Garden

I just realized that I never told you guys about my backyard and the Lost Paradise thing! Wow, where has my brain been?! So, I went to dig up the beautiful soil of my little backyard so I could add enriching compost and gently plant my various seedlings and watch them grow to full, glorious adulthood. Behold, I raiséd my shovel, thonkéd it into the living soil and hittethed a rock. But, behold, I despairéd not, movéd rock and thonkéd mine shovel againeth into the groundeth. Only to discover that in the building of my apartment complex they (THEY!! such a beautifully undescriptive word) had laid down a layer of rock and then hidden it under a five-inch layer of dirt that was tantalizingly deep enough to grow grass and weeds, but not anything resembling a garden. However, I prevailed and spent money and now have a container garden made up of fiber pots and sawn-off five gallon buckets. Contents thereof: one eggplant, one zucchini, one crookneck squash, one summer squash, four pepper plants, one lemon cucmber (was four but Campmeeting happened), one pumpkin (which is currently waging war on the air conditioning unit. I don't have the heart to cut it back.), two sickly tomatoes (another one died. I'm not quite sure why I'm growing them since I don't like tomatoes very much.), and a bunch of flowers and stuff.

New paragraph to spare your eyes. My yard is also home to a voracious population of snails and in earlier summer suffered an invasion of earwigs. We survived and now I have fresh vegetables constantly waiting to be eaten. Anyway, I'm hungry and it's that time of day in which one should have tea, so I'm off.

PS I see that my non-posting time seems to have cost me some readers. Sorry guys!!

Why do people live in the Central Valley?

Okay, I know the answer, really. In the spring it's absolutely beautiful here, the mountains, when you can see them, are amazing, and the soil is fabulous for agriculture... unless it's been over-fertilized resulting in salinization or had the top soil raked off to make way for suburban sprawl. However, fresh oranges and warm winters are nice. Unfortunately, the summer heat is a little difficult to take at times. I'm sitting in College of the Sequoias computer lab goofing off until Joel gets out of class and then he's taking me to the airport. In the meantime, I have some minutes to kill and thought I'd update stuff.

I'm alive and doing much better than I was four days ago. It's amazing what getting away from my problems can do...okay, I didn't get away from them, but I haven't had to think about them, and the J***** household is a very nice place to just hang out and relax. I still haven't found another job and we're still house-hunting, but I did buy Mom's car, so I don't have to worry about that for another month and if worse comes to worse, I can always work fast food, right? Wrong, yeah, I know, I wouldn't be pulling in enough money to cover my bills, but you get the idea. Oh yeah, anecdote time, the other morning I heard the sprinklers go on and thought I would go check the spray pattern so I could move any plants that needed more or less agua. I pulled aside the shades and beheld a 15-foot geyser erupting from the ground. Seems a little piece had come loose and wasn't breaking up the water stream into spray. I was a little perturbed as I don't exactly want my apartment manager nosing around and finding out that Bri is still in the house, but it was a pretty geyser and it watered fairly well when the breeze was in the right direction. Anyway, after the water shut off I went and checked it out, found the little piece and all was well. Wow, what a boring post. Oh well, at least you know I'm alive, right?!

Partial retraction

Okay, I have been chastised by Joel for lambasting my boss and I feel he is at least partly right, if not entirely, blast it. My boss can be a very nice lady and is very generous when she likes you. That being said, losing her trust is like buying a one way ticket out of Cushyville, which I inadvertently did. I AM going to miss my job and my boss, but not the stress. I'm sure my boss felt she had perfectly legitimate reasons for her behavior, as did I, so I can't sit and fling stones... unfortunately. Hey, has anyone seen my Joeliddy Cricket recently?

Unemployment

...is a many-splendoured thing!! Last Saturday, I thought the worst thing in my life was that I had put Joel on the Greyhound back to Visalia after two month's worth of visiting. Tuesday afternoon, I discovered just how wrong I was. Apparently, my boss, for whom I have been working six months, randomly informed me (over the phone)that I was not quite meeting her needs in terms of support, not surprising considering she'd never really explained what those needs were. She went on to express that she understood that I missed Joel (!!!!! What kind of an employee does THAT make me if I moon around so much about missing him, which I wasn't doing?! I was no worse than any other time I haven't gotten enough sleep, am stressed out by my boss, and feeling cranky!!) and thought that perhaps I ought to take the rest of the day off to evaluate my priorities. Um, hello? Two days of grouchy productivity suddenly signal that my priorities are... what, out of line? To whom? Unfortunately, this was not the end of the lecture and I got to hear all about my failures, even after I had asked not to discuss it just then, as I was preparing to explode all over the office and dismember, well, not the dogs-I like the dogs-but perhaps a filing cabinet. I managed to hold my tongue... at least until she'd hung up and I'd called Mom. Then, the dogs left the office in a bit of a hurry when I began screaming. Loudly. Luckily for me, my mother understands and didn't take it personally.
New paragraph. I called several people, most of whom encouraged me to vamoose. I thought I could stick it out, until Thursday, when her behavior more than clearly communicated her loss of trust in me (for what, the money I hadn't stolen? Perhaps the books I'd been balancing with little or no training from her? Or maybe because... because... oh, for crying out loud, I don't know, it just made me stinking mad). I'm not going to work for someone who doesn't trust me, and so yesterday, I gave notice. I cannot tell you how unbelievably relieved I feel. I'm more relaxed than I've been for six months. A good sign? I believe so. Did I mention that my car blew up on Wednesday? And that apparently my apartment complex won't let my cousin, who is already living here, well, live here? And believe me, Wednesday and Thursday were not good days. At all. Not even a litte. Ask Joel. But Friday and today (my birthday, by the way), ah, words cannot express. Melodie made me crumpets for breakfast and between her, me, and Bri, we consumed nearly a dozen. My mom is getting a new car and selling me her old one... which means I need a new job. Soon.
In closing, I'm really, really, really sorry that nothing else has been posted in so long. Don't worry, my garden is doing well, excessively well in the case of the pumpkin. Oh wait, you guys haven't heard... ahhhh, well, that's another post. I leave you with this chorus (courtesy of Mel... a friend):
Unemployed, how I love to proclaim it
Unemployed as effective Friday
Unemployed I am free now from *boss's name*
I can dance and fling flowers all day!
Unemployed
Unemployed
No more screaming boss to ignore
Unemplooooooo-ooooooyed
Unemploooooooooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooooooyed
And yes it's effective Friday!!!!!

P.S. Is this long enough to prove I'm not dead?
*crackle crackle BOOOOOOM*

*furtive glance*

...and so I can't understand why everyone keeps saying it's been so long since I last posted when anyone can see that it's been in the last six months! Sorry guys, I've been moving into an apartment with my brother and getting adjusted to the job and, well, I just haven't had fast enough net access to be honest and I hate waiting for things to load. Don't worry, RatIck (oh, I think I like that one), I've bought some of my plants and now I'm just waiting to get moved in so I can concentrate on the little backyard that will soon be my Garden of Eden. I've decided that I'm going to have a vegetable garden so I can experiment with things like heirloom plants and different planting styles, and I'll just fling flowers around to brighten things up. Okay, I'm really soory, I have plenty of things to blog about, but I have to get back to work. Bye!

Just waiting on that diploma...

...which, apparently, I didn't need to get a good job. My current job was garnered from my secretary skills rather than my college education. A bit of angst before the news: I don't want to be a bookkeeper for the rest of my life... I don't think... I want to use my Spanish and Latin American Studies background and do good and travel and help people and travel and see things!!! Am I going to have a comfortable, mediocre life? Are my professors right and I should go to grad school? Argh!!! Where is my direction?!?!?! (How was that for negative and depressing...)

So, my professor emailed me and I got an A- in that Econ class, by the grace of God. This means I am happy, but will still not graduate with honors because I am .01 points away from a 3.79. .01 points!!!!!! And it's my own fault, too. Should have just taken out loans to begin with and I would have been done before now with a 3.9. Wow, I'm really feeling whiny today or something.

Some of you may have picked up on the vibe that I was/am thinking about moving to California. Well, when I got back last week my boss informed me that she intends to raise my pay to $15 an hour and when we get four more clients, she's going to give me medical insurance. Odds of my finding a job in CA that offers me anything remotely close? HA! So for now it looks like I'll be moving in with my brother and we'll just see how things develop. I wonder if the State Department's Latin American Division needs a secretary or a bookkeeper...

And finally, I have seed catalogs. Yes, you all know what this means. Soon, when I know where I'm going to live and all that, you will be receiving updates on the weather (by the way, it's been freezing cold and snowy here) and the state of my garden. The thrills never stop, I tell you what...

Diseased

For those of you (Mandy!!!!) who have noticed my lack of posting, I have but one word: mononucleosis. That's right, after managing to avoid that dreaded disease in high school when I was supposed to get it, I came down with it two days before that Aforementioned Day and didn't really move that much over the next week and a half... minus the road trip to Visalia that my parents hijacked (thank heavens!!) and which I spent vilely ill. Since the incubation period is 4-6 weeks, it looks like I contracted this lovely little number during my holiday visit in V., and in fact, Joel is supposed to find out today whether or not he has it, since he started having weird symptoms about the same time. *heavy, heavy sigh* Isn't my life supposed to be coming together right now, rather than falling apart?? On the plus side, I started a new job as a bookkeeper's assistant the Tuesday after I got sick, but my boss is being really cool about my hours being short for a bit as I try to avoid a relapse. This is harder than it sounds since I don't feel nearly as sick as I did, and I don't realize I've overdone it until it's too late. Ah well, such is life, I suppose, although I really hope that none of you EVER get this. *sighs again* Good life and good health to you all!