randomness

Girlie Time

Today was Heather’s last day working for our mutual former employer. Today was also the day that many stores opened in The Shops At Fallen Timbers. Including Lane Bryant. So, after she was done having her exit interview and packing up her desk, we got together and went out for an evening of shopping and general girl-time.

First, we did a round of the mall, going into stores I wouldn’t usually even give a second (or first) glance. American Eagle, Pac Sun, the Gap, places like that. We spent an inordinately long time in Bath and Body Works, where I got assaulted by the nice lotion lady — my hand *still* smells like Pomegranate lotion — but where I still purchased two body splash samples, two lotion samples, and a candle with the greatest fresh apple scent (which cost almost as much as all my samples put together).

After B&BW, we hit Lane Bryant, which was our main target of the evening. After standing in the soul-sucking dressing room line twice, I ended up buying one pant suit (brown), one suit jacket (black), one camisole (cream), and a pair of brown trouser socks. Yaye! I have a new interview suit! Two, actually, since the black jacket goes well over a black knee-length dress I bought online recently.

We took our haul out to the car, and went back for more malling. Our next and final stop was Payless, which was having a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. I bought a pair of patent-leather flats and a pair of brown moccasins with a polka-dot accent bow. Super cute, both. I almost bought my first pair of heels since high school, but they only had it in size 11, and I needed a size smaller. I would have relearned to walk in heels for these shoes, totally.

Our evening had started around 4:30pm. By this time, it was well after 9pm — time for dinner. We drove back toward my house and went to Lone Star for a massive and yummy late dinner.

This really needs to be a monthly occurrence. We both enjoyed ourselves, had fun girlie time, and bought stuff. Maybe next time I needn’t spend $200 on clothes and shoes and lotion and dinner… but I sure had a fun time doing it.

webdesign

Mixed Feelings

Some of you may remember the drum corps website I worked on back in ’05. Well, it seems that the corps is “streamlining” their communications, and they’d like to retool the site. That’s fine. I can dig that. I can even use the design they’d like me to use, although I insist on trying a few different variations on it first.

The only thing that really makes me sad is that I worked SO HARD on getting the content management system to be robust enough to serve their needs, and now the site is pretty much going to be a static electronic brochure. No individual member logins, no real need for members-only news items… they’ll keep the news feed around, and they’ll keep the schedule up-to-date, and I think they’ll keep the file upload feature for staff, but it’s not the same. The site will mainly be used as a recruiting tool, rather than the multifaceted communications tool I’d wanted it to be.

Maybe I wasn’t proactive enough. Maybe I didn’t keep up with it as well as I should have. But I did what I was told, when I was told, and I was so proud of what I’d achieved. I learned so much by programming all that, and I was actually pretty proud of my design. (I went through lots of thumbnails and comps to get to that final.)

Maybe this is my chance to make something that really pops, though. I can take the site and streamline it all to hell. I won’t be depressed about this — I’ll be grateful for the chance to update this two-year-old design.

Really, I will.

aikido 2 Comments

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

I haven’t been to aikido in a month. First, it was because of my pulled groin muscle. Then I thought it was healed, but it wasn’t really, so I stayed home a little while longer. Then I got a nasty cold, and that kept me away for another couple of weeks. Now I’m to the point where any conditioning I’d already achieved has long since gone, and I’m kind of afraid to just jump back into class. Every single solitary class has kicked my ass so far, save maybe one or two, and I know I’ll get my ass handed to me whenever I go back.

Still… as I’ve mentioned, I *am* paying for this. If I go more than twice a week, I’m getting a deal. If I go twice a week, I’m getting my money’s worth. If I don’t go at all, I’m wiping my ass with it.

I don’t want to be a quitter. I could go tomorrow morning… but let’s shoot for Saturday morning, shall we? I took a 45-minute walk this morning, after a couple weeks of being completely sedentary, so if I can keep that up and add to my activity level for the next few days…

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m just stalling. As per usual.

Don’t worry, dear readers: I’ll soon have another tale of aikido kicking my ass. I know you like those, you sadists, you. 😉

jobhunt

Day Two of Unemployment

Day One was spent recuperating from the incredible Flaming Lips show in Cleveland on Sunday. Slept in, chilled out, and came up with a battle plan. Day Two saw the initiation of said battle plan.

I identified two major issues that I need to address: productivity in job-hunting and organization in general. One affects the other, but I can’t just go at them one at a time. I need a pleasant and clean workspace to feel happy and productive; but I can’t clean to the exclusion of all else, and THEN go find a job. So, I set myself up a list of priorities for cleaning my desk space, starting with my file cabinet, moving to the stack of stuff on the floor, then the stack on top of the file cabinet, then the pile on my actual desk, and so forth. (Anyone who saw my immaculate desk at work wouldn’t believe that my desk at home is such a disaster.)

As for job-hunting productivity, I launched up my long-neglected Palm Desktop application. It has a task list and calendar, which is mainly what I need. I’m basically doing like I did when I was coordinating the database project with James: set up a short but vital list of tasks to accomplish the following day, so I feel super productive when I finish those plus more.

I’m also logging everything I’m doing in an Excel log, so I can track my productivity. For example, today I searched through all my del.icio.us jobhunt bookmarks and found two jobs I’m going to apply for tomorrow. I also followed up with a potential employer and sent my Personal Marketing Plan (i.e. my list of skills and target employers) to a former colleague to look over.

Since I got all that accomplished during the day, I didn’t feel bad spending my evening playing Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD on the 360. 🙂

If I can keep this up, I’ll at least feel like I’m not squandering my time at home. Still, this super-extended vacation is going to be weird.