What a strange week. Having Wednesday off was nice, but my brain wasn’t sure what day it was on Thursday. It felt like it was still Wednesday, like everything that happened on the 4th was in a fold of the space-time contiuum.
I got the vast majority of my wardrobe shopping (for the new job) done on the 4th. It was one of those “jackpot” days — the wavelengths were all in synch or something, and I found plenty of clothes and shoes, most of them on sale. I put everything on store credit cards, which I will pay off this week. Now I have another 2 weeks, and hardly anything left to buy to wear at the new office! I think a trip to Kohls is next to pick up “fashion” jewelry.
After spending 5 1/2 hours at the mall on the 4th, I went to Windsor to see some friends from college. (I really had to tear myself away from the mall too… I was tired and sore from all the walking, but like I said, the wavelengths were all in harmony. I hated to stop!) Windsor had a town-wide cookout that was free for everyone — the town provided hot dogs, pizza and chips, and residents brought enough dessert to have 3 tables laid out with just about every kind of good American treat you’d expect: cookies of all sorts, cupcakes in several flavors, brownies, other cake-like bars, and even fudge. In the middle of all the sweetness were a few bowls of cut-up cantalope. In the whole town, only one person brought a healthy dessert. Now that’s American! There were also huge condiment containers to dress the hot dogs, and sweet tea and lemonade were being dispensed from huge kegs into tall styrofoam cups filled with ice.
That evening we watched the Windsor fireworks from the front yard of my friends’ house. The kids were jumping with excitement at the (illegal) fireworks being shot off in the neighborhood, but when the real fireworks started I think they were overwhelmed. It was a very pretty show, very small town in a good way. I chatted with my friends afterwards, so I didn’t head for home until around 11:30pm. On the way, I saw the moon rise, and it was massive! It wasn’t even full, and it was bigger than any full moonrise I’ve seen before. Wow.
I was finally able to talk to the VP about my new job on Thursday. She didn’t even make a gesture of asking me to stay, she simply said, “So tell me about this new job.” So I am officially the 7th person to leave that set of departments in the last 2 months. The 8th (much to my surprise) is the VP herself! When she gathered everyone together to tell them I was leaving, she also announced her own retirement, effective Sept 15.
My own supervisor has been on vacation the last 2 weeks. She knew the job offer was coming, so she won’t have a rude shock or anything on Monday. We’ll have the next 2 full weeks to make sure I have done as much as I can to wrap up the projects on my desk, and to make sure she has all the info about my tasks.
This whole new job thing is still a little surreal.
No photos of woodworking yet. I discovered that three of the bits I ordered for the shroom project had a smaller shaft than the Dremel I bought — 3/32″ instead of 1/8″. I’ve been looking at stores all week to find the right size bits instead of going through mail order again. Today I found a solution. I will just go ahead and display my ignorance here — I didn’t realize I could purchase a smaller collet (the metal piece that tightens on the bit shaft to hold it in the Dremel) until I visited Hobby Town USA today. So now I can use the 3/32″ bits. The good part of my ignorance is that shopping around this week taught me the kinds of bits Wal-Mart carries, which art/craft stores carry any rotary supplies at all, and that the more specialized bits at Hobby Town USA are actually very reasonably priced. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a rotary carving day.
Oh, and today I also redeemed a free 2-month membership at BJ’s wholesale club. I was bummed to find that they don’t sell packaged sliced roast beef like Sam’s Club does. But I did get some lean frozen burger patties, a big bag of garlic parmesean toasted Italian bread slices (mmmm), a bunch of mac and cheese (vitamin fortified, unlike Kraft’s) and a canister of dried Procini mushrooms from Germany. (hehe, shrooms..) I had some shrooms with my mac and cheese tonight. They’re really quite good. Exactly what I would expect in terms of mushroom taste. If nothing else, it’s totally worth the $7.99 I paid just to have great shrooms on hand whenever I want.
Sorry if you didn’t really want to read the whole shopping list. 
I feel compelled to describe it all. Incidentally, that’s also why I find it hard to keep a journal. I want to describe and tell things in detail, and by the time I lay out the scene, I’m almost too tired to continue with the meat of the story.
Speaking of tired, I think it’s time to lie in bed with a good book. The cat is already “relaxing” in the box bottom that held the BJ’s groceries. He’s oozing over the sides a little bit. But it’s not as bad as some boxes he’s squeezed himself into. I don’t even wonder anymore.