10:20 a.m. - 06 July 2002
Life updates
So I finally got smart and am now typing this entry in WordPerfect (since it came with the laptop) rather than directly into the Diaryland entry box. If I was smarter I’d have been doing this from the beginning, but I never claimed to have a lot of common sense.
For the curious, the first time I typed this entry, I managed to somehow get the cursor positioned so that when I hit backspace, IE thought I wanted to go back a page. When I went forward again, the entry was gone. The second time, I was happily downloading the Shockwave player as I typed. When the installer finished downloading, it closed all my open browser windows, including the one with my entry. That’s when I posted that pissy little entryette. Anyway.
I am, however, as Lee would say, achieving Zen: computing (though not surfing at the moment) and watching TV while kicked back in the recliner. I’ve got the laptop on my lap desk (the one I used all through college and beyond: I adore it) so that my legs don’t get too hot. That would be another part of the reason why I waited until this morning to redo this entry: I couldn’t type anymore because my wrists got too hot. I told Lee the only way things could be better was if it was a high speed internet connection; that may be on the way. I’ve even got our new cell phone right next to me so that if anyone (read: my parents) find our line busy, they can still get in touch with us. Life is pretty good. Mostly.
I found out about a week and a half ago that even though I was assured the new administrative assistant position downstairs, I still had to apply for it. I discovered this when I saw the position posted on the job listing board, which caused my healthy paranoia to kick in. I was convinced that they’d get a resume from someone who had a ton more experience and decide that they didn’t want me after all. So I tweaked my resume (I “managed document storage:” filed stuff into a series of binders for one of my professors at the law school), filled out the transfer form, and submitted the whole shebang to the employment office.
Wednesday, I got a call from human resources that the job was mine. I got a subsequent call from my new boss, the Director of the Executive Offices (no shit, that’s her title and she makes a pile of money for not doing a whole hell of a lot) trying to give me the impression that she lobbied for me to get the position since I’d been down in administration so much and that she herself had selected my resume from the dozen or so that they’d received. Except that I know for a fact that this whole idea came from the CEO herself. I tried very hard not to laugh at my new boss, particularly when she kept reinforcing how well everyone worked together down there. Well, duh; besides, I’ve already done that. I shared an office with a fellow admin at the law school and we helped each other out with all kinds of things. It’s just what you do.
And I can’t help but feel that this new position is a demotion, even though there are a lot of people would think otherwise, including the other eleven people who applied for the job. I don’t know why, but it just seems that I won’t have as much to do, nor will I have as much responsibility. That’s not true; I’ll be dealing with the Board members rather than the doctors, but there are a lot fewer Board members. I’ll still be waist-deep in confidential materials, just different ones. And did I mention that the IS department recently went around and slapped a fairly restrictive proxy on all the computers? So not only will I have less to do, I’ll have fewer ways to entertain myself. Not that I’d do a lot of surfing down there anyway, since my new desk is right smack in the middle of everything and anyone walking past can see what I’d be doing. Sigh.
Changing gears completely, our vacation in November is now completely paid for; well, hotel and tickets anyway. We’ll still have to buy food and souvenirs, of course. But I’ve been saving a little bit of money each paycheck, so we shouldn’t have any problems there. At this point four months from now, we’ll be at Disney World, probably eating our way around the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. I’m excited about it, and I’m trying to get Lee excited, too. Actually, I can probably go ahead and make Priority Seating arrangements (i.e, reservations) at several of the restaurants that we’d like to eat at. I just have to get Lee to sit down with all my planning books and make some firm decisions. Have I mentioned that I have four different books, all various ages? Two of them don’t even really make mention of Animal Kingdom, and that’s been open for a few years now.
And whatever block that I had about my birthday seems to have dissipated. Partly, I think, because now it’s so close. I’ve always kind of looked forward to the 4th of July, less because of the holiday itself and more because it means my birthday is next week. One week from today, in fact. Send me presents. No, not really, unless you already have in your possession my snail mail address. I’ve already received my big present for the year, anyway: Lee installed a CD burner in my main system a couple of months ago. Now I just really have to have enough stuff to justify burning CDs; I’d like to recreate a couple of my favorite mix tapes (notably the Happy Sing Along Driving Mix and the Depressing Mix of Sappy Love Songs) but I’d have to get MP3s of some of them since I borrowed CDs to get some of the songs. But that’s a story for another day.
