Proud of Me

Let me just throw this out there: I've been hitting it out of the park lately at work.  Putting in a lot of time and effort, pointing out problems, suggesting solutions.  For the most part, it's been recognized and acknowledged.

That's not what I'm really posting about, though.  I'm proud of myself for *not* working right now.  Instead of caving to pressure and hints of guilt-trip attempts to make me forfeit my weekend to make up for time lost by others, I stood up for myself.  At the same time, I stood up for the fact that my happiness and my marriage are just as important and deserving of my energy as my workplace is.

I'm proud I'd me, and I'm having a great weekend.

drive-by update

Appearances notwithstanding, this is not one of those weeks where I have nothing to blog about. The garden is overflowing with edible goodness (and I might seek your collective guidance w/r/t the tomatoes) I'm making substantial progress on the Whisper Cardigan I'm knitting. We went to Chicago. And there's a tornado rolling through town right now (yes, literally. I'm posting from my phone from the basement of the house, where it's safer,). Things have actually been interesting around here.

Sadly, though, my challenging job that I enjoy has been keeping me away from the house more than I'd like... and when I do get home, there's precious little time or mental energy for much of anything. Hence the progress on the project that's mostly mindless stockinette, I suppose.

So, soon, lovelies! I'll have some better posts for you soon. Cross your fingers for me that none of them are entitled "The Tornado that Broke the House."

it's about time

I'm so pleasantly surprised that I can finally say this, but I really like my job. It probably helps that I pretty much rock the socks right off of it.

Yay.

recent observations

In list format:

- Working an extra several hours a week creates a domino effect on my schedule and sense of equilibrium. Running more than once a week, cooking, and blogging fall by the wayside. The paychecks are nice, though.

- A packet of snow pea seeds from 2008 can produce enough pea pods for more stir fry dinners than two people can eat in eight days. It's kind of scary, in a yummy way.

- Even tomato plants in cages can topple over. Multiple times. Only an elaborate network of string supports will stabilize them. Fortunately, said tomato plants can survive said toppling and be full of flowers and tiny tomatoes to boot.

- Keeping a pencil and paper with you to track rows when knitting a sweater is kind of annoying. I almost miss doing endless repeats. Almost.

- Breakfast consisting of a homemade egg sandwich on whole wheat, with a cup of coffee and a super healthy smoothie will keep me from getting hungry until late morning. Trust me, this is an impressive feat.

report from the salt mines

Just a quick, purposely vague update on the new work setting. My days are busy and intellectually stimulating and challenging and awesome! I was talking to Mr. Wonderful yesterday about how this is an entirely new thing for me. I may have stumbled upon a job I actually enjoy. I didn't know such a thing could even exist.

Hooray! (Also, who knows whether this will still be my opinion however many months into the future. I figure I should probably appreciate it while I can.)

Oh right, that too!

As it turned out, Closing Day last week was even more eventful than I'd thought it would be. Somewhere in and around trying to figure out the logistics of removing an old, decrepit, annoyingly-too-big-to-fit-in-a-car picnic table from the yard before the closing, I got a phone call that ended the employment search I've been on for the past too many months.

Yes, it's big news. Yes, I went a whole week before blogging about it here (in large part because there isn't a whole more to say, as I'd prefer not to share further details with all of the interwebs). But yes, I'm very excited about it, and I'm looking forward to starting this new chapter.

And yes, I promise to have a fun post for you all soon with a favorable photo to text ratio. Well, soon-ish.

Opportunity. Really.

I'd been figuring that 2009 will be an eventful year, but I didn't realize how quickly that would be apparent, and in what manner. On Monday, I got laid off from my job. Hellooooo, 2009! Thanks for letting me know right up front that you're going to be a roller coaster.

Under the circumstances, I'm hugely thankful for several things. First, I'll still get paid for three months, but I won't have to keep going to work during that time. Essentially, I have three months to find a new job without suffering any financial conquequences. Thank. Gawd. With the economy the way it is right now, I'm hoping that'll be enough time, but regardless, the cushion helps, big time.

I am, of course, also thankful that Mr. Terrific is being great about all this. (No surprise, but I'm still thankful.) If I don't find a job in three months - heaven forbid - he'll help me however he can, and everything will be ok. Everything would have been ok if this had happened to me when I was single, just ok in a different way.

Finally, I'm thankful that I've been nudged out of a career that wasn't a good fit for me, so I now have to move in a different direction. This is where the sense of opportunity comes in. During the time I've got between jobs (please, universe, not the full three months), I'm determined to work on the following:

- Get more healthy and fit. Seriously, how many times have I said how great it would be if I could go to the gym in the middle of the day. I have no excuse not to take advantage of this right now. This means that I also have no excuse not to be ready for the 5k I'm signed up for in March. The treadmill and I will be fast friends this winter.

- Tackle house projects that have languished for lack of free time. Paint a couple rooms, paint the stairs to the upstairs bedroom, bring in an electrician to get a few lights fixed, that sort of thing. The big picture purpose here is to get the house prepared to rent out in a few months, so I can move in with Mr. Terrific and let my house pay for itself. We'd been planning on doing this anyway, but with my financial situation set to implode in three months, it would be great to have that wrinkle ironed out in advance.

- Find. a. job. I. like.

- Knit things, though, really, I suspect I won't need to summon my determination to make sure that gets done.