Just Another Day

I really wanted to put the clip from Grumpy Old Men on here, the part where Walter Matthau is walking out to get his mail singing "We're Having a Heat Wave," even though it's clearly the middle of winter and there's a foot of snow covering everything.  It's been a mild winter here so far, but it's the middle of freaking December and temperatures here are in the mid-to-upper 60's.  It feels like April, not December.  Meanwhile, the Midwest and the East coast of the country are suffering "bone chilling" temperatures and like feet of snow. 

Not that I'm complaining.  I am not a fan of snow.  It's cold, it's wet, people don't know how to drive in it properly and it makes life all around that much more difficult.  However, it doesn't feel like 9 days until Christmas.  People are walking around outside in short sleeves and even shorts, and everyone who has come into the building today is raving about how beautiful it is outside.  Two years ago, we had a white Christmas and it was delightful!  While I wouldn't put it past Colorado weather to dump a storm on us on Christmas Eve or something, it's just not looking like we're going to get the poetic snowy Christmas I so enjoy.  Forecast is for 50's.

I managed to keep pretty busy at work today.  I spent a bunch of time revamping the layout of this blog, adding information and dazzle to it that I thought it was lacking.  I'm excited about the few changes I've made - there are tabs at the top which include information about how to get in touch with me, as well as some brief background information on my life which I thought would be useful to people who don't know me well, and then I added a tab for the definitions of the word "crazy" and it's origins, because I've been called "crazy" in the past, and that is one of the very few things I take major offense to.

I made my mom's cupcakes last night and they turned out okay.  Better than any other batch of cupcakes I've made in the past, but still not quite to the perfectionist specifications I had in mind.  According to my mom, who ate all the extras I made last night, they were delicious.  I made half butter cake and half chocolate, frosted them all with vanilla frosting and then dusted half of them with crushed candy canes.  Then I put some fancy icing poinsettias, wreaths and holly bunches on half of those, and then piping gel snowflakes on the other half.  Hopefully her coworkers will have liked them.  People often say that if they owned a place that makes whatever their food vice is, they'd weigh a thousand pounds from eating non-stop.  I vaguely considered that problem when I took up cake-decorating, but the longer I've worked with that rich Crisco-based icing, the less I want to eat whatever I'm putting it on.  So at least I don't have to deal with that.

Something to note today: I am applying to become a contributor for examiner.com, a Denver-based online news source, which has a fairly large readership.  I'm hoping to be able to write both on mental illness/health, and on relationships.  I know that I'm by far no expert on either, but I feel like my point of view and the information I've accumulated on both subjects could be insightful and interesting for other readers.  I'm hoping to be able to link it to my blog as well and attract some more readership that way, too.  From what I can tell, you don't have to be any sort of expert to write for them, you just have to have half a brain and a semi-decent knowledge of the English language.  I know that writing isn't exactly the most lucrative of career choices, but at this point, it's not my career choice, and I do it both for practice and for therapeutic reasons - not for money.  If I ever happen to make money by writing, that will be a bonus.

I'm noticing that the days I spend at work, I feel less uneasy when I get home, and I like that.  I told Jonas today that the novelty of this job is starting to wear off, but whatever I'm getting out of being at work for 9.5 hours of the day is working for me, so I'm don't have disdain for it yet.  This job is not particularly challenging, and I'm rarely asked to do more than one thing at once, and while I sometimes worry about having too much time on my hands, I've really been using that time constructively.  I don't sit around thinking about the past, or about people in my past, I don't ruminate on whatever problems are currently plaguing me, and I don't frustrate the bejesus out of myself by projecting into the future.  I was asked again today if I'd be willing to do some work for the financial adviser upstairs and I found myself turning him down in favor of having the two days off during the week that I've got free to momentarily maintain my sanity.  While being at work for almost 30 hours a week has most certainly become beneficial for me, I think I still require the other two days of little or nothing to do to keep myself mentally afloat.

On the plus side, I have received my first paycheck, and despite most of it being already allocated elsewhere, I am reaping the fruits of waking up between 5 and 6am three days a week, which I had previously thought problematic but found myself having very little trouble doing.  I must be growing up.