Not Really Good News. Then, Thanksgiving Recap!

So, good news and bad news! And more good news, and more bad news!

The bad news is that the place where I had the phone interview on Friday, as I mentioned in passing yesterday, is going with an internal candidate, so dead end there. The good news is that I actually heard back from them, and super-quickly, which is a rare thing these days. Still. Sigh. Too bad. The job sounded like a good fit, and with a great company. Bummer.

Then, as I still hadn't heard anything from the other place where I had a phone interview a few weeks ago, despite having reached out to follow up with them, I e-mailed again today, and more good news, I heard back! Aaaaaannnnnnddd, more bad news ... they're going with another candidate. So. Good to know, yes. But still. Doubly depressing. I was already planning to go to Target tonight, being out of the usual Random Bunch of Stuff, and can you blame me for buying some therapeutic Ben & Jerry's while I was there? (Remember, when life gives you lemons, have ice cream for dinner. Words to live by.)

Anyway, on to happier things! Thanksgiving Week recap! Here we go...

I picked up Mum on Monday night, and we went to dinner at her favorite restaurant, then hit the grocery store for a few things before coming home to a rousing reception. Carlos was deeply unsure of why I brought someone else home with me, and why I seemed to think that was okay. Why doesn't anyone tell a cat that change is coming? So he can veto it? Change is bad, everyone knows that! Who was this person who acted like she knew him? He wasn't upset, he didn't run or hide, but he was hanging back, and spent even more time in the bedroom than usual all week. (He would come out to meow for food-more-food-different-food-better-food, and to sniff at things, then retreat again. He allowed himself to be approached, and suffered himself to be petted, but he wasn't as friendly as I might have hoped.)

Tuesday morning, I went to work, and Mum spent the day befriending the cat, doing laundry (it's her hobby), and making a batch of chili for my freezer, mmmmm. Tuesday night we went to dinner at Bertucci's, where our server was ... well, hopefully very new to the job; fortunately, we weren't in a hurry, but there's no excuse for bringing a pizza that's practically room temperature, you know? Particularly when it wasn't all that busy. The pizza was still good, but, umm, you need practice, ma'am. Good intentions and apologies only go so far.

Wednesday I got off work early, hooray, and was home mid-afternoon. Mum had spent the day doing more laundry and making beef stew, more mmmm. We had another lovely meal out, then in between intervals of watching the Bruins utterly flame out (seriously, 6-1 and they didn't deserve the 1), I made the angel salad for Thanksgiving dinner. Then early to bed, because...

Early Thursday morning, we picked up my brother, who'd taken the red-eye from San Francisco, god love him, without complaining, and brought him happily home to hang out and catch up, before getting cleaned up and going to the House of Friends for Thanksgiving dinner mid-afternoon. Oh, it was good! The food and the company and all. Fourteen for dinner, turkey and stuffing and potatoes and angel salad ... okay, I ate some other veggies, too, but mostly it was the standards for me. I didn't have dessert, didn't leave room for it; for me, Thanksgiving is the one day of the year when I don't focus on dessert. I'm not a big fan of the standards, pumpkin pie or pecan pie, and honestly I love the meal so much that it's hard for me to leave any room to try other options. I had a wonderful time, and ate so much I didn't eat another thing that night, and fell comatose into bed around 9. Whew!

Friday morning I had that phone interview, then we went to a local diner-style place that was low on pretensions but cheap and delicious for breakfast/lunch. The Bruins played their traditional Black Friday matinee, and thankfully put in a much better effort than the previous game, pulling out a win over the Rangers. For dinner, we went back to Mum's favorite restaurant (since my brother likes it, too), and did a little bit of errands-and-Christmas-lights afterward.

Saturday we went into town (slightly hampered by the fact that the Orange Line was busing to Sullivan Square) and to the Opera House to see the Nutcracker. It was fabulous! The music, the dancing, the spectacle, the little girls in party dresses and patent-leather shoes ... happy sigh. After the show, once I thwarted the efforts of the lady* at the coat check to give me the wrong coat (twice), we walked over (brrrr) to Legal Seafood and had a perfectly lovely early dinner (technically, they were on the lunch menu, but they were happy to make steak, which is on the dinner menu). The food was wonderful, the service perfect, and amusingly enough, the couple that had been sitting next to us at the ballet was at a table nearby. (They recommended the Boston creme pie, but Mum and I shared the bananas Foster, which was amazing.)
*Why did they have only one person working the coat check? When everyone gets out at once? She was understandably harried .. though asking for 198, 199, and 200 doesn't seem too much to ask...

Since my family loves me, they didn't object to having the Bruins game on when we got home, and I got to see them win again, almost erasing the memory of Wednesday night (almost). Sunday morning, they got their ducks in a row, packing-wise, before we went out for a last lunch, and did some driving around admiring houses in my little town and environs. Some final tidying away, and it was time to drop them off, and return to my suddenly empty home.

It was a wonderful week, but man, exhausting at the same time. Carlos and I sat on the couch Sunday night and just vegged out. And now, I think, more of the same.

Sixteen Hours and Counting

All right, everyone! (claps hands briskly) The phone interview is set for noon tomorrow (Eastern time, obviously), so if we could at that time have a concerted effort of crossed fingers, lit candles, prayers, positive affirmations, or whatever suits you, sent my way, I would be very thankful.

By the way, in unrelated news, something crazy and radical happened at work today: they actually let the office management company know about the cold, and someone came in with a ladder and climbed about poking things above ceiling tiles, and the heat came on. I know! Isn't that nuts? Who would have thought such a thing could be possible? This was after lunch, and it was definitely not as cold by the end of the day. Tomorrow it will probably be 80 in there, and I won't be complaining.

All right, I'm off to watch the rest of the Bruins game while flipping through the AP Stylebook (fresh out of the library). And practicing my roar.

Metaphorically speaking.

A Surprise, but a Very Very Nice Surprise

As I told you, I applied for a proofreader job over the weekend, and as I said (more than once, I believe), I knew that I might very well not hear back from them at all, particularly not soon. Of course I hoped, but being realistic, no, probably not. I didn't even check my e-mail compulsively, just the usual amount, and my heart didn't lurch when I got a message only to sink when it was something else.

That changed this afternoon!

So, yes, as you may guess, I heard from them today, about setting up a phone interview for Friday. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Ahem. If you could cross your fingers for me on Friday (time to be determined), I would greatly appreciate it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to memorize their website. In the meantime, here is this for you: a tiger cub who did not wish to prove he can swim, thank you.

Apply, Bike, Zzzz

There was a whole list of things I want to get done this weekend, and I didn't get to many of them today, but for a really good reason: I finally found a job to apply for, and spent most of the morning working on my resume and cover letter. Once I sent them in, I managed to get a few other things done, but tomorrow looks slightly daunting from here. Oh well, take it one thing at a time. It's been discouraging, all the looking and ruling out listings as not even worth applying for; finding a good one is heartening even if nothing else comes of it.

It crossed my mind that I may in fact get an interview from them, just because I have a monster zit coming up on my face. I mean, wouldn't that figure? But probably the auto-reply e-mail I got is all I'll hear. Still, it's something.

*****
My brother sent me a link to an interesting article about the mental aspects of exercise, which made me realize that I do sometimes pep-talk myself while I'm riding the bike ("Doing well, keep going," that kind of thing. I also thought about how when I'm at a turning point in the sock, like trying to get around the heel or something, I sometimes ride longer because I'm trying to get to a certain point, whereas I don't tend to push myself as hard when I'm just at a round-and-round part. So Thursday night, I pep-talked myself more consciously, and also incorporated the sock into that ("One more round!"), and did in fact go for longer than I've been managing lately. Interesting; we'll see how that goes. (I didn't ride last night; I'm about to get on tonight, despite being pooped; there may not be enough pep in my talk to make a difference, but just getting on is an achievement tonight.)

I'm also fitting into a pair of jeans* that until recently were too tight for me, which is another kind of motivation. I haven't lost much weight, that's for sure, but something is happening. It's a relief to be in these jeans**, as for a while I was in an awkward place where they were too tight, but the ones I was wearing were really too loose, and that's no fun. I get really sick of pulling up my jeans all the time.
*They're Lands End jeans, though if I remember correctly I got them at Building 19, a few years back. And that makes me sad, because Building 19 is closing its stores. Another childhood memory+ goes!
**Not literally, as they are still snug, but metaphorically; we'll hope that literally follows. Soon. Oof.
+I mean the memory of going there with my mother. Clearly I still shop there, since that's what started this whole cascade of footnotes off.

*****
Someone at work recently referred to something that's happening Monday, which is November 11, as happening on "corduroy day," which was a new one to me; I don't know how I missed hearing about it a few years ago, on 11/11/11. I found the idea very amusing, kind of like how I love calling December 23rd Christmas Adam (because it's the day before Christmas Eve).

Well, I may have missed 11/11/11*, but this year we get 11/12/13, in the US anyway; I know that day would be 12/11/13 in the UK. What do other countries do, formatting dates? Anyone know?
*In terms of calling it corduroy day, that is; certainly I was around for the actual day