Rebecca needs another vacation to recover from her real life!
Man, when I think back to the weeks since getting from vacation, I feel like I've been hit by a train.
A lot of that was due to my job. Our biggest client just opened up 47 new locations, so I hit the ground running on the first Monday morning after I got back, but I still feel like I got trampled. I worked six days a week for three out of four weeks, plus a lot of loooong days on regular weeks. Our managers and another employee took their own vacations, and we hired a new employee A------ to help out with this massive workload. She seems to be catching on fairly quickly, although I'm already tired of hearing stories about her damn kid. (A toddler getting cranky when he's tired isn't as funny or unique as she seems to think.) We expanded and took over the building next door to ours, which is where I'm operating from now. That has been the one nice change that's come out of these very frantic few weeks. Since it's a long walk, I don't have to see my coworkers as much. I have some peace and quiet and a lot more room to work.
I complain about so much overtime, but I guess I do need the money, because I also... bought a new car! I didn't post about it here because it was too stressful and there was no time, but the week before we left for vacation, Muse Watson started breaking down hard. One Friday evening, the whole engine died on me on a busy street while I was coming home from temple, and I had to call a taxi to get home. I took him to two different mechanics, and the second one said, "As soon as I fixed that problem, something else went wrong." I knew when I heard those words that the time had come to finally give up on Muse Watson. We got back from the beach on a Friday evening, just in time to see bits of the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics (not that we watched it, because Sara wanted to see The Great British Bake-Off, her new obsession) and on Saturday morning, I woke up early, drove Muse Watson to the dealership for the last time, and traded him in for a new (used) car. I kept the shoe rearview mirror ornament, but I forgot to take the holder off his steering wheel.
So I now have a car note, for the first time in my life, but it's fairly short, and I'm hoping that my new, still-unnamed car will last a long time. It's a 2014 model, and so damn swanky, especially when compared to cranky old Muse Watson, that I still feel a little nervous driving it. I can't stop thinking about how I crashed Muse Watson (still the only car crash I've ever been in) two months after I bought him, and I'm paranoid that I'll do the same thing with new car. I just got it registered this week.
And I nearly burst into tears when I saw how much my car insurance rates went up. Oy.
So, what else has been going on since vacation? Our air-conditioner broke for a day. I spent a rare Saturday off from work vending my plarn at a fundraiser for the animal shelter. (I didn't sell much, but I'm not letting that bother me, since I just got scheduled to vend at a holiday market in November!). On Sunday, we saw Labyrinth in the theater, where it had been rereleased for its 30th anniversary. Seeing it on the big screen really made me appreciate it in a new way. I watched a young-actress movie that I'd been wanting to see (This Property Is Condemned, with Mary Badham) for Labor Day, even though I didn't get that whole weekend off. We've settled into a routine of reading children's books before bed. The pattern is the Alice series (by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor), the Anastasia series (Lois Lowry), The Baby-Sitters Club (Ann M. Martin), and Betsy-Tacy (Maude Hart Lovelace). I've never read the Betsy-Tacy books until recently, and they're very good. We're in the middle of Heavens to Besty right now.
A lot of that was due to my job. Our biggest client just opened up 47 new locations, so I hit the ground running on the first Monday morning after I got back, but I still feel like I got trampled. I worked six days a week for three out of four weeks, plus a lot of loooong days on regular weeks. Our managers and another employee took their own vacations, and we hired a new employee A------ to help out with this massive workload. She seems to be catching on fairly quickly, although I'm already tired of hearing stories about her damn kid. (A toddler getting cranky when he's tired isn't as funny or unique as she seems to think.) We expanded and took over the building next door to ours, which is where I'm operating from now. That has been the one nice change that's come out of these very frantic few weeks. Since it's a long walk, I don't have to see my coworkers as much. I have some peace and quiet and a lot more room to work.
I complain about so much overtime, but I guess I do need the money, because I also... bought a new car! I didn't post about it here because it was too stressful and there was no time, but the week before we left for vacation, Muse Watson started breaking down hard. One Friday evening, the whole engine died on me on a busy street while I was coming home from temple, and I had to call a taxi to get home. I took him to two different mechanics, and the second one said, "As soon as I fixed that problem, something else went wrong." I knew when I heard those words that the time had come to finally give up on Muse Watson. We got back from the beach on a Friday evening, just in time to see bits of the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics (not that we watched it, because Sara wanted to see The Great British Bake-Off, her new obsession) and on Saturday morning, I woke up early, drove Muse Watson to the dealership for the last time, and traded him in for a new (used) car. I kept the shoe rearview mirror ornament, but I forgot to take the holder off his steering wheel.
So I now have a car note, for the first time in my life, but it's fairly short, and I'm hoping that my new, still-unnamed car will last a long time. It's a 2014 model, and so damn swanky, especially when compared to cranky old Muse Watson, that I still feel a little nervous driving it. I can't stop thinking about how I crashed Muse Watson (still the only car crash I've ever been in) two months after I bought him, and I'm paranoid that I'll do the same thing with new car. I just got it registered this week.
And I nearly burst into tears when I saw how much my car insurance rates went up. Oy.
So, what else has been going on since vacation? Our air-conditioner broke for a day. I spent a rare Saturday off from work vending my plarn at a fundraiser for the animal shelter. (I didn't sell much, but I'm not letting that bother me, since I just got scheduled to vend at a holiday market in November!). On Sunday, we saw Labyrinth in the theater, where it had been rereleased for its 30th anniversary. Seeing it on the big screen really made me appreciate it in a new way. I watched a young-actress movie that I'd been wanting to see (This Property Is Condemned, with Mary Badham) for Labor Day, even though I didn't get that whole weekend off. We've settled into a routine of reading children's books before bed. The pattern is the Alice series (by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor), the Anastasia series (Lois Lowry), The Baby-Sitters Club (Ann M. Martin), and Betsy-Tacy (Maude Hart Lovelace). I've never read the Betsy-Tacy books until recently, and they're very good. We're in the middle of Heavens to Besty right now.