Of holidays and dark days and pay raises and art
I am grateful that I get to spend this Christmas with both my chosen family - headlouse , nifercritter and sfslim - and also with my birth family (well, kinda, if you count marriages..). I'll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at Riverton, and Christmas Day with my sister-in-law and her parents. My brother will be with us via Skype at some point, hopefully, assuming the weather off the coast of Tasmania isn't too wretched. He's on an oceanographic research cruise until mid-January.
I realized last week that I've been battling seasonal depression. It's not as bad as when I was in dreary Pittsburgh, but certainly leaves me feeling frustrated and listless a lot. It's not the cold that gets to me, it's the dark. I crave sunlight. My sis-in-law reminded me today that I should get out and walk in the sun on my lunch break. She's totally right, and I think tomorrow I'll give that a try.
Work is challenging and stressful but mostly in good career-building learning-experience type ways. Right before jetting off to Colombia for the holidays, my boss called me in to speak with the office manager and I was given a generous raise. This after only 8 months on the job, and with the forewarning that our company may forego *all* raises at annual review time in April. I feel quite confident that they're pleased with my performance - one of my coworkers, a girl who is wicked smart in her own right and has been with the company for 5 years, said that a 6-month-review raise was a hugely rare thing, and means "they're identifying you as a rising star within the company, they really want to keep you." Wow! Who knows if that's really true, but it sure is a nice boost to my ego, and makes me feel that much more secure in these uncertain economic times.
February 1st is the grant application deadline for burning man org art grants. The timescale project application is coming along - next meeting tomorrow night - and we hope to have the application submitted by mid-January. Who among you is interested in learning how to cast concrete?
I'm frustrated at my sugar & sweets intake, and hoping to kick (most of) the habit for the new year. Plan: buy lots of raspberries and blackberries from the market around the corner! Yum, fruit.
I am very, very happy that the solstice has passed - long, sunny days, I miss you so!
I am also very, very happy that I have a new cozy down comforter. Off to snuggleland..
I realized last week that I've been battling seasonal depression. It's not as bad as when I was in dreary Pittsburgh, but certainly leaves me feeling frustrated and listless a lot. It's not the cold that gets to me, it's the dark. I crave sunlight. My sis-in-law reminded me today that I should get out and walk in the sun on my lunch break. She's totally right, and I think tomorrow I'll give that a try.
Work is challenging and stressful but mostly in good career-building learning-experience type ways. Right before jetting off to Colombia for the holidays, my boss called me in to speak with the office manager and I was given a generous raise. This after only 8 months on the job, and with the forewarning that our company may forego *all* raises at annual review time in April. I feel quite confident that they're pleased with my performance - one of my coworkers, a girl who is wicked smart in her own right and has been with the company for 5 years, said that a 6-month-review raise was a hugely rare thing, and means "they're identifying you as a rising star within the company, they really want to keep you." Wow! Who knows if that's really true, but it sure is a nice boost to my ego, and makes me feel that much more secure in these uncertain economic times.
February 1st is the grant application deadline for burning man org art grants. The timescale project application is coming along - next meeting tomorrow night - and we hope to have the application submitted by mid-January. Who among you is interested in learning how to cast concrete?
I'm frustrated at my sugar & sweets intake, and hoping to kick (most of) the habit for the new year. Plan: buy lots of raspberries and blackberries from the market around the corner! Yum, fruit.
I am very, very happy that the solstice has passed - long, sunny days, I miss you so!
I am also very, very happy that I have a new cozy down comforter. Off to snuggleland..