Weekend and first day at work

In case you were wondering, I am still alive. Took a short break from blogging because I simply didn't feel moved to write. But some people have insisted that I hurry up already and write about my weekend. I went with my parents up to Ennice to visit my brother and his family. My older niece and my nephew have very close birthdays in February and March, so there was a combined birthday bash at the Burger King playland in nearby Sparta. It's a good thing they are only turning 3 and 4 because if they were any older they might have been disappointed in the turnout. Upwards of a dozen RSVP'd saying they would come, and only a handful actually showed. But at their age, they were oblivious. They got cupcakes


and presents


and a big plastic tube-y maze thing to climb around in,


so they were content. We should all take a page from their book, I say. One upside to the lower attendance was the leftover party favor bags. Later that night my parents and I had a little silly fun with the toys.


We were going to get a family portrait taken in nearby Galax, VA, with all eight of us, but with the party and all it turned out to be too hectic. One munchkin was sick, one was sleepy, and the other is eternally cranky (will the terrible two's ever end?!) so it just wasn't meant to be. Instead we ordered Chinese takeout and watched movies on HBO. I snapped limitless photos, as usual. If I'd been using a film camera, I'd have gone through 10 rolls of film. Of course, I always took less when I had a film camera. But that's part of why I love digital--you can take as many as you want (well, as many as your memory card will fit). It frees you up to take many more, increasing the likelihood that you'll get that perfect shot.


I finally gave Cassidy the baby blanket I knitted for her. She seemed to like it.




It turned out really huge.


I cast on 100 stitches and used four skeins of Baby Clouds yarn, switching colors when the skeins ran out.

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So today was my first day at my new job. It went fine. Everyone is very friendly. My supervisor is really on the ball, which is something I appreciate. And my boss is very reasonable, which I also appreciate. For instance, if you want to take a longer lunch, just stay late. If you don't get to take a lunch because it's too busy, leave early. As for learning my duties, naturally it's overwhelming at first, but I think I'll be able to handle it. I get to observe an on-site training tomorrow at a school here in Raleigh. And then Friday I get to observe a couple phone trainings. The system is pretty simple. Of course, by the time I learn this one, the new one will be ready to launch and I'll have to learn everything all over. But the new one is supposed to be ten times better, to help reduce the amount of time-consuming data shuffling. Actually, there are two systems, one that our clients use (the one I'll be training them on and the one that will be upgraded soon) and then the system that we use internally to keep track of all our clients and trainings and the like. The internal system looks pretty powerful but also user-friendly, so that's good.

I sat in the conference room all day because they don't have a desk for me yet. Due to the un-ergonomic setup, my shoulder is killing me. I hope they get me a desk soon! I think I will be sharing an office with the one lady who comprises the customer service department. She was showing me how to do a few things today and we were chatting about this and that.

I got a sense today of how fast this company is growing. Everything is kind of in flux, and up for grabs in terms of changing it to make it better. On one hand it's a scary environment, but on the other it's exhilarating. It will be interesting to see where this new job takes me....