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Sunday, October 29, 2006
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This year, I LOVE Daylight Savings Time. I mean, I always enjoy the time when the clocks fall back (and disdain the clocks moving forward again in a few months, but who is thinking about that right now). But this year, it really is a lifesaver. For one, I have an extra hour this morning and can actually update this damn thing. But also, I get the hour of sleep back that I lost all this past week with getting up at 7am for the new job. I suppose I could have gotten used to going to bed earlier, too (which I will, I promise!) but having my hour back is great. :-)
Anyhow, the new job... I gotta say, it's a little too early to tell. I spent a lot of my first week reading about consumer payments and ATMs, in preparation for my first project. I also have done a few training sessions, on various things (from templates to timesheets to survey writing), and there will be more of those to come. My new coworkers are great - everyone seems friendly and a lot of fun, and even congregates in the conference room at lunch time to eat together (as opposed to everyone eating at their desks, as we did at the old job). Apparently I'm going to have to get used to eating earlier, though I'm not sure how happy about that I am - I like not eating until 1pm, and when you go out to eat then, often the lines are shorter because it's after the lunch rush! Ohh, and speaking of eating out, looks like I'll have to do that more often, too, unless I can figure out an easy way to bring my lunch (and I didn't do that this week, at all). I think it's going to be more of a hassle than a time or money saver (after all, bringing less lunch means making less food). This week I had Bertucci's (brought in by the company on my first day), Souper Salad (in some building kinda across the street, which also contains some other stores - like a mall! - as well as the magical shoe guy that Laura from Cymfony was telling me about), Au Bon Pain (really across the street, right next to the Park Plaza Hotel), the "burrito cart" (not a cart at all - located in some sort of food court off of Charles St) and finally Viga (Stuart St, a few blocks away and every bit as cheap as Laura told me). The great thing is that while all of this food was of course tasty, I didn't even exhaust the food possibilities for lunch. AND, Smith and Wollensky (which is... somewhere - maybe within the Park Plaza Hotel building?) has $2 and $3 appetizers after work, and they are really tasty (as are their drinks, I hear, but I had wine Monday night when I went there). It's all about the intangibles, people!
Commuting is different. I enjoy being able to get more exercise - between the walk from my apartment to Davis Square (and back) and the walk from Park Street, where I've been getting off and on the T, to the office (corner of Arlington and Boylston, kinda), I'm walking about 2 miles a day. I may end up at times taking the T all the way to Arlington, but I'd like to continue walking to Park Street after work unless the weather is truly awful. Walking is good! Of course, the actual train on the other hand... Monday and Tuesday it made me late (not a good start, in my opinion, but everyone seems sympathetic). I was getting a little worried that it would be late everyday, but things were better Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I suppose I could leave earlier - I seem to have plenty of time in the morning if I get up by 7:15am - but I like having a little down time before I leave - I knit and watch the news. I've also been knitting on the train - I don't get a lot done, but some does get done, which is better than nothing.
The other nice thing is having my weekends back! I hadn't had a free from work weekend (when I was in town) in a long time, so these past two weekends have been nice. Last Friday, after my last day at Cymfony (which was so sad, having to say goodbye to everyone), I went to Sally's and then to the Tir Na Nog, where I had never been before. I'm not sure how I feel about the Nog - it was awfully crowded and I could barely hear anything (plus I hate shouting to be heard). But overall, the night was a lot of fun, though I had way too much to drink (all those gin&tonics really gets to you after awhile!). Then on Sunday, I picked Jeff and Kristen up at the airport, and then we went to get dim sum in Chinatown (where we met up with Kim). It was so nice to see them, and to hear about their honeymoon trip to Ireland. I headed to Corinne's afterwards, where I managed to catch a whole quarter of the Pats game (she had invited me over to watch the whole game, of course) and stayed for the first half of the Indy game. This Friday I also went to Sally's, but this time I drank far less and there was no trip to the Nog. Last night Elenka had a dinner party for her birthday at her house in Newton - she made beef tenderloin, roasted veggies and whipped sweet potatoes, as well as a flourless chocolate cake (one of her coworkers is allergic to gluten, so everything was gluten free). And of course there was plenty of wine, because Elenka bought some and just about everyone brought some. It was nice to see Elenka, and hopefully I can hang out with her more now that things have calmed down a little for me. Today I'm supposed to watch football with Jeff and Kristen (hopefully this isn't where they have me come over and watch a 2000 picture slide show from the Ireland trip - they've promised lots of alcohol for that).
One of the downsides to the new job is Wednesday nights. I still hope I'm able to make it to poker every week, because it's one of those things that I look forward to, and I've been unhappy the few weeks when I haven't gone, for one reason or another. But I'm used to staying until the bar closes (or until well after the bar closes), and then just sleeping in Thursday morning and no one caring. Can't really do that with a new job (at least not yet, I'll have to give it some time), so I've made midnight my Wednesday night cutoff, and I'm also really truly going to try and drink less so that I'm less hungover on Thursdays. We'll see how it goes - on the one hand, being hungover every Thursday has many downsides. On the other, I love Wednesday nights and many times those hangovers are totally worth it.
Other than that... I have five new pairs of shoes! Okay, not at all exciting to most of you. I guess... I feel a little less stressed and a little less overwhelmed now that I've actually switched jobs. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Is it going to be stressful at times and require working long hours and weekends? Yes. But at least I can start getting myself into a new rhythm. And I'm really hoping that I like the new job - consulting could be a great new building block for my career. I am a little worried I'll hate consulting and that I will have to totally switch industries and start my career over, but I'm trying not to think about right now. There are also some unpleasant things going on in my life that I can do nothing about - I'm pretty upset but at the same time hoping that this will not cause too many problems (at least, any more than it already has) and I can just move on with my life.
I hope you all feel sufficiently updated now. :-)
- Lizzardie, at 8:54 AM
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
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I know, I know, I know - I owe an update about the new job, leaving the old job, the weekend in between... I've been so busy and tired (switching jobs has taken the life out of me) but I promise that I have not forgotten and will update soon!
- Lizzardie, at 12:18 AM
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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Life has been pretty dull lately, but hello anyway.
My neck hurts. This is from what I think is 4 consecutive nights of sleeping funny. I'm not happy, but I guess it's my own fault since I'm the one who purchased the bed and the blankets and the pillows, and I'm the one who apparently throws the pillows off the bed while I sleep. It's no wonder I nearly left my pillow in Maine a few weekends ago!
I stayed home from work yesterday in hopes of having a more relaxing day, and I could actually get things done! Unfortunately, that failed. I hate my last week at the old job - I'm sick of saying the things that have gone wrong, and it's not worth it for me to speak up about people walking all over me. *sigh*
Susan's goodbye party was on Friday night, and I saw her very briefly Saturday morning (she was dropping off keys), but otherwise she's gone. So sad, but I know how much she hates Boston. And there was fondue, and her old roommate wanted to make sure that I would go to parties there still even though Susan is gone. So sweet.
Monday night was my going away party thing for work, though only a few coworkers came out for it (mainly just the people I work directly with, but I do like them the best). We went to Shay's in Harvard Square, and I had never been there. Our waitress was a little crazy, but she was nice enough to charge us for a whole bottle of Rioja, even though Elly and I were drinking it by the glass. And apparently they have some good wine specials coming up, so I'd like to go there again (and it's right across from my favorite yarn store, what could be better).
I have done A LOT of drinking lately, what with the wedding, and then last Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and this Monday... yikes. I keep telling myself I'm going to cut back (particularly since it's no fun to go into work hungover) but it doesn't happen. AND it's Wednesday again, so more drinking tonight! I hope it loosens me up enough that the pain in my neck will go away!
- Lizzardie, at 5:06 PM
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
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Here is why I hate my name. This morning, I had email inviting me to join a Facebook group called "my name is Liz Jones." And yes, the person who invited me is named Liz Jones (these sorts of emails should not be read in the morning, by the way, because they are as disorienting as receiving mail addressed to you in your own handwriting). Yes, of course I joined, but really - do I actually need to see how many people are out there with the same name as me, rubbing in the unoriginality of it?
- Lizzardie, at 12:41 PM
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
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All right, now for the weekend in review:
Let's start with Saturday. Basic summary is that I left at 8:00am, picked up Cecilia and Ryan, and headed up to Maine. We stopped in Kittery so that I could do some shopping, and I managed to spend a ton of money, but now have a good base wardrobe for the new job. Afterwards, we continued on our trip, and after a few phone calls, ended up in Bar Harbor. We eventually had dinner, and made our way to Belfast (about an hour from Bar Harbor, and 10 minutes from where the wedding was), where we stayed for the night. The bad: there was a lot of confusion about where I should go Saturday afternoon, which ended up frustrating me. When I finally got to Bar Harbor, I didn't really want to talk to anyone until halfway through dinner. The good: Herb showed me around Bar Harbor, which is really a lovely little town. I'd like to spend some time up there some time. I bought some chocolate at this shop where the smell was intoxicating (I got dark chocolate pecan bark). I also saw the moon rise over the harbor, shown in the picture in my previous post. At dinner I had a real Maine lobster. And I got to chitchat with Kristen and share a hotel room with her on her last night as a free woman. :-)
Sunday: Woke up, got Kristen out for her hair appointment, finished Patriots hat #1 (which will most likely be for Jeff, since it actually fits him) and another knitting project, checked out of the hotel, had brunch in Belfast, and then headed to
Captain A. V. Nickels Inn, which is where the wedding was. There was wedding prep, followed by a beautiful wedding on the ocean. Then the reception, some hanging out and finally bed time. The bad: no hot water at the hotel Sunday morning, which meant a cold shower for me (and for Kristen). Hair appointments went longer than expected, and I think that stressed some people out. I cried during the wedding, and got drunk at the reception. They took away the food a little too soon. The sun was in my eyes during the ceremony. The good: it was a truly lovely ceremony. I thought the whole wedding party looked amazing, and I loved my outfit, including the shawl that I made and the earrings Kristen and Susan made me. The weather held out and was a pleasant temperature through the whole ceremony. The toasts were touching. It was nice to be with good friends. Susan brought me Chianti from the head table (which is how I got drunk). I got drunk (see, both good and bad), which led to lots of dancing.
Monday: We got up and had breakfast, then packed everything up and after Jeff and Kristen through their wedding announcement in a bottle into the ocean, and their car was decorated, everyone parted ways. The bad: I was so totally hungover. Driving that way sucks. I just want to be left alone when I'm hungover and of course I couldn't be, because so many people are around. The good: bed and breakfast means that the breafast is amazing - quiche with sun-dried tomatoes, a yummy biscuit, some pastry thing with meat in it and maple syrup stuff on top, cantelope with raspberries and of course as much coffee as I could drink. Friends mean well when you're hungover (I was even given wine - something about the hair of the dog that bit you - it tasted like raisins).
All in all, a very beautiful ceremony, and Jeff and Kristen both seem so incredibly happy. And I'm happy for them. But I still hate weddings (nothing against the people getting married, though - I want to get married someday, too!).
Monday when I got home, though, the world seemed to hate me. I figured I would just watch TV all night and relax. Well, RCN had something different planned for me - they upgraded my menus while I was gone, unbenownst to me, which meant that I lost all of my previously recorded shows (yes, that includes the ones I set to record while I was gone) and deleted all of my series recordings. I hate you, RCN, but at least you're refunding the DVR cost for a month with minimal complaining from me. And I figure, well, I have 2 Veronica Mars disks that I can watch, so not a huge deal. Turns out Netflix hated me, too, because the disk won't play! So I was hungover and without any TV to watch, and sad because of the whole wedding thing. :-( Fun.
And now for my last 2 weeks at Cymfony, which will be incredibly stressful and busy! Yay!
- Lizzardie, at 9:15 PM
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Nearly full moon rising over Frenchman Bay with the Queen Anne, Bar Harbor, Maine, Saturday, October 7th, 2006. I have a lot of work to do, so no long post about the wedding this weekend right now. I also did not take a ton of pictures, but there are some and I uploaded a dozen (including this one) onto Flickr. Hopefully a lot of the pictures will be made available online, and I can link to them later.
- Lizzardie, at 10:51 AM
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Friday, October 06, 2006
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I went out for Vietnamese food in Arlington last night for Rosanne's birthday. Arlington, it turns out (I did know this) is practically down the street from me - just 2 miles down Broadway brings you to what I'm guessing is downtown Arlington, because Broadway, Mass Ave (Rte 2A) and Rte 60 all meet right there. It appears there are some cute little shops there, and it may be the perfect place to explore on a nice fall Saturday. One day I may have to do this (though it might get added to the growing list of things I want to do but never will).
There are also, of course, lots of restaurants. We ended up at Viet's Cafe, which was quite delicious. I had vermicelli with a combination of pork, lemon grass beef and crispy spring rolls - this wound up being a giant bowl filled to the brim with bean sprouts, lettuce, noodles and beef, with a fish sauce on the side. A little colder than I would have liked, but quite delicious. I would love to try the soup that Vicki had - it looked really good and she raved about it (also served in a giant bowl). I don't think I'd ever had Vietnamese food before, and I have to say I was quite pleased with the experience.
And my plans for this weekend have finally been nailed down! I have to leave my house at 8am (which is earlier than I normally get up during the week) but there will be shopping along the way, and wine tasting and friends once I make it up to Maine. :-)
- Lizzardie, at 3:32 PM
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Thursday, October 05, 2006
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I don't want to work. I just wanna sit and knit all day. (Doesn't quite work, but give me a break, I'm tired.)
I don't really have anything new to report. I've felt... fatigued all week. Being a "lame duck" (my boss said it, not me) at work is still strange. I'm not quite excited about leaving (I'm sad about leaving the people, actually), but at the same time I'm unmotivated. And yet there's so much to do, and I feel like I'm not giving myself enough time by wasting what time I do have. *Sigh* Add on to that the feeling of not wanting to do anything at all and you get... a not happy Liz. Ahh well.
Poker last night was... interesting. It was the second time I ran the tournament in Herb's absence, and that part went well, I think. There were some hot-headed participants, but everyone calmed down at some point, and we got through it, and I still think everyone had a good time. Plus, one of the regulars, who had been in Iraq since the beginning of April, was back, and it was nice to see him. Our game after the tournament, though... well, let's just say the combination of a drunk guy kinda hitting on me ("Why don't you like me? I think Elizabeth is the prettiest girl here." and "I'm not going to go out with you." "Oh yes you are!" are just a few examples, and it kept going on and on and on...) with a conversation I absolutely did NOT want to have... yeah, interesting. I would have to say that I am so so so happy that things will be back to normal next week, and I can go back to playing poker - I'm not cut out to run this sort of thing on a regular basis!
Tonight I'm going out for Rosanne's birthday, tomorrow packing and then Saturday morning heading up to Maine, making it in time for wine tasting (with hopefully a stop in Kittery for a little shopping along the way).
- Lizzardie, at 11:28 AM
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Monday, October 02, 2006
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Good weekend. Friday I took off from work a little early, and took Kristen to pick up her wedding dress. It's hard to believe she and Jeff are getting married in less than a week, and it's been kinda fun to see how exited they are. Then I went to the Red Sox game with Kathy, Scott and Julie, though I was a little late, since the Red Line decided it didn't really want to run (which then backed up the Green Line - I guess I better get used to it and just make friends with the MBTA - at least I got a lot of knitting done). Kevin Millar plays for the Orioles, and the Red Sox "record" for the 5 games I attended this year was 5-0, so that makes me happy.
Saturday was busy! I got up, went to have the oil changed on my car (long time coming, let me tell you), went to buy Jeff and Kristen's wedding gift, went to buy bachelorette party presents for Kristen, had my hair done (2 1/2 hours for a partial highlight, cut and blow out, which is so ridiculous and yet it's because of how much hair I have) and then headed out for Bachelorette Party madness. There was makeup, burgers, strippers, dancing and of course lots of alcohol. I was pretty tired by the end, and my feet hurt, but Kristen seemed very drunk and happy, and that's what's important.
Sunday it was raining, and I decided that it was a good soup day. So I made soup and watched football (Pats AND Bears both win, yay), did some cleaning and of course knit as much as I could (lots of knitting got done over the weekend, even though I wasn't home that much Friday or Saturday). And I blocked my shawl, so it is finally done and ready to be worn next weekend (when I will hopefully get some pictures).
Reality still hasn't set in about the job switch, though I imagine it will seem more real after I actually switch (I still have 3 weeks). I did hit the J.Crew sale HARD this weekend, and plan on stopping in Kittery on my way up to Maine this weekend, because the one thing I do need is nice clothes. And apparently I already have projects at the new job, and I'm not even that close to starting! Yikes!
- Lizzardie, at 11:38 AM
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