(no subject)
Well, I've been meaning to do this since Jess mentioned I hadn't been around in ages, and I said I would, and then a month went by. WOOPS.
Life is good. I've moved to the Boston area to move in with
madeupofstars at last, and I think we're just about through that awkward adjusting-to-being-roommates phase. Our place is adorable and if any of you are ever trekking through Beantown, give me a holler! We'd love to put you up for a night.
My move also included a job transition, which has been both easier and harder to navigate. I left the store I'd been working at for 3 years because I could no longer work with the manager there. Besides treating me like a subordinate instead of a partner in running the store (the way the manager/manager-in-training team is supposed to work) she is just not the kind of person I could really feel good about working with. She's shallow and image-obsessed and talked constantly about all the men she was sleeping with and losing those last 5 pounds off her 110-pound frame with no regard for how that might make someone who's almost twice that size feel... unprofessional and just not my cup of tea. So I was like hey, peace out.
I applied to transfer to one of the Boston stores but then someone on the national management support team (basically like a regional manager if Lush had regional managers) called me and was like hey, this other store really needs help, would you be interested in working there instead? So I got contracted to manage this other store through the Christmas season. Which is awesome because I'm making more money than I did at the old place plus lots of bonus, but on the downside it's about an hour from my house, so my commute is really gross.
I'm struggling a little bit with where I want my career with Lush to go from here. I still love the company and really adore most of the parts of my job. But the past year-- losing the manager's job at my old store to someone who doesn't love the company the way I do and didn't value pretty much anything I brought to the table in terms of experience and viewpoint, and then having to take a back seat to that person for an entire year-- it really left me with a lot of resentment and a sour taste in my mouth. It used to be that most of my close friends worked either in retail or in a job with a non-traditional schedule, so not being available on the weekends wasn't a huge deal. Now I'm one of only two of us that can't just hop in the car and take off on Friday night for a two day getaway, and it's starting to bug me a little. I sort of miss getting paid $15 an hour to dick around on the internet. But I also remember how little emotional fulfillment I got from jobs like that, and how excited I was to work for a company that engaged my values and my heart as well as my personality.
I'm not at the point of quitting yet, not nearly. But I really wonder, when next Christmas comes along, if I'll still have it in me to give a fuck. This sounds kind of whiny, but I just want to be a manager, now rather than later. When I was acting manager in my old store, it was fun-- being in charge of my own store, getting to travel every now and then, hiring, really feeling like I owned a piece of things-- that made me feel like it mattered that I was there. That's what I want to get back, and after this Christmas is over, if I can't find a way to do that, I don't really know what I'll do. At least I have a plan-- once my contract is up (end of January) I'm applying to transfer as manager-in-training to a store much closer to my house, to work for a friend of mine who's managing it. She wants to help me move up and has a lot of cachet with the company with which to help me do so. Plus managing the highest volume store in New England during the Christmas season isn't hurting my chances, lol.
So on the job front (and god bless you if you got through all of that) things are okay, but in a bit of limbo. I feel less grinchy than I did last Christmas, but I think I need a little more festivity in my life and in the apartment before I can really feel excited about it. Amanda and I are going to try to get a tree tomorrow-- where, god only knows-- and we're switching bedrooms this week as well, which is going to be hectic but ultimately satisfying. I need more space, she wants the room with the closet, it works out perfectly.
Things on
edge_of_forever are picking up again as well. It's been rough for me the past few months trying to keep up with modding and playing, but I feel like I'm finally getting on top of things. I've figured out how to manage doing at least a couple of tags a day, which for the first month of an hour-long commute was not easy, lol. And we're getting some new players and new apps, which is exciting. I was really pumped to revamp the app-- which for those of you who play on the game, we revamped the app! There'll be an announcement about it this week XD-- to hopefully make it much easier for people to apply without regurgitating Wikipedia articles about their characters' histories. It sucks hearing people say repeatedly "ugh, I hate writing apps, it's so stressful"-- like as a mod, I don't want people to feel that way about apping to my game. I mean sure, apping shouldn't be brainless, you should have to think about what you're saying and why. But the 500 word history and personality has started to feel pedantic even to me, and it's nice to feel like we've found a way around it.
Also I'm so stupidly excited for holiday plot. XD And to get to use my weather machine idea AT LAST. :DDDD
Other life things in a nutshell. My grandparents moved into a retirement home over the summer, which has been weird to deal with, but they're clearly a lot less stressed out without having to worry about taking care of a house, so that's good. My mother, in a staggering example of empty nest syndrome, adopted a kitten last week. Her name is Luna and she is black and white with a permanent Batman mask and cape-- her eyes and ears and entire back are black. She's fucking adorable and has all the energy in the world, loves to climb things and people, and any toys that make noise. Getting my cat and Amanda's cats to like each other is a slow going process, but we've established a pattern where we can leave them all out in common space and they won't kill each other, and mostly just leave each other alone. I got a new bed for my birthday, it is amazing not to be sleeping on a futon for the first time in 8 years. And thanks to my friend Steph I have rekindled my middle-school love of painting my nails and have become a little nail obsessed. Not going to start a blog anytime soon or anything, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. Helps make me feel like I put some effort in even when I have the flu and am basically dressed in the work equivalent of a pair of pajamas. I'm literally wearing yoga pants to work today which I never do. But god, I hate being sick. I've had to take two days off this past week and I still have no voice. Ugh.
However, I must go get ready for said work shift now, so I'll put a cap on this. How are you all?
♥ emily
PS - i swear to god i'm getting back to my would-be betas THIS WEEK. :3 i want to have the first half of 1000 pages up on AO3 by the new year!! look in your inboxes.
PPS - someone please cheerlead me and tell me i can write my yuletide fic before friday. because ugfskdjfhdg don't want to have to default. D:
ok really going now
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)
Life is good. I've moved to the Boston area to move in with
madeupofstars at last, and I think we're just about through that awkward adjusting-to-being-roommates phase. Our place is adorable and if any of you are ever trekking through Beantown, give me a holler! We'd love to put you up for a night.
My move also included a job transition, which has been both easier and harder to navigate. I left the store I'd been working at for 3 years because I could no longer work with the manager there. Besides treating me like a subordinate instead of a partner in running the store (the way the manager/manager-in-training team is supposed to work) she is just not the kind of person I could really feel good about working with. She's shallow and image-obsessed and talked constantly about all the men she was sleeping with and losing those last 5 pounds off her 110-pound frame with no regard for how that might make someone who's almost twice that size feel... unprofessional and just not my cup of tea. So I was like hey, peace out.
I applied to transfer to one of the Boston stores but then someone on the national management support team (basically like a regional manager if Lush had regional managers) called me and was like hey, this other store really needs help, would you be interested in working there instead? So I got contracted to manage this other store through the Christmas season. Which is awesome because I'm making more money than I did at the old place plus lots of bonus, but on the downside it's about an hour from my house, so my commute is really gross.
I'm struggling a little bit with where I want my career with Lush to go from here. I still love the company and really adore most of the parts of my job. But the past year-- losing the manager's job at my old store to someone who doesn't love the company the way I do and didn't value pretty much anything I brought to the table in terms of experience and viewpoint, and then having to take a back seat to that person for an entire year-- it really left me with a lot of resentment and a sour taste in my mouth. It used to be that most of my close friends worked either in retail or in a job with a non-traditional schedule, so not being available on the weekends wasn't a huge deal. Now I'm one of only two of us that can't just hop in the car and take off on Friday night for a two day getaway, and it's starting to bug me a little. I sort of miss getting paid $15 an hour to dick around on the internet. But I also remember how little emotional fulfillment I got from jobs like that, and how excited I was to work for a company that engaged my values and my heart as well as my personality.
I'm not at the point of quitting yet, not nearly. But I really wonder, when next Christmas comes along, if I'll still have it in me to give a fuck. This sounds kind of whiny, but I just want to be a manager, now rather than later. When I was acting manager in my old store, it was fun-- being in charge of my own store, getting to travel every now and then, hiring, really feeling like I owned a piece of things-- that made me feel like it mattered that I was there. That's what I want to get back, and after this Christmas is over, if I can't find a way to do that, I don't really know what I'll do. At least I have a plan-- once my contract is up (end of January) I'm applying to transfer as manager-in-training to a store much closer to my house, to work for a friend of mine who's managing it. She wants to help me move up and has a lot of cachet with the company with which to help me do so. Plus managing the highest volume store in New England during the Christmas season isn't hurting my chances, lol.
So on the job front (and god bless you if you got through all of that) things are okay, but in a bit of limbo. I feel less grinchy than I did last Christmas, but I think I need a little more festivity in my life and in the apartment before I can really feel excited about it. Amanda and I are going to try to get a tree tomorrow-- where, god only knows-- and we're switching bedrooms this week as well, which is going to be hectic but ultimately satisfying. I need more space, she wants the room with the closet, it works out perfectly.
Things on
edge_of_forever are picking up again as well. It's been rough for me the past few months trying to keep up with modding and playing, but I feel like I'm finally getting on top of things. I've figured out how to manage doing at least a couple of tags a day, which for the first month of an hour-long commute was not easy, lol. And we're getting some new players and new apps, which is exciting. I was really pumped to revamp the app-- which for those of you who play on the game, we revamped the app! There'll be an announcement about it this week XD-- to hopefully make it much easier for people to apply without regurgitating Wikipedia articles about their characters' histories. It sucks hearing people say repeatedly "ugh, I hate writing apps, it's so stressful"-- like as a mod, I don't want people to feel that way about apping to my game. I mean sure, apping shouldn't be brainless, you should have to think about what you're saying and why. But the 500 word history and personality has started to feel pedantic even to me, and it's nice to feel like we've found a way around it.
Also I'm so stupidly excited for holiday plot. XD And to get to use my weather machine idea AT LAST. :DDDD
Other life things in a nutshell. My grandparents moved into a retirement home over the summer, which has been weird to deal with, but they're clearly a lot less stressed out without having to worry about taking care of a house, so that's good. My mother, in a staggering example of empty nest syndrome, adopted a kitten last week. Her name is Luna and she is black and white with a permanent Batman mask and cape-- her eyes and ears and entire back are black. She's fucking adorable and has all the energy in the world, loves to climb things and people, and any toys that make noise. Getting my cat and Amanda's cats to like each other is a slow going process, but we've established a pattern where we can leave them all out in common space and they won't kill each other, and mostly just leave each other alone. I got a new bed for my birthday, it is amazing not to be sleeping on a futon for the first time in 8 years. And thanks to my friend Steph I have rekindled my middle-school love of painting my nails and have become a little nail obsessed. Not going to start a blog anytime soon or anything, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. Helps make me feel like I put some effort in even when I have the flu and am basically dressed in the work equivalent of a pair of pajamas. I'm literally wearing yoga pants to work today which I never do. But god, I hate being sick. I've had to take two days off this past week and I still have no voice. Ugh.
However, I must go get ready for said work shift now, so I'll put a cap on this. How are you all?
♥ emily
PS - i swear to god i'm getting back to my would-be betas THIS WEEK. :3 i want to have the first half of 1000 pages up on AO3 by the new year!! look in your inboxes.
PPS - someone please cheerlead me and tell me i can write my yuletide fic before friday. because ugfskdjfhdg don't want to have to default. D:
ok really going now
This post crossposted from Dreamwidth (
comments)