I got another job. A better job, by far, for me. Especially at this point in my life. I work for a promotional products company, and the atmosphere is relaxed and the people are awesome and funny and friendly, and I think that I will be good at the job. I started in mid-October, so I’m still learning, but I think it’s going well.

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We’ve had a busy fall, and things are just getting going. We were in the cities the past 2 weekends, and we have to go down this weekend again for a family wedding on Ryan’s side. That’s a lot of traveling to the cities (or Rochester, in one case). James has spent a lot of time with his Auntie Lisa and Grandma and Grandpa on that side, that’s for sure. We are home the weekend after this coming one, and then it’s Thanksgiving, which is in Roseau this year. More driving.

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Halloween was fun this year, although our costumes were not as high caliber as years’ past. Ryan was some kind of crazy, murderous doctor, and I was one of those pictures where they eyes follow you around. Needless to say we didn’t win the costume contest. James was a cowboy for halloween. When you would tell him he was a cowboy he would say “Moooooo!” HAHAHA. That was fun. He was a little unsure of trick-or-treating, but by the end of the night he got the hang of it and enjoyed himself. It helped that we were with our friends/neighbors, and their son had done some trick or treating the weekend before with family, so he knew what was going on.

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What else is going on in my life? Hmm. Not much. I’m working, Ryan is working, James is going to daycare/staying with our friends during the week. It’s Ryan’s birthday this week, so we’ll go out for dinner for that. It’s kind of a laid-back year for birthdays for us. By necessity in part (since I was unemployed for a month and a half), but it’s good. It’s also going to be a small year for Christmas, but I am hoping to do some hand-made gifts (I love you, Pinterest), so that will be fun.

Me: OK. How long do you think you’ll be?

Ryan: Between 20 minutes and 5 hours.

Sadly, this is not a surprising answer, and he wasn’t really joking. It’s been over an hour so far. This does not bode well for the apartment cleaning we were going to get done, although the overtime is nice.  Especially with my maternity leave coming up.

What’s that? You think I should do the cleaning on my own while he’s gone? HAHAHAHA. I can barely put my own socks and shoes on these days so picking stuff up off the floor is definitely out, and I can hardly reach the faucet to turn on the water, much less stand over the sink to do the dishes. I was going to sweep/mop and dry the dishes after Ryan washed them, so it’ll have to wait.

In exciting news, the cloth diapers we will be using arrived in today’s mail, and they are SO CUTE. Seriously – adorable. We have 6 different colors, and I like them all. I’m sure they’ll be much less adorable once they are in use and full of poop. We ordered the BumGenius 3.0 diapers. We have some friends who use them, and they like them a lot. I’ll try to remember to let you know how they work for us. One word of advice they did give us was to not let the diaper pail sit for more than a day. Apparently it is not pleasant. I can only imagine.

We also had my 34 week appointment today. The baby is head down, and I’m measuring exactly right. The Doctor asked if we had the hospital bag packed yet. We don’t, and she suggested that we should probably have it ready by our next appointment in 2 weeks. That makes it all even more real. At most I have 8 weeks left of being pregnant. More likely it’ll be less than that. Yikes.

Well, I suppose I should get to the picking up I can do around here. Ryan just called and is on his way home with Erberts & Gerberts (only an hour and a half tonight! woo!).

-Hypothetically, if you had a pumpkin scone and cherry Laffy Taffy for lunch with milk and cheese, would that count as fruit and dairy? I’m pretty sure pumpkin is a fruit, so I guess I doubled up there. that would be doubling up, right? Hypothetically.

-We are expanding our office, which means there’s been a lot of construction going on all over the place and people moving to new desks and workspaces. They have figured out a way to get myself and the other woman who works next to me some more (much needed) space, but only after she brought it up when we found out they were planning on putting us right back where we were. Thank God she said something. It’s a little crowded back here in the corner. Unfortunately, our desks will stay the same size. Oh well.

-The pregnancy/birth book I’m currently reading is, as my mom would say, a little “hippy dippy.” Even though she lists lots of statistics and stuff to illustrate her ultimate point(s), the fact that she says her children see special colors around their siblings when they are born and that they remember being born (she asks them every year) is a little…out there for my tastes. And it makes it hard for me to take anything else seriously.

-Ryan and I are headed up north for Oktoberfest this weekend. We both have tomorrow off of work, so this is effectively Friday for me. And I am SO HAPPY about that. It should be a fun weekend all around. I will try to get photos posted, but no promises.

-I’m in a much better mood than when I wrote earlier this week. Thank goodness.

• Customer who, when I called to tell him that a driver was unacceptable on a Commercial Auto policy because of a DUI within the past 3 years proceeded to lecture me about how the cops are basically luring people into getting a DUI, and almost everyone has them, and how it’s one thing if you’ve been convicted a bunch of times, but they are nailing people who were just out with the girls or guys at bowling, or at a christmas party or whatever and how that’s not fair. Um. First of all, this guy blew over a .20. That’s not a beer or two at bowling. Also, are you SERIOUSLY expecting me to agree with you that the cops are “mean” for ticketing people who knowingly drink and then get in a vehicle and drive somewhere? As my friend Sam said (very sarcastically) “They made them drink and drive Becky… they made them.” Right. And because it was a customer I cannot argue with him. I just sat there on the phone like “Well, that sucks that he can’t drive. Sorry.”
• Someone had a claim for hail damage. The claim is a year old (due to a delay in inspecting the roof because of winter last year, which was requested by the insured). They have taken their time getting back to the insurance company whenever the insurance company requests information, but now that they want to get it repaired they are all over me about how fast they think things should go. I sent some information about a different estimate to the insurance adjuster on Friday of last week, and I got an email from the insured today saying “I called [construction company with rival estimate] and they haven’t heard from anyone since you called last week.” Well, duh! Maybe because it’s been only 2 days? Maybe because the insurance adjuster will probably not call that company back unless they have questions about their estimate, and instead will call you or our office with any information about changes? Maybe you aren’t the only claim they are handling at the moment?
• Myself. Why am I complaining so much? People don’t understand insurance. I should give them a break. Also, take a chill pill. Jeeze. And yet, I can’t help it. They are just getting on my nerves today.

Who or what is getting on your nerves? Let it out, people!

Anyway, that’s what’s on my mind, and it’s making sitting at work all day kind of stressful (although I will say that at least the main source of my stress is out today). Unfortunately, I can’t go home early. But let me tell you; there will be ice cream in my near future.

On a lighter note, Ryan and I need to go home and clean our apartment like Jesus is having a sleepover in it (I want to be a mom like the woman who wrote that note). We are dogsitting this weekend, and puppies shouldn’t eat dust bunnies that are bigger than they are. I’m pretty sure that’s in the manual somewhere.

Also, why are people who are supposed to be professionals of some sort so webinar-stupid? When you call in to a webinar there are going to be a lot of people. Make sure you mute your phone if you don’t have a question. And if you can’t mute your phone make sure you are somewhere quiet (although EVERYONE should have been able to mute their phones – they even told you when you called in what key combination it was). Finally, if you aren’t able to get the website portion working, you need to call the help desk or something and not waste everyone else’s time asking the moderator to walk you through your computer issues (which are probably your own fault anyway).

Sorry. I’m a little pissy today at people. I’m otherwise in a good mood though. I started the 2nd trimester of pregnancy today, and the last week or so I’ve been feeling better (a little more energy, being able to actually eat food if I can find something that tastes good). I’m still in the “I look more fat than pregnant” stage, but that should *hopefully* be changing soon. And the Doctor and my pregnancy books all say that I should be able to feel the little baby kicking and moving around soon, so that’s exciting!

How are your respective weeks going? Any annoying coworkers (or people in general that you have to deal with)?

This is the first job I’ve ever had where I couldn’t do it all myself. It’s been a learning experience, figuring out what and how much I need to delegate in order to get the other stuff done, and it’s still a work in progress. Most of the time I get everything done, but sometimes something gets missed. Like this. And I feel horrible. And my boss is going to lecture me. I know he will and I understand why, but it still makes me upset, because I KNOW I screwed up. Him telling me it again isn’t going to make me know it any more. It’ll just make me cry. I hate crying at work.

That’s all I had to say. Please tell me that some of you screw up at work sometimes? I’m not the only one, am I?

• Why are meeting rooms always so cold? It is commonly known that if you are going to attend a continuing ed class (I have to attend classes to keep my insurance license) you should wear layers, because it will be freezing. This is not just in Duluth. And it’s not just insurance classes. Is it some sort of public speaker conspiracy or something?
• Why do people not participate in class-like discussions? Every time I go to continuing education, the speaker tries to get the class involved by asking questions. Yes, most of them are easy, and no one wants to shout out an answer that they think is easy only to find out that they are wrong, but does no one else feel sorry for the speaker? I’m totally the obnoxious person in your class that ACTUALLY ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS. And I don’t feel bad about it at all. In fact, last time I did it, they gave me chocolate for participating. Also they told me I was “on fire” because I could answer like 3 questions. That everyone else in the room knew the answer to, but didn’t say because they are too cool for school or something. I am not exceptionally smart. I am, however, becoming convinced that this is the reason I always did well in school. EVERYONE likes it when you make their job easier. And audience participation (at least if it’s respectful) makes a public speaker’s job much easier.
• Why am I always hungry and bored at about 3 o’clock? It’s getting so that it’s kind of late in the day to go get a snack. I mean, once the time hits 4 it flies by, so there’s really only an hour to go. Obviously I should bring a snack to work with me. But do you think that I ever actually do that? Nope.
• What the heck is so awesome about facebook that is giving me withdrawal pangs? I gave up facebook during work for lent. Which sounds weird, but it was getting to the point that I would check it about 10 times a day. And even if it’s just for a couple seconds, that is too much. So I’m not logging in during work at all. Not even on lunch, because that would be a slippery slope.
• Why don’t they make healthy food that tastes like raw chocolate chip cookie dough. And carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting? I would be the healthiest person EVER if that was the case. And yes, judgers, I’m still going to the gym, and I’m mostly eating healthy. I just kind of slip and fall sometimes. Or totally wipe out…whatever.

I was thinking about it, and the one thing I’ve really noticed about facebook is that it is much more difficult to maintain different personas with different people when you are on there. You know what I’m talking about, right? Not like you have alternate personalities or anything, but how you are a slightly different variation of yourself when you are with your extended family versus your immediate family versus your high school friends versus your college friends? I don’t know if I could even tell you the differences for me (other than I don’t swear in front of my extended family, but I occasionally do in front of my college or high school friends). Either way, there are things about you that one sector doesn’t know that the other does, and vice versa.

Well, with facebook, you can’t really have that. Unless you set up people to have only a limited view of your profile (and even then they all get the same limited view), they all see the same pictures, see the comments other people leave on your wall and get a feeling for what you are talking about, see what groups you belong to or what events you are attending.

It makes me wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I kind of lean toward it being a good thing. I mean, I don’t really have anything to hide, and with facebook set up like this I don’t need to worry as much about maintaining separate personas (although I still won’t swear in front of my grandparents – but that’s out of respect for their wishes more than anything, I think). Anyway, I think it is something that a person just needs to get used to, and be aware of.

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Does anyone else notice that when specific examples are asked for (or expected) you can never think of them? Like if you are having an argument about something someone does that bothers you, and they ask for the exact date and time of the last time they did it (or the last 4 times); or when a person you knew in high school asks you how you’ve changed in the approximately 10 years since then, and all you can think of to say is “I drink now,” instead of the millions of ways I’ve you’ve changed? (Not that that ever happened to me.) I can NEVER think of that kind of stuff. See above paragraphs and how my only example is swearing. GAH!

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Today is the slowest day EVER at work. Why is this? The day will be long enough on it’s own without work dragging by. I have a appointment with my personal trainer lady (don’t I sound all fancy!? Don’t worry – the sessions were cheap, and even though I know I’m pretty young she makes me feel old, although she is very nice.). The meeting runs from 4-5, and then I have to go to the library and volunteer from 5-7 (I would skip, but it was closed on my other volunteer day this week for President’s day and they are already short on volunteers), and then we have bowling tonight from 7:30-10ish. Mostly fun stuff, but like I said – LONG day.

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ps. We are taking a poll. Was Sam calling me the mean customer service person who told him he was “belly aching” when he called the bank? (See comments on the previous entry.) Because I know that story and I don’t think I’m her (she was mean and a terrible customer service person), but his comment makes me wonder.

pps. I *heart* you Sam! Even if you were calling me the mean customer service lady! Although if that is the case I will let you and Ryan carry your desk on your own this weekend! HA!

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I am aware that there are probably only 2 sentences out of this mess of an entry that make any sense at all (even this one didn’t before I fixed it!). I’m not sure what to do about it that doesn’t require rewriting the whole thing. This is not freshman comp, people.