Wednesday, May 30, 2012

So yeah, okay....

Is this how it happens?  You just stop making an effort and find one day that you have only written a few entries in a single month?  In a year?  That seems to be the way of most blogs that I follow as of late, and it certainly threatens to become a pattern for me.

Other than the invasion of Mothra in my garage, there have been no other animal invasion attempts in my home.  My plans to attain a Ruger 10/22 rifle continue forward despite the fact that my brother now wants to join in on the plan which means I will have to wait a bit longer to freak out my friends and family.

Speaking of friends, it has finally happened.  ALL of my friends are knocked up.  Seriously.  It is insane, but true.  Honestly, it's pretty sweet when you really think about it.  I get to have all sorts of fun buying funny and cute things for the new babies, but I don't have to consider any of the nitty-gritty aspects of child-bearing and rearing.

Work continues to cause emotional upheaval in my life, which is perhaps what has led to my increased tiredness and inability to remember to update my blog.  It has also put a damper on my quest to find gainful library-related employment.  I have to remind my self repeatedly that I am actually seeking a voluntary career change and do not need to simply accept the easy route.

If there is one thing that I have found to be particularly helpful in my weekly routine, it has turned out to be the train.  Once a week, I take the commuter train to downtown Minneapolis to spend the day working at an unpaid internship.  True, it doesn't make my day any shorter, but waking up and knowing that I do not have to get in my car to focus and get through rush hour is pretty nice.  Who would have thought that staring mindlessly out a window for a 30 minute ride into the city could be so therapeutic?

Sorry that this is not a markedly profound entry, but I felt that I should make some sort of contact.  Hopefully I will be able to be a bit more entertaining in the near future, but for now, that is all.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Nocturnal creatures

Do you ever wish that you could just put the world on pause and take a few weeks off on a deserted island somewhere?  Even if you never had, it does sound nice, right?

Well, things are calming down a bit, but I say that hesitantly as it is still a volatile process.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Lena has done her best to keep things interesting and thereby distract me from other parts of my life.

Last night she attempted to do this by bringing a new character into our nightly line-up.

Every night before bed we take one last trip outside so that Lena can have a bathroom break.  Lately this has coincided with the daily sprinkler run in my yard, so we usually wait it out and go out after the waterworks are complete.

Yesterday evening was typical in many ways, including the sprinkler run and the visit outside in the dark.

Lena is by nature an inquisitive gal.  She likes to sniff around in the grass and look for "tasty" surprises.  Normally this consists of grass clippings, leaves or dirt.

This particular time I did not pay much attention to her scavenging.  We went out, she peed and we came back in.

As I bent over to remove her collar and leash, I noticed that she was setting something down on the carpet from outside.  Initially I shrugged it off as something plant based.

Then I noticed the movement.  I assumed that at worst she had brought in an insect.  A June bug or a moth at most.

I turned away briefly to find a shoe with which to smush the bug only to be startled into the moment by a small and green object hopping across the carpet towards me.  Yes, it was a small frog, escorted into my home in the mouth of my dog.

In a moment of panic, I considered my options.  Clearly, smushing the creature was out of the question.  I briefly considered the possibility of letting it move into the house and maybe help me out with the bugs.  Fortunately, I realized quickly that this was less than feasible.

A far more manly-type woman would have just picked him up and set him down outside.  Me?  I went to the kitchen, fetched a plate and bowl and made an attempt to trap it.

This proved not quite as successful as I had envisioned, but in the end, the frog jumped onto the plate and patiently remained still while I ran for the door and freed him into the night.  It was all over in a matter of minutes, but it sure got my heart race pumping.  It was a strong reminder that as a single gal living independently, there are sometimes less than appealing tasks to be done and I cannot ask anyone else to help, because they are not there.

From now on, I will be more observant.  Promise.

OK, that isn't true.  I fully expect that my watchfulness will hardly remain careful or heightened past tonight.  But now I know that frogs like Tupperware plates and can use that to my advantage.  I hope the little guy made it out into the night and lives to share the story of his crazy encounter with indoor carpeting and the inside of my dog's mouth.  It would be so much more exciting than my story.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

I really should be getting to bed...

You may be wondering what has happened to me.  Did I get sick?  Win the lottery?

The answer is NO to both, but I have been spending most days feeling as though I have been hit by a truck.  As I may have already mentioned, my job is in a bit of chaos-mode at the moment.  This has been hard for many reasons.

1.  People.  In any change of this kind, there are going to be changes in personnel, but the farewells are much more abrupt and closure is much harder to find.

2.  Role.  Unlike a normal "new job" situation, we were not given the opportunity to know what our full options were.  They pretty much have taken us as we stand and plugged us into jobs that work in the short term.  Obviously, things could shake out differently at a later time, but for now it pretty much sucks.  Hardly anyone is doing what they are qualified for or even want to do, myself included.  Every position I have ever taken has been by choice, as in I found the position and decided that I wanted it.  This is more or less a "this is all we've got" type of scenario.

3.  Trust.  In any "hostile" takeover, there is the slightly major problem that even though this new company is now in charge and may have an impressive balance sheet, we have no real way of knowing what they are like to work for, aside from what the transitional crew tells us, which I suspect is carefully scripted.  Unfortunately, the "real" workers are all quite far away from where we are, so it's a bit difficult to understand their reputation.

4.  Plans.  Originally, I decided to go back to graduate school because I wanted to make a career change.  I hoped to hang on to my old and reliable job until something panned out in the library realm, but that has turned out to be a very slow process.  In the meantime, there are still bills to be paid.  Translation: I now find myself not only applying to library jobs but to jobs in my "old" line of business.  It is very surreal.

If you didn't pick up on the hint, I do not intend to stick around with the new regime, at least not if I can find a decent alternative.  Call me crazy, but I prefer well-established local companies when it comes to employers.  Just personal preference, I guess.

Aside from the job crazy-ness, I finally got my elliptical machine, which means that I have been diligently (albeit not cheerfully) getting up at 5 a.m. to use it EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.  Good, right?  Sure.  That reminds me, it's almost 9:30 p.m.  I need to get to bed.

I promise, when things calm down a bit and I start getting more sleep, I will try to resume a more regular writing schedule.  It may not be for another few weeks (or even months), but hang in there with me, OK?

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

My feet are plotting my murder...

But they're in for a surprise.  Tomorrow I intend to throw them for a loop by wearing some boring and traditional shoes.  True, this is because I am working downtown at my internship and cannot stand to walk the city streets of Minneapolis in heels, but whatever.  It still saves me from the pain.

So now you're wondering what is going on with my feet, right?  Or perhaps you would rather know why I have been so lax in the posting of new entries?  I will wait a moment while you decide.

As it turns out, the answers to both questions are related.

Last Friday at the end of the workday, my company was taken over by a new owner.  In a matter of 30 minutes, our office building was flooded with dozens of unknown people and the takeover began.  Needless to say, it has been a hectic few days.  I am still not completely reconciled to the change; but this is mostly due to the fact that the process is far from complete.

Oh, and I also found out that the last library job for which I interviewed has hired another candidate.

There is nothing quite like finding the financial support beneath your feet shaken to the core to upset your inner balance.

To be fair, I still have a job.  But things they are a changing.  Will it be an improvement?  I cannot say.  I (along with all of my coworkers) must wait patiently until we are either offered new (unknown) positions or released.

The net result of all this stress and movement is that my poor feet have taken a severe beating.  The normal and somewhat sensible work shoes that I wear have not held up well.  In my opinion, however, it is not entirely their fault.  You see, we have entered the season of rapid temperature change in MN.  One day may top out at 60 degrees and the next day could see 80 or higher.  This fluctuation wreaks havoc on my body.  And my feet.

But in an odd way, the weather is a bit of a metaphor for my life:  fluctuating.