Rob and I had some plans for V-day, but I just wasn't feeling up to it so we've postponed the celebration until next weekend. All the same, he has given me two gifts and a card today. No fair, since I haven't had a chance to get him anything. Here's the first one:
I have a collection of plush dog toys shaped like dogs (most of them from Hartz) which has gradually grown to include kids toys as well as dog toys. I was never a huge stuffed animal fan as a kid, but for some reason I really enjoy the dogs as an adult. I always stick one of them on my computer monitor (this is the monitor for the server, no way I could I use a 15 inch for daily work) and even took one of them up to my new job so I'd feel more comfy. I suppose the one at work could accidentally get used as the dog toy it's intended to be, but so far, so good and folks have left it up on the monitor.
Gift two:
A cool new dragon to add to that collection. Which reminds me of my post about February being "get rid of stuff" month. Well, so far we've not only failed to get rid of any stuff, we've actually ADDED to it. We got four new dining room chairs, but we didn't get rid of the old ones because those were folding chairs we pulled out one by one as the old chairs broke. Actually, I think that means the new chairs don't count as an addition since we DID get rid of the original broken chairs. All the same, nothing has been thrown out this month as of yet.
We had an unusual event this morning - SNOW! It doesn't snow very often in Austin and when it does, it's normally just a light dusting and this was no different. I was bummed that I was too sick to go out and frolic in it with the dogs because I think I could have managed to gather up enough to make a few snowballs to throw at them. They managed to have a good time without me and probably wouldn't have appreciated the snowballs anyway :)
I'm just laying low this weekend, trying to get well. I did have to find a new auto insurance policy today and I feel so ripped off over the price of car insurance. I seem to remember being promised that rates would go down if everyone was REQUIRED to have car insurance, but my experience has been that rates have gone through the roof. I've tended to place the blame on our crappy credit rating since that's now used as a factor in determining rates which is something I'm not very happy about. I haven't had a ticket or an at-fault accident since 1976 and that was only because I hadn't learned yet that '67 Ford Galaxies have "blind spots". And I haven't been hit by someone else since 1979. What the fuck does my credit rating have to do with it? Plus, I learned today that our credit rating is considered to be "above average". I don't see how one can possibly have worse credit than we do, but apparently over half the population does. My deepest sympathy to those folks who surely must NEVER answer their phone due to non-stop collection calls. Since I must have insurance in this state to drive a car, I coughed up $900 for a six-month policy for our two vehicles. Ouch. If Austin would ever get public transportation in place that could get me where I wanted to go in a reasonable amount of time, then I'd waste no time getting rid of one of our cars.
The new job is going well. I wish I hadn't been sickly this week because I would have enjoyed it even more. The only negative I can come up with is that things are a bit confusing at times and communication between staff could be improved, but what job doesn't have those as issues? That's pretty much a given no matter where you work. I had to laugh yesterday when a client who knows me personally called and remarked how cheerful I sounded on the phone. Well, that's my "customer voice" and I've endured a fair amount of teasing over the years from friends and family about it. It's a bit higher in pitch than I normally talk because I always smile and that makes me sound cheerful even if I'm freezing my ass off in a cold office with a head full of snot. The first comments I remember about this were from friends when I worked the drive-though window at Wendy's as a teenager, so I'm not sure when I learned this trick. It certainly wasn't ever a part of "on the job training". Summer drama classes, perhaps? But try it with any sentence. Say it normally, then say it with a smile. If you're like me, then the pitch will be higher when you smile and even the emphasis on words may be different. It's a handy trick if you want to sound cheerful on a Monday morning when you have a hangover :)
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