Interview Update

Well I had my phone interview yesterday afternoon and I think it went pretty well. They said that had narrowed the applicants down to a final 6 that they were interviewing so it's encouraging that I made their final 6! They still have more people to interview so they said they'd get back to me either way within the next couple of weeks. Now all I can do is send my thank you letter out and wait patiently. Thanks for all the good luck wishes!!!

Life in general is good. Busy, busy, busy - but good. Nothing too exciting to talk about so I won't bore you with the day to day details. Overall, things are going well and life is pretty routine. At this stage in life routine is comforting. More later when life is a little more exciting.

Sunday Quote Blogging

Here's a short poem from a poet who was a favorite of mine in college. He was the epitome of the "dirty old man". Maybe he wasn't exactly a model human being (with all of the drinking & whores & shithole boarding houses he called home) but he was a man who had some valuable things to be said. It seems like I read nothing but his poetry for months on end. This one is still one of my favorites of his. Hope you enjoy it!

Well, that's the way it is...
"Sometimes when everything seems at
its worst
when all conspires
and gnaws
and the hours, days, weeks
years
seem wasted -
stretched there upon my bed
in the dark
looking upward at the ceiling
I get what many will consider an
obnoxious thought:
it's still nice to be
Bukowski"

~ Charles Bukowski
1920-1994

Busy Weekend W/ Crossed Fingers

It's a 4 day weekend for me, but man has it been a busy one. Friday I spent the entire at my parents doing some much needed laundry & helping them move furniture & clean. They moved their bedroom last week & still had some loose ends to tie up. Mom kept me busy all day, but I did get 4 free loads of laundry done, and they fed me too so it was a fair trade off. Yep, just give me a "Will work for food" sign & that'll pretty much sum it up.

Yesterday Randy & I spent the day at Maumee Bay State Park with his Dad, Mary & sisters. It was a nice relaxing day. We went for a walk on the boardwalk & saw lots of deer out chowing down on dinner. Played a few games of Dutch Blitz, Big Fish Lil' Fish, and Cranium. A good time was had by all. Today we're going to his Aunts house for a going away party for a cousin. It'll be another good time I'm sure.

I may cut out early though because I have some "work" to get done. Last week I applied for an Outdoor Program Manager job with a local camp a couple towns over. Sent my resume out late Tuesday, it got there Wednesday, & they contacted me to set up an interview on Thursday! I like it when people are on their toes. I'm not very good playing the sit & wait game when I apply for jobs, so this was pretty cool.

My interview is tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. I have tomorrow off too so it was great timing. I'll spend 3 or 4 hours tonight prepping, get a good nights sleep, spend a little bit in the morning prepping some more. Go to Yoga & get relaxed a bit, eat a quick lunch & it'll be time to interview! I'm excited, but as always trying not to get my hopes up too much. The plus side that if I don't get this new job, things are finally back to good with my current job so staying isn't going to be hard to do. And my new boss is giving me lots of opportunity to do lots of pretty cool stuff.

There's still some valuable experience I can gain from my current position. But it's hard to look the other way when a FULL TIME job that pays significantly more than I made last year comes along AND it's in a field that I would rather be in to begin with. I'm not foolish enough to let that pass by without giving it a try. Don't get me wrong - dressing up in funny clothes & what I do now isn't a bad gig. But a camp job is really what I'd like to have. Problem is that there aren't a lot of camp job that open up that are year round, full time & pay enough to support yourself & leave a little left over for fun or savings. Few & far between. So I'm crossing my fingers & doing my interview prep & we'll see what comes of it.

The Return of Sunday Quote Blogging!!!

Yes it's true. For those of you who read this on a somewhat regular basis, you've probably noticed the absence of my Sunday Quote Blogging over the past month or so. (Phew, for all I remember it may be longer than that...I'm too lazy to look it up in my archives). The absence hasn't been for lack of thought. I've thought about it on many a Sunday, but nothing really struck me as worth posting. And so consider this the return of Sunday Quote Blogging!!! Enjoy!

"and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a phoenix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying past

i'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and i would like to state for the record
i did everything that i could do
i'm not saying that i'm a saint
i just don't want to live that way
no, i will never be a saint
but i will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
i'm not between you and your ambition
i am a poster girl with no poster
i am thirty-two flavors and then some
and i'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said"

~Ani Difranco
32 Flavors
from Living in Clip, 1997

Longer Weekend

I'm enjoying a longer weekend than normal. I had Friday off work, worked 1/2 a day on Saturday, left work around 1:30pm on Saturday and had yesterday & today off. I could get used to this time off thing! Friday was extremely productive for a day off! I did some shopping that needed done, got a long overdue hair cut, went on a mini-grocery trip, came home & cleaned my apartment. I'd let my apartment get way out of hand...for sure. I don't think it'd been cleaned in well over a month. Clutter everywhere. And in an apartment as small as mine, that creates some challenges. All that's left to do for cleaning is a quick dusting & vacuuming which shouldn't take too long.

Friday evening, Randy & I entertained his little sister Maggie for the evening. Took her out to Pizza Hut, played Big Fish Lil' Fish, & Dutch Blitz, then watched The Princess Bride. "inconceivable!" I finally headed home around 12:30am and was exhausted considering it was my day off!

Saturday I worked half a day sewing on buttons & mending clothes as our Volunteers had a sewing circle & mill project day. Got to know some of our newer volunteers which was good. Hopefully this sewing circle thing will keep going & the park can get some good period clothing out of it. After work I did laundry & watched the Wings Game, returned some way overdue library books, & made it home in time to catch the 3rd period of the game. Caught the end of the Texas/Boston game & got to see overtime & a shootout! Gotta love a shootout! Spent the evening with Randy, we watched some playoff Football & more hockey.

Yesterday Randy & I spent the day at his Dad's which was relaxing. Today we did some shopping & took advantage of the warmer sunny weather & went for a walk at Side Cut Metropark. So far, my long weekend has been busy, but good. I've gotten caught up on lots of sleep which was needed. I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow, but I guess it's time. Sorry for being so long winded, but my updates are so few now so this is what you get I guess. For now, I'm going to drink my warm Tropicana Tea, watch a reply of a BGSU hockey game on BCSN & get that final cleaning done so home feels like home again.

Blogging Slacking

I know it's only been 5 or 6 days since my last post, but it feels like it's been forever. Life is going well. It's been busy, but good.

Last weekend, I went home to P-Burg for the day. I spent the day helping my parents get ready for their yearly dinner party with all of their horse friends. Lots of cleaning involved on my part. Then in the afternoon I met up with Shannon, Amanda & Holly.

It was a good time, nice to catch up since we don't get a lot of time together now that we're mostly long distance now days. The two 2 year olds & one 4 year old seemed to steal the show, which was cute, but... It seems I've been left behind on that whole getting married & starting a family thing. And that's just fine with me. No thanks, not ready. And there plenty of people my age & older in this world who are still single & okay with that. We're really not that uncommon. But ya know, I don't need to feel like people feel sorry for me because I'm not married, engaged or starting a family. Getting married & having kids isn't the right thing for everyone people... and it's definitely not the right thing for anyone who isn't ready, and I'm not ready. So just leave it at that...no sympathy needed people. I'm happy right where I'm at thank you very much.

Phew, got that out of my system. Saturday night I hung out at my parents at their party, helped clean up during & after the party. I finally left around midnight. Thanks to PBS showing an awesome documentary, I didn't go to bed until 2am. When I finally rolled out of bed on Sunday morning around 10:30am, I got ready & Randy & I went to spend the day at his Dad's. It was a great weekend, but I think I'm still catching up on sleep from it.

Good news at work...it looks like I'll be getting some small boosts in some areas (personal time, etc.). So that's good news. Nothing too exciting going on otherwise. Hopefully I'll be in the mood to blog a little more often now but I guess we'll just have to wait & see.

Back in the Swing of Things....Sort Of

Back to work after 2 back to back 3 day weekends. New Years Eve was good considering the sad news I received the day before (see previous post if you have no idea what I'm talking about). The party was a good time and it helped take my mind off of things which I really needed. Thank you to everyone who was there for helping New Years Eve be brighter than it otherwise would have been. I really do appreciate it. And I appreciate everyone's comments on that last entry as well.

It seems like a lot of my fellow bloggers have made some New Years Resolutions. I tend to refer to mine as "goals" instead of resolutions. Goals just seem to be more adaptable and can be changed easier if I think they need to be. But yes, I've made a couple.

1) To have read in entirety and returned my library books before the Due Date. I mean, come on - they give you almost a month! It's ridiculous that I've had to renew more than 1 book in the short time I've had the darn card.

2) On a similar note, I'd like to up my volume of reading in general. I just haven't been reading nearly as often as I would like. Mainly because I tend to have trouble turning the blasted TV off. Going without TV in Arizona & California was great! I got a ton more reading & journaling done & I didn't even miss TV after 3 weeks or so. I'm not saying I'll cut out TV all together, but I would like to drastically cut down on the brain numbing amount of it I watch. And so, I'm making my goal to read 20 books in 2006. I've done it before at least twice - 20 books in a year is completely doable. A couple years ago I tried for 25 and could have done it, but once again, let TV get the best of me when I moved back from California. And I did get a rather large amount of Gift Card money to Barne's & Noble to help me out with this goal. (Thanks!)

3) I'm would like to get back into Yoga as well. I'm not dieting or exercising to lose weight or any of that. I would just like to be more active and stay in shape. And I felt really damn good when I was doing Yoga a couple times a week in Arizona. Work is helping me out to get myself started - a volunteer is going to give 8 free Yoga classes (& I can fit at least 6 of them into my schedule). Beyond that, I have a coupon from work for a good deal on a health club membership. I'm going to look into that more tomorrow, but they do offer Yoga classes. We'll see if it's included in the membership or an extra charge. If I decide against it, I'll probably be buying some DVDs and/or books to help me out.

I guess there's probably a couple more, but those are the big ones. Not really a whole lot more that's of any excitement that can't be found on various friends blogs. I'm looking forward to seeing the High School gang on Saturday!