The color of infinity inside an empty glass

So as of Friday, I have officially quit Calorie Count. For those who've actually watched my account there, never fear, I'm about to make it easier and just post here. Sadly, this does not mean my accessibility to LJ has increased any or that I have suddenly more time to read/respond to posts, but it does mean I'll be posting here more often, via email, mostly. It also means I've finally changed my setting back to make all new posts, by default, public.

So... what's on the horizon?
Well, short term.. I NEED to get my hands on Super Mario Kart for Wii. I played it over at Joey's house this last weekend (K's brother, for those who aren't sure) and it was awesome fun. :) I thought I might like it. Now I know. :)
We're hoping to get a few local people (and possibly Joey and his girlfriend Julie) to this Friday's Arthur Murray Valentine's Day guest special. You'll learn the basics of two dances (not sure which two) and then get to practice them with us. :) We've never successfully gotten guests before, so we're hoping this will be a first. ;)
Um.. in about a month from today, the contract I'd been working under ends. The good news is.. I'm fine, I have a job.. the bad news is.. I still don't know what, specifically, or where. Nor do I have a clue what it means for the work I'm currently doing (does it get left with Baker? Does it go with me?). No clues whatsoever.
Which is less than thrilling to me, btw.
In.. about 8 weeks, will be Freestyles. K and I will be competing (sort of) with all the local Arthur Murray schools. My father and Elaine (my stepmother) are coming down to watch us, and K's parents are considering doing so themselves, so this will be a Big Deal (tm). This would have been a big deal anyways. We're each doing 10 dances and we're learning some pretty nifty moves. ;) Just you wait, some of you lucky guys, til you see the two of us in Vegas at the end of May. ;) We're going to knock your socks right off you, without even stopping to take your shoes off! ;)
K's family is TALKING family vacation. Who knows if it'll happen (or if we'll have money to make it happen), but on the table is the possibility of Orlando, where they own a timeshare. This would, for K and me, mean a second chance to go to WDW. I repeat, this is not a definite, just a possibility, one of many. But it's an exciting prospect in any case. :) I LOVED WDW and I'd LOVE a chance to go back. :D
Oh, and Sims 3 has been reset to ship out June 2nd (to arrive June 3rd), and as we ALL know I'm very much looking forward to THAT! ;D

And that's all the news on the horizon. As I said in my Facebook status a couple days back, this is looking to be a busy year, in a good way. :)
And I'm really really excited about being able to show off the dancing to some of you people. ;) We've learned a few tricks since the wedding ;) And a few more dances ;)
Muahahahahaha. >;)

Josh called me just as we were leaving to get some final Christmas presents bought (*evil laugh*).
Mom's back in the hospital with pneumonia.
I don't have a hospital number to call yet. I also don't know if she went in to the hospital BEFORE things got bad, or BECAUSE. Hopefully Before :p

In other news, K and I and other members of the Watershed Concepts team in the Alexandria office are going bowling today. Hope I can keep my mind on the pins.

.. Hope I can keep my mind on work!

EDIT:
Bowling Cancelled.

Heard from Josh. Things aren't good. They took her to the hospital BECAUSE she got very bad. She's stuck in bed, right now, not allowed to move.
They mentioned the R word again last night as well :p

I think I need to write ANOTHER post about this.

It's weird, dealing with a manager who doesn't want to micromanage me.
Things feel totally different beteween this job and the last one.

I'm TRUSTED here. Not only does Manas have faith in my abilities (we have a guy joining us from, I think, the Atlanta office. He's done Studies which are somewhat like MT-2s, but bigger and different rules. He's come to my cubicle a number of times in the past day and a half, which Manas encouraged, for a number of questions.)

I've had more productivity in the last week than I think I had in the last three months at PBS&J. And it's unfettered. Manas checks everything out and MOST of the comments I've gotten back so far are in regards to differences between how PBS&J did things and Baker does, including wording (Wording's always been a weakness of mine. Language, in general, is. :p)

I haven't gotten over the unfettered part. Being able to make my phone calls on my own. Being able to write emails without having to send them through a team lead. Hell, I've even been adjusting requestor's models for them and sending them off, because it's just easier to make some changes over here when we know what we're looking for, then trying to explain them to the requestors. PBS&J had... very differing viewpoints about this.
Seriously. I've spent most of this last week able to sit in my cubicle, work, get letters off to Manas and getting them back.
Even Kristen sees the difference. I come home from work tired from a productive day at work instead of half bored out of my mind and begging for something to amuse me.
It's.. just so nice. Way way nice.

This is.. nice. It's real nice. I feel like my blood pressure has lowered many many points. There are still some serious annoyances. Angie was trusted too and, hence, was really bad about leaving notes about her thinking. So the first part I have to do with each case is go through everything thoroughly, write my own notes and see if I can understand Angie's thinking, which, so far, I've been OK with, but is time consuming.
Some of the requestors are still nincompoops too, but that comes with the job. I can't have everything. Sadly ;)

Yay! :)
I'm happy here :)

*pbtpbtpbtpbthhhs at PBS&J*

God, this place is busy. There are TONS of people here, going in and out, up and down, all around. There are five floors (I don't know if they're ALL Baker, but at least two are...). The break room has two refrigerators, completely stock, four microwaves, three vending machines.
This place is B-I-G big.
There is a deli.. somewhere in the building.. exhoberant prices, but this is Alexandria. Also, there's a shuttle that can take me to and from either the Eisenhower or Van Dorn Metro Station, thus saving me money, which is good! :D
There are currently five people in this whole office, who belong to Watershed Concepts. Three programers, Manas and myself.
Apparently the programmers, and hopefully Manas, want to take me out Wednesday or Thursday to lunch.
Other good news is.. Manas expects me to work Smart and Hard, but hopefully not long. Overtime is a distinct possibility, but he doesn't want to work it and doesn't expect me to unless I need to. If I need to, it's expected.
I've got a computer, but no account of my own yet, so I'm logged on under Because Angie left, I've been given her old cubicle. That means I'm right near Manas, but alas, right off one of the main paths, so it gets noisy here.
The cubicle is OK. It'll be better tommorow when I bring a few things of my own in, like my kitty calendar :)
Computer's not bad, if I may say. It's definately newer. I'd say it's a year old, give or take. Running Win XP Professional.
I WAS running on a four or five year old computer running Windows NT Patch 6 back at PBS&J.

What else?
I was up at god awful in the morning (3:30, I think) and couldn't get back to sleep.
Started dressing at 5:30.
Got out the door at 6:20
And.. arrived at Baker at 7:30
I'll be planning on waking up a LITTLE later tommorow (like half an hour!)
Especially given the shuttle from Eisenhower. That's cool. That's happy by me :)

Waiting for Manas to return. Should be getting real work soon. Yes, already.

I'm now.. right just this minute now.. FINALLY feeling excited about this brave new adventure in my life.
It's a little scary, with the hordes of people around me, but I think I'm finally ready to be excited about a new job.
Yay! :)

*postifies and waits for Manas to show up with real work*

Edit: Upside and DOwnside: I can get to my home email now, from here. But no more webcomics or game sites. Wow, I may need to work while at work ;p

Note to self.. Look into a portable fan. It's HOT in here. :p

Son of Edit: I think I've got a VOIP phone. The phone has an IP address...
Neat! :)

Grandson of Edit: I'm really feeling confident here. This stuff, as so far, is all.. stuff I know and have seen. Woot-nyo!

Great Grandson of Edit: It'd be really nice if the headache of doom went away now. I KNOW I'm tired. Stop, already :p Note to self, remember my headache pills tommorow :p

Great Great Grandson of Edit: Gods above, they have diet dr. pepper in their vending machine. A can for $0.50. Woot :) I loves it here :D