It's orange! It's yellow!!

It's not a forest fire!! Well, I mean, there is one out there somewhere, but I am referring to the trees. Yes, gentle readers, fall is here and that means I am beginning to enjoy the weather again. The clouds are moving in and Joel reports rain in the Central Valley area, so I won't be surprised to see it here as well soon. Some of the trees are starting to turn gorgeous shades of red and yellow, especially in this mobile home park down the highway from my old place. They have these amazing trees that all turn fiery at the exact same time and it's really spectacular.

I have the day off today and have been running errands and hauling some stuff to the new house. One of my errands was to turn in my practice room key at the university and get back my $10 deposit, but it seems some malodorous, moronic miscreant decided to abscond with the deposity money last year, leaving the department unable to give me back my deposit. People like that tick me off, by the way. Ripping off your fellow students just to... buy booze? pay rent (right)? impress somebody?

Oh, hey, opinion check. Does getting the master bedroom, complete with attached bathroom, mean that you should have to shoulder some additional responsibilities, like more rent?

Winds of Change

Things are just crazy around here, let me tell you. I got a phone call last week inviting me to interview for a Human Services position with the State in Ashland and spent all weekend freaking out about whether I should stay in my current job, which I really enjoy, even when it's insanely busy. I spoke to my boss about possibly going to the interview (yes, I thought it was better to be honest, thank you) and wound up talking for two hours about not just the jobs, but my negative self-image and all sorts of fun stuff. So, I've decided to stay with my current job, as I think I'm not very likely to find abother work environment quite as nice (we have good people and no internal politics that I've noticed... possibly because everyone is too busy *grin*)and because I think having the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of HR with be good for me.

ALSO, we are moving. Over the weekend we found a three bedroom, two bathroom HOUSE with sewer, water, and garbage PAID for $925, and we jumped on it. I'm reflecting on this with especial sweetness right now because my neighbors have their music so loud that I can hear the words and feel the wall shaking. Anyway, the only complication is that we can't get out of the 30-day-notice clause at the apartment and the new landlord needs us to move in by October 1st, which means we're going to be paying rent on both places, plus all the move-in fees on the other place. Things are going to be tight. But this is life, I guess. Alright, I'm going to leave you guys alone and go draft my 30-day notice letter. Tomorrow I get to call and ask that they pro-rate our rent and save us maybe $60... that would be nice...

Back to you, Stan!

Well, I am back to having a job now! I went in to my temp agencies last week to reactivate my account and on Wednesday I got a call from one of them asking me to come in for an interview for an internal position, and that afternoon, I was employed!! I'm the new staffing coordinator, which means I have to start dressing like a professional, makeup, suits (when I can't avoid it), and all. It's really scary because I've never been in anything like this before, having always been the office girl, but there is literally never any down time minus my lunch hour and breaks, so I don't get bored and into mischief. I'm making $5 an hour less, but I'm getting training and experience that is going to make me much more employable in the future... if I want to be. I think what I really need to do is go and make a small fortune and be independently wealthy. What do you guys think? At least I'm working with an office-full of people this time and I don't have to worry as much about what happened before. Anyway, I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying the advent of autumn, one of my favorite times of year. Break out the scarves and hats!!

PS Melina, I tried to post to your blog, but I couldn't for some reason. I'm sorry!! I'll see if I can't figure it out.

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*