Day 4

It's finally Friday! Work was really very annoying in the morning, but it got a little better in the afternoon. RJB and I got Indian food take out and are thinking it would be nice to go to Pintu's for lunch and have the buffet next Friday or some other day next week.

We might try to go to a movie or something this weekend.

On my way home I stopped at a drive through for dinner and ate dinner in bed and watched about 5 episodes at NCIS. I also folded laundry and ironed some clothes and cleaned my room a little. I have more laundry and ironing to do, but perhaps I'll have to do that tomorrow. I didn't do P90X today, but I'll do one tomorrow or maybe 2 to catch up if I do one in the morning and one at night.

Nothing else really exciting happened today. I spent all day at work and then the rest of the day watching TV in bed.

Did you have a nice day? Day 3

Well, another day. I got to work on time, but I was very tired this morning. I forgot to scoop Dippy last night, but she survived. I remembered to feed her this morning and Toby too.

At work I was super annoyed because I got a really annoying email first thing in the morning. I never understand why people insist on bringing up really aggravating things first thing in the morning when everyone is tired and cranky about being at work.

At lunch I went to the gas station and vacuumed some of my car and put air in my tires. There is a gas station down the road that has free vacuums and air. Then I got lunch at Arby's.

Someone from work did a walk through with an inspector for a house. She is going to buy it. How exciting for her. She's buying her first home. If I knew that I was going to stay in this area for the next few years I'd be looking at homes too. She locked in an interest rate of under 5%.

I finally finished the online renewals. Tomorrow morning we should be able to run the lists. I have a few little things to do like remove the report that is causing an error in our live system but we're using it for testing in our Play system.

I got home and did some dishes and I put in laundry. I also did day 2 of P90X. Then I took a shower and now I'm in bed watching TV. I think I'm about to have some popcorn.

I got to talk to Morgan for about 4 and a half minutes. She seems to have had a nice day. I'm tired and hungry. Popcorn then bed.

How was your day? Day 2

I was worried about getting out of the house on time this morning. Usually Morgan handles the morning pet routine: feed dippy, weigh and feed Toby and give him new hay. Not a lot, but it adds a few minutes. I also couldn't get to sleep last night even though I was really tired.

But, I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, fed and weighed the babies and got out of the house on time. Then, on the way to work there was a truck blocking the whole road. It was trying to back up, but it didn't really have enough room. I sat there in a line of cars (I was 3rd) for a good 2 minutes, watching and helping by saying things out loud like, "oooh, you're not going to make it" and "watch out for the curb, watch out for the tree!" I hit a moment where I thought he was never going to make it and I should go back and go around. Then 30 seconds later I saw that he was going to make it and was slowly backing up, but would be out of the way in about another 30 seconds. At that moment 2 cars, one in front of me and one in back of me chose to turn around and go another way. I was surprised because it was clear that we were about to move.
By the time the car in front of me had finished the U-turn in the middle of the road we were driving. It was strange. Even all that, I got to work 5 minutes early.

It was a quite day at work because HG, Marcie and Ed were all out of the office.
There was a little ruckus in the morning because AB had sent RJB a meeting request for 8:00am for a conference call, but AB did not show up until 8:45. Turns out the meeting was at 2:30 pm and AB forgot to change the meeting request from the default time.

I did learn that they are building a new Olive Garden in West Springfield. When it opens we are going to go there for lunch. It's supposed to open late November.

I did not finish the online renewals today like wanted, but I did get a lot of other things done. We also had a pretty good hour long conference call with the Salesforce implementer.

I got home around 6 and fed Dippy. I had a big bowl of corn and a giant slice of ice cream cake for dinner. Then I did a P90X work out. A word to the wise: don't do P90X after eating ice cream cake for dinner.

I got to talk to Morgan tonight! Except, half way through the conversation she stopped being able to hear me. I heard here saying, "hello? hello?" Then, all of a sudden she said, "oh, I'm sorry, I must have the wrong number." Yeah, google voice cut out in the middle of our call and connected her to someone else. Weird.

Anyway, now I'm off to bed. I can't wait until the weekend.

It's started...

Morgan has gone to California for a week. I'll be spending a lot more time at home when "my Mom's in the shower."

I do miss talking about my day, but she's not gone for long. The good news is, you get to hear it.

Got to work at 7:00am. It wasn't worth it to drive 30 minutes home, spend 30 minutes at home and drive 30 minutes back to work.
At around 7:30 I went to McDonald's to get a coffee and 2 hash browns. Then I went back to work and there was still no one else there.

I was really tired so I ended up looking around at some of the Jewish links for Western Mass. It's relatively related to work. I noticed that there was a link to a Kosher Bed and Breakfast in Springfield! Shocking because, apparently it's the only Kosher hotel/motel etc in Massachusetts outside of the Boston metro area. Who knew it would be a tiny B&B across from Forest Park. Of course this is really only mildly interesting as I have no real need for a B&B 30 minutes from my house.

We walked to Celery Stalk for lunch and I got an egg salad sandwich. It was hot, but not as humid as yesterday.

I got my produce box delivery. I'd forgotten to write a check so I paid cash this month. I got: red leaf lettuce, corn, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, beets and a giant cucumber. I was excited. Now I have to figure out what to do with all that food.

I skipped the 3pm stretch break because it was supposed to be 90 degrees. Instead we moved the coffee into my office at work. The coffee used to be in the conference room, but we are loosing the conference room and they will be putting in two old cubicles from across the street. I cleaned out one of my drawers in the filing cabinet. It only had book samples, so it wasn't hard.

We also moved the checks from my office to the new bookkeepers desk. This means I don't have to lock my door every day, so now I won't miss the trash pick up in the morning.

I left at 4:30 because I was really having trouble focusing. Somehow 200 people filled out the online renewal form in the last 2 weeks. Usually only about 50 people per week fill it out. It might have something to do with there being no reply envelopes in the first batch of letters inviting people to renew.

I watched my movie from Netflix. I'm going to send it back tomorrow in hopes to get another one soon. I gave platelets a week or so ago and I started to watch "Yes Man" but I finished with something like 30 minutes left. It's been driving me crazy that I don't know how it ends so that's next from Netflix.

Tomorrow I hope to finish online renewals and finalize everything so we can run US lists. What fun.

Old Credit Cards

One day a long time ago I was looking through my Mom's old roll top desk.
She had a bunch of old credit cards from when she and Dad were married in there in a big stack with a rubber band around them. I was looking through them and they all said Mrs. Dad's name, well, you know what I mean. Most of them were signed that way. But one was signed with her name. I remember very well that she told me that she was being a rebel. I remember thinking that that was crazy! Why wouldn't it just say her name on the front of the card.

It's weird what stays with you, right?

Me

I left work at 3:00 on Thursday because I wasn't feeling well. I ran to the grocery store to by some medicine and I picked up some soup from the Chinese restaurant next to the grocery store and got home around 4:00 pm on Thursday. It's now 9:00 pm on Saturday and I haven't left the house since. The closest I got was walking onto the front porch to get the mail.

I intended to leave the house today. I was going to pick up another wireless TiVo adapter. But I forgot the cable guy was coming so when he knocked on the door at 10:00 am I was still in my pj's and was 5 minutes from getting in the shower. Good thing I wasn't in the shower when he got here. He left around 11:00 am with plans to come back between 1 and 3 to see if he could fix the problem. That would give TiVo some time to repeat the guided set up. After he left I put in a load of laundry and got in the shower. Then I got dressed and made lunch. Then I tried to get TiVo to work. Eventually it did start to work, but only after Nate (the cable guy) called back to see if it was working and I said no. So he came back with his supervisor and they set up a 2nd card. I digress, this isn't really what the story is about.

After TiVo started working I got distracted. I was talking to Karen. Then it got dark so I decided not to go out at all.

Friday I laid in bed or on the couch all day because I wasn't feeling well. Today I still don't feel well, but I feel better than I did yesterday. I really need to get out of the house tomorrow.

This day flew by. I can't believe it's after 9:00 pm. Morgan is out of town for the weekend. She'll be back tomorrow night. I wonder if my being alone all day Friday and a lot of the day Saturday had something to do with me staying in the house all day.

Sometimes I think that I never learned how to be alone. One of the down sides of being a twin. I never spent much of my childhood alone. Everyone else I know has memories of time spent alone. They even enjoy spending time alone. Not me. I'd much prefer to be with someone than be alone. But not anyone and not many people. Usually 1 or 2 specific people. I am more introverted than extroverted. I am an ISFJ after all.

I'm back

I realize that I disappeared for a little while, but I'm back. You see, first Morgan and I went to the cape for a week. It was awesome. I had a great time. If I have time, I'll write you more about it later. We got back Saturday around dinner time. I was exhausted. So we didn't do much the rest of the day Saturday. Sunday we packed and Monday I went to work. I'd been out for a week so there was a lot to do. Then I came home and Morgan's sister and brother-in-law helped us move our washing machine, then we packed some more. Tuesday I took the day off work and we rented a U-haul and moved. And I called Comcast so they would move our cable and internet to the new place. Wednesday I went to work again, it was Morgan's birthday. She also stayed home to wait for the gas and cable man. So Wednesday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Morgan's birth. Thursday I left work early to finish packing and cleaning our old apartment. We had to be out by Friday. Friday I went to work. Saturday we mostly unpacked and cleaned and I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Comcast trying to get the internet working, it wouldn't connect. So I had spotty internet connection, on for 10 minutes then it'd kick off and we'd have to reset the modem. So, I hadn't posted. Now it's Tuesday and we're going to go see the Simpson's movie. So I have to go again, but if you've been tracking your miles send them to me and we'll get back on track for our race!

My future 2

They have decided to expand my child's picnic table into an "L". They're going to add some (hopefully usable) horizontal space, something I seriously lack now. The director was trying to think about how to fit a table in the room. And she was looking around and she really sincerely wanted to try to get me some work space. It made me feel bad because I was sitting there so angry about my job and how it sucks and she really wanted to make something work. So, I took advantage of the fact that the director moved from a cubicle to an office with a door. I went in to her office a minute after she left the room and asked if she had a minute. I told her that I was unhappy and that what was hardest for me was that I didn't a place for me to go with PJ that would satisfy what I need.

She said a couple of really helpful things. She gave me 2 thoughts wearing 2 different "hats"
The PJ Library hat/personal hat: She said that they were very glad when I came along but part of her wondered if this was enough for me.

I told her that at first I didn't think it was a good fit for me, but there were a few things that drew me here. One of which was a chance to work at a foundation and since PJ is thinking about separating from HGF to become it's own thing, I thought I might be able to learn something that might help us with our fund.

She said that PJ would support me in whatever I choose to do, that I could have time off for job searches. She said she would be willing to talk to some people with in the foundation to see if there was another department looking for some help that I could do part of.

Wearing her Mom hat: She said that I have a lot going on right now, I'm moving, Morgan's looking for a job and if I were one of her daughters she would tell them that maybe now wasn't the time to be starting a job search. She would suggest picking a date in the future (like September 15th) to say, I'm here until then and after that I'll see what I want to do.
She also said if I choose not to take that advice she would totally respect it and give me a glowing recommendation.

So, I feel better because they know how I feel and that I've been considering leaving and if something comes up that is not mindless work, I think they'll give it to me. In the meantime she suggested I sit down with the executive director for an hour or so one day to talk about the workings of a foundation. So if we decide to make our fund a foundation I might know something about it.

the future?

It is officially July. Morgan and I took a load over to the new apartment. At some point she's going to talk to her sister to see what day she can come help us move. Morgan's Mom might come help us too. We have until July 27 to be out of our current place.

As far as accounting. I am enjoying the material of my class. I'm thinking about going back to school for accounting, but if I do I'll need to quit my job. That might not be such a bad idea. I hate my job. I hate it so much. I am so unhappy there. I sit at work all day thinking about quiting. But the question remains, if I quit, what will I do? I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to school, but I'm sure I don't like my job. So, what have learned. I warn you that this may be boring, but I will now go through my past jobs and list things I liked and disliked about them.

Job 1: Dierberg's Cashier
Likes: It was fun. I got to deal with the public. I got to deal with money. It was relatively easy to take a day off
Dislikes: It paid terribly. I had to deal with the public. I had to work evenings and weekends.

Job 2: Camp Emeth
Likes: It was fun. I got to do neat things. I worked with fun people. I got to be outside. I got to work with kids.
Dislikes: It was a LOT of work and the camping trips and overnights were exhausting. The pay was terrible. I had to deal with the kids parents.

Job 3: K.B. Toys
Likes: It was fun. I got to play with toys. I got to deal with the public. I got to work with fun people. I learned a lot about toys and what children likes. It was fun to try and make our numbers for the day.
Dislikes: I had to work with the public. I had to work nights and weekends. It was really annoying when people would try to steal stuff.

Job 3.5: Temping at Yankee Candle for 6 months
Likes: The people were very nice. I was good at the work. I didn't mind going to work every day. It's the only job I've ever had where I came home smelling better than I did when I left the house.
Dislikes: Sometimes it was very boring. Sometimes it was very stressful. It was a temp job, so there were no benefits.

Job 4: APT
Likes: I met some nice people.
Dislikes: Some of the people were terrible. I strongly disagreed with many many of the companies policies. They (pretty blatantly) paid men more than women. It was boring, it wasn't challenging and I really hated it.

Job 5: The PJ Library
Likes: Many of the people are nice. It is very easy to take time off (unpaid of course).
Dislikes: They really don't pay me enough. It is very boring and very not challenging. Even though I've had 2 conversations about how I'm not feeling challenged, I'm bored and I'm unhappy, their idea of fixing this is to give me busy work to do which just makes exacerbates the problem. I am really really really really really really unhappy, pretty much all the time. Mike and I and Josh can have depressed parties.

So, what should I do? I've thought about just quitting my job and looking for something temporary, just to pay the bills to see what I like.

I don't like that when working in an office I am pretty much sedentary all day every day. There's something that I'm kind of drawn to about a job where the harder I work, the more I get paid, but I'm scared of commission based work.
Also, I'm really not a risk taker, but I also want to go into business for myself, but I have no idea what kind of business. And, just quiting your job is kind of risk too. So, I'm trying to decide my next move (with my life, I'm in the middle of my physical move).