Ryan is indeed a celebrity!

I've had very vivid and over stimulating dreams the past week or so. In particular the last two nights I still can remember. I've had to sit up and read for a while to get myself back to sleep.

The night before last was scary in a more depressing way. My office was in an urban environment with many small shops nearby. It was holiday time and I went wandering to check out the decorations in my neighbor shops. (I despise shopping so I think this was more social than anything) It was customary for people to take off their shoes in the shops so there was much taking on and off of shoes as I wondered about. Then I find myself in one store and I can't find where I left my shoes and searched for a long time with no success. Then I can't remember which way is back to my office and I don't want to wander the streets looking while barefoot. Fortunately someone knew who I was and called DH and he came and picked me up and carried me back to our office. It was super upsetting to be so lost and confused, but I did thank Brendon in the morning for being my knight in shining armour. He asked if he was in shape in my dream. Ha!

Then last night it was a sequence of two adrenaline spiked dreams. The first one was a spy caper thing where I figured out we were discovered and we fled in the nick of time. We laughed about it afterwards. Then right after that one I was hiking in the mountains, familiar mountains from previous dreams but not ones I have seen in person. We are hiking up a relatively gentle rocky slope and there is a closet like alcove with levers and dials and stuff which DH messes with out of curiosity. We continue hiking and are nearing the top when we hear rushing water and DH screams that he knows what he did and grabs my hand and starts running like hell down the mountain. We dive back into the alcove as the water cascades down as he has opened the dam. He reverses the levers and stuff and eventually the water stops, but not before we are convinced we are never going to survive.

Heart rate of about a billion so yeah, I got a few more chapters read in the middle of the night. So brain, I know life is pretty quiet and peaceful, but you don't need that much adventure.

Go, Ryan!

Yeah, that sounds a little too exciting for the middle of the night, Laura. I've been having rather vivid dreams lately, too. It could be that the current gestalt is pretty stressful, and our subconsciouses are trying to work through it.

Around here we've hit cool, bright days and chilly nights. I love it! It's great for cooking and for rambling around outside. If NC was like this all the time, I'd stop trying to leave.

The science types really need to get on those environmentally contained domes. We might not all agree on the perfect day and night temperatures, but doing without the sweltering summers and frigid winters would be dandy.

Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind - I was invited to see a Bill Irwin one man show on the works of Samuel Beckett and DH was invited to bring the family to the Grinch premiere and party, so we all piled onto the train and went into the city for the day.

The friends I saw the play with met and got married because they were both English Lit majors who did their final projects on Beckett (they were introduced by a mutual friend who knew they had this in common), so I was a bit out of my depth when it came to talking about the specific works, but Bill Irwin is such an amazing performer and incredibly eloquent when talking about the craft of acting and how he approaches each text. Awesome.

Then I joined the family at the Central Park Zoo for the Grinch after-party, where we wound up eating our terrible buffet food about three feet from Benedict Cumberbatch's private seating area. Kids were unimpressed that they were eating chicken fingers within spitting distance of Dr Strange, but Dylan WAS starstruck by seeing Danny Elfman at the premiere earlier, so Parent Win on that one! But Danny didn't show up at the party, so we had to settle for watching Benedict Cumberbatch dance adorably with his baby.

(Then I suggested we go home and watch Nightmare Before Christmas (a far superior move about an anti-hero who steals Christmas) and Dylan tried to Well Actually me about the plot. BWAHAHAHAHA, kid. Nope.)

THEN we realized we were only 11 blocks away from the Nintendo store, and it was open for another hour, and the kids hit their Switch budget in allowance savings on Friday, so we walked down to Rock Center and bought a Switch! And now the kids are playing Mario Odyssey in the other room and I'm really hoping for a screaming fight to break out so I can send them to their rooms and play Mario Kart.

I have a working arcade cabinet now.

[link]

The sides are made but not attached yet, same for the top. Still not sure what I want to do for the light up marquee. The light up part is ready but I don't have anything for it yet. I played a couple of games of Galaga and a game of 1943 this morning.

It's going to look pretty homemade, especially since I messed up a few places and just called it good enough.

I also say Nanoryemo.

So, I don't have a lot of people to talk to about this, but I need reassurance. Long story short, last May I recieved my new job description, which basically took the work I was doing in recruitment and retention, and the work I was doing in instructional design, and changed it to "support the director of these programs by updating her calendar and processing reimbursements for her". I was then offered a created for me instructional design postion, which I leapt at, because anything to get away from that. I was pretty clear that I was afraid it was going to be boring and I would rather be doing recruitment and retention but I was told that no opportunities would be available in that field.

FF- I am bored and stultified, and now a position has opened up that would seem like a title promotion (Assistant Director of Enrollment Management vs Instructional Design Assistant) but a pay grade demotion. This is because ( as I told them) no one understood what I was doing and me leaving the job left a hole.

My plan is to apply for the "demotion" to assistant director, but I feel so bad for all the people who went to bat for me to get me in the new position (which I kind of hate) I have come up with some strategies to make me hate it less - like more interaction with faculty, solving more problems, more interaction with students and more visual and "instructions" control over the online offerings, but ultimately, I think everyone would be happier with a real instructional designer and me in recruitment and retention.

I have a meeting Monday to talk this over with the department administrator, but I need reassurance that I am doing the right thing. As soon as I realized it was an option, every cell in my body relaxed, but I don't want people to hate me!

I have a working arcade cabinet now.

Gud, that's so cool! You are so talented!

I need reassurance that I am doing the right thing.

I think your very next sentence is your reassurance:

As soon as I realized it was an option, every cell in my body relaxed

I understand not wanting people to hate you, but -- this is your career, your life. You have to do what's best for you, not what's going to make people think more kindly of you.

Steph is right. No one benefits from your being miserable.

It seems like the right call to me. You don't want to be bored and stultified.