‘Working Girl’ Category

  1. in which i lament debt and crappy parking.

    August 1, 2007 by sassenach

    I’ve been pondering the idea of getting a second job.

    Let’s face it–while I have an acceptable job and some perks, my debt to income ratio is a little nervewracking. At this rate, I’ll be boarding with Mom & Dad until I’m nearly 40, for crying out loud. Something must be done.

    I think curbing the yarn spending is a good start, as I mentioned in my previous post. That will save me a good chunk of money every paycheck. But it’s still not enough to make a significant dent in the cumulative debt I’ve got on my plate.

    Today I found an ad for a bookseller position downtown. Yippee! I love books! I love them almost as much as I love yarn! So I got directions to the bookstore from Google maps and the directions were actually correct (for once). Problem was, parking downtown is MAD and I drove around the building no less than four times trying to figure out where the bloody heck I was supposed to park. yeah. I’m parking challenged.

    I finally saw an open space on the curb, so I grabbed it quick. Then I realized there was a parking meter, and I thought, crap, how exactly do those work again? lol Seriously! I’ve used parking meters maybe five or so times my whole life. I like parking LOTS, people, not METERS.

    Luckily, I had change, so I fed the meter two quarters and went inside the bookstore. Where I promptly had my proverbial bubble burst.

    I was greeted when I walked in, but when I asked for a job application, the lady behind the counter was…how do you say…less than friendly. She didn’t even SMILE at me! ugh! And I got the feeling that she was the manager, because when I asked her if I could take it home and bring it back, she said, “Yes but bring it back soon because I did some interviews today.” ok. And that was it. No have a nice day, no thanks for the interest…blech. I took the application and left.

    Fifty cents later (I overfed the parking meter by about 15 cents, oh well), I just went straight home. I am SO frustrated by the money situation. I’m dabbling with the idea of inquiring at my LYSes about jobs there, but after today I’m rather deflated. I don’t have much confidence when it comes to basically groveling at the feet of others. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do–I need to think things over more, formulate a better plan.

    At this point, I’m thinking it’s time to start playing the lottery. :neutral:

    Category: My So-Called Life, Working Girl | Tags: | 5 Comments

  2. walking away a fried brain.

    June 20, 2007 by sassenach

    Some days after work, and sometimes especially AT work, my brain just feels fried. Fried! Scrambled! Mashed! And any other food reference you can think of. Today was one of those days. My job isn’t hard…so I’m not exactly complaining. But if I have nightmares tonight about spreadsheets and itty bitty numbers inside teeny weeny columns and rows, I won’t be surprised.

    Tonight I’ll probably kitchener the toe of my Austermann Step sock (yay!) while watching Ghost Hunters. :) Hopefully that will relax me, after today’s long work day.

    I should sleep well tonight too, because I was a good girl and took another walk today! The weather was soooo nice. It rained earlier in the afternoon, so the ridiculous heat from Monday was just a memory. There was a pleasant breeze, other people were walking/running, some had their dogs with them…it was nice! I’m going to do it again tomorrow. :)

    Category: My So-Called Life, Working Girl | Tags: | 2 Comments

  3. on capris and wool and emails that make me look stupid.

    May 23, 2007 by sassenach

    Capris: I really like these for the summer, even though short people like me (5’4″) are made even shorter-looking because instead of hitting just above my ankles, they usually hit me somewhere at or below the ankles, and sometimes I look like I’m wearing high-wadders instead of cutesy/hip fashion. (That is a REALLY big run-on sentence, I know.) :lol: All that aside, I bought a pair of khaki stretch capris yesterday from Old Navy that are pretty cute and comfy. Plus, I had a coupon, yay!

    Wool: Because we’re on the cusp of summer and what do I get a hankering to knit? A scarf! Not any scarf, a WOOL scarf! hahaha. What a dork. I’m making a My So-Called Scarf using Patons SWS in Natural Plum. I’ve heard good things about this yarn, and I don’t want to give it a premature review until I’ve worked with it more, but I have noticed that this yarn does not frog well at all! I got distracted and had to rip out my progress, and the yarn has a tendency to felt really, really easily. But I bet it’s a dream when you want to felt on purpose!

    Emails That Make Me Look Stupid: I have this tendency at my new job to write emails that make me look stupid. Usually I hit “send” before realizing what someone was really asking, so then I have to send another email apologizing for misunderstanding and then either give them the actual answer, or refer to them to my boss because I’m still so new that I don’t know a lot of the answers yet. ugh! Most people are really understanding, but today, this lady at one of the companies we work with got rather uppity with me–in an email, which comes across as pretty harsh–so my boss is still trying to figure out what’s up with her. Luckily and thankfully, he took my side when I showed that I was in the right (it’s a long story!), but still. I hate when people act rude in emails, it’s just…rude. lol

    I’m off to knit with more felty wool and wait for tonight’s season finale of Lost! It had better be good. :)

    Category: Knitting, My So-Called Life, Working Girl | Tags: | 2 Comments

  4. a jumble of thoughts.

    May 16, 2007 by sassenach

    My allergies are kicking my patootie AGAIN. arggggggg. :shock: I’m about to pop a decongestant and pray for relief. Since my sinuses are making my brain so cloudy, this post might likewise be cloudy. You’ve been warned. ;)

    I had to work almost an hour longer today than I normally do because my boss asked me to do a bunch of stuff at the end of the day. It was ok, nothing too difficult but I had a brain burp and emailed someone totally the wrong thing. Right after discussing the whole thing with my boss, I emailed someone the wrong thing. yeah, brilliant. Of course my boss caught it and I fixed it, but still. I hate when that happens!

    New L&V episode, squee!

    L&V shop update happened today and I AM RESISTING. (58 skeins, 58 skeins, 58 skeins o’ sock yarn have I…) But wow, they’re pretty!

    I found myself in need of more summery shirts/tops since the weather has been creeping up to the 80s of late, so I found some cute things at Target today. :)

    Lost comes on tonight, the penultimate episode for this season. I just like saying/typing penultimate. :D Note to the writers (who of course read this little blog, haha): please either make Jack get some sense knocked into his thick skull, or else just kill him off. He has gotten bloody annoying, thanks.

    Yesterday I noticed that Jenna has an Etsy shop, and I sort of fell over from the prettiness and then after I got back up I bought this ring. I’ve started wearing rings again. For a couple months, I wasn’t wearing any because I was getting used to the feeling of not wearing a wedding ring anymore, but now I’m wearing pretty rings again and this one will be a pretty addition to my small collection. :) (And how many times can I use the word “pretty” in this post? Never too many, apparently!)

    ok, I need to medicate now and attempt to breathe, listen to L&V, and then watch Lost! Told you this post was all random and weird! :D

    Category: Knitting, My So-Called Life, TV, Working Girl | Tags: | 8 Comments

  5. my life consists of lists.

    May 2, 2007 by sassenach

    Future Projects This is representative of what my life has become: inhabited by lists.

    Lists at work, in the form of Excel spreadsheets that I end up thinking about even when I’m NOT at work.

    Lists in the form of non-work-related spreadsheets to plan my Moving Out Savings Plan.

    And here, lists that attempt to organize my future knitting projects, which tend to be so random…basically, dig through the yarn stash and see what jumps out as “pretty!!” on any given day.

    I’ve seen really extensive knitting organization tools, down to MORE Excel spreadsheets that actually chart out one’s entire stash inventory. A) I don’t think I have the patience to type out my whole stash (manufacturer, colorway, quantity, fiber, etc.) and B) I am frightened at the prospect of actually seeing how much stash I have. I probably have about as much as a small yarn shop! :D ok, maybe not THAT much…but I’m still not about to list it all out. That would give me a headache! I’m thinking I’ll start with a page at a time and see if I can knit through it, then write another page of potential projects and go from there.

    Maybe one good thing about my new job (despite the Excel stuff that haunts me after I leave work!) is that it has made me sort of list-obsessed, because the only real way that I can get things done without feeling overwhelmed is to organize it all. That way, it’s one thing at a time, and I can see the progress I’m making. :)

    Category: Knitting, Working Girl | Tags: | 4 Comments

  6. rambly stuff!

    April 16, 2007 by sassenach

    I’m not sure if this will help anyone, but it has worked for me, so I’ll pass it along. :) I used to get TONS of comment spam on my blog…literally, like dozens a day, sometimes 100+. I think it’s because I don’t block robots from my site, and even though I’m running Akismet, some spam would still sneak in. Well, I turned off trackbacks in WordPress (I think it’s in the Options tab or somewhere), and ever since I did that, I get hardly any spam. Just passing that info to you. :D

    So, today had crazy weather! Wind gusts up to 50 mph, which is oh-so-nice when one has to take the interstate to work. :neutral: Needless to say, I took the interstate going to work but used an alternate route on the way home. Longer commute, but probably safer.

    I knit some on my Fleece Artist sock before work this morning while enjoying a Mocha Frapp from Starbucks. Now that’s a nice morning! I even had a chance to pop into one of my LYSes during lunch since I needed some new dpns. My bamboos are definitely bent. I’m trying some Brittany birch ones for the first time. I wanted to get some new #1s, until the shop owner told me that Brittany doesn’t make them in size 1 since they snap so easily. So I got them in size 2. I used to be a Knit Picks dpn devotee until the finish on mine started peeling off. :( It was ok for a while, since KP replaced them for free, until the finish on the *replacements* started peeling, too! arg! I highly suspect this is due to my sweaty hands knitting. Probably something about the oils in my skin interacting with the nickel coating, methinks. hmm.

    Speaking of knitting (when am I NOT speaking of it?), kc informed me that Blue Moon Fiber Arts added more colorways to their site! egads, the prettiness!! I must NOT buy any of it anytime soon, as my stash is just growing and growing like a fungus (albeit a mighty pretty one), and I can’t knit fast enough to keep up with it. But oh, those colorways are inviting. :) I think my favorite is Socktopus, hehe.

    So, more about the Diana Gabaldon event I’m attending this week, squee! Apparently I was initially signed up for the Thursday night event because Wednesday’s was booked full. Then today, I got a voicemail from the organizer of the events, saying that I had been waitlisted for Wednesday but she had two tickets for me, if I still wanted them! yes, of course I still want them! :lol: See, Wednesday there’s a book signing and a more formal meet-and-greet, I guess, plus a Celtic group/band. Then Thursday there’s an informal event with Diana, which is the one I thought I was attending since less people had registered for it. But now, it looks like I’m going to the Wednesday one instead because they’re trying to register more people for Thursday night. I called them back to confirm, and I have tickets for Wednesday reserved…I’m just waiting for the organizer to call me AGAIN and confirm with me to pick them up. phew! I’m just so excited to be going; I’ll go to either event, as long as I go to at least one, I’ll be a very happy chick. :lol:

    Is this only Monday? Today at work went by really quickly for me. Maybe too quickly. I was pretty busy and didn’t get everthing done. It’s kind of weird for me to leave work for the next couple of days…I’m used to finishing everything before I go home. I guess it’s good that I’ll be busy, at least!

    Category: Knitting, My So-Called Life, Outlander, Reading, Working Girl | Tags: | 3 Comments

  7. coupon, anyone?

    April 13, 2007 by sassenach

    ok, now that I’ve regained control of myself (see below post about Diana FREAKING Gabaldon coming to my VERY HOMETOWN [well technically, a nearby city but whatever])…I can post regular stuff about my day. :D

    Work is getting better, slowly but surely, I think! Today was productive. I had a lot to do, and my boss told me that I did a great job my first week. :) cool!

    I also got a new mobile phone, courtesy of The New Job. It’s a blue MOTORIZR and I’m trying it out to see if I like it better (their service is through T-Mobile, which I’ve been coveting). I am desperate to get out of my 2-year contract with Sprint because I get dropped calls *every day* with Sprint. It’s sort of ridiculous. So we’ll see if that works out. I’ll have to take a photo of the Rizr this weekend because it’s pretty cool looking.

    Even though I’ve only been there a week, the payroll department keyed me in, so I got paid today! It was only half of what I’ll normally get paid, but they went ahead and paid me rather than waiting until next pay period and paying me for 3 weeks. And of course one of the first things my parents told me was, “start saving so you can buy a car!” oy vey. More things to think about. I’ve been driving my mom’s car since she doesn’t really go anywhere (neither of my parents do since they retired), but I know I have to get a car in the next several months! If it were up to me, I’d get a used one…but I know they’ll be adamant about buying a new one. They’re firm believers in new cars and new cars only. sigh. We’ll cross that bridge later…

    oh, this is random but kind of worth mentioning: today is apparently coupon day, hehe. I bought a couple shirts for work at Old Navy today, and used a 10% off coupon I got for filling out their online survey. Then when I paid, I got another survey thingy with my receipt, so I’m going to fill out that one and get another coupon! I came home and checked my email, and Barnes & Noble sent me a 15% off Member card coupon. As I was reading through email, I got a new message from Petsmart with a $5 coupon. lol! Stores either really like me, or they just know I’m a sucker for a deal/sale and that I will spend money when prompted. btw, if you need some semi-dressy work clothes, New York & Company is having a big sale where the WHOLE STORE is 40% off. No joke. I just bought more work pants there today and saved quite a bit. (And just registered for their email list and will be getting…you guessed it…another coupon. lol this is insane! :lol: )

    Well this post has been awfully commercial and material, so I think I’ll stop that now. ;) I did manage to sneak in some knitting time both this morning before work and during lunch. Even though I should have been finishing pairs, I…um…started a new sock. ahem. I’m not sure if the pattern is going to work with the yarn I chose, though, because the yarn is pretty dark, so I’m going to do a couple more repeats and then decide if I want to frog or not. I’m trying to work with some neutral yarns (solids or nearly solid colorways) so that I can wear them to work! Because most of the socks I have (if not all) aren’t really dress-shoe friendly. This gives me an excuse to cast on a whole lot of socks now. “They’re for work!” :lol:

    EDIT: oh! I knew I was forgetting something, duh. Today I renewed hosting for my domain, so mub.net is going to be around for at least one more year! :) Its birthday is officially May 11…I’ll have to think of something to celebrate one year. A yarn giveaway? Sometime this weekend I might change the WordPress theme, so if things look weird or broken (which they hopefully won’t), it should be temporary. KC‘s new look has prompted me to do a redesign around here. :) I have to go hunt for a new theme first!

    Category: Domain, Knitting, My So-Called Life, Working Girl | Tags: | 6 Comments

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