( picspam )

Two random (but perhaps related) thoughts. One about Grey's Anatomy. One about bad words. ( cut for language! )

I am SO glad to be home from work today. Mondays are always slow. As big as the project I work on seems, there is only really so much to do. Especially now because this is the end of a report cycle, and because all the fastfood chains - I means, err, quick service restaurants - won't be coming out with their holiday promotions until mid-November or later. There just isn't much happening. So I was bored, bored, bored. Twitter is my new best friend. I use it for legitimate work related reasons, but since I'm there any way and I'm so bored so often, I also use it for, err, not legitimate work related reasons. Today I discovered and account called "veryshortstory". It amused me for, like ten, whole minutes!

Tomorrow, I get to start working on another project. Or, at least, I get to go to a meeting that marks the start of another project I will be working one. Something like that. On one hand, this is good. It means they like me, and they think I'm capable enough to be given more responsibility. This is more typical of the company's projects than the one I'm already working, so its good that I'll get a nice survey of what they really do. It will increase my usefulness, and it increases the chances I'll be hired after this internship is over. So that is the good news.

The bad news is what it always is: I'm not sure I really want to do this. I'm apprehensive for two reasons. Reason one: the classic fear of failure thing. In the past six months or so I've realized that I actually am really afraid of failure. I am afraid that I will be assigned tot his project, and I will suck. Not because I'm afraid this means they won't offer me a job after the internship, but because I don't like failing. School always came easily to me. I was an A/high B student without trying too hard in high school, and in college... well, I ended up in Art School, it wasn't exactly hard to excel there because the standards were not especially high. I've regrettably protected myself from feeling threatened like this for most of my life, and now that I so find myself in situations where I could just as easily fail as not, I'm not entirely sure how to cope. But, I am coping. Once I realized how afraid I was of screwing it all up about, oh, two weeks after I started this job, the job itself started to feel easier. Or at least less uncomfortable. That was nice. So, with New Project, I am going into everything fully conscious of what a whimp I am :P and that's good... ish.

Reason Two is the one I have more vocally complained about: this work is dumb. It is stupid and shady. And in normal projects, the stakes are higher. When you're monitoring fast food projects, there are a million restaurants to call, so messing one up isn't a big deal. With other projects, industries are smaller and more specific, and if you mess up an important call its just messed up. But that's not even what I mean to be talking about - I've already covered that fear. About a week and a half ago at the lunch table, one of my co-workers was telling what was supposed to be a humorous story. I guess she had been getting prices from some companies for some fake projects she'd made up, so that she could find out pricing, etc., for the real client - blah blah blah. Anyway, this was a long term thing. She'd been corresponding with people who thought they were competing for a real contract for a number of weeks. She found out what she needed to know, so she told all the people she was corresponding with that she was going with someone else. When she did this, one of the women she was corresponding with started crying, saying she needed this contract, she would lose her job if she didn't have this contract. She called multiple times, begging my co-worked to reconsider. Everyone at the lunch table was making fun of her, calling her crazy. Someone even said, "good, she probably deserves to be fired if she's acting like that!"

I was mildly appalled that we were making fun of her. I wasn't righteous about it, but it didn't feel right to me. Maybe its because I knew this person was a woman, or because I've just come off a nine month stretch of unemployment myself, but I just kept thinking, "hey, wait! We're talking about someone's job. If she looses it, what will she do? What if she has kids or something. This could be devastating for her. Why is this so funny?" I'm sure that this is a special case, that most of the time other people's jobs aren't at stake, and they never find out they've been had, but... what if they do, and we get someone fired? Would I be responsible for that? Do I want to be in an industry where that could happen?

I think I will spend tomorrow morning applying for seasonal work. If I don't get a job after the internship (or if I decline it), seasonal work would be a nice fall back, at least until the new year. If I can get it, of course. I don't know what to put for availability, now that I'm not the second project. I'll probably be working Tuesdays, which means I'm only available Thursday mornings and weekends, which isn't a whole lot of time. I guess I could work nights, too, but... *sigh* that sounds like no fun. I don't think I'm silly enough to do that, but maybe.

So, I'm 23, relatively self-absorbed, and don't currently have a lot of information about myself in my user info. I really should update that, lol. It still says I live at college #1, and I haven't been there since spring 2006! Oh, how time flies.

Some of you on my flist, I have known forever -- but lots of you I've only met recently, in the past few months. So, I figured I'd so one of those information post where I talk about myself.

And then I was reading through hamsterwoman's info post, and I saw the link to her five questions meme answer and I thought: questions, those are fun! right?

So, ask me questions flist. Anything you want. And I will answer them. The responses will probably be overly long (because I'm a windbag) and boring (because, really my life isn't too exciting), but it might make for a more interesting info post then, "Hi, I'm Katie, I read books somteimes and wear jeans and t-shirts and I'm tall-ish" or whatever bs I would come up with on my own. :D

Today, I hung out with Sandor for about an hour. We went to Starbucks and played boggle. It was mostly nice, except -- ahhh! I am so allergic to everything today! I took two benedryl and it's not helping at all. Sandor kept teasing me saying, "haha, you're getting sick" which got annoying because he always over does things (or maybe I just take things too seriously - a little bit of both, probably).

Then on the way home, he randomly says, "you know, you can get a laptop that just does internet and word processing for like $300." He knows that when I have some money saved up from this job thingy, I want to get a laptop. I'm like, okay, but... that's not what I want. ( pointless and long-ish story about my day behind the cut )

Last night, I didn't get much sleep. I went to bed at nearly 5 AM and woke up at 8:30 AM to take care of the dog. I figured this would be fine. I need to go to bed WAY earlier tonight for work tomorrow. So, it was all going to work out fine.... except, then I decided to take a nap at 5 pm and I woke up at 7:45! Oops! I hope I'll be tired again by midnight-thirty, but I might have screwed myself.

I am picking up Sandor from the airport at 11:30 12:30. Ugg. He told me 10:30 this morning, but I just looked up his flight number and he's due to land at 12:30. Crap. I won't be home until around 1:30, then. He spent the weekend in LA. I guess so did his older brother? *shrug* The only thing he told me about it was, "can you pick me up?"

I bought office clothes today. It was fun, but costly. Yay for credit cards, I guess, though I always loath using mind. I think tomorrow I will be wearing a green shirt. Ms. Tyrell goes to work! I still can't believe this is actually happening.

I hate the ws-Tullys! That Asoiaf-dead-ABC thing was AWESOME. And undoubtedly will get them a lot of points and glory. El sigh. Not cool! Tyrells need the points and glory! Well, better get to work on those tourney entries! I started the sex scene thing today, but then I thought, "hmm... but this takes place at the wall... do I really want to enter it in a tourney?" We'll see how long it is. If it got to be over 2,000 words, I might just throw it up in VF and think up and new sex scene. That's a big if, though. Writing did not go as well as I'd hoped.

Speaking of westerosorting stuff, I got stamped last week!





Interesting results. I can totally see where they came from, but I still feel surprised some how. Going in, I had NO idea who I'd be stamped, not even and inkling. I am fairly happy with both stamps, though I admit, I was hoping I would end up Arianne at the last minute... but Brienne's awesome, too.

Yesterday, I wrote:

[Last week] I had a phone interview for a marketing company. It started off shaky. I forgot to research the company, which is a huge no-no, but I answered most of the questions all right. Still, I am not holding by breath. No word from them, but I have the interviewer's number. I'll try to call him Friday.

They called me back this morning. It was 9am. I was sleeping lightly. I thought I was dreaming my phone ringing right up until the moment I answered. I'm very... err... graceful that way.

So, I have the job. Well, internship, actually. ( thoughts about this behind the cut )

edit: UPDATE

I got a call back from the recruiter at the staffing agency. She's got an interview for me next week for an admin assistant job, and I decided to take it. If it works out, awesome, I'll have a full time job! (Though with "meh" hours - 12noon to 9pm, I'd have to say buy to my writer's group.:*( ) If it doesn't, I still have this internship thingy.

On Sunday, I went flying in a plane! Ahh! It would so cool! ( picture and the tale behind the cut! )

And tonight - can you believe this? - I went on something that might be considered a date. It went okay. I did something really embarassing. He was a nice guy, but ( details behind the cut )

tagged by gogoratchet


1. Lots of pillows or just one?
I have two, but I switch, so I only use one at once.


2. What kind of books do you read?
Lots of fantasy, but it's not like that's all I read. Right now, per recommendation of this flist, I am reading "I Captured the Castle" by Dodie Smith. I just started two days ago.



3. What are your most awesome skills?
My most awesome skill is being so awesome and managing not to explode. Also, my ability to use the sun to tell what direction I'm going in when I'm driving and lost. It was annoying to learn when I was 16, but thanks dad! I actually used that one yesterday.
( more awesome questions answered by awesome me under the cut! )

In other news, icon count for the starttheclock 100th challenge:
8/30

*gulp*

Excerpt:
"What is the Meadow?" I am practically hopping with excitement. I have never met anyone from my future before, much less a Botticelli who has encountered me 152 times.

"The Meadow is a part of my parents' place up in Michigan. There's woods at one edge of it, and the house on the opposite end. More or less in the middle is a clearing about ten feet in diameter with a big rock in it, and if you're in the clearing no one at the house can see you because the land swells up and then dips in the clearing. I used to play there because I liked to play by myself and I thought no one knew I was there. One day when I was in first grade I came home from school and went out to the clearing and there you were."

"Stark naked and probably throwing up."

"Actually, you seemed pretty self-possessed. I remember you knew my name, and I remember you vanishing quite spectacularly. In retrospect, it's obvious that you had been there before. I think the first time for you was in 1981; I was ten. You kept saying 'Oh my god,' and staring at me. Also, you seemed pretty freaked out about the nudity, and by then I just kind of took it for granted that this old nude guy was going to magically appear from the future and demand clothing." Clare smiles. "And food."

During this section, I put the book down and decided it wasn't worth my time. Then two hours later I was bored, and decided to go back to it because, if nothing else, it was a very easy read. For those of you who have never heard of it, The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story featuring a librarian named Henry and an artist named Clare. When she met him, she was six. When he met her, her was twenty-eight.


Warning: I will be talking about anything and everything that happened in the book, including most major plot twists and, yes, even the ENDING. If you are going to see the movie and want to be surprised and uninfluenced (this is very opinionated) DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW.

Warning 2: LONG. 4,000 words. Sorry, I’m a windbag.
( full review behind the cut <b>***massive spoilers***</b> )