Still Waiting

Yesterday I had my performance review. As it turned out it wasn't a real review. It was more like a "preliminary" review. I guess my boss wanted to get an idea of what we've been doing for the past year and the goals that we have set for ourselves for the next year. I assume he will pass it on to our next manager. Things are still up in the air, and nothing is set in stone. Is anything ever set in stone? Maybe I will be promoted, but I'm not sure exactly what I will be promoted to. I've been told that I just have to wait to see how the new manager wants to "structure" our department. We also haven't even worked out the issue of salary or raises, which, of course, is important to me, but hints here and there seem to indicate that it will not be significant. This review was good in the sense that I know that I'm doing a good job. But, it is frustrating that nothing really was accomplished. I wish I had more answers or more to go with. I suppose I just have to keep waiting to see what will happen.

Work, Work, and More Work

Today was another busy day at work. But I did manage to sneak out of the office early. At a certain point you feel so tired and unproductive that the best thing to do is to just go home. I did, however, bring some work home with me. I also just received a freelance project that I need to work on next week. And it will involve reworking an index, so I expect it will be tedious and time-consuming. But it is worth it for the extra money. I turned in my self-evaluation today, and my "performance review" will be on Tuesday. Even though I know that I'm doing a good job, I always hate job reviews. We'll see what happens. Keep fingers and toes crossed for a promotion!

I don't know what else to say. I'm mostly just writing because I'm trying to unwind. Maybe I'll think of more later...

Work Ethic

Who would have thought that a short workweek would feel so long. In spite of having the day of on Monday, this week has felt incredibly long. The sad thing is that I still have one more day to go. And even sadder is the fact that I brought work home with me tonight. In addition to doing some work tonight, I also have to write my self-evaluation. With my boss leaving we want to have all of the paperwork in order before he goes. All I have to do is list what I've done this past year and my major accomplishments (like putting together a publications department). I also have to list my goals for the next year. Of course my major goal is to get promoted. But my secret goal is to live though the workday like many of my co-workers. Let's see: take the day off to play golf (or something else I would enjoy more); take two or three hours out of the day to wash my car or run other errands; take one or two hours to go work out; take two-hour lunches at least three times a week; come to work at 10:00 and leave at 3:00. Sounds like a plan. Too bad I was brought up to have a good work ethic. As much as I would love to take two-hour lunches or come home to do a few loads of laundry, I keep myself busy at work. Instead of taking the day off to "play," I keep putting off a vacation home because I have too much to do. Such is life, I guess. I'm sure I look good in someone's eyes.

Greek in Blog Posts! Yay!!

I found a cool little tool online that will code Greek text for me. I'm not sure how this will look on every browser. Some people who have used this before said that it might cause problems with some versions of Internet Explorer. It looks good in Firefox (which is what I use) and it looked fine in IE 7.0. If it looks strange or if you see strange code, then you know why. I am so excited! This is cool! Now I can write all kinds of messages in Greek, and no one (except those who can read Greek) will know what I'm saying. Oh, I can only imagine the fun I can have with secretly torturing and teasing the masses of ὅι πολλοὶ (hoi polloi). Muwahahahaha....

Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὅς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίς ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε·

A Touch of Greece

Playing with the camera and candles...

The Three Graces...

Playful

In the words of Catullus...

da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum...

Current mood: flirty
Current music: Melissa Etheridge "Come On Out Tonight"

Priorities

Sometimes in life you are confronted with certain situations or certain people. At times, all you need to do is laugh and shake your head. Some things just don't matter and other things just aren't worth it. I have better things to do with my life. I have my priorities. I focus on those I love.


Current mood: c'est la vie
Current drink: Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve 2005 Chardonnay
Current music: Loreena McKennitt An Ancient Muse

Mountains and Change

Mountains: Late in the afternoon I went out to run a bunch of errands. While I was driving home, I looked toward the mountains and they seemed especially large today for some reason. Living in Boulder you are practically at the foot of the mountains, so they always seem large, but today they seemed more towering. Maybe it was the light. The sun was just starting to set behind the mountains, so the sun was blinding me. With the sun falling as it was, you could barely make out the features of the mountains, but instead you could only really see their silhouette. Maybe this is what made them seem so large. Maybe I was just looking at it differently. Maybe I was just feeling smaller. And when I say smaller I am not saying smaller in the sense that I feel insignificant, or lonely, or overwhelmed, or lost in any way. I mean smaller in the sense that you suddenly remember how big the world is around you. It is something I tend to notice every day, but today the feeling felt especially strong. There was just something breathtaking and majestic about it. Too bad I didn't have my camera!

Change: Seeing the mountains around me always reminds that I live in Colorado and that reminds me of change. When I look back on the past ten or fifteen years, it amazes me that I am here in this place. Even more amazing is how much I have changed over those years. When I graduated high school, I was majoring in business, economics, and accounting. I thought I would stay in California. After a few years at a junior college where I met some wonderful professors, I realized that I really enjoyed English and literature. After eventually getting a degree in English from Cal State Fullerton, I realized that I wanted to specialize in Classics, and the only way to do that was to go to a new school to get another degree. When the time came to pick a grad school, my top choices were UC Santa Barbara and Colorado. I came to Colorado. While in grad school I thought that I would go on to another school to get a Ph.D. and after that I would teach somewhere as a professor. At the end of grad school, I wanted a break from school, and that brought me to the publishing industry. And here I am. Four schools, four degrees, one career later...

I've certainly seen growth in terms of my education and career. But I think that I have just grown and changed in general over the years. I don't think that I could ever go back to high school or ever attend a reunion. In spite of everything that has happened in my life and as much as I've grown, I really don't think I would have anything to say. I don't think anyone would recognize me. I am so different from the person I was back then. Maybe physically I would seem familiar, but I am a completely different person in terms of my thoughts, emotions, and attitudes. Each year has brought me more adventures and more growth, and I like to think that I've been getting better with each year, but that also depends on who you ask. But I've never been happier or more content with what I have in my life right now. I love the career path I've chosen. I have wonderful and beautiful friends. Love is always at the center of my life. What more could you ask for?

Food and the New Blogger

Food: I just made a wonderful dinner tonight. Yesterday I made my World Famous Dijon Mustard Chicken (again, famous only in my own apartment), but I had some leftovers. Since I didn't want to cook all of the side dishes today--in reality, I didn't do the dishes last night and some of my pots and pans were dirty--I decided to be creative and make a new World Famous Dijon Mustard Chicken Wrap! I bought some tortillas that are big enough for wraps, but they weren't your average tortillas. They were Garden Spinach Herb wraps. The look of a green bread product was initially disturbing, but if the spinach makes it green, then it must be okay. I then started to assemble my wrap--chicken, bacon, lots of romaine lettuce, cilantro (I love cilantro!), sliced avocado, and a spicy ranch dressing. I think I got a little excited with my ingredients and my wrap was overstuffed. It wasn't a wrap per se, because it wasn't all rolled up nicely. It was more like a moo shu triple fold with food overflowing out of the top--if that description makes any sense--and that leaves one with hands coated with dressing and avocado. Needless to say, I need to work on my rolling technique. But it was yummy!

New Version of Blogger: When I signed into my Blogger account, I was prompted to switch to the "new version" of blogger. They are supposed to have some fun new features. I'll have to update my template, and hopefully the transition is smooth. But if things go missing or if strange things start to happen, it is just operator error and I'll be tinkering as I go...

More Unusual Weather

Today we woke up to some interesting weather. Not snow. Not freezing temperatures. Fog! It is not often that we get fog in Colorado, at least not to my knowledge. A few people in my office said that they hated the fog and that they didn't like driving in it because it takes so long to get into work. Fog makes you drive a tad slower, but at least it isn't as bad as snow and ice--hit the wrong spot at the wrong speed and you end up in a ditch.

I personally love the fog. It reminds me of California. More specifically it reminds me of UC Irvine. I remember times when I had to drive to school in the fog. I remember the times when I would be studying Latin in the coffee bar and obviously not studying that hard because I was daydreaming and looking outside at the fog. I remember being bundled up (by California standards) and feeling the moisture on my cheeks while walking to Greek class. This all brings back wonderful memories--being at UCI, having a wonderful group of friends, studying an exciting subject. Right now, at this point in my life, I'm also creating wonderful new memories with another group of friends and an interesting career. But the fog brings back some fun times at UCI.

Some people might think that the fog is cold and dreary. I simply love it. There is something in the fog that is wonderful. It is more than the scent or the feeling or the moisture. There is just a certain feeling. I think there is a mystery in it. There is fantasy in it. There is romance in it. Or maybe I am just a dreamer...

Lost

The sun slowly sets
Leaving the lingering light
The sky glows a shade of red
Full moon fades into the passing clouds
The fire burns bright and hot
Illuminating drops of sweat
The glisten of wet lips
A hungry kiss
A gentle caress
A desperate embrace
Lovers lost in time
Lost in flesh
Lost in ecstasy
Lost in flight
Dancing in heaven

-- Another work in progress...

Super Sunday??

Like most of the country, I spent the evening tonight watching the Super Bowl. Maybe the bad weather made the game sloppy and a little boring. But like a lot of people, what I really love to see are the commercials. Usually they are pretty good and pretty clever and creative. For some reason the commercials this year were pretty boring. For one, about 70% of the commercials were for CBS TV shows. And, two, some of the commercials were just odd. The commercials used to be fun and light-hearted. Now everything is reduced to physical humor. When playing rock, paper, scissors, throw a rock at someone's head so you can get the beer. Want to send a message about heart disease? Have some guy dressed in a giant heart costume get beat up in an alley. The "fist bump" is out, but face slapping is in. Does your workplace resemble a battleground where employees are running around with Post-It armor and binders on their heads and beating each other up? It was just odd. Having studied the Classics and having seen a lot of action movies, violence and physical fights usually doesn't bother me. It only becomes an issue when it is gratuitous and made in an effort to be funny. I'm sure some people thought these ads were funny, but the ads weren't smart or clever. Maybe this is a sign that I've been watching too much TV tonight. I think I'm going to turn off the tube, pour myself a nice glass of wine, and listen to some nice music instead.

Warmth

When I woke up this morning it was -10. If you want to consider the windchill, it was -25. Because I still haven't found some kid to clean the ice off my car, I had to do it myself. In the process, I was reminded of the fact that I need warmer gloves. My nose hairs froze, and my fingers were in unbelievable pain as I scraped and scraped at the ice.

Things have warmed up since this morning. They say that tomorrow it will get up to the 30s which is quite warm after days and nights below zero.

But, good music, a blanket, dozens of candles, a glass of cognac, and warm thoughts makes things bearable.

Frigid

Here we are, getting our seventh snowfall in seven weeks. Some people might think, "well, it is Colorado, you're near the Rockies, you people should be used to this." Not so true. If this were a normal Colorado winter, we would get large snowfalls that would promptly melt within two days. The problem that we're having is that the temperatures have been too cold, so the snow isn't melting that much. And at the moment when you think that the weather is looking better, you'll get another snowfall.

It is beautiful and all, but I am eager for the day when I don't have to scrape frost and ice off the windows of my car. I wish I could find some kid to do it for me. There are always kids out there who are looking to make some extra money mowing lawns or shoveling sidewalks. I wonder if someone wants to wake up at 7:30 to clean the snow and ice of my car? Probably not. At least I'm getting better at the whole ice scraping thing since I've been living here for a few years. My first winter I found myself without an ice scraper and found myself saying, "I'm from California I don't own an ice scraper." On that first cold, winter day, I was scraping a spatula across my windshield. I've wised up since then, but I still haven't bought a shovel.

We got some snow yesterday, but it was supposed to calm down for most of the day today. Everyone was predicting that "the next wave" would hit us at the end of the day. Well, the snow started at about 2:00. It was a gentle snowfall at first, but then it started to get worse and it started to swirl in every direction. And, if it isn't bad enough to deal with the snow, the temperatures dropped rapidly. Things were looking pretty bad, so I left work early before it got too dark and too cold. What is normally a 10-15 minute commute for me took about 30-40 minutes. That's not so bad considering some of my friends who live in Denver probably had a much longer commute.

The one nice thing about getting home earlier is that I was able to take my time to make myself a nice dinner. Naturally I made my world famous vodka cream pasta. Well, maybe it isn't world famous, but it is famous in my little apartment, even if I am the only one who has ever tasted it.

They say that the temperature is going to be -7 this evening, so I suppose I better find something to warm myself up...and I'm not talking about a blanket...