Catching Up with New Job Training and SG1
I've kind of been in a holding pattern since I quit the lab in June and while very few things have turned out the way I thought they would - or should - it also hasn't been too bad either. My training was suppose to start on the 7th but it got bumped to the 21st while they transitioned from training at the corporate office in Irvine to in-house training. At first I thought it was just me but the first couple of days wore everyone out. I'm training with 5 other women and we're all from some other unrelated field and I guess taking on something so different is just exhausting. Our classes are only from 9am-2pm but Monday and Tuesday I just came home, kicked off my heels and then tipped over on the couch and fell asleep for 2 or 3 hours. By Thursday I didn't feel so overwhelmed but when we were given the option of going home early on Friday or reviewing we were all outta there in a flash.
Every Tuesday there's an office meeting that's more like a family reunion where you're meeting your cousins for the first time. Everyone is just super upbeat and handing me their business cards from escrow to lending to estate lawyers. I think I'm a reasonably friendly person but I know that I'm going to have to push myself to be more outgoing and on Tuesday I got lots of practice. There's a big part of me that feels like I'm dressing up in my momma's nice clothes and heels and play acting the part of a confident adult. I keep telling myself that the more I put myself out there the more natural it'll become although I never want to be a shmoozer.
Every Tuesday we also go out on a Caravan to preview recently listed homes so that we know first-hand what the home is like and where it's located. It seemed more like an air strike to me than a caravan because you just find the house, walk through it and get your ass out and on the way to the next house. Very stealth. I piled into a car with my other classmates and we made it to the first house but then the car we were following shot through a yellow light and left us behind the red. We thought that we caught up with it but ended up following the wrong car to Subway and then driving back to the office. Hopefully next Tuesday we'll be able to keep up.
One of the first handouts that they gave us was called, "The Mindset of a Successful Agent" that had about 75 affirmations like, "I can see the vision of my success and believe it to be true" which I'm all for. A little further on down the list is, "I start every day at 'zero'. I am unemployed every morning. [eeep...] I am committed to talk to people everyday so that I can set up appointments to go on job interviews which will give me the opportunity to get a job to list or sell a home." I have to say that I got stuck at "I am unemployed every morning" for a good long time. I get what they're saying, that our income is based on what we're actively doing and not what we've done but for someone like myself who has worked for someone else my whole life it was a little unnerving. As if to make up for it the next affirmation was, "I accept that earning a lot of money is OK." I highlighted that one.
I was also a little unnerved by Richard, the instructor we had that day. He had us introduce ourselves, per usual, and then when we finished he pointed to the woman beside me and said, "You'll probably do the best since you use to be a teacher and historically teachers, cops and people from the military do well in this business." Then he pointed at me and said, "You'll probably have the hardest time since you're use to doing systematic and logical work and are most likely left brained dominate." The other women looked at me with these little sad faces like, Oh, it was nice knowin' ya. When I could breath again I thought, Should I leave? Have I been dismissed? He ended up giving us a lot of practical information but I had to consciously listen to him because I just sat there and got really pissed off for being publicly summed up and deemed unlikely to succeed. I kept thinking, You don't know me. I write fiction about gunslingers who feel a whole lotta love for each other. Believe me my right brain is fully engaged. Never mind my chances for success, god forbid anyone should infer that my right brain is asleep on the job.
And speaking of slash, I just saw SG1's 200th episode. I confess I haven't watched it regularly in years but I love the characters and I'm really happy that they had a chance to be themselves unapologetically. I honestly didn't think anything could top Fraser and RayK sledding off into a sunrise for canon confirmed love but seeing Jack and Daniel at the wedding altar and Daniel acknowledging that if they have to wait any longer people are going to think they're the ones getting married just set the watermark about as high as it can go. The whole episode is just a crack-addled valentine to the fans. I found myself laughing at the stupidest things such as Puppet!Daniel scribbling on the board and trying to circle the symbol on the computer screen and Puppet!Jack pointing forward and then up, up! Just throwaway stuff but it was brilliant throwaway stuff. If they ever decide to market those puppets I'm going to get in line to collect them all.
I've kinda been off the grid so if I missed something you'd like me to see please give me a holler. I hope all is going well you. Mmmmwha!
P.S.
There are a bunch of great shows coming out on DVD:
Next Tuesday:
Arrested Development (how sad to cancel the funniest show on TV)
Nip/Tuck
September 5:
Lost
Supernatural