Michele, thanks. The position is within my department & it's been described as "hybrid" -- one would supervise seven people while also continuing to work on writing assignments alongside them. It's a step up toward being a manager.
I'm far less confident after my 4 PM interview with my manager's manager. He's an Englishman who has emigrated to San Jose, quite analytical, cool & reserved, not good at making small talk, perhaps once painfully shy & more interested in things than people. I am not sure what sort of impression I made on him. I found him very difficult to read & being interviewed over the phone helped not at all. I felt like a voluble, overemotional, oversharing & breathy female American -- all the things that he is not. He may favor another job candidate, a dept member in England, whom we met during his office tour & visit to Egham. That gentleman -- whom I like & respect, actually -- is subdued & wry & with a dry wit. I think they would be more simpatico together.
And now I must stop this second-guessing; sometimes I have really good intuition about these things but sometimes my imagination runs away with me & I see things that are not there. Second-guessing only makes me crazy.
The interviewing is done.
It is what it is.
(BTW, my next rant will be about how much I hate the phrase that I just used, "It is what it is," which I see & hear EVERYWHERE. It sounds wonderfully wise & practical & almost Zenlike, but it MEANS NOTHING if you really examine it because it can mean anything you want to mean. It's like punctuation now, just a meaningless piece of filler that people add to their pronouncements. I write it here with a certain sense of resignation: I've done what I can, as far as interviewing goes. Thy Will Be Done.)
Good luck, Saef! Hope they don't keep you waiting too long.
Yesterday, first day back, I got tons of stuff done, busy all day. Today, I can't get motivated to do much. A friend drove out from Anchorage (40 miles or so) to have lunch. We went to a newish deli in town. I'd been once and found it good, and it was good again. A little pricey, but having just been eating out more than usual on vacation, I found it in line with what we'd been paying in New England. Now I must go and construct dinner. DH has been gone all day, and I have a meeting at 6:30 (who schedules these things!?) so I suspect we'll be eating late, but if he gets home soon enough we could eat at 5:30 which would be better digestion wise.
I am back at my house - Everything works here, I have hooks to hang stuff on, a clothesline for wet stuff, etc. etc.
Most of my clients are pretty wealthy people but man oh man their houses are not functional. All of my dogwalking clothes spent the last 4 days drying on the puppy's sleeping crate upstairs.
I love my clothesline!
I am too tired. Lots of chores to do and then bedtime - probably at about 8:30 p.m. I haven't slept through the night since Friday (puppy peeing stuff) so I'm looking forward to it tonite!
Dagmar, that's really funny about the "non-functional" houses. My parents bought a home a couple of years ago in a pretty upscale neighborhood and it is a great house but my mom has stated (and I agree) that the previous owners must never have actually USED the kitchen. It's not set up conveniently at all!
Pat, I hope you can get an early-ish dinner. I used to eat really late all the time, but recently that's been bothering me if I still feel full when I go to bed. It doesn't make for a peaceful night's sleep!
Saef, I hate that phrase too! Good luck on the job.
My sister's friend once bought a house that had a kitchen with absolutely NO drawers and there was no space for a fridge. They had to put the fridge in the dining room. ???
I'm trying to decide on what to cook for Easter dinner. I saw a wonderful lamb roast in the newspaper this morning, but I don't know if I want to use the oven as it'll heat up the kitchen too much. Lamb does sound good, though.
Last weekend there was a shooting near my old house--in fact right in front of a friend's house. A policeman was shot and his police dog killed. The felon was also killed. But my friend, who wasn't at home at the time, is helping to arrange a 5k walk/run to benefit the police department in hopes of raising $6000 for the department to buy a new dog. My DD is coming home for it and we'll all participate. It's for a good cause. I guess I'll have to start training!
- Everyone's best wishes on this job that I'm up for.
- Our community on 3FC & how it enlivens my working day.
- A good night's sleep & how it rebooted me from yesterday's stress & self-doubt.
- Coffee, made bittersweet with Splenda.
- The sight of budding magnolias & blossoming weeping cherry trees & forsythia & other spring flowers while driving into the office.
- That I'll be off from work for all five days next week.
Allison-- how sad! I'm glad they are organizing a 5K though to purchase a new dog. Great excuse to train.
When I lived in Houston and my girls were little, I belonged to a babysitting co-op. Friends and neighbors traded babysitting and we were all quite close. One of our members was in the neighborhood with her husband (he was a police officer but not in uniform at the time). They saw a suspicious looking car and he stopped to just take a look. He was shot and killed on the spot without even identifying himself as a police officer. It was so sad as they had two young girls and he was gone so quickly. That was the first funeral I ever went to and it was a tear jerker!
I'll add to the things I am thankful for today:
* the scale is cooperating hopefully
* my dd is coming home for the weekend and we are going to have fun together hopefully-- going to dinner tomorrow night, seeing Water for Elephants, she might try Bikram Yoga with me.
* It's almost the weekend!
Allison - that is sad about the policeman and the dog.
Dagmar - glad that you are back home!
Saef - keeping my fingers crossed for your interview!
I'll also add to the things I'm thankful for...
- my keurig made a great cup of coffee this morning, after a few days of failures
- quick cooking steel cut oatmeal
- the sun is shining outside my office window
- almost the weekend is a big one here, too
Tracking class was really interesting last night. Not so much for the dogs but for the owners reinforcing a bunch of stereotypes about dog owners.
The poor little frenchie I was handling was just scared and cold and didn't want to be there. My goal for her is to be comfortable being with me by the end of the 6 weeks. If she shows an interest in tracking I might take her once a week and work with her after the classes end, just to give her (and me!) a night away from the TV.
I have to get my taxes done today. And it's a long weekend.
So DH is having some sort of major existential crisis. No spurprise there. Would it be too mean of me to ask him to do it via email?
Again, thanks all for the good wishes on my interview. I don't know how long it will take them to make a decision. My manager said yesterday that she has another external candidate to interview. One thing I know about being considered for jobs: The process always takes longer than you want it to, and it does no good to try to imagine what the decision makers are thinking & what they are saying to one another about you & the other candidates while you are all waiting, with your hearts in your mouth, for a verdict.
I'm trying to focus on this very moment in time as a way of getting through the minor uproar of preparing for going away & making the four-and-a-half-hour drive Upstate to visit my mother for a couple days.
I've bought the potted pink hydrangea, this year's Easter flower.
I've nearly cleared out my fridge of perishable goods.
I still have to visit the Polish deli & get some food to bring with me, in particular, smoked kielabasa, a poppyseed roll, a nut roll and a 12-pack of handmade pierogies. With the best pierogies, in the dough you can see the fingerprints of little old Polish or Ukrainian ladies who shaped them. (We are NOT talking Mrs. T's machine-cut pierogies here.)
Most of these ethnic delicacies, I will not let myself eat on the holiday. Or just one bite.
I wish I could ease up & have just a little, a rational amount, and have faith that my weight will be rocked temporarily but will settle back after a few days. But that consequence fills me with anxiety.
Still, Easter is important to me. I am honoring my dead, my family, my background. I am celebrating the advent of spring after a long, hard, cold & snowy & wet winter. I am celebrating achieving the nearest thing to a normal weight & way of eating & lifestyle that I've ever been able to achieve. Yes, it's still busted, but it's better than it has been. Busted, but not completely f&%$#cked, which is what it once was.
Happy Easter and safe driving for you Saef.
Happy Easter to everyone else celebrating.
I'm waiting for my dd to arrive safely (she's in the air now).
Younger dd informed us yesterday that she can't go to Easter Mass with us on Sunday as she still has religious school at the temple (oops-- consequences of an interfaith marriage!).
So, I am the world's biggest klutz. Yesterday I was GETTING UP FROM THE COUCH and somehow hooked my toe into my pajamas and tripped up the stairs. My back wasn't feeling great before-- not it feels pretty wrecked. I'm hoping it lets up during the day so I can still exercise! We are having an off-plan meal tonight (Italian restaurant) and I really don't want to see a major bump up in the scale when it is finally moving in the right direction. My dh jokes that we need a house with no stairs and I think he is right-- I've fallen and broken my foot on the stairs and had numerous other injuries!
In other news, I'm anxiously awaiting the birth of puppies from the breeder we are considering!! She has another litter of puppies (the breeder not the mom dog) and I've been watching all of the adorable utube and facebook videos she is posting of the puppies! I want one NOW but we are waiting for school to get out so this next litter should be the best timed one. I hope she has lots of cute and healthy puppies to choose from!
Last edited by traveling michele; 04-22-2011 at 11:07 AM.
across the cultural divide, saef.
Everything works here, I have hooks to hang stuff on, a clothesline for wet stuff, etc. etc.
I'm thankful today
