It’s worth a nickel

every time i remind myself to sit down and blog, i get caught up doing something else. i know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for my latest installment … so enjoy!

work

everyone loves hearing me complain about work. (or not. i don’t actually like complaining about it myself; it’s just that there’s so much material.) i’m currently working hard, keeping my existing portfolio of projects plus half of two others! one project manager just decided not to be a project manager any more, and so my manager divided up his portfolio between myself and another peer. it must be nice to have such flexibility in one’s role; i certainly wouldn’t know firsthand. in the deal i got the messiest project since who-knows-when.

in addition to that, one of my peers is out on maternity leave through the beginning of may, so i’m covering half of her portfolio. it’s an interesting group of projects, primarily supporting our ceo’s office, but it’s demanding and consists of several little projects that all need constant attention.

but let’s put some lipstick on this monkey. in the end of january, while still in hawaii, i was offered a new job. (yay!) now as you all know, i’ve been looking forward to a new job for oh, about a year now. the fact that this was both an interesting opportunity and actually offered to me made this a clear winner in the race … until my manager said i couldn’t go. (see above; i’m far too critical as i cover for these two other project managers.) so in a nutshell, i’m stuck until june 15th. that’s my release date; after then i’m free to find another job.

i could be really angry about this. i could fight it, and i might win. well, the reality is that i am angry, and that i am fighting it. i’m just choosing to fight carefully, and looking for an even better job to fight for. fingers crossed, if you don’t mind.

there is a bright spot amid all this gloominess. the evil client is gone. i had my last client meeting with them on 02nd february, and completed my official turnover on 03rd february. long live the troll … as long as she’s somebody else’s problem.

house

we’ve made precious little progress on this front since the beginning of the year. the holidays came and went, and here it is mid-february. i’m puzzled as to where the time is going, but i’m thrilled that i’ve only got another month of winter to survive.

in my last house-related blog, we were about to tear down wallpaper in favor of paint. well, it’s done! the kitchen and upstairs bathroom have great new colors, and paul and i couldn’t be happier with the progress. we’re still finishing up some trim work, and the windows won’t be totally done until the weather warms up. i am thrilled with the difference it’s made in terms of updating the overall look of the house. as we go along, we’re also updating light fixtures, switches and outlets, as well as hinges and door hardware. It’s well worth the extra dollars, because those little items will all add up at some point when we sell the place. beyond that, it also makes us very proud of our house!

hawaii

in paul’s neverending quest to spoil me rotten, we made our third annual trip to hawaii in january. this was our first time having the opportunity to spend any time on another island; we chose to see the big island since the active volcano there is widely considered to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. it didn’t disappoint! we spent four days on the big island, before heading back to maui for paul’s conference. in all, we were gone 10 days, and the true highlight was our helicopter ride over kilauea at hawaii volcanoes national park.

recent activities

i’ve been lucky to have had two quiet weekends in a row. don’t ask me how that happened, as we’re usually swamped with things going on. of course i’ve been feeling lazy just staying home, but we have managed to make some progress on the trim paint and get to the gym at least one day each weekend. two fridays ago we had a great time at griff’s celebrating nick’s birthday, and then headed down to jersey for my cousin sarah’s birthday party. (she’s entered the dreaded teenage years; her parents are appropriately terrified.) we’ve also managed to have at least one meal a week with jimmy, which is important because you just can’t get enough jimmy, you know? and then this week i got to finally meet my (formerly online) friend ewan, which was awesome! we had a fantastic evening down in nyc, and then out of the blue he ended up coming up to poughkeepsie for dinner as well. he’s gone back to london now, but i hope he’ll visit again soon.

paul outdid himself for valentine’s day this year. after mutually agreeing that we’d not be doing anything to celebrate, considering our trip to hawaii as our gift to each other … he completely disregarded this, and took me out to dinner at a fantastic spanish restaurant that we’d been wanting to try for a while. all this plus red and white tulips (my favorite flower) and quite possibly the best mix cd ever. he was scolded for disobeying the “rules,” but he knows darn well that i loved every moment of it.

i’ve got to take a break now … so much typing!

my manager told me this morning that i’m done with my most evil customer as of january! this is perhaps the best news i’ve had in a month.

my stress levels will begin their descent to normal levels. i anticipate that activity to complete oh, around the time that i no longer have to work with my most evil customer.