I got the job!

I pretty much knew I’d get called in for the interviews and all that, but that didn’t even happen. I talked to the Sr VP yesterday afternoon and he offered me the job outright. So next week I’ll work 40 hours as a temp, and the following Monday I’ll start in a permanent, part-time position. I’m pretty stoked. :) I’ll be working with the existing Assistant until she leaves in January, so I’ll have a good 5 months to get acclimated and learn whatever work I don’t already know how to do, which is cool – especially since I’m working in the Legal dept, I’d hate to run into a situation and NOT know what to do. That could get hairy.

It’s just a little weird how fast everything fell into place. Don’t misunderstand; the layoffs are HORRIBLE. But as far as my situation is concerned, it worked out really well. I just wish my good fortune didn’t come at the expense of someone else. :P

Coming up for air

The last two weeks have been crazy. I spent last week at home – everyone was gone but my mom and me, and we both had loads of cleaning out to do. I spent the whole week going through old stuff from my room and either throwing it out or giving it away. Lordy. Most of it was easy to get rid of, but there were a few things I had a hard time with. Old stuff from college, stuff I’d gotten from my then-best-friend, that kind of thing. I couldn’t even bring myself to touch my dance bag. I know there are 8 or 10 pairs of dance shoes in there, most of which I’ll never wear again, but still. I kept thinking, “I really need to clean that out,” and the thought of it would make me teary. Guess I’m not totally ready to let go of that stuff yet. So in the bag it all remains, at least for now.

Mom was cleaning out a bunch of stuff while Dad and Baby Sis were gone, so we’d work all day and then collapse at night with a movie (and some pizza or Chinese food – the diet went all to hell last week).

I’ve also been working a temporary job at The Walt Disney Studios, and my assignment is about to be over. I should be done sometime next week, but it suddenly looks like I might be staying longer. When I got back this week (after taking last week off), I found out that there were HUGE layoffs going on. The Admin. Assistant for the Sr VP of the Legal dept (where I’m working) was among the layoffs, as was another one in the Legal dept. They’re going to take 2 full-time secretarial positions and turn them into 1 part-time position. It sounds like a lot, but in reality, both those positions (by the assistants’ own admittance) were about 30% work and 70% trying to look busy because there wasn’t really enough work to do. The new position would be 12-6, M-F, which would be a really good schedule for me at the moment, and the total pay would be about what I’m making working full-time through the temp agency now (at 40 hrs/week). Aaaaaaand, I like everyone here, and they all seem to like me a lot too, so I’m first in line for the job if I want it.

They actually offered me this position before the layoffs, and I had turned it down, because I was thinking I’d need full days free to do background work in order to get my union card for acting. But since that time, I’ve gotten an agent, which means I’ll need a couple of hours here and there to audition, but not full days off, since I have every intention of getting my union card by working commercials. And if I had a job like this, it’d pay my bills, so anything I made from a commercial (which pays $1000-$80,000/year, depending on the commercial and the distribution) would just go straight to my bank account/stock account. I could buy a house in 3 or 4 years! That would be AWESOME! So I talked to my supervisor the other day and said that since things had changed with the agent situation, I’d be interested if that position opened up. And that was BEFORE I heard about the Admin. Assistants getting laid off! ::::Shakes head::::

So I might be staying at Disney. Which would be cool. As a part-timer I don’t get ANY benefits: no health, no sick or vacation days, no free park passes, but that’s no different from what I’m getting through the temp agency, so it’s not like I’d be giving anything up. AND I’d be on a studio lot (where there are frequent celebrity sightings, which is SO cool), AND I’d be working for a really cool company, with really cool people. So I’m beginning to get excited. :)

Wish me luck. I’ll try and post again sooner than two weeks from now! LOL

Oh, I almost forgot!!! I finally cracked that weight plateau: down a total of 11.4 now! :D (And I’m reading a REALLY interesting health book that I’ll talk about later.)

Laugh of the day . . . or maybe the year

Click here:

http://www.filmhacks.blogspot.com/

Read the post called "I love the internets, yes I do."
Click on the links provided in the article as you read.

Try not to wet yourself because you're laughing too hard.

:D

If you want more fun, about the same post, go here:

http://sufficientscruples.com/blog/2006/07/06/anti-choice-tool-confirms-stereotype-one-in-a-continuing-series/

Note: If you read this and you're pro-life, please understand that I am not posting this to bash pro-lifers. I am posting this to bash stupidity, no matter what side of an issue it's on! LOL




The word of the day:
Peculiar

A five things meme

This was entertaining . . . From PJ over at Mixed With Sugar . . . :D (I gotta stop stealing your stuff! LOL)

The Five Things Meme

Five things in my closet:
Handbags (each stuffed with tissue and stored)
Shoe boxes (with shoes in them – I’m not THAT messy! :D)
Plastic stackable storage containers (full of underwear, socks/nylons and bras)
My computer case
My weekend carry-all (for traveling)

Five things in my car:
Extra headshots and resumes
Gum
A soap dish full of change (for when I’m broke and need coffee or parking money)
Miscellaneous CDs
A blank notebook (for the mileage I keep forgetting to write down)

Five things in my refrigerator:
A jar of roasted red peppers
Kalamata olives (almost gone, now. ::::pout::::)
Low-carb tortillas from Trader Joe’s
Olive oil
Egg Whites
Oo, oo – can I add a sixth? English cheddar with carmelized onions! I found it at Trader Joe’s and it’s SO GOOD! :D Makes a hell of an omelette . . .

Five things in my purse:
(Skipping the obvious – wallet, phone, etc.)
A mini-makeup bag (yes, there’s more than powder and lipstick in it – scary, huh? :D)
Balance Bar
Disneyland Annual pass
Water bottle
3 CDs (I have to do SOMETHING at work while I file things!)

So there ya go . . . what are your five things??

An update

The last few weeks I haven’t been doing so well, weight-wise. I gained about a pound and a half since my 9.3 pounds post, and I’ve been holding steady at about an 8 pound loss ever since.

The last couple of weeks I really wasn’t in a good place emotionally or physically. I had run my body into the ground, and it really took getting sick to straighten out my head. So I’m trying to take better care of myself. My cousin really wants to get some consistent exercise, and so do I, so we’re nagging each other, which works out well. LOL We don’t exercise together, but we’ll ask each other, “Did you exercise this week?” “Have you exercised again yet?” “You know you only have to do one more day; did you do it yet?” She’s cute, too. We’ll be sitting in the playroom talking, and suddenly she’ll announce dramatically, “We should both be exercising! Let’s go! This conversation can wait! I’ll talk to you in 40 minutes when we’re done!” LOL But it helps to be a little bit accountable, especially to someone who won’t get snotty if I don’t always make my goals.

As an aside, in the last Weight Watchers meeting, the leader was talking about getting support from other people. She was talking about how she’d tell her husband, “I really need your support,” and then two days later SHE’D suggest going out for ice cream. And he really couldn’t win: if he reminded her that she was trying to lose weight, she was mad (“You aren’t my father!”), and if he obligingly went along for ice cream, she was mad (“Why did you let me do that?”)! LOL She finally figured out what she needed and said to him, “At this party tonight, I’m not going to eat any of the hors doeuvres (sp??), except the veggies. So if you happen to notice that I’m doing really well, and sticking to my resolve, I’d really appreciate it if you’d come over and tell me you’re proud of me. And if you see me breaking my resolve and inhaling piles of chips, just DON’T SAY ANYTHING.” LOL That cracked me up, but I knew what she meant. It’s nice to have your efforts appreciated, but no one wants a baby-sitter.

So my cousin and I are trying to get in at least 3 days of exercise every week. I figure that’s enough to do me some good, and not so much that I get either obsessive (and start working out 2 hours a day, 7 days a week – I’ve been there :P) or overwhelmed (after about 3 weeks of working out 2 hours every day!) and quit. Three days a week. I can do that, right? Sure.

I’m a little proud of myself right now, though; I haven’t been drinking abnormally, by which I mean either for the wrong reasons and/or to excess. I had a beer on the Fourth with my cousin, and a glass of wine the other night. Actually I poured a second glass and started on it, but after a swallow or two I realized what I was doing, and I dumped the rest of it out. THAT was hard!! LOL I’m not a big fan of dumping out wine!

But other than that, I have not been drinking the last couple of weeks. There isn’t even any in the house at the moment. So I’m feeling saner. And when I wish I had a glass of (fill in the blank – I’ll drink anything), I’ve been making it a point to stop and think about WHY I want it. Usually I just need to go to bed, because I’m just tired. And sometimes the mental chatter in my head is out of control, which means I need to meditate. (Note to self: mediTATE, not mediCATE! LOL) It’s almost always one of those two things, though.

So, yay for that. :)

So very little alcohol, some exercise, and I have started being a little, teeny, tiny bit more honest about what I’m putting in my mouth! LOL I think I’d started low-balling those points . . . ah, screw it, I KNOW I’d started low-balling those points! “If the salmon roll (salmon, rice and seaweed) is 4 points, then the spicy salmon and avocado roll (salmon, avocado, a little mayo, rice and seaweed) is probably the same, right? Veggies don’t really count towards points, and there’s not really enough mayo in it to count . . . so yeah, 4 points is probably about right. “

A-HEM. May I have a side of sabotage to go with my main course of denial? Thank you SO much. And for dessert I think I’ll have the “Why me?” Oh, what the heck. I’ll have another plate of denial to go as well; I’m sure if it’s the same food the points won’t REALLY count. Lovely, thank you. :P

Fun with words

This post is inspired by one that PJ posted recently . . . Thanks, PJ! :D

What words do you like? And what words (especially made-up words) drive you crazy?

I really really like the word windowsill. Especially if you say it a little exaggeratedly. Start high and then drop down every syllable: WIN-Dow-sill . . . Love it. :D

And “pickle relish.” I love the staccato sound of it: pic-kle-rel-ish. ::::hums happily::::

On the flip side, have you ever said a word so many times in a row that it loses all meaning and suddenly becomes nothing more than an odd conglomeration (I like that word, too) of sounds? And suddenly you realize how odd your own language sounds. Ooorrrrrrrrrr . . . maybe it’s just me. :P I used to do that all the time when I was little, although mostly I did it in my room Otherwise somewhere around the 30th repetition of the word my mother would start hollering, “If I hear you say “hamburger” ONE MORE TIME . . . !!!” LOL

On the other hand, there are words and mispronunciations that make me CRAZY. “Heighth” is a prime example. “What is your heighth?” WTF??? There is NO SUCH WORD AS HEIGHTH, PEOPLE!! It’s HEIGHT! No “H” at the end! Hard “T!” Everybody say it together, now . . . HeighT!! Like “heighT and weighT” – they go together, just like the “TH” words: “lengTH and widTH.” There is generally no mixing of the two. You just don’t usually hear, “height and width,” unless someone (who thinks they’re funny) is being incredibly rude. Likewise, you don’t hear “length and weight,” unless you’re talking about a newborn.

HEIGHT, PEOPLE!!! HEIGHT!!!! EMBRACE THE “T!” THE “T” IS YOUR FRIEND!!!!

::::deep breath:::: Excuse me while I clamber down off my soapbox now. I feel much better.

As an aside, I also like the word “clamber.” “Traipse” is another good one, often used by my mom when I was late coming home: “Where did you go traipsing off to?” And let’s not forget “conglomeration,” listed above.

Pardon me now, while I go traipsing off to do some work . . .

Nothing to see here . . .

Life is extremely uneventful at the moment. I was sick for several days, so that pretty much curtailed any wild, debauched Fourth of July plans. That is, if I’d HAD any wild, debauched Fourth of July plans! LOL

I moved into a new room over the weekend (still in Grandma’s house, but a nicer room with its own bathroom, which I’m more than willing to pay rent for), and it was FILTHY. So I vacuumed and dusted and Windex-ed and Pledge-d everything within an inch of its life, and when I was done, my sinuses were so full of dust that I couldn’t breathe. Combine that with the fact that I was exhausted from the busy schedule I’ve had lately, and ta-da! I woke up Monday morning with what I hoped was just a summer cold, but which turned out to be a fairly nasty virus.

I don’t get sick very often. I really only get sick when I’ve run my body past its limits and then pushed it some more. Bad food, no sleep, too much activity, no meditation, no exercise, and my body finally says, “All right, BITCH. You don’t want to rest? Watch THIS!!” and BOOM! I’m sick. And what do I do when I’m sick? Lie on the couch and watch movies all day. Sounds like rest to me. So my body always wins like that. Dirty fighter. :P

And that was pretty much my week. I finally got back in to work yesterday, and got some stuff done, although I sleep-walked through the second half of the day. But I woke up this morning feeling fairly human, so I’m officially back in the world of the living! Just in time to start my Saturday class back up and get busy all over again!! ::::sigh:::: I have GOT to learn how to be crazy-busy and still stay sane. No, I take that back. I KNOW how – I just have to make the commitment to DO the meditation and DO the exercise and DO the nutrition.

Who knew being an adult would be so much frickin’ WORK???? LOL