I shopped the JCPenny clearance sale yesterday and got two (count them two) fleece pullover/jackets for $13.29 total! I love clearance sales!



On another note, I'm glad to be back in more belly dance classes! I am at a point now where belly dance is becoming really fun again and practicing doesn't seem like such pain!



Now hopefully I can get this analyst position at State Farm! If the gods are kind and allow me that courtesy, I will be set. (oh pretty, pretty please!)



Final thought: I listened to a segment on NPR this afternoon about Iraqis that are being tortured by extremist groups from their own country who are sabotaging the Americans and Iraqi allies. They are doing horrible, horrible things to these people! They even beheaded a frightened little 11 year old boy. How do you fight evil like that? Where do you even start? Mercy seems useless...cruelty only feeds the cycle of hatred and violence...and the single thought I keep returning to is to thank the gods that I am as lucky as I am.

I spent vast quantities of time this evening on Tribe.net and I still don't want to stop. The giant knot in my shoulders is telling me I have to. I also LOVE CDbaby.com. I spent way...too...much...money on belly dance music:)



Purchased:

Djinn: Middle East Side

Solace: Moon Moth Mixes

Knossos: Dark Light in the Wake of Silence



I will be gleefully swimming in some fabulous beats for at least two days!



I am working on a cabaret costume for the belly dance recital I have on Saturday. It doesn't look too bad for costume made entirely of sequins. I hope I'm not sick by that point though. I really don't want to have spent this much time and effort for a performance I am too sick to participate in.



I know I had a lot to say when I started this post and now I have nothing. Perhaps I will have more to say later:)

So...things have happened and, so far, life is still pretty good. Synergy Syrens (name of my bellydance troupe) are performing at the Bloomington Cultural Festival on August 18th and, if the guy arranging all of the performances keeps his end of the bargain, we are going to get paid!!! I am so excited! It's not very much obviously, but it's still about 40 bucks I didn't have before.



Work is still pretty good. I apparently got into a high pressure OSS job where I will have about 15-20 big-wigs breathing down my neck for their reports for the first two weeks of the month every month which I didn't realize was part of the job. My team, while they are nice, have absolutely no idea how to train me, and my boss has already made it clear that he doesn't think I can do the job. How encouraging right?



But I have resolved that I will simply do the best I can and what happens, happens. Thankfully, because I have a contract, I will still have a job even if my boss decides that he wants to replace me. They will simply assign me to another project, and my boss will have to deal with training somebody completely new and possibly getting someone who is even worse at this job than I am. Oh well.



Tim+Me=VERY GOOD! That's about all I need to say on that.



My car got fixed for $43!! Anyone who knows my luck with cars knows that is an amazing occurrence.



Particular point of joy: I get paid every week from my employer and next month I get paid 5 times!



Love and shimmies

Athena

I had the nicest moment at work a couple of days ago. When I worked in Support at AFNI I used to sit by these two sweet middle-aged women from China (who spoke English very well). As we got to know each other, one of the women, Sharon, would bring me little chinese candies and on occasion she would give me a little baggie with a few jasmine flowers from her home. The flowers were wonderful because if you kept them at your desk you could smell jasmine all day long.



I went into work on Wednesday and found a handful of jasmine flowers sitting in front of my keyboard. I nearly cried. It was such a sweet thing to do!



In other news, I had a brief tour of Corporate South yesterday in preparation for my coming there on Monday. I was amazed at how many cubicles there are and how nice they are too. I mean, yes, they technically are little cubby holes that coporate America sticks us in, but they are soooooo much better than any other work environment that I have been in. I guess it's just new and shiny to me.



Note: I have way too many garb ideas and not nearly enough time. I also have another bellydance performance to prepare for on Saturday the 7th. Why couldn't I have had these problems when I had three weeks off. Oh well.

I have finally managed to make it out of school and into the real working world (which I am enjoying). Right now I am going to TekSystems five days a week and training on Lotus Notes, Excel and Access. I have learned everything that I am supposed to know, but since they are paying me to come in for a month and learn I pretty much have to spend my days wasting time in front of a computer without looking like I am wasting time. I have tried an ebook but their version of Acrobat Reader flat out refuses to recognize protected media, so I am playing a lot of Solitaire and reading NY times. NPR is also a good use of time.



I am also working at AFNI part time three nights a week which is awesome because I am the only one in the support department there after 5pm. It's nice being able to complete work without anyone else there taking up your time and attention.



So far the real world isn't nearly as bad as all of the "grown-ups" in my life make it out to be. I mean money is tighter than it was in college (mostly because anything I made was just spending money), but with help of my well-planned budget, it's not that bad. Now I know that I am starting off with a tremendous advantage with not having any debt out of college, but if I had to, I could budget for that. I suppose my biggest difficultly with my dad and his girlfriend is convincing them that I really have been a frugal individual throughout college (for the most part). Also, the working schedule that I am on is WAY better than the amount of time I was spending on homework and lesson plans and grading etc etc in school. 52 hour weeks are actually a slowed pace compared to school.



This weekend I am going to Tribal Revolution in Chicago. Malum and his parents were nice enough to put me up for a couple of nights while I am there. I am thinking to should get them some sort of thank you gift for letting me stay at their place, but I am a little bit at a loss as to what I should give them. I am seriously looking forward to drumming, dancing, and spending quality brain time with Malum.