New Jobby Job

Well, I finished my first week at the new job. So far, so good. I think the work is going to be interesting, challenging, and meaningful. The people are nice enough. My boss seems to be pretty on top of things. I immediately liked him as soon as he used my favorite engineering word, “slick”, to describe a free photo editing program he discovered as we were BSing on my first day on the job. We talked on Friday and he seems pretty pleased with how I'm doing. I have to say, I feel like a fish in water. I talked to my first Mexican couterpart. He's going to help me make parts for my next (first?) project's test plan. Part of my job is playing around with Autocad. I also have two other CAD programs to learn and I'm finding them to be pretty intuitive. And the tutorials are pretty damned good.

It’s been rough adjusting to the early start time (7:30am) but the commute is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And even though the company says working hours are 7:30-4:30, no one’s standing there watching to see who’s 5 minutes late. The message is pretty clear – get here and do your job and let’s all try to be professional adults about it.

I had allotted 45 minutes for the commute and really, it’s 18 miles each way and takes about 25 in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. My first book on tape (actually CD), Richard Feynman’s “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” is making the commute fairly pleasant. Anyone have other books on tape/CD to recommend?

I’m having a hard time sleeping at night. Still waiting for my first time of sleeping all the way through. I’m scared of sleeping through my alarm so I’m waking up every couple of hours. And I feel stressed out that I have to be in bed by a certain time to get a full night’s sleep. But I shall overcome.

My new job is with a competitor of the last company I worked for. It’s interesting to me to see how two companies that make the same thing, make stuff in different ways and also organize their companies differently. The products are similar enough that I feel comforted by their presence in the office, but the way they're made is different enough that I’m finding the whole situation to be very stimulating. I’m so pleased to have the new job. And it'd fun for me to see that the new company has some of the same problems as the old company. (Colleen walking by an airbag engineer's desk on the second day. A video is playing of a bag catching on fire. I think to myself, "Ahhhh yes. So sometimes our products exhibit glowing conditions as well?")

The first two days of work, I forgot my lunch on the counter at home. On the third day, I remembered my lunch (it took a concentrated effort), but as I was walking to the break room around 10am, I felt oddly unbalanced and looked down at my feet and noticed I was wearing two different shoes to work. Oops. I see that as a wardrobe flaw – to have two pairs of shoes that look similar enough that when I put them on in a rush (but in the light), I might put on one of each. Therefore, I removed the unfavored pair from circulation. At least for now.

One of my favorite things about the new company is that all of the fabric that they make for their airbags is coated with pink silicon. It’s actually more of a salmon-y pink. I wore my sweater the other day that matches the silicon perfectly and lots of people commented on that. They’ll see lots of that sweater since I consider that color to be my signature color. The people who run the company could have picked any color and I love that they picked pink. Maybe they think it will make their airbags feel pretty and then maybe the airbags will perform better. After all, I know I perform better when I feel pretty...

On Friday, I noticed in the breakroom that there's a bulletin board with a bunch of posted information. One area is dedicated to new employees and I found that there was a write-up about me. They made me sound so damned impressive. I have to make sure I thank the HR people for the write up. Would it be wierd if I borrowed it to make a copy of it and then put it back?

Wish me luck in week 2...

Idol, finding what you're lookign for, long distance dating of a different kind, and A League of Their Own

Last week, the new season of American Idol started. I seriously woke up last Tuesday morning and was disgustingly excited about it. I know it’s crap but I just can’t get enough of it. I actually could do without the first couple episodes where they mostly show the freaks and geeks and sparsely pepper in the real talent. The bad people, you have to just kind of watch them in awe. A lot of them don’t seem to be the attention-seeking type but at the same time, how can you be so bad and not know it? I swear, one of the scary nerds was from Case.

I guess I shouldn’t really talk since I’ll be singing two solos at mass tomorrow and I’m the worst singer in my choir. Oh well.

I identified a need for some new shelves or drawers in my extra bedroom/conservatory. There’s just crap all over the place and I wanted to organize it better. I’m not much of a shopper but I set out the other day with the loose goal of finding a suitable and reasonably priced storage unit while I was on my way to Home Depot after my wiring triumph. Right before I got to HD, I saw that there was a furniture store going out of business. I went inside to check it out and if you ask me, their prices were still quite high. I wandered around happily for awhile because no sales people were bothering me. And then I saw it. A two-drawer quasi-night stand in the same wood finish as the desk in my spare bedroom, with a scratch on top and a small panel of laminate missing for $25! The drawer mechanism seemed solid and the construction seemed sturdy. So basically, I found and bought exactly what I was looking for. How often does that happen?

Sushee told me that when she and her boyfriend were doing the long distance thing, they would watch “Lost” at the same time and it was sort of like a long distance date. Does anyone want to grab Chipotle at the same time as me but in a different city? We could have a long distance date.

I watched “A League of Their Own” last week. It’s one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the only movies I ever remember going to the theater with my mom to see. I think I was about 10. Plus, because I’ve played softball my entire life, I kinda get the warm and fuzzies every time I see it. My favorite quote is towards the end when Tom Hanks, the coach, leads the team in prayer before the playoffs and prays, “May our feet be swift, our bats be mighty, and our balls be plentiful. Amen.” Yes, amen to all of those things.

Please Don't Let My House Burn Down

I start my new job on Monday. I’m down to my last few days of freedom during my 7 week sabbatical. I’ve been trying to do all of my favorite activities along with getting things in order on the home front. Last week, after the masking tape peeled off a significant amount of paint from my newly painted basement paneling, I did some touch ups with a small detailing brush (like ¾” wide) using one coat of primer and one layer of top coat. It looks pretty good. And I still can’t get over how darned happy the walls look. It’s like, I go down to my basement and my walls smile at me now.

All the electric outlets in my basement were black, both the plugs and covers. I wanted them to be white and I didn’t want to just paint them. So that meant I would have to replace them all, which involves fooling around with wires.

I don’t have much experience with electrical work and frankly, electricity is a terrifying mystery to me (yeah C in Circuits. My fear of electricity began as a high schooler. More than once, I electrocuted myself by sticking a knife in the toaster to try and fish my bagel out. Admittedly, that was pretty dumb on my part.). So in the name of learning experiences, I made a deal with myself. After reading a couple relevant pages of my Home Improvement book, I decided to buy a voltage detector, one new white outlet and one new outlet cover and attempt to swap out one of the black outlets in my basement. If I was successful, I would do the rest, and if I wasn’t, I would stew on it for more time until I got enough nerve to try again.

I spent some happy time at Lowes, got my supplies (along with a gorgeous toilet seat!) and set out to play an exhilarating game of “Don’t Electrocute Myself.” I figured out which circuit I needed to turn off, tested it with my voltage detector, and then carefully and methodically replaced the black outlet with the white one. It actually was an embarrassingly simple task but was delightfully satisfying as well. Following that success, I headed to Home Depot, and bought the rest of the supplies that I would need to swap out all of the outlets and covers and planned to finish the project today.

I went to tackle the remainder of my project and none of the outlet swaps were as easy as the first one. I had to go to the hardware store twice – once for needle nose pliers and once for copper ground wire, which I broke during one of the swap outs. Home Depot published a book I refer to as the Home Improvement Bible (Ch3 pg 16 “Through Home Depot I can do all things”). In this Bible, they show pictures of how NOT to do the job and that was how the people before me had hooked up the outlets. ARGH.

The other fun part was that the 8 outlets were on 4 different circuits. It worked out alright because I was able to keep moving the lights and CD player (love my new music from Naspter!).

In conclusion, any day to play with my screwdriver is a good day. I just have a lot of cuts on my hands. And I hope my house doesn’t catch on fire.

Progress

I ran another personal best timed mile on the treadmill this week. I did it in 8:37. I am in completely uncharted territory and am knocking on the 8:30 door. While on the treadmill yesterday, I read my workout journal to see where I used to be. I guess I also read it to keep me distracted from the boredom that only the treadmill can inflict.

My lifting partner said he doesn’t like to look to the past, only to the future. While part of that is probably a good idea, I think learning and motivation can be derived from the past. I mentioned previously that keeping a list of accomplishments motivates me when I’m trying to do new things. While on the treadmill, I read that in the past year, I tried and failed to run a mile at 6.8mph and twice I tried and failed to run a mile at 6.7mph. I read that the day after I successfully ran a mile at 6.9mph.

It’s been really fun to keep track of the strength progress too because my lifting is coming along pretty well. I’m lifting heavier weights than I ever have. I used to struggle to incline bench 50lb and now I can do 85lb 8 times on my third set. When I was at Case, my 1 rep max out bench press was 105lb and now I’m somewhere in the 125lb range and I can do 105lb 8 times. With authority.

I keep getting faster and stronger but I’m not losing any weight. BAH. Though my body weight is not budging and my body fat analyzer is not recognizing an increase in muscle mass, I will not be discouraged. Adopting a slogan I really like from a website, I will not be defeated. And neither will you.

More Observations About My Roman Catholic Church

Choir practice is on a weeknight in the church. I’ve mentioned that the church has a new kickass piano that I adore so I try to get to practice between 30 and 60 minutes early to have fun with the new instrument. The first time I entered the empty church, I noticed the slight but distinguishable scent of chlorine. I think the baptismal font at church is chlorinated. WTF?

Memory Lane

There are certain phrases that I believe were used uniquely in my house. The distinction between “good cereal” and “bad cereal” has nothing to do with name brands. “Good cereal” is any cereal that doesn’t have a whole lot of sugar. “Bad cereal” is the kind that has lots of sugar. We usually had to eat a bowl of good if we wanted a bowl of bad. So basically, at a young age our parents taught us the importance of chasers, as we chased a bowl of Cheerios with a bowl of Golden Grahams.

One of the joys of being a real adult is making decisions about how to spend your money. My brothers and I all talk about how nice it is to have socks and underwear without holes and bath towels that cover our bodies and are actually absorbent. Kev insists that one of the best things his wife ever did for him was buy him 20 pairs of identical black socks – that way his socks always match and he never has to worry or think about it.

As youngsters, I’m pretty sure that my brothers had at least 20 pairs of white athletic socks that were all the same – I guess like tube socks, with no distinct heel. They also had an additional 5 or 6 pairs that were a little fancier and they were referred to as “smart socks.” On these socks, the heel was defined, and thus, you had to be smart when you put them on. I think about that every day when I put my smart socks on in the morning and it still cracks me up that our family calls heeled socks smart socks. The only time as an adult that I have worn socks that were not of the smart variety was when I played football and softball and wore the uniform socks. What does that say about athletes?

When I was in 8th grade, I remember one of my teachers saying that we should reread our favorite books as adults. She insisted that we would take something additional away with each additional reading. I’ve found the same to be true for the movie Clueless. I’m pretty sure I liked it when it came out when I was a young teen. I’ve watched it a couple times as an adult and I keep catching new lines from it that crack me up. So much of it went over my head when I was younger! My new favorite line is when all the high school girls are standing in line on the tennis courts for gym class, tennis racquets in hand, and the snobby Amber says, “My plastic surgeon doesn’t want me doing any activity where balls fly at my nose.” The cool Dionne replies, “Well, there goes your social life.” Hilarious!

return of the wallet, again

Yesterday, my wallet got returned to me in the mail, intact, except for the cash, exactly a week after I lost it. That’s the second time I’ve lost that wallet and then had it returned to me later without the money. I’m really happy to have it back and I suppose a $40 finder fee is appropriate. But I got all new credit cards and a new license already…

Yesterday I finished priming and painting my basement walls. I have to go check it in the daylight today to make sure it looks alright before I take off the masking tape. The wood paneling looked so sad before. But now, the walls just look so happy in their coats of Ancient Stone.

I’m so relieved to be done with that job. When I moved into my place, painting the wood paneling was one of the original projects I knew I would have to do. My previous painting experiences told me that I needed to do a really god job priming to cover the wood paneling. I spent a bit more money on two things that were worth it. 1) I bought rollers that had Teflon in them make cleaning time quicker. They’re really good. 2) I bought an expensive brush because I needed to paint in all the individual paneling grooves and it was really good too. The cheapy brushes leave visible brush strokes. Also, I swear by Behr paint from Home Depot. I don’t paint with anything else.

I could not get over the amount of wall space in my basement. I’ve done a lot of painting before but the basement was by far the largest job I had ever done. Also, I had to paint a section of the ceiling and this was the first time I’d ever done that. Now I’m looking forward to trimming the basement with wood trim.

Another reason I’m glad to be done painting is that I felt like no matter how hard I scrubbed, I still had random paint spots all over my arms and hands. It was during a scrubbing in the shower that I remembered one of my odd body things. I have blondish hair on my arms and legs except for 2 dark hairs on my upper right thigh and one dark hair on my left forearm. I am oddly comforted by the solitary dark hair on my left forearm. I don’t know why.

2007 goals

When I finished doing the school thing 2.5 years ago, I found that I missed lots of things associated with academics, like writing on lined paper and carrying around binders. To help fill the void, I bought a binder and a ton of notebook paper and started writing lots of things down. It started out as a journal but later became a compilation of all things Colleen. Mostly, it’s page after page of lists. I started keeping a list of words that I had to look up in the dictionary, and then summarized their definitions. Every couple of months I go through my cell phone and write down new contacts and numbers in case I ever lose my phone. I have lists of goals that are separated by genre.

This is the traditional time of the year to reflect and set goals. I know this because there are a TON of people at my gym these days, and I hate it. The best week to work out is the week before New Years Day.

But seriously, for the last three years I’ve been keeping track of my yearly accomplishments and the next year’s goals, but the golas are adjusted throughout the year. I find it helpful to review those lists when I feel bad about myself because it reminds me of what I can do when I set my mind to it. (Liz, you asked me about motivation one time and I think the lists of goals and accomplishments are key.)

I set a goal to lose a pound per week through diet and exercise in 2006. That lasted a month before my ambition was retarded. I managed to post a 13.5 lb loss on the year, far short of 52 lbs, but an accomplishment nonetheless. Other health/fitness goals that I met in 2006:
I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes in March.
Added a couple supplements (vitamin E, C, and fish oil) to my daily multivitamin intake.
I successfully monitored and controlled a bunch of things regarding my health and appearance. (Yay for finding skin and hair products that work! Double yay for having the discipline to use them every day!)
I ran an 8:45 timed mile on the treadmill in December.
I bench pressed 110-4 times by myself in December.
I Averaged 3.74 workouts per week over the course of a year.
To my delight, I played sand volleyball with my brother and his wife this fall for the first time and I also found a great coed adult softball team to play on. I feel so lucky to have found those teams.

Around my house, I replaced a bunch of light fixtures, painted my laundry room, got glass block windows installed in my basement, and started to paint my basement. In March, I got rid of the broken organ that was hogging space in my garage.

Other random things I set out to do and then did in 2006:
Donated my hair to Locks of Love
Joined my church
Joined my church’s choir and sang my first solo with them
Got my piano tuned and then practiced on it often enough to feel comfortable performing in public after an 8 year absence
Started a pen pal correspondence with my god daughter in Wisconsin
Got my car paid off

Despite these things that I got done I’m really glad 2006 is over. It just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to on a lot of different levels. I’m ready to start over again.

Here are some of my goals for 2007:
Untie my shoes before I slip them off (bad habits die hard)
Run an 8 minute timed mile (treadmill aided)
Dedicate myself to 8 hours of sleep every night
Try to keep my hands off my face (in 2006, I finally trained myself to keep my hands out of my hair!)
Do more experimenting in the kitchen with weird foods (I’m open to suggestions)
Finish priming, painting, and then trimming my basement
Go to reconciliation and establish a better relationship with God through prayer
Continue working on my Spanish and go to Mexico
Get 4 piano pieces into performance-ready shape (I have initially targeted Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” Chopin’s “Raindrop Prelude,” an Impromptu by Schubert and the first movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, but this list is subject to change.)
Do ceramic tile in my foyer
Minimize the amount of hurtful gossiping that I do

This is not a bad roadmap for 2007. Here’s to starting a new adventure and enjoying the journey…

"One", Physics, lost wallet

I recently updated my computer equipment, got a fast internet connection at home, and thus was able to update my music collection legally via Napster. It’s nice to have some new songs to listen to. One of the long-time staples of my collection is U2’s “One.” I recently downloaded a version that Mary J. Blige sings along with Bono. It’s funny, I’ve probably heard the song thousands of times but when Mary was singing, one of the lyrics affected me as though I had never heard it. The line is, “have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?” What a beautifully creative line. Doesn’t everyone need relief from all the angry, negative, hurtful things we carry with us every day of our lives?

I guess I kind of have two points. 1) Everyone should play Jesus with the lepers in their head. Even if you’re not a JC fan. And 2) sometimes you can hear the same thing from the same voice over and over again, and it just never means anything. And then, you hear the same thing from a different voice, and that makes all the difference in getting the message to sink in.

I’ve been singing in my church’s choir since September. It’s been an all-around positive experience for me. I’ve gotten to hang out with good people, performing good music, and I think my voice has gotten better. I also now have access to the church’s concert-quality baby grand piano. Sooooooo fun. Anyhow, one of the singers in the group is a little odd. I’ve noticed from the first day I met her. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong though.

Yesterday, we got talking about school and engineering and physics and she asked me if my high school physics teacher had encouraged me to pursue physics or engineering. I didn’t know where she was going with that question so I told her that he had motivated me to study engineering. She told me that physicists and engineers think differently and that she is a trained physicist, along with 4 of her kids. A light bulb went on in my mind, “That’s what it is…”

My mom acknowledges that she has a hard time making decisions when there are a myriad of options. Choosing materials for home improvement is her idea of hell. Since I visit Home Depot for fun, I often make choices for her in this area and she always seems so grateful. I don’t often have a hard time making decisions for myself, home improvement or otherwise. But I just have been made aware of the joy of having many unpleasant options reduced down to one not-so-unpleasant option. It's quite freeing.

I lost my wallet today. I’m so annoyed with myself (grrrr) but I think I'm ready to play Jesus to the lepers in my head and forgive myself.