Now I can enjoy myself:)

Today I went shopping for clothes. I don't really have much for "work" clothes, and what I have is winter oriented or too formal for my new social work career. I am pretty good about saving my pennies, but I have no problem spending money at Kohl's. I love that store. I always finds tons of clothes and good bargains there. Today was no exception. I swear, almost everything in the store was 50% of. I bought several summery skirts and some pretty tops. I'm still having trouble in the shoe department. It's so hard to find pretty, comfortable shoes. I'm going to try the mall tomorrow I think. As we all know, it is essential that a new social worker to be 'pretty'. :) I know I'd make Julia so proud :). When I got back I did my step aerobic tape. I still use the step bench that Uncle Ashley built for me 15 years ago or so. It has stood the test of time, and I think it could still hold up a Mac truck:). Then I topped off my afternoon by making lemon jello before Brian got back from work. See guys! I do cook:)! He's making steak and yummy veggies. We're trying to do the South Beach Diet. So far it is quite successful. We're both looking slim and trim:)

It's official!

THE JOB IS MINE!! :)

Afternoon!

Good news! I'm going to be 'officially' offered the job at 5 pm. There was a minor snafu with the background check stuff while the director was out on vacation. (i.e., he didn't get the references i emailed to him before he left, so nobody knew to check them). I spoke to him this afternoon, and he assured me that the interview went well and that he does want to hire me! YAY!! It's soo exciting! I can't wait to get started! I am still tired this afternoon, but I'm not nearly as neurotic. That tends to happen when I get stressed. Now I can just enjoy my time off. I'll start in a few weeks. We're leaving for a trip to Key West on Saturday morning. We decided to schedule a quick vacation when we realized that I wouldn't be able to get any time off for a year. I'm nervous about flying, but I'm sure we'll have tons of fun when we get there. We can celebrate all the good news:) I'll let you all know how the official job offer conversation goes later:)

Sleepy Morning :)

I am sleepy this morning. I haven't been sleeping so well this past week. I have come up with several theories that might explain why. I might be homesick. I might be hungry. I might be hot. Alfie likes to dive-bomb off the windowsill onto me during the night, which might be disrupting my sleep from time to time. I am worried about finding a job. I am worried that the job I think I found is really just an elaborate ploy to steal my identity. I might be too rested. I might not be rested enough. I might have a 'stuck hormone'. I obviously have too much time on my hands. I'm hoping to get to the bottom of the job situation today. Here's the thing. THey asked me when I could start, so I told them. THen they said they would just check my references and call me when they heard back from everyone. I took that to mean that I have the job, but every since that afternoon, I have been worrying that I misunderstood something. Honestly, there wasn't much to misunderstand. It seemed pretty straight forward, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm a worry wart, and I don't like to count my chickens before they hatch, so the past week has been an endless stream of stressing while i wait to here the 'official, offical' word. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'll let you know what i find out later today.

Happy Memorial Day!

I don't think you wish people happy memorial day, but I want to recognize it in some way today, so "Happy Memorial Day". Usually on Memorial day weekend I go with my mom and grandmother to deliver flowers to the graves of our family members. This year they had to do it without me because I'm down here in Mass. I'm sure this year would have been hard. It's still hard to admit that Uncle Bill isn't here anymore. I start crying just thinking about it. We also always go the the Tenants Harbor Memorial Day Parade and then have a cook out at my cousin Lisa's. It's always a good time:) I'm planning on dropping in on my cousin jen today to see if I can convince her to have a cookout or some kind of celebration. SHe lives about 10 minutes away from my new place. I doubt she's in the mood for celebrations though. THis weekend they've been trying to repair the damage the floods did to their new home.

My adventures

Well, so far live in Massachusetts is pretty good. We moved down here the day after I graduated in the middle of a week-long driving rain storm. The entire area flooded. It was crazy! Thankfully my mom and brother came along to help speed up the move-in process. Needless to say, everyone got drenched. Our exploring of the area has been limited because of numerous blocked off highways and submerged roads. Maybe this weekend...
Yesterday I had to drive back to my old apartment to clean it out and turn in the keys. I will not miss the linoleum on the kitchen walls, the window in the shower that opens into the neighbors living room window, or the wall to ceiling wood paneling in the living room. The heating system will not be hard to give up either. It would be freezing cold all day, then all of a sudden, at 2am, it would kick into high gear, making it almost unbearable to stay indoors. Steam would emanate from the unit and I'm positive the loud banging noises it made could be heard from miles away. Needless to say, I felt like celebrating when I turned the keys in and was told I'd get my full deposit back.
I stopped in to have lunch with a friend before heading back to Mass. I have been out of graduate school for less than two weeks, and I am already a fugitive from justice. I pulled up to a toll booth, and the sign indicated that I needed to fork over $1. I was poking around my change purse and discovered that I had collected several Susan B. Anthony dollars. I said to my self, "these are really cool, but I probably don't need to save all of them. I know, I'll give one to the toll booth lady". I handed it to her, said thank you, and proceeded to drive off. All of a sudden an alarm started ringing. For a second, my heart stopped beating. I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw another car heading through the booth. I didn't know what to do. I waited for a few seconds, but nothing seemed to be happening, so I drove off, with alarms eventually fading in the distance. I then said to myself "she must have thought I gave her a quarter. I can't believe it! I gave her a dollar!". I had visions of patrol cars surrounding my vehicle demanding that I hand over 75 more cents. I also thought of a Dateline type show I had seen that showed where different places in the country were using cameras to catch people's license plates when they went through red lights to hunt them down and give them tickets. I am still wondering if the toll booth operators have such technology. I have decided that if I get a ticket, I'm going to court to fight it and to clear my good name! I'm not a toll evador! Then last night, we were sitting here in the living room watching tv. The phone rang, and who was it but that Massachusetts State Police! I nearly fainted! The authorities in the other state had not only figured out who I was but had figured out where I was living now and what my phone number is. I haven't even figured out my phone number yet. That was impressive and disconcernting at the same time. All this for 75 cents that I had actually paid at the toll booth! argh! Why wasn't that toll booth lady more observant?! It turns out that the police were doing a fund raising drive, and they weren't coming to arrest me. I told them they had the wrong number and hung up. What an ordeal!