Thursday, December 16, 2010

The most wonderful time of year

How is it already mid-December? Tingles, reader-friends, tingles. Christmas is right around the corner and though I'm not a fan of plastic trees in the slightest, I saw a 6-ft one at Target for only 20 bones (!!!) and couldn't help myself. Who sells a plastic tree for 20 dollars? Much less one that actually looks pretty good for a fake? D was skeptical we should even get a tree this year -- real or fake -- since our apartment is straight-up European in its tininess, but I convinced him this would not only work, but it would look great. And it does:


So it's a little crammed in its corner, but it was the only open corner in our casa and I actually find it strangely cozy. D and I also decided (well, it was more me deciding since I had the idea) to buy one special ornament each year of our life together. I thought it'd be a cute memory to pass down to our children. This year we couldn't decide on just one, so we bought two:


They remind us of our poodle and cat, don't ask why, because I have no idea. We've just always likened them to a polar bear and a penguin for some reason. 

It's looking like D did not get that Dream Job we were hoping for this month. Christmas won't be coming soon to our household. Sigh. We were pretty down about it last Tuesday, when he contacted them to check in and the hiring manager wrote back that they had extended the offer to someone else. She did say the guy hadn't yet accepted it, and if he doesn't they will go back to their pool of candidates, that D was very well-received in the office and that he would definitely be back in the running if the offer was rejected from their first choice. Which I take to basically be a big, fat no. I mean who would reject this offer? Really? Unless the guy had other, better offers on the table, which would be a stretch in this market. I have a feeling their first choice was a Harvard Law grad (based on what they said to D about their other interviews) who probs had better experience than D. Though we haven't officially received a rejection in the mail, I'm counting on it being there soon enough. Poop. 

I was sad about it for, oh, a day but quickly got over it. I'm already depressed enough as it is with my career, I really don't need to be sad about his as well. I kept telling him he has a very bright future, who cares about this bad news, that I know these opportunities don't come often but let's buck up and make the best of it. I'd rather be drinking eggnog and kissing under mistletoe and dashing through the snow in a one-horse, open sleigh than pouting on the couch together in silence. D seemed to agree, but I can still tell he's uber stressed out. The other night I asked him why and he said "Why do you think? I'm in this apartment, paid for by my wife who hates her job. I want you to be happy."

Totally an "awwww" moment. I threw my arms around him and told him we'd get through it, that just hearing him say that keeps me going. And it does.

I'm happy today because I took the day off (mental health day, I suppose), which was coincidentally a genius time to take a day off since I had a management training meeting earlier this week that lasted ALL DAY. Literally. 8:30am to 5pm, I was sitting in a conference room with a dozen other managers of different levels, listening to a management training professional who had been brought in by our company to teach us "management basics." It was like a parody of corporate life -- something you'd see on The Office or Office Space. We had to do things like break up in to groups and "brainstorm" about ways to evaluate performance (jotted down with a marker on a white board, of course), "roleplay" effective communication styles, and talk about our feelings. It seemed like the only thing we didn't do was that "trust test" people do on company retreats, when you fall backward and let employees catch you.

It was all so dreadful and I wanted to die the entire time. I kept thinking "this is not my reality, this is not my reality" and when we were finally let out of the meeting, I had to stay till 8pm because a writer missed his deadline which meant I had to sit there and wait for the copy to edit. Fun!!!! Because all I ever hoped and wished for was to sit in my office for 12 hours with no real break.

Needless to say when D picked me up from the subway station near our home, I needed two things: Taco Bell and a cocktail. Nothing fixes a bad day for me quite like a run for the border and a vodka gimlet.

Thankfully I got to sleep in today and am going to finish up some Christmas shopping this afternoon. Also, hopefully, I'll have time to start and finish a charcoal drawing I wanted to do of a portrait of my grandma in her early 20s. I think it'd make a nice gift for her, especially since she's an artist herself. 

4 comments:

  1. Here's to 2011 being a good year for new jobs or changes! I love your plan to buy an ornament for each year of your life together, that's so lovely. xx

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  2. Awww he is the best. Btw, when will you be around?? I get in late Wed night and leave Monday night (the 27th)!

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  3. Seeing the word "butthole" in your post just made my day. :)

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  4. Yikes. Those training sessions don't seem to help anyone really. And staying late after one? Crappy. I hope your cocktail was marvelous because you certainly deserved it.

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