Please don't tame the shrew.

I kind of want a shirt that has my post title on it. It would probably be one of my favorite shirts. I might make one someday. Hmm.

My house is screamin' for a cleanin'. Now that vacations are done and one job is over and a new one has begun, life looks like it could be slowing back down a little. Maybe enough that I can get a handle on all the piles of stuff around the house. It all stems from my initial foray into painting oh so many months ago. I think I'm far enough removed from some of the painting projects now that I can clean up areas. I might do that a little bit today on this Independence Day. It's too hot to spend much time outside today. The big news of the day is that Watson, my dad's cat, is coming to stay for a while. Beatrix is going to love it. While I was in Omaha, my dad took care of Beatrix at his house and Bea and Watson seemed to come to a bit of a truce, and maybe even the start of a friendship. Since it's only been several days since they've been out of each other's company, I think the transition back into sharing a house shouldn't be too bad. Even though my house is smaller and there are fewer places to hide. I think it will work out.

I'm two days into my new trabajo and it's pretty fun so far. I have a lot more responsibility than I've ever had before. I get to make decisions and stuff! Watch out! Things got done in the past, but people are overwhelmed with their job duties and things are kind of stressful in my new area. I don't like stress, you know. I hate it, actually. Stress and drama are two things I avoid like the plague. At work, I'm now in charge of inter-library loan, which is not something I've ever had anything to do with in the past. It's interesting and I am sorta digging it right now. Still, the procedures for it seem totally wonky to me. Things can be much simpler than they have been and I plan to make things as easy as possible. I don't like being weeks and weeks behind in my work. The person I replaced retired about a month ago and I think she did a great job and wrote out some really awesome instructions, but some of the things that it says to do seem redundant and I won't be doing it that way. I checked with my boss to make sure that I actually am in charge of certain procedures and have the ability to change them and I do! Woooot! But I'm impatient, so I think I need to settle down a little. I am only two days into the job but I've got so many plans worked out in my head as to how I want things done. I think I'm going to need to take a breather because probably my co-workers aren't ready for the Tornado-of-change-named-Jill to come roaring through at the moment. Despite how ready I am. I have other non-ILL duties as well, but for the past two days I've mostly been focusing on that. Since it's a holiday week and a lot of people are on vacation, it seemed easier to just have some time to putter around and get settled in.

I had to go and get a new security badge on Monday and they switched me from officially being a student to officially being a real employee! I was looking at the two badges and the student one was taken almost exactly two years ago when I quit my job at the Archives and went back to school full-time. I actually look younger now than I did then. I think you can tell that you're moving in the right direction if you can look at yourself now and look at yourself a couple of years ago and actually see that you're happier and healthier. I definitely smile and laugh more now than I ever did back then. Looking at the two badges made me realize what a good decision going back to school was for me. I'm definitely in a much better place because of it. It's nice to be able to recognize that you did something that was rough, but good for yourself, you know? Plus, getting a job where I can use the degree that I quit the prior gainful employment to get, helps too. Kind of validates it all...

Isn't it strange that it's already July? This year has gone by really quickly. I don't get to take any more time off for about six months now that I'm a newbie at work again. I think that's okay though. Here I am, already getting a day off for a holiday. Starting employment in July and having that probation period is easier than starting in January, I think. I was thinking of all the holidays I get off during my probationary period since it's the latter half of the year. Counting today, I get 6 days off in the next six months, compared to just 2 holidays in the first six months of the year. Americans are rear-heavy in the holiday department where the calendar is concerned.

I need to go pick some stuff up that Bea has thrown all over the place. A hint that it's time to clean up the paint supplies is when she starts to drag the replacement foam rollers up the stairs as toys. I walked out of my room this morning to see one of the foam rollers I used on the dressers up on the staircase landing by my door. It was on the kitchen sink drying after being cleaned. I think Bea brings me these things as gifts sometimes. She plays a lot, but she always leaves them right by my door or drags them into my room and leaves them so I see them pretty easily. I have to say, though, I much prefer this sort of gift-giving by the cat than what other people's cats bring them. I've never had any cat dump a mouse carcass or anything at my door. I would scream and probably not be able to come out of my room for a while. Foam rollers are more my style. I think Bea recognizes this fact and we're on the same page.

Noboooody knooows the trouble I've seeeen.

Aaand, Christmas 2011 has slammed shut. Tomorrow is back to business as mostly usual. How was your holiday? Good, I hope. Mine was nice, jolly, and all-around happy. Beatrix, however, decided to crap in her cat carrier in an effort to be deemed 'unfit for travel'. She was proven wrong. My philosophy on this turned out to be that once I have caught her and stuffed her into the cat carrier, no amount of meowing or pooping is going to get me to let her out of the carrier or car prior to arriving at our destination. Despite doing this on the way to and from our Christmas port of call, she failed at getting me to turn the car around and celebrate Christmas at home. Instead, she spent the majority of the rest of both the first and last day of Christmas traveling cleaning herself after sitting in her own poop for a while. She ruined her Christmas toys on the way home, though. They were in the carrier with her. That sucked. But, mostly, a good time was had by all. She and my dad's cat got along so much better than they did at Thanksgiving. They're practically friendly. Almost. Watson can't quite control his hissing and growling and by the end of the holiday, a member or two of the house would tend to break into this song in honor of him when Beatrix would start to look like she was going to initiate an unwelcome playtime: "Nobooooody knoooows the trouble I've seeeen. Noboooody knooows my sorrrroooow. Nobooody knooooows the trouble I've seeeen. Gloooorrrry Hallelujah."

I saw the movie "A Christmas Story" with that kid named Ralphie in it, you know? I'd never seen it before, but I saw it twice over the weekend. I get it now. It's funny. For years I've been out of the loop. Welcome to the loop, Jill. There was also some church-goin. We sang Christmas carols as if they were dirges. I know Lutherans can be a dour lot, but this was surprising. If you ever want to hear "Hark the Herald Angels Sing!" and "Good Christian Men, Rejoice!" sung in the most depressing way at a Christmas service let me know. I can hook you up. I kept trying to sing a little faster in the hopes that those around me would also speed up the tempo and we'd have a less depressing carol. It was to no avail. And then they kind of skimped us out of Stille Nacht, which is my most favorite thing about my Lutheran sect's Christmas service. Last year, my dad and I were completely gypped by the service because we went to the wrong one and they only sang Silent Night in English and--while it's a pretty song no matter what--it's beautiful in German with the lights out and everyone holding candles. I mean, really. It's magnificent. This year we were determined to make sure we went to the right service, and we did, but they had a soloist sing it and she only sang one verse and was finished before they even had everyone's candles lit and the overhead lights were still on. I wanted to jump up and be like, 'Encore! We're still lighting up down here!' Foiled again. Oh, church.

Tomorrow I go in to learn about strength training at the healthplex I joined. They're going to show me how much weight I need to use on some machine to make my knees and ankles strong(er). I'm optimistic about this. They did an initial health assessment, which I passed with flying colors! I was in the good-excellent category in all the tests that they had me do, even the hand-grip strength test. I'm not ready for arm wrestling or even thumb wrestling, but it wasn't bad.

Have you heard of the Webcam Travel site? I think it's neat. It's just a google map full of web cams that you can click and view. It's interesting right now to look at the world as a whole and see the little thumbnails because so many of them are in prominent cities that have their holiday displays shining. Parts of the world are very colorful right now. It's neat. Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://www.webcams.travel/