Catching Up on the Catching Up

Update #1

Landlord Bob fumbled around with the remediation of our "little cadaver problem" for several days. Some nights, I would come home and it would be much better-- still noticeable, but better-- and then in the morning, I'd come back to get clothes for work and it would be worse again. By Friday night, the cat was beyond freaked out, and Ash was kind enough to let me bring her over to his house for the duration. I suffered several scratches and lots of snickers from passersby in the transfer, and she's definitely regressed in her relationship with Ash; we've gone straight back to the "hiss everytime he looks at her" phase, which is quite possibly the most irritating thing she's ever done in her whole life.

There was a great leap forward on Monday: I came home from work to discover a huge mountain of garbage bags piled at the curb and the smell was almost gone. My assumption was that someone-- Landlord Bob, some distant relative of the poor guy formerly in #8, a professional clean-up company-- had cleaned a bunch of stuff out of his apartment, which is, of course, utterly necessary if there's any hope of getting rid of the smell. But on Tuesday, the smell was back with a vengance, almost as bad as the first terrible day.

Last night, I cautiously opened the front door and sniffed the air... what is that? A new and different unpleasant odor... but I can't really smell the... Nope. Wait. There it is. But there's a lot less of it... And what's that noise? Sounds like a big fan running downstairs... Ah, yes. It seems that Landlord Bob is running an air scrubber. Hopefully it's one of the really good ones with a HEPA filter. At any rate, the unpleasant smell of ozone (I finally put my finger on it hours later) means that either Landlord Bob hired a professional or he got some professional advice. Thank God. With a little luck, I'll be able to take the cat back home tomorrow.

Update #2

I am about to rejoin the ranks of those with health insurance and paid holidays. HR called me to let me know that the official offer is being sent to me by UPS. The whole process has been very frustrating, and I'm glad that it's finally over. I had a total of four interviews, including one in which the interviewer had himself started at My Company two days earlier. After the fourth interview, nothing at all happened for over a week. Meanwhile, an org chart appeared on one of my coworker's walls in which my name appeared, labelled as "Contract Manager". Then the department head and one of the managers made a minor production of complaining about how there are still so many unfilled positions in the department, which nearly sent me around the bend. I practically bit my tongue off trying not to yell "Well, I can tell you how to reduce those empty positions by one!"

So I start my new, permanent position in less than two weeks. The sense of relief I feel tonight is indescribable. We'll be able to pay our bills! I'll be able to go to the doctor if I get sick or hurt! Ash and I will be able to make plans!

Update #3

I'm off work tomorrow because the whole office is being reconfigured with new, smaller cubes so that all of the new people that are being hired right now will actually have somewhere to sit and work. This has occasioned more than the appropriate amount of whining and moaning throughout the office, and no one was more put out than Myrtle. All week, I listened to her bellyache about having to clean out her files, about the fact that we had to fold the packing boxes into shape, about the fact that she had to stay later than usual to make up the hours, until I wanted to leap over the wall and scream "Yes! You ARE the only ones being move! And therefore, you are the ONLY ONES being inconvenienced by all of this. And NO you will NOT SURVIVE once you are separated and asked to sit with the other people who work on the accounts that you're assigned to! Because you never know, WORKING HARD MIGHT JUST KILL YOU. And WOW is it FUNNY when you repeat everything someone else says, only when you say it, you use a funny accent."

Oh, did I forget to mention the best part of this whole move? Not only will I no longer be anywhere near any of the Loud Ladies, they've been separated. They are, in fact, nowhere near each other. I don't for a second imagine that this is coincidence. Myrtle nearly had a heart attack when the seating chart was posted on Thursday morning.

"This is terrible. What are we going to do?" she kept moaning all day. Hmmm, I don't know... YOUR JOBS??

Update #4

Blogger is being more cooperative tonight, so here are the wedding-y pictures I tried to post before.

The dress, clicky to see the detail and please ignore the fact that the zipper is undone a little at the top (that's one of the things I'll have to have the seamstress fix)...


The Save the Date cards...




The text inside looks like this:

i carry your heart with me (I carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

--e.e. cummings

Ash

Katze

September 21, 2007

www.fakeweddingblogurl.com

Except that I've lost the formatting and the image of a crescent moon in between the poem and our names, so I guess you don't get the full idea, but... eh, at least you can see the poem and such. I'll write a separate post with the wedding planning update later.