| Not Dead Update Updateas |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|09:29 pm] |
OH MY GOD.
Never drink and post, peeps. Things like that last maudlin piece of shit happen!
Honestly, that was some bad malbec. |
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| The not-dead update |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|09:13 pm] |
Still alive. Healthy. Obnoxious.
I changed jobs. I'd gotten this weird, passive-aggressive review from my manager who I suspected of blocking my advancement in the company, and a dinky raise, and so I started listening to all the headhunters who like to bother me. One of them came up with a really interesting job with a better title and better pay and much better benefits, so I went through this whackaloon three-month interview/yes/no/we changed our focus process that ended up with me getting a cool new job in the new year. The hilarious part is that I gave my manager time to come up with counter-offers, if the company wanted to make them, and he did come up with some, but they were...well...sordidly lame-ass. Sort of non-offers to be talked over later. He told me that our CIO was in on the offer process, so I figured they were happy to see me go.
Until the 'pit viper is leaving' email went out, when within an hour three managers of other departments were in my office, offering me jobs. Hmm, I thought, I guess my leaving was not exactly trumpeted about.
Then, after I was at the new company, I crashed the party of the old company (yes, I do that sort of thing. I know everyone is shocked. Shocked!) because they do know how to throw a bash, and I ran into the CIO (the annoying manager never goes because he's a schmuck). Turns out, despite what I'd been told, HE wasn't told I had another offer and was infuriated. Apparently, certain people were coal-raked over letting me go. Oh, and I always have a job there. Heh. I nearly told him that I was interesting in being the manager of my former department, but I thought that would be pushing the karma a little too far. Besides, I like hiding in my office and futzing with data.
I went to Switzerland in November and went to Expovina, a wine festival that consists of twelve yachts moored in Zurich harbor, full of wine vendors just dying for you to taste their product. And taste I did. And they had a fondue restaurant, so we ate white wine and gruyere fondue and drank MORE wine and YUM. Then on to Luzern (after a side trip to Bern, because Mr. Viper lost his passport and we had to go to our embassy to get a new one - for the record, our Swiss embassy is ruthlessly efficient). In Luzern, I discovered that I am in love with Miro's work, and Picasso really was a hilariously dirty old man, and am seriously freaked the fuck out by Francis Bacon (the painter). I would stare at his paintings in awe, and then terror would set in and I would run away from them.
We went with a bunch of friends to a traditional beer hall, where the other table in our room was having a birthday and they hired a very bad oompah band. The oompah band played Bolero in polka tempo, while we ate bread-soaked vodka dipped in fondue, which is kind of like a cheese shot? Anyway, we toasted to Bo Derek. She was with us in spirit.
I was planning on going bobsledding because I could, and talking about it to a friend during a big reception. There were other people standing around who didn't know either of us well, and when Jeff asked where I was going bobsledding, I said "Titless" (which was the name of the mountain) and he got this great quizzical expression and said "That's not appropriate for you at all." Which.....true. Then I looked around and realized everybody around us was horrified because they didn't think Jeff knew me. Hee. Alas, due to the craziness of travel, I did not get to go bobsledding, but I will someday. Or maybe I'll luge, tits and all.
During the exhibition-vendor-hall part of the trip, where Mr. Viper was talking to his colleagues, I got tipsy with a nice pair of Scotsmen selling some kind of medical device, and who broke out a flask of really good Scotch instead of the tepid conference wine.
Mr. Viper found his lost passport in his noise-cancelling headphone case as he was boarding the plane. D'oh!
I am still trying to plan a major conference for summer 2009. I am still terrified about it all.
More travel coming up - Mr. Viper has talks to give in Capetown, Istanbul and Beijing this year. Now, I have a decent amount of vacation but not enough vacation time for all three. I was going to skip Beijing, but he's going to be there during the Olympics and I am the junkie to end all Olympics junkies. I wanna see me some Olympic fencing and sumo wrestling! So....I don't know. I can't pass up going back to Africa, and I feel I must go see the ancient ruins around Istanbul. But the Olympics! I am so fucking lucky to have this kind of problem. Damn.
Um...the cats are well, although our mentally challenged cat seems to have burned herself sleeping on our cast-iron radiators, and I need to get her to the vet tomorrow. Sherpa hasn't stolen my lunch in a while, mostly because I've switched to a bag with a zipper. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 22nd, 2007|04:48 pm] |
These past two weeks have been wild, wild.
1. I have six products on my plate at work. One of them is dada out there weird (the info provider lost their own content - twice - among other things. The last meeting we had included a business manager asking us about sales tactics. Us. The geek squad, who just design and build the things). One product is really three, and our CEO is going to present them in a week, and... well...just, wacko. The others are varying levels of fucked up. Monday-Thursday was really intense, and then yesterday we all lost it at the same time and everyone would collapse in hysterical laughter about every 15 minutes over some lame joke sent out sotto voce over the cubeosphere.
2. TMI Alert! Read no further if you're not into TMI. I'm on a prescription plan that covers birth control (yay!) but does the generic thing (fine!) but my pharmacy is being taken over by another pharmacy and they changed the generic brand. I've been on it for three weeks, and my hair is falling out in clumps, and I'm sore to the touch and I can't concentrate worth shit and my emotions have been on a rollercoaster that is usually stuck at the bottom of the hill called Bitch. I went to the pharmacy to complain, and it turns out they have hordes of women complaining about the same thing, so they're going back to the original generic. Good on them, but if you combine point number one with point number two, I have been walking a thin fucking wire these past weeks. I knew what the problem was after the first week, but I knew that I would rather struggle through this month than do the start over mess, so I've been depressed and tetchy and mentally scattered, but just pulled my ass through because I knew what the cause was. Still, it was hard to do. I had to keep taking deep breaths, because I can't snap at people who need me just because my medication is off. You would not believe the intensity with which I've been doing banishing rituals!
3. Mr. Viper and I were going to hiking today, but he ended up getting an awesome research opportunity, so he and his research pal went out on research pal's sailboat to sail and talk about the research plan. This was somewhat of a relief for me, because although I love hiking, after this week I wanted to do something passive.
4. Shopping. Yes, I went all girly and did the full makeup and skirt and heels and put the top down on the car and went to the mall. I went to Sephora, because I needed my Murad facial stuff. I was stunned, because I was standing there gathering up all the rosacea-based facial wash and moisturizer and toner and a gaggle of perfectly glowing 20-somethings came over and asked how I liked the product. I said I loved it, but it was because I had rosacea, and Murad worked the best for me, but I couldn't say how their normal-skin stuff was. They said I had beautiful skin, which is why they were asking how I liked Murad. Wha...? Are you kidding me? It was quite thrilling, because I never thought I'd do so much physical maintenance on myself for anything, and I really do obsess over keeping my rosacea in line - I hate the thought of having a chronic skin disease, so I try very hard to keep it under control. The whole encounter was kind of surreal.
Also, I got a free gift of brown sugar body scrub. I hate food-smelly cosmetic products, but this is apparently not smelling like brown sugar or anything - it uses the crystals as a base for oils I might just try it, then.
And then...and then I went to Lord & Taylor. I came out with butter-soft black suede winter gloves, opera-length and lined in silk. 30% off. It is my only excuse. |
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| This week in Viperland |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|05:34 pm] |
My favorite hot driver, Dario Franchitti (half Scots, half Italian - Mr. Viper calls him Haggis Parmesan) won the Indycar championship. Go, Dario! He's a verra sexah thang. He's also married to Ashley Judd, dammit.
Work has gotten seriously weird, and I have queues of people outside my office wanting to talk to me, and get calls from my favorite product manager, who looks like John Belushi's even nerdier than Jim little brother and we giggle about the insanity of it all and then I get into crazed conversations with other designers about control info codes and smartlinking and OMG! how the fucking fuck do you deal with links to an outside vendor site and then we all go have Thai (my favorite? Ga Prao Gai). And we make obscene cataloger jokes with likeminded developers.
My favorite work incident of the week? Someone put a Guinness logo watermark on a spec.
I am tired of any and all 9/11 stuff. I build my little personal altar to the people I knew and that's that.
My car was up for its 50,000 mile tuneup. It had not been washed all summer and was dirt-encrusted. At the Audi service place, they always give it a good wash when you take it in. Now it drives like a dream and is all shiny and stuff. And when it is shiny, the gloriousness of the design comes out. There is something to say about starting every day with a pure aesthetic thrill, and now mine includes the outside as well as the inside of the car. Heh. Until now I was like "meh" until I'd get into the car and be "whoa - pure beauty and pure function UNITE!" But now I get that when I walk out of the house and look at the thing I get at least another whole minute of beauty joy per day.
All of my fall/winter shoes are about four years old and falling apart. You know what that means.
SHOE WARDROBE REFURBISHMENT |
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| Yes, I know. |
[Aug. 28th, 2007|06:19 pm] |
Few and far between, my LJ entries. I'm just trying, after two years, to really ground myself in where I am, with real-time interactions and doing the face thing, which is much more difficult for me than running with the internet persona. My real life me is so much more complex and prickly and introverted (but more glamorous- heh. Not.) Face things take time and energy, which then leaves me less time for typing away at the computer.
So, I found out that I work with a lot of really, really fun people, and I've bullied them into going out after work as a group every two weeks or so, and it's sowing seeds of general goodwill and amusement. The rule of the outings are that we don't talk about work, and that turns out to be a great thing. People are so odd! And the hilarious part is that at some point in the evening we all end up giggling about our sex lives past and present. Of course, being the 40+ entry in a sea of 30ish beings, I inevitably have the best story. Sometimes I even tell it.
We had our company beach party on Friday. It was crazy-hot, but they had a clambake and burgers and ribs and kegs and three kinds of rum-and-fruit punch and spiked lemonade. And the water was gorgeous! So was the shade (thankfully, the site has a huge lawn with trees). And we have several surfer dudes that - well - it's a treat to see them shirtless.
I like my house. My cats rule, although we cannot cure Sherpa of always managing to launch off of Mr. Viper's nutsack when she leaves his lap. It is a tribute to the gulf of cuteness that is Sherpa that he's still completely in her furry thrall. My job is something I look forward to doing every day. Mr. Viper is the hottest science nerd that ever sci-nerded. I have some kick-ass shoes.
Favorite music of the moment:
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
The Killers - Sam's Town (shut up - I know it's twee. So?)
Reading:
The Great Deluge. I can only read it in bits, because it makes me so fucking angry. Also brilliant though, about Katrina.
Helen of Troy. A fictional treatment of her life that is reasonably amusing by Margaret George.
The Middle Pillar. Israel Regardie is one of my favorite authors - a ritual magician who was also a therapist and a wonderful writer. The book is about the Middle Pillar ritual, which is one of my must-dos. This is a reread, but I always find something new in it.
Looking at:
A while ago, I bought from a thrift store this little hall table that has beautiful curved legs. The negative space forms the classic French Art Nouveau shape. I've been appreciating it this week. |
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| Well gosh |
[Aug. 2nd, 2007|09:45 pm] |
First, to get the Harry Potter thing out of the way:
I spent July 17-26 in England with a bunch of people that came into my life directly through HP. It was a family reunion with the family I chose and it was awesome and hilarious and fun and psychically there. Just perfect, except for a few of us that couldn't make it, and we thought of you all lots.
HP taught me that I could write, but that I didn't need to write, and that even if I did want to write I would have a seriously limited audience. And standing on the other side, that works for me. I subside happily into my usual lazy dilettante persona.
Since I got back, work has exploded and it is crazy and weird. But there is a moment in every day that I marvel at the fact that I'm actually sitting down, which in some former jobs was an unattainable luxury. I remember so vividly working two or three factory/waitress jobs and then coming home to whatever friend was dying of AIDS at the time, and throwing him over my shoulder and putting him to bed and changing him and injecting and wiping and feeding and just going and going and going and being SO AFRAID to sit down because I knew that if I did, I would never get up again. It amazes me that even after fifteen years, it is all so close. |
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| Today |
[Jul. 3rd, 2007|11:43 am] |
My company gives us two days off for the 4th, so I'm home and watching Wimbledon. Go Venus! She's such an elegant athlete.
I usually love the 4th - picnics, fireworks, bunting, parades, the whole bit. This year, I feel like hiding from it all. I'm grieving for death of so much of what was good about this country.
We've become mean.
We've become intolerant.
We've become selfish.
We've become hypocritical.
We've become scared.
We've become small-minded.
We've become provincial.
We've become afraid of all the good things we once strove for - education, intellectual achievement, wide experience, cultural sophistication. Now, if you strive for anything outside of more money or religious display, you're "elitist."
If you doubt me, check out the last four Supreme Court decisions.
And yes, I include all of us in this. Most of us have a vote and two feet. Where were we when the Supreme Court spit in our faces and told us our votes don't count? Not in the streets, where we belonged. I wasn't, and I'm ashamed of myself. |
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| Still here! |
[Jun. 24th, 2007|09:21 pm] |
I've been working and wandering around and getting angry and having nice little moments. The usual things.
I went to my professional conference in June. The good news - I had an awesome time. The news that is freaking me out - I was nominated as a program planner for the 2009 conference which means planning CE courses, conference sessions, open houses and such AND it's the centennial conference so it is all a big fucking deal. Gah. I can throw a party. I don't know if I can throw a CE course. I suspect that "Making the perfect gimlet" isn't going to be accepted as a topic for CE credit.
On the other hand...the first two days of the conference, we shared the conference center with a bodybuilding conference. Bulky, bumpy men that were a weird shade of burnt sienna, oiled up and posing in glittery codpieces outside our session rooms.
After they left, one of our conference hotels was hosting a plushie conference (for those of you who do not watch CSI, plushies are people who dress up in animal costumes and have sex - with the costumes still on, like a big mascot orgy. They are 'specially made with appropriate openings. Anyway). I was having late-night drinks at the Adams Mark with my librarian techie friends, and suddenly an irruption of totally wasted people in animal costumes stormed through the lobby and bar, shrieking about the joys of plushie sex and harassing the 'baldies'.
My yard is conspiring against me. It is growing things that I don't think belong in the flower beds, but maybe they do. The enormous hostas are looking desperate, though, so maybe not. Mr. Viper has successfully grown carrots, radishes, peppers and garlic. Tomatoes are forthcoming. He is such a geek that this garden has its own irrigation system on a timer.
My job is weird and hilariously frustrating and often inspiring and generally filled with enormous goodwill. I was told in my midyear review that I was "a force in the department" so my new workplace motto is BEWARE MY LASER BEAMS. I often say this in meetings. It produces a disconcerting array of giggles - nobody is impressed. They do feed me lots of donuts though, so their lack of fear over the laser beams is mitigated.
It is odd how I've withdrawn from online life, but I think that the move to here has demanded that I pay attention to the physical world in order to ground myself, and until I do that sufficiently, I need to live in a very present way in the environment. I knew NYC like my own bones. Boston is like living in a hair shirt covered in butter. I like to lick it, but I need to change my perception of the underlying fabric. |
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| Animal things |
[Mar. 30th, 2007|05:56 pm] |
On my drive to work this morning, I saw a multitude of deer, a wild turkey, and a river otter. The river otter in particular was awesomely cute - he was sprawled out on his back on the last of the ice bordering the shores of the river, whiskers up in the air, I suspect honing in on breakfast. Also, some returning geese crashed into the river outside our cafeteria as I was getting my coffee. There's nothing quite like watching an entire flying V of geese land.
In other news, I brought a meeting to a standstill because everyone thought I said "cock ring." I said something else, but the reaction was entertaining nonetheless.
Our lame, mentally challenged cat has fallen down the stairs several times. This doesn't seem to bother her. Our other cat, distressingly active and smart, veers between extravagant shows of affection and behavior that borders on the snow leopard she thinks she is.
I am getting my hair trimmed and dyed tomorrow. This is good, because I now resemble a venerable harpy on a bad day. |
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