6.23.99

    Oh my. Has it been so long? If you're on my notify/confidential/update list then you've heard from me a little bit but... well, sorry for the unscheduled break. I'm a little sad about it because there are some things that I wanted to capture. For instance, I got a job!

    You may recall in my entry of 6.9.99 that I was "Hot! Hot! Hot!" and had just done an interview with a web design company. Well, when I got back from my trip to Eugene (the Chelsea & Amanda Nostalgia Tour) I did a second interview and met more people. I think I came off well (duh) but it was hard having multiple interviews. After the first one I started getting confused about whether I'd already said what I was saying to the person I was talking to or if I was just thinking of the last interview. I tried to change the mode and direction of each conversation after the second interview so that I wouldn't sound stupid and repeat myself.

    After the interview, I had to come home and work like crazy to finish this contract for PGE (Portland General Electric). It was nothing big, just some new pages created from current templates. They had a launch date of Wednesday which gave me two days of cranking. No big deal but I did have to throw myself into it.

    Tuesday, I got a phone call and an email from the president of the company offering me not the job which I had applied for, Production Assistant, but a Web Designer position. Stoked, I said yes. They're paying me a handsome salary with benefits, 401(k), opportunity to join a credit union and a reduced-price Costco membership. I'll have a three-month review in which I suppose they could, possibly, fire me but we'll just see.

    I've been sick since the day they offered me the job. I've had a head and chest cold which has just been annoying. I'm sure if I hadn't been such the party-girl in Eugene I would have been spared. However, I simply couldn't put them off. I've already got a trip planned in July and will need the time off. So, I've been taking tons of cold medicine and trying to be alert and on-the-ball. I've just been working and then coming home for dinner and then straight to bed. Yesterday, I felt like hell and made a bunch of mistakes. Today, I left early with a migraine. But, I think I'm getting better. I'll go to bed early again tonight and try to kick this thing.

    So, what about this job? The people have been great so far. I've been dumped right in the thick of some projects which has been fun and there's the chance on the horizon that I'll be brought in right at the start of a new client project so I'm looking forward to that. I was able to make some emergency Flash edits for someone who wasn't sure how to do them herself. That was cool.

    The offices are fairly non-descript, cubicle-land sort of things. They are, however, moving downtown which rocks! I'll be able to take the light rail everyday. Why drive if you don't have to?

    Today, we had a designer's meeting and the office bought lunch. I was told to get my lunch order in ASAP, so I did. When the meeting started the lunch guy came in and started handing out boxes. He didn't have mine, however, and I wasn't even on the list. I felt like a dork. Not that it was my fault but I really wanted to come to this meeting and sort of blend in to the background. Everybody started offering me bits of their lunch but I wasn't really hungry in the first place so I declined. Of course, even though I wasn't late the last available chair was at the head of the table. Then, during an extended pep talk from our head designer guy I started getting a tickle in my throat. Worried that I was going to have a coughing fit I gulped water and tried to quietly clear it. I ended up making some sort of froggy noise that only the girl to my left probably heard. I very quietly said, "'scuse me" like the polite person I am. The pep talker says, "Oh, I'm sorry, were you wanting to say something?" All eyes on me. I laughed and replied, "No, I was just burping but please... please go on." Thankfully, everyone laughed but I have to say that my intention of blending into the woodwork just didn't happen at all.

    This morning was pretty crazy. Oz has been throwing up the last two days. He's thrown up four times some sort of hairball mess. He sheds a lot and licks himself a lot so I guess that's not bizarre. However, I wanted to get the vet opinion and pick up any anti-hairball medicine that she might recommend. At first, T. was just going to do this himself but we have one and a half cars right now. The MG is making bad sounds and so we shouldn't drive it until we figure out what it is. I've been driving the Honda to work and neither one of us thought it would be a good idea to put the cat in the MG.

    So, I stayed home to help with the cat and T. agreed to take me to work afterwards. It's a good thing, too. We've been taking the cat places in the box we got from the humane society when we first picked him up. It's about two feet long and a foot and a half tall. It's wide enough for a cat. It has large holes along the top and a handle for carrying. When we first took the cat to the vet for his rabies and lukemia shots we put him in there. It wasn't that hard to get him in but he complained loudly. He didn't like his shots and acted ooky the rest of the day.

    Obviously, the box has some new meaning.

    It took five tries to get him into the box. He would either squirm away at the last second or, when we tried to close the lid, squeeze out of the top like some liquid kitty. At one point we had to pull him out from under the bed. When we finally got him in the box he began thrashing around and mewing frantically. It reminded me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when the old lady wraps up a Jello mold and a cat to give as gifts. Chevy Chase holds up the box and it starts shaking madly. T. picked up the box and Oz punched his way through the bottom. You gotta respect that.

    So, I picked him up and held him tightly and said, "let's go." He squirmed in my arms on the way to the car (he may have been an outdoor cat in a past life) and then bolted to the back seat when we were finally in. He mewed loudly, cursing us and our mothers and the horse we rode in on, for the first few minutes and then settled down. He peeked out the side window. He put his front paws on the back of T's seat and watched out the front window. I think he enjoyed it.

    We got there and he had to stand on the cold, steel table. The vet gave him a booster shot for his lukemia vaccine and we picked up some hairball stuff. He was a little freaked out back in the car and just sat in a ball on the back seat, probably thinking revenge thoughts.

    While at the vet we also bought a hair remover thing, it's a roller with sticky tape on it. I was covered with so much hair. He just sheds like crazy when he's freaked out. My jacket was covered, my blouse, the inside of the now-broken cat carrier is covered like a carpet. Poor thing.

    I'm happy that he likes the car ride, though. We are going to take him with us when we visit my parents around Christmas. It's a good day's drive but I think he'll make it if he doesn't get carsick. I wonder what we should do about kitty bathroom needs? I suppose we'll need a leash and some sort of harness. This may be further complicated by the fact that some of the rest breaks we take will be in snowy areas. If any of you have ever travelled with cats — send me ideas!

    Before I forget, T. also got a new job. We're both excited about being gainfully employed at the same time. He starts next Monday!