Rain Rain Go away come again.....NEVER

I’m sitting in the office. It is STILL RAINING. I think (I lost count) that we’ve had 1 day with out rain since Oct 31^st. But it’s not a normal amount of rain, they have been saying, because the rivers are out of their banks, the passes are closing weeks earlier than normal and the entire town is water logged. Trees are uprooting because the ground is so wet the root systems don’t go deep enough and they are just falling over. I have had cold wet feet two days in a row now and it’s not fun. Adidas running club tonight was canceled because of the rain and wind combination and these people live in Seattle and are used to wet weather. I am waiting for Evan to pick me up from work because of said rain and me not wanting to sit in it tonight and wait for the bus, and I need to do some no thinking for a few minutes.

Work is full on now. I couldn’t figure out why I was so exhausted at the end of the day when I’m used to working full time. Yeah I had a brief hiatus but for 7 years I’ve been working full time, I should be some what used to it. Then I figured it out. I am constantly on my game here. Either I’m in client meetings or just keeping face because of the environment in the office, it’s exhausting to put your best foot forward ALL DAY LONG. I’m still the fairly new kid on the block here and a simple task of going to the printer turns into a 15 minute conversation with someone and I have to try to be clever and funny and some what sure of myself. It’s exhausting. Sounds crazy but think about it. Sometimes you just need time to be not-so-perfect self. This office has a pretty think sales environment and if I have to work with someone else, chances are there is going to be about 10 or 15 minutes of BS and boys being boys before the meeting actualy starts during which time I'm to try to remain and witty as possible and in order to be respected you have to give as much as you take. Sometimes I can't think this quickly. …..I’m crazy busy now which is super nice and the things I’m doing are exciting, challenging, all at the same time but the greatest challenge is adapting to the men I work with. All are so different in their work style and approach. When I deal w/ Mike, I have to treat him like a 5 year old because he gets whiney and cranky if things don't go his way. When Ideal with Paul I get no direction which is great then I have to walk him through the entire project at the very end so I have to be sure to document what I'm doing while I'm doing it so I can appropriately answer his questions. When I work with Jim in Minneapolis I have to prepare for a 25 minute conversation to get 2 questions answered and with Joe in Portland, it’s at least a bit refreshing because he knows NOTHING and is at least thankful and gracious. He’s the only one who isn’t working 100 miles an hour and four days ahead of the pack already, but I wish he were a little more self sufficient. He also doesn’t have email so anything I have to send him I have to burn onto a CD and snail mail him which shouldn’t be that huge of a deal except I don’t have my own burner and the IT guys make sure I have the CD as close to full as possible so as not to be wasteful and I have to keep finding things to fill it up. The process takes entirely too long. It sounds like complaining but it's really not. Things are going great and I'm learning new things every day! I enjoying coming to work (although with the cold weather it's getting harder and harder to get out of bed every morning) and I enjoy being here (obviously, it's 7:30 now).

Evan has another deadline of Friday so he's been pushing hard to get through that. He's also been working late so that he won't have to work till 10 on Friday. I think that's a great plan. He's had dinner at work every night this week. There has been some exciting things happening at MS of the past few weeks so he's of course having his fun too.

Camaron is still our house guest and things are going fine. She's a bit on the inconsiderate side. She has no concept for personal property or for other peoples wishes in general but that's to be expected. I thought a trip to the grocery store would teach her a thing or 2 about food consumption in general and how much olive oil to use based on it's cost and how much pasta to cook when you only intend to eat 1 portion but I guess it didn't. For the most part she cleans up after herself but she does things like washes the dishes and then doesn't put them away so they stack up. She cooks dinner which is very nice of her but uses 4 chicken breasts for the 3 of us and then half of it goes to waste. She makes weird food that Evan eats but doesn't like so he won't eat the left overs. She makes cookies but can't reach the shelf to put the ingredients away so she just doesn't. She leaves glasses in her car and in her room so there aren't any in the cuppboard which is fine b.c Evan and I only need 1 a peice but it's the fact that she considers everything in the house hers. She leaves the toothpaste in the shower. I know she uses all of our "things" (soap. shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, makeup, ect....) because I've seen no evidence of her using her own. And Evans complaints are she keeps down loading software to the lap top, she goes outside to smoke/talk on the phone and doesn't take casey with because she doesn't want to wipe his paws, and she never did put her stuff away so we had to do it for her. She also is always engaged in our conversation so we rarely get to have a conversation that we don't want her to overhear, weather it's about our personal lives or just things married couples talk about together. We did allow her into our home and we are generaly OK with it, but perhaps if she had a job or something to keep her busy she would be less 'there' and we wouldn't feel so smoothered. IT's only temporary and I know that she is greatful so if we can get through this, we will come out much happier. I'm heading out now to brave the weather and try to swim home. I guess I should update more so I don't have such long entries, huh!