Awkward Reunions and Cold Wet Puppies

How is it possible that it's already Sunday evening? I feel like it was just Friday evening when I was sneaking out of work a little early with two of my coworkers to get margaritas. We weren't really sneaking- our boss told us to do it so I guess you don't get any less sneaky than that really.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that it feels like it was just a very short time ago we were drinking the margaritas and now, time is whizzing by so quickly that in a few short hours, it'll be time to go to bed and say good bye to the weekend.

It was a nice weekend, even if it did start off with a visit to my old office. It was, as you might suspect, very awkward going back there. I knew it was going to be. My old company, in the grand scheme of things is quite small. My current company caters mostly to big companies. This is because big companies can afford services like ours. We're not a terribly inexpensive service. Big companies don't mind paying us for what we do because we take the hassle out of having to find employees.

Smaller companies like my former employer don't usually use us because they usually don't need us and, also, they can't really afford us.

As I suspected on Friday, my former HR manager was obsessed with the cost. She didn't want to know what she'd be getting for the cost. She just wanted to know how much it would cost. We sat with her for almost an hour while she obsessed about percentages and facts and figures. It was, to say the least, a little...odd. I know they need to watch their spending but if you call someone in to explain how they work, the least you think they'd want to do is, you know, hear how we work. Instead, we sat there while she kept trying to find out what we'd charge.

It was painful. To make it more painful, my ex-boss came in late and sat there without saying much, staring awkwardly at us. It was completely clear to me that my account manager and I were wasting our time but we had to persevere anyway. To make matters worse, when my ex-HR manager told me what salary they were willing to pay this new employee that we might help them find, my jaw dropped. I've only been doing recruiting for 3 weeks but it's long enough to know what a beginning/entry-level programmer expects. Let's just say my former company was willing to pay significantly lower than most companies.

It's no wonder the position has been open three months. To top it off, they want someone with a combination of skills that is going to be pretty near impossible to find in one package let alone for the salary they want to pay.

Needless to say, by the time we left, I wasn't expecting them to go with us. I don't think they will even though we were told they'd call us to work out details. I'm hoping they don't go with us because, frankly, as much as I'd like to bring business into my new company, we'd end up taking a loss with them anyway by the time we're done. Ah well, c'est la vie. As long as I don't have to go back again any time soon, I'm ok with that.

So, by the time it was margarita time on Friday, I was ready for the weekend.

All in all, it's been a great weekend. I went to my parents early on Saturday and had a lovely day hanging out with my mother. We went out for lunch to this new Vietnamese restaurant that's not too far from their house. They're a pho restaurant. Pho is one of the things I miss about Los Angeles- it's a vermicelli noodle soup with meat, spiced broth and herbs and it's just good comfort food. I tried it here at a local place once and it was nothing like the real thing. Thus I was delighted to find that the pho I had on Saturday was as close as I've ever had since I left Los Angeles.

I also decided that I might as well give into Christmas so I started my Christmas shopping in earnest. I'm doing pretty well considering it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

Today, I spent the day with my parents, their dogs and my puppies. It was a nice day but chilly in the wind. Not so chilly, however, that the puppies didn't have a great time running around my parents' yard and going in their ponds.

I'm not sure what the fascination is but my dad has this little fish pond with a waterfall and the puppies were obsessed with it. They spent the day running around the edge of the pond. Naturally, Rory being Rory, slipped off a rock and ended up soaked to her belly. Sookie got a little wet too and, as a result, our drive back home was a little pungent.

Now, because the smell of pond is not appealing, I have two shivering puppies on my couch. I had to give them a bath and they were not happy. They're currently wearing their pink mock-Burberry coats, wrapped in a pink mock-Burberry blanket and looking as pathetic as I've ever seen them. It's not like they can possible be cold. Their coats and blanket are made of fleece and I've had the heat on as well. I think they're just making me feel bad.

I do feel bad. I didn't want to bath them but, well, they smelled like a pond and since they sleep burrowed in my bed at night, I really didn't want them curled up next to me smelling like stale fish and algae.

I'm hoping they'll forgive me soon. They're almost dry as it is. Still, knowing my pups, they're going to milk their sorrowful mood as long as possible and make me feel like I have to sit with them and cuddle them.

Still. There are far worse ways to wind down a weekend.

Happy Monday!