there are big things
and little things

this is a blog post about little things

my boots are fixed

I made a batch of lasagna to take with me as lunch

I’ve been using a budget for a good long while now
tracking how much I spend in different categories in a paper notebook
I switched to using my phone
since my phone can do spread sheets

I was surprised to discover how much more depressing my budget is in spreadsheet form
for some reason paper seems less judgmental when I overspend in any given category

so yesterday
it was snowing puddles
but in the night
it changed

and now
I get a snow day!

In my first month of work
I had two holidays
and two snow days
most likely
this isn’t going to happen again

I’m going back to bed

:)

it’s snowing puddles this morning

my boots are still broken
and it’s snowing puddles

I’m feeling good about work
I’m getting better at it
but I’m still overwhelmed

I’m looking into options for my second masters
so far I like Masters of Information Systems best

I’ve brought a bunch of earl gray tea to the library, and it makes me happy

this morning
I got up – got dressed
and left

I should have taken a moment
to review my outfit
but I didn’t
and my socks don’t match my shirt at all
I believe they clash

I’m going to accept this and move on

in other news
the zipper on my most favorite boots
broke
so I will get them fixed
but it makes me sad
sigh
stupid zipper

in other news
I love earl gray tea

and this was a quick blog
back to work for me!

Yesterday I had a snow day from work
it was my first
as it now my second week that’s not surprising
this is a short week
as I also don’t have work on Friday or next Monday
holidays are fun

my snow day was fun
it was very pretty
I didn’t go sledding
Arthur went sledding
I’m a tad jealous

my boots treated me well
I love my boots
being employed means I feel empowered to wear them every day
and know when they break down, I can get another pair
being employed is wonderful
and my job is hard but enthralling

so I got a new phone

fedex tried to deliver it to my apartment
but I don’t believe they tried very hard
after three tries they decided to keep it at their facility

so I went there to get it

I left directly from work

this was a mistake, on many levels, this was a mistake

I went to the south Bronx, at night, to a warehouse district while being dressed in my work clothing (or as one of the locals said ‘like a social worker’). When I got to the dark, deserted, sketchy neck of the woods where I was supposed to find fedex, I found… nothing… very distressing

while looking around I saw a fedex truck of in the distance, and I followed it. On a back road I found the fedex location and even before stepping into the place I was looking at cars in the parking lot wondering if I could catch a ride out of the Bronx

upon walking in and getting in line, I asked the guy in front of me if he happened to have a car and would be going towards the subway or back to Manhattan. He said he was, and asked where I was headed, named my hood, and he said he lived on the same street as me! He in fact lives on the same block as me! After we got our packages we went out to his car where I meet his son and we than drove away.

So, the least dangerous part of my night was talking to strangers and hitchhiking… the most dangerous part was going to pick up my phone.

now I have my phone
and it’s pretty awesome
I can sync my calendar with my google calendar
and play music and sudoku
and make phone calls
and do text messages
and since that’s what I wanna do with my phone, it’s rather nice to be able to do ti

I should not have gone to the Bronx at night in my work clothes
but it was interesting
in that it taught me to realize, in part, why I’ve been dressing the way I have for years
clothing is armor
and my cargo pants and grungy t-shirts give off a tough vibe
they give the impression – that I’m not the best target to mug
my work clothes give off a different vibe
a vibe that’s appropriate at City College for a staff person to have
but not a vibe appropriate for wandering the South Bronx alone
and in all honesty
it doesn’t matter what I was wearing, I should not have gone to a warehouse district at night in the south Bronx
in fact nighttime warehouse districts visits are probably best avoided in general, unless one is accompanied by a at least one, but preferably many, burly friends

I woke up and found aliens this morning
I thought perhaps they were done
but no
the invasion continues

I got a new job
I am the Government Documents Serials Librarian
at the City College of New York
so far I have been incredibly overwhelmed
it’s awesome!
there is much to learn and do
the job is on the ’substitute line’
like a substitute teacher
so there will be a fuller job search,
I will be among many candidates
so my job is a bit like an extended interview
which is weird

I have an office
the office
it is big enough to butcher a yak in
I have minions
I sign their timesheets as ’supervisor’
I go to meetings
I have lovely coworkers
I have a new chair!

everything is different
it’s very very strange
I’m wearing clothing appropriate to my station
I’m not wearing cargo pants and Hawaiian shirts
this makes me sad, but I still have them for weekends

I also got a new phone
my new phone will get it’s own blog post
for there was adventure in obtaining it

This morning Manhattan was invaded by aliens, they descended from high above, unrelentingly. They came in the form of crystalline dihydrogen monoxide ice, a vast multitude of aliens that fall from clouds. The aliens are small, almost granular but have an open and therefore soft structure, the Aliens can also be packed by external pressure. Aliens come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than the usual flaky alien, are known as graupel, with ice pellets and alien grains as examples of graupel. The magnitude of the Alien invasion and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount, are determined using a variety of different gauges. In this case the protective warmth of the ground on Manhattan island protected us, and melted almost all the snow. But some aliens lurk, hiding on grassy patches hidden in the dark shadows of tall buildings.

there are many exciting things in my life
lotsa shifting realities
very fun

but instead of thinking / blogging about all that
instead, I state

I have fallen in love with tea

I’m drinking it all the time

I particularly enjoy english breakfast and earl grey with plenty of milk and sugar

I used to joke that I liked milk and sugar that I flavored with tea
but that may be shifting

this is a silly blog post
but mostly I’m blogging
to remind myself that I like to blog

in other news I did my taxes
this last year
I didn’t make much money at all
in fact I’m rather surprised that I accumulated savings with how low my income was last year
I am suspecting a shift in this upcoming year on that front

I went ahead and did the lifetime learning credit, which made it so I’m getting a full tax refund, which I find pretty exciting

there was also a learning credit thingie for New York state

doing my taxes online is fun when they pay me
it was also pretty easy to do with tax slayer
I found them listed in the file online for free section of the irs web page a few years ago, and every year I go and check to see if they’re there and if they are, I do my taxes with them

so, I’m feeling good
at this moment I am drinking tea
and blogging about having finished my taxes
I’m feeling good, because life is good … that is all!

more later