Christmasy Weekends and another Bridget Jones' Party Experience

It's another Sunday evening where the weekend has flown by entirely too fast. It's a wet, chilly night out there- the rain has been coming down for a couple of hours and with the glow of my Christmas tree lights, it seems positively cosy in my living room.

I've tried to have a very Christmas-y weekend. I decided earlier in the season that since I adore Christmas so much, I was going to make the most of it and try and be as festive as possible this year. It's hard to avoid jumping right into the Christmas spirit when the stores are festooned with yuletide glory, the radio is full of Christmas music and it seems like it smells like cinnamon everywhere.

I put up one of my Christmas trees on Friday night. Normally, I only have one. However, for the past couple of years, my sad, Walmart Black Friday $20 Bargain Tree has been looking a little forlorn and pathetic even when I've tried to hide the gaps with decorations and garlands. So this year, I splurged and got a new tree. It's very nice with no gaps and it looks somewhat real. I'd actually rather have a real one but since I spend Christmas at my parents' house, it seems a bit of a waste. I contemplated one of those burlap-bulbed trees so I could replant it but even though my little Toyota Corolla can haul far more than you'd imagine, I'm not quite sure even I could figure out a way to get a Christmas tree home in my car.

So, I got a nice artificial one. The only problem was that I couldn't bear to part with my little forlorn tree. It was the first tree of my own that I ever owned. Thus, I decided to bedeck my Tuscan room with my forlorn tree and use the new one in my living room.

Friday, I put my new tree up. I drank mulled wine and watched "Elf." I baked chocolate chip chocolate cupcakes and whoopie pies for a friends' party on Saturday. It was a very festive evening and I enjoyed every minute of it. By the time I was done, my tree looked rather nice, if I do say so myself.

Saturday, I did some Christmas shopping in the morning and then came home, put up my simple outdoor decorations- just a garland and bow around my little lampost and a couple of little pre-lit porch trees. Then I put up my forlorn tree in my Tuscan room. I also frosted the cupcakes I'd made with peppermint buttercream and filled my whoopie pies with candy-cane Hershey Kiss buttercream. Then I headed to my friends birthday party.

The first sign it wasn't going to be a great success was that just as I was lifting my cake carrier that was stuffed with cupcakes off my car seat to transport them into my friends' house, the stupid lid came off. It was my fault- I should have checked to make sure it was still locked and hadn't come loose during the journey. Needless to say, I had quite a few cupcake casulties which was rather too bad because they tasted rather yummy if I do say so myself. Still, the whoopie pies were safe since I'd packed the seperately.

The second sign that it wasn't going to be a terrifically fun party for me was that I quickly realized it was going to be another Bridget Jones Night. It was small gathering in honour of my friends 45th birthday. She was doing something unique- a blind wine tasting in which she would decide the winner, no gifts but, instead, we would bring a toy to donate to Toys for Tots that would have been something our hostess would have liked as a child and a concert by a local university acapella group which my friend had 'won' in a silent charity auction.

My wine was pretty good- I know my friends' tastes which are quite similar to mine so I brought a nice Zinfandel. My toy was Scrabble- my friend loves to read and write and oddly adores English grammar.

The problem was that every single person there aside from me was married. Now, when I lived in L.A., even when I went to similar gatherings, it was ok- the 'marrieds' were independent enough that they circulated seperately from their spouses and it was just a gathering o' people. However, in the Midwest, it's a little different. Here, the spouses come as a pair. When one spouse is separated from the other and forced to talk to the lone singleton at the party, this spouse starts to panic and say things like "I wonder where John is!" Well, this would be ok if it was, say, a large house and there was a possibility of John being more than 25 feet away but in this case, my friends house is not huge and the reality was that John was 15 feet away in the next room talking to Bob whose wife is holding his arm possessively.

I know, that's a little harsh. I'm sure not every gathering in the Midwest is really like that but the few I've been too where I've been the lone singleton have been very much like that. I try very hard to be social but it's rather hard because couples seem to like to talk to other couples and discuss their children, how much they're paying the sitter and who their kids' teachers are.

Needless to say, it was a difficult evening. Fortunately, there was wine and cheese. The wine tasting went well. I came in second. I would have come in first, I suspect but the winning wine was the first one everyone tried and someone said, "Hey, wine #7 is good!" so everyone had to try wine #7 and it went fast. This meant that our hostess couldn't have a second taste of wine #7 to compare it to my wine and it won by default because it was so popular. I tried wine #7, for the record, and I found it to be a bit plummy. Also, wine #7 happened to be brought by the hostess' closest friends who'd been staying there that weekend. Yes, I probably sound bitter but three hours of standing around feeling more and more alone in a room full of smug married people made me feel a little bitter. Also, the hostess' dad asked me where 'my other half' was in reference to a former coworker I'd once showed up to a party with a few years ago. I've been to several of my friends' parties since without this coworker but he clearly thought we were a couple. I shouldn't have been surprised. An unmarried woman in the midwest in her thirties is bound to set off a few suspicions. Still, it was a bit like throwing salt in a wound by this point.

The party itself was lovely. My friend throws a good gathering. The acapella group was amazing though and it was nice to have a break from mingling to listen to some music. I was a little surprised that people were raving over my whoopie-pies which I found cloyingly sweet. They were actually fighting over the last one. Meanwhile, my lovely, hand frosted, crushed peppermint decorated cupcakes sat virtually untouched.

By the time it became safe for me to leave without being rude, I did so. It was a relief to get in my car, crank up the Tran-Siberian orchestra and drive home where I was greeted enthusiastically by my pups. It's nice to show I'm loved even if I am a pathetic singleton who apparently gives of lesbian vibes. Not that there's anything wrong with that it's just that I'm not a lesbian.

As much as I hated that it did so, my party experience made me feel a little down on Sunday. It's one thing to know I'm alone and accept it but it's another to be reminded of how alone I am at times. Still, I decided to fight off my blues by some intensive cleaning and organizing and finishing putting up the final Christmas decorations.

Now, I'm sitting inside, listening to the rain pour down, finishing some laundry and feeling sad that the weekend is already almost over. Tomorrow, it's back to work as normal. However, on the plus side, I now have the glow of the multicoloured lights of my Christmast tree when I come home in addition to my lovely pups who constantly love to show me how much I'm loved.

It's not all bad. I just need to stop going to parties where I'm the only single person. I think they're bad for me.

Happy Monday!

Job Gratitude...

You know, one of the things that I always tell myself if I have a bad day at work is that someone always has it worse than me.

This is not to say I had a bad day at work today. In fact, it was pretty decent. I may have just got another candidate a job if everything goes well. I like working with good candidates; they make it fun. Now I’ve been doing this job a while, I’m learning the way I like to do things. My strategy is simply to get to know the people I’m working with. I was taught in my early training that building relationships is important and I’m finding that to be true. I have one candidate who is going to start a new job with us in a week and he’s so comfortable working with me that he tells me the contents of his freezer. This sounds odd but it’s actually kind of endearing, believe it or not. In a job like mine where there’s a lot of completion to get the good candidates, it’s nice to have that type of relationship with your candidate. It means they trust me and feel like they know me which is exactly the way it should be. Changing jobs is a big decision in life and I like to make it easy for people by making sure that it’s the right thing for them.

I’m sure I’m a bit of a sucker. Some of the other recruiting companies out there are all about the resume. They pull thousands off Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com each day and just call the people, promising good jobs, high pay and benefits. However, they have a bit of an impersonal approach. Even if the candidate doesn’t really fit, they’ll try to shove them in a job anyway because they have a quota, they need the revenue and their client needs an employee. It’s a quick turnaround.

I could work this way but I don’t. I try to find out what the person behind the resume wants. Are they fed up of their job because they’re bored? Is the commute too long? Do they work overtime and they’re missing their kids sporting events? There’s always a reason and I like to find out. This way, it’s easier to find them jobs that actually fit rather than trying to make them fit the job. My way is slower than the ‘resume farm’ companies but it means I build up relationships and my candidates remember me. In turn, they recommend me to their fellow IT job seekers. It’s a nice feeling to hear that I was recommended because I did my job well.

Granted, hearing the contents of someone’s freezer is a little extreme but it’s all part of a day’s work. It’s nice to have days where I really get to work with people.

As I said before, working with people was one of the reasons I left my last job. I didn’t get to work with people unless you count my coworkers and, well, I really didn’t. Certainly, there were some good people there but it was such a cliquish, awkward atmosphere that the rather insane quiet of the cubicle farm where I worked was just not a healthy environment for me.

Now I have my own office and the buzz of my coworkers is around me. We communicate here. We have meetings. We have gatherings. We chat. We laugh. We do our jobs. It’s the way things should be in an office.

So, I’m not blogging today to whine about my job. My original intention was just to say that I’m quite lucky to have the job I do and I’m thankful for it every time I see someone doing a job I most certainly would NOT want to do.

One of the jobs I find the most baffling are the sign-holders on street corners. They hold signs advertising a store or restaurant. Sometimes, the more interesting sign-holders get bored and do a series of spins and flips with their sign to get attention. Of course, this means you can’t actually read the sign but, well, it’s sort of fun to watch.

I don’t look down on the sign holders. They’re clearly doing it for the cash/paycheck at the end of the day. Instead, I question the need for sign holders. If there’s a big neon sign visible during daylight and darkness only 400 yards down the road for a business from a sign-holder, what’s really the point of the sign-holder? Am I really more likely to go to Bob’s Furniture Emporium because there’s a guy on the corner holding a sign and pointing me there than I would be if I drove by it?

I suppose some people might pay attention to the sign- people who, say, didn’t know Bob’s Furniture Emporium was there. But, really, it seems a little silly.

I’m always amused by the Chick-Fil-A cow too. Someone dressed as the cow is often outside our local Chick-Fil-A trying to get cars to honk at him. I suppose those that recognize it as the Chick-Fil-A cow as they’re driving by may suddenly think, “hey…cow. It’s the Chick-Fil-A cow! Oooh, Chick-Fil-A!!! MUST STOP, TURNAROUND AND GO BACK TO CHICK-FIL-A RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I WANT A #1 COMBO WITH WAFFLE FRIES AND A COKE!”

Most likely, however, people can see there’s a Chick-Fil-A right there and a waving cow isn’t likely to make them decide to detour through the drive through any more than seeing the restaurant might.

Other jobs I’ve noticed lately that I’m glad I don’t have are being a salesperson on those carts at the mall. More specifically, those that sell the lotion-type stuff. If you don’t know what I mean, you’re lucky. They are usually manned by pushy salesmen who have some type of ‘miracle’ lotion and they’re rather aggressive as people pass by, trying to get people to try their free lotion sample. This also applies to the hair straightener sales people and the mineral makeup that isn’t the name brand stuff. What I’d like to see is a stand for something like, cupcakes, where the salespeople chase you down to eat their free cupcake samples. Alas, the closest I come to this is the person standing outside the cookie place with teeny samples of cookies on toothpicks. These people are NOT aggressive and often give you a look as if to say, ‘cheapskate. You know what a chocolate chip cookie tastes like. Just buy a damn cookie instead of eating my free ones.’

I’m also glad I’m not a furniture salesperson. In the extreme heat that we’ve been having, I’m very thankful I don’t have to work outside and I feel bad for people who do.

Though the list of jobs I am glad I don’t have could go on for pages and pages, I won’t bore you any longer. Just watch “Dirty Jobs.” I don’t want any of those jobs. Nor would I want “Billy the Exterminators” jobs because he deals with dead animal corpses, bugs and alligators. You get the idea. What it comes down to is that even when I have bad days at work, I’m still grateful to have the job I do. It doesn’t involve chasing people with lotion, flipping a sign or crawling into a basement to pull out a rotted raccoon corpse.

I admire the people who do those jobs because it means that I don’t have to and, for that, I am immensely grateful to them. I’m also appreciative that I have the job I do. And though sometimes I do have to remind myself of that, all it takes is the sight of the Chick-Fil-A cow outside on a 95 degree day to drive that home.

Happy Thursday!

Markets, Salesgnats and Other Weekend tales

It's hard to believe that another weekend has passed and it's already winding down. It feels as though I just got off work on Friday and am about to start relaxing.

Still, for a weekend where I didn't have any plans, it ended up being rather productive, as weekends so often are.

I decided that even though I'd gone to Findlay Market here in Cincinnati last weekend with my mum, I'd go back again this weekend. One of my favourite vendors at the market is Kroeger and Sons who specialize in meats, particularly sausage. They make a wonderful Swedish potato sausage that has the best flavour- I'm not quite sure what they add in with the pork but I know there's coriander in there. The sausage is tangy and delicious both hot and cold. My dad is a huge fan of these sausages and I'd promised we'd get him some last weekend. Alas, being the weekend before the Fourth of July, they were already sold out of the Swedish potato sausage last week just over an hour after they opened.

So, this weekend, I decided to go back and get my dad his sausages. In addition, it was a wonderful excuse for me to go back and get some more fresh veggies from the farmer's market as well as some sausages for my own freezer. Sausages aren't exactly the healthiest thing when you're watching your weight like me but I've learned if you moderate what you eat with them, they make a fine dinner.

So, I got up even earlier on Saturday than I normally do to go to work. This is because of my Fear of Finding Parking at Findlay Market. However, even though I managed to get up, get the dogs walked and hitting the road by 7:30 a.m., the fates were against me. There was construction on the interstate.

This was a nuisance because they had closed two lanes. The annoying thing was that when traffic slowed, the 'smarty pants' drivers all decided, "Hey, look! the left lane is moving fast, why don't I hop over there." These Smarty Pants people clearly hadn't read the giant flashing "Left Two Lanes Closed on S. I-75" sign that I had. These stupid twits in their eagerness to bypass the traffic jam ended up being the CAUSE of the jam as they slowly realized, "Oops, I have to get over, my lane is closed".

I felt like I was back in L.A. Fortunately, this meant that I kicked into my, "sigh...freeway traffic blows" mode and relaxed while caterwaling along with Def Leppard, Green Day and Lady Gaga.

By the time traffic improved and I made it to the market, it wasn't nearly as early as I'd hoped it would be. Nevertheless, the fates decided to be nice and I found a parking space easily.

The market wasn't as bustling as last weekend and I got my sausages, fresh bread and veggies without much bother. I also relaxed with a cup of coffee in the earlyish morning sun with a good book. It was a lovely start to the day.

I decided then to investigate the unfinished furniture store I"d found online. The prices they listed were very reasonable and i had visions of getting a few pieces, staining them in antique-y Tuscan colours and finally finished my Tuscan room.

Alas, this was not to be. The store was a third of the size I'd envisioned and I was...the only customer in there. I'm sure you've experienced this phenomena. It's horrible. This means the salespeople leech onto you and you can't look even when you politely tell them you 'just want to look.'

Sadly, the furniture was over double the price they'd advertised online and, while nice, was not what I was seeking. I was also being watched like a hawk. Thus, I was relieved when another customer came in. I seized my chance to leave while the salespeople were converging on her.

I decided to continue my morning of 'New Things' and decided to give in to the cupcake obsession that Saz instilled in me by introducing me to the Magnolia Bakery in New York. I had done my research and found that the second best place for cupcakes in Cincinnati was downtown. The first best place was, unfortunately, closed this weekend due to vacation.

Thus, I headed to Abby Girl cupcakes in Downtown Cincinnati. I rarely go downtown so it was actually a treat to be reminded of...why I don't go downtown. As most downtowns are, it's a mixture of one-way streets, hard-to-see traffic lights and 'no turn on red lights'. I found the bakery, got by cupcakes and headed home.

I'm sad to say the cupcakes were...ok. They were better than the average grocery store but lacking in flavour. They missed the bite and tang I'd been spoiled with in New York.

I thought I was done for the day but I got a second wind and decided to go to the Value City Furniture by my house to see if they had anything remotely Tuscan.

This was a bad idea. Value City Furniture was even worse than the place I'd been to that morning. The salespeople were like those gnats that find you when you're outside. No sooner have you swatted one and squashed it and there's five more. It made the whole experience extremely unpleasant. All I wanted to do was look and each aisle I walked down had a salesperson waiting. I was approached no less than seven times in ten minutes. This is not an exaggeration. Needless to say, I got tired of being harassed and I left. I simply don't understand why you can't browse without someone trying to help. If I need help, I'll ask which is what i politely told the first four salespeople. I didn't have energy to say that to the last three and by the time the last one approached me, I'd had enough and I walked away, leaving the store.

Still, salesgnats aside, it was a nice Saturday. Sunday has been nice too. I managed to mow the lawns, whack some wheeds, plant some flowers, edit a novel, make my first homemade mojito and am now blogging. I plan on spending the rest of my evening relaxing.

So, even though the weekend whizzed by, I can't say I wasted my time. I find that as I get older, it's harder to sit around and do nothing. In my younger days, I enjoyed turning on the TV and finding something to watch. Now, I'd rather weed, work outside or find something to do.

I'm sure the rest of my evening won't be wasted either. I find that productive weekends make it far easier to go back to work, even though I have to face the start of a Monday. I'm hoping this won't be a tradition, moody Monday but, even if it is, I'll just look back and think about what a nice weekend I've had.

And, also, thank my lucky stars I don't work in a furniture store.

Thanks, as always for reading. Have a great Monday!

Wunderbar Wonderbar....Cupcake

I have decided that it’s quite hard to get back to work after a rather nice little mini-break. Even though this week is shorter because of Memorial Day on Monday, time seems to have slowed down.

It doesn’t help that things are a little slow in the office either. It’s the type of week where people are sliding out a little early each day and going home. It’s also been a nice week, weather-wise. Since we’ve had so much rain lately, the rare treat of a warm week with sunshine and no rain makes it a little hard to focus.

I didn’t sneak out early yesterday but I did leave on time. I’ve decided the best way to not be sad that my trip to NYC is over for a while is to throw myself into some projects I haven’t been able to get to because of the rain. The number one project is finishing my pesky Tuscan room. I’ve had the floor tiles for ages but because the room is an add-on to the house, it’s the only way out to the back garden for the dogs and for me. This means that trying to do the floor while it’s raining would be a little silly because it would constantly have wet dog footprints on it. Also, I have furniture in there that needs to go outside while I tile the floor so rain doesn’t help that matter either.

Fortunately, this weekend is going to be dry and hot. I figured I wouldn’t get another opportunity for a while so I decided that this is the weekend the floor goes down.

This means that the carpet in the room had to come up. Since it was rubbish day yesterday, I wanted the carpet to get pulled up and taken away immediately. Thus, last night, I spent the evening pulling up carpet.

I do not enjoy pulling up carpet. It’s not so bad cutting the actual carpet up and getting rid of it. It’s just that around the edges there are these nasty little things called tack strips. Since these look somewhat like one of those weird bed of nails that people sometimes lie on in order to get attention in a public place, they’re not a good thing to leave sticking up. I know they’re there so I wouldn’t accidentally step on the but try explaining to two dachshunds that they should watch where they walk.

So, I had to pull up those tack strips. Fortunately, thanks to Google, I already knew the best method of doing so was to buy something called a Wonderbar pry bar from Lowes. So, last night, I stopped off at my neighbourhood friendly Lowes and bought one.

I have recently discovered that it’s quite nice to pretend I don’t know what I’m doing in Lowes. I actually do know where most things are there and, even if I don’t, I’m quite good at locating them. Until very recently, I got annoyed that as soon as I walked in, I’d be asked if I needed help by some male employee of the store. I know it sounds sexist but that’s the way it was- I think they assumed because I was female, I needed help. This used to annoy me.

However, recently, I’ve found it quite fun to pretend I need help. It sounds silly but it’s rather nice to have someone make sure I find exactly what I want. Even though there are times when I know where I really need to go and the employee doesn’t, it’s actually quite fun to watch them get a little stressed until they help me locate my item.

Yes, yes…I know. I’m betraying feminist strength all over the place. The thing is, I’m a single woman and I do find that being very independent is rather intimidating to men. It’s a stereotype but it’s a stereotype for a reason. Thus, I’m trying to be less intimidating. Hey, you never know.

Anyway, I did finally get my Wonderbar last night and I’m rather glad I did. That thing is a bloody marvel. All I need is my handy dandy hammer and the Wonderbar and the tack strips came up with just a few taps. I like that.

In the end, I actually did get the carpet up and all the tack strips removed. I also removed these evil metal things that may or may not be called bullheads that were firmly fastened to the floor near the entranceways.

The room is looking better. Under the carpet was a nice thin layer of vinyl tiles that is smooth enough to provide a good surface for my new tile. All I have to do is finish pulling up a few stray nails in the floor with my Wonderbar. I’m very pleased with that purchase. I’m actually amazed at the things I now own that I’ve discovered are quite useful. For one, I now own a hacksaw with a blade for cutting both metal and tree brances. I also own a nifty screwgun that is WAY easier than using a screw driver for things. Also, I own a pipe wrench. Now I own a Wonderbar. Who knew being a homeowner would inspire me to own such an interesting collection of tools.

Of course, the problem with the Wonderbar (and I realize this is a highly personal problem) is that every time I write it, say it or think it, it reminds me of something you’d get out of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. This, in turn, makes me suddenly want something sweet which, thanks to Saz and Magnolia Bakery’s introduction of good cupcakes into my life then makes me want a cupcake quite badly.

As I said, I realize this is a highly personal problem. Only I could turn a prybar into a cupcake in my mind. I don’t know what’s more annoying: The fact that I’m now craving lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting even though I’m not a cake person or the fact that I can’t have one.

Ah well, maybe finishing up prepping the floor for the new tiles will help take my mind off cupcakes. Of course, I will be using the Wonderbar so maybe not.

Crap, I did it again. Now I want a cupcake.

Happy Thursday and thanks for reading!