For Keri

As my cousin, Keri, pointed out it really has been awhile since I last wrote. So here I am, at 10:45pm. I'm moving into my new office on Friday, as Friday will be my first official day in the new job...even though I'm training my replacement well into next week. I like how the timing of this has all worked out. Since you can't hear my voice, I'll just tell you that I said that last sentence sarcastically. My current soon-to-be-old office was jammed full of stuff, and seemed like the catch-all room for my department and sometimes other parts of the office, because when I took the job I inherited a whole bunch of junk that didn't belong to me and that I didn't have time to sort through. So when our office got new carpet and the reception area was remodeled, I took the time to sort and throw stuff away. So now it's neat and tidy, AND I got cabinets put in, which took me almost a year to convince the maintenance guys to do. So today when I was going through some of my things to get ready to move down to the new office, one of the Directors came in and was asking me what I thought of a paint sample...because apparently now all of the offices are getting painted and outfitted with new blinds. Nice. Have I mentioned that my new office is about half the size of my current one?? Oh well, I shouldn't complain. At least I have an office.

The greatest thing about this new job, other than the monetary increase, is that I don't have to be on the clock anymore which is really fantastic. I'll also be sitting down more, which is definitely a switch from my current situation. I wore a pedometer one day and found out that I walk (on average, I'm sure) about 6 miles a day...at work. So no more of that. Which means I get to wear grown up clothes!! I went out and bought a few new "big girl" blouses to wear to work. I dress down some days because of all the walking, because if I did that in heels I'd be one upset employee. But now I can actually try to look professional which will be fun.

Anyway. I've started collecting sea glass. You know, glass from someones discarded beer bottle or some glass bottle of sorts (when you think about it, sea glass is pretty depressing seeing that it's really just litter) that gets tumbled around in the ocean for God knows how long but it's pretty when you group it all together and I'm putting it in a glass vase to display in the house. It's a little project for me when Jason and I take Kobe to the beach on the weekends. I walk along, head bent, looking for sea glass glinting in the sunshine. It's sometimes really hard to find but I'm a diligent seeker. I even sit down in places where there's a lot of little shells and dig down under the layers to try and find some glass. But it has to be roughed up, it can't be freshly broken glass. Because then it's just broken glass and not "sea glass." I'm a weirdo, it's alright.

Last topic for the evening: Fall, or as I like to call it, Autumn because it's a prettier word. Again, weird, I know. It's coming! I can feel it and when I was driving home from Ross tonight it was almost completely dark at 7:45pm which some people would find sad because that means summer is on it's way out but not for me. I LOVE this time of year. I can't wait to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out 4 (one for me, one for Jason, one for Chloe and one for Kobe) of the most perfect pumpkins I can find and display them proudly on our front porch. Jason even mentioned getting a hay bail this year to add to the ambiance of the season which got me super excited for October. I can't help it, I simply love the holidays! My grandma loved the holidays too and I guess it rubbed off on me. No one else in my family seems to get as hyped over the holidays as I do but that's ok, I have enough spirit for everyone. I've already ordered some holiday stuff from the Current catalog...little bags to hold my cookies I give out as gifts to the family and I bought a new Autumn door hanger for the front door a few weeks ago when the display items were first put out at Michael's. Some people live for the Super Bowl or NBA Finals...the last few months of the year are my Super Bowl.

OH one more thing: for those of you who cook, you'll appreciate this. We have a little store where I work that sells items that others have given away (like a small thrift store) and I found a blue Le Creuset cooking pot and they charged me...$5!!! To give you some perspective, these are top quality cooking pots. They usually cost about $250 - $300 each. So, you could say I got a major deal. Made my day!