Today's the day, maybe.

I'm supposed to find out about my raise today. I've already been told that it's less than what I asked for, but that if I look at what will be my hourly rate it'll be significant.  Which is odd considering that I'm a salary worker, not hourly.  Ominous.
I've been waiting impatiently for several hours now to get the news that I was told I would receive today.  I'm starting to get a bit annoyed.  Shock and horror.  It's killing me, I want to know right now how it is that they are planning on screwing me over.  My pet theory is that they will make me an hourly worker (see above) drop my hours, divide my old salary by my new reduced hours, and ta-da, significant increase in hourly pay!  To do this they would have to drop at least 8 hours a week, and although it would be nice work only four days a week, its not what I want.  Nor is it realistic.
A decent increase in salary (what I would consider a decent, not great, but decent) with reduced hours might work.  I really wish I had a mentor right now.  I feel that if they offer me 60% or less of what I asked for (very nicely, I might add) is an insult.  Unless I can get more vacation time and reduced hours.  However, I don't really know.   I don't know anyway who's gone after a big raise.  Or even negotiated their salary.  I don't know anybody else who does the kind of job I do.  I don't know anyone who's argued, civilly, with their boss(es).
The only thing I can do to guarantee the raise I want is to threaten to walk.  But I can't do that right now, and a threat I can't make good on is less than useless. I keep telling myself, just 6 more months here and then I'm gone, regardless.  Which does make me feel better, but it won't really help get rid of the sting of being told that my work is not worth that much. The worst part is that I did quite a bit of salary research and took into account the amount of time I spend on the different duties of my job, the company's size, and the nature of the company, so the amount I asked for is considerably less than what average salary my position typically pays.  So getting a low offer is going to suck extra hard.
Anyway, I await with bated breath for their answer.

New favorite site!

Yet another way for me to screw around and waste time! TiltShiftMaker, it makes regular photos like the one below into...

something that looks a part model train scenery. See image below. Once I get home I will begin the process of converting all my photos.

Random career genarator

I think I've found my programing project for the final.

If all goes well I will be moving on from my current job by mid 2010.  The horrible catch is that this next job needs be a step down the dark and spooky career path.

Of course I can spend all day fantasying about all the things I'd rather be doing, but actually putting my money where my mind is... ugh.   So, right now I've got roughly six months to finally do what I've been putting off for the past 27 years, decide what the fuck it is what I want to for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, until I drop dead.

Unless M is planing on dropping out of grad school to pursue med school then housewife is out of the question.  Besides, she would probably become neurosurgeon only to work for free in some godforsaken part of the 3rd world.  Anyway, I'll take housewife off the list, that'll narrow things down a bit.

Lez look at the possible career choice for young women... oh wait maybe this will help!

Image via Contexts

Image via Boing Boing

if only I had this game when I was little, I wouldn't be in such a pickle.

Tumblr

• I've got me one them fancy tumblr accounts!  It's like blogging but with less writing, which means less thinking, which means this will work well for me.  Now go look at it and marvel at my even less skillful writing!
• theworkiskillingmeontheinside.tumblr.com

Office bag lady

Now that I've been at my job for over two years and now that I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20 I'm finally reviewing my work clothes. The majority of my work clothes were bought in a panicked state a day before I started my job. Needless to say I did not buy them for comfort or quality. The pants that fit well are beginning to fray on the seams. All the seams. It's looks like I'm wearing fringed pants. The other pants were inappropriately tight and some tops so loose the collars would slip down over my shoulder giving me a fabulous eighties look. My black capris (eeewwwww) are now a medium gray and my gray capris are hip huggers which I no longer find acceptable.
Even my shoes are starting to fall apart. Granted, I didn't buy the shoes because I didn't have any I could wear to the office, but until now I never understood that shoes wear out I just thought you outgrew them, physically or style-wise. I don't think I've brought shoes out of necessity since my feet stopped growing at size 10.
Anyway, my beloved (multiple) pairs of sky high black heels are being worn down to nubs, the soles are developing holes and the leather (the pre-veg purchases) is beginning to peel. I thought I was going to wear them forever, but not that I would wear them everyday. My poor babies!
Where was I going with this? The point is that if you caught me on the right day I would look like a bag lady. Especially if I'm wearing one of the purses the rabbit has chewed on.

Spanish to English and back again

ockera. I have no idea if that's spelled right, but I will find out. Anyway- M was asked by client if she was a rockera. Which, I guess is the Spanish language equivalent of an alt-chick. Actually she's been asked this more than once now.
I have been asked by several people at my job if I'm goth.
I wouldn't bring this up, but its just something that neither of us sees in each other or our respective selves. Nor are these looks that we're particularly enamored with (unlike mod or teddy girl, which we would be flattered to be mistaken for. Especially since neither of us have the clothes for either look).
We can't figure out how it is that we keep getting these questions seeing as how we both wear conservative office clothes (mine have quite a few floral prints) and we both wear office lady jewelry. Maybe its the heels? But then again we both wear flats quite a bit of the time. I thought that maybe its the hair, but when I was asked the goth question my hair was actually close to it's natural medium brown, not the black I have right now. M's hair is black-brown naturally and it's (kind of) a mod cut.

lood. Everywhere, absolutely everywhere.  How's that to start your day?  After a few fairly peaceful months I've had another dramatic start to my period.  Oh, sure the day started fine, minor cramps, a little tried and achey but other than that I felt fine.  By lunch time, however,  my body apparently made the decision that it didn't particularly care for my emotional well being, or our shared physical well being.  From there things quickly spiraled out of control.
I got home and decided that I would skip lunch and have a light snack of Ibuprofen instead followed by a heating pad chaser.  I really thought that meds and a hour with the heating pad would make me feel better.  Instead the cramps began to really intensify  and I began to get trembly.  I actually had to call work and tell them I couldn't come back.  So that was my Monday, 5 hours at work, the next 6 in extreme pain, followed by another 10 in general discomfort.

Anyway, isn't the drop cap great?  Found it at Daily Drop Cap.