Random Blabbering....
The salary dance is over -- the crowd applauded, it ended in a pretty pose. I'm happy -- I think they're happy -- I know they will be happy later. I can do this job. I can DO THIS. It's gonna be alright.I'm leaving this afternoon after work to head for Llano. I'm picking up Kathy and we are driving to Austin, where we will meet up with Heather (hothat). We are flying out of Austin tomorrow morning at 7am and headed to NEW YORK CITY!! Oh man oh man, I may jump out of my shoes with excitement!It just occurred to me that you should know that "Hothat" should be pronounced as "Hot Hat" -- not "Hoe-That".Hopefully when I get back to the blog, there will be NYC pics. This will be if Hothat takes them -- because my digi camera went BUST. Grrrr! It keeps burning up the batteries and it smells like burning electrical wires. I don't want to pack it. I'm afraid it will overheat in my backpack and the overhead bin on the plane will begin to smoke and we'll catch fire and crash in a giant explosion somewhere over Indiana? Ohio? And it will be all my fault for packing that damn camera......I'm going to miss my guys this weekend. I hope they miss me. :o)
Change is ugh.
I mentioned in the post before last that my job is changing. Well, I'm not happy about it. I hate change. It makes me all wigged out. I like my world nice and calm and PREDICTABLE. When I can't see what's coming, I get all stressed out. Only it doesn't really show much -- I internalize it. I'm an "internal cycler", or at least I think that is what Dr. Nina said.Britt is apparently telling people that I have "decided to leave" the adjuster's office, which is a straight up lie. This is HIS choice. If it were up to me, I'd continue to work for him in the morning and the body-shop in the afternoon and everything would move along swimmingly and my life would be just peachy. But it isn't and I guess maybe that's his way of coping -- to tell people it's my decision instead of saying, "The company isn't making enough money to afford to pay her anymore....." But... still. Ugh.Then I'm doing the "salary dance" with Rick at the body shop and yesterday did not go the way I expected or wanted it to go. So, again, Ugh. Negotiating a salary is so uncomfortable. I see now how Donald Trump appears so detached and cold -- you have to be that way when negotiating about money. You can't make it personal. Altho, in this case it IS personal because, to me, we are talking about MY WORTH. Which is apparently more to me than it is to an employer.... but hey! Ain't that the way it goes? So we'll dance a little more today, maybe he'll step on my toes and maybe I'll twirl around and maybe then he'll dip me and we'll end in a beautiful pointy pose under the disco ball while the ending strains of "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer plays in the background.....See? I'm wigged out. Now I'm hallucinating.
5 Que?
So... the 5K run. Well, I didn't run it. Nor did I walk it. I skipped it entirely.I felt a little bit bad about it at first. A little bit -- but not enough to make me go and do it. I knew I was losing my excitement and mojo for it several weeks ago when I tried and realized that I could run the 5K distance. Once I knew that, it didn't matter anymore if I raced it or not. I was more about Can I do it? than I was about competing with anyone for it.Then about a week or so before the event, Kathy issued the invitation to come to her house and sit on the patio and drink margaritas while planning our trip to NYC.So my decision was made. heh.The day turned out beautiful. Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect food and drink. What could be better?We got to Llano about 11:30-ish, visited with Kathy while waiting for Heather and her fam to arrive. They got in about 12:30pm. Funniest part of the day: Kevin (Heather's hubby) telling Jimmy about the pies Heather made and brought. "Coconut cream pie. How gay is that?" Heather & I about died laughing because we both know Jimmy's favorite pie in the world is coconut cream -- but he wasn't going to say anything. We told Kevin, who's response was, "Oh..... well he's secure in his masculinity then." That was quite the ice-breaker!Then the guys headed for the golf course for the afternoon. Us womenfolk went to town and had a bite of lunch at a local tea room/shop, joined by Heather's adorably precocious daughter, Abby. What a trip that girl is --- only in 1st grade, yet so sure of herself and what she wants. I hope she keeps that attitude thru her teen years! Nobody will mess with her, for sure. :o)After lunch, we made the rounds thru town, stopping for fresh cut steaks and fixins' -- and of course, to the liquor store for margarita stuff.......Then it was back to the house and out to the patio with mango margaritas and Kaluha mudslides (what a combo!). We poured over Fromme's guide to NYC and made a few site seeing plans for this upcoming weekend. We drank our sweet margaritas and wondered what the smell was wafting over the fence from the pasture (some sort of carcass, apparently). Luckily once the grill was fired up, the smell was less prevalent. We enjoyed beautiful rib-eye steaks with salad and garlic bread, cheesecake and brokeback..... er I mean coconut cream pie, along with good company, lots of laughter and good times.Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The perfect Saturday. :o)So I leave Thursday after work and won't be back until Sunday night from NYC -- hopefully I'll have pictures and lots to tell!!!Talk back at me.....
Hey, long time no see.
I know. I just don't have much to say and I figure if you wanted to know, you'd ask. ha!The 5K is this coming Saturday. I will be glad to be over with it. Frankly, I may not even go. How do you like them apples? I know I can run it. I guess since I *said* I would do it and I paid $20 for an entry fee, I should do it. I just really don't care anymore. But that's how it works with me. I get excited, then I stop caring.I'm sitting here waiting for it to start pouring down rain, which it is going to do any minute now. This means I can't get out and run this evening. Boohoo. I'm so sad. *snork*I didn't eat breakfast this morning, which gave me a huge honkin' headache from hunger pains, so Jimmy & I went to Chili's and I had a huge honkin' hamburger and fries and 2 -- yes, 2! -- Dr. Peppers. My headache is nearly gone now. Never underestimate the power of a good burger.I'm changing jobs. I'm going to begin working for the body shop full-time and maybe help Britt out a few hours a week from my house. I have not talked salary with Rick yet -- I hope we can come to an agreement that we are both happy with. I can't work for peanuts. I have bills to pay and commitments to keep. But surely we can arrive and something mutually satisfactory. I'm praying on it.I am ready to go to NEW YORK CITY. Oops. I wasn't supposed to let that cat out of the bag yet. My bad.There may be a GULL CRUISE 2007 summer vacation in the works. I hope so!!!!bye for now!
Friday Blog-Trippin'
Well, here I am bored at work, waiting for 5pm (why did I take an afternoon job? Money? oh yea..... money. ) So to kill time I started reading random blogs. You click on the "next blog" icon at the upper right of your screen and just see where it takes you.Fascinating.Of course there is the occaisonal blog in some foreign language that I can't tell up or down from. But in between those are the gems:Amom from Tennessee who writes about daily life with her adorable twin baby girls (ahhh babies! sweet memories.... *sigh*).....Photos of yeast bread in the shape of bunnies and chicks.....Instructions on how to make a perfect omellette.....Photos from a road trip to Philly by a bunch of apparent Frat boys.... hilarious.....Some dude's porn paintings..... (whoa!)Various flower gardens.......Numerous thoughts on religion, spirituality and Jesus.......(say what you will, I've talked to the dude, he's real).......All in all, it was a neat trip.
Social Butterfly
Suddenly I am feeling that my social calendar is filling up.April 22nd - 5K run in Goldthwaite. I am no longer skeered of it-- I know I can do it. It's only a matter of how fast, now. I'm still working on that. After the run, we are going to Llano and I'm going to see a Gull or two, have a margarita or two and a whole bunch o' laughs with a lot of food. Can't wait!April 28th - Trip to NYC! I still almost can't believe its going to happen. We got the plans made, the tickets are bought. Now we wait.......May 10-14 - Jimmy & I are going to the PGA tour's Byron Nelson event in Dallas, Texas. We are going to follow the pros around - hopefully Fred Couples will be there! He is Jimmy's favorite golfer and he is a joy to watch. He's sooooo smooth. It will be very cool to see all of them. I hope we get some photo opportunities before the actual tournament starts (they don't let you carry in a camera once play begins on Thursday!)I am really looking forward to that week and spending some time with Jimmy doing something we both enjoy. He is so passionate about golf -- it pleases me to see him light up about the subject! :o) And it is fun to just hang out with him. He always makes me laugh. This trip is going to be awesome......Gotta run - dinner's cookin!
It's crazy! It's adventurous!!!
I am going to New York City!!!
Kathy has always wanted to take a last minute spur of the moment trip to NYC..... she said how bout April 28th? And Heather & said "Ummmmmm OKAY! Let's do it!!"
So I'm going to NYC!!!!!
oh my gosh it's crazy!!!!
:o)
Tuesday update...
Not much going on around here. Did I tell ya I started working part-time in the afternoons for our friends Rick & Tish at their auto body shop? Well if not, I just did. It's only 1 to 5 for now, clerical type work. I think if anything happens with my 1st job at the insurance adjuster's office, I will be able to make the body shop job full-time. We'll see how things go. For now, I kinda like the 2 part-time jobs. I get a lot of variety, see different people and it keeps me busy.I am still in training for the 5K races. The first one is coming up quick -- April 22nd. I will be sending in my registration form tomorrow. I am still a little skeered about it. I hope everything goes well. Yesterday, I went ahead and ran the entire distance (3.1 miles) just to see how long it would take me. I did it in about 43 minutes and that was with slowing down to a brisk walking pace in a few places (for a block or two) so that my calves could ease up.It takes me a long time to get warmed up properly, no matter how much I stretch and move around before starting. By the time I got to the last mile, I was warm and loose and it was fairly easy to keep a steady pace. The first mile is always the hardest for me.But -- 43 minutes isn't bad at this point in the process. Maybe over the course of the next couple of weeks I can shave a few minutes off that and manage the 5K in 40 minutes or less. That would be awesome. The registration form says it is a 5K Run/Walk -- so I imagine there will be people there of all sizes, shapes and speeds. I am not worried that I'll be the last one to finish.And if I am --- so what? Right?:o)
