Odds and ends...

Today's post will be a number of random items that I thought you might find interesting/amusing.

First, when I got in my car to go home from work yesterday, I felt a spider web cross my face and settle around my head. I was not happy about that. Some damn spider had gotten into my car and set up shop there. Admittedly, I think that spider bit off more than he could chew when his web crossed my path, but still my car is my space only. I wouldn't have even mentioned this event, had I not recently learned about the Utah Hobo Spider, whose bite you can't feel and can cause this to happen.

Today I will finish my last PhD School application. I started this past weekend and have so far applied to 9 programs. These programs are all over the country and I won't hear back from any of them until late February at the earliest, so the waiting game begins tomorrow. I don't much like that game, let me tell you.

As one chapter closes (PhD apps) another begins, that next chapter being my thrid attempt to successfully finish Nanowrimo. For those of you who do not know what Nanowrimo is, it's a 30 day challenge where you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. What I've always heard is that the third times a charm, so we'll see if I can make it happen this time around. Last year was almost a total bust, as I was busy being a newlywed and writing wasn't anywhere near the top of my list of priorities. This year, I've used every ounce of extra energy I have to get everything else done so I won't have anything getting in the way of the time I'll need to accomplish this challenge. I have at least one friend willing to attempt this with me, if you are game too let me know. Wish me luck by the way.

Last, I have a new dilemma I've never had before. Here's the situation: Have you ever been really good at something, but you really didn't enjoy it? Particularly something they will pay you good money to do? Yeah, I know it sounds like the dilemma of a character in some novel. It's not, it's the problem I've having at work right now. According to my boss, my boss's boss, and his boss, I'm pretty damn good at my job, like top 10% they've ever seen. In fact, I'm so good that I'm in the running for a promotion to Plant Manager (the next rung on the corporate slave chain...I mean ladder) in Chicago (a job that comes with a 20k a year increase in pay). The main problem is, when I'm at work I feel like I'm watching the paint peel. Yes, it's that boring.

You gotta remember, I used to work in the IT industry, doing technology stuff. I was working on stuff that sometimes I barely understood myself, but damn if it wasn't intersting. Here, I'm working in the textiles industry and most of the product innovations we have here (polyester blends, washing machine formulas, chemistry) were old when my Grandmother was looking for her first job. Not a whole lot of interesting going on. "But the money!", you say. Yes, yes, the money. I couldn't care less. I mean that last part.

Let me know what you'd do if you were me...(you already know what I'm doing, see paragraph 3 above).