Tag: work

The first day

I started my new job yesterday! I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see my picture and bio on the Automattic “about us” page. It’s literally a dream come true. (I mean, literally in the sense that this is my dream job. I don’t know that I dreamed about it. But I know I had dreams during my trial of employment, so I guess I can use literally. Okay.)

Check this out:

 

Okay, enough tomfoolery. I need to go engineer some happiness now. 🙂

Big changes are afoot

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For the last nine years, I’ve worked in the IT department of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. I’ve been there so long, I just had a boyfriend when I started, and I was in my twenties (barely)! In the time I’ve been there, I got engaged, and married, and had a few kids. I feel like I’ve done a lot of growing up at this job, and my coworkers are the family that have stood beside me the whole way. We lived through Hurricane Katrina and our subsequent displacement. They shared in my shock when I came back to work after my first ultrasound. (And I got to see what it was like from the other side when R came back from the ultrasound where his wife found out she was having identical twins.) The first place the boys had a sleepover was at my boss’s house, so I really do mean it when I say they’re like family.

Which made it hard to tell them I was leaving the nest, for a new job, my dream job. They were happy for me when I told them, which is a testament to what great guys they all are. (I have always been the lone female in the department, and I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy being queen of the castle all these years!)

But I am heading out, into an amazing opportunity, working for a company whose products I have long loved and championed. I’ll be moving to Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, for one. I’ll be working as a Happiness Engineer. Great title, huh? It kind of says it all. I will be working with the users of WordPress.com, helping ensure their blogging experience is a positive one. I’ve been doing this on a part-time basis for the past couple of months, and can’t wait to dive in full-time with all of the other amazing Automatticians.

 

Back in the USA

So I’m just now getting back into the swing of things after my work trip. It was a doozy. Flew to NYC on Saturday, had dinner with friends that night, spent the night at a friend’s house in the cutest town ever, drove to Toronto, had conference, drove back on Saturday, came home on Sunday. Whew.

I shamefully didn’t take many pictures, even though I brought my camera. Most of the pictures I’ve already posted. But here are a few that I haven’t.

New Yawwwwk!
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Toronto!
Yet another picture I took from my hotel room window:
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Buffalo!
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New York State, between Buffalo and Long Island!
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The drive to and from Toronto was long, but so scenic. It took us 11 hours to get there, and 14 to get back. Yeesh! But I was with fun people, so that made it go by a bit faster.

While in Toronto, I was mostly confined to the basement-level conference area, but there was fun to be had. When we weren’t sitting in sessions, there were card games and dancing and a murder mystery. So, you know, something different.

Next year, the conference is in Boise. I’ve never been to Idaho, so that should be interesting.

Going uppppp

I’m so excited…I’m going to Toronto for work! Just a few days, but still! Canada, here I come! I am going to do a site visit for an organization I belong to through work. Oh never mind, the reason isn’t important (except that it means it’s free), I’m just excited to go! Of course, I’ll miss the boys.

Now I have to admit I don’t know much about Toronto. Has anyone been? Or is anyone reading this from there? What’s there to do (besides tour Marriotts, which is definitely on the agenda…)? Oooh, how is shopping?

Now I just need to get my passport renewed, and I’ll be all set. Yay!

2/11/08

Well, after a meltdown on Thursday night that resulted in a teary call to a friend at 10:00 at night, we figured out how to make the boys settle down for the night. It’s a miracle! Baths. It’s all about baths. Give them a bath, and they’ll go right to sleep (or something like that.) V nice.

That said, they’re still fussy in the evenings, so if you want to help, please let me know. An extra pair of arms, an extra lap, and extra shoulder to burp on…that’s what we need right now. Email me if you think you can/want to help. I think the boys figured out that they outnumber us, and it’s been v challenging.

And, I’m going back to work this week. Fortunately, I have the world’s most awesome boss, and so I only have to go into the office a few days a week for the time being, and the rest of the time I’ll be checking in from home. In April, the boys will be starting at daycare, so by then I reeeeally hope they’ll be sleeping through the night. Oh please, please boys…sleep through the night!

On Friday, we took them to the pediatrician for their two month visit and shots. The shots went pretty well. Even a bit amusing. The doctor would give the shot very quickly and a split second later, you’d get a reaction. It went like this:

*shot*…second passes…eyes open wide in a WHAT WAS THAAAAT?…short burst of screaming, then silence. And repeat on other leg. Times three.

I love our pediatricians. They check the boys over in their laps, very gently and soothingly. No cold exam rooms, at least not yet.

And what you’ve all been waiting for…weights! Apparently the scale at the WIC office was a bit off. It was old and a tad rusty, so I’m not surprised. Our boys aren’t quite as chunky as we previously thought…

Linus: 11 lbs, (25-50 percentile) 21.5″ long (10 percentile)
Oliver: 11 lbs, 9 oz, (50 percentile), 21.5″ long (10 percentile)
Miles: 10 lbs, 10 oz, (25 percentile), 21″ long (5 percentile)

Note that the percentiles are NOT for adjusted age. Those are for actual 2 month olds! Woo!

And, to close, a photo, in their baby legs that Aunts Kristina and Anne gave them. 🙂

28 weeks!

28 weeks! I meant to post this yesterday, when I hit the big milestone.

I can’t believe there are only 6-8 more weeks (KNOCK ON WOOD) of this. But it’s so comforting to know that if the babies did decide to make their entrance earlier (NOT THAT THEY’RE ALLOWED TO) they’d more than likely be fine, for the most part.

Let’s see, what can I complain about? My numb hands? Yeah, that’s getting pretty old. But I guess I’m getting used to it. I had to start wearing this highly attractive belt thing to support my big ol’ belly. Actually, I’m not complaining about that. It’s pretty handy and it seems to help with the discomfort of carrying an extra 40 lbs on my torso. I will complain about my knees, though. They’re starting to ache a bit.

In better news, Wednesday is my last day of coming into the office. I’ll be working from home starting Friday (Thursday is a holiday for us) which I think will be good for me. I ordered a table to use as a desk while sitting on the sofa, which I hope will work out well.

Went to a Halloween party on Saturday night. I’ll post a picture of my costume when I get a picture from someone who brought a camera. It was a good costume in theory, if I wasn’t thrilled about the execution of
it. Ah well.

Next big milestone….30 weeks!

11/12/04

Nothing profound to say today. Last night George and I went to the mall so he could return some pants. I tried on three pretty dresses as Dillard’s, just for fun. (I have $20 in my checking account.) It’s exciting to try on pretty dresses now that more of them fit, though two of the ones I tried on were satin, which is so pretty on the hanger, but is not so pretty on my lumpy bits. So must resist the temptation of trying on satin dresses, or self-esteem will plummet. Also I like going to the mall to gaze in the jewelry store windows. Even though my boyfriend pulls me away from the sparkly things. (I like to think he is trying to tell me something with this, but I shall not get my hopes up.)

Yesterday from my office window I watched a Veteran’s Day parade go by. What a great view. Too bad the Mardi Gras parades don’t go by here. On the other hand, I’m on the seventh floor and the windows don’t open, so I wouldn’t be able to catch anything, so maybe it’s best that they don’t go by here.

The new Bridget Jones movie comes out this weekend. Must go see it. My computer just made a weird noise that startled me. Might do a 5K this weekend if Polly wants to. (Maybe I should do it even if she doesn’t. I think it’s another small race, and if she doesn’t do it, maybe I could place. But then again, it’s no fun without Polly.)

Okay, enough babbling. George and I are going to a wedding of one of his colleagues (and, coincidentally or not, two of the members of the band that we decided will play at our wedding. Assuming they’re not of retirement age by then.) I’m going to wear my new pink ballerina-raincoat skirt that I wore to Chris’s birthday last weekend. (It’s made of some strange waterproof-ish material, hence the “raincoat” bit. H&M sure does pick strange fabrics for its clothes. But it was cheap, so that’s okay.)

Boooooo

Today was disappointing. There was lightning striking all over the place all through the night which made me happy, initially, because it meant I could sleep in and not go running with Polly. I am so lazy. But then it meant that the HP Classic golf tournament was cancelled for the day. Not that I’d usually care if a golf tournament was cancelled (unless it was the one Blue Cross has in memory of my dad, that would be sad) but I was supposed to have half of the work day off to volunteer at it. And I’d get free lunch. And now you really know why I’m disappointed. No free steak sandwich from Ruth’s Chris. I’ve never had steak from Ruth’s Chris, and if we want to continue to pay our mortgage, I doubt George and I will ever go, so this was my chance! And now it is down the toilet. Blah. I suppose I should look on the bright side that I am now not going to ingest a bazillion points for lunch and can instead spend them on beer tonight. But I had to buy lunch today, which I’m not really financially prepared to do. Blah.

Tomorrow I’m getting my hair cut, though, and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. I love getting haircuts, and I haven’t had one since the day after Christmas. I’m only getting a trim, but it’s from my favorite hairstylist in Baton Rouge and because of my freshly trimmed and blow-dried hair, I will look sleek and clean (instead of my usual sorta wavy in bad places) for the wedding we’re attending tomorrow night. In Opelousas, which is hours away from here, but it’s for a high school friend, who I am very excited to see. Along with other high school friends that will be there. Yay!

Blog is back!

Moved the blog back here, as it won’t be a training blog anymore. At least not until the next marathon…

This weeked I worked at the ticket booth for the neighborhood home tour, and met a woman, Romie, who belongs to a running group called the 26.2 Krewe. Or something like that. I’ve seen then running around Lafreniere Park. I’m thinking about joining them. She’s supposed to send me some information. Who knows, maybe I’ll do the Mardi Gras Marathon after all! But I’ll keep the blog here for now, anyway.

Dressed up as a witch for Halloween, along with everyone else in our department. As a whole we won the “Most Original” prize in the costume contest. (Yeah, a bunch of witches…but we sang a song…) Our prize is a $50 gift certificate to the bar at the Windsor Court. Ooooh, fancy! But there were nine of us, so we may be able to afford a Sprite each. Ha. After work went to a Halloween party on my street. Fun. Hot dogs. Yum.

George and I went and saw Love Actually, a British romantic comedy. We loved it. It really was great, highly recommend. We saw a sneak preview, I think it’ll be out in two weeks or something.

6/12/02

Okay, so those prayers went unanswered. No work so far. But a few leads. Sarah knows someone at Tulane who may need help with a database, but she hasn’t called or emailed me back, so I’m not holding out much hope for that. I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to fill out a job application. Laurie’s James put a little note on it, maybe that’ll help. I almost went to the unemployment office Monday, but I didn’t. Or yesterday. I chickened out, I’ll be honest about it.

Kristina left for Virginia this morning, she’s getting lasic surgery on her eyes. Lucky! Although I don’t know if I’d ever get it myself because I don’t like people cutting my eyeball open, I’m envious that she won’t have to wear glasses or contacts again. Maybe if she says it’s not so bad, I’ll consider it one day. She at least can wear contacts, I personally hate them, so I’m stuck with glasses. Which I also hate. So maybe one day…

Anne’s sister Becky’s friend (and ours) Jen is coming in town tomorrow. I get to entertain her. Yay! I’m going to take her to, um, well, okay, Algiers for pub quiz night. Hey, she went to Yale. Maybe we’ll actually win something this week!

Oh yeah, and I finally got my official marathon photos! Yay! Woo hoo! Of course, the dreaded fanny pack (perhaps I should just call it a waist pack to avoid any cross-cultural faux pas) makes me look disgusting, but other than that, I’m happy about them. It’s exciting! Except that they actually want me to send back two of the photos. *&#($ that! I don’t think so! Let ’em come after me (or put the cost on my mom’s credit card. Either one is fine with me.) So here they are: