Had my Starbucks luncheon outing. Jan didn't make it, said she wasn't feeling well.
So it was just 4 of us. Me, Jack, Lenny and Vern. Jack drove. Went to Maggiano's in Oak Brook. Lenny insisted on paying for my lunch of mushroom ravioli, I let him after he said we would go out again and he would let me pay next time. Jack & Vern got italian sausage sandwiches and Lenny got the roasted chicken, made a big deal about it not being roasted in butter and then only ate maybe 1/4 of it. At least he ate some, and most of his salad. He is weird about food and eating. Jack kept driving around with his blinker on! HAhaha! And then he BLASTED a couple Frank Sinatra songs on the way back and then blasted The Sound of Music soundtrack because "Julie Andrews has the voice of an angel".

We had a good time, the guys are all a bunch of goofballs, and we crack each other up.

Vern & Lenny listening to Jack tell one of his stories.


The big ham, Jack

Stayed in bed a bit today.
Did my crossword in bed while watching Regis and Kelly instead of out like I usually do.
Bird were going nuts on a tree outside our bedroom window, it has berries on it, and they flocked on all at once would freakishly flock away and then flock back and have some kind of manic berry frenzy.



Got out and going, and made it out to the skating rink for public skate time from 11:30 to 1.



Was a little shaky at first, get my ice legs going again. Right away this guy named Paul started talking to me. He is the guy on the left in the picture. Said he would have to take my picture skating, but we didn't.
He was really nice, and I enjoyed the conversation. His work is slow right now. He works in quarries with the big drills and machinery like that. Just came back recently from Iraq where he was a medic. Says he kind of misses it. Comes from a big family, made an ice rink in their back yard and used to play hockey. He was pretty good at skating backwards, and jumping around and all that stuff, I was just happy to be skating :)

The other guy in the picture on the right, was really really good. He is tall but just very fluid and comfortable in his body, he was spinning and jumping and just really graceful. I enjoyed watching him and some of the little girls all dressed up in their little skating outfits.

After that I picked Brad up from work for lunch. We ate pizza by the slice at Mrs. T's. It hit the spot, I was hungry and ready to eat at that point. Since we ate lunch late we had the place to ourselves.

Then after dropping him back off I went to Yorktown Plaza and ordered our sofa from JCPenny. It will be here in 6 to 8 weeks. It kind of looks like this.

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I ordered it in a burnt red color, same fabric, sectional. 3 cushions on one side and 4 on the other. Short for me, longer for Brad.

Tomorrow is my lunch outing at Maggiano's with the Starbucks group.

Had a 9am interview. It went alright. Took a 4 page fill-in-the-blank test. Took me about 15 - 20 minutes. He then came in asked how I thought I did. I said "alright, not guru, not beginner but proficient". He asked if I had any questions for him, so I asked if he saw my test and how he thought I did. He agreed with my assessment. I am still a contender. He interviewed 3 people, and has more to do. They want a guru but not sure if they will find one, not sure they can afford one, and then finding someone they like as well. So I will hear back in couple of weeks. I kept my visitors badge.

Went home, changed clothes and went to Einsteins. Had a bagel for brunch. Read my soaps, did the Trib's crossword. Sat by the window, baked in the sun...made me sleepy.

Went to a therapy appt at noon. I was nosing around his pictures. He has pictures of Freud's study room, and was proud to say he got to lay down on his loveseat. He told me to stop weighing myself so often, but I can't go cold turkey so we are gonna start out at every other day for a bit and then start spacing it out.

Then I went to Barnes & Noble or maybe Borders...I always confuse the two, they both are bookstores and start with B. Flipped through the trashy magazines in a chair by the window upstairs for about an hour, then went by the library and picked up Timebends: A Life - Arthur Miller.

Called back a recruiter with another job lead, this one in the loop.
I think I might go ice skating tomorrow.
Friday the Starbucks crowd is planning a lunch outing.

Velvet Underground ft. Maureen Tucker - After Hours

Got a call yesterday morning about my Friday interview. They liked me but needed a higher skillset.
Just did a phone interview with another company, will test and interview with them tomorrow morning (just down the street from me!!), and got a new lead today too.

Went to Starbucks, Jan was there today, as well as Jack, Vern and Lenny. Lenny is taking Jan and me out to lunch on Friday.

Picked up Brad for lunch and tried out a Chinese buffet place we hadn't tried yet. Fairly good. Cheap but some of the food was cold until it got busier and was moving faster. After I dropped him off I went to Meijer to get a few grocery items, and then stopped at the bowling alley on my way home. Bowled a couple games. Did really shitty the first game but then started talking myself through it and got better by the second game, I think I had a score of 92. That's good for me. :)

Had a nice Starbucks reunion. Daddy Jack bought my coffee. Didn't see Jan, but yakked it up with Lenny, Jack and Vern. Found out the pizza by the slice place closed and sold it for 20K under due to the italian brothers in a fight and the one not coming by the shop at all. Too bad, it was good, and the italian boy that ran the place was so adorable!
Lenny has some Seattle Sutton commercial he is taping for on Monday in the loop, I might go with him to hang out. Went next door to Noodles and ate some mac & cheese for lunch.
Already had a bag with my swimsuit, and another bag with my bowling ball for "just in case" in my car. Decided to go swimming. It was great! No one was there, place to myself.



And it was nice and warm in there too! I swam some laps, got out rested. Then got back in and found out I could kick around on my back while reading "Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World by Sarah Vowell". It was so wonderful and relaxing.



Then when I got home I got a package from Jenn (Brooklyn) of some really nice Lush products, just in time for my bath and more reading! :)

Nice weekend.
Everything is covered in a beautiful snow.
More clothes shopping for Brad, and I got some Clinique skincare stuff, which I refer to as "product" just cause it annoys Brad how the sales people always call it "product".
I think we will have a new sofa this week (sale ends Saturday), just taking a couple days to go back and forth over which measurements before we commit.
Brad made a really good meatloaf (a loaf of meat) Saturday, and we are eating on meatloaf sandwiches today.
Watched Hustle & Flow (love the rooster looking kid), Rize (I wanna Krump now), a really good indie film Around the Bend, and gonna watch Gunner's Palace tonight.


I interviewed at this building on Friday. The N building.

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It was a 3 hour long tag team. I think I did well, however I don't think I have the skillset for what they are looking for, but I think only 1 out of the 5 people could tell. The one that could tell was the bosses boss, with a good head for architecture, and was staring me down a lot like it was a contest. BUT I DIDN'T LOOK AWAY! :) He would ask me follow up questions like "So do you think you could do that?", which I would try to give my sincerest sounding but not too terribly believable "I know I can!" Then followed by a long stare down from him to see if I would flinch. Plus degrees and certifications seemed real important to him. He asked why I didn't have my certifications. I told him it was cause I never needed it. I had work, I got trained on what I needed and when I needed. I didn't need a paper saying I could do what I was already doing. He asked if I was willing to get my certification, and I said sure. But thought it was kind of stupid. Don't get me wrong, I thought the degree and cert stuff was old school, but I did like the guy despite giving me the stink eye. He was really smart and knew his stuff, someone I could really learn from.

I don't want the job, it would give me a heart attack. I would be the main unix admin, they have one jr admin, but is super super jr and I am supposed to mentor and guide this person. Not for me. Also I do not have the confidence to make structure/architecture recommendations for what they should do, and that is what they are looking for. I am the one that needs guidance and direction..and don't want to be the one giving it. I don't have enough SAN exposure either, but they said they could send me to training for that.I'll get feedback early next week to see what they say.

Oh yeah, and I took a drink coaster with the company name on it from the conference room as a little memorabilia for Brad. I'd like it if I could find at least one thing to take with a company name on it from each interview. A new collection for me. I also want to act out in some of the interviews once I know its something I am not qualified for and do not want. Like maybe do a victory dance for every right on answer I give them, or maybe stand up and start krumping, impressing them with my moves. AWWWWWWW YEEEEEAH!!!

I am having my Starbucks reunion tomorrow. Also want to go bowling with Starbucks Jan and maybe Lenny too sometime this week. And then maybe ice skating with Brent at Millennium Park sometime soon too. Maybe I will crash the holiday Inn and go swimming. Little treats.

Got my suit on.
Gonna stop at 7-11 for a breakfast slurpee.
Brad and I have traded cars since last week.
His car doesnt have a CD player just a tape player, first I was sad to miss my CD mixes I make for my bipolar mood swings, but I went digging up a bunch of old tapes I've had since high school. Klark Kent, Scrawl, Big Audio Dynamite - Megatop Phoenix, The Fall, Public Enemy, and Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona.

This is from earlier this week. I stopped in a Starbucks at the O'Hare oasis.




Today was my last project, I got it done up and running in 2 hours. Did some reading, surfing, job searches and then decided to leave a little early. I went to play with the dogs at the Humane Society.





Then I treated myself to some blue cheese and hot bbq chicken tenders at Buffalo Wild Wings and played their trivia game thingy and kicked everyone's ASS!

Tomorrow is my last day, I am just going in and making a brief appearance for a bit, turn my "out of office" email thingy on indefinitely then go over Brad's office to see his new digs and to keep myself occupied before my 2 o'clock interview.

I like making stories up about strangers.
During our Saturday Burger King breakfast, there was an older guy in a suit who was the mentor of a young suit with an acne face and overly moussed stiffened hair like he thought it would be edgy to look like a Gotti boy. Both on the nerdy geek side looking. They were with a young, fairly attractive girl. So I mused that they were all members of some nerd cult and that if you joined they would shared their arm-candy women with you. And of course I say things like this just loud enough for people nearby to overhear...
I was close enough, turns out they weren't a nerd cult but all worked at 5/3 bank and had a bunch of little pig piggy banks and looked to be going over the outline plan of their promotional attack for the day.
The name of that bank has always bothered me, it's just so wrong. Bankers are supposed to be good with numbers. It reminds me of this little clothing store in a run down strip mall back in Ohio where we used to live named "Status Quo". That always bothered me too.

It feels like I am not going back into work even though I am.
I have already cut them off in my mind.
It's just an ex-boyfriend, that I have already mentally moved on from.
I am just going to make a few trips over there to get my stuff from him.
My last 3 1-day projects.
I've already mostly cleaned out my desk from what little I brought in.
So no box of stuff to take out.....just go.

Already have a few job leads, resume been forwarded by recruiters to 3 different places, and applied for a few on DICE. Took an online Solaris 9 Admin test tonight. That hurt my head!!! They were really hard questions! However I did fairly well, said I was proficient in most categories and strong in 2. Had a few I messed up on but I think that was mostly from not understanding the question. It listed me as slightly above half the admins tested. That is good enough for me.
It's possible I may even be set up on an interview this week.

Good weekend with Brad. We both had today off. Each day started out eating breakfast out very very leisurely. Reading the paper together, reading my book, doing the local crossword, planning our daily events.




Got a lot done:
New wardrobe shopping for him.
Sofa shopping for us, might even have one by next weekend.
Laundry.
Watched 4 movies.
Brad made some KICK ASS reubens!
Went hiking around a park.
Picked up some new books for me to read from the library.
....and put away christmas

I popped in my boss's office yesterday to find out what is happening with my job here.
When I started the expectation was that it was a contract to hire position. The recruiters were told is was a 6 month contract. When I started I was told it was an 8 week contract and then they would either hire us or as a last resort extend the contract. They needed us, it was just sorting out which budget it came from.

So I was totally floored yesterday when I was told my last day would be on the 20th on this month, next Friday. It took a few minutes to register, I didn't even think that was an option. They told me how good I have been doing, I have been working and trying really hard, and trying to fit in to the group and my new surroundings. Lost sleep worrying about work stuff, stayed late often to finish up work, came in on weekends. Came to work even though I have been run down sick.

I feel screwed, stupid and used. A sap, a dupe.
Brad is convinced that it was never really a contract to hire, they just said that to get people in to get their group back on track since they were so bogged down. I don't know what to think. It's cynical, but usually correct.

Yes, I was making more money here than collecting unemployment...but that didn't help me sleep last night.

I feel stupid for trying so hard, taking it as seriously as I did, when none of it really mattered or made a difference in the grand scheme of things.

So I was numb when she told me and just shrugged and said ok. Sat at my desk letting it sink in.
Then I called Brad to tell him and I lost it on the phone. I just don't want to look for a job anymore. I don't want to have to interview all over again. I was just starting to settle in. He felt so bad because I was so upset.

I stayed late at work last night, because the oracle part of a windows upgrade got messed up and I had to start the whole 1 day project all over again. I got home at 8. Went to bed early and read, read a lot of my book. Then laid there for a few hours, then got the laptop and surfed and then played mah jong for a few hours till I thought I could go to sleep.

Got up late today, showered, un-did the bed, and started washing all the sheets. Left home at the normal time I usually get to work. Because what did it matter? I had been getting to work around 8:30 or earlier when most people dont come in until after 9 or 9:30. So I took my time. Got in after nine and started my next 3 day project for the end of this week.

Yesterday when I found out, I started up on things right away. Let the recruiters know, put my resume back out on DICE, updated my resume and info and already have a couple leads and my name out there with a couple companies to consider. We'll see.

I told the guy that I go out to lunch with this morning. We are going to the Regal Beagle tomorrow for lunch, and he gave me a backrub. He has always been so nice to me.

Starbucks mafiosi here I come!

Today we took a little road trip to Mendota Hills Wind Farm. It was such a dreary cloudy dark day we weren't sure we would be able to see them. We stopped briefly in a small town on the way for breakfast in Hinkley at Hinkley Cafe.

The wind farm was really cool. Too wet to get out and walk around, but we were still able to get pretty close. Hear them. The place we went to has 63 of them. The whole idea of it being an energy source, is really cool.



Brad took some video of it and uploaded it to Google Video, but it won't be viewable for a couple of days.