Jolly contract

I started a new contract job today. I haven't mentioned it because I originally interviewed in OCTOBER. I went to a follow up interview in November, and finally was called back in December to come to ANOTHER follow up interview last week. I really was never sure anything was actually going to come of it.

I feel really guilty because I know I should be grateful to be working, but instead I'm pouting. I'm pouting because the pay is about 15K less than my old job. I'm pouting because I am working with HIV patients again, and I was hoping to move on to something else. I'm pouting because they agreed to one number and then EMAILED me yesterday and said it would be 3 dollars an hour less than that. I'm pouting because it is a contract job so I get no benefits. I'm pouting because I have a Masters Degree and I'm working a temp job.

I KNOW that this is good. I understand having more money is better than having less. I guess I just thought that with my experience something really good would come along, but times are tough and we all have to do what we have to do. I am grateful to have an income and to be able to pay my bills and make my student loan payments. I am grateful to have some pressure taken off me and now I can keep looking for a really great job. I'm grateful to have more money coming in before Santa Holiday and now I don't have to worry about buying gifts for my kid. I am grateful to be out of the house and feeling productive even though I believe I could do so much more. I am grateful to be able to afford to pay for the school my kid loves.

I am grateful. Really. I'm just sort of sad too.

coffee buddies

Friday's prize was this Christmas Starbucks Coffee. Have I ever told you about my obsession with Starbucks coffee? Well I love coffee, every morning the first thing I do is stagger from my bed to the coffee pot and pour a cup of coffee, before I shower, before I eat, it is all about the coffee! Well over the years we have tried to support our local coffee shops and honestly I have never liked their coffee as much as Starbucks. When we lived in NJ we literally lived 2 blocks from a Starbucks, I could be from my front door to coffee time in five minutes. Now that we live in the middle of Alabama there is ONE Starbucks in our town and it isn't even a proper Starbucks , it is a smaller one in the student union on campus. Every Sunday we walk 30 minutes to get a cup of Starbucks coffee. We are sad consumerists...
Can you find the coffee in the tree? How about my gigantic cat?
Today's prize was what Teddy called the Christmas buddies. I like them very much but forgot to shove them in the tree and take their picture and well....it is too late now. Sunday's prize was a few candies stolen from Eli's Advent Calendar and shoved into mine, I didn't bother with a picture of those.

Saturday I ran a 10K. It was fun but a REALLY hard route and I finished in 1:01:something, this was better than my previous time of 1:04:something, but I was a little bummed to not get under an hour. Ehh maybe next time.

Oh, I picked out my Holiday cards today and it made me very happy to get cards that only say "Happy Holidays" this makes Teddy's parents NUTS which makes me very happy. Last year I sent similar cards out and one of my friends sent me a facebook message saying she liked our very "PC" card. I consider myself Agnostic so I like neutral cards and I typically say we celebrate Santa Holiday, not the birth of Jesus...ANYWAY I like my cards to be neutral so I can send them to my Christian friends as well as my non Christian friends....BUT I wonder now if it would be more in the SPIRIT to send Christmas cards to my friends I know celebrate a Christian Holiday...or maybe I'm just thinking WAY to much about some damn cards...

outfit completed

(can you find the shirt in the tree?)

Now I have a whole outfit to wear tomorrow, awesome! Let's see...how are things here today? I got a text message from a friend of mine at my old job telling me they found out today they are all getting 10% pay cuts. It just seems like it is BAD news all the time, I need a good story about an old man and his kitten friend OR you know what my favorites stories are...the mismatched animal buddies, oh I love those...like that gorilla and that tiny orange cat. Those are my favorite. Teddy brought home a book once about a baby hippopotamus and a giant turtle that become friends, if that doesn't make you happy then you are just dead inside (I found the book here, it is called Owen and Mzee).

I'm trying to think of happy things so I was trying to come up with my favorite Christmas present and the thing I first thought of was this awesome Pioneer stereo my dad bought me and then I chastised myself for thinking only of material things and I decided to think of my favorite Holiday memory and I think it is from the year Teddy and I started dating and that year we played the most awesome game of football in the rain on Thanksgiving and then at Christmas we had this GIANT bucket of beads and we sat around for HOURS making key chains and tacky ornaments. It was awesome.

pants and a fat cat

Today we have some nice fitted running pants. I wore them when I went jogging this morning and I really like them but they started kinda scrinching down after a few minutes and after a while I got tired of yanking them back up so I just left them...

Pants on the table is not so interesting so I shoved them in our tree and took the picture. It is like Where's Waldo but with black running pants, and you can see my 22 lb cat. He is an anomaly and when we took him to the vet for a shot they had to call the shot manufacturers and get approval to give him TWO shots because the one shot was for cats UP TO 15 lbs. Sigh.

Man you guys, there is not good news on the Internets lately. I have been feeling sorry for myself since I am still jobless but perusing the Internet there has been so many lay offs and bad news that it just feels like a grim Holiday Season. I sincerely hope 2010 has better things in store for all of us.

over the shoulder boulder holder

Today's gift was a hot pink sports bra. This goes into the category of stuff I needed/wanted and forced Teddy to buy for me. This year with money woes I told Teddy I didn't want him to buy me a bunch of things I don't want/need which is usually sort of the point of Christmas. This weekend I'm running in a Toys for Tots 10K and it is going to be cold so a couple of the things I asked for were running gear for the cold weather....

I thought the picture of just the bra was too boring so here is a picture of the bra with our stockings (it is hanging on the middle hook).

Second Annual Advent Calenderlooza

If you were around last year you remember that I got this Advent Calender and every day Teddy put a prize in it (or a clue where I can find the prize if it is too big to fit in the calender) and I took pictures of those prizes and posted them on my blog (my old blog I had to ditch due to creepy stalker) and bored all of you with them...well guess what...it is that time of year again (this time with more boring, useful gifts due to the economy)!

Today's prize was a box of Swedish Fish which I vowed to split with Eli after dinner since I am trying to do STRICT Weight Watchers this week due to the fact that my pants are getting a little tight, then I went to Target and bought some candy to put in Eli's Advent Calender and I ate a bunch of Almond M and M's so ehhh.

I've been freaking out about Christmas in general due to my persistent joblessness and today it manifested in a stomach ache so I had to lay on the couch and feel sorry for myself and then I felt guilty for not doing anything...it is fun times around here at Chez Exile lately...honestly in some ways the holidays have been a good distraction, I try to focus on doing holiday-y things with out spending too much money and it keeps my mind busy.

I have been keeping up my jogging schedule and this weekend I'm running another 10K, I'm hoping to beat my last time of 1:04:something and keep it to under an hour. It has definitely been helpful to have a stress reliever and some goals. That's all I got for today, tune in tomorrow and see what kind of practical gift I get!

(just like last year if you have any photo requests let me know)

Thanksgiving recap

It was good. It really was. I think all the fretting I did about it definitely helped, because it turned out to be a great day, even with my dad, his girlfriend, and my mom.

I loved how my table turned out and I think all the decorations cost less than 20$. There was enough food to feed a small country and we even got in a game of football and Pictionary Man.

Tomorrow is December 1 which starts my second annual Advent Calender put together by Teddy. I'll post photo recaps of the prizes again, but last year Teddy was working in the East Village in Manhattan, this year we live in South Alabama. I don't know if will be able to compare.