Christmas in the Single Digits

I'm having a lazy Sunday at home - with a lot of emphasis on the lazy. I was flipping through the cable guide and didn't see anything, so I started channel surfing. I saw a snow explosion filmed with the color-tint of TV of the 80's and immediately recognized it as The Night They Saved Christmas.

1984 was the first time I saw this movie. Mom and Dad had to tape it for me. I'd watch it every day from Thanksgiving till Christmas from that year until much later. Mom probably still has the tape that finally dried up and died of overplaying (the only video I ever watched that often).

I've been in flashback land yesterday and today with the familial tragedy that occurred and the snow in Seattle; this just is more reminders of being a tiny lil' ragamuffin watching tv in the back bedroom and playing this movie over and over again.

So now I'm sitting here with a glass of wine watching the movie I grew up on. I'd fall asleep every night before Christmas wishing I could be one of the kids in this movie saving Santa and Christmas. And on Christmas Eve, even the years when I snooped and found the presents "Santa" gave me, I still went to sleep hoping there really was a Santa. I guess there's something to be said for good TV making you believe - this made me believe even when the Nintendo hidden in the back of Mom's closet should've told me there was no Santa.

It's a good night in my apartment remembering how nice it was to believe in Santa and how I later learned I made Mom sick of carrots (apparently they realized I was too smart to put them back or throw them out and knew I was a snoop, so Dad did the cookies and Mom ate the carrots - and I left a few cookies, but one carrot for every reindeer - EVERY reindeer).

Bittersweet memories of The Night They Saved Christmas.

how we justify consumerism

Recently I had to choose between getting a gift certificate and a gadget. And I took a short time relative to others who are still deciding. But the entire thing spurred conversations on how we justify our choices and desires.

I have some addictions in life - quite a few really - but all relatively harmless except for to my bank account and closet space. I just know that I'm really lucky in what I've made of my life accidentally and on purpose because it lets me justify so many things in life I never thought possible (let's just say that I realized this year that insanity might happen)! But I am addicted none-the-less to books, music, gadgets, yarn, furniture/household goods and shoes.

I must say it's an eclectic list, but I'm also a huge justifier. I was definitely more stringent when I was on my teacher-salary-budget with what I could get. I would justify the music and books by using the gift certificates I earned with my credit card-ing rent, auto insurance, groceries and other necessities when I was on the teacher-salary-budget. But then I was only allowed to get what I had a gift certificate for. When I increased to engineer-salary-budget I was able to justify more and in more categories I hadn't ventured into before. Should I have been? Who knows, but I live with consumerism like everyone else and have commercial desires!

I now have ways of justifying every one of my addictions although at the moment I'm not allowed to buy yarn, books & shoes. This list changes regularly and I allow myself loopholes of justification. But I'm cut off due to an overabundance and lack of use on some categories. Yet I can give you justification for how I'd buy shoes, for example: "if I throw out / donate (depending on condition) 3 pairs of shoes, I can replace them with one I've been drooling over for the past 3 weeks." Or books: "it's a small local bookstore and they're fantastic and we need to support them since I adore them so and I found this book I wouldn't have found at Amazon.com so I have to support them right?" I don't currently know of a justification for yarn.

Price is a factor in some things I justify - like gadgets. Space in some. Need in others. So when I was given the option of a gadget without a price point, I honestly didn't know how to un-justify it. It was a gadget I've wanted since it went on the market and I could tell you a million reasons why, but I had 3 reasons why I "wasn't allowed yet". Two of these reasons were technical and one was sticker-shock. Take away sticker shock and I was left trying to figure out if my 2 technical justifications were strong enough to stand up on their own. There was the "I don't need this" and the "it's not perfect" versus the "ooo shiney pretty toy please let me play with it and have it for my very own" factor.

I realized that I let myself splurge with windfalls and normally hold myself to a more rigorous standard otherwise. I have too much crap (heh - need to clean out my closet and craigs list this stuff) already so it's pretty easy to keep myself from overdoing in some areas. But dang, we change our justifications in life so easily.

And that my friends, is why I will be the owner of one shiney gadget I've been drooling over, lusting after and just plain wanting for months - but I'd resisted it... until yesterday when I could "justify" it to myself.

*gigglez*

I keep coming back to this one LOLCat pic and giggling madly.



I have no clue whatsoever why I find this one so entertaining. I think it's those cute kitteh blue eyes staring out at you. But whatever the case, I keep hitting "run" on my tests that I'm writing and then coming back to this picture and giggling.

*lulz*

after you

Ahh - gender differences and being a gentleman or lady (depending on your gender).

I noticed something odd as I was leaving work today. No, the sky isn't falling a-la Chicken Little and I didn't break a finger nail... A coworker who I've seen before but never spoken to was also waiting for an elevator out of the office with me today. When the elevator dinged to announce its arrival as the doors slid open, he made the gentlemanly gesture of waving me into the elevator first. I smiled and entered the elevator first.

Now, this isn't the first time this has happened in or out of the context of work, but it struck me as odd. There's always protocol in who goes first through any door regardless of gender - however, I wonder if being female changes whether people let me through in front of them even if it's not logical due to some archaic gentlemanly notions.

Thank goodness there's a good chunk of the time where the guy in front of me at work lets the door slam in my face or just barely holds it open for me. Otherwise I'd start to wonder if it wasn't just habitual "mamma's boy's good habits" (sue me for stereotyping - I'm the one who got on the friggin' elevator first!) There are also the guys who hold open doors for anyone and everyone (not doorjams, real men) which also dissuade from this oddity, but it struck me today none-the-less.

Generally, I think I'd notice more if the person rushed to get on before me; in this instance I was perfectly comfortable being waved on as I would've been waiting for the logical order of "closest first" for entrance to the elevator. It was only on double-take that it struck me as "huh - yeah, right" and made me pensive. But I guess I've given in to not noticing my feminine right of way status since otherwise you get the awkward no-yous which result in the crash at the door which you thought you'd only see on Saturday morning cartoons until you're the participant in one.

So here's what I'm pondering as I go to bed tonight: ladies first?

knit two; purl two

I've been disgustingly sick the past few days - and this isn't the first time this year I've been really sick. My sinuses really need to not get so easily infected when my body gets a virus. Bad Body!

However, it does mean I've finally made big progress on my scarf. I've had this scarf started for over a year. It's to match my new hat and mittens I'm also making. Ok, so I haven't started the hat yet, and only have 1.5 mittens, but the scarf's getting longer!

My problem with knitting is that I procrastinate and work in spurts. I love doing it, but I'm intimidated by big projects like cardigans or anything like that. So I have A LOT of yarn and projects in my head to do, but my gosh, no progress on any of them.

• Pink scarf for Mom that was promised to her when I was living in Baltimore for her birthday - so that's more than 3 years overdue.
• My scarf, hat and mittens that are my WIP and the project I'm currently working on.
• Big red blanket (unstarted and I can't remember which pattern I was planning on when I bought the yarn).
  
• Black hat (unstarted).
  
• Blue bag (I think that I have a piece of it started somewhere, but I don't know where).
  
• Blue belt (unstarted).

See! Lots!

And then there are all the bits of yarn that have no purpose. I think with one set of them I'm going to start learning to knit myself some stuffed friends. I figure stuffed friends that I knit and can take to the office might be kind of neat. So I'm going to do that with my purple yarn that I originally got to make a blanket but have since replaced with the red yarn.

I'm a knitter without a purpose. All the projects are for me other than the scarf for mom. And that makes them almost harder to do in that when I have enough hats, I have enough hats. And I'm a good knitter technically. I have all the skills other than those that are for fixing mistakes (and I'm taking a course on that in a month). I need a purpose for my knitting so that when I'm picking it up I can't procrastinate cause it's "just for me" (or the impossible scarf for my mother - why'd I choose that yarn???)

Oh well, at least my current projects are gorgeous - the yarn on this project is beautiful and really doing not much is making a great scarf - just knit two, purl two.

Y'know what? I'm procrastinating cleaning my room by being lazy germ girl who knits. But soon I'll need another skein of yarn for this scarf and I won't be able to continue without doing some room cleaning so I can get to the yarn (and hopefully find a borrowed pair of knitting needles!)

Seattle kind of crazy

I'm in Subway ordering my crappy Italian Sub (crappy in it's junk food Saturday kinda way). The guy in front of me says "hi" in that out-of-his-mind kinda way. I smile and say hi in a very distancing sort of way - the way that you are polite to those people you see in the Seattle streets who you can only guess are a wee bit not there - or a lot not there. I order my sub; all's grand. I get to the register make it a meal and the smiling crazy guy says "so when's the baby due?".. "Um, I'm not pregnant. Thanks." "Oh..." and he wanders out of the store. The second he's gone the register boy and I bust out laughing and I manage to choke out "wow, wonder if I'm having a boy or a girl and who's the baby's daddy?"

Welcome to Seattle. You get used to the new kinda crazy on the street. From my reaction my first week here of utter fear when a crazy guy chased me with plastic bags yelling crap at me, to being preggers 2x in 1 year (yes, someone asked me this earlier this year in the airport). Seattle really does breed it's own kind of crazy. If I ever really am preggers, I'm not sure I want the baby to be raised on Seattle water - it makes you nutty - truly nutty.

You see all kinds: the happy talk-to-you-like-they-know-you sorts; the hiding beer in trash cans sorts; the plastic bag chasing sorts; the talk to pigeons sorts... I'm sure other cities have their own forms of crazy, but I know more nutjobs in this city - and you recognize them and there's a naming-convention for them. Everyone knows who crazy whoever is and you wonder when you don't see 'em on the streets downtown where they've gone.

Ahh, the wonders of living in the middle of a city. Every city has crazy, but Seattle is just a bit nuttier than normal.

Happy Saturday!

teh intertubes

I've been surfing all over the web lately - more than normal. I've been a "long time user" of things like IM clients of all sorts, gmail, Cute Overload, Blogger, flickr, rss feeds, and probably some other things I'm forgetting, but lately there's a social networking hype out there.

Maybe it's my current job making me aware of the wacky trends on the internet, or my friends blogging about them. Things like Second Life which scare me for so many reasons but which I comprehend none-the-less. Sites like Facebook where I've become an addict of my own accord. Then there's LinkedIn for business networking. So many oddities, interesting sites, weird trends (i can has cheezeburger? anyone) are out there and are just getting more hype.

So yeah, I don't have any interesting commentary to mention, but if you have any more weird / fun / creative / new sites for me to check out, pass 'em over...

In the meantime, meet my meez! She's the image posted with this entry.

pot + mom + cornbread = funny

Mom and I are tv-aholics. I rented the show Weeds (a Showtime show) from Netflix since it kept getting recommended to me... And this is one of the best tv lines ever written or spoken:

You gave her my cornbread recipe? And she put WEED in it? NOBODY puts WEED in my CORNBREAD recipe!!!

You know you're not mommy's lil' girl anymore when you can watch a show with her that contains that much swearing and is about a pot-dealing-suburban-mother and you walk around afterwards getting ready to go out to dinner repeating "Nobody puts weed in my cornbread recipe."

So, yes, after 3 episodes this show comes highly recommended.

packing will be known as throwing things in the bag

I have a bunch of nonsequitors in my head... Ok, more than a bunch - so I'm going to write a numbered list of what my head's doing now as I watch So You Think You Can Dance.

1. Massage: It's very odd to work in a place where you can get a massage and have it on your work calendar as if it's just any old meeting. Saying "oh, I've gotta run, massage scheduled" is perfectly acceptable. And then you walk down the hall, into a room, and get a professional table massage. Not to be crude in all honesty, but there's something ridiculously strange about gettin' undressed in just another room in your office. But mmmmmm massage good.
   
2. Training (aka butt kicking): There's only one word I say during training... Ok, that's not true, but my favorite is "ok". My trainer girl just tells me what to do and I say "ok." Apparently she can't always tell what I'm thinking or feeling due to this and the fact I laugh all the time. Then again, she showed me an exercise on the floor today and then flopped there and I told her that this exercise was called the confused fish and she was doing a "dead fish" by not moving. Let's just say that the confused fish exercise is much harder when you're laughing since it's all about sucking it in and squeezin' that butt for your "core." Training is hard though - losing weight is hard!
   
3. Roooooomba: My roomba is so nice to me. It's vacuuming while I'm watching crappy reality tv rather than packing. I love Roomba even if it does beep at me every now and then to ask me to get the cables out of it's innards when it tries to eat a lamp cord or something like that.
   
4. Packing: Yeah, so I leave tomorrow for the hellish travel adventure known as going to the Philippines. The actual destination is something I'm counting down towards and all that jazz, but the packing.... Yeah, let's just say I already asked that "people" not laugh at me when they see my over packing due to throwing crap at bag. Lazy! Still have a load of laundry to do too but butt kicking by trainer makes me very lazy feeling.

Ok.

Bye bye now.

Ok.

finger numbing reunion

Many things are running through my head right now... I mean, it is 1am so that's not particularly surprising, however.....

• I'm hoping the EBAs guy can get in the dorm with heaven (aka Tuscany bread).
• I don't know how much I drank, but I passed the point of embarassment HOURS ago.
• I had at least 13 drinks even given the above comment
• Reunion has been surreal.
• I'm hungry.

So yeah, I'm at my 5th year college reunion scarily enough. It's what may be considered a unique experience, but I think of it as absolutely normal. Who knows?

A few people who registered are no shows (yes, I'm a stalker, but I was also the web master for this hijinks). One of these particular no-shows upsets me greatly.

There's not enough time to spend with the people I care about though. They're staying over in hotels and went "back" far earlier than I, thus I didn't get the chance to enjoy their presence more than a quick chat over dinner or what not. Then again, I've met a lot of other kick-ass people I didn't know I'd remember and even befriended some Significant Others who are not from here. So I guess it's all going well.

Yeah, I have wishes and dreams like every girl. Including that I wish I knew where my cell phone was (I fear it got left at the home of the $2 margarita which I have always been a big fan of and paid great homage to tonight...) However, it's MIA. Update cell phone located

In the meantime, cheers to the >1/3 of my class that made it to reunions. It was great to see everyone from some of my bestest ever friends to my freshman year roomie. I lost my embarrassment about my sobriety state when I realized most people were at least as drunk as I was if not more so. Then again, I did kill my knee falling down a gravel drive to the hill where we had dinner which is rather unfortunate.

But, it was worth it because this place is beautiful and so great to be back in. There's only one regret I have, and that's not ruining my weekend - it just makes me want to do it again under other circumstances.

Anyways, I shall wait for my Tuscany bread now. Cheerio!!!

boston bad ideas

I'm working from the Boston office today and tomorrow in order to allow myself to go to my 5th year college reunion (oof - old). Now, last night I flew a direct redeye here with only 5 hours of airtime which is lovely - however, if that's the only time you can sleep and you can only sleep after takeoff and before landing that's about 4 hrs of sleep. Add to the the comfort of plane seats and crying children, and that's what I'm running on.

So not such a good idea.

But Redbull is my friend and I'm ridiculously excited to see my friends here in Boston tonight and my friends up in New Hampshire this weekend!!! It's worth it long term, but this morning when my eyes were watering and my head was nodding, it was definitely NOT worth it.

Next weekend I'm going to be DEAD - as will all the people arriving the same day as me from various parts of the world. 24 hrs of travel - eep. I need a more comfy plane pillow - it's worth the investment since the cheapo one I got was absolutely WORTHLESS!!!!

little town wonders

So, I have a new blog that I'm addicted to... letters from abroad

Maybe it's just me and my personal connection to the author, but I find this blog a general joy to read regardless of how sporadically it's updated.

Alicia (to me Lisi) is a lovely lady who was one of my first best friends when stretch pants and pigtails were the "in" things. We grew up together from early schooling to high school graduation and I knew her pretty well the whole time. Then we went off to our respective colleges and post-parental-living lives..

However, I've gotten news every year-ish on what she's up to when our mother's talk (along with her younger siblings updates). And the other day mom sent me a link to this blog telling me that Lisi had worked in Hungary and was now in Rwanda teaching. huhwha?!?!

Yup - it's true. And now I'm vicariously living through this blog and wondering what it must really be like.

The girl I knew when we played in her tree house over the stream or watched silly tv with after school is now a teacher in Rwanda! Dang! I think it's rewarding to know that from a small town in "upsate" New York, so many people have gone on to "big" things. I never think of my hometown as a place that creates people that thrive after high school, but I see it happening more and more. From the classmates living in Hawaii or becoming doctors, to myself (yes, for once I'll include myself), to Lisi in Rwanda, to another classmate counting turtles and studying their migratory patterns in Mexico, to the uber-successful Wall Street businessman I ran into over Thanksgiving, to Yale psycho science PhD students, to all the others I don't even know what they're now doing.... I guess the ghosts of my past are doing well!

I just wish there were more ways for me to cyber-stalk the really interesting lives of my classmates and go "wow cool!"

Now back to my daily life of geekitude in Seattle while wishing I was in Ireland... guess I need to make a living to support my wonky travel habits and worldwide relationships.

I have a problem.

I have a shoe obsession.

The first step in resolving a problem is recognizing it. I have a shoe obsession. I'm not sure I want to fix this problem. Although having mentally planned out the shoes I'd like to take to the Philippines, I realized there's an average if 1 pair per day... and that's just NOT RIGHT. But I don't know which of the 8 pairs I'd cut - heck, if I cut one pair it's only to replace it with another since 9 pairs popped into my head.

Yes, it's true, I have more shoes than I know what to do with. The scary thing is that I wear them all as regularly as you can when you have a month's worth of shoes and some of them are out of season (winter boots are no longer necessary and flip flops are being worn after their winter hiatus).

But yes, a month before I travel I can already think of 8-9 pairs of shoes to bring with me.

I have a problem. Will Philippine Air let me check 2 suitcases so I can pack one with shoes?

#00FF00

Girls dating geeks beware. I'm a girl and a geek thus I understand the phenomena, but it still makes me laugh quite a bit...

In late June I'm going to a wedding in the Philippines, thus I need a nice new dress. I love being able to dress up and am very excited by this prospect. It's an extension of my current shoe addition (btw - endless.com rocks for shoe purchases). Thus, I've already started looking for dresses (although I love clothes, I find it very hard to find cute youthful clothes that fit)! Very exciting.

I found a cute little jersey knit dress in white and green tropical print the other day and fell in love. Looks great on and is the perfect weight for a tropical wedding.

I told this very thing to boyfriend and he dutifully questioned wanting to know more. He understands my excitement. Except when I noted the colors of plain white and true green only in the dress he asked... "Green as in #00FF00?" (translation for non-geeks: that's the hexadecimal number representing green on computers).

I just about died of laughter while accusing him of being a geek. He agreed he's a geek and I promptly responded "I don't know!" and sent him a picture of a shirt that's the color green I'm referring to.

He's a good one - but he's also a geek. He's appreciative of what I like and am excited about, but that doesn't stop him from being him. It's the best of both worlds. I'm allowed to be a girlie girl, but at least I understand him!

It's good being a geek and a girl. And no, the color is not #00FF00. It's more of #009900 .

job... mmmm mmmmm.... good!

What am I going to write about the new job? Well, not a lot of meat about the company because I like keeping my job and because of that I like keeping the company's secrets. Plus, there's the entier law suit thing and that's just messy...

So yeah... what can I talk about? Food. Yes, I work for that Cali employer now (granted, in the Seattle office) that has very good food. Apparently they recently went "all healthy" in their food department - but damn, this is good food. And right now I'm in the CA office where we have all these food options that it's so ridiculous. I get lost walking through the buildings, but it really doesn't matter - I just swipe a diet coke from one of the fridge's and go in search of a map.

In the meantime, I've determined that I don't know if Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke is any good. I mean, I had two today and I really couldn't tell you if it was any good - drinkable, sure; good, I dunno.

And I say I'm eating healthy - which as a whole I guess I am - until you look at my dinner of In 'n' Out and wine... classy eh? I'm just entertained because here I am blogging about food when I have a good job.

However, one of my friends told me "well, you haven't said a bad thing so far" - which is good. Because my new coworkers have asked about my previous job and it's been a dismal summary from my lips.

Then there's the part of me that's going "wow, I work here?" and "how'd I get this job again?"

public service announcement & tmi

I feel the need to broadcast this so I don't have to deal with it myself...

I am so disgusting right now I don't wanna be near myself.

The shower is in sight - only the bathroom to pack (aka throw in a box). Woo!

"In summary, kegs are people too." -Nick

I'm nearing the end of week two of freedom. I did make it back from Dallas on Sunday and managed to get sick freezing my a$$ off in DFW. So now I'm fighting a sinus infection and being more motivated than one person should be. Y'see, there are some exciting things going on so I'm getting all miss organized over here.

I've got 9 days to get myself all moved into my new pad and outta this pad so the closet's been cleaned and the filing done - I broke my shredder there was that much filing.

And what else am I doing? Well, bouncing and planning to go to Whistler of course. Although skiing and I are hit and miss lately for a variety of reasons, I'm still looking forward to the absolutely gorgeous snow covered mountains. David and I will be going dogsledding on Wednesday too which adds to the excitement.

And just because it makes my mom shake her head, I must add that I'm the beermistress for this trip. Last year my room was "the slave cave" - an old converted walk in closet that had a futon on the floor. This year I'm driving the beermobile since we have a house for 6 nights, 5 days that's housing 22 people (yes, it's big enough for 24). And what do you do after a long day of winter activity? You eat good food with your friends, sit around in the hot tub, and drink beer.... And 22 people over 6 nights is a lot of beer.

Apparently my mother thinks this is a zany idea and doesn't know how kegs will fit in the car, but as Nick says "In summary, kegs are people too." Thus, keg A and keg B (contents TBA) will be my backseat drivers for the last 2 hours in Canada since you can't transport alcohol over the border. I hope they don't get too rowdy back there....

I leave you the parting wisdom of my only human passenger on the drive to Whistler:

If we run out of fuel we can camp at the roadside and tank ourselves up!

Patience is a Virtue

I am in Dallas. Why am I in Dallas? I don't quite know - it could have been one of many things:

1. my flight from Cancun which should've departed at 7am was delayed 2 hours
2. my flight from Cancun tried to leave on time, but they had mechanical difficulties getting ready to pressurize the cabin so we taxied back into the terminal and got maintenance for 2 hours
3. we circled high above Dallas where we were supposed to land for over an hour due to 50-60mph winds
4. we got rerouted to Houston since we needed fuel after circling Dallas and not being allowed to land
5. we sat at a domestic gate on an international plane for 5 hours because since we couldn't clear immigration & customs, we weren't allowed off the plane
6. we ran through customs and back to our plane to get back to Dallas since American flies NOWHERE from Houston that's of any use
7. I slept on the very cold floor outside security at DFW last night for a whole hour. Then I sat there for another whole hour waiting for everything to finish charging.
8. I'm on standby - I started as #37 on the list, and after the 1st flight out this morning I'm #12 so I'm not doing so bad, but I bet things start moving slower now

I have my trusty blanket that I found when I got in the terminal practically numb.

I want to curl up and go to sleep more than words.

I have hives and really need a shower, since the shower in Cancun was with chlorinated water and I'm allergic to chlorine. So I'm taking massive doses of Benadryl which aren't helping me to be more alert and at this point, they aren't numbing the itch nearly enough.

At least I have my computer so I'm in great demand by the peeps stuck with me to know what's going on since they won't tell us ANYTHING here.

Oh, and by the way - Cancun was great and I don't wanna go back.

i'm not allowed to change color - only my hair is

So, I'm in Cancun with mom, except it's been a bit chilly..... As in much warmer than where we came from, but by no means go in the water weather. It's been overcast and windy windy windy. This needs to stop. Especially since tomorrow I'm jumping in the water regardless to go snorkeling and a lil' breeze won't stop me!

In other news, I have a few new best friends:

• SPF30 so I don't change color to tomato (my hair can bleach if it'd like)
• pina coladas - they're like alcoholic milk shakes
• cheesey fries (gotta try to stay away from them! but yum)

What do the plans entail? Well, snorkelling and a boat ride to Isla Mujeres tomorrow. Then Wednesday we're going to some Mayan ruins on the beach - Tumul. Thursday and Friday damn well better be sunny so I can sit in the pool at the bar and swim around and read and lather myself in my best friend Coppertone.

Right now, I'm waiting for Mom to finish getting her free pedicure so I can go get mine.... what color shall my toes be? I never get pedicures so this should be entertaining - I've only had one before in my life. So I guess 2 things are allowed to change color: my toenails and my hair. My skin better stay basically pasty white though cause if it doesn't I'll be hurtin'.

to prove my point of my previous post

Today I:

• ate breakfast while on a concall
• made some double sided copies
• played with javascript to make a counter

See, now isn't that productive for you!

2 week notice explanation required

So, I'm "working"... but in reality I'm trying to understand what employers get out of two weeks notice. I gave my two weeks notice and it's getting harder and harder for me to do work. Now, most of the reasons are my problems, but some of them are work's.. For example, I'm oncall. Beeping doesn't help me work.

I'm musing over the fact that when I resigned from my teaching gig, it was much easier to be motivated to do the little things. Teaching classes, lesson plans, grading, exams, etc - they were all for the students. I'm not the type of person to jeopardize a kid's education just because I'm resigning and have the slacker-gene.

However, for my current resignation I'm trying to figure out how to keep going. I have a mental countdown going. Like right now I'm under 9.5 days. Really down around under 9 since the last Friday is full of exit interviews. But everyone knows I'm leaving so what's my motivation? I'm a generally responsible person, so that helps - but not nearly enough for some of the tedious tasks.

Does it make your employer feel better to have you for 2 weeks extra and pay that salary? I live in a state where it's employment at will and that's what my contract says.. so what's gained by them for this?

Can someone please explain the actual reason behind two week's notice. I get that it's respectful/polite/responsible - but those are all moral reasons. I work in big corporate America which is arguably neutral in morals - so what's the business reason behind this courtesy???

Back to the grind... my laptop tells me that on Friday 16 Feb at 5pm PST I will be done. I guess that's the finish line!

leavings and goings and new things

So, I got a new job that I'm starting in the very beginning of April. I also quit my current job but my last day is Fri Feb 16. And yes, I'm very happy about this. Although I'll miss my current team because they're really awesome, it's time to head on out.

I'll still be in Seattle... so what am I doing for 6 weeks?

Week 1: Cancun with mom
Week 2: move prep
Week 3: moving
Week 4: Whistler
Week 5: chillin' in Seattle with a friend
Week 6: may head to Vegas for a few days with my mom.

Yup - that time's gonna fly by!