Busy Busy Busy

Oh my, the latter part of this past week was BUSY. So busy with the work at work and not enough time for writing or knitting. Murrrr.

On Wednesday, I had my second-round interview at my off-site job prospect. The interviewers were nice enough, and everything seemed to go well...even though two interviewers were looking at someone else's information for a while. After we got that straightened up, those interviewers' questions and comments made so much more sense.

Since I had to take skills tests and have an interview this week, I had to work longer hours to make up my time. So, I was at the workplace until 5:00-5:30 every day. Except for Friday, because I went in early. Work kind of sucked this week because some of the audiovisual equipment in the learning center auditorium is flipping out. This meant that I had to do a lot of equipment troubleshooting and think of crazy workarounds for some presentations and webcasts. Luckily, a service person made it out on Friday. Even though he couldn't fix the most troublesome problem, we at least know what's wrong and what needs to be ordered.

The executive assistant annoyed me as per usual with stupid comments and other crap, which makes me not so excited about the offer put forward by my current workplace. The money would be great - it's much more than I expected - but the EA annoys the hell out of me. Also, my current workplace doesn't offer domestic partner benefits. So stupid!

I will accept the offer unless my other job prospect extends an offer, too. Even though the other place could not match my current offer (not according to the posted maximum starting salary, anyway), it has better benefits. And, the EA doesn't work there.

Oh, here's an interesting story.... Wednesday around 5:00, the emergency alarm went off at work. It sounds like ERRRRRRRRNH! ERRRRRRRRRRNH! And, it's really loud! Speaker! Right! Above! My! Desk! After the alarm sounded, the security guard made this announcement: All non-involved parties, stay in your area. Your attention please, your attention please! There is an emergency situation on the central stairwell. Stay in your area.

Of course, my cube mate and I immediately left our area to scope out the central stairwell, which is in the middle of the 3-story atrium. We couldn't really discern what happened, but there were a lot of people on the stairs, running up and down and stuff. So, I left a few minutes later, and found out that a woman (someone who is really nice and answers a lot of my questions) had taken a tumble down the first half-flight of stairs. Her shoe heel got caught in her pant leg cuff, and down she went. That explained the thunk-a-thunk-a-thunk that I heard before the emergency alarm. Now the woman is all bruised up, but no broken bones or anything. She's lucky because those stairs aren't very forgiving: slate, metal, and glass. Ow.

Here are some other things that happened this week:

• Had dinner on Wednesday at Hartford Community Café. Yummy falafel, and their sundae list looks promising. I accidentally flicked cucumber-yogurt sauce on Porkchop's forehead, an action that was met with some huffiness. After dinner, we took a walk in Tower Grove Park. I ended up flipping off some assholes who were drive-by harrassing women. The harrasser yelled at me, "Lesbian!" Is that the best insult he could think of? Because, while I don't identify as lesbian and feel misidentified by it, I'm not embarrassed. I mean, duh, I'm not straight - I'll shout that out myself. Anyway, what was supposed to be a relaxing walk ended with me wanting to beat the crap out of a couple of jerks who felt entitled to ruin everyone's evening. Sometimes, I really really hate people.


• On Thursday, we bought life insurance. How crazy is that?! Next up, Roth IRA! Our insurance agent told us that we should stop by more often because we're really fun. He's so great....if you're in the area and need insurance, look him up (BTW, his photo must be a bit dated...he looks more mature now).


• Friday night, we went to see Invincible. Porkchop wanted to see it, and I didn't mind, so off we went to a fancy schmancy theatre. After settling into our seats with popcorn and a soda, Porkchop somehow knocked the soda so that it landed lid-side-down on my thigh. Cold! So! Cold! But, I exhibited role model behavior and handled the situation with grace. Of course, I lorded this over her the rest of the evening and compared it to the cucumber-yogurt-sauce-on-Porkchop's-forehead incident. In my book, sitting in cold, wet soda-pants for a couple of hours is much worse than getting a bit of yogurt on one's forehead.

This morning, after Porkchop left for the park, I exercised and then set out to mop the entire apartment. Oh my gosh! I totally underestimated the time/labor required for this chore! We have a lot of floor space! It took me well over an hour to move things, sweep, mop, and put things back. I'm pleased with the results, though. The place just feels cleaner.

After mopping and cleaning myself up, I went to Soozi's to keep her company while she waited for her parents' new refrigerator to be delivered. The delivery people barely made the 4:00 mark in the noon-4:00 delivery estimate. While waiting, we knitted and talked and knitted. I started a new gift pouch and made considerable progress.

After the delivery people left, Soozi and I set out to put things into the new fridge. That's when Soozi noticed that cold air wasn't really entering the refrigerator part (freezer was okay). We determined that the air vents were blocked with styrofoam. So, Soozi started hacking it out....because what sort of refrigerator uses styrofoam as an integral component? After a while, we removed the central console and found more styrofoam and some wiring instructions. Hmmmmm.....so we took out the rest of the styrofoam that was blocking the vents, but we left some of the other styrofoam. Because, hey, we're not refrigerator experts, maybe styrofoam is used these days?? We do, however, know a blocked air vent when we see it.

Hopefully the refrigerator doesn't fall apart because of missing styrofoam.

Tomorrow, Soozi and I are to have brunch together to make up for not having time for dinner tonight..

Right now, I'm waiting for Porkchop to get home. Maybe I'll knit a bit more and listen to a This American Life.

Sigh.

Have a good night!