I’m good enough, I’m smart enough… Friday, May 25 2007

Soooo, I didn’t get the job.  Boooo.  Hissss.  Suuuuck.  I was really disappointed.  In a lot of ways, the job would have been the perfect step for me — stay in the organization and the area, get a promotion, get ouf of my office full o’ idiots, have a change of pace and new projects. 

I don’t really know what’s next.  It could involve relocation, or leaving my agency or leaving the fed gov’t altogether.  Or, you know, finding a 75-year-old sugar daddy and not having to work anymore? 

Between not getting the job and not having much success at the online dating thing at the moment and failing at Weight Watchers again, I’m feeling sort of loser-ish.  So in an effort to boost my self-esteem,  my FRIDAY FOURTEEN –

14 Awesome Things About Me:

1. I’m decisive.  If it weren’t for me, the rest of my friends would wander around all the time saying, “Where do you want to eat?”  “I don’t care, what do you want?”  I’m the default restaurant picker, plan maker, cruise director, etc.
2. I’m good at what I do for a living.  Really good.
3. I have the gift of B.S.  When I was in school, I could write a 10-page paper that would repeat the same three ideas over and over again, and most teachers wouldn’t realize that the paper was 10% content and 90% fluff.
4. I’m outspoken.  I’m not afraid to say what I really think.
5. I have endless amounts of trivia and pop culture knowledge stored in my brain.  Go ahead, test me.  I will kick almost anyone’s ass (except my dad’s) in Trivial Pursuit.
6. I’m thoughtful.  I try and do the little things that matter. 
7. I’m an awesome party giver and gift buyer and even though no one really ever notices, my wrapping paper and greeting cards always match.
8. Kids love me!  I’m the “cool aunt.”
9. I’m not good at saying no, which means you can sucker me into doing most anything.  Witness my sorority advisor position — I had no idea what level of commitment that would be, but I probably still would have said yes.
10. I’m a good communicator and an excellent writer.  I fully intend to write a book one day.
11. I’m super organized.  I’m usually the one at work who’s saved an e-mail or an article or a memo that no one else thought to hold on to, and I know exactly where it’s located.
12. I have nice lips.  And boobs.
13. I have natural leadership skills.  Yes, some people may simply read that as “bossy” and “aggressive,” but you know, po-tay-to/po-tah-to.
14. I have a good sense of humor, even though I seriously cannot remember and/or tell jokes to save my life.

(Oh, you came here looking for a MODEST post?  Heh, sorry.  Today is all about boosting Noodle’s ego.)

 Okay, tell me 14 awesome things about yourself!

3 Responses »

 

The Wait, Part II Thursday, May 24 2007

Things I am waiting for, perhaps fruitlessly, in no particular order:

1. To find out whether or not I got the freaking job.  Again.  Some more.  Our personnel lady has been out all week, which may be part of the hold-up but geez…can they let the girl get on with her life already?
2. To meet any halfway decent date candidates on Match.com. 
3. To see if eHarmony is at all worth it.
4. To discover whether my annoying co-workers will ever stop annoying me with their mere existence.
5. To find the ambition needed to do my work.
6. To know whether a new job possibility that has been out there for almost a year will ever come to light.
7. To spend the weekend shopping, sleeping and drinking.
8. To actually go on a real vacation again, a trip that doesn’t involve work or dead family members or sorority business.
9. To fit into my smaller sized clothes once again.
10. To stop having things to whine about.  (Ha!  Not going to happen here!)

2 Responses »

 

A Decade’s Worth of POP! Culture Thursday, May 24 2007

(So yesterday we found out that a project that I have been a part of for awhile has suffered a major setback and has to be delayed and it’s all very sad and tragic.  And I have real work I should be doing to un-do the work I have done on this project in the last few weeks but frankly, I don’t feel like it.  Instead I will wax poetic about a TV special and analyze it to bits and pieces because dudes, I have a degree in mass communications and actually wrote papers and earned grades for analyzing Danielle Steel novels and criticizing Disney’s control of ABC News and calling “Clueless” a “Breakfast Club” for the next generation.)

Last night, in an effort to avoid watching the bloated finale of “American Idol” until the actual moment they announced the winners, I watched a rerun of a TV special I had meant to catch the first time around — “Saturday Night Live in the ’90s.”  And ohmigod, I wish I had TIVO’d it, because I would watch that over and over again. 

I consider myself a child of the ’80s.  After all, when the ’80s began I was just old enough to start watching TV and the shows and movies and music and toys and commercials and whatnot that came in the next 10 years were the landscape I grew up in. 

But really it was the ’90s that were my formative years.  In 1990 I was not quite a teenager yet.  By the time we entered the year 2000, I had graduated college and was working my first job.   

The ’90s was when I started watching Saturday Night Live and understanding all the jokes and skits and references to current events.  It was when the bands and performers I was listening to were showcased as the musical acts.  The ’92 election was when I first was aware enough to be rooting for a candidate and the ‘96 election was the first time I got to vote.  It was the decade that saw me become entranced with the idea of journalism as a career, receive a degree in mass communications and go into public relations. 

So a 2-hour retrospective of all things SNL in the ’90s was tailor made for me.  I remembered seeing so many of those skits the first time.  I remembered all those characters, and so many great performers.  The earlier years included Phil Hartman and Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey and Julia Sweeney and Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, and then we moved into the Will Farrell/Molly Shannon/Cheri Oteri timeframe.  For me, I’ve never really been that into SNL since those cast members moved on. 

And they had a lot of great material to work with — of course all the political stuff (seriously, Clinton could have been one of the best things that ever happened to that show) and O.J. Simpson and all sorts of sports scuffles and reality TV and various scandals.  So by watching the clips of old shows, it was sort of like watching a time capsule of that decade through the SNL lens.  I found myself thinking, “I had forgotten all about that!” 

The whole special was intercut with recent interviews with cast and crew members, and clips of musical performers.  They talked about all the backstage stuff, and how the show was put together each week and the genesis for some of the really classic bits/characters/sketches.  And they touched on the deaths of Chris Farley and Phil Hartman, both of which I vividly remember. 

It was just seriously entertaining and fascinating and made a news/pop culture junkie like myself very, very happy. 

And now I will wrap up some other TV-related things in a big jumble — Hated the Grey’s Anatomy finale.  Loved The Office finale.  Nearly cried at the Gilmore Girls series finale.  Cheered when Apolo and Julianne won.  Didn’t really care about Jordin or Blake.  Am excited that Studio 60 will burn off their remaining episodes starting tonight, even if Sorkin deeply disappointed me with his return to series TV.  Loving The O.C. in reruns on SoapNet.  Plan to watch all of the season one eps of Brothers & Sisters online at ABC.  And still deeply, madly in love with my TiVo.

One Response »

 

Summertime Slow Down (I hope) Tuesday, May 22 2007

8 years and 7 days ago I graduated college and thus ended my life filled with lovely things like summer break.  And spring break and winter break and fall break and, well, you get the idea…it was quite the shock to someone who had spent her whole life having sanctioned, sponsored, time off, so to speak.  I still tell all the college kids and high school kids and, hell, infants I know, “There are no breaks in the real world!  Enjoy!”

But generally, summertime does signal a little slow down in the world.  At least a couple long weekends and lazy Saturdays here and there, if nothing else.  And for me, it also means that my sorority advisor duties are on hold till August (except for attending a big conference in July in Orlando) and my alumni association board duties are a lot lighter too. 

It’s a good thing, too, because I am getting a wee bit burned out.  I need a nice, slow summer because I haven’t had one in a couple years.

2005 — I spent half of May and all of June and July in Maryland, attending a very long, very intense training course.  I worked very very hard and graduated with honors, even though it really didn’t mean a damn thing.  Also smooshed into that summer was a baby shower for T and a trip to New Jersey for my first sorority conference.  Almost as soon as I returned, T gave birth and all the sudden, it was September and I had totally missed summer altogether.

2006 — I’m not sure I ever want another summer like last summer.  Oh god, I have a headache just remembering it.  My boss was pretty new at the time and things were not so good with him.  And then we had a MAJOR ceremony to pull together and I was the only person in the office who gave a damn and was willing to do the work.  Meanwhile, my little brother graduated high school.  My best friend A got married.  My brother went off to Africa for the summer, my parents bought a new house (thus necessitating their first move in 14 years) and then my grandfather in Seattle became very, very ill, meaning my dad had to fly back and forth a couple times.  And then I got the call — would I be willing to go to New Orleans to work for a month?  I said yes and actually ended up staying two months and I’ve never regretted it.  But then, poof, it was October before I was finally home and again, I had to wonder what had happened to the summer?

Things aren’t looking quite as crazy this summer (knock on wood!).  We fly to Illinois for a weekend in June for the second memorial service for my grandfather, and I’m headed to Florida for 4 days in July.  But other than that?  Not much is on the calendar thus far.  Of course, I could potentially either be settling into a new job here or facing the prospect of relocating for my career.  I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. 

Right now my summer goals are to not be so ghostly pale (I don’t actually tan, but a little sun would be nice), sleep more, drink lots of margaritas, take a couple road trips, go to the pool and the local amusement parks with the kidlets, catch up on some TV shows in reruns and maybe go on a couple dates. 

And this is my big cosmic message to the universe — please do not F**K with Noodle this summer.  Thank you 

One Response »

 

Memo to Self Monday, May 21 2007

(Grrr, just wrote this post and because I am an idiot, I deleted it and now have to do it all over again..grrrr)

After spending all weekend with my best friend T, her two kids (21-months-old and 4-months-old) and several other moms with their toddlers, I made a number of mental notes that I hope I will remember when I have children:

• Ideally, I will have my children spaced far enough apart that when I am trying to deal with the younger one, the older one will be old enough to be a gopher or at least generally helpful when I say, “Go get the baby’s pacifier, as he has spit it out for the twentieth time and screams his head off every time I try to reach down and get it myself!”
• I’m not going to work terribly hard to get my kids on some miraculous, set schedule because the first time I have to mess with said schedule, they will turn into tiny screaming devil spawn.
• I will find names for my children that lend themselves to a variety of nicknames, so I have more than one name to utter over and over again when I am trying to get the child’s attention or stop him/her from doing something that will lead to certain death or dismemberment.
• I will only allow my children to eat, well, pale food.  And nothing sticky.  Or crumbly.  And due to my own food issues, they will have no idea that ketchup even exists.  Plus, they will only be allowed to eat one food at a time, lest they smoosh it all together in a rather disgusting fashion.
• I will socialize my children from birth, so that when my child does not become a klingon toddler when faced with a teaming mass of other toddlers.
• I will have a big strong husband to tote around the baby carrier because those bitches (the carriers, not the infants themselves) are heavy. 
• Two Words:  Mini.  Van.  That bending over to strap kids into car seats in the back of a sedan thing is for the birds.

Or maybe I will just give up the idea of having children altogether?  Because the only thing that kept me sane during a few moments this weekend was the thought that I would be able to go home at the end of it and enjoy peace and quiet and solitude while T has to be with the children, like, FOREVER.

(Yes, this post is semi-sarcastic.  Yes, I know there are lots of wonderful things about having children.  Yes, I know I will not be a perfect parent.  Yes, I will love my children, stickiness and ketchup notwithstanding.  But it made good blog fodder!!)

3 Responses »

 

The Wait Thursday, May 17 2007

I am not good at waiting.  Well, I mean I’m okay waiting in long lines at an amusement park or whatever.  But I’m not good at waiting for big things to happen.

Right now I’m waiting to hear whether or not I got the job I interviewed for last week.  This is the gov’t, so things move sort of slooooowly.  And I’m still sort of conflicted about whether or not I want it, but I at least want them to offer it to me!  I’ve gone over and over the pros and cons in my head.

Pros:

• Promotion!
• Will get me away from crazy annoying co-workers.
• Will allow me to work on new, different projects and not the same things I’ve been doing for the past 4 years.
• High visibility.
• I will know everything that goes on around here.
• Won’t have to move for career advancement.

Cons:

• Not in my career field.  What if I change and I hate it?
• Could be even more high-stress than what I’m doing now.
• Could turn out to be much more administrative than I would like.
• Giving up the chance to apply for other promotions in my career field.

IfI don’t get it, I will have to work closely with whoever DOES get it.  And that will wound my heart.  Plus I will have to face all the people who made the decision and not, you know, hate them.  This is the first time I’ve ever gone up for an internal position and I do not like it. 

I’m off work tomorrow for a road trip with my best friend T and her two kidlets, so I was really hoping to hear something today.  But I have a feeling that might not happen. 

Gah, waiting…it sucks.

One Response »

 

Fun Questionnaire Thursday, May 17 2007

 C’mon y’all, join me…

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?  Personal Property Tax.  Stupid Virginia.

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner? Ha, that depends on your definition of romantic.  Not very recently, that’s for sure.

3. Last time you puked from drinking? Last summer in New Orleans.  Those were really horrible margaritas.

4. When is the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten drunk and danced on a bar. 

5. Name of your first grade teacher? Mrs. Drinkwater, which was a funny name to me.

6. What do you really want to be doing right now? Sleeping.

7. What did you want to be when you were growing up? A teacher, a lawyer or the President.

8. How many colleges did you attend? Just one.

9. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now? Because it was there.

10. GAS PRICES??? Make me glad I only have a 5-minute commute.

11. Where would you move if you could move anywhere? Charleston.

12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning? Hmmm, could I call in sick?

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night? Please don’t let there be a fire tonight.

14. Favorite style of underwear? Hipsters.

15. Favorite style of underwear for the opposite sex? Boxers.

16. What errand/chore do you despise? Vacuuming.  HATE!
17. If you didn’t have to work, would you volunteer? I already volunteer and work, so if I wasn’t working, I’d definitely volunteer.

18. Get up early or sleep in? Sleeping in is, like, 9 a.m. for me.
19. What is your favorite cartoon character? Not sure I have one.
20. Favorite thing to do at night with a girl/guy?  Use your imagination 
21. Have you found real love yet? No.

22. When did you first start feeling old? Really, just this year.

23. Favorite 80’s movie? “St. Elmo’s Fire”

24. Your favorite lunch meat? Roast beef.

25. Beach or lake? Beach.

26. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual? No.
27. Who from high school would you like to run into? The boy we once referred to only as “French Club.”  And he will be single and will say, “I’ve waited 10 years to see you again!”
28. Movies or Documentaries? Uh, both?

29. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons? The Cosby Show — I’m a child of the ’80s.

30. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back? Not saying things that need to be said.

31. Do you like the person who sits directly across from you at work? Across from me is the bathroom.  However, I do not like the person sitting next to me.

32. If you could get away with it, who would you kill? I’m not sure I’d kill anyone.

33. What famous person(s) would you like to have dinner with? George Clooney.  We will have deep political discussions about Darfur…while naked.

34. What famous person would you like to sleep with? See number 33.  We’d be naked for a reason!

35. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose? Nope.

36. Last book you read for real? I have no idea what “for real,” means but I read every night before bed.

37. Do you have a teddy bear? No.

One Response »

 

Goodbye, Girl Monday, May 14 2007

My mom and dad had to put Faye, their elderly dog, to sleep this weekend. 

Faye originally belonged to my mom’s parents, Nana and Grandad.  They adopted her from the SPCA around 1990 and had her until about 2003.  Then my grandfather died and my grandmother moved to a senior citizens’ community in New York State and my mom decided that our family would be the ones to give Faye a new home. 

Faye was really one of the sweetest dogs that ever lived.  She was a mutt, but we’re pretty convinced she was mostly Keeshond.  She was incredibly friendly and outgoing, but not in a “jump and slobber all over you,” kind of way.  Rather she would just stand next to you and politely wait to be petted.  She loved to beg and we usually gave her all kinds of goodies.  She loved to be taken on long walks. 

Faye was already getting up there in years when she came to live with us, and in the past few months she really hasn’t been in good shape.  She was deaf, never really wanted to walk very far and became a finicky eater with a lot of stomach problems.  They told my parents a couple of weeks ago that her kidneys were failing.  Finally this week she stopped eating altogether and could barely get up.

So Mom and Dad took her in Saturday morning.  The only thing she had eaten in a few days was a couple ginger cat cookies from Trader Joe’s, so they took some of those in and she ate them right up until the time they put her on the table.  Dad said she was actually showing a little more life right there at the end, but she was a very old girl and it was time for her to go.

Ironically, when they got to the vet’s office there were some wee little orange kitties that were available for adoption (ironic because of the whole ginger cat cookie thing) and my parents are considering adopting one of those.  They already have another cat and a cockatiel as well.

I know it was hard on my mom, especially because Faye used to belong to my grandparents, and this was the first Mother’s Day since my Nana died.  We’ll miss her.  But in a way, I know she’s been reunited with my grandparents and that she and Grandad are taking a long walk together.

One Response »

 

Weekend Plans Friday, May 11 2007

I survived the interview this morning.  Actually, I’m told I did very well.  I still have no real idea if I’m a strong candidate or I stand any chance of being offered the position.  Or even if I will accept the position, should it be offered to me.  I’ll think about that later.

My weekend plans are chock full of all kinds of fun and excitement.  To whit:

Friday evening — Last-minute apartment cleaning and shopping.

Late Friday evening — Boy arrives from out of town, drinking of wine commences.

Saturday — Battle the teeming masses here to celebrate the founding of our nation at Jamestown.  We sort of a dorky pair.

Saturday evening — I have been promised there will be margaritas.

Sunday morning — Meet the parents at church, followed by lunch and then I’m going to see, uh, some musical that I can’t quite remember right now at the local community theater for Mother’s Day.

Sunday evening — Collapse from lack of sleep and hefty alcohol consumption over the past 48 hours.

One Response »

 

Random Brain Dump Thursday, May 10 2007

All the little things taking up real estate in my brain this afternoon:

I’ve been on a massive shoe shopping spree lately.  I’m running out of places to store shoes, so I may have to come up with a “buy a new pair, toss an old pair,” strategy.

My apartment building still smells like smoke.  But it’s given the residents something new to talk about in the elevators.

I have a job interview tomorrow.  I’m pretty freaked out about it. 

There’s a boy coming to visit this weekend.  Why can I not manage to have a real, functional relationship with someone who I get along with so well and have so much in common with?  (I just ended a sentence with a preposition, but I am not caring today, just typing.)

My apartment is sort of a wreck at the moment.  Sorry, weekend guest. 

What is with all the spam blogs around here?  I don’t get it.

On the other hand, there are some awesome women writing on Her Hangout and I’m loving reading their blogs and getting to know them!

My jaw is killing me.  I have TMJ and the treatments they tried for it when I was in high school never really worked and the top and bottom half of my jaw don’t line up properly and recently it’s gotten really, really bad.  Plus I probably have a cavity or two.  Yet, I have a very very serious fear of going to the dentist and haven’t been in a shamefully long time and am scared to go now because they will yell at me for not flossing enough.

Did I mention the job interview?  For which I am totally unprepared?  And during which I will make a tremendous fool out of myself?  And it’s for an internal position so basically, I will see these people who will be interviewing me every day?  I feel like I should make notes, or something, but…gah.  I haven’t had enough sleep in the past couple days to be all strategic.

3 Responses »