What up

3 days since I've posted . . . slacking. I've been pretty preoccupied this week trying to get back up to speed after vacation -- getting the house put back together, figuring out what's on my desk, and now going for a promotion at work. A job opened up there that's been filled for the past 11 years and would be a great opportunity for me. It got posted while I was on vacation, but I checked my e-mail toward the end of that week and was ready to find out more when I got back. I had a long talk with the person who's vacating the position, and submitted my updated resume and cover letter the next day. The HR Director, Executive Director, and Recruiting Director interviewed me 2 hours later! I think it went well. Not necessarily perfectly; it's so easy to second-guess yourself. But, though they've already interviewed 4 other people (before I had my interview), I have the advantage of already being an employee of the firm so they know me, know my work, know my demeanor, and since I've put out 5 issues of the newsletter, they know that much more about my writing ability, my attention to detail, my motivation to meet deadlines that I set for myself, etc.

That newsletter may turn out to be a bigger break than I thought!

So there's that. I did finally get the house clean, but I see little messes creeping in. Yesterday my stepdaughter and I spent the day running around, making returns and exchanges of building materials since we are remodeling the bathroom, and did some shopping -- bought a few cute Christmas ornaments at Pier 1 (I know it's only October but they're not the first ornaments I've bought this year. It's an illness with me.), had lunch, went to the pet store for food and to ooh and aww over the animals up for adoption. We also went to a few Halloween stores to look at costumes for the stepdaughter. I hate those places! Oh! We also FINALLY got new cell phones. I've been wanting to do that for months. We've been using the same model phones for 3 years or so, and the husband finally broke his -- the LCD just shattered so we had no choice! So, got those, then went to see my mom and see how her kitchen remodel was going. Also gave her her belated birthday present which was some photographs of my grandparents that I had copied, enlarged, toned & framed so they looked even better than the originals. They were individual photographs taken when my Grammy and Grandpa were each about 19 years old. I think my mom cried for the rest of the day. I felt bad, because she wasn't expecting it, but I knew she was happy to have the photos. She said she didn't have those ones in particular already. I was glad I did that for her. Now I think I want to have it done for myself

Anyway, I'm just rambling at this point and I got dressed for the gym so I'd better drag my butt in -- it's been WAY too long! And, I need to go look for some more clothes for work -- the ones I have have been in heavy rotation for a while, and I'm bored with them. And now we have dinner plans around 5, so I'd better get to it!

Ciao for now . . . I'll try to make my next post more coherent. Or, at least, funny!

P.S. My new cell phone ring, which before was the theme from "Mission Impossible," is the Incubus song "Pardon Me" (which, if you don't know, goes "pardon me while I burst into flames.") -- I love it! And the sound my phone makes when someone leaves a voice mail is some guy saying "fry me an egg, woman!" It's so random, I couldn't resist. The husband put Too Short's "Freaky Tales" as his ring and I set it up so he has that NASCAR stock car passing sound ("shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo" is the best I can describe it) for his voice mail sound. I made some other customizations, too -- I was up late setting up those damned phones! I love new toys.