LOS ANGELES!

It's on the short list!

Serial:

I've lost my Zappos virginity! Did I miss the part where they have such great shipping? I ordered on a Saturday and my sandals arrived on MONDAY! This is a very dangerous thing.

I'm #2!

ION, I have discovered that I have an inordinate nostalgic fondness for Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler." (He's playing the Emerald Queen Casino, and they just showed the ad between innings.)

Heh. Might i suggest checking out the Kenny Rogers and Wyclef Jean version? It's...fun.

I was very good, and restrained myself from molesting my friend's adorable date. That is, last week, they met, and made out. While I was there. This week, the date showed up, and the friend didn't. So I flirted iwth her for several hours, and sent the friend text messages to try to make her show up....she didn't, but although I threatened to abscond with the date, I did not.

Cash, you and DH can always come to PR and stay with us for a long weekend (although you were just there so maybe of is not so appealing).

Morning my loves....I am exhausted.

Played "Rock Band" last night . I think I might have found my calling. I'm gonna give up this bourgeois lifestyle of mine and go out on the road, singing and playing my push-button guitar. And I can! 8,106 fans support me!

Earlier Sean complimented my improving art by saying that my doofy little sketch looked more like me.

Thank you, Sean. But that's just because this guy looks grumpy and annoyed. Like me.

I hate that "What do you do?" is such a prime getting-to-know-you question in our culture.

It's revolting. But I've found a fun answer, being a temp and all.

"I'm a corporate mercenary."

Which, you know...I am. But saying it that way sounds so much cooler, like I slip in under cover or darkness and take out the unruly office manager who hoards the supplies by cutting his throat with a letter opener or something.

In actuality, I punch buttons like a monkey and waste time talking to youse guys.

I've worked for a four-man consulting firm, where I was the fourth man

BTDT too (production company, not consulting firm, but still). It was great while it lasted, but one bad quarter meant they had to let someone go or lose the business entirely. Guess who would up temping for another two years?

Now I work for a tiny department within a huge lumbering dinosaur of a company, and it's probably as close to the best of both worlds as I'm going to get. I still have to deal with a lot of political bullshit of working for a company this big/old/stodgy, but within my little department, I have a fair amount of autonomy and flexibility. (Which also has a lot to do with my specific job - since I'm the only one who knows how to do most of the things I'm responsible for, I get to decide how to do them.)

I didn't care for the nurses who were present at my delivery, which is more indicative of how overcrowded that particular hospital is than the nursing profession in general. But I did want to just pull the lot of them aside and say, look, I know you have a stressful job, but I'm having a baby right now. Maybe you shouldn't be yelling at me.

My next child will not be delivered there, that's for damn sure.

And yet people STILL say, "Oh, how nice! You're a nurse! Have you met any handsome doctors?" when they hear what I do.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Re: job happiness thing- I get annoyed at my job on a relatively frequent basis, and working at a university (plus me being who I am) I am hyper-aware of job strata and categories and titles and levels and whatever. Going to grad school helps with that but god help me when I'm trying to find another position next year with that degree in hand.

I was going back over old LJ messages (I was trying to screen Tom from a few choice rants over the years) and re-reading some of my post from when I was in my very interesting, very non-admin-oriented, very stressful and very bad for me job. I loved most of what I did, I loved the people I worked with, but it was a horrible pressure cooker to the point that I couldn't even be rational about the slightest discussion or tone of voice or email I thought was criticizing me.

Now, my job is kinda boring sometimes, kinda tedious sometimes, kinda lord-I-don't-want-to-work-here sometimes, but at least I have the energy to do schoolwork, enjoy my home, my husband, and my life outside of work as much as possible. Not to say there's stuff here that doesn't anny the shit out of me on a regular basis. But it's much easier to shrug it off.

My next job will likely be much different. But hopefully my heart will be in it and that will provide its own satisfaction.

The overnight nurses I had weren't great. My actual delivery nurse was awesome. And my post-delivery nurses were mostly great.

Still, serious thoughts about going to Boston to have #2. Ooooh! I could my Master's at Simmons! t winks at Jen

Honey! Let's move to Boston after I finish my undergrad!!