Thursday, April 29, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Wow, I never realized how difficult it was to keep up with a blog when you aren't seated in front of a computer 8 hours a day!

2) I'm haven't been really sure what to do with myself around here lately. Oh, I have plenty to do, but I don't know where to start! I've finally caught up with laundry for the first time in probably 6 years, though. It's nice to have clean clothes handy when you need them! :) There is still a lot to be done. I never realized how much stuff got pushed aside while I was working. I look around, see everything that still needs to be done and I kind of just go catatonic. Our main issue is just not having a place to put everything. Our house is not conducive to proper storage. I have a feeling we're just going to have to go on a massive, heartless purge of stuff soon or we won't have enough room to live!

3) Looking for a job is not at all fun. Thus far I haven't been able to find anything available in my field that I'm really qualified for. There are a lot of jobs available for people who know AutoCAD, but that wasn't a course I learned in college. There are also a lot of jobs in graphics available for people who build web sites, but I don't know enough about that to do it for a company. There was one job I found that sounded perfect in every way, though. I read the description and realized I was qualified in every way for the job, so I got really excited! I opened up the listing to see where the job was located, and it turned out to be the job I just left. BOO! Oh, and they're paying more for that job now. Nice, huh? Well, I'll keep looking. I keep having nightmares that I'm going to wind up working fast food or something. Literal nightmares. It seems I worked very hard to get a degree that qualifies be for nothing! Hopefully I'll find something good someplace where I can use my mad skillz, yo.

4) I didn't thought I'd miss my Sprocket friends as much as I do. I miss talking to Andrew. He was fun.

5) I got to have lunch with Sara the other day and that was lots of fun! I'm hoping we can make it a regular thing while I am not working! We ate and shopped! It was quite girly and enjoyable!

6) I've picked up a couple of my other hobbies lately, which is good because I think I'm starting to get pretty bad carpel tunnel in my hands from crocheting. I find it sad that I get injuries from something I do while sitting fairly still. It doesn't seem fair! I still crochet, but I have gotten out my jewelry stuff again, and I've been working on some Steampunk pieces that I think are turning out really nice! I'm still learning about the style, though, but I'm not doing so bad thus far. However, I've dismantled many watches and clocks for the gears. Honestly, I think I almost enjoy pulling apart the clocks as much as I enjoy making the jewelry. Seriously, if any of you have some old mechanical watches you want to get rid of, send them my way. I also have some stuff to paint with, but I've never been really good at painting. It's fun and messy, though. I'm also thinking about working on some intaglio prints, but actually producing them without the proper equipment is hard. Now, if I could just figure out how to get an etching press in the garage, I'd be in business!

7) I've also started cooking more, which I love to do. I'm a pretty good cook, but I haven't had much time to do it until now. I'm not doing anything fancy, but I have plans! I even bought a food torch! I've used it a couple of times on store bought creme brulee, and that was an experience. I almost caught the curtains by the sink on fire! I still haven't quite got the hang of making the flame shorter. Heeheehee.

8) I've also been doing some genealogical research lately. While going through some things I inherited when Pappa died, I found a box with my great grandfather's pocket watch in it. I'd never really thought much about it, and if it wasn't for my recent foray into tearing watches apart, I probably wouldn't have thought to even check it out. I opened the back to see how it worked (no, I wasn't going to tear this one apart) and found the name of the company that made it and actually found a lot of information about the watch online. Not the specific watch, but the company that made them and the line of watches it produced. It was interesting. That watch made me realize that I didn't know anything about my great grandfather! I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before, but I didn't even know his name. My dad never spoke about him, even though he's talked a lot about my great grandmother. I talked to my mom and she gave me what info my dad had collected about him, which wasn't much. She also told me some unsavory stories about the man, which more than explains why I'd never heard anything about him. I won't go into detail, mainly because I don't know very much, but suffice it to say that there is a reason I'm related to almost everyone in North Alabama. With some research, and the help of family and friends, I now know that my family tree isn't a tree as much as it is a kudzu vine. I'll be untangling it as much as I can. :)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

AWWW!

Look at the pretty flowers that my Aunt Brenda sent!




















I am loved! :)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

WHAT NOW, INDEED.

So, you're probably wondering why I haven't been on my blog since Wednesday. Trust me, it's been difficult. One reason is that I wanted to step back and not say anything until I wasn't quite as upset about all of this. This whole situation has been beyond idiotic and kind of unbelievable even when you know all of the details. Everyone I've explained the whole story to has felt that way. Because of this, I was afraid that anything I said might come across, well...ugly.

Don't get me wrong. I've spent many hours thinking about the people involved in this debacle; questioning the legitimacy of their parent’s marriage when they were born, wondering about the sexual relationships they may share with their mothers, inviting them to perform both illegal and possibly physically impossible sex acts on themselves and various small, woodland creatures, and sincerely hoping I am right about the geographical locations of their souls in the afterlife.

See? I couldn't say that. Mainly because I knew that I probably wouldn't really think those things once I had time to calm down. When I'm upset, I have trouble thinking rationally. I always have to calm down and think about things, or I say a lot of stuff that I wish I hadn't. I also needed to process all of the information that I was given last week, just to make sure I understood it. You know what? I still don't understand it. I mean, I was given reasons for my termination. I was given 3 different reasons, none of which rang 100% true. I was handed a piece of paper, which I'm positive was hastily typed up mere minutes before it was handed over to HR, that had a random list of my sins listed. On the basis of that, and the fact that all of a sudden, and without any prior warning, I apparently wasn’t talented enough to keep on doing my job, I was let go. I could go on and on about what happened, but I won’t. None of the details matter now, because the thing has been done.

There is a part of me, a bitchy part, that would love to name names, give specifics, and completely and totally expose the whole ridiculous situation for the whole world to read. I mean, apparently my modest little blog must have a massive readership to have caused the cluster-frak that it did last week, right? Millions upon millions of readers (instead of the 6 or so of you who visit on a regular basis) come every day to find out about my allergies and see pictures of my feet. So, I could totally destroy the credibility of some folks. Right? Yeah…I didn’t think so. I’d love to think random people liked reading what I write, but I know that the only reason my blog was located by…well…let’s call it the Evil Empire, was because I used a key word that alerted them to my presence. What it all boils down to is that I mistakenly thought it was safe to talk about something, but I was wrong. It was just that, an honest mistake. I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for me to be allowed to explain my mistake, apologize and move on. I’m also fairly certain that something else I said was completely taken the wrong way, but since I was asked to take down my entry – from my own personal blog – before I could explain to the *ahem* Anonymous commenter what I meant, I never got to explain that either. I managed to step on some fairly sensitive and highly unforgiving toes without even trying. Who says I’m not talented, huh?

I hate that I lost my job, because I honestly loved it. I certainly wasn’t there for the pay, I didn’t get any kind of benefits, my bosses sometimes forgot I was there, and sometimes the work was exhausting, but I didn’t care. I loved working at the place, just because I felt like I was a part of something amazing. I was on the lowest of low places on the totem pole, but even from there, it still seemed awesome to me. I also had so many friends there that I am going to miss working with. If nothing else, I doubt I’ll never find another job that I will feel that way about. I hope I can find something else I like to do, but…there probably won’t be anything else out there like that. Also, it won’t be long until it will be as if I was never even there, and that makes me sad too.

The worst part for me is that I have no way to explain myself to the people who weren’t involved in this whole situation first hand. For the past five years I’d worked with every department, with administration – everyone - and they are going to notice I’m not there, at least until someone takes my place. I’m afraid I’m not going to be fairly represented when the story is told to them. Heaven knows I’ve been on the wrong end of gossip at the place before, so the worst story someone can conjecture will be the one repeated. I know we aren’t supposed to care what other people think, but there are a lot of people there who’s good opinion of me matters. I hate to think that they might believe I did anything maliciously or even on purpose, but who knows?

So, there you go. I know I’m not going into detail as much as I’d like, but I don’t want to cause any more trouble. I know I don’t work there anymore, but if …uh…the same people who got so upset about my blog ever come back and read it again, I don’t want them to cause trouble for anyone else who is still there. Powerful people can cause some powerful problems, that’s for sure. I hate that I caused any problems, but sometimes problems come looking for me, I think!
As for me, right now I’m doing fine. I have support from a lot of really wonderful people. I’m getting things organized for the first time in years, I’ll update the resume, make some things to fill out my portfolio, and eventually I’ll hopefully be working someplace else where I enjoy what I do. Hey, I’ve got a liberal arts degree…if nothing else, I may be serving you guys some French fries, with a smile.  I’ll miss my friends very much, but hopefully keep in touch with many of them with Twitter and Facebook – the modern day pen pal software, you know.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Just FYI, I got fired today.

I'll go into it more later, but needless to say, it is due partly to a misunderstanding I had with my bosses, and partly to do with something I wrote on this blog that was taken the wrong way.

Hope you're happy now, Anonymous. Thanks a lot.
AWWWWWWWW!

I wish I had herd of tiny, lab puppies!



This is what I mean by wanting to sit in a box of puppies, in case you have ever thought that was weird.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

This article about William Shantner...you must read it.

It is how I always imagined a conversation with him would be!

Via Kenny.

Monday, April 05, 2010

QUICKIE

I'm not sure why I never mentioned this before.

A couple of months ago I was feeling kind of useless. I wanted...nay...needed a goal that didn't involve yarn or giving birth to anything.

I thought that it might be in my best interest to possibly think about going back to school to get my Master's degree. It can't hurt to be more educated, right? We're going to ignore the fact that I honestly didn't want to go back to school, but I still decided to check out my options anyways.

I went to UAH's website to see what was offered in the post graduate programs besides engineering degrees. There was no higher art program, which is what I would have preferred, so I looked around at the other information. The only thing that stood out to me was Biology, because I've always loved the subject and thought I might actually enjoy doing the coursework for it. Something called me away from my research, so I figured that I'd go back and see what was required for the program later on.

That same afternoon, the crazy-ass professor went postal on the Biology department faculty and murdered three of her colleagues and attempted to get several more.

I took it as a sign.

I think I'll stick with yarn.
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) We almost had a white-trash, beat down, Jerry Springer style fight AT CHURCH yesterday! I don't know the whole story, and trust me, it's only my newly found desire to stop being so dang nosey (BTW - it's killing me and I may not succeed) that keeps me from asking everyone else who heard the argument what was going on. My best guess is that two women are fighting over this crusty, old man. I know that the man and one of the women have been a couple for a while. I don't really know the other woman, but she just recently started coming to our church and while woman #1 had been out sick, the crusty old man has been sitting kind of close with woman #2. I know that the women got into an argument on the church bus that morning, and I overheard woman #2 telling our pastor's wife (my Sunday school teacher) what had happened. I only heard her say "...ain't nobody going to cuss ME! I don't want to have to beat anyone up at church." Then woman #2 turned to me and said "I might be selling TICKETS this morning!" Our pastor's wife is one of the sweetest and gentlest women I've ever met, and she just kind of sat there with her mouth open. Then woman #1 came in and told our teacher that woman #2 said something bad about her mother, but she didn't elaborate when she realized Steve and I were in there. I just looked down at my book and tried not to get involved.
I'm not usually a pearl-clutcher. You guys know that. In fact, I would normally find this hilarious, but I was honestly afraid these two women would go after each other! In church, on Easter Sunday no less! We ALWAYS have visitors on Easter - church member's families from out of town as well as the Hope-Jesus-Notices-I'm-Here-On-Easter visitors, and the last thing we needed was for these people to see what I'm sure was going to be a rather one-sided fight (if the size difference between the two women was any indication) in the middle of our sanctuary. Luckily, nothing happened. It almost did, because I saw Woman #2 stalking around looking all stabby before services started, but I'm guessing cooler heads calmed her down. Thank goodness.
Just so that you know, our church members are wonderful people and we rarely - if ever - have these kinds of issues go public. Most of them have the class to keep their problems outside the doors. Not these women, though. Yikes.

2) Speaking of Easter...other than the almost "Risen Savior Cage Match" (on Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!), we had a really lovely day! I managed to finish my hat and everyone really loved it. I was afraid that it would look dumb on me, but I managed to pull it off OK. Apparently, I would have made a cute Flapper. We had a nice church service, I spent a bit having a text message conversation with a dear friend, and then Steve and I had a great lunch with my family. My nephews are getting so tall. Logan is turning 16 this month and hopefully getting his license. He will be the same age I was when he was born. They make me feel old. We didn't have evening service because of the holiday, so Steve and I spent the rest of the day relaxing. I made some hats and we watched a documentary. Good times.

3) The only dark spot in my day was that wearing my hat all morning caused my hair to do terrible things. I didn't have time to fix it again before going to mom's and she took pictures of me. Now there is documented proof that next to my willowy, petite, blond sister, I look like a linebacker in drag with a badly styled mullet. Oy.

4) Steve downloaded the new Doctor Who and we watched it Saturday night! I was afraid I was really going to hate the new guy, but he wasn't that bad, really. He'll have to grow on me a bit. He looks a lot like Crispin Glover and he dresses like a hipster, but so far I don't hate him. He is not as awesome as David Tennant, but I'll give him a chance. Also, David Tennant has the unfair advantage of me having a tiny, celebrity crush on him, so...there you go.

5) I went to the gym this morning and over did it a bit. I didn't mean to, but I got in the zone and didn't stop when I should have. I had elliptical machine hypnotism or something. Right now I feel as if I've been beaten with NERF bats. If I stay awake, it will be a miracle.

Friday, April 02, 2010

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) On my way to the gym this morning I heard the song "Raspberry Beret" by The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. I've heard that song hundreds of times, but today was the first time I thought about it. Was the beret in question raspberry colored? Raspberry flavored? Raspberry scented? Did it look like a raspberry? If it was warm, why would she be wearing a hat in the first place? What did Mr. McGee have against his employees?! So many questions.

2) Yesterday, while I was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office, and old lady came and sat next to me. She seemed to be a sweet lady and she struck up a conversation with me about how cold it was in there. Wasn't I cold? When I told her no, I wasn't, she basically said that it was because I was fat. She didn't use the word "fat" but that's what she meant. I knew it and so did she because she tried to back track and change what she said. She's lucky that fat people are jolly.

3) Yesterday was so frustrating! I had the doctor appointment late in the morning that kept getting pushed back and pushed back. I'm not sure what happened to put the doctor so far behind but I was really late, by a couple of hours at least, leaving the office. I had to make a stop (that took much longer than I had thought it would) and the traffic was awful. I also realized at a stop light that my car was sitting on empty and had started doing what I tend to think of as the "Death Shudders." I think that starts happening when your car is almost completely out of gas and the lines get air in them, kind of like trying to drink out of an almost empty cup with a straw. Anyways, I was within sight of a gas station, but at least four cars in front of me had the same idea and I knew I couldn't stand idling and waiting for a pump. Thank goodness I made it to another station close by. Everything was turning to boogers on me, so I finally just had to call in and take the whole day off. I wish I could have spent that time outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. If I've got to call into work and I'm not sick, I at least want to be able to have fun if I'm not at work! :P

4) While riding in an elevator yesterday (alone) I swear I heard someone cough behind me. I know it was stupid, but I swung my arms around to make sure there were no invisible people in there with me. Sometimes I'm not even sure how my own mind works.