Where I spend a lot of time...

You can see my cute Christmas tree and all of my art. I love my office! I should fix my crooked pictures though...


It's a short post because today is going to be busy. It's Matty's birthday party tonight! Yay!

A Small, Ginger Step...

...back into blogging? I know, it's been a long, long, long time. And even when I blogged last things were sporadic at best. I've almost forgotten how to use this thing (and don't get me started on my typing skills...)!

What am I doing back here? Is it for real this time? I guess we will see.

I just finished reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I really enjoyed it. I feel like my 20s have been spent searching- searching to figure out who I am and what makes me happy. Pretty self centered, but important I think. The only thing about this book that has made me feel unhappy is that there was such a long waiting list to get it from the library and that it's due back tomorrow so I can't go through it and make notes and re-read parts I especially liked. Maybe I should buy my own copy? Hmmm...

Anyway, I will possibly do a full review a little later. The point was that while I was reading this book and the author declared that her first commandment was to "Be Gretchen". That is great and brilliant. I am much happier when I follow the "Be Amber" rule, even if it's not always easy to do. Part of being Amber is that I do like to write, but that I don't always write the most perceptive, cerebral, thought-provoking subject matter. But this is okay. I like doing it anyway and I like sharing my day with people and receiving feedback. I love comments and I like having a record of things since my memory is appalling. My blog is like the penpals I faithfully wrote to when I was growing up except I get to keep the letters.

So baby steps it is, but hopefully I will get my readers back and have something enjoyable happening over here again. And the picture? I wanted to share something that made me ridiculously happy and excited today- my new official job I.D.! It even has holograms and everything. How cool is that?

Lots of Changes!

Big news- I got a new job! It's possible that you've heard this already but I'm officially telling the world today. It wasn't an easy process either since it's with the provincial government. I actually went through a lot of the process back when I was initially applying for jobs. One of those "oh I'll apply but I doubt I'll hear from them" things. Well, I heard from them. Then I wrote the test (yeah, there was a test and that was used to determine who got an interview) and figured that was the end of it. There were tons of people writing it and I'd heard from colleagues that the fail rate is pretty high (70% or something). But they called me for an interview! So I went in and was grilled by 3 people for about an hour. Apparently things went well because they were calling my references. Then the government laid the hiring freeze smack down and that was the end of that. Or so I thought... Since they called me a few weeks ago and I had to jump through a few hoops but now I've got a shiny new job and I start on May 3rd! Only took them 10 months!

I'm excited and nervous and proud of myself. I'm worried that I won't be able to cut it since it's a tough job. I'm happy that I get a regular schedule and will be able to see Matt more and maybe take a class or something (hard to do that when you're working shifts). It's got a 12 month probation period (whoa!) and I am hoping I get my own office. Haha. Things like that make me happy. My family has been really excited for me and my Dad even got me a cake to celebrate. I'm really hopeful that this will be the break I have been looking for. I have a career! When did that happen? My degree is starting to pay off! Now Matt just has to get through law school and maybe someday we can afford to buy property and start a family. First things first though, have to survive my first day of work!

I'm not dead...

I have just been really busy. My schedule for work is a bit unbalanced so I was working a lot last week. I've had some time off and that has been used to frantically prepare for Halloween. I am really excited! Asia doesn't really do Halloween so it's been awhile since I really celebrated it. Steph is hardcore into stuff like I am so we're being pretty ambitious. Maybe it will backfire? Anyway, look forward to some updates about our Halloween tasks soon!

Under the Weather

I haven't been really sick but I've felt run down for almost a week now. Sort of like I have a constant sleep deficit even though I'm sleeping a lot. As a result I stayed in most of the weekend. Lucky for me, Mom made some of her world famous chicken noodle soup and some homemade buns to go with it. It was perfect timing! I've got a hard work week coming up so hopefully this will sustain me!

Busy

I need to update some more. Life has been getting in the way. Matt is busy using up the desk space in our room on a new art project. I've been working, reading and catching up with friends. It's been tiring but mostly positive stuff. Expect some more posts soon. I finally finished one of my half finished books! I'm getting discouraged though with my reading progress...

Name The Countries

Besides being ridiculously busy at work and trying to balance life otherwise, I have been playing online games. My current obsession is trying to name all of the countries in the world in 15 minutes or less. My best score is 166 out of 195. It's hard though! And some of these countries are spelled so strangely! Another problem I am having is that I am starting to get obscure countries but then I forget obvious ones. Give it a try and tell me your best score! That website has lots of fun quiz games that really make you think.

Otherwise...

Life has been busy. I don't know where August went, actually. You can see from the picture that Matt has started to study again for his LSAT rewrite. He's started his new job and really enjoys it too. My job is going well but is pretty crazy these days. I'll be relieved once the other two new full time workers start because right now all the casual workers are going back to school so there are a lot of shifts that need covering. I work a lot this weekend and really cherish my days off so I'm not too keen on picking up extra shifts (especially since they would be paid out at a lower wage). I guess I am a bit selfish but I need my down time. Tonight I am hoping to do something fun but I'm waiting for Matt to get home from work before we plan anything.