Monday, July 28, 2008

Go....

...to see The Dark Knight. I didn't want to go for fear of "the joker" nightmares, but I think Heath Ledger is a great actor, esp. after seeing his Brokeback Mountain performance, and I also have had a crush on Christian Bale since 1987. So I went. And I am very glad I did. Summer blockbuster. Go to see it. It's good. About a half hour too long, but good. You'll regret it if you don't.

I'll be back with more recommendations such as The Hills Season 4, which premieres on August 18.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

a midsummer night's post

so i'm meandering through my internet sites and noticed some friend updates on blogs and stuff and got the final nudge from tammy's comment that it's about time for an update on my life.

lots has been going on the last few months. i have had a few friends in town visiting, which is always nice. i helped (and i use the word "help" very loosely) my friend brad move in to a new condo (yay for single people being able to afford homes on 1 income!!). and a cute condo, i might add. i am still dealing with allergy stuff. i have allergic reactions every week or so, sometimes minor and sometimes major, which involve some sort of facial or mouth swelling. the most recent stuff has been a slight swelling of my chin/cheek or a swollen eye, treatable with benadryl. i am keeping a journal of everything i am eating/feeling and have been tested on a bunch of foods and all we've come up with is an allergy to carageenan, which is a seaweed used as a thickener in dairy products and a few other things. so i'm now off soy milk, soy yogurt, coffeemate and ice cream and anything else that contains carageenan. who knows. i'm not convinced this is a food thing and wonder if it may be connected to stress. so until my next ER visit, i just keep journaling and taking my generic zyrtac at night, and carrying my epipen wherever i go. fingers crossed this is just a seasonal airborn thing.

work has been a little intense and cool. i am getting 1/2 of a referral bonus because another friend started (brad and i will share the bonus since it's a mutual friend). we have also made some major changes to the way we're coaching on our campus. these changes have been a lot of work--we're definitely overloaded right now. i also got a promotion, which is notable. :) i am now a senior coach, one of 6 on our campus. in the ideal world, this means i will coach students 85% of my time and do other tasks 15% of the time, hopefully focused mainly on training coaches on our campus during that 15% of the time. in reality, right now i'm still 100% of the time a coach until we get some additional coaches for our campus to help with the overload. i'm at about a B- job satisfaction-wise, which may increase as i get into more of the 85/15 role. i'm still thinking this isn't my final career stop, so we'll see what the next year holds for me career exploration-wise. i did buy a GRE book and may study for and take those in the next 6 months in case i decide to head on for a phd/edd.

i had a couple of wonderful coworkers leave in june, and that was tough. i really enjoyed working with them and laughing at the absurdity of our company/office life in the u.s. one of them introduced me to Stuff White People Like and the other would send me random (gross) pictures of carrot top (yes, the comedian). they brought great "levity" (to use one of our office trend-words) to my days. so i'm hoping to be the levity-bringer in the office now that they're gone, since i'm fun and funny. i have a few partners in crime to help me out. :) fort day, here we come!

the only other real excitement in my world is that i bought a new laptop. and yes, this is very very exciting. my first apple purchase was my 2001 iBook that i bought right before my move to spokane. that little guy lasted well until about a year ago when i realized it was slow as molasses. then my spacebar started sticking in april (around the time of the allergy attacks...huh...coincidence?) and it became apparent i needed to upgrade or i'd spend half of my typing time hitting the spacebar over and over and over until it worked (it's amazing how much we use that key). so i used my tax refunds and my economic stimulus check to buy a new MacBook (after, of course, investing a good $1500 in car repairs to take care of the higher priority first). i am now addicted to tv on hulu since i can finally watch videos on my computer.

that's about it for now!

(p.s. did you like all my links? i just figured that out tonight. :) )