Three Hundred Forty-Second Entry

Well, it's finally happened. I got a damn job.

And not just any job. I will be the newest member of the Lea & Braze Engineering staff. Sound familiar? It should. That's because that is the place I left to go work in the solar industry. They have had a huge back log of work building up in the last few months. And since there are only 24 hours in a day, they decided to ask me to rejoin the team and give them a hand. I am taking a huge paycut from when I worked there previously, but a large raise from my unemployment check. However, everyone at the company is working at 10-25% less than their highest wage due to the economy. The company is just scraping by, and appears to be on the upswing. Hopefully I can help.

While I am grateful to have a job, I was a little disappointed in the paycut. But everyone at L&B has taken a paycut. It's interesting because while there is a loyalty to the company and the management, everyone seems pretty pissed that the paycut has lasted this long and are working hard to get company profits turned around. It will be interesting to see what happens when other jobs start opening up...

Everyone seemed happy that I was going to start work there on Monday. I was happy to see that everyone is happy. I'll need to readjust to it, and learn the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the managers again. I am concerned about a possible backlash from people saying that L&B should have reinstated peoples wages and not hire another person. But so far people have poo-poo'ed that and told me that they really need the help. I just hope I won't disappoint anyone!

So, at worst this is a temporary job, and after three or four months, if things don't pick up, I'm outta there. At best, after three or four months the numbers keep improving and everyones wages get reinstated, and I am permanently back on the team.

Oh yeah, and this time around, I get my own office! With a door and windows and everything! I'm sure that's so they can keep an eye on me...

In other news...

Amy and I went to Chez Avery for a delightful meal prepared by the cookers three (Amy, Care and I). We made Aloo Gobi...and I helped! It was really good...and VEGAN! Who knew that vegan food could taste sooo good? I certainly did...not. Just kidding Care. After dinner we watched Accidental Husband. I think it was a straight to video release. It was pretty bad. I think the lead guy in it was Izzy's dead husband or something from Grey's Anatomy. Uma Thurman was in it and was awful. And the casting folks obviously tried to class up this disaster with Colin Firth and Isabella Rossellini. Even Carolyn agreed that the Blockbuster guy that recommended this should be fired. LOL :)

Carina and I are headed down to the Tias tomorrow for a fun-filled "Clay Day". I'm taking the wheel and clay and my tools and stuff and we are going to throw and pinch and coil to our hearts content! It's kind of serendipitous that I scheduled this for Friday. I did so before I even knew they were thinking of asking me to come back to work. LOL. Works out for everyone!

Amy has signed us up for some classes through the Chabot Community Education. I'll be learning guitar and more about my car. Looking forward to it!

A couple of weeks ago, I took my car in to the shop. Turns out that I needed an oil change, a new alternator and a new master cylinder. Arrrggh... Well, they did it all and it cost me a bundle. I was driving it home and it starts squeaking at me! It was Friday night, and I didn't want to go back right then, so I thought I'd drive it during the weekend and see if the noise went away. Alas, it didn't. In fact, it worsened. :( Poop. So I took it back and said hey mothers, this is making noise! They took a look at it and decided to try to charge me $85 to replace the fan belt. Arrrggh... I didn't let them do it. So they put the belt back and as I drove off, the noise stopped! It was quiet for three days. Now its just as loud as before. So, yeah, I'm the one making all that damn noise driving down the street.

My French class is over. Voulez-vous parler francais? No thanks...class is over. It was a very fun class though. I am taking it again next semester. Anyone interested? Unfortunately it is on LOST night. I think I would be getting home just in time to catch the first set of commercials.

I looked up my student loan balance and I'll have that damn thing paid off in the next few months. It's about time too. Stupid loans...

That is all.