CarcaPWND

I played Carcassonne three times today. It was awesome.

I also got improportionately excited about a new litter box I bought for Mabel. Who, by the way, is the cutest cat on the planet.

In three weeks, I'll be in Arizona with my parents, aunt/uncle, grandpa, sister, and Aron. We're going to the Grand Canyon! I'm so excited.

Maybe my blogs will get more exciting then.

Then again, maybe not.

Too dark for socialization.

I love it when my cat lets me spoon her. It's very rare, but so delightful. Until my mouth and nose are filled with cat hair.

Which is, granted, better than the current state of Jess's mouth and nose, which are...prohibiting her from breathing, which is the opposite of what they are supposed to do.

My sweet boyfriend took me to Benihana for dinner tonight. Filet mignon and tuna steak? Yes please. Sangria in a cat-shaped cup? Obviously. Chef throwing shrimp tails into his own hat? Bonus!!

Bedtime at 10 on a Friday night? Wooooo winter hibernation!

The rain in Spain

I got an email at work today from my coworker, Eric's stepmom. She's in a community theater production of My Fair Lady, and tonight was the last dress rehearsal, to which she had two tickets for me, if I cared for them.

Um, obviously that's a YES!

I love My Fair Lady. It's so linguistic and phonetic and funny! And I just love theater in general, especially musicals. Watching community theater makes me want to be involved in community theater. I was so shy and quiet in high school, I never had the courage to be in shows. Now I wish I had. Watching them makes me want to sing and dance.

We had a Halloween Howl concert at church last Sunday, during which my sister and I sang "What is this Feeling," from Wicked. I need to do that more often, and get less nervous.

Day Two

Why do they call them sixlets? There's almost never SIX in a package. Eightlets? Tenlets? Never-enough-lets? Better than M&M-lets?

Tonight at choir, we started practicing our big, epic Christmas number. We're going to have the organ and a string quartet backing us up. It's going to be beautiful and impressive.

It was free vending-machine-coffee day at work today, AND yesterday. Super delightful. And an excellent addition to all the candy I've been eating.

My cat is so adorable it sometimes hurts me. She's been following me around ever since I got home, waiting for me to go to bed. I guess it's about that time, then.

Oh, I just bought this shirt. Aw yeah.

Remember, remember.

It's that time again. November. National Novel Writing Month. Time for Cindy to rejoin the world of blogging and attempt a feat of utmost difficulty: daily blogging.

If you'll recall, last year I attempted CiPeBleMo - Cindy's Personal Blogging Month. If you'll also recall, I failed. But I did better than I expected to, and decided even then that I wanted to try it again this year. So here I am. Back again.

Good timing, too; it's going to be a difficult season, methinks. It will be nice to blog again.

Summertime

Three months, it's been. I do apologize for that, dear readers, if there are any of you left. There is, as always, much to say. Here we have it in a nutshell:

+ Love my job. Love it so, so much.
+ Had one of the best birthdays I can ever remember. Wonderful cabin weekend.
+ HP7.2 is amazing.
+ Moved out. Signed a lease at a beautiful place. Then it burned down. A few weeks of terrible apartment hunting ensued, and then we managed to find an even better place. I live there now. It's amazing. We have a washer and dryer. We have a balcony. I have a garage. And I have a master suite. A master suite!!! We painted two walls extremely BLUE. Love my apartment. Love it.
+ An old friend turned into a new boyfriend. My feelings are sometimes jumbled and mixed and weird, but ultimately? I have never been happier. I have never had someone better. I can't stop smiling. I am not getting nearly enough sleep, because neither of us ever want to part at night, so we stay up way too late, just so we can stay together.

I'm in love with the whole world lately.

And apparently I don't blog as much when I'm happy? It's a decent problem to have, really.

Random tidbits.

It's no wonder people read chick lit, terrible romance novels, mindless fluff. Such books never come out in hardcover. They are small, easily held, light. My most recent tome of choice is too heavy to hold up for long while I relax in my hammock. When people say light summer reading, I think they mean it literally!

I got in my car after work today and reached for my chapstick. Something didn't feel right, though. My hand got sticky, and I was nervous to take the cap off. My poor, poor lip balm did not just get a little melty, a little smooshy; it started to liquefy.

You know it's a bad traffic day when 30 on the highway seems recklessly fast.

My sister and I beat my grandma and Chuck at bridge. We won three games in a row, which apparently has a special name. "You got a 700 rubber? Well that's just disgusting." Thanks, grandma, I knew you'd be proud of us for learning so well.

I managed to coax a few freckles out of hiding today. I've missed them dearly.

Did I mention I'll be moving out soon? I don't yet know where, but Jess and I will soon be roommates once again. About damn time, eh?

There's more. There's always more. But I am woefully behind on sleep, and I must go attempt to remedy that.

The Little Things

Having been out of windshield washer fluid for a good two weeks now, it gives me a disproportionate level of glee that the dealership filled it up during my car's check-up this evening.

I seriously giggled maniacally.

Editor Extraordinaire

It's day 2, and I love my new job. Today, everyone who could make it from the Creative Department went out for a team lunch to welcome me. I think there were about 20 of us at this delicious Mexican buffet. (Ps, it's a good thing I wasn't aware that Mexican buffets existed before now. I might be in trouble here. Mexican is my favorite.) My coworkers are nice and welcoming and, best of all, hilarious. They poke fun at each other all the time, and it's just a very relaxed and awesome environment. A couple of them were playing Carcassonne on their iphones with each other, and they were crazy impressed/shocked that I knew what it was.

Also, I have a desk! I have never had my own desk before, and I can't even tell you how excited I am about it. Today I made a voicemail message for my direct line and got my email set up. I'm learning my way around the very maze-like building (seriously, some of the cubes are over six feet tall! Why?!), starting to kinda sorta remember the names of people outside my immediate Editing department, and loving every minute so far. I want to bring cleaning wipes and dust everything in my cube. Think my fellow editors (there are three of us that sit in the "Editors' Lounge") will think I'm crazy? I haven't actually spent much time in my cube or at my desk yet, as I've been training with my boss, which involves doing my work in his office so we can discuss it. It's weird how excited I am to arrange to my liking and fill my drawers with things and decorate.

Oh. Would you like to know about my actual job? So far, I'm rocking it. My red pen is mighty indeed. I miss things, because I'm new, and I don't know exactly how things like formatting work around here, and my eyes are too new to notice things like the font being a half a point off, but I'm doing well. I have a handy editing guide, a dictionary, and lots of people to ask if I have questions. I can't believe I spent so much time flight attending and banking without being anxious to get into my field; now that I'm here, I never want to leave. I truly love commas, guys, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Editing has been the ultimate goal in my mind for almost ten years now (since summer 2002), and it makes me so, so happy to finally be doing it.


In other adventurous news, I went over to the ginger's place after work on Saturday. I've seen him every weekend since he saved me from the wedding I crashed, usually around 2am. This time, it was 2pm. We hung out for awhile, watched an episode of Sex and the City (seriously.), and then went on a walk and sat and talked at a coffee shop. It was...quite lovely, actually.

This past weekend I went to see a show called Girls Only, the Secret Comedy of Women. If you get a chance to see this performed, GO. I was laughing so hard I was almost in tears a couple of times. I'm considering going again with a bunch of girlfriends in tow, that's how good it was.


Things are just...really good. I have a new job that I love, a new mysterious entanglement I'm enjoying, friends that are awesome, the shiny new prospect of moving out sooner rather than later... Suffice it to say, I'm smiling a lot these days. And that, dear readers, is a wonderful thing.

Nine to five.

Once again, I find myself quitting a job that, though unrelated to my field, I've enjoyed and met great people through.

This time, however, I will not be unemployed. I am quitting the bank because I have my first real, post-college, degree-related job. On Tuesday, I accepted a position as Assistant Editor at a catalog. I get a desk, and coworkers, and an 8 to 5, Monday to Friday schedule, and benefits, and a livable wage! I could not be more excited about this.

On top of that, I'm leaving the bank on a high note. I got two top-boxes today (highest possible scores on customer satisfaction surveys), which is super important to this company. In recognition, I got to take home a sweet camping chair! Aww yeah. Everyone has been very sad upon finding out that I'm leaving, which makes me feel proud. I've clearly made a good impression and done a good job here. The store manager even told me that if things don't work out at the catalog, I still have a place there!

I'll miss the transactions, which I've gotten very speedy at, and the people, who are overall awesome, but I'll tell you what, I sure won't miss handling filthy money all day.