind of sex whatsoever (feel free to cry for me). I also lost a grandmother whom I never knew and was surprised to be affected by the loss, got an unexpected call from my very uncommunicative brother (not the one I wrote about before, although I did hear from him on Christmas day) and of course rediscovered skating, and thanks to Sally's gift certificate, I got myself a pair of roller skates. Not the best of years, but certainly not the worst of years.

In 2006 I hope to not lose anyone, human, canine or feline. I also hope to be a little less in debt by the end of the year. And if I manage to get some action before the end of the year, that would be very nice. :) I also hope to actually take a trip with my sister to Virginia in June, instead of just planning it and not going, to take a trip to Tennessee in April to see my oldest brother get married, and have lots of fun with my friends. And hey, losing some weight and getting more in shape would be a welcome thing (but that's not a New Year's resolution, because those are doomed to fail in my life).

Good-bye 2005! I'm ready to see what 2006 has to bring.

24 Hours

Sometimes the dark mood takes hold. My head feels somehow thicker or heavier; my brow tenses. I want nothing more than to climb into bed in the dark, and just lay there. Not go to sleep, not watch TV, not read a book - just lay there, in the dark, doing nothing. I'm an upbeat person by nature, but sometimes even us cheery people get down. This kind of mood can be prompted by many things - the hormones of the week before my period, loneliness, grief (the three years after my Mom died, almost all of my time was spent in this dark place), or what prompted it last night - financial problems.

Now, these problems are very temporary in nature, and I've been in much worse shape over the years. But I was expecting some money to come in - not much, just about $300 - but I was counting on it to pay a few bills, and it didn't come, and I can't find out why until after the New Year, and one of the companies that I was going to pay with that money called yesterday afternoon to remind me that I owe them, and! I don't have to be reminded, believe me, it's been at the top of my mind for a couple of weeks now. But the money didn't come, and that's not my fault, and I had no other way of getting my hands on the money short of borrowing from friends (thanks for the offer, by the way, it means a lot that you trust me and care about me enough to make it) and I am not about to do that. I mean, my next paycheck will be here on Tuesday, and then I'll be able to catch up with just about everybody.

And I was in that dark place all afternoon and night yesterday, and I was still there when I woke up this morning. I didn't want to get out of bed, but I couldn't just lay there all day, and besides, the cats were hungry. So I got up. And when the cats and dog were fed and the dog had been outside, I came into the living room and opened all of the curtains except for the one right next to my desk - that one stayed shut so that I could continue to hide. And it stayed shut, and I stayed sitting in my chair, watching stupid mindless sitcoms on daytime TV, with that tense feeling in my forehead, all morning. And I tried to get a credit limit increase on my credit cards so that I could use one to pay this company that had called, and I couldn't. And I tried to call the company I was expecting the money from, andI got voice mail. And the mail came and I ran out to the mailbox to see if the check had finally (please god) come, and it hadn't. And somehow I let go of the tension. It was now beyond my control. It's the Friday before New Year's, so all of the offices involved - the company I owe, the company I was expecting the check from - are going to be closed, most likely until Tuesday, and by that time I'll have my paycheck and the bill(s) will be paid. And somehow through the simple act of letting go, the dark mood started to lift.

Now this lifting isn't an instant thing, but I played some Sims, I took a hot shower, and I even walked down into the (scary, spiderwebby) basement and checked my fuel oil level and found out that I'm further from running out than I thought I was, so I came upstairs and turned my furnace up to 62 degrees. Because 58 is just too darn cold. And then I watched an episode of Smallville, ignoring the fact that Netflix hasn't received two of my DVDs that I mailed back, even though they were mailed Friday and Saturday, because they will show up eventually. And then I put on my skates and I freaked the dog out again by skating around the dining room. And I took a dish to the kitchen sink, while wearing my skates, and marveled at how different everything looks when I'm suddenly 3 or 4 inches taller than my normal 5'2". And I put on my headphones and hit shuffle on the mp3 player and listened (am listening) to some of my favorite songs play just for me.

And while I'm sitting here writing this, my feet are rolling back and forth underneath me, because I'm still wearing my skates. And almost exactly 24 hours after that dark mood hit me, it is just about gone. Thank goodness that old saying is true: what a difference a day makes.

Hitting the Vacation Stride

Well, I can finally tell I'm on vacation. I did wake up at 6:30 this morning, but I went back to sleep and didn't get up until 8:51. Not bad! And I spent the morning playing the Sims. I moved a family into a house that I built a long time ago but had never played, and I love it! I swear, if I won the lottery I would build it for myself. Unless I fell in love with another house by then, anyway. :)

I spent the afternoon over at Jamie's today. We watched The Goonies, which I had borrowed from Sarah, and then we watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the movie, not the TV show. I hadn't watched the movie in a long time - I forgot how fun it was, even though the show was much better as far as the slayer storyline went. Anyway, we watched movies and I played with his kitten and we ate ham and tater tots for dinner, and it was a fun time. Even if his kitten did give me some new scratches! She's a playful one.

Tonight I watched a movie that my sister had given me for Christmas last year but I had never watched. It's actually a disc with two Elizabeth Taylor movies on it. I've never been a huge fan of hers, but I was in an old movie mood tonight, so I popped it in and watched Father's Little Dividend, which would really be more appropriate on a Spencer Tracy DVD, because it was definitely more his movie than Elizabeth Taylor's, but it was very good. I love old movies. I used to love watching them on AMC before they started playing commercials - now I pretty much boycott that channel, because I can't stand watching commercials. I don't like them on TV, I don't like them on the radio (I listen to my mp3 player in the car, with a cassette stereo adapter), and I especially don't like them on channels that didn't used to show them but now do. Anyway, the movie was very good. And you've gotta love a movie that still has married couples sleeping in twin beds. What the heck is that about? Oh, the '50s. The era of women staying home and taking care of babies that somehow magically appear even though the parents slept in separate beds. Thank goodness for women's lib and a more accepting viewing public that finally let married couples sleep together on TV and in the movies.

And on a totally different subject, I didn't write about this the other day, but my sister and I are planning to take a trip in June. It's going to be our first annual sister's trip (although my nieces may end up coming too), and we're planning on going to Virginia to go to Busch Gardens, as well as to go shopping at the area places. I grew up in Williamsburg - we lived here in New York until I was 10, then we moved down there. I haven't been back since I moved back to NY in 1994, so it'll be really interesting to see how much has changed. And I can't wait to go to Busch again. My first job was there, the summer between junior and senior year, the first roller coaster I ever rode is there (the Loch Ness Monster), and I just can't wait to see it again. And that gives me six months to get back into shape a bit. Now if I can just stop this habit of eating when I'm bored...

Okay, now it's 9:40 at night and I am not tired (see above, re: getting up at 8:51 this morning). There's nothing on TV and I'm done with the Sims for the day, so I'm off to find some other way to waste time. Have a great night!

Picture of the day:


Willow poses pretty for the camera. Seconds after this picture was taken, I'm sure she started barking for no reason and generally started annoying the heck out of me. It's just lucky for her that she's so darn cute.

Ham Overload

Today was such a very low key day. I really haven't done anything useful all day. I've played the Sims again for the first time in weeks, I've watched TV (there's really nothing worth watching on daytime TV, is there? With the exception of GH, of course, which I save for the weekend), I've read my book, I've watched a couple of movies - see? Nothing of any value. I've also been bored out of my mind for a good chunk of the day, which sucks. I've got to find a better way to keep myself entertained, because I have six more days off before I have to go back to work.

I also cut up the little ham that I got from work and had a slice of it for dinner, along with too many potatoes that I didn't mash very well and a couple of Grands biscuits. I have two plates of ham leftover in the refrigerator now, so I think most of it will be going into the freezer for a while. I will probably make scalloped potatoes with some of it, though.

So I don't think I wrote in here about getting a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate from my friend Sally. She sent it to me before Christmas, but I didn't use it because I wanted to wait to see what I got from my sister's family. Well, I used it after Christmas to order a pair of roller skates and a pair of sneakers. Yay! I can't believe I spent over half of that gift certificate on roller skates, but I just had so much fun ice skating on Saturday, and it really reminded me of how much fun skating is. And suddenly I really wanted to purchase a pair of roller skates, so now as soon as they come in the mail, I'll have a pair. Now I just have to find someplace to skate other than in my own house. There aren't any roller rinks around here, but I might be able to work out someplace to skate at work. We'll see. Anyway, I can't wait to get them.

Okay, I think I'm going to go back to watching When Harry Met Sally. Have a great night!

Picture of the day:

My cat Lucy, sitting on top of my pretty Christmas table runner, which was given to me by Sally a couple of years ago.

A Tale of Two Sisters

Gather 'round, everyone. It's story time again! If you remember the last tale I told you, then you know a little bit about the girl and her brother. In this tale, I will tell of the girl and her sister.

The sister spent her early childhood surrounded by brothers; one older and two younger - they were everywhere! She wished for nothing more than a little sister. And in the week of her tenth birthday she finally got her wish - for the girl was born! And the sister was happy to help her Mother out in caring for the girl, for she was like a little brown haired baby doll! Then, when the girl was two and her sister 12, their father died in an accident.

Times were tough for the sisters after the death of their father; well, honestly, they were tough for the sister, because the girl was too young to really know what was going on. The sister became a second mother to the little girl, because their mother had to work long hours to support her family. The years were long and hard, but things did finally get better. Their Mom didn't agree with her decision for a long time, and was very extremely upset, but the sister had fallen in love and gotten herself pregnant at 15, and was a wife and Mother at 16.

People would say that 16 is too young to be a wife and mother, but what they wouldn't count on is that the sister had grown up way beyond her years after her father died, and her strength and the strength of the love she and her husband shared for each other carried them through. And they had tough years without much money, but they had six happy kids and a loving family and the sister's strength grew with each passing hardship.

Now the girl kind of felt like she lost her sister for a while. Once her sister got married and moved away, when the girl was just six years old, they didn't get to spend much time together. The sister was busy being a wife and mother, and the girl was busy growing up. The distance between the sisters grew by 600 geographic miles when the girl was ten, and she moved to Virginia with her Mom and Step-Dad.

The years passed and the girl grew up, and when she was 23 her Step-Dad died, and a year later she and her Mom moved back home. Suddenly, after nearly 14 years, the girl and her sister were living in the same state, less than 15 miles apart. And they started to develop a friendship. They rediscovered what it was like to have a sister, and with every passing year they grew closer. The girl found out who her sister had become, and she loved her even more than she ever did. The sisters' Mom died six years after they moved back home, and after a period of sadness and grief and depression, the girl cherished her sister even more.

And then came Christmas and her sister bought the girl a digital camera and a book and a CD and more importantly, welcomed her into her home to spend time with her family. She fed her a wonderful meal and spent a couple of hours watching a good movie with her and then, as if that weren't enough, the next day she took her to watch a movie and have lunch, and the girl loved the hours spent together on a holiday Monday.

And the girl wanted the world to know that she had the most amazing sister in the world, so she posted it on the Internet for all to see.

And now for the picture of the day, courtesy of the girl's new digital camera:

After a short December thaw, winter returns to Central New York.

Christmas

What a great day it has been. I got up before 7:30 and was on my way to my sister's house an hour later. She has such a great family - she has six kids, the youngest of which is 18 now, and five of them were there today, two of them with their spouses and two with their girlfriends. I got to be there with them while they opened up all their presents, which I absolutely love, and my sister loved the necklace I gave her. And I loved what she gave me! I got A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, Wildflower by Sherly Crow and...a digital camera! You'll be seeing a lot of pictures on this page for a while. I also got Finding Neverland from my nephew and his wife (we had drawn names, and his wife got my name), along with a super soft throw, which I loved. Overall, a very nice haul.

And we had a great dinner, but the food aside, it was just wonderful to sit around a table with 11 other people, who were all telling stories and jokes and laughing and just enjoying being with each other. This wonderful family time is what makes the holidays truly worthwhile. And now I'm going to go spend the evening watching a Christmas movie on ABC Family channel. But I'm not signing off without showing you some pictures! I can't show any of my family on here, since they don't know about the page and it's not my place to plaster their images on the Internet, but I'll show what I can.

My sister's dog, Ginger

My Christmas tree, without flash.

My Christmas tree, with flash. The angel is crooked, but given that it's on top of the TV (it's a 3' tree) and that my cats spend a large amount of their time sitting on top of the DVR next to it, pulling at the branches, it's really a wonder that the whole thing hasn't fallen to the floor (that's Gracie in the picture).

Okay, that's it for tonight. I hope you all had a great holiday, and that Santa brought you everything your heart desired!

Christmas Eve Day

Merry Christmas Eve!

As mentioned yesterday, Sarah and I went ice skating today. It was very fun - and I managed to not fall on my ass even once! Sarah didn't fall either, so we did really well. We had one near collision where she had stopped on the wall and I almost ran into her, but that was it. When we first went out on the ice, I was hugging the wall for dear life, afraid to even move my feet. But a childhood spent on roller skates can't be denied, and once I got used to the ice, I was skating away from the wall pretty well. I kept having to take breaks, though, because my ankles were trying to give out on me and I kept losing my center of balance. It reminded me of how much fun skating is, though, and now I want to buy a pair of roller skates. I probably won't do it, because when the heck will I ever use them? Oh but man, I want them.

I also went to Walmart today, which I was afraid was going to be horrible, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had to go because Willow (my dog, in case you haven't read any older entries) was almost out of food. Plus I wanted to pick up Serenity on DVD for my sister for Christmas. And now I'm watching Jack Frost on TV and am going to watch It's a Wonderful Life at 8:00, so it's a nice Christmas Eve. Tomorrow I'll be spending the day at my sister's house, so it'll be evening before I update again. Have a nice holiday everyone!

The Holiday Begins

Things accomplished at my work today:

1. Twelve laptop keyboards blown out with an air compressor.

2. Impromptu purple snowball fight with the coolest packing material ever - purple circles of foam.

3. Lots of laptops imaged, bagged and tagged, ready to be distributed in January.

4. Game of bowling using stacks of the purple circles of foam as pins and a small can of soda as a bowling ball.

5. A couple of laptop and cell phone returns processed.

6. A couple of games of magnetic darts played on the dollar store magnetic dartboard brought in yesterday by our boss.

7. A few phone calls answered.

8. Lots of attention given to the laptop technician's dog, who she brought in with her today.

9. And thrown in throughout the day, lots of joking and shirking of duty. And maybe some inappropriate dirty remarks were tossed around for good measure.

Doesn't that sound like a fun day? And it all ended at 2:00, with the boss leaving an hour and a half earlier than us. You should be able to guess how much work got done in that last hour and a half (and maybe you can even guess which of the above activities took place during that time, too). And now we're off for 11 days in a row, except for Jamie, who took an extra week, a fact of which I will be very jealous come January 3rd, when I have to get up at 6:00 and go back in, while he sleeps in until 11:00 or 12:00.

On deck for tomorrow - grocery shopping (not so fun, especially since I am broke) and ice skating with Sarah (should be very fun). I haven't actually skated since about 1996, and that was the first time I was ever on ice skates. I did spend my youth on roller skates, though (mostly while I pretended to be Tootie from The Facts of Life), so once I rediscover my balance on the blades, I should be fine. Of course, I could be spending most of the time on my ass, too. I'll update with all the thrills and spills tomorrow.

So Tired

I'm so happy that tomorrow is Friday. One more day, and then I have 11 days off in which to sleep for lots of hours every night! I'm looking forward to that a lot, because right now, for some reason, I am very much tired. Of course, I did come home and shovel a metric ton of snow and ice out of the other side of my driveway (the side I park in is relatively clear out of necessity, but I had let the other side go and had nowhere for anyone else to park). I'm very much out of shape, so tossing around that much heavy snow and ice left me with achy muscles and a tired body. Yes, I need to start exercising. And possibly eating healthier.

I got the job posting for that job I mentioned the other day. It has a lot of things listed in the duties that I'm not real confident in my ability to do, simply because I don't have much experience with them. I am pursuing a degree which will ultimately make me perfect for this job, but I'm only partway through that degree right now. This is a marketing position, and I haven't actually taken any marketing classes yet. Still, the human resources person e-mailed me about it yesterday to apologize for not getting the job posting out on Tuesday like she said she would, and she asked me this afternoon if I had gotten it, so I know she's still maybe hoping I'll apply. (And it looks from the description like I would be answering to her, so that's a good sign.) I think my next step will be to see what pay scale is involved in the job, compare that to what I'm making now, and decide if the upgrade would be enough to make it worth leaving a job that I really like. It's very hard to leave a job in which you're happy; it's much easier to take the leap when you hate your job. Believe me, I've been on that side, too, and it makes the decisions much easier. Anyway, I'll probably apply - if nothing else, I'll find out more about the position during an interview, and if I'm not quite qualified enough for it now, maybe by the time I complete my degree, the position will open up again. We'll see how it works out.

Of course, if I just go in there with some confidence and if they will take the time to show me the ropes and not just throw me in without a life preserver, I'm sure I'd be perfectly capable of doing the job and doing it really well. So really, I just need to screw up my courage and do it. Best case scenario, I get the new job and enjoy a challenging position and an accompanying raise in salary. Worst case scenario, I don't get the job and keep working at a job where I am very happy. There's really no losing here.

Skin Deep

I just got to thinking about something. How much of a person do we see when we look at them? Our society is so hung up on appearances that we've been almost programmed to look at someone's surface and take it to be their true identity; the beautiful people, the geeks, the ugly people and every other group you could name. But when we look at someone and label them based on their appearance, how much of their inner self are we missing?

When we (and I do include myself in this group) look at people, we don't usually see anything other than that surface appearance. But when we take the time, either voluntarily or because we're forced to by circumstances such as work or school, we find really incredible people inside. So why don't we take the time more often? After all, some of the best, most interesting personalities are hidden behind plain facades. Sometimes the character of a person is much greater than the exterior that nature gave them.

This thought was sparked while I was watching an episode of Smallville, of all things. Still, it's a good thought. You don't have to be beautiful to be interesting; scratch the surface of an average or below average looking person, and you just might find someone worth knowing. (Then again, you might just find an average asshole. But that's the gamble of life, isn't it?)

Random Slice of My LIfe

I didn't see the job posting for that job today. Jamie said he gets them e-mailed to him, and he didn't get it, so it must not have come out today. I'll keep watching for it, though.

Today was another day of cleaning laptops all day. It was okay, though, because annoying boy called in sick today (is it bad that I actually cheered when I got that message? He's just so horrible and annoying! Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll be out again tomorrow), so it was me and Jamie up front all day. We watched some Buffy and part of The Breakfast Club (which has a lot of cussing in it, which I somehow never noticed until I was watching it at work. Oops!) and he scared the holy hell out of me at one point by sneaking up on me while I was using an air compressor to blow out a keyboard, and then jumping out at me when I shut it off. Bastard :).

And every morning I've gotten up thinking, "at this time next week, I will still be sleeping." Yes, I am looking forward to this break next week. Oh yes. And right now I'm getting a headache and I don't know why, and my cat Kate keeps coming up to the side of my chair meowing at me in her bitchy way, but when I bend down to pick her up, she walks under the desk where I can't get to her. And Willow is hovering around my desk, mostly to keep Kate from succeeding in getting on my lap, I think, and it's cold in here and I had to shovel snow before I could get into the driveway this afternoon, and the season finale of Nip/Tuck is on tonight, but Jamie and I won't be watching it until tomorrow after work, and I know he's going to go online and spoil himself about who the carver is (and you had better not! Or I'll hurt you in horrible unspeakable ways) and for some reason I haven't been in the mood to play the Sims for over a week now, and I'm hoping that this just means that I'll be able to play all week while I'm off without feeling burned out about it until at least Thursday.

Also, I got a Christmas card today from my niece-in-law and my nephew, and she wrote in it that she heard I had seen Chronicles of Narnia, which I was supposed to see with my sister, but she never called me this weekend so we didn't go, and I'm hoping that it doesn't mean that she went without me, because I will be SO ticked off at her if she did. We've been trying to get together for a couple weeks now and haven't managed it, and we both really wanted to go see this movie together. But her daughter came home from college last week, and something tells me she went to see it with her. Hmph. She's going to have some 'splainin' to do! (said in your best Ricky Ricardo voice, of course.)

Wow, this has been a random entry. Off the top of the head and random, that's me. I hope you're having a great Tuesday night! If you watch Nip/Tuck, don't spoil me until after I've watched it tomorrow night.

Oh, and for Jamie (and anyone else who knows the movie The Breakfast Club like those of us who grew up in the 80s do): "I want to be an air force ranger!"

Interesting Monday

I had a very interesting afternoon at work. Well, the work itself wasn't really interesting - just the normal stuff. But I went to the offices next door at about 3:45 to put some stuff in the mail, and the human resources person pulled me into her office. They have a marketing position open, and she thought it was something I might be interested in. They're looking for someone who is strong in writing (which I'm pretty good at, the casual online writing here notwithstanding) and had asked me earlier what degree I had and what I was working on (Associate's in Technical Writing and Bachelor's in Electronic Marketing and Publishing, respectively). First, I was flattered that she thought to mention this position to me a day before it is posted for everyone else to see, and second, I am so interested! Well, I'll have to see what the job description is, and if it sounds like it would suit me, of course. Still, if it does, I'll definitely apply. I love the job that I have (compared to the job I had before, it's fantastic, believe me), but it doesn't pay the best, and I have a ton of bills. And it seems like the new job would have to pay a lot more.

Anyway, it's something to think about, and believe me, I'll be looking at that job description tomorrow for sure.

A Christmas Story

How have I never watched A Christmas Story before? Seriously, it was made in 1983, when I was 13 - I should have grown up watching it. It's played all day at Christmas on TBS or one of those stations, and all I ever did was see parts of it. But, Sarah lent me a copy of it on Friday, and I just finished watching it. I now understand the genius that is this movie. As quoted by Sarah and Jamie at work, "meatloaf, schmeatloaf, double beetloaf, I hate meatloaf." But I love this movie. I'll be owning a copy of it before next Christmas, guaranteed.

Also, the kid who played Flick looked familiar to me, so I looked him up on imdb, and found out that I recognized him from Toy Story. I also found out, however, that after these two family movies, he grew up to have a future in porn! Ha! That sweet innocent kid, who got his tongue stuck to a pole in the movie, taking part in films such as Dirty Bob's Xcellent Adventures 35 and 36, The Wrong Snatch and, of course, you can't forget New Wave Hookers 5. Kudos, Flick! What an Xcellent career you have had! (And it brings a whole new meaning to his getting his tongue stuck to a pole, doesn't it? The mind, it goes to such dirty places.)

"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

An Entry In Bad Taste

Warning: the entry below displays very tasteless, tactless, in bad taste humor, which may only be funny to Jamie and me. But I'm sure there are some other people out there with similar senses of humor, and they might appreciate it too. Of course, this could be a case of "you had to be there." You guys will have to be the judge on that one.

Inappropriate comments made by me and Jamie during a very serious episode of Nip/Tuck, in which a plane crashed and Sean, Julia and Christian went to help the victims.

When Julia was helping a dying woman who had been badly burned, and she asked Julia to tell her daughter to have her cremated: “She’s halfway there already!”

When a guy who lost his legs to diabetes had to have his arms amputated so that he wouldn’t keep losing blood, “They can throw him in the water and call him Bob.” “They can lay him on the floor in front of the door and call him Matt.”

About the dying woman who was wearing a necklace and a Red Sox patch. Discussing taking them to the woman’s daughter, who was waiting at the airport hotel. “They probably have flesh stuck to them, they should be cleaned off first.” “No, give them to her like that. She’ll always have a piece of her Mom with her!”

These were followed by a lot of laughter. We have very similar, wicked senses of humor sometimes.

So? Tasteless and tactless, right? At least you can't say I didn't warn you!

Oops

I missed my first day! I'm sorry holidailies! I meant to post one, but I did so much yesterday, that by the time I sat down last night I was suddenly ready to fall asleep - and it was only 8:00 at night! I forced myself to stay up for a couple more hours, but apparently my tired brain didn't want to think about posting an entry. Oops!

So why was yesterday so busy? Well, to start with, when I got up yesterday it was snowing heavy and fast. I attempted to go to work on time, but first I had to scrape an inch of ice off my car, and then I had to shovel the driveway while the car kept warming up. So I left a little late, but I would have only been about fifteen minutes late overall. But then I started driving, and the roads looked like they hadn't been plowed at all, even though I'm sure they had - it was just snowing so fast that they couldn't keep up. It was pretty damn scary, so I only got about a mile and a half, and then I turned around and came home. And by the time I got here I could only see out of a small spot in the middle of my windshield, and was very happy to pull back into my driveway. So I hung out and watched Smallville and waited for the snow to stop, which it finally did, and I was only four hours late to work. Which sucks, but it's winter in Central New York, so there you go.

And work was actually pretty fun. The students are gone and we're cleaning laptops and the boss left early so it was kind of like a party. Sort of, only without the drinks and food. But we did get to watch Christmas cartoons, and that was fun!

After work I got groceries and came home and lugged them all in and decorated my tree finally, now that I had finally bought the lights for it, and sat down, and boom! I was tired. And that's where we started this entry.

Also, did you see that this entry was listed as one of the best of holidailies? I was so excited! Thanks, anonymous reader(s) who voted for that! Obviously this current entry isn't going to be listed there, but they can't all be winners. I hope you all have a great Saturday! I'll try to post again tonight, to catch up.

Semester Finale

And...it's finally over! The fall semester has officially ended. I had my final presentation for my web publishing class today, and as soon as we were done my 5 1/2 week vacation started. Woo! I love those 5 1/2 weeks more than I can say.

I think my presentation went pretty well. My idiot male group partner was an idiot again, of course (he did a power point for his portion of the presentation, and misspelled "message" in one heading to be "massage," which I found hilarious), but overall it was fine. A different professor from the department sat in on the presentations, and when it was over he came up to me and asked me what my major is and why he hasn't seen me in his classes yet. I explained that I work full-time and have been taking classes part-time, so I only take two at a time, and he said that he was looking forward to having me in one of his classes! Which made me feel really good - I took it to mean that he liked my presentation! Which was a very nice feeling, and a great way to end the semeseter.

Today should also mark the end of the incredibly busy days at work, because it was the last day of classes, so the students should all be gone home. So the rest of the week will be much more relaxing.

And now I can relax...at least until grades come out! Okay, I'm off now to watch an episode of Smallville. Have a great night!

Small Update

I had to post again to say that my entry went online at holidailies right after Kymm's. I feel like I'm sitting next to royalty. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!

Frankness

When I was PMSing last week, I had to write a five page final paper for my web publishing class. The last section of the paper was supposed to be grading the members of my group on their participation in the group project. I said I was PMSing, right? So I kind of went on and on for about two pages on why our group sucked, which it did, and most of my criticism was directed at the male member of our group, who decided that he was the only one who knew anything about designing and coding web pages, and he scrapped ours and made some of his own (which were fine, but didn't really use what we had learned in class and which didn't fit what the client wanted). I didn't say anything to him at the time, simply because of the time limit involved - we had less than a semester to create a new web page for this business - but I certainly didn't hold back in the paper.

And then I felt bad about it, and when the professor e-mailed us all and asked for a soft copy of our reports, I asked him if the comments were confidential and said I wasn't sure if I should have said anything.

But, I think what PMS does for me is just makes me not care enough about saving people's feelings to stop me from saying what I think, and the professor thanked me for my frankness, so there you go. PMS frankness - good or bad, you decide.

Today was another busy ass day. I'm going to be so glad when these kids are finally gone for the semester (which they mostly should be by the end of the day tomorrow). And the sad thing is, even though we've been this busy now, this is nothing compared to what it will be like at the end of the spring semester. On days like this, it's a good thing I like my job. Mostly.

Also, there was some workplace drama going on in the background today. I heard some details, enough to know it wasn't about me (whew) and to feel enough in the know to be able to sit and feel all amused at what was going on. No details listed, sorry - if anyone at work ever finds this (other than Sarah and Jamie), I want to still be employed after they read it. Hi people at work! I love my job! Yes I do!

Okay, I've written enough for today, and so I will end it here. After I say that I finally got the necklace I ordered for my sister, and it is lovely! I think she will love it. Woo! Giving great gifts rules.

Cyndi!

What an amazingly unreal Monday I have had! First, up early this morning and at work 40 minutes early. On a Monday. What's wrong with that picture? Then we were super busy all day at work. Final exams are this week until Wednesday, and the students who aren't returning next semester are coming in to return their laptops and cell phones, and we had just non-stop traffic into our office all day. I couldn't wait for the door to close at 4:30 (although even then I ended up waiting on a couple more people who snuck in and actually had customers right up until I left at 5:00).

Then tonight my friend Jamie took me to see Cyndi Lauper in concert at the Turning Stone Casino. He asked me if I wanted to go with him a couple of months ago, and I said sure! Especially since he was treating for the ticket, and who am I to turn down a free show? I haven't really followed her career much lately, but I was a fan in the 80s - the She's So Unusual tape is in the glovebox of my car at this very second, as a matter of fact. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see her, but I figured it would be fun. And it was a blast! She was out in the audience, climbing on tables, talking to the people in the crowd - and we were sitting up so close that I was only about four feet from her most of the time. Very cool.

I don't know how to describe this show to make you appreciate how cool it was. It was in a pretty small venue, and since our seats were so close, it actually felt like she was singing to about 10 or 20 of us. She told stories, she rocked us out, it was incredible. And she did a few of her 80s songs, so I was even able to sing along from time to time! (Or Time after Time, ha!) I left with True Colors in my head. In fact, it's still there. Sing along with me, won't you?

And I see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors
That's why I love you
So don't be afraid
To let them show
Your true colors,
Your true colors
Are beautiful
Like a rainbow...

That was great! We make a good team. And now, it is 11:02 and I have to be up in seven hours to get ready for work, and it's probably going to take me an hour to wind down. But I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Thanks James!

Update, and news

I just wanted to update after my final exam. It was so easy! I'm glad I didn't stress too much about it. It was 155 multiple choice questions and an essay, and only took about an hour. Not bad in my book. And that's one more class under my belt. Now I have a final presentation on Wednesday, and then I'm done for the semester. Yay! I'm going to love the 5 1/2 week break.

Also, I talked to my sister earlier, when she called about going to a movie, and she told me that the bank in town (it's a very small town, with only one bank) had some corporate people come in and fire the two managers in the branch, with no warning at all. And then, the part that I thought was absolutely great, the tellers walked out, losing their jobs, and a lot of the community pulled their accounts out of the bank in support of the managers. I think that's so incredible - you don't really think of people today being supportive of their fellow people, but they really were this time. Good for them! And one of the managers was a woman I used to work with, back when I worked at a different branch of the bank in 1994 - 1995. We were both tellers at the time. I got out when I did because they were starting to charge people to go to tellers, and were pushing sales very hard on their tellers, and I am not a salesperson. And they really just gave the impression even back then of being a corporation that was more concerned with their bottom line than they would ever be about their customers or staff. It looks like I was right.

And I hope all of the people at the bank find better jobs quickly. They all deserve them.

Sunday Plans

It's been a quiet weekend for the most part (hair cutting excitement aside). I had tentative plans with my sister to go to a movie that didn't happen due to scheduling conflicts (she had a cookie exchange to go to this afternoon and I have a final exam to go to at 6:00). I also had tentative plans for my friend Jamie to come over and spend a few hours while WE watched the last three episodes of Nip/Tuck. That didn't end up happening because he slept until almost 1:30 in the afternoon (!!!) and I need to study for that stupid final.

But it's been okay. I haven't actually done much studying yet (I opened my notes file, but I haven't actually read through it yet), but I have had a good day anyway. I watched last week's episodes of General Hospital and finished getting myself hooked on a show that I just discovered - Veronica Mars. What a good show! I had the first disc of season one from Netflix, and I watched three episodes last night and one this morning. I'm hooked - it's a great show. Unfortunately, I'll have to watch all of the episodes as they come out on DVD, because the show is on UPN, which I don't get. After just watching four episodes, though, I am completely hooked, and will be watching the rest of season one as soon as I can get the DVDs from Netflix. Of course, I'm also getting caught up on Smallville, so I'm going to have some tough decisions ahead as I decide what to put on the top of my queue. I love having the problem of too many good shows to watch! I'm such a TV-aholic.

Christmas is just two weeks away. I'm in pretty good shape for it, shopping wise. I have my sister's and niece's gifts ordered, which are all on their way to me. I just have to order something for my friend Sally (hi Sally, if you're reading this!) and I think I'm going to order Serenity to give to my sister too. I have enough for her, but she loved the movie (I got her hooked on Firefly and took her to the movie the weekend it opened), so I want to order it for her too. It doesn't come out until 12/20, though.

Well, I guess I should get to reading through my notes so that I'll be at least semi-prepared for the final in three hours. I'm not too worried about it, but I need to review, so I better get to it. I hope anyone who reads this is having a good weekend. Do something exciting for me, okay?

Being Broke is Dangerous

I am broke this month. I'm going to get all of my bills paid, and I'll even be able to buy a few groceries, but there is no extra cash in my budget this month. This isn't something that's fun to live with, but I don't need anything that I don't have, so I can live with it. And thanks to the glory of student loans, by the end of next month times will be much easier. In the meantime, though, one situation was getting pretty desperate. And desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Right. Except it's probably not a good idea to let that desperation lead you into the bathroom with a pair of scissors and a head of hair that has gotten so long that it's driving you crazy. Yes, I cut my own hair.

I'm sure a hair dresser would think the job I did was horrible. The ends aren't even, I cut huge hunks of hair at a time instead of doing one layer of hair at a time like the professionals do. But I'll clean up the edges tomorrow after I take my shower, while my hair is wet. And I've done this before, so I knew not to cut too short - I got rid of about three inches. But they were inches I could afford to lose - my hair was down to the middle of my back. Now? Just below the shoulders. Even after the ends are trimmed to even them up, I'll still have a respectable full head of hair.

But for the rest of today, I'm wearing a ponytail. It's a good thing I don't plan on leaving the house.

Introducing Sable

This is the second in a series of entries that will eventually introduce all five of my cats. Yes, I have five of them. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the four legged critters.

Sable is at least a year old, but she looks like she's about six or eight months old because she is very tiny. She was a stray, probably a barn cat from down the road who walked up the street and ended up at my house. I saw her outside a few times from the window, mostly when one of my other cats, Gracie, would go running from one window to another with her eyes all wide at the sight of this interloper in our front yard. She'd never let me near her outside, though. I started putting food out for her, because I felt so bad for her! The poor little homeless thing.

Then I started getting possums on my front porch, because they were drawn by the cat food, and I hadn't seen Sable hanging around lately, so I stopped putting food out. And then when it snowed again a few weeks later, there were tiny little cat prints in the snow, and I felt so horrible! I immediately over compensated by putting too much food out. Like I said, I'm a sucker for the four legged critters.

This went on for most of the winter, and then my dog Bailey started acting very strange - I thought she was losing her mind. She started going to the basement door and whining and basically acting obsessed with the fact that this door MUST BE OPENED RIGHT NOW! So eventually I said, okay Bailey, if it will calm you down, I'll open the door and show you that there's nothing on the other side of it. And what do you know? Sable was on the other side. She had found her way into the basement.

Long story short (is it too late for that?), I started making friends with her by holding the basement door open and getting on the floor to talk to her while she stayed on the steps. I fed her treats, which she gobbled up, and became convinced that my basement kitty (because you know she was already going to be mine - there was absolutely no doubt) could be tamed. So one day I opened the door and walked away, and just let her walk in. She freaked out a lot at first, and after I took her to the vet and got her tested for diseases and given her shots and spayed, I brought her home and let her acclimate to indoor life in the spare room. It took a few months to calm her down and adjust everyone, but before long she was part of the household. Shy at first, she has turned into a real snuggler - almost as much as Zelda.

She's little and cute and soft and loves to be petted and loves to purr in my ear and I'm so glad she showed up in my basement, and so glad that Bailey was still here at the time to let me know that she was in the basement. And I think she's loving being inside this winter, instead of outside in the cold!

It's Cccccold in Here

My workplace is really testing a PMSing girl's good mood lately. Yesterday they told us that our department was only going to be working seven hours a day during the school's winter break (for anyone who happens to come here from holidailies who hasn't read my archives - I work at a small college, where I also attend two classes a semester in pursuit of my Bachelor's degree), and that we would just lose those other five hours a week. What the heck? How can they do that with only a week's warning? The semester break starts a week from today. I, for one, cannot afford to lose that much money a week - I have a heating fuel bill to pay and I'm broke as it is. I complained, and I wasn't the only one - the policy is under review now, and we may have a "transition year" to adjust to the new policy so that we won't have to lose that much money this year without having the chance to prepare for it in advance.

So that's the first thing. I was in a really good mood until I got that news yesterday, but I mananged to regain it after we got the news that it might be rescinded. Great!

Then I come in this morning (at 7:30, to make up some of the time that I lose going to classes) and it is FREEZING in here. It was below 60 degrees when I came in, and it's only warmed up about two degrees since then (it's 8:23 now). If I have to wear my coat and gloves today, I'm not going to be a happy camper. I mean, the hormones are playing with my mood as it is - I just may snap later if I can't thaw my fingers out at some point.

Also? Being lactose intolerant really sucks sometimes. I went down to our little cafe to get a bagel for breakfast, and I really wanted to get some hot chocolate, too - to help warm me up. I asked if it was made with milk or water, and it's made with milk. Damn. This day better start looking up soon, or it's going to be a long 8 1/2 hours before I get to leave. My one consolation - the annoying boy who works part-time at the beginning of the week won't be in today. Yay! Instead I get to work with Sarah, who is great. Thank goodness - otherwise I may have lost my mind! Annoying boy's neck might not have made it through the day without my fingers wrapping around it and cutting off his air supply.

Now, if only I could get a little heat in here...

Plow Guy

It's the first day of holidailies! I'm excited about updating every day. We'll see if I still feel that way at the end of the month!

So, I live in central New York. We get a fair amount of snow up here - way more than I would like, but that's a different story. And, in my infinite wisdom, when I was looking to buy a house in the summer of 1999, I decided that the one I must have, the perfect house for me, was the one that was up in the hills, where there aren't many people and the scenery is beautiful - but we get so much wind that they actually erected windmills all around where I live just a year after I moved in. In case you don't live somewhere that gets a lot of snow, let me just say this - an abundance of snow + an abundance of super strong wind = crazy amounts of snow built up in my driveway. I live alone, I don't have a snow blower, and I'm happy to shovel (well, okay, so I'm not exactly happy, but I'll do it), but sometimes there is just too much snow to shovel. I mean, a double car driveway that is about 3 - 4 car lengths long is just too much to shovel when the snow is 3 feet deep in spots. So I have always called someone to plow when it's gotten too bad. Until last year, when someone started plowing it for me.

At first I had no idea who was doing it, and although I was happy to come out in the morning and have my driveway cleared, I was also waiting for someone to send a bill to me, and boy was I not going to be happy - I hadn't hired this person! I certainly wasn't going to pay some unexpected bill. And then the person came and plowed while I was home one night, and when he had finished, I watched out the window, and saw him pull into the driveway up the road. It was my neighbor! Which was very nice, but it kind of creeped me out. He's in his 50s, he's a recent widower, and the one time I've spoken to him was the summer of 2004. My sister and her husband were at my house, and my brother-in-law was unloading something from his truck into my garage, where I said he could store it. While he was doing that, my sister and I were standing in the garage talking and watching him (because it's just fun to watch other people work while you stand around, isn't it?). My neighbor's dog came down during all of this, and started barking and acting like he was going to attack us in my own driveway. We actually came into the garage and shut the door, because the dog meant business and he looked a little like he had a couple screws loose, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, my neighbor came down to get his dog and take it home, and he was plastered. I mean, absolutely shit faced, and it was early afternoon. Fun! And his dog bit him when he was taking it home and I think he ended up having it put down, but again - that's a different story.

So, back to the point of all this - do you remember the point? This guy started plowing my driveway last winter, and although I was extremely grateful to him for doing it and saving me the money of hiring someone, I was also a little suspicious. I don't generally get people doing things for me and not expecting anything from me in return, and what was he going to want? I shuddered to think. But he never asked for anything or made any move or anything, so I guess his motives were pure.

And now, it's December 7, it's been snowing around here for a while, and my driveway is filling up, and everytime I back into the one clear spot that I have in my driveway, I wonder - hey, neighbor! Are you going to come down and plow for me this year or what?

Counting Down

Well, the official count down has begun, and no I'm not talking about the countdown to Christmas. This is something just as good - well, in it's own way. I'm talking about the count down to the end of the semester! This is the last week of classes. I have a group presentation to help deliver tonight in my business class, and then all that's left are two meetings of my web publishing class, writing the final paper for that class, having the final exam for the business class and a final presentation on Wednesday of next week for the web class. And then I'm free!

What it comes down to is this: one more week of classes and two final exam sessions, and then I'm done. That's five total meetings plus writing the paper for web publishing and studying for the final exam for business. It's so close that I can taste the freedom.

I talked to my sister on Friday, and we may get together this coming weekend to go to lunch and see a movie. We haven't hung out like that since the very beginning of October when we went to see Serenity, so it's long overdue. Of course, I also need to do the aforementioned studying this weekend and my business final is on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. and I also have tentative plans to get together with Jamie to watch Nip/Tuck. We haven't watched it for three weeks now, so we have quite a bit to watch. I don't know - it might be waiting again, because this weekend may be too full as it is. We'll see.

And I love how I'm already talking about this weekend like it's right around the corner, even though right now it is only Monday morning. I'm funny like that.

And now I need to go do some work. Remember that holidailies starts in two days, so expect an update every day for a month starting then. It'll be interesting to see what I find to talk about every day for that long! I hope you all have a great Monday!

Christmas Shopping

I get the greatest catalog in the mail - Signals. I found a couple of things in their catalog that I thought I might want to get my sister for Christmas, but I wasn't sure if they were absolutely right. I went on their website this morning to look for them (I was thinking about this necklace and this bracelet), and found two things I liked even better for her - they're more her. Of course, the credit card that I brought with me (I keep the cards at home so I can't use them, and in fact haven't used them in a long time) was expired, so I can't order them until I get home from work tonight, but here they are: this watch and this necklace. Aren't they nice? The necklace is definitely her taste, and I think the watch is too. I guess we'll see!

I also went online and ordered Sex & the City season two for my niece. We drew names this year, and I got her. I don't have many people to buy for, so now that these two people are almost done (and will be done when I get home and order the stuff for my sister), I just have to buy for a few friends, and then I'm done. Woo! I love not having a lot of people to buy for. Of course the downside of that is that I get less gifts, but that's okay. I got over wanting a lot of gifts a long time ago. Now I'm just happy to have family and friends to celebrate with.