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Monday, September 29, 2008

Exciting news update!

I got a new job!! Tomorrow I take a drug test, and next week once they've done my background check and confirmed my offer, I will fomally resign from my current job and set an official last day, although I told my supervisor today.

That was the part I was most nervous about, but she was totally cool with it and happy for me, and said I could call her any time and she'd have a spot for me! So I am totally psyched out that I am going to get to start all over, do something totally different, make more money, and I haven't even burned any bridges! How awesome is that. I don't even know how I got to be so lucky.

As an added perk, I am now working for a company that you might have actually heard of, EDS (Electronic Data Systems, founded by Ross Perot), that was recently bought by a company you've almost definitely heard of, HP (Hewlett-Packard, maker of many computers and printers)! Even better, I am now able to explain to you in a fairly simple and clear manner what it is that I actually DO for a living!

I am a Data Analyst: I will be doing statistical analysis on Medicare data to look for fraud indicators. I will be spending lots of time with databases, Excel spreadsheets, and pivot tables, which I love. Sound boring? Go stuff it in your ear, because I'm excited about it. I love spreadsheets and pivot tables, and I get to leave behind all the stress from my old job and start fresh. I'm sure I'll eventually have just as much stress at the new job, but at least it will be new stress and I'll get to start from zero again. I am seriously seriously excited. Yay for newness!

If everything goes well, then 3 years down the road when I'm starting to get bored with this job, by then we'll have bought a house and Paul will be mostly finished with his Engineering degree, and I'll start looking into becoming a teacher. Also, I kind of want to have a baby by 3 years from now, so we'll see. Life could be pretty different. In a good way.

What with that, and going to California with Paul in two days, and having television again, I'd say it's been an exciting and productive week! Paul's favorite part of the day was realizing that he can now watch Jeopardy every night and Nova on Tuesdays. Unfortunately for me, Nova is on at the same time as House, but I don't mind watching House online if watching Nova makes Paul that happy.

Right now Paul is doing his math homework. I've helped him a tiny bit with a few problems, and it's so much fun! For me, that is. I don't think Paul's minding it too much either, though.

And now...good night.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Another exciting week...

Paul and I leave for California very early this Thursday morning! Yay.

Also, some hopefully exciting news coming tomorrow morning...more about that later. Probably not until at least next week. No, I'm not pregnant; nothing like that.

Tonight: listening to "This American Life," dishes, laundry, crocheting, and helping Paul make Moroccan Cous cous for dinner - yum. Also, chicken.

Oh! Also, Paul got an antennae for our TV, so now we have PBS and NBC and Fox and CBS. I can watch House this Tuesday! And the debates on NBC! Yay. And all for only $25, once. Sweet.

Have a good week, everyone!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Good Year

I need to get in bed with my hubby since I'm going to be away for the next three nights, but I was inspired to do a quick post.

First order of business: Allow me to be slightly inappropriate and blow my own horn for a minute here to tell you that I'm singing the Alto part with two men in a trio at the 11:00 AM service at Trinity on October 12. Afterwards, we're having a little birthday picnic for Paul at our place. Linda is bringing Paul's favorite, Pineapple Upside-down Cake, and the rest of the menu is TBD but will probably involve some grilled food and pasta salad. YOU are invited!! If you want to come to the picnic but can't make it to church, you should get here around 1:00 PM. Please let me know if you're coming by, let's say, Thursday, October 9.

Anyway...

So one of Paul's relatives sent us an anniversary card to 204 North 11th Street, which I'm pretty sure doesn't even exist (the house number OR the "North" bit), but after it was returned to her she sent it to Paul's parents' house, so we just got it tonight when we went out to dinner for Linda's birthday. It was a nice card, with a nice note inside, and now I'm feeling mushy and would like to reflect on my first year of marriage.

It's been awesome.

We talk, and tease, and poke fun, and fight, and yell, and cry, and make up, and hold hands, and kiss, and say "I love you" a lot.
We have lots of great conversations, and sometimes we just sit and stare off into space.
Paul gets mad at me for not doing dishes enough (he always does them), and I get mad at Paul for not turning off the basement light. Ever.
We still have boxes that have never been unpacked, but we've painted two rooms and installed a very nice kitchen where before we had next to nothing.
We cook a lot, and eat out sometimes, and joined the YMCA but don't use it enough; sometimes we take walks, and sometimes we go on hikes, and we still don't have TV and even so we rarely watch our Netflix movies.
I always clutter up the couch and Paul always balls up his socks or takes them off inside-out.
We can't keep the living room clean.
Even though we own a washer and dryer, I still don't do laundry often enough, and we both run out of underwear.
I'm singing in choir and playing in bell choir, and Paul is working on improving the church's computer room and starts his first HACC math class this Tuesday.
I love hearing the stories Paul has to tell about working at Killian Fireplace Centre.
Whenever we drive anywhere, I scratch Paul's head or rub his arm, and we're both calm and happy.
We drag each other to stuff the other doesn't want to do, and end up both having a good time anyway.
We have fun hanging out with Paul's friend, and with my friends, so now they're all just OUR friends.
We snuggle in bed every night.

October will be the first month of our second year in this apartment; we plan to buy a house in time to move out before next October. (Make checks payable to "Paul and Meredith A____" and write "House fund" in the subject line! Haha.)

It has been the best year of my life, and next year is going to be even better.

I am going to go snuggle right now, since I'll be sleeping alone the next three nights!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Too much work

New big contract got a new big task order awarded today. I submitted my timecard today with 90 hours even for a 2-week period, but if I need to work later than 4pm tomorrow as I suspect I will, I will end up with even a bit more than 90 hours. Sheesh.

So to sum up, I've been too lazy to blog. Or exercise. Two things, at least one of which is probably more important than what I have been doing with my evenings, namely posting things on facebook and watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on comedycentral.com.

But it has been wonderful to see both those shows again. I especially loved the musical interlude on the 9/17 Daily Show, incorporating all the correspondents, and John himself doing beatbox for rap. Amazing. Colbert's Word of the Day for 9/17 was also wonderful.

Next week: leaving Monday at 6 to drive down to McLean, VA again for more training. Fun, and I'm excited to meet the woman I trained over the phone on my old contracts, and am also looking forward to trying out the whirlpool and sauna at the Ritz Carlton where I am staying, but also not thrilled about sleeping by myself for 3 more nights and driving down there for the 3rd time in 5 weeks. This should be the last time for the foreseeable future, at least. Oh, also not thrilled about spending 2 hours in the car with a woman I barely know, but this is probably the only time I'll ever be traveling with anyone, so I can deal. I just hope she lets me listen to NPR the whole way down, or I will be cranky.

OK time for bed. Good night.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Politics

I have some ranting to do about Giuliani's speech from last night, one part in particular (can you say "blatant fear mongering"?), but since it's much more fresh in my mind I'm going to gripe about one part of McCain's speech (and the entire Republican convention in general).

I hate special interest stories.

McCain, about 10 minutes ago, talked about a few specific families and their specific problems. Then he said that they needed someone in the white house who would care about them, and that he was that person. The implication is, apparently, that Obama wouldn't care about them? So what, Obama wants them to have these problems?? Of course not! Obama wants to help those people and everyone else just as much as McCain does, he just has different ideas about how to do it. McCain telling those stories tells us NOTHING about himself, his opponent, or the differences between them; it is purely rhetoric and propaganda, meant only to manipulate people's feelings, and is nothing more than a slightly more subtle form of the fear mongering Giuliani employed during his speech last night.

At least McCain didn't also employ the ridiculous level of immature name-calling, but I'm sorry to say his speech had only slightly more substantial content than Giuliani's.

Also: after all the ridicule he's taken from his over-use of the topic of 9/11, I found it hilarious as well as infuriating that Giuliani felt the need to point out, as if it were a bad thing, that the Democrats didn't talk about 9/11 enough at their convention. REALLY?? The Republicans have mentioned terrorism a lot (A LOT a lot), but I think Giuliani is the only one who's made much mention of 9/11. What an idiot.

And finally, do you think they could possibly fit in one more detailed description of McCain's torture as a POW? I haven't heard a speaker yet who hasn't at least summarized that story. It's admirable, and it shows some important things about his character, but it has NOTHING to do with his ability to be a good president in terms of policy.

Unfortunately I think the republicans have a reasonable shot at winning. I certainly hope not, but I have to admit it. So please, please please please, vote for Obama. Don't be sucked in by the empty propaganda and emotional manipulation of the Republicans.