Finally!

Hi everyone. Hope your holidays were good.

I think I need to apologize for the length between posts but I finally discovered Facebook and have been spending all of my time over there.

But, that's no what the Finally! in my subject is referring to. I finally, as of this moment, am caught up on my New Yorker subscription. Joy!

As we learned in yesterday’s lesson, today is my birthday. It snowed quite a few inches last night (about five) and so that right there makes me giddy on my birthday. You can probably trace the giddiness back to when I was in school and there was a chance that snow on my birthday =ed snow day. Even though snow on my birthday now means crappy commute, I still like it.

The day started out a little rough (Icy roads and a bad latte experience at Whole Foods. Did I speak too soon?) but once safely at work with my warm beverage, things improved. First off, I learned that the governor gave all state employees (that’s me!) an extra day off for the holidays. I already get x-mas and the day after, along with new year’s eve and new years day. Now I can pick either x-mas eve or January 2nd for free. That merits a little happy dance.

Then I found out that the custom blinds I ordered a few weeks ago are arriving today. (Come on, I’m getting older and I’m a home owner. These things excite me. Not so much to merit a happy dance, but still.)I also had to make a series of appointments today (all for good stuff – no doctors!) and those all fell into line too. Again, no happy dance but a little happy head-grooving.

People at my new job are still figuring out that I exist so I didn’t really expect any kind of pomp or circumstance today but I also didn’t expect to get quite so many birthday emails from my former colleagues. It seems my last group kept me on the birthday list and most people (including my former manager) sent me a note to say happy b-day. It was sweet and made me miss them. (Of course, the two individuals who were horrible to me didn’t say anything. No surprise there. And, of course, I don’t miss them.)

Tonight, a few friends will be coming over for dinner that I won’t be cooking. In keeping with the feats of strength tradition (you might recall that I did 32 vinyasas when I turned 32), I’m going to go with 34 sips of champagne. You might think it’s no big deal but it kind of is for a Tuesday night when you’ve only been at your job a week and you have a check-in with your new boss early the next morning. Wish me luck!

And the winner is...

After a week of trying to find a good place for a latte (kind of) on the way to work, I've settled on Whole Foods.

My last job had a coffee shop on site which was awesome (and cheap!) and they didn't charge extra for soy. Unfortunately, there's no on site coffee place at my new job and no good coffee shop near from my house. There's a Starbucks in a supermarket but it's a Starbucks and it's in a supermarket. (Why do super markets always smell like super markets.) On top of that, the people who work there are absolutely crazy. They take forever and are surly (not in a good way).

Anyway, out of all of the places I tried last week, Whole Foods was the cheapest and also offered the best discount for brining your own mug. Works for me.

In other news, it's snowing right now for the second real time this season. It's pretty and cozy and makes me want to drink hot chocolate from the new Nordic Elf mugs I bought from William's Sonoma last week. What can I say? The gleeful little elf roped me in. In addition to the coziness factor, I'm excited about the snow because (and I'm honestly not saying this because I want you guys to say anything back) but tomorrow is my birthday and I love it when it snows on my birthday!

Out of shape

You know how the saying goes: If you don't use it, you lose it. So because I haven't been using my blogging brain too much, I feel like I'm no good at blogging. In fact, I feel like I'm out of blogging shape. Makes sense, considering I'm out of shape in every other facet of my life too so why not writing?

Still, I'm trying. I may have to stop for some gatorade before I'm done with this post.

I started my new job this past week and so far so good. From what I can tell, I'm part of a team of motivated, supportive, smart and hardworking people. So pretty much the opposite of my previous situation (and I couldn't be happier!!!). My coworkers treat me with respect and make me feel like they want me to be part of the team so I already feel as much a part of things as I felt as part of my last team. New jobs can be really lonely (and don't get me wrong, there have been some lonely moments) but honestly, I don't think it's been any worse than where I came from. I mean, at least people aren't personally attacking me. So I guess that's the positive of the situation: my last team set the bar so low that already, my new team is fantastic!

As for the physical out-of-shapeness, I signed up for a triathlon training program that begins at the end of January so that will take care of that. It's all falling into place. The only real problem I'm having right now is finding a good coffee shop for my morning latte.As far as problems go, I'll take the coffee shop dilemma any day.

signed, sealed, delivered

well, really it was more like signed, scanned, emailed. it's official. I start my new gig two weeks from Tuesday, less than twelve hours after my flight from Pittsburgh lands. I have to quit tomorrow. it seems like quitting should be easy, given the horrible experiences I've had with the people I work with. however, I've had a lot of really good experiences with people the people I don't work with and I'm going to miss them.

when I first moved out here, I really had no one and there's a small group of incredible people who became my support network. true, I don't see them at work all that often and I will continue to see them once I'm gone. still, it was nice to know they were only a few offices away.

anyway, I haven't quit a job in a while and I'm wondering the best way to handle this. we have a weekly team meeting Monday's at 10:30. should I just slip it in as part of what I'm working on? "I'm working on X, Y, and Z and oh, by the way, you people suck and I quit."?

this week's victories

the election results from this past Tuesday are an obvious victory. while I'm happy about the results on a public level, I'm happy about them on a personal level as well. as most of you know from previous posts, I have a few coworkers who, quite frankly, are horrid. part of their horridness has been the smear campaign that they've mounted against me. it's been tough to deal with but the election has provided me with a good way of talking about it and a method to take a step back an analyze the situation.

I began to see that the best way for me to deal with the situation was to "take the barak obama route" and rise above it. that gave me the strength to rise above the pettiness. I also began to see how similar my coworkers are to John McCain (and Palin), which gave me a handy way to reference them. ("wow - did you hear what John McCain said today? ridiculous!", etc.)

I sort of began to take a personal interest in it all and think that Obama defeating McCain was like me defeating them. and guess what? we kicked their butts. which leads me to victory #2...

I've been told that an offer is coming my way. freedom is within my grasp. I still can't believe it. but because I can't believe it (and because I'm not yet holding freedom in my hands) no official details (though I guess I can say that I will be working for a large educational entity and let you put the pieces together through the context clues).

and finally,I went to the doctor on Thursday and was told that my perpetually broken leg (did you guys even know about that?) is finally healed. I'm allowed to run again! only 8 minutes every other day at this point but at least that's something. I went for my first 8 min run on Thursday and it was wonderful.


(for those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed with a fairly serious stress fracture some time in August. apparently, I was pretty darn close to my leg being completely broken. oopsie, I guess but I honestly thought a broken bone would hurt more than that... anyway, I haven't been allowed to do anything but swim for the past three months and man, I've gotta tell you, the life aquatic just isn't for me.)

I hope you're all having a festive election day and have voted! in celebration, I took today off, partially to help my friend J. canvas the neighborhood and partially for a two-hour "meeting" about a potentially new career choice. (oh my. do I really want to switch jobs again? oh my...) but, having just finished the "meeting," I'm a little wiped out so I'm not sure I'm up for the canvasing. maybe I can recharge myself with some free starbucks coffee and a free scoop of ben and jerry's. and if that doesn't work, maybe I can re-recharge by visiting a different starbucks and a different ben and jerrys! my god, I love democracy!

at any rate, knowing I had such a big day coming up, I voted early (last Thursday). I thought that I was old and jaded but I'm glad to report I might not be. The evidence: I got a little giddy when I checked the box for my candidate of choice.

tonight, I'm going to a friend of a friend's house to watch the election returns. I'm only planning to stay a bit because a) it's a tad dorky and b) I had too much fun this past weekend and am still recovering. to sum up the fun:

friday I dressed up (as Margot Tenenbaum - complete with wooden finger) and went out to experience Halloween in Boulder. even though I've lived here for three Halloweens, this is the first time I spent Halloween in town. it was nuts, as only Boulder can be. crazy people and costumes and people everywhere along with the annual naked pumpkin run. yep, it's what you think it is - naked people running with pumpkins on their heads - and it's one of the scariest things I've seen at Halloween. why so scary? because let's face it, most people (myself included) just don't look that good naked and, as my friend M. said, even the ones who do don't look good naked and running. amen to that. I eventually found my way to a party and drank to much of the "very, very scary punch," leading to a slightly scary morning after. note for next time - stick with the "scary" or "very scary" punch. to top off the night, I shared a cab with a guy dressed as a treasure troll (pink wig, pink body glitter and yes, he had a jewel in his navel) who kept staring longingly at my very masculine, muscley friend sitting next to him in the cab. some moments in life are priceless.

saturday, I went to see the band devotchka. yes, my friends and I dressed up again and yes, there was more merriment (aka - alcohol). the next day, as I rode my bike to pick up my car (no treasure troll in the cab saturday night) I wondered if I was maybe too old for this sort of thing. but maybe not. there's an ebb and flow to life and nothing is forever. so might as well enjoy things while they last, right? I mean, it's not like I'm out every night. just every other night. so there.