wahlee: (Bad eggs)
I'm already behind on reviewing my Reading Challenge books, but I plead sickness-- last Saturday night I was on my way to bed when I slipped and fell down the last couple of stairs and twisted my ankle. It's doing much better than I would have expected that first night-- I felt like I was going to faint in the immediate aftermath, and my ankle was swollen and throbbing and really, really, hurting-- but it's made life a lot more difficult than I was hoping for this week. Getting to and from work, and not sleeping well at night, has been exhausting, leaving me without much mental capacity for writing. And then, on Friday night, I realized I was coming down with a cold, which hit me full force today especially. So I've done a good bit of reading, both Challenge books and otherwise. After all, I'm trying only to read what I haven't read before for the Challenge, and it's really hard for me to read new books at night when I'm trying to get to bed because I get interested and stay up all night. So I read the Challenge books during the day, and switch to something I've already read at night. Unless I have a cold and the Challenge book I'm currently reading is kind of depressing, and then I switch to Georgette Heyer and Robin McKinley during the day, too. Anyway.

So the first book I read for the Reading Challenge was a book over 500 pages. I chose:

The Well of Ascension )

For the second book, I realized that I had been approved for an eArc on NetGalley for a book that'd work great for the mystery/thriller category, so I skipped ahead on the list:

Dreaming Spies )

The next category on the Challenge is a classic romance-- which puts me in a bit of a pickle. As I said above, I want to read books I haven't read before for this challenge. I also want to read a nice, happy, story. But most of the lists of "classic romance" I've found while googling for ideas are populated with Jane Austen novels (all of which, of course, I have read multiple times), various Brontes (which I've either read or refuse to read *coughwutheringheightscough*), or are the star-crossed-lovers or depressing types (like Gone With the Wind). I actually started reading The Age of Innocence with the intention of using it for this category, but it's obvious it's going to be one of the depressing kinds-- so I'm using it for the Pulitzer Prize category instead. Which leaves me a dilemma.

Do I change my definition of "classic romance" to include books in the classic romance mode, but more modern? Do I decide to apply it to the Gothic Romance category instead (although they do usually have a love story)? Do I find a Fanny Burney or Sir Walter Scott or Maria Edgeworth that no one reads anymore and call it "classic"? Do I just decide to read Pride and Prejudice for the 287th time and call it good?

Or I could ask my flist for suggestions for a good, happy, classic romance that I might not have read yet. Help?
wahlee: (Lizzy)

So I say this every year, but this time I mean it: I'm going to post more. I'm still reading, but just got out of the habit of posting. But now I've got a good reason to post, which will hopefully keep me at it.

Lots of stuff going on since my last post, which if you're following me on Twitter and/or Facebook, you probably already know. My last unmarried sibling (besides me) got married last August, and in May we welcomed her son, Joseph, to the family. He's now 7 months old and freaking adorable. Then in October, my brother's wife finally had a boy after 3 girls, Jack William. He's now 2 months old, and also freaking adorable. With two such cute babies in the family, life is never boring. I'm still working at the State Office of Education in Special Ed, and will be at least until August, when my pension is vested. Then we'll see. My dad was scheduled to have a kidney transplant last October, with my brother donating, but at the last minute they discovered that my brother has a normal sized-kidney and a very small kidney, and since he'd be left with the small one, they called the surgery off. So since I can't donate because I'm overweight (although I have lost 20 lbs this last year!) and no other viable candidate has been idenified, dad's still on the waiting list for a cadaver donor. Luckily his health has stayed about the same in the year since the transplant-that-wasn't, and he hasn't had to start dialysis. We expect at least another year and a half before he reaches the top of the list (because of his age and blood type). In November I tried to do NaNoWriMo and miserably failed, but I'm still trying to write the novel I started. And that's the more exciting things that have been happening lately.

This year, I decided to take the Popsugar Reading Challenge, as well as the Goodreads challenge (trying to read 100 books this year), and one I thought of all on my own-- read all the books Matilda Wormwood is mentioned as having read in Roald Dahl's Matildathat I haven't already read. So I've got a lot of reading to do. For the Popsugar challenge, I'm determined to read only books I haven't read before (except for the "book from your childhood" one), and to read a different book for each of the 50 categories (which means 52 books, since one of the categories is a trilogy) even when a book may count for more than one category. While I'm of course using Goodreads to document my progress, I thought I'd write reviews for the various books here (crossposted to the book blog I started and never did much with, but for which domain I've been paying for for several years). So you can expect at least 52 entries from me this year. What fun, eh? :)

The first book I'm reading is the "book over 500 pages." I chose to read The Well of Ascensionby Brandon Sanderson, which is the second in the Mistborntrilogy. I read the first book ages ago, but got distracted and never finished the trilogy. Since Sanderson's books are LOOOOONG, I figured this is a good excuse.

Hmm. I might have to do a paid account again. Not enough userpics. :P[

wahlee: (Disagreeable)
Ugh, my friends. UGH. So two weeks ago I kept getting headaches every day. Weird headaches. As in, all the symptoms of a migraine except for minimal pain. I ended up going home from work early nearly every day. Then last Tuesday (I think. It might have been Wednesday? Hmmm. I'd better make sure, because I have to enter hours on Friday. Bleh) I started feeling horrible and went home early. Still felt horrible the next day. Bad cold. I worked half days the next couple of days, putting out various fires-- once my meds had a chance to work, mostly-- and hoped that the weekend would clear up the worst of the symptoms. And it seemed to. Until Sunday night, when I started feeling horrible again, like I was getting another cold. Which I think I did. Pretty sure I had two colds at the same time-- I was still congested from the first cold, and had the lovely hacking cough that tends to linger, but then started with the post-nasal drip and general crumminess of the early days of a cold. Then I developed a fever. Stayed home from work again yesterday. Still felt like crap today, but I made it through the whole day. Luckily, I have a goodly number of sick hours, but there was still work to be done that wasn't getting done. I can't afford to miss any more work.

I do get Monday off, though, for Veterans Day. There are perks to working for the government, sometimes.
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
Hi, guys.

2010 was a year of advanced suckitude for me. I am not at all sorry to see it go. Not that there weren't a few good things about it, but there were more bad things. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons I haven't been writing very much is that there isn't much to write about except depressing things, and who wants to read a journal from the depths of despair? But I've got high hopes for 2011, and I'm planning on being around a lot more. Not that I don't obsessively read my flist, 'cause I do. But I've been bad at commenting and even worse at posting, and that's got to stop. So.

The Best and Worst of 2010 )

So, going forward. I'm going to find a job, dagnabit. I've got another niece on the way in Februrary. I've got an idea for a non-fiction book (that could easily turn into a series) for the LDS market that has real possibilities. If I can get a job, I'll be in Orlando with my peeps for the release of DH II. They're doing The Music Man at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this year. I've got a membership to a gym and goals and plans for everything from losing weight to organizing my stuff to getting more knitting done. I got $400 from my parents for Christmas (passing on some of my mom's inheritance) that's earmarked for an iPhone once I have a job.

And you'll see me around a lot more. :)

Happy New Year, everyone.
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
Hi, guys.

2010 was a year of advanced suckitude for me. I am not at all sorry to see it go. Not that there weren't a few good things about it, but there were more bad things. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons I haven't been writing very much is that there isn't much to write about except depressing things, and who wants to read a journal from the depths of despair? But I've got high hopes for 2011, and I'm planning on being around a lot more. Not that I don't obsessively read my flist, 'cause I do. But I've been bad at commenting and even worse at posting, and that's got to stop. So.

The Best and Worst of 2010 )

So, going forward. I'm going to find a job, dagnabit. I've got another niece on the way in Februrary. I've got an idea for a non-fiction book (that could easily turn into a series) for the LDS market that has real possibilities. If I can get a job, I'll be in Orlando with my peeps for the release of DH II. They're doing The Music Man at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this year. I've got a membership to a gym and goals and plans for everything from losing weight to organizing my stuff to getting more knitting done. I got $400 from my parents for Christmas (passing on some of my mom's inheritance) that's earmarked for an iPhone once I have a job.

And you'll see me around a lot more. :)

Happy New Year, everyone.
wahlee: (Default)
I feel like such an LJ failure. I used to be so good at it, taking the time to post an entry even when I didn't really have the time. Now I'm overflowing with time, and I still don't post. What is wrong with me?

So. New goal. Two posts a week. I can do that, I think. Yes.

Quick catch-up:

Life has still not returned back to normal following the deaths of my grandparents, because now we're (well, my mom specifically, but how she spends her time directly influence how I spend mine :P) trying to clean out my grandparent's house enough that we can get it on the market. Both my grandparents were collectors and packrats, so it's taking a while. I have thus far inherited my grandmother's sewing box, a Roseville vase (Grandma collected pottery), a duck (Grandpa loved them, especially decoy ducks), and possibly one of my grandma's original paintings (she was actually quite talented, I think). Plus several small things I'd given them over the years, like hand-knitted slippers and stuffed dogs. I told my mom to keep the shawl I knitted for my grandma; I think she'll enjoy it more, and it'll eventually get back to me anyway.

It's hard to think about them in the past tense.

My work cut me back to part-time for the summer (I really can't blame them, as I usually only have about an hour's worth of actual work to do on any given day, hence the plenty of time to write LJ entries) which has thrust me back into the job search. Even if I go back to full time in September, which was hinted at, I simply can't take the chance that they're just going to do it again next summer. I've had a few interviews, several of which seemed promising, but none of which ended in offers. One more today. Not getting my hopes up.

The day of my grandma's funeral, I had tickets to see Keane in Las Vegas (so did my sisters and two friends). My mom and her siblings felt bad that I had to rearrange my plans (the funeral had to be held that day due to some family drama), so they and my parents chipped in to fly us down after the funeral. They were going to pay for round-trip airfare, but I just couldn't justify taking $900 out of my aunts' and uncles' and mom's inheritance for the sake of three $35 concert tickets. But I also felt like my grandma would have wanted us to go, and would have offered the same deal. So we reached a compromise-- we took a plane to Vegas, then my parents came and picked us up the next day. It was an awesome concert-- general admission with no seats on the ground floor, and my friends had gotten there early enough to get really good spots only 4 rows back. By the time the concert ended, though, we'd moved up to the second row. Nothing like being mere feet from Tom Chaplin as he sings. When mom and dad came the next day, we stopped in Cedar City and took in a play at the Shakespearean Festival-- Pride and Prejudice. It was excellent, and, I think, a good diversion for my mom (as was the whole weekend).

Two weeks later, I, my sister, and our friends Sarah and Carolyn met up with [livejournal.com profile] angua9 and [livejournal.com profile] connielane for a real Shakefest experience. My next post will be a write up of the whole trip and the plays especially. I convinced my mom and dad to go back to see The 39 Steps, and we're taking my Auntie Anna, my Aunt Jeanine and Uncle Steve, and my Grandma By with us. Next Friday night. I also offered to watch the kids so my married siblings and their spouses can see it too. Ben and Laura have already taken me up on the offer, and I think Ben and Amanda will do the same two weeks from today. It seriously is the funniest play I've ever seen.

I desperately need to clean my room and do a major stuff purge. Anyone have any recommendations for good books on organization?

I bought the Costco 24-hour Fitness prepaid 2-year membership at the end of June, but haven't gone once. Such is the craziness that is my life.

I'm really trying to reign in my spending and actually live off an actual budget. So far I've done well for a few weeks and then not so well. I need a full-time job, gosh darnit. How else am I supposed to get ahead instead of just treading water?

Can't wait for Mockingjay. :D
wahlee: (Default)
I feel like such an LJ failure. I used to be so good at it, taking the time to post an entry even when I didn't really have the time. Now I'm overflowing with time, and I still don't post. What is wrong with me?

So. New goal. Two posts a week. I can do that, I think. Yes.

Quick catch-up:

Life has still not returned back to normal following the deaths of my grandparents, because now we're (well, my mom specifically, but how she spends her time directly influence how I spend mine :P) trying to clean out my grandparent's house enough that we can get it on the market. Both my grandparents were collectors and packrats, so it's taking a while. I have thus far inherited my grandmother's sewing box, a Roseville vase (Grandma collected pottery), a duck (Grandpa loved them, especially decoy ducks), and possibly one of my grandma's original paintings (she was actually quite talented, I think). Plus several small things I'd given them over the years, like hand-knitted slippers and stuffed dogs. I told my mom to keep the shawl I knitted for my grandma; I think she'll enjoy it more, and it'll eventually get back to me anyway.

It's hard to think about them in the past tense.

My work cut me back to part-time for the summer (I really can't blame them, as I usually only have about an hour's worth of actual work to do on any given day, hence the plenty of time to write LJ entries) which has thrust me back into the job search. Even if I go back to full time in September, which was hinted at, I simply can't take the chance that they're just going to do it again next summer. I've had a few interviews, several of which seemed promising, but none of which ended in offers. One more today. Not getting my hopes up.

The day of my grandma's funeral, I had tickets to see Keane in Las Vegas (so did my sisters and two friends). My mom and her siblings felt bad that I had to rearrange my plans (the funeral had to be held that day due to some family drama), so they and my parents chipped in to fly us down after the funeral. They were going to pay for round-trip airfare, but I just couldn't justify taking $900 out of my aunts' and uncles' and mom's inheritance for the sake of three $35 concert tickets. But I also felt like my grandma would have wanted us to go, and would have offered the same deal. So we reached a compromise-- we took a plane to Vegas, then my parents came and picked us up the next day. It was an awesome concert-- general admission with no seats on the ground floor, and my friends had gotten there early enough to get really good spots only 4 rows back. By the time the concert ended, though, we'd moved up to the second row. Nothing like being mere feet from Tom Chaplin as he sings. When mom and dad came the next day, we stopped in Cedar City and took in a play at the Shakespearean Festival-- Pride and Prejudice. It was excellent, and, I think, a good diversion for my mom (as was the whole weekend).

Two weeks later, I, my sister, and our friends Sarah and Carolyn met up with [livejournal.com profile] angua9 and [livejournal.com profile] connielane for a real Shakefest experience. My next post will be a write up of the whole trip and the plays especially. I convinced my mom and dad to go back to see The 39 Steps, and we're taking my Auntie Anna, my Aunt Jeanine and Uncle Steve, and my Grandma By with us. Next Friday night. I also offered to watch the kids so my married siblings and their spouses can see it too. Ben and Laura have already taken me up on the offer, and I think Ben and Amanda will do the same two weeks from today. It seriously is the funniest play I've ever seen.

I desperately need to clean my room and do a major stuff purge. Anyone have any recommendations for good books on organization?

I bought the Costco 24-hour Fitness prepaid 2-year membership at the end of June, but haven't gone once. Such is the craziness that is my life.

I'm really trying to reign in my spending and actually live off an actual budget. So far I've done well for a few weeks and then not so well. I need a full-time job, gosh darnit. How else am I supposed to get ahead instead of just treading water?

Can't wait for Mockingjay. :D

Hiatus

Jun. 8th, 2010 04:45 pm
wahlee: (Poppies)
Nostaliga posts will continue, but not right now. My grandma has taken a turn for the worse and probably won't live out the week.

I'll be back when I can.

Hiatus

Jun. 8th, 2010 04:45 pm
wahlee: (Poppies)
Nostaliga posts will continue, but not right now. My grandma has taken a turn for the worse and probably won't live out the week.

I'll be back when I can.
wahlee: (Abuse Everybody)
It's a slow day at work today (two of the three CPAs I work for are on-site with clients this afternoon), so I decided to actually update this thing. Hi. Anyone still there?

I'm actually really glad it's slow, because I was up until 2:30 last night reading The God of the Hive. Considering I started it at about, what, 10:15 PM (I had spent all day re-reading The Language of Bees), that's not a bad read rate. :P I knew it was a stupid idea to even start on it, since the previous book was a cliffhanger, meaning it was highly unlikely there would be any lulls to allow me to get bored enough to fall asleep. My second mistake, of course, was taking it to bed with me, instead of being sensible and leaving it upstairs to await the morning. You'd think that after more than 25 years of being literate, I'd learn my lesson by now. Apparently not.

The book was very good, though, and worth the sleep-deprived hangover of today.

I read it on my nook, since it's the end of the month and I've already overspent my book budget. I couldn't *wait*, though, so I overspent it $9.99 for the ebook instead of $16 or so for the hardcover. I'll buy the dead-tree version next month.

This whole sticking-to-a-budget thing has never been a strength of mine, so it's not surprising that I'm overspending. Part of it is that with starting work again, I'm finally able to get necessities that I've been putting off while I was unemployed (like work-appropriate clothes that fit-- 9 months of unemployment turned me from semi-lazy into super-lazy as far as physical activity is concerned), and the prospect of a nice paycheck twice a month has made me a bit, umm, giddy. But I'm determined to make it work, even if it is a work in progress. I'm trying to follow Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps to becoming debt-free and financially responsible. My tax refund went toward my Baby Emergency Fund of $1000 and paying off one of my credit cards. If all goes as planned, I'll be out of debt other than my student loan by the end of the year (maybe even sooner, if I can force myself to make lunches instead of eating out everyday-- a problem for both my wallet and my waistline). At that point, I'm going to squirrel away money so that when I start library school (hopefully in fall of 2011) I won't have to get any more loans to pay for it. The student loans will go into deferment, then I can pay off the loans when I have my MLS In my hot little hand.

I think I will have to go cash-only, though. My debit card is just too tempting.

My job is going well, now that I'm through with the craziness that was tax season. Note to self: mid-March is NOT a good time to start working for a CPA firm, especially when you essentially have to train yourself. We're now into the much-calmer quarterly/payroll tax season, and I-- yes, I-- was able to compute and pay the firm's payroll taxes. I'm so proud of myself.

I still have occasional moments of displacement, though, wondering how someone with an English MA and who hasn't taken a math class since the age of 16 ended up working with all these numbers.

In order to keep my language skills from completely atrophying, and in an effort to make even more money to pay off my debt faster, I'm looking into doing some freelance editing in the evenings. If anyone has any leads for such a thing, do let me know, will you?



Loving Season/Series 5 of Doctor Who so far, although I still get a pang when I think about Ten. Eleven and Amy are awesomesauce, though, and Steven Moffat is still brilliant.
wahlee: (Abuse Everybody)
It's a slow day at work today (two of the three CPAs I work for are on-site with clients this afternoon), so I decided to actually update this thing. Hi. Anyone still there?

I'm actually really glad it's slow, because I was up until 2:30 last night reading The God of the Hive. Considering I started it at about, what, 10:15 PM (I had spent all day re-reading The Language of Bees), that's not a bad read rate. :P I knew it was a stupid idea to even start on it, since the previous book was a cliffhanger, meaning it was highly unlikely there would be any lulls to allow me to get bored enough to fall asleep. My second mistake, of course, was taking it to bed with me, instead of being sensible and leaving it upstairs to await the morning. You'd think that after more than 25 years of being literate, I'd learn my lesson by now. Apparently not.

The book was very good, though, and worth the sleep-deprived hangover of today.

I read it on my nook, since it's the end of the month and I've already overspent my book budget. I couldn't *wait*, though, so I overspent it $9.99 for the ebook instead of $16 or so for the hardcover. I'll buy the dead-tree version next month.

This whole sticking-to-a-budget thing has never been a strength of mine, so it's not surprising that I'm overspending. Part of it is that with starting work again, I'm finally able to get necessities that I've been putting off while I was unemployed (like work-appropriate clothes that fit-- 9 months of unemployment turned me from semi-lazy into super-lazy as far as physical activity is concerned), and the prospect of a nice paycheck twice a month has made me a bit, umm, giddy. But I'm determined to make it work, even if it is a work in progress. I'm trying to follow Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps to becoming debt-free and financially responsible. My tax refund went toward my Baby Emergency Fund of $1000 and paying off one of my credit cards. If all goes as planned, I'll be out of debt other than my student loan by the end of the year (maybe even sooner, if I can force myself to make lunches instead of eating out everyday-- a problem for both my wallet and my waistline). At that point, I'm going to squirrel away money so that when I start library school (hopefully in fall of 2011) I won't have to get any more loans to pay for it. The student loans will go into deferment, then I can pay off the loans when I have my MLS In my hot little hand.

I think I will have to go cash-only, though. My debit card is just too tempting.

My job is going well, now that I'm through with the craziness that was tax season. Note to self: mid-March is NOT a good time to start working for a CPA firm, especially when you essentially have to train yourself. We're now into the much-calmer quarterly/payroll tax season, and I-- yes, I-- was able to compute and pay the firm's payroll taxes. I'm so proud of myself.

I still have occasional moments of displacement, though, wondering how someone with an English MA and who hasn't taken a math class since the age of 16 ended up working with all these numbers.

In order to keep my language skills from completely atrophying, and in an effort to make even more money to pay off my debt faster, I'm looking into doing some freelance editing in the evenings. If anyone has any leads for such a thing, do let me know, will you?



Loving Season/Series 5 of Doctor Who so far, although I still get a pang when I think about Ten. Eleven and Amy are awesomesauce, though, and Steven Moffat is still brilliant.
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
2009 was an interesting year. Lots of really good things happened-- I took lots of fun trips to Disneyland; attended [personal profile] lydaclunas's wedding, where I got to meet [personal profile] rj_anderson, [personal profile] risti, [profile] callyperry, and Melanie aka drummergirl in person for the first time, and see [profile] angua9 again; had my best friend [profile] cuteculturechic move back to Utah; made a few new friends and reconnected with some old ones; spent tons of time with my family, especially my absolutely ADORABLE nieces and nephew; and, most importantly, FINISHED MY THESIS AND THEREFORE MY MASTERS DEGREE!!!!!!

But there were some bad times, too. I struggled with writers' block and depression, I lost a job I really enjoyed in June and still haven't found a new one, and as a result have been unable to pull myself out of debt. But, honestly, the good times have far outweighed the bad, at least in my memory. So I think, in retrospect, 2009 will be remembered as a good year.

That's not to say I'm not looking forward to new and better things in 2010. :) First order of business is to find a job, and work on getting out of debt. I'm also fully committed to being a better friend this year-- both in person and online. And I'm going to work hard to be better with my health-- exercise, sleep, nutrition, the works.

So I hope to see you around a bit more this year. Let's see what new days will bring!
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
2009 was an interesting year. Lots of really good things happened-- I took lots of fun trips to Disneyland; attended [livejournal.com profile] lydaclunas's wedding, where I got to meet [livejournal.com profile] rj_anderson, [livejournal.com profile] risti, [livejournal.com profile] callyperry, and Melanie aka drummergirl in person for the first time, and see [livejournal.com profile] angua9 again; had my best friend [livejournal.com profile] cuteculturechic move back to Utah; made a few new friends and reconnected with some old ones; spent tons of time with my family, especially my absolutely ADORABLE nieces and nephew; and, most importantly, FINISHED MY THESIS AND THEREFORE MY MASTERS DEGREE!!!!!!

But there were some bad times, too. I struggled with writers' block and depression, I lost a job I really enjoyed in June and still haven't found a new one, and as a result have been unable to pull myself out of debt. But, honestly, the good times have far outweighed the bad, at least in my memory. So I think, in retrospect, 2009 will be remembered as a good year.

That's not to say I'm not looking forward to new and better things in 2010. :) First order of business is to find a job, and work on getting out of debt. I'm also fully committed to being a better friend this year-- both in person and online. And I'm going to work hard to be better with my health-- exercise, sleep, nutrition, the works.

So I hope to see you around a bit more this year. Let's see what new days will bring!
wahlee: (Innocent)
I've been meaning to write a good LJ post for ages now, but I'm so out of the habit it just keeps not getting done. But dude, I'm going to do it. So. Here is an update on my life, broken up into easy-to-read sections. If you're not interested in certain things, feel free to skip. For that matter, feel free to skip the whole dang thing, 'cause I've been gone so long I doubt any of you care any more any way. :P

Work )

School )

Books )

TV )

Knitting )

Miscellaneous ).

So, that's my life in a nutshell. I'm really, really going to try to update at least once a week from here on out.

Really.
wahlee: (Innocent)
I've been meaning to write a good LJ post for ages now, but I'm so out of the habit it just keeps not getting done. But dude, I'm going to do it. So. Here is an update on my life, broken up into easy-to-read sections. If you're not interested in certain things, feel free to skip. For that matter, feel free to skip the whole dang thing, 'cause I've been gone so long I doubt any of you care any more any way. :P

Work )

School )

Books )

TV )

Knitting )

Miscellaneous ).

So, that's my life in a nutshell. I'm really, really going to try to update at least once a week from here on out.

Really.
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
So, yesterday was the 1-week anniversary of my layoff. I didn't even remember until I was in bed for the night. It's been an interesting week.

And I'm doing fine.

No, really. I'm actually quite surprised at how well I'm taking it. I really have been able to look at this whole thing as a gift, rather than as a misfortune. Of course, who knows how long this will last-- maybe when my savings account starts looking much more meager than it is now. But for now, I'm fine.

Some of it, of course, is because I'm in such a different situation this time around. While the layoff was just as sudden-- or even more so, since I got about 20 minutes notice before I clocked out for the last time-- I've been sort of mentally preparing myself for a while, just in case. I also got 2 weeks of severance pay and all my unused vacation, which I didn't get last time. My unemployment payment will be higher and extend for a longer period of time, since I worked more last year for more pay. I qualify for COBRA, and also for the federal COBRA subsidy, which means I'm guaranteed my current benefits for at least 18 months for only a little more than what I'm currently paying. I still live at home and have relatively few expenses (a student loan and a credit card payment, and that's about it), so I'm not too worried about my finances.

And mentally, I'm just in a much better place. I've been seeing a therapist for several months now, and have been taking an anti-depressant. And when I attended [personal profile] lydaclunas's wedding (which was AWESOME, and which I was in the process of writing about when I got laid off and therefore distracted), I spent the weekend either talking about theology and my thesis with [profile] callyperry and Melanie or writing processes with [personal profile] rj_anderson and [profile] risiti, or both, I came home ready to GO on my thesis. No, I haven't written anything yet-- I'm still trying to get my room clean so I have a pleasant place to write-- but I've got ideas. I've got plans. I feel a definite need to make my voice heard on this subject. And now I have all the time I need.

Last time, I was so worried about finding a new job that I still couldn't write. This time, I'm not going to worry. I'm going to seize the time I've been given, this wonderful chance to finish my thesis before time runs out, and run with it. I'll apply for jobs, of course, but only the minimum needed to keep my unemployment benefits. If I get one, great. If not-- it's okay. It really is.

Not that I don't miss my job. It was a great job, with great people. Hopefully the powers-that-be who decreed that I had to be let go will come to their senses and realize how much they need me, and I can go back. If not-- there's going to be something around the corner. Maybe even something better. Who knows?

For right now, though, I'm okay where I am. And that's a wonderful feeling-- one I haven't had in a long, long time.
wahlee: (Guilt and Misery)
So, yesterday was the 1-week anniversary of my layoff. I didn't even remember until I was in bed for the night. It's been an interesting week.

And I'm doing fine.

No, really. I'm actually quite surprised at how well I'm taking it. I really have been able to look at this whole thing as a gift, rather than as a misfortune. Of course, who knows how long this will last-- maybe when my savings account starts looking much more meager than it is now. But for now, I'm fine.

Some of it, of course, is because I'm in such a different situation this time around. While the layoff was just as sudden-- or even more so, since I got about 20 minutes notice before I clocked out for the last time-- I've been sort of mentally preparing myself for a while, just in case. I also got 2 weeks of severance pay and all my unused vacation, which I didn't get last time. My unemployment payment will be higher and extend for a longer period of time, since I worked more last year for more pay. I qualify for COBRA, and also for the federal COBRA subsidy, which means I'm guaranteed my current benefits for at least 18 months for only a little more than what I'm currently paying. I still live at home and have relatively few expenses (a student loan and a credit card payment, and that's about it), so I'm not too worried about my finances.

And mentally, I'm just in a much better place. I've been seeing a therapist for several months now, and have been taking an anti-depressant. And when I attended [livejournal.com profile] lydaclunas's wedding (which was AWESOME, and which I was in the process of writing about when I got laid off and therefore distracted), I spent the weekend either talking about theology and my thesis with [livejournal.com profile] callyperry and Melanie or writing processes with [livejournal.com profile] rj_anderson and [livejournal.com profile] risiti, or both, I came home ready to GO on my thesis. No, I haven't written anything yet-- I'm still trying to get my room clean so I have a pleasant place to write-- but I've got ideas. I've got plans. I feel a definite need to make my voice heard on this subject. And now I have all the time I need.

Last time, I was so worried about finding a new job that I still couldn't write. This time, I'm not going to worry. I'm going to seize the time I've been given, this wonderful chance to finish my thesis before time runs out, and run with it. I'll apply for jobs, of course, but only the minimum needed to keep my unemployment benefits. If I get one, great. If not-- it's okay. It really is.

Not that I don't miss my job. It was a great job, with great people. Hopefully the powers-that-be who decreed that I had to be let go will come to their senses and realize how much they need me, and I can go back. If not-- there's going to be something around the corner. Maybe even something better. Who knows?

For right now, though, I'm okay where I am. And that's a wonderful feeling-- one I haven't had in a long, long time.
wahlee: (Default)
Today was my 1 year anniversary at work.

At 4:40, I got laid off.



Happy anniversary to me.
wahlee: (Default)
Today was my one-year anniversary at work.

This afternoon, at 4:40, I got laid off.



Happy anniversary to me.
wahlee: (Kronk)
I'm about to head to the airport to catch a flight to Houston, where [livejournal.com profile] angua9 and I will play this afternoon before meeting up with [livejournal.com profile] rj_anderson, Melanie, and Cally. Then me and RJA and Melanie and Cally will drive to Victoria tomorrow morning to attend [livejournal.com profile] lydaclunas's wedding. EEEEEE!!! So excited!!

Saw UP last night. Super duper excellent. I know I said this last year, but I think it's Pixar's best yet. Tender and hilarious and. . . just fabulous. Loved it.


Now let's hope the meclazine can work it's magic on a commuter jet for 3 hours. . .

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