WhooHoo Friday!

Oh, this blog should get lively, I think the menopausal mood swings are kicking in!

After snapping at Girl Wednesday night and writing yesterday's manifesto (okay, it was short for a manifesto, you have to infer a lot there) I went to work, plotted and planned more details, and went to the gym. I felt so much better by last night. Then today things just kept getting better - the job is still frustrating, and it's frustrating in the old familiar way - it's hurryhurryhurrygottasubmitthatplat all the time, and then they (and this is the homebuilding industry They, not my own department's they, because they're all this way) end up amending, resubmitting, ohshitweforgotting, adding this and changing that, and the plat we were "rushing" ends up taking twice as long because NOBODY FUCKING SAT DOWN AND TALKED IT OVER AND THOUGHT IT THROUGH AND PUT IT ON PAPER FIRST. It's always "Oh Shit we forgot to tell you...." Developers do what they do because they love to build things. Give them a stormwater drainage system to design and build, they're happy. Tell them we have to document it and they run like their asses are on fire. The hardest part of the job is getting them to sit down, shut up, think, and then explain what they are doing in a way that translates to plats and HOA documents that make sense. They just want to jump in and move dirt, they are all little boys with Tonka trucks all grown up, even the girls, and the paperwork of the business is like doing homework to them, on a sunny day when they just want to be outside playing in the dirt. It has ever been thus, and I now remember why this business makes me nuts. But the difference between this job and the one at the Big Homebuilder That Must Not Be Named is HUGE - there I was a cog in the machine, struggling to figure out what was going on, chasing information, answerable to everybody, and always frustrated. In this job I can sit everybody down and make them count to ten, speak slowly and tell me what is going on, and follow up on things that need follow-up, and tell them what they need to be thinking about, and they listen to me and say thank you. I'm not a flunky, I'm an Old Wise Woman. Yes, my children, I have seen the retention ponds that overfloweth, the windows that leaketh so that the water poureth right out of the concrete block, the posh oceanfront condos built without the very structural steel that holdeth them up, the pavement crumbling beneath the expensive tires of the Lexus SUVs of the residents of the very expensive luxury neighborhood, I have done the OSHA training, walked through the valley of construction shit, and I can swap stories with the grizzled old guys. So I'm one of them. It just takes a while of swapping war stories to get them to quit thinking of me as an office girl.

So by the end of the day, I actually felt like I had a handle on what was going on, people said, "Oh, thank God you're here!" more than once, and I know I'm contributing real value to these projects. This is SO not like being a paralegal, documenting and reporting on work other people do. It's crazy, frustrating, tiring and weirdly fun. I really like it.

Nice talk with the new boss, T - we have so much in common, as women of a certain age in an overwhelmingly male industry. I told her I had bought the online course to get my RE license back, and she instantly said the company would reimburse me for the cost of getting my license. Cool beans. I thought they would, but I wasn't going to ask until I was sure it was what I want to do.

Girl is out applying for jobs. It's hard to wrap her odd class schedule around a work schedule, and I don't expect her to take just anything. She's great, I'm not in any way implying that she's a burden, but I'm going to get selfish and start planning my own future for a change. I'm going to give both kids a "Here's what Boy owes, and here's what Girl needs to kick in for her room and board and dogsitting and HDTV and stuff," payment schedule, and add that to the Fuck This Fund. The FTF will grow and be there, gathering interest, for the day I can't sit in the office anymore, and then I will take the leap and go out on my own.

I have to bite the bullet and have a garage sale. It's so sad - I can't find a charity in the area that will come with a truck to take the things that won't fit in my car. I loathe garage sales with every fiber of my being, but it appears to be the only way to offload a lot of the surplus in this house. I've set the first weekend in December for the Dreaded Day, that gives me time to get ready.

Knitting - I'm going to have a Bossy Doghouse Garage Sale online, offloading the stash I will never use. Crystal Palace Chenille in rose, bought for the jacket from Knitter's Stash, uh, 3+ years ago. Impulse purchase during the self-medicating with yarn years, how often will I ever wear a freaking rose chenille jacket? Especially since I've never gotten around to making the damn thing? Some nice wools in sweater quantities, again, I have bagged my limit of wools, thanks. Surplus sockage. I'll go through the stash tomorrow and make a list. What doesn't sell here and on Knitter's Review will go out for the physical garage sale, and then to charity or trash. I really want to destash - mostly so I can re-stash without guilt, with only the yarns I love, to make things I'll use. I will no longer get suckered into the spell of a thing that I'll hardly ever have a reason to wear.

Oh, wait, knitting I'm actually DOING? Still working on the linen shawl. Another linen washcloth. We actually USE those things every day, they're great. The original - the feather and fan - has been used, abused, washed and machine dried, and though the color has faded a tad, the texture just keeps getting better. I totally understand using this for baby blankets, the more the child barfs on it and it has to be washed the nicer it gets. I've finished two washcloths in double broken rib (BGW Vol. I) and started a third in mistake rib, just to see the stretch factor after washing and drying. I am experimenting to find the definitive linen washcloth stitch, and so far it's the double broken rib by a mile, it has texture and holds body wash and lathers like a dream, but mistake rib may be good too. The linen washcloth patterns in Knitter's Stash caught my eye and made me consider trying linen, but the patterns themselves - eh. But I'm not complaining, but for them I never would have been inclined to pick up a skein of Euroflax Linen, and now it's like crack, I can't get enough of it and I'd spend my FTF on it if I lost control.

Much to do this weekend, including Dog School. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so I should spend some time on long neglected yard work. Happy Friday!!!