Dear lord, life is busy! Swear to snowflakes I've been too busy to think for the last month, and baby it ain't getting better...until next week. Maybe.

So, I got a new job, which meant leaving the company I'd been with for the past five years. That is a surprisingly big change, and it took some adjusting (the weeks leading up to the move were filled with a heady mix of excitement, nerves, glee, and panic). Those if you who know me well know that's just par for the course- I'm about as welcoming to change as a house cat, and knowing this, the smart thing to do would have been to schedule a break in between the ending of one job and the start of the other. People, I am not smart. I had all if a weekend in between, and that weekend was spent getting ready for and attending a friends' wedding. Yay for her, heart attack for me.

Anyway, it was hard to leave all the people at my old job- I have good friends there, and even the people I was just 'work acquaintances' with, after 5 years, were sad to leave. But this move really is good for me, in a variety of ways, especially career-wise. I kind of hate having to think/worry about 'career' (the same way I hate to think about money), but whatever, you pick a direction and then get off your butt and go there.
The new job is good but super busy (it's the time of year; things will be much calmer later... just not now). I'm in inside sales now. I have yet to really sink my teeth into the 'selling' part of the role, but the 'planning to sell' part, I'm all over.
The office is new and gorgeous- I have a million windows. It keeps snowing here and I get to watch it. But the cubes are all half-height, and it's open concept, so in order to keep disturbances to a minimum, they like it quiet. Like, beyond library quiet. Morgue quiet.
And who can work in a morgue?! It took me all of two weeks to lose it over the uber- silence, and start bringing in my headphones. I've become anti-social headphone girl, but frankly it's too quiet in there to be social anyway. We're social at lunch. I was social the day I brought in cookies. Want friends at work? They can be bought through flour, sugar and butter.

Anyway. There have been brief sparks of life in my life over the last month- they dot my calendar in a pitifully occasional way, like chocolate chip cookies that have been under-chipped.

I had a Hanukkah party. The girls came over and I gave them the most garbled explanation of Hanukkah that ever was, then we decorated a gingerbread house- which I had MADE from SCRATCH. (Shout out to Calgary Aunt for invaluable construction advice, without which we would have been decorating gingerbread ruins). There was food and enough people to freak Esme out. We had fun.

And I'm going to Calgary! Every time I have a moment away from work, I get to pause and get excited over this. I get to spend not-my-religious-holiday with Calgary relatives and the Mom and the brother and even the Egg. I am anticipating the getting there will be a bit of a gong show- picture if you please, Christmas eve in an airport with the brother, our luggage, everybodys gifts, snowboarding equipment, and the dog. And the dogs luggage. And possibly my work computer, if I can't get it all done. At least the dog won't be snowboarding.

The brother is so excited. He keeps contacting me with ridiculous things. Case in point:

The brother: "You think well go ice skating?"
Me: "I dunno"
The brother: "The likelihood of ice skating probably would go up if you brought your ice skates."
Me: "I am not packing ICE SKATES!!!"

At this point, I have no idea what I am packing. The list, which would normally be long and complete (save for a few minor additions and edits) by now, is woefully thin. I think it says things like 'clothes' 'Mom gifts' and 'that hair thing I bought last week'. That might be the entirety of the list at this point, actually. I just havent had time! We had Holiday Party at the Robins yesterday (super fun; she cooks up one heck of a Yule log, people), and I wrapped all the gifts that morning, in about 20 minutes, with my hair still dripping from the shower. That was possibly one of the saddest showings I've had in gift wrapping in a long, long time. My mother would be ashamed. But everyone liked their stuff, so that was great. It doesn't help with my list, though.

It's 9pm and I have less than an hours' work left for today, though (not working on it now cause I'm in a cab- boss had his reps out for dinner- yum). I think I can get home, finish work, and I *might* just have a few minutes to whip the list into shape!

Merry xmas, people!