An iTunes weekend!

My boyfriend got me a new ipod!!!!!!
I'm in total shock and am blown away by his generosity and thoughtfulness.
So now comes the task of taking all my old music off my mini and transferring it to my sleek new nano (with Nike+ attachments!!!).
Problem solved easily enough.
Now I'm waiting for iTunes to import all the data and then me, being the type A gal that I am, will sit here for the rest of the weekend perfecting my library and making sure everything is spelled right and spaced right and at the right volume, etc.
I guess I may squeeze in time for a workout or two too.
Then I have a birthday party to go to tomorrow night and my friend Sarah is visiting from Houston tonight so I'm going to try to meet up with her.
Guess I should get going!

Catharsis

I feel a lot better today. About work I mean. I went to the ballet on Thursday night and it was a much needed dose of culture/art therapy. It made me feel much better about my job.
I'm still stuck though:
I can't figure out how to gracefully approach the fact that even working at a break neck pace, I'm not getting my work done in 40 hours a week. I don't think anyone could. Not working the unpaid overtime has only resulted in me missing deadlines, which makes me look worse, not better. Do I continue to put in overtime so that I make my deadlines, or do I keep missing my deadlines and look like I can't do the job? Its sticky.
Also, I'm not being reimbursed for mileage and I'm having to use my car quite a bit for various errands like going to the bank and post office.
I've approached my manager about it several times and his solution is to offer me alternate working hours and help from the other staff. Except that I feel like this is a non-solution because we're so busy I can't really not be here during regular office hours (not because I'm so indispensable but because we are short staffed). Also, the other people in this office are too busy to take time away from their primary functions to help me, so...
And that doesn't address the mileage issue either (maybe 15-20 dollars /week?)
ugh, what to do?
I'm just going to try that Secret hooey and put it out to the universe that I love my job, I make so much money, I have such a fulfilling and happy life.
I meet all of my deadlines and have time to spare.
I drive a new Prius so I don't have to worry about mileage reimbursements.
I am compensated more than fairly for my tremendous efforts.
I am blessed.
I hear that if you blog about it the universe hears you more rapidly ;)

I literally just threw up

That's how sick my job is making me. Yuk :(

I hate my job

Its official: My job is sucking the life from me.
It makes me nauseous.
I want to quit.
I cried all day because the stress has completely broken my spirit.
I'm tired of working overtime and not getting paid for it.
I'm tired of working overtime and not getting all of my work done because I spend so much time doing other people's work and picking up the slack for their lazy asses.
I'm tired of things trickling down to me from all levels because no on else has any follow through.
I want a new job.
I'll be in tomorrow and hope for the best.
I want to be positive about my situation, but every day I start out that way and within 30 minutes I'm completely zapped of all my positive rationales for why I keep showing up to be shat upon.
This is a nightmare.

The best website mashup ever?

I listened to a podcast today describing a website called netvibes.com as the best website ever. According to the reviewer, it made his life so much easier because because because. So I checked it out tonight. Definitely cool, but I'm not sure it would help me as much as someone like say my man because I don't really spend that much time online except for shopping, ebaying, and email.
The one thing it did lead me to realize is that its probably high time to stop using my yahoo email account and switch entirely to my gmail. Problem is that I've had the yahoo account since I was 19 and all these people have that address and not my gmail address, so its something I'll have to spend some time thinking about.
In the meantime, my new favorite thing is iTrain. I downloaded a workout from this website last week and tried it out on Saturday. Awesome! Just like working out with a trainer but way cheaper (around $4.99 for a 40 minute workout). I don't think it would work as well for people new to working out who may not be familiar with equipment and proper form, but since I've worked out with a trainer in the past and am pretty well versed on how not to injure myself doing exercises I think its really going to help me out with my current problem of not really having a plan or focus when I go to the gym. The workout led me through cardio and weights, counted all my reps for me, told me when to ramp it up and when to bring it down again, and basically kept changing up what I was doing so that I avoided boredom. Just what I've been looking for!

Long time no blog

I actually had time time to take a nap today which is allowing me to be up past my normal bedtime. Perfect time for blogging, as I've no patience for cleaning right now and that's what I really need to do.

I had a note in my calendar at the beginning of last month to check in with my NYR's. So far, I have not done a great job of keeping up with my friends, but I have done better about keeping in touch with my family. Except Mom called 4 or 5 times this last week because Dad had decided that he hadn't heard from me enough lately and so he was worried. I have been SO busy with work. Now, I don't mind working hard for my $$, but things feel just a little bit out of hand. I finally put my foot down about working unpaid overtime. Basically I'm not doing it anymore until they come up with some sort of additional compensation package for me. My employee housing allowance has made it through a second tier of approvals, but no word yet on when (or if) I'll be getting an apartment. Gosh, that would make things so much better. As I was thinking about this I realized that I haven't even been there 90 days yet. It feels like forever! My 90 day mark will be next Monday. That's not even 90 business days tough. Hmm, I wonder when that would be?? 6 weeks? I've made tons of progress. I can't help but think that the management company I work for might have lost this account if they hadn't found me. I now have almost all of the bills paid, most of the income straightened out, and am beginning to implement budget control measures. But each day I feel like I'm sprinting to finish all my work all day long, and I don't really like to think of keeping up that pace indefinitely. I think I'm going to try and start working one Sunday a month and taking off the Wednesday of that week. That will give me almost a full day with no interruptions to just focus on my paperwork.

The job has been an obstacle to my other goals: I am only able to make it to the gym once or twice per week, so I have not really lost any weight. I did go on Weight Watcher's with my mom (for support) and lost five pounds, but I found the system too tedious and the meetings awful so I quit. I gained back 3 of those pounds, but I'm pretty sure they're muscle, as I am now squeezing into a size 6 and fitting pretty comfortably into an 8. Last year at this time I was wearing a 12, so that's pretty good. My house has been okay clean except for right now when I think its the dirtiest its been in a month. Never being home helps with this. I'm hoping I'll get to move soon so I can skip the rest of the reno projects, but I don't have any extra cash to spend on house things right now anyway.

Which brings me to the one benefit the job has provided: I've been so busy I haven't had time to shop or go out to eat or go out with friends and therefore I've been socking away the dough. Not as much as I'd like or had calculated, but I'm getting closer and closer to liquidating my credit card debt, improving my credit and getting my PRIUS. I did have a bit of a setback last weekend as I had to go buy some hot weather work clothing. Its not going as quickly as I thought it would which is a little discouraging. I'm supposed to get a bonus this pay period for all the extra work I've been doing so that will help. I still have to buy a few more work clothes (boo!) but maybe my adding a weekend day will help with this.

Having off a weekday will be so great! Josh has Wednesday's off too so it will give us some extra time to spend together!
I've been in such a whir lately, my brain feels very rushed and unfocused. Its a result of all the stress I'm experiencing at work, but I guess that's why they call it work. Actually, I have managed to get myself into a not terribly desirable situation. But I am convinced that with some more extra effort now, on the front end, the pressure will slacken soon.
Tomorrow I am going to wear comfy shoes to work so that I can finally complete a reconnaissance mission I've been hoping to get to for weeks. It involves maps and parking spot/storage closet locations. And bags full of unmarked keys. Yay!

New Job Blues

Its been almost 2 months since the last time I posted. Primarily, this is because I'm working crazy hours at my new job, trying to fix four months of mistakes and laziness left by the previous 4 accountants who tried to do this job. Its Tuesday and I've already logged almost 24 hours. Let me repeat that: Its Tuesday and I've ALREADY worked almost (very near to) 24 hours. Now I know why they call it the 18 hour bra (although I don't own one).
I get Friday off which I"m excited about, but the day to day routine has really got to change or else. I haven't been to the gym, the grocery, the post office, the anything on even nearly a regular basis. I'm barely seeing Josh at all which is really making me sad. I haven't spent much time with Friends or Family and everything I manage to do feels obligatory and all I can think about is how much work I have to do. So, obviously not my idea of a great lifestyle. And these days I'm all about the quality of life. And its not up to par, so I guess I have to 'work' on that too.

Both Sad and Happy

I am sad that I am having to give up working on movies for the reality of having a steady income. I've been out of work for three months now and there are not even any rumors of movies or shows starting anytime soon. The good news is I may have already found a job. I still have to pass a background check but I've been offered a bookkeeping position at an upscale apartment complex. I'm pretty nervous about trying to settle into a corporate style job: it doesn't really suit my preferences, but having an income does and the company seems so far to be a good company to work for. I have met two of my supervisors and they are very nice and I think I will easily 'fit in' with the other employees. No more jeans at work though, which makes me sad. I'm also interested in the job and its duties and it seems like there may be some opportunity for advancement. I guess if it doesn't work out I can always go back to movies but in the meantime I'm really going to give this my best effort. Now I need to give my best effort in cleaning my house up a little. Yuck!

Is it Possible?

Since one of my goals this year is to buy a new car I've been trying to think of creative ways to raise the funds to do this. So far my best option has been Ebay. Right now I'm running an experiment. There is an item on ebay that I found at a Thrift store for $1.99. Listing it cost about another dollar. A similar item just sold on ebay for $97. I would only have to sell about 275 of these items on Ebay to raise the total funds needed for my car. Whether or not I could find 275 of these items in thrift stores is uncertain, also the selling price is uncertain. My experiment ends in 4 days, we'll see how it goes.

Cold Cold Cold

One little ice storm and Austin shuts down. I was supposed to go back to work today but they called this morning and said everyone is staying home, possibly until Wednesday afternoon.
This is fine by me. Even though I was glad to be going back to work today, I have lots of projects to do around the house that I usually don't get up early enough to work on. Now I just hope I don't tinker around on the computer all day and waste all of my time.

New Year's Resolutions: 2007

So, obviously one of my resolutions is not to keep up with this blog, otherwise I would have made this post much sooner.
My resolutions this year are both much more complicated and much more structured than in years past. It may seem like a lot but I think it is not too ambitious to at least attempt.

Resolutions '07

1. Improve Finanaces
-Create a budget and stick to it
-Pay off credit card debt
-Open a Roth IRA & Start saving for retirement
-Buy a Toyota Prius (maybe even a new one)
2. Remember Birthdays and Keep Up with Friends More Often (so far I'm not doing to0 well with this one)
3. Improve Personal Appearance
-Become more physically fit (goal measurements 36-28-38)
-Spend more time caring for hair, skin, nails & teeth
-Update & Improve wardrobe
4. Maintain a Clean and Organized Household
-Clean & Straighten house often
-Finish all renovation/remodeling/improvement projects

And that's it!
I'm halfway through January and only about 1% active on any of these goals. Okay, maybe 7%. I'll check back in a month or so with a progress report.

New Year:New Deal

Its 2007 already. I can't believe how quickly last year went by. Does each year speed up now until I shrivel up and die? I hope not.

I was checking over some of my resolutions from last year and the only one I really made was to give up smoking. I think I can say pretty confidently that I am no longer a smoker although I do still cheat every once in a while. What does that mean, I wonder? I did pick smoking up again pretty heavily while I was in West Texas but had given it up again by the time we came back to Austin. Now I restrict it to times when I am drinking with friends who also smoke, and even then I'm down from 10 cigarettes over the course of a night to more like 3. I have noticed that I don't get as tired in the middle of the day as I used to. Is this a result of my cessation? I don't know, but if I'm even partially as successful with this years' resolutions as last years then I'll be in great shape come 2008.

Josh and I just got back from a two week vacation in New Orleans. I had never been there before and Josh grew up there so it was nice to see the city from a somewhat native perspective.
The primary focus of our trip was FOOD. I've mentioned a million times before how Austin restaurants can't hold a candle to really good restaurants like you find in Houston and I can now include New Orleans restaurants in the higher regard reserved for such fine establishments as Star Pizza, Backstreet Cafe, and Barnaby's.

Star was our first stop, by the way, and in Josh's words it "lived up to its hype, somehow". The pizza and salad and dressing and everything was as good as I remember it being, if not better.

Once I get to describing New Orleans restaurants everything becomes a blur. I know that the first place we went, Domilisi's for Po-Boys, was not very good and was one of the dirtier places I've ever been in. Standout's for excellence include Irene's, Palace Cafe, Maspero's, R & O's, Adolfo's and of course Cafe du Monde, where I instantly became addicted to beignets and their mounds of snowy sugar. We also had an excellent Muffaletta at Central Grocery and yummy ginger creme brulee at Cafe East. There were a few disappointments, but overall I ate myself silly and gained 7 pounds in the short time we were there.

We had a really great vacation, but New Orleans is such a sad city. Bourbon street was boring to me (its just a bigger 6th street where you can take your drinks into the street with you and the bars don't close at 2am, big whoop). A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina prices are still gouged and trash and debris lies in every street, begging for some moderately industrious person to just come by and pick it up. We saw "Now Hiring" signs in the windows of almost every business we visited, and one restaurant we dined in had only 2 servers working despite a full dining area, probably a third or fourth of the needed staff. Having never been there before the storm, I don't know if things were always that way, but I can't help feeling a little disgusted. Meanwhile I hear stories of 'refugees' in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, turning middle class neighborhoods into slums and the coinciding rise in the crime rate (up to 40% in many areas, if not more). I don't mean to seem callous but seriously, enough already. My patience and sympathy with the situation are completely eroded. There are real victims, like Josh's grandparents who lost everything they had and whose home was reduced to its foundation and brick walls. At 84 and 89 they have relocated to a 2 bedroom apartment and have carried on with their lives as best they can. They are the one's that deserve additional help, not the countless hordes who sit front of their playstation's in some reduced rent apartment waiting for someone to come along and do the next step for them.

Whoa, so, on a lighter note...

I'm visiting my grandmother today and her health has improved so much since moving in with my mom, I'm so happy for her. I'm a little worried about my parent's though. Problems with my brother continue to grow and there's no hope in sight for them. I guess the only thing I can do is just stay out of their way and try to find a new job for the new year. I am very hopeful that another movie will start again this month. I have been hearing rumors of one for a few months but nothing concrete yet. If not, I will probably have to move or leave the business, but I'm not making any decisions this week.

I've got to leave soon to get back to Austin. I need to pick up my mail from the Post Office (I had it held while I was on vacation) and then I'm finishing up some laundry and going to the gym. Maybe later I'll get to watch a movie with my sweet boyfriend:)

New Orleans Partial Post

I am on vacation and g.d.it, I don't have time to blog. I am too busy living my frigging life, okay.
When I get home I will take the time to chronicle my trip. In the meantime, I'm having a great time!

Blogging Tired

Last night I was blogging tired. I'm not sure why I was so sleepy but I could barely keep my eyes open and my mind wasn't working as well as it usually does. I think that it must have something to do with when I come home to visit my folks.
My parents live in a teeny tiny little town in central Texas. Even though its only 2 hours from Austin, its so far removed from the rest of the world. Here people don't have computers, they don't use cell phones and they still write checks for everything. From the moment I arrive here everything starts to slow down. It drives me crazy and reminds me of all the reasons I had to get out of here as fast as I could when I was a kid.
Aside from the effects it has on me (and my metabolism...I eat 10X more food here because I'm so bored), living in this town has turned my parents into a couple of hermits. I can imagine them 30 years ago living in Dallas, going to parties and hanging out with friends. These days, my parents don't really have any friends, don't go to any social functions except their once monthly domino game, and have no clue what's going on in the world around them. They're just not exposed to it. I think I wrote about this last year around this time when I was trying to convince my dad that he and mom could be on the same cell phone plan and not have to pay two separate bills for each of their phones.
My main reason for coming home this week is to help my grandmother get settled into our house. She has been ill and the doctors finally told her it was time to go to a nursing home. Of course, she would have none of that so it was agreed that she would take over my brother's former room. I still think she's not that happy about it but this is an easier arrangement for my mom who will no longer have to take care of both houses.
Speaking of my brother, my enabler father has given him our lake house to live in. This makes me so f'ing mad. The lake house is supposed to belong to the family. With him there, no one else can use it. When he's done using it (read:when he goes to jail finally) it is doubtful that the place will be in any shape to be used by the family unless we invest major elbow grease cleaning it up. The last time I was there he had been the last one to use it and it took Josh and I a full day of cleaning to make it tolerable and even after that we didn't walk on the floor barefoot.
Last night I had half of an Ambien and slept like a corpse until 2pm today. I wanted to get up earlier and was a little frustrated with myself for being such a lazy bones. I'm going to aim for getting up early again tomorrow so I can finish organizing my mother's freezer. Today I reorganized the refrigerator and the pantry and although she wasn't pleased with me "messing up her system" I didn't care because both areas really needed some form of organization. My mom is one of those people who will buy something every time she goes to the store whether she needs it or not. The items she frequently buys are white chocolate candy coating, cream cheese and artichoke hearts. I'm only halfway done with the process and already have found no less than 10 packages of candy coating, 12 packages of cream cheese and 4 big jars of artichoke hearts. I also threw out a ton of stuff including spice jars I recognized from childhood.
I get so frustrated with my parents because they are crazy pack rats. There is no logic in some of the things they have squirrelled away and our house is becoming less of a home and more of a storage facility every time I come to visit. All of the drawers in my room have been filled by clothing outgrown by my family, games never played, bed linens and comforters from every decorating scheme used by my mother since we built the house in 1979, books and notepads from when I was in grade school, etc. These are just the areas I have access to, I shudder to think what lives in their closet or in my dad's office or in the attic.
Someday I will have to go through it all. For now I'm just going to help myself to another piece of pie and pretend its not there.

Movies I want to see

Among thousands of others:

Household Tips

It always suprises me when I come across a household tip that I never heard of before and that is so useful I wonder why I didn't think of it myself.
I just stumbled across this website that has such interesting tips as partially draining your hot water heater every couple of months to increase its energy efficiency and make sure your fan is spinning in the correct direction for the season. Okay, I had heard the fan thing before, but the hot water thing was completely new. And even though these aren't the traditional household cleaning tips (like using ketchup to clean brass plated metalwork) they are money saving tips that can still be put to use by modern girls like myself.

Throwing in the Towel, for Tonight

The dishwasher installation has reached a standstill. I can't mess with it anymore today. I started working on it at 11 am and its now 10pm. After having an impossible time trying to remove the old dishwasher (I had to pull of some of the tiles in the kitchen to get it out), the new dishwasher went in and was a piece of cake to hook up, but now the hot water shut off valve won't re-open: the threads are corroded and the bolt is too stripped to turn. I'll have to have the landlord shut off the main water inline tomorrow and then replace the entire valve unit, reattach the washer and then hope there are no leaks.
In a previous post I talked about one of the cons of my apartment was that the dishwasher was old and stinky and had a colony of roaches living in it. I talked with the landlord about this and he agreed that we should replace the dishwasher. I knew I could do it myself and offered to do so as an incentive for him to reimburse me for the materials. Same agreement went for the sink. I found a dishwasher on craigslist and a sink at home depot and was ready to go to town today until the hot water valve kinked my plans.
Meanwhile, my dishes are piling up and I really just want to be done with it. OVerall it has been a good experience. I knew I would be able to do it I just didn't realize how much trouble it would really be. Especially with the old dishwasher being blocked into the hole by poor construction. I haven't even started on the sink yet, I was waiting until I got the dishwasher running before I removed my only other means of cleaning my dishes. I guess I could wash them in the tub, but that sounds as gross as I'm sure it actually would be. By the time I'm done with the place its going to be a veritable palace. Probably this will happen a few weeks before I have to move out.

Shopping Queen Scores again

So I finally tanked my bank account. Pretty sad news for this unemployed gal. But I did manage to score on my last outing. I've been shopping on Ebay for a space saver toaster oven, you know, the kind that goes under the cabinet. Anyway, they go for like $40-$50 bucks on ebay because they're no longer in production. I was about to start bidding on some when I had a brilliant idea. I popped down to ThriftLand (Manchaca) and not only found one, I found two and they were $1.99 each! Of course I bought them both and now one is hanging beneath my glassware and one is about to go up for auction. I may have found a new way to make a little dough! And then I'll toast it.

The Last Ones

They bulldozed the rest of the trees today. BASTARDS.

Machine vs. Nature

This morning I was awakened by bulldozers tearing down a brake of trees behind my house. Obviously they are making way for some sort of new housing development. The sound of the wood cracking and splitting was gruesome. It was like the soundtrack of a horror movie. Thankfully, they seem to be leaving a small row of trees between my property and the tract behind it, but I wonder what happened to all the deer and racoons and other creatures that lived in that little wooded oasis here in the big city? I wonder if the contractor who is behind this development EVER stops to think about the life forms he displaces by his industry? I think that some people must justify that by saying "Oh, people are more important and we have to keep housing costs low enough to be affordable and so we have to continue to expand". I agree with that theory, but not the practice. Because why do we have to expand out? Why not up? Instead of all of these POS 2 and 3 floor apartment complexes why not have a 20 floor building with parking beneath and the housing above? They would of course need to be positioned and spaced so as to avoid the canyon effect. But then again maybe there's something I don't know about this type of housing...after all, I'm no expert on the subject and know very little about architecture and city planning in general. I'm glad they're starting to build these structures downtown but as yet they are not affordable housing. Hopefully if those are successful they will begin to copy the idea in other neighborhoods.