There's a whole bustling commercial area just down the road that I had no idea about!

Connie, do you feel like you drove through a portal or an invisible wardrobe door?

Timelies all!

Too cold here for my taste, but at least the sun is out. Snow or something like it is supposed to show up Sunday night. End, winter, end!

... and apparently they're going to meet my original salary request, but it's still a tossup whether the client is going to agree.

And because my life isn't complicated enough, a firm that didn't even give me an interview last fall now wants to know if I'm still looking for work. I'm tempted to sneer at them, but with my luck, the Former Employer gig will fall through if I do that.

I'm finally listening to David O. Russell on Fresh Air, and it's so good!

Connie, do you feel like you drove through a portal or an invisible wardrobe door

No, just over the hill and around the curve. Apparently that's where all the people who have alledgedly been moving into my area have been going. Unfortunately, ten years ago it was wonderful undeveloped meadows full of wildlife on the edge of a national forest.

Fair enough. Whenever I find myself in an area that I didn't even realize existed, part of my brain suspects I went through a portal.

I keep having dreams like that, when I open a small door in my house and discover there's a whole other, nicer wing to the place. Or the basement is furnished and I never knew.

In my dreams like that, it's a huge barn (or attic) full of stuff that has to be sorted, and the place I started in is not recognizably any place I ever lived, although in the dream it is "home".

Stuff is happening at work. Couple of people are leaving, not necessarily being fully replaced. Not going to change my day-to-day much at this point, but I'll be reporting to a different manager (my current manager is not leaving, she'll have other direct reports) and might pick up more accounts which...I don't know if I can handle that, honestly. I feel pretty close to my limit, although that is partially because several of my less active accounts got more active this month and needed a lot of support one way or another. They'll probably go dormant again for a bit. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, the Well Red wine has benefited greatly from sitting for a week, much more drinkable. I am having it with my assorted tapas from Trader Joe's, which I am serving to myself on a large plate, ironically. Not ironically: yum.

I was working in Norwood for the better part of 12 months before I realized a major mall (with useful things like LL Bean and Whole Foods) was just beyond the intersection where I usually got on the highway home.