Random Ramblings

The latest on the job situation (as of Tuesday) is that my boss-to-be is finalizing the job description and work contract, getting final approvals from the Board, and hopefully I'll be able to start next Monday. This would be nice, given that this is my fourth week of not working and I'm starting to go stir crazy.

Gaming has been good, and probably the one thing that's been keeping me socially engaged recently. Thank God for the creativity involved in pretending to be someone else.

My weight's crept up a bit, but I don't want to start undertaking anything major until I start working again. No point in starting an exercise routine only to stop after a single week because you don't have time anymore. I've been doing a fair amount of walking, but my shoe has been causing my right foot and leg to act up. I really should buy a new pair of shoes... when I have money.

Speaking of "when I have money," I've got a list of things I'd like to buy after I'm employed again. I refuse to buy anything now while I'm still unemployed, just in case things fall through. But there's some kitchen stuff I'd like to buy, and I'm also seriously considering getting an iphone. Can anyone recommend some wicked apps?

I've also been doing a decent amount of cooking and baking, though I haven't written about it much. I made a really awesome soup a few weeks ago, and I improved a plum crumble and some banana muffins earlier this week. (Note: This may also be why my weight is creeping up. *grin*)

Anyway, that's it for my life at the moment. I'm very anxious to have a signed job contract, but hopefully that'll all work itself out by next week. For now... groceries, so that I may cook for my game on Saturday. It's what keeps me going.

Hi everyone. I realize in looking back through my recent entries that although I've been posting quite a bit, I haven't actually written anything about how my life's been going in a while. I figured I owed you. (And if you figure differently, you can always click away from this post. The internet is nice that way.)

1. Job hunting: After a very, very long period of procrastination, I sent out seven CVs last week. (To Davids Tea, McGill, Concordia, and the Côte St-Luc library.) Seven isn't great, but it's better than nothing. Now I just need to keep the momentum going and remember to follow up on the ones I sent. Also, at some point I should really figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

2. Roleplaying: Lots of gaming, as you can probably tell from all my "lines of the night" posts. Enjoying it muchly, and worry that when I get a new job, I'll have to cut back. Four games at a time (including two that are weekly or almost-weekly) take up a lot of time. Oh, and I may be co-GMing a one-shot game at the end of December.

3. Apartment: I've now been in my "new" apartment for slightly over a year, and I've mostly adjusted to its little quirks. We're getting some tiny ants in the living room and a bit of a resurgence of bugs in the pantry (despite everything being in sealed containers), but I attribute that mostly to the season. I may be getting a new sofa soon to replace the ratty, ripped one, which would be very nice.

4. Relationship: It's been a tough few weeks. Marc's been dealing with some Stuff (tm) that it's not my place to talk about, but it looks like he's finally made a decision and hopefully will be less stressed in the coming weeks. I've been dealing with my own stress, mostly from psyching myself up for job hunting. I think our "date night" once a week is a great idea, and we'll keep that going.

5. Cooking: I'm pleased that I've progressed to the point where I can make a recipe and 85% of the time it will be not only edible but relatively tasty. I was not at this point a year and a half go. That's progress! (And bloody-minded stubbornness, of course.)

6. SCA: My SCA participation recently has been sporadic. I very much enjoyed Winter Nights in Albany and have taken a few tentative steps towards starting up bardic more regularly here, but it hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. The truth is that with so much of the rest of my week scheduled (2-3 nights gaming, 1 night with Marc, 1 night with family), I don't want to give up a weeknight for the SCA unless I know there are going to be people attending who want to do bardic. And people won't show up unless I make it a more regular event. So I'm sort of stuck in a catch-22 here.

7. Weight: Less good. Sometime between late 2008 (when I started working for Softitler full-time) and this summer, I managed to gain back almost all the weight I lost in 2006-7. I haven't been doing karate (see: lack of free evenings), and while I've been trying to eat better and do more walking, I keep finding myself gifted with unexpected baked goods, or going out for dinner, or a million other little things that sabotage me. I've managed to lose 2-3 pounds since the summer, but that's not much, especially with holiday season approaching.

8. Writing: I continue to write short stories for my various roleplaying games. I'm probably up to around 25,000 words for the year, which is nowhere near the 161,000 I wrote last year (85% of which were for one particular character), but there were special circumstances last year that I doubt I'll ever have again. No new bardic works lately; I really need to stop procrastinating and start in on that.

9. Other people in my life: My family is well, my step-sister is returning from her honeymoon, and Marc's family is well too. Friends seem to be in varying states of "stressed" and "okay" -- let me know if you need to come over for tea. The stuffed animals all seem to be very happy, especially since Grunty and Sheepie just got washed not too long ago.

10. Parties: The next party is probably going to be in late November or early December, and I have yet to decide if it's going to be another chocolate fondue party or a Channukah party with latkas. Any thoughts?

Current infatuations: Right now, I'm completely in love with Davids Tea (their winter teas come out today!), the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck (review to come as soon as I finish the last chapter), and Echo Bazaar (highly addictive -- don't say I didn't warn you).

I'd hoped to postpone shopping for new jeans until I got my weight back down to a comfortable size 6. (Right now, I'm a very uncomfortable size 6, closer to size 8. But all my other pants are size 6, and I'll be damned if I'm going to replace all of them too. Cheaper for me to lose weight than replace my wardrobe.)

Unfortunately, today I discovered a larger and unfortunately-placed hole in one of my two pairs of jeans. So, shopping it is. Oh, well.

So how did my one-year anniversary at the company feel? Pretty much just like any other day, really. As far as the company is concerned, my one-year anniversary will be in mid-September, because that's when I started working full time. So today I just worked on files, much as I do any day. At least it was stuff that I like and one of the few shows I actually watch outside of work.

A few other random tidbits:
- I was annoyed at the number on the scale this morning, and am determined to be good for a few days to get the number back down to where it should be.

- I was also annoyed that my Opus card (ie: bus pass) seems to be dying a slow death. Today, for the second time, it refused to register in the turnstiles. I might need to buy a new card just to avoid this frustration.

- Tonight's Mastermind call was quite small, but quite good. We talked about money and business a lot. I've gotta find me some way to make money while getting my free time back.

- I realized today that between my bonus check and the way the weeks work out, I'm actually getting the equivalent of 4 paychecks in April. Sweet!

I've let things slide a bit over the last few days or few weeks.

On the weight front, between Pennsic, Marc's homecoming (and subsequent dinners out), parties, and last night's wedding, I've gained about 4-5 pounds in the last month. I hereby vow that I'm going to be "mostly good" until I'm back down to where I want to be. I don't foresee this taking more than a few weeks.

On the home front, I don't think I've had any time at home to myself in over a week. Yesterday, Marc came over to get ready for the wedding, and we made quite a mess of my bedroom: clothes everywhere, ironing board in the middle of the floor, etc. I haven't swept in far too long. So today I'm going to tackle that and get my room back in liveable order.

While I *have* been going back to karate, I let my push-ups sit by the wayside and I also haven't been practising my kata and bunkai nearly as much as I should have. I really should make some time for that as well.

Whew! It's good I've got today off to deal with all this stuff, huh?

(On an unrelated note, Liz and Sam's wedding was lovely and I had lots of fun. Mazal tov, guys.)

So far, this week has been amazing. Here's hoping the trend continues.

( Read all about it behind this cut )

Edited to add: One more thing: I just discovered that the pants I bought before I left for Toronto, I can now take off without undoing the zipper or clasp. The good news: yay for weight loss! The slightly-less-good-news: I now need to find money for more pants. *grin*