Truck Got Stuck

Have I mentioned that my inner hick, is well, not so inner? I am out, loud and proud.

I adore country music.

By which I mean GOOD country music. Not Garth, not Alan, and certainly not Shania.

I have a deep and abiding love for Corb. He's clever, witty, pens a saucy tune, and is really damn cute, to boot.

Did I mention he's been to my house? Funny story...

The point is, I have my brother's truck for a month. I've gone country. I'm driving that 4x4, V8, half ton, son-of-a-bitch truck like I'm mud-bogging in the bush. It's fun!

So much for my image of myself being all environmentally friendly and dedicated to bus travel. I'm driving to work tomorrow. I'm gonna ride the gas and brake at the same time, too. And take up two lanes. 'Cuz I'm a hick.

And, I hope I see the creepy little fool who slowed down and checked me out me as I was walking to Construction Inc. the other day. I'm gonna mow him down. Technically, you report to me, asshole. We just haven't met, yet.

Workin' 9 to 5

I'm loving it. Rather, I'm loving working 8 to 4:30.

I produced the July financial statements today. Including statements of change in financial position (most people fail this section in accounting school. I loved it). Whee! It was so much fun. I can see lots of potential for improvement, just basic things, now that there is somebody (me!) who has the time and inclination to do such things. I can't wait until I truly understand things and can go to town with all my ideas.

I am just a little bit happy to do real accounting again.

But, still, I am Misstea, and cannot avoid my usual troubles.

I wore a white shirt yesterday. One of my nicer ones, all ironed and crisp.

So, naturally I missed my mouth when taking a slurp of coffee and had a big mark on the shirt-tail near my waist (not my chest, thank dog). It could have been worse - I'm a big fan of the Tide-to-go pen, and managed to get the worst of it out. But, a mark is left behind. One could tell that I spilled something.

This is bad because I was cruising to the boss's office to show off what I had accomplished and get the instructions for the next step. Oh, wait, there's someone in S's (the boss) office. He waves to me, which means to come on inside. I am introduced to the freaking CHAIRPERSON OF THE BOARD, who is a very nice man, and promptly tells me that he had just heard all about me and how very excited he was that I was joining the company.

Oh, hi, nice to meet you, and yes, I am excited too. Can I just show you what I just did, and did I mention that I'm very good at analysis, and I think we should look at these variances, and have you thought about a report....

Um, ok.

I think, once I learn the business, that I will find that Construction Inc. (not its real name ) and I will get along very well. Yippee! As long as I can refrain from spilling all over myself.

When I later confessed about the spillage, S told me that he didn't notice, therefore no one else likely did. This is a workplace where people wear safety vests and jeans, after all. Whew!

But still, financial statements! It's been sooo long. I had forgotten how much I loved that part. I can't wait until next month, when I'll be doing it on my own, except for the following question: "what did I mean when I wrote this down? I'm sure it's important, but I don't know why."

Anyhow...

The one downside to working at Construction Inc. is that the buses are very full, to and from the workplace, because of the, ya know, NORMAL OFFICE HOURS, and therefore I cannot easily knit while commuting. While this is disappointing, if that is my biggest problem with this job, I am doing OK.

So, in lieu of knitting content, I bring you pictures of my yard, taken between six and eight pm tonight, hours when I would not have been at home, while working at Investing Hell, Inc.

My Mountain Ash (the one and only tree I own. Apparently, it's very hard to grow in this climate). I doubt these berries are edible, but I sure do love the orangeness.

The yellow flowers are a "potentilla (spelling?)"
according to Grandma. I suspect she's right. I thought it was a dead weed, and then it bloomed, and it's bloomed all summer, and I love it. I was going to pull it out and put a composter there. I have since changed my mind. The composter will go elsewhere. The purple thing is a dwarf tree of some sort. It's pretty too, so I will keep it.

Ya don't get better than sunsets in Manitoba. One of the things that have kept me here, when I would have rather been anywhere else.

See what I mean? The clouds are pink! That's my colour!

Random Saturday

I have lots of stuff going through my head this morning, and none of it is worthy of a whole post, so here goes.



Plus, I'm procrastinating. The house is a disgusting mess (something in the kitchen is very smelly) and my grandparents and one set of aunt/uncle/kids are coming over for dinner. Gotta get going on that soon.



And speaking of dinner guests, shouldn't the RSVP be sent more than 18 hours before the actual event? Especially when it ups the count from three to eight? And, includes kids? Now, I have to go buy more food. Food that kids will like. I'm a little ticked about that, since the invitation went out a month ago. Grrr.



Anyway, last day at the new job was rather anti-climatic. I went to work clothed and no elementary school bullies appeared to torment me. I did a few things and continued cleaning out my desk. At four pm, I just slipped out after saying good-bye to the two people that meant the most to me. I preferred that to a long, drawn-out affair.



Met N at the pub for a pint. Well, that was the intention. Wound up getting rather tipsy, taped an interview for a television program (I doubt they will use that footage, I was rather, er, flirty, shall we say?) and then going to yet another pub (the third of the night) and allowing men to buy us drinks. Still, I was home and in bed by 10:30. 'Cuz I was starting a new job the next day, don't you know.



I managed to make it to the new job on time, just barely. Getting up and being somewhere for earlier than 10:30 is painful. Didn't help that I was awake between 3:30 and 5:30 am. My brain was full by three in the afternoon, but it was a good day. Good systems in place. Once I learn the business, I will be off to the races, I think. That night, I was home, after having stopped for groceries, by six. That felt really, really good. Felt especially good to eat dinner at a normal hour and still have an evening stretching out in front of me. I used the evening very productively - I finished a pair of socks and started the next while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Other notes:

• Still haven't found a satisfactory pattern for the sea silk. Everything I see is very rounded (leaves, arches, etc.) and I want squares or rectangles. So, I continue to mess with the pattern that was included (which is based on rectangles). Working with two skeins is required, which is easier, now that I have labelled them, but I cannot for the life of me, EVER remember how to pbl (purl through back-of-loop). I think I will have to practise this one. Somehow, I doubt I will be wearing this particular summer wrap this summer.
• Having dinner guests today was supposed to be incentive to get that dining room painted, bookcase built and books unpacked. Guess what? Not done. In fact, haven't even started. Could have done it last weekend, but chose to spend it going to the park with Boy and his son, playing Trivial Pursuit with Boy, and generally doing nothing. The skinny little nancy-boy is very sweet, and sucking up more of my time than I care to think about. Thankfully, he was fully aware of the knitting before we started dating, so there is no need to educate him. In fact, he seems quite intrigued with the process. I offered to teach him, but he has so far declined.
• My new office is cooking hot. No need to knit sweaters to keep warm, I fear. This does not bode well for the two sweaters I have on the needles, nor for the others in my head. The building is about to be extensively renovated over the winter, and I hope my new space is more temperate. Right now, it's so warm I'm sleepy (and I'm the person who is always cold).
• The boy calls every day just to say hello. I thought I would find this irritating, because I hate talking on the phone, but I find it rather sweet, and now look forward to the call. Please do not point out how sappy this makes me. I am appalled enough as is. This is NOT what I envisioned when I decided to start dating again.
• A friend of mine says that I am the most organized person he knows. Sadly, since I moved to this house, I am no longer organized, and I am very ashamed of that. But, I lack the will to do anything about it. I wish the organizing fairies would come one day while I am at work and do it for me. While I can knit and carry on a conversation, knit and watch TV, knit and read, I cannot knit and paint, or vacuum, or generally do anything that requires the use of my hands. I guess that means that I am a mere mortal, seeing as I can't warp the space-time continuum, either.

So, that means that the dishes won't load themselves into the dishwasher....

One more day

I woke up this morning from a terrible dream. The dream was about tomorrow, my last day at Investing Hell, Inc. I dreamt that I went to work naked except for a ridiculously high pair of heels, and every person who irritated me in elementary school was there to wish see me off. How weird is that? It makes no sense, and I do not care to analyze it.

The last week of work was agonizing. The evening shift did not go well, any day, and during the day, I was madly trying to pump stuff out to ease the burden on those left behind. However, having my "not my problem" shield on helped very much. I just counted down the days, just like a kid counts down the days to summer vacation.

I am so excited about getting back to a normal routine. Having office hours that do not extend into the evening. Being able to take a lunch break around noon, not three. Doing meaningful work instead of reading 400 emails that don't apply to my job. Mostly, I'm looking forward to being excited about going to work in the morning.

I've learned lots about me in the past six weeks or so.

I've learned that I must have meaningful work. I am a "live to work" person and not a "work to live" person.

I've learned that when I make a decision and mean it, I can make things happen quickly.

I've learned that when part of my life is unsatisfactory, all of my life is unsatisfactory.

I've also learned that attitude is everything. If you expect good things to happen, good things do happen.

To be truthful, all of those things are things that I already knew. I had just forgotten.

We all need reminders, once in a while, I suppose.

Harry Potter

Audio books are my new favourite thing. It's sooo much easier to knit while listening, rather than reading.



I've got three more disks to go. I won't spoil it for you, but I'm entranced.