I am hoping that Paul and I can stay put for once. So far I have yet to hear any Vegas talk which is good because I am so not up to it. I am seriously tired out from the weekend up north and I could p

But now I miss them. And I miss home. And I know I'm an ungrateful brat because my life is going swimmingly and I have nothing to complain about.

Except I still want to complain. And crawl under the blankets. Bleh. Bleh. Bleh.

I'm feeling a little down this week. No particular reason, just me being me. Getting out of bed in the mornings has been rough. And today I feel a sinus headache coming on. Meh. Just one of those weeks.

I swear, if my head wasn't attached to my neck I'd forget it at home one of these days.

I love my company.

Guess who's having her first start tomorrow?

Three words: I. Am. Terrified.

I will be performing the Macarena. Hopefully only for one verse. And hopefully I won't turn too red. And trip and fall and twist my ankle. And be all embarrassed and try to pretend I'm not hurt but limp around all day.

As you can see I have an active imagination. I keep telling myself, it'll all be over after tomorrow ><

There are some things that I don't like about the job of course. I don't like it when I spend time on the phone or in person with a really nice, sweet, obviously intelligent person and I can't really help them for any number of reasons. I don't like having to be so skeptical and tough on people. It's just not my style. I prefer being a little bit naive and trusting but I don't think that is conducive to being a good recruiter.

I pray every morning before work that God will keep me from becoming too cynical and skeptical of others. Maybe I'll somehow miraculously only work with fabulous, responsible candidates that never let me down.

Or maybe I'll get burned horribly a few times and slip comfortably into being a bit more cynical and judgemental when I'm doing my interviews.

I guess only time will tell.

In other work related news: I got my business cards this week! THEY HAVE MY NAME ON THEM! And my direct phone number! And email address! This is the first time I've had real business cards, as you may have guessed. The sad thing is...I worked in fundraising full-time for nine months. Even the top fundraiser in that company, other than Scary Boss Lady, didn't have real business cards ("real" as in not having to print them from the template in our computers, onto pre-printed logo sheets, and then cut them ourselves on our crappy little paper-cutter that never cut 1) in a straight line or 2) smooth edges).

Anyway.

I'm finally starting to settle into my new routine, I have even started waking up automatically, before my alarm goes off at 7:05 a.m. Yes, it is an ungodly hour. But there is no traffic on the way to work which is nice. It sucks that just as I'm getting used to the way things are now, everything is going to change yet again when Paul starts his new job and I'm left to fend for myself. Who will cook me dinner? And wash the dishes? And feed the cat? And throw away all the useless trash that I can't bear to throw away for various odd reasons? He claims he won't be working ridiculous hours, but I am very suspicious. Then again the company is going to pay him overtime for anything over 40 hours so maybe they won't work him into an early grave...

I really want to keep blabbering but I have to drive back to work now. Gosh. I can't believe I just drove home on my lunch break to blog. How incredibly sad is that. Although, I do get to eat home style tofu in brown sauce for lunch now, yummy!

I like to blame it on the fact that I've cut back enough on my daily prednisone dosage that the moodiness I was warned about is kicking in. Maybe it's time to see a psychiatrist and get myself back on some meds to counteract the withdrawal effects? Although with the amount of pills I'm already popping on a daily basis I'm hesitant to request another medication that will somehow need to be worked into my carefully scheduled daily routine of popping pills and eating around the requirements of each medication (this one with food, this one two hours after eating and one hour before and so on).

Maybe it's the weather. It's August and Los Angeles has yet to warm up this summer. Oh sure, there have been a few hot days here and there but they have been scattered and between them are these gloomy and even rainy (yes RAIN in the middle of summer in Los Angeles) days. First the torrential downpour during the winter and now this. What happened to all that global warming I was promised? It's just like all the cheap oil that never materialized. Liberals, always getting our hopes up. Kidding, kidding.

Anyway, Paul and I are probably going to go to the Los Angeles Tofu Festival this afernoon so hopefully it won't rain! I'm going to try and shake this thing off on my own.

I'm just happy because it means there should be a big, sparkly rock in my future! (Only kidding, of course =).

And guess what! I get to interview a chemist this afternoon! A CHEMIST! (And yes, on a Saturday afternoon because I am just that dedicated). I have no idea what they do but by golly I'm going to interview him as though I do. Wish me luck.

Panic. Hyperventilating.

I imagined going in to the lead recruiter Monday morning completely empty handed and I wanted to crawl under the blankets and die. Then I prayed. And Paul fiddled with the computer and told me there HAD to be someway for people to work for home and to call the help desk. Which I did. And the very nice Help Desk Man (I LOVE YOU HELP DESK MAN WHEREVER YOU ARE) got me all connected and now the world doesn't look quite so grim.

Oh and about two minutes after getting off the phone with Help Desk Man, one of Paul's other fraternity brothers called him back and it turns out the guy who knows my coworker is NOT in Korea but has merely changed his phone number (which, who does that nowadays?). So he's still not answering his phone but at least it's on and he is not out of the country. Paul left him a message so we're keeping our fingers crossed he'll call back. But if not at least I can print what I can.

One part of me realizes that there is no reason to endlessly obsess and drive myself crazy over this. At this point there is nothing I can do. I even forced Paul to call his fraternity brother who knows one of my coworkers to try and get his number so I could go borrow his key...but OF COURSE Paul's fraternity brother is in Korea. Because, of course.

I've decided to go buy a laser printer and print out what I can and ask my coworker to fax me on Monday morning what I can't reprint. See? Solution. Sort of.

So, okay, I know I shouldn't be letting this stress me out to the point where I'm just moody and cranky and want to curl up into a little ball and moan and wail. But. I can't help it >< I think I'm making myself sick. How come I've never been able to get myself to stop "ruminating?" I thought I was cured =P

When I was at JackAss Properties it only took me a day to figure out that people WERE NOT HAPPY with their pay/treatment at that company. It did, however, take me quite a few weeks to realize that we were in fact, slumlords.

In the building my new company is in, they're remodeling the bathrooms on our floor. The first thing that I noticed was that they had laid out this clear tarp which stretched from the restroom to the elevators. The purpose of this clear tarp was obviously to protect the carpets from getting all the nasty construction grunge on it. I know this because whenever we did construction the other tenants on the floor would complain about how dirty everything would get and we'd tell them "What do you want us to do, it's construction, it's dirty."

Tarps cost money and therefore we never had tarps. We actually did think of it once. Then we realized that tarps not only cost money they are expensive and that's why it didn't happen. And the tenants continued to complain and we continued to pretend to be oblivious to the fact that tarps exist.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about that nasty place anymore. My new job is fabulous! It doesn't take much to impress me since I've worked at such crappy places, but dang this company blows my socks off! Not having to fight with someone about why the company should pay for certain things (i.e. mileage, work lunches, etc.) leaves me totally speechless. At my first company it was like, "Oh, you want us to reimburse you for driving 120 miles roundtrip to work the event? Well, if you REALLY want it I GUESS we could do it. For YOU. Even though nobody else does it. EXCEPT for you."

Although, at JackAss Properties I never in the end even bothered to submit my mileage reimbursement log. Because I know it was just not worth my time to hound them for weeks about a twenty dollar check.

I figured I worked enough seven hour days to more than make up for the gas and miles on my car.

Complaining never gets old does it?

Hey if anyone out there happens to be looking for a job in the LA area and is either in or looking to get into the scientific field. Let me know!

I started my new job this morning and I only have one word for you: Wow.

So THIS is what it feels like to work for a real company. Right after I walked in they handed me a huge packet of papers, some for me to sign and some for me to take home and read. I bet the HR lady never saw a new hire so excited by the idea of an employee handbook! A copy for me to take home! And a thick booklet detailing all my benefits! AND BENEFITS! VACATION DAYS?!

As you can see it gets me a little excited.

Oh, AND the coworker I will be working closest with also just finished Harry Potter yesterday. We are totally getting each other.

It's still a little intimidating but I think this is going to be awesome. Unfortunately I don't think I'll have time to sign on during work and ramble incoherently for paragraph after paragraph, anymore. Or chat on AIM, which I know is going to disrupt a couple of people's work habits. Goodbye my work-time chat buddies, try to sign on in the evening sometime!