(Yeah, I know. It's been a while.)
It's the first anniversary of our wedding. If you were there, you can check the back of your little blue dish to confirm this. Andrew is working today, so we had our low key celebrations mostly yesterday. Andrew picked up two bags of chips and some ice cream, including a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby for me. (No comment on the name, please.) I gave him a bunch of DVDs, including one with material from the first five years of Sesame Street (which is before either of us were born).
So today, I've been by myself since about 6:30 or so this morning. I put away the laundry and cleaned the rabbits' litterboxes. I walked over to the grocery store t get ingredients for the homemade guacamole that I will be making for the first time tonight. Right now, I'm taking a short break from cleaning the upstairs landing in the hopes that something much better will replace all the stuff I'm clearing off of there. Since I can't do things like exercising, going for long walks, or cleaning without a few podcasts to keep me entertained, I went and loaded up the iPod before I started. So I just finished listening to a "This American Life" about - and I did not realize the irony of this until near the end - break-ups.
This may sound like I'm complaining about how mundane or lonely my life is right now, but I'm actually not. I've had my ups and downs lately and throughout my life, but I'm happy. I've been fairly productive with my days, and when that's done, I never lack for entertainment. My husband loves me and while neither of us are perfect, he does regularly show me that he cares. My family is happy and healthy. I've got a roof over my head. I have friendswhose company I enjoy and they seem to reciprocate. My life may not always be everything I want it to be, but it's good and I'm largely happy with it.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Return of the Meme
Got tagged by Kim, so here we go:
RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.
1. I have an unusually good memory for television shows and cartoons. I'm pretty sure it's genetic and comes from my dad. It does not translate into remembering anything useful.
2. I have patches on dry skin on both of my ankles, which have been there since I was pretty young.
3. Mushy brown banana makes me retch. It's not just unpleasant to me' it makes me physically nauseous.
4. I sometime call Blitz (among other things) "Ms. Bun", "Big Bunny Blitz", "Grey", and "Pretty Grey Girl". Larry's nicknames include "Laurence B", "Beige", "Mr. Man", and "Lorenzo di Bunici".
5. I have no allergies that I'm aware of.
6. I sometimes enjoy very violent movies and video games, like "Kill Bill" and "God of War".
7. I enjoy cryptology, though it's usually limited to translating codes an symbol alphabets found in comic books.
8. My favorite pizza topping is mushrooms. It was what my family had when I was little and it's still a major comofrt food for me.
9. The only serious unjury I've ever suffered was a couple of winters back when I slipped on the ice and dislocated my knee.
10. I check the internet in a particular order. Blogs are one of the last things I look at.
Everyone who reads this has already been tagged. I tag anyone who stumbles accross this blog and would like to try this meme.
RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.
1. I have an unusually good memory for television shows and cartoons. I'm pretty sure it's genetic and comes from my dad. It does not translate into remembering anything useful.
2. I have patches on dry skin on both of my ankles, which have been there since I was pretty young.
3. Mushy brown banana makes me retch. It's not just unpleasant to me' it makes me physically nauseous.
4. I sometime call Blitz (among other things) "Ms. Bun", "Big Bunny Blitz", "Grey", and "Pretty Grey Girl". Larry's nicknames include "Laurence B", "Beige", "Mr. Man", and "Lorenzo di Bunici".
5. I have no allergies that I'm aware of.
6. I sometimes enjoy very violent movies and video games, like "Kill Bill" and "God of War".
7. I enjoy cryptology, though it's usually limited to translating codes an symbol alphabets found in comic books.
8. My favorite pizza topping is mushrooms. It was what my family had when I was little and it's still a major comofrt food for me.
9. The only serious unjury I've ever suffered was a couple of winters back when I slipped on the ice and dislocated my knee.
10. I check the internet in a particular order. Blogs are one of the last things I look at.
Everyone who reads this has already been tagged. I tag anyone who stumbles accross this blog and would like to try this meme.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Goals: One
I need a new job.
There have been some pretty big changes at what I affectionately call "fake job number one". The woman who was pretty much my direct supervisor left to pursue a different job. I liked this woman very much and quite a bit of the day to day work of the office was taken care of by her with me helping to free her up from the more mundane stuff. Unfortunately, there was very little overlap between when her replacement was hired and when she left. So while her replacement is settling in, the stuff that got taken care of by her gets taken care of by me, when I'm not teaching the new employee how to do it. There are things that only I know how to do right now, which strikes me as bad all around since I'm a volunteer who comes in twice a week.
Aside from the general insanity caused by my sort of boss leaving, I feel like I want to try something different. I'm not event sure how long I've been at my current volunteer position. It's been at least two years, as I was there at the time of the '04 election. It was something to do, something to get me out of the house, something I could contribute to a cause I did support. But it wasn't completely "mine" either. I went there because my mom had been involved there and because it was an easy drive away. It's pretty much secretarial work, which is certainly not bad, but not the most fulfilling thing either. I know what I do is valued by the people I work with and I genuienely like them, but I'd kind of like to have something that I felt more passionate and enthusiastic about. Andrew and I have been discussing his new job lately (which I couldn't be prouder about) and I've realized that for all his stressing and complaining about it, he has fun and he loves what he's doing. I want that and he wants me to have that.
Now yes, I could just quit my job and devote myself to writing (or even keep my job and devote the rest of my time to writing). But for one thing, I need something to get me out of the house. And more importantly, I know I'm not that self motivated. Unless there's someone standing over my shoulder saying "I will pay you "x" dollars to write "y" words this week", it's just not going to happen regularly. Heck, I've had situations where I've tried to write regularly for other people and it just falls through.
I think I know the kind of thing I would like to do. Problem is, I don't know how to get that point. The places that seem like ideal candidates are inconveniently far away. And on top of that, there's the thing that happens when I try to get a job. Every time I've made an attempt to get a job I think I would actually enjoy, no matter how good my chances seem initially, I will eventually get the brush-off. "Not what we're looking for", "We're not really hiring right now" (in direct contradiction to large "Now Hiring!" banner in store window), or just no calls back. I once had a store look like they were going to offer me a managing position (I have no clue why), only to have it fizzle out. Heck, I've failed to get a volunteer position at a cat shelter because "the timing didn't work out".
It's not that I really blame the stores in most cases. I do not have a particularly impressive resume, even now. I have a degree I'll never use, no long term work experience (aside from fake job number one), and a crippling fear of driving. Not exactly a wondeful job candidate by most standards.
So I was poking around for opportunities when I came accross and ad for a full-time or part-time receptionist at an animal behavior center. I knew the place; my parents took Pedro there one year for agility classes. It was nearly perfect: I probably had the needed skills, I could walk to work if needs be, and I'd be around animals some of the time at least.
So I sent an e-mail inquiring if the position was still open. A couple of days pass and no response. So I call. A woman answers and I ask if the position is still open. There's a pause and she says "Not that I'm aware of". I point out that there's a listing for it on their website. She tells me she think "that's been on there a long time". (I have no clue what that's supposed to mean.) In a conversation that's akin to pulling teeth, I get her to take a message for the person who might know something about the receptionist position. But I know where this is going. I know I will more than likely not get a call back to either confirm or contradict what I've been told. This is yet another dead end.
And that's pretty much what I've been finding since. I've looked around the internet for a job or volunteer work in the area that fits my interests. But so far nothing close enough that I can do.
I don't know what to do about this. Not even where to start, where to ask for help. For the time being, it looks like I'm stuck where I am.
There have been some pretty big changes at what I affectionately call "fake job number one". The woman who was pretty much my direct supervisor left to pursue a different job. I liked this woman very much and quite a bit of the day to day work of the office was taken care of by her with me helping to free her up from the more mundane stuff. Unfortunately, there was very little overlap between when her replacement was hired and when she left. So while her replacement is settling in, the stuff that got taken care of by her gets taken care of by me, when I'm not teaching the new employee how to do it. There are things that only I know how to do right now, which strikes me as bad all around since I'm a volunteer who comes in twice a week.
Aside from the general insanity caused by my sort of boss leaving, I feel like I want to try something different. I'm not event sure how long I've been at my current volunteer position. It's been at least two years, as I was there at the time of the '04 election. It was something to do, something to get me out of the house, something I could contribute to a cause I did support. But it wasn't completely "mine" either. I went there because my mom had been involved there and because it was an easy drive away. It's pretty much secretarial work, which is certainly not bad, but not the most fulfilling thing either. I know what I do is valued by the people I work with and I genuienely like them, but I'd kind of like to have something that I felt more passionate and enthusiastic about. Andrew and I have been discussing his new job lately (which I couldn't be prouder about) and I've realized that for all his stressing and complaining about it, he has fun and he loves what he's doing. I want that and he wants me to have that.
Now yes, I could just quit my job and devote myself to writing (or even keep my job and devote the rest of my time to writing). But for one thing, I need something to get me out of the house. And more importantly, I know I'm not that self motivated. Unless there's someone standing over my shoulder saying "I will pay you "x" dollars to write "y" words this week", it's just not going to happen regularly. Heck, I've had situations where I've tried to write regularly for other people and it just falls through.
I think I know the kind of thing I would like to do. Problem is, I don't know how to get that point. The places that seem like ideal candidates are inconveniently far away. And on top of that, there's the thing that happens when I try to get a job. Every time I've made an attempt to get a job I think I would actually enjoy, no matter how good my chances seem initially, I will eventually get the brush-off. "Not what we're looking for", "We're not really hiring right now" (in direct contradiction to large "Now Hiring!" banner in store window), or just no calls back. I once had a store look like they were going to offer me a managing position (I have no clue why), only to have it fizzle out. Heck, I've failed to get a volunteer position at a cat shelter because "the timing didn't work out".
It's not that I really blame the stores in most cases. I do not have a particularly impressive resume, even now. I have a degree I'll never use, no long term work experience (aside from fake job number one), and a crippling fear of driving. Not exactly a wondeful job candidate by most standards.
So I was poking around for opportunities when I came accross and ad for a full-time or part-time receptionist at an animal behavior center. I knew the place; my parents took Pedro there one year for agility classes. It was nearly perfect: I probably had the needed skills, I could walk to work if needs be, and I'd be around animals some of the time at least.
So I sent an e-mail inquiring if the position was still open. A couple of days pass and no response. So I call. A woman answers and I ask if the position is still open. There's a pause and she says "Not that I'm aware of". I point out that there's a listing for it on their website. She tells me she think "that's been on there a long time". (I have no clue what that's supposed to mean.) In a conversation that's akin to pulling teeth, I get her to take a message for the person who might know something about the receptionist position. But I know where this is going. I know I will more than likely not get a call back to either confirm or contradict what I've been told. This is yet another dead end.
And that's pretty much what I've been finding since. I've looked around the internet for a job or volunteer work in the area that fits my interests. But so far nothing close enough that I can do.
I don't know what to do about this. Not even where to start, where to ask for help. For the time being, it looks like I'm stuck where I am.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
More Writing
Happy New Year!
My new year's goal/resolution is to do more writing. So there's a new post up at StormWyvern Press (link to the right). If you want to help me in this endeavor, please read what I have there and post replies. I need feedback.
I'm hoping to post some highlights from the past year and goals for the next here soon. Until then, I hope 2007 is a wonderful year for all of you.
My new year's goal/resolution is to do more writing. So there's a new post up at StormWyvern Press (link to the right). If you want to help me in this endeavor, please read what I have there and post replies. I need feedback.
I'm hoping to post some highlights from the past year and goals for the next here soon. Until then, I hope 2007 is a wonderful year for all of you.
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