Loooooong ago, in a galaxy.... right here

[kitanzi]

Right, it's been months since I posted anything with actual content that wasn't about work. Time to make at least a token effort to catch up, because otherwise it gets harder and harder. At this point, all I can reasonably try for is a thumbnail of the summary of the outline of the highlights of the last couple months, but it's still gonna be long.



Well, let's see. January, of course, was Hell. When you deal with taxes and payroll, the end of each quarter is Hell and year end is undeniably Hell cubed. Every idiot who thought he knew better than we did on what taxes the IRS really needs, every secretary whose boss dumped the whole closing-the-year circus in her lap with little warning and no training, every shmuck who forgot about the bonus check he gave to his best salesman back seven months ago... if you want some stellar stories about sucky customers, make it your business to handle corporate taxes at year end. Stock up on good booze and make sure you've given away all your sharp pointy things first. That said, it could have been SO much worse. My wholesaler training was initially scheduled back in October, which would have landed me on the phones for the tail end of that with a system I had no practical experience on. Knowing me, I would have half killed myself trying to be as good on that as I was on my old system, and uncontrollably stressed when I couldn't do it. As it turned out, I stayed on the old system through year end (bad enough!) and the training was postponed.

As a result, in February ACat and I were free and easy to go to ENGLAND on our honeymoon! The marvelous Honeymoon Conspiracy (brilliantly spearheaded by nrivkis) covered our basic costs and made sure we not only had plane tickets, memberships and a hotel room for DixSeption but organized everything from pickup at the airport to people to stay with before and after the con. I really should have written the whole trip up, but it seems rather too late now. ACat took his usual hundreds of photos of the con and the rest of the two week visit.
A very few highlights of the trip:

*Being welcomed warmly at the airport by grey_lady and rdmaughan who hosted us and kept us from collapsing completely when we came in.
*At the con, a pair of beautiful, self-appointed Honeymoon Slaves callylevy and little_cinnamon who sneakily loaded our room with chocolate and heart shaped confetti (Recurring chant for ACat and me - "We have honeymoon slaves. Did you have honemoon slaves? Did they look like this? WE WIN!")
*Finally meeting Her Grace, beloved daughter of nrivkis and acrobatty
*A very movingly beautiful handfasting ceremony between telynor and filceolaire which was presided over by bedlamhouse and ladyat.
*The best Turkish dinner I've ever had (probably the only, come to think of it) and the hands down WORST pizza I've ever had. (Consensus was that it had been boiled, but that didn't explain how they burned the edges as well, with almost no sauce and smothered with very strong mature cheddar cheese... ACat, how did you describe it? You've got the knack.)
*All the marvelous musicians I never get to hear when I'm stuck on the other shore! I could start a list, but it would be depressingly long.
*Lots of delicious cider! (Yes, I was duly informed by the natives that this was the mediocre stuff, not all that good. I don't care, I liked it! ACat clearly did, too - I repeat, I have NEVER seen him that toasted!)
*Meeting many new friends, remeeting many who we hadn't seen in the two years since we last visited. Also spending time with many friends who actually live on our side of the ocean, and still we somehow have to go to England to actually see them! Is that nuts, or what?
*After the con, ranging all around London with Telynor and family, sometimes including her husband, her son G and her stepdaughters mokatiki and pola_bear.
*Fleetwood Mike rehearsal! Wow, that was stunning. Naturally, ACat got lots of photos from that, too!
*Learning far more than I ever expected to know about cricket (not rugby!) from fleetfootmike while staying with him and his family after the con. (Also learning even more from his adorable son about the Thunderbirds!)

Once I got back I dove straight into training for my new job. Apparently, the whole training sequence had gotten pushed up a week while I was gone so we'd get home in time for Easter, and no one bothered to tell me until I happened to question something a couple days after I returned. I was not at all happy to be a week further behind than I expected in a four week self-study course, but I busted ass, caught up and apparently outpaced the expected time frame, rather to my mentor's consternation. Still, pretty satisfying to me! Then I got sent to NJ for two weeks for the formal class to cover the same topics the self-study covered and to tie it all together, making sure my classmates and I actually had learned what we were supposed to! NJ in early March in a dinky suite motel isn't my idea of paradise, but meeting up with ACat and Maedbh7 in NYC over the weekend helped a lot. (He got - say it with me! - LOTS OF PHOTOS!) We also met up and hung out with happyfunpaul and bercilakslady and their friend Beth on Saturday. There's no way to see all the good stuff in NYC in one weekend, but we saw a whooooole lot of it! The Metropolitan Museum of Art borders Central Park, which was very good because those were the top items on my must-see list, but they were just the very start. I won't try listing everything we saw - go look at the photos! Several very kind friends also called me at one time or another to keep me company, and camwyn even came out to dinner with me - yummy salmon in a chili sauce, if I remember right, at a very nice Thai place. I slogged through training and became a VERY enthusiastic fan of CSI in the process. (Hey, it was the best thing I could find on tv in the evening! Imagine just how little there is to do in the evening while living out of a suitcase in a NJ business hotel in late winter with no computer access. The sales team's solution appeared to be booze. Alternatively, I read through all the books I had pretty fast, and I'm waiting to find out if I used up all my cellphone minutes.) Finally, I got home for a reunion with ACat. I'll just say it was a good one!


This week, I'm just listening with people at work and reviewing stuff and generally killing time. Apparently my phone won't be ready until Monday, so I'm waaaaaiting before I can actually take calls and put all this carefully learned theory into practice. I'm getting antsy and nervous just waiting, as you can probably tell. Also, a persistent nagging shoulder pain drove me to get myself to my doctor yesterday. The tentative diagnosis is a bone spur or impediment, so I have an anti-inflammatory and some exercises and directions to make a followup appointment in about a month, contingent on the results of my X-ray. Since I also got some MUCH better stuff for my hayfever at the same time, I'm in better shape than I have been for weeks! Now I'm just itching to get things in motion here at work, although I expect I'll regret having said that sooner or later! In fact, my excitement for the morning was donating blood, and all praise Veronica, the absolute best Red Cross tech I have ever met. In my experience she's unique in having got the damn needle in right FIRST time with a good, fast flow and almost no pain. I actually filled out a comment card praising her - I hope she gets something out of it. My last couple times donating were almost farcial. I am genuinely glad they passed me as ok, even with the hayfever pills and they anti-inflammatory. It's such a small thing, but probably the most useful thing I've done all day. Hmmm.....

Comments

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that wasn't cricket?

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Erk, it was and that's at least the second time I've done that. I'll fix it, and thank you. ;)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

See, I knew that - I just put that in there to see if anyone was actually reading this. *G*

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

So, what's with the sleeping red sock draped over what looks like the back of an old style adding machine? :)

Ann O. (ever vigilant)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Hey, how'd you get to see my work desk? *G*

[mneme]

Wait, so you went to NYC, hung out with Beth and Paul and Leah and -didn't- come up to Lunacon? (actually, IIRC, Beth's excuse for not attending Lunacon involved Paul wanting to see people... :).

Seriously, I'm glad you guys had fun, though -I- would have (selfishly) had more fun if the lot of you had come up.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

We made a conscious decision not to attend Lunacon because we wanted to be tourists in NYC, and there wasn't time or energy to do both.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

If there'd been any practical way to do both, we'd have strongly considered it. There really wasn't, though. Come visit us? :)

[poltr1]

You went to the top of the Empire State Building and didn't find out the answer to my question about floors 87 thru 101? Waaaah. :(

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Actually, I didn't go to the Empire State Building at all, except to wave at it as we walked by. ACat's the one who waited in the loooooooooooooong line and went up on Friday while I was still in work. Ask him!