Hells yes.

This week, I was accorded a privilege at work that actually made me more hopeful for the future. The department I work for is hiring a new supervisor, and yesterday the management team (my boss, her boss, and her boss) asked me and another operator to sit in on the final interviews, and give our input. I gave my opinion with as much positive emphasis as I could, and exerted a lot more tact than usual (I didn’t say what I was really thinking about the less-than-stellar candidate — which was that I thought either of my kids could do a better job running the department).

Even better, the candidate I was hoping would be offered the job is the one who made the final cut! We haven’t been told if she’s accepted the position yet, but if she does, I think it will be quite a positive turning point for the department. She seemed professional, intelligent, strong-willed, and she appeared to genuinely enjoy developing professional relationships and being a mentor. She also has (*gasp*) a wicked sense of humor! If she does take the job, she’ll be the supervisor for the Wed-Sat schedule (which is when I work), yay!

Today she sat with me for an hour and a half, and observed some of the varied duties that we perform in our department. Besides my usual immense between-calls project, I also had some on-call scheduling to get loaded into the computer, and the daily checklist of tasks (which is rotated each shift; I’ll have it every Thursday). I also had gave her about a dozen of my most recent QA reports, so she could get a feel for how we’re evaluated (I scored 100% on all but one of them, and that one scored 98%).

After hearing that the company that Lyse and Robert work for did some cleaning-house and fired a bunch of people who had severe attitude and/or attendance problems, I was feeling pretty content with my job. No, I don’t like working Saturdays. And I’m still pretty ambivalent about the new 10-hour shift. But I know I’m good at my job, and other people seem to think so, too (one co-worker, after hearing that I’d been on the interview panel, said she was really glad I was chosen to do it — now that’s a warm fuzzy!).

What I find vaguely amusing is how many people, both at work and in my personal life, asked me why I hadn’t applied for the supervisor position. The most practical reason is that I don’t have the kind of supervisory experience they were looking for, but the main reason is, as I said to my daughter, “I can’t work with my nose up someone’s butt.” Kissing ass may work for a lot of people, but I have this pretty terrific thing called a life, and I’d like to enjoy it without having to constantly suppress my honest opinions (any more than I need to, to keep my job!) plus working 60+ hours a week in a management job.

With all the miserable news these days (including me being so sick I forgot what breathing without constantly thinking about it feels like), I figured a little levity was in order.

And now for something completely TMI…

Oh, so true:

Religion of peace?! Never has been, never will be.

This is all the fault of my Number One Internet Fanboy.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here’s how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing (feel free to annotate, since snarky commentary is half the fun)
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend that you’re cool…

Opening credits: “The Herald’s Creed,” Heather Alexander — Yeah, I’m a fangirl. And a Herald. No, really. I fulfilled all the requirements. Why else would I have a Hawkbrother feather on my arm, which goes with the shield of Valdemar on my beloved’s arm?

Waking up: “Wherever You Will Go,” The Calling — I’ve never figured out if this was a love song to a lover, a promise to a child, or an oath from beyond the grave. Or maybe all of them. Anyway, it nicely represents my tendency toward tenacity.

First day of school: “Islands in the Stream,” Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton — Yeah, I got nothing here. Okay, here’s a theory: I always felt isolated as a child. Might be why I spent the first 3 decades or so of my life trying so hard to belong. And mostly failing. *shrug*

Falling in love: “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” Green Day — I met my first love in the month of September. Other than that, I can’t think of how this song relates…aside from the lines, “The innocent can never last” and “Twenty years has gone so fast.” And I love the way the song starts out so softly, with very little accompaniment, and then the music just crashes in strongly and beautifully about halfway through.

Love scene: “Scotty Doesn’t Know (Euro Mix),” MC Jeffsky featuring Igor — This probably says something about my really awful behavior toward most of my boyfriends (okay, and husbands) when I was younger. Yeah, I was a bad, bad girl. Never in Europe, though.

Breaking up: “Pushing Me Away,” Linkin Park — “I’ve tried, like you, to do everything you wanted to / This is the last time I’ll take the blame, for the sake of being with you” … and … “The sacrifice of hiding in a lie, the sacrifice is never knowing / Why I never walked away, why I played myself this way” Yeah.

Life is good: “the middle,” Jimmy Eat World — This song used to make me cringe. Now it makes me dance. So, is all good.

Mental Breakdown: “Release Me,” Wilson Phillips — “I’m not going back to you anymore / Finally my weakened heart is healing though very slow.” Not entirely appropriate, but then again there were a few obsessive bits in my life. Bad times, that.

Driving: “All You Zombies,” The Hooters — Such a lovely song, and strangely enough, it does make a good driving song. Strong beat, aggressive theme, making a promise to those “people in high places” who want to slow you down. Nice metaphor.

Flashback: “Like A Prayer,” Madonna — It’s about God…and passion…and love…and power… Very pagan, really. *grin*

Getting back together: “We Belong,” Pat Benatar – Wow, this one FITS. I’ve always primarily thought of this song as being mine and Brenda’s, although it has fit other relationships in my life, too. But I’ve known Bren for (omg!) 25 years now, we have so much history, we’ve been through so much together.

Wedding: “The Other Side of Life,” The Moody Blues — Strangely fitting. It was my late husband’s favorite band, one of his favorite songs, and I suppose you could say he now is on the other side of life. “So take your share of the gifts that are there / They all belong to you / And come what may, at the break of each day / We all begin anew once more, we all begin anew.”

Birth of Child: “Xena Warrior Princess Theme Song,” Xena Soundtrack — I shit you not. Don’t know if this is a reflection on my eldest child, or the fact that I went through twenty-two hours of labor to bring her into the world. If that doesn’t qualify as warrior-related, I don’t know what does.

Final Battle: “Take On Me,” a-ha — If you’ve seen the video, you know it fits. Kinda.

Death Scene: “Dream On,” Aerosmith — Just. Entirely. Awesome.

Funeral song: “Draw the Circle,” Meg Davis — Another fangirl song. Very pagan, and nicely fitting. “Draw the circle ‘tween two worlds, Celestial fire to cleanse the girl / One to watch, and one to pray, and two to bear her soul away / The moon is every woman’s friend, to her your goodness condescend / And let this night, in visions see, the emblems of our destiny.”

End Credits: “Invincible (Theme from Legend of Billie Jean),” Pat Benatar — I’ve loved (and taken to heart) this song from the first time I heard it, when I was maybe 16. Of course, since I started reading military sci-fi, I can’t hear this song without thinking of killing Posleen. *grin* But yeah, this is one of the songs that most speaks to me.

I…they…teh hell?…what?!

The babble in the back of my brain keeps muttering, “Coming soon to a county near you, the live and in-person reality version of the movie Red Dawn, with the US government playing the part of the Soviets.”

Thanking Hecate for the link, and extra glad that Anxiety and I recently joined the Second Amendment Sisters. If I’m going to burn some day, let it be for bitterly clinging to my guns and religion.

Also, this lovely piece of work (link thanks to Merripan). Oh, sure, let’s teach the kiddies who thought they might have seen (oh noes!) something other than an honor student’s drill team replica weapon that guns are Scary and Bad and Horrible — instead of teaching them that guns are tools, and can be used responsibly or irresponsibly like any other tool — or they might not line up and die like good sheep during the next school shooting.

After the Virginia Tech massacre, I told Anxiety that if she ever sees anyone using a gun criminally, to do ANYTHING she can not to be lined up and shot like those collegians were. Better to run to safety than to die, but better to die on your feet fighting than on your knees in defeat. Always.

I figured out my taxes, which I do every year as soon as I get my W-2s, because I always get a happy refund. My lowest refund in the last decade has been $800, and my highest was just a smidgen over $4K.

Not this year.

Because I made about $2K too much to qualify for Earned Income Credit, I get a piddly $100 refund from federal, and owe state $1400. Needless to say, I will not be mailing my tax forms in until April 15th.

For shits and giggles, I grabbed Geoffrey’s W-2s and figured what our federal taxes would have been if we’d gotten married last year and filed jointly. It did not make me happy, because it would have been a federal refund of $725 — and our joint state tax owed would have been slightly under what I owe alone. (WTF?!) Plus he pays a bit over $2200 a year in medical insurance premiums, and if we got married I could add him to my medical insurance without it costing a single penny more than I already pay (since I have a child on my medical insurance, I’m already paying the family rate).

So living in sin cost us over $3000 last year. *headdesk*

The women who came up with this are clearly geniuses: sell the stuff your ex gave you that you don’t want but aren’t about to give back to him! What better way to recycle bad memories into cash that you can spend on good memories?!

Kinda makes me wish I’d insisted on a few of my exes getting me some of those silly shiny rocks that so many women go bonkers over.

Found a magnificent new site with tons of incredible goodies. And they let me make a wishlist. Hey, there are only 127 days until my birthday!!!

My psychic powers foresee a lot of cross-stitch in my future. *grin*

Today I learned that a groundhog and a woodchuck are the same animal. This disappoints me greatly, and I’m not really sure why. Perhaps it’s because “Woodchuck Day” just doesn’t have the same ring.

Happy Imbolc anyway. Winter is officially half over.

My work schedule is going to be changing in 3 weeks. With the budget cuts and layoffs at work, we’re losing one-quarter of our department’s personnel. That means the current schedules will be inadequate, and so everyone is getting new schedules. Basically, all but 4 people in our department will be going to four 10-hour shifts instead of five 8-hour shifts, me included. I had enough seniority to avoid being one of the people who got laid off, but not enough to grab a prized Sun-Wed schedule. So I’ll be working 6:30am to 5pm Wed-Sat, starting the 25th.

I am not thrilled. However, I’m trying to focus on the positives…and I’m going to be happy about those if it kills me. So, the positives:

• I can drive to work on Saturdays, because my building doesn’t charge parking on weekends.
• I’ll have 3 days off every week.
• I’ll have almost the same days off as Lyse (she works graveyard Thurs-Sun).
• I’ll get 4 days off immediately preceding the change, so it’s like a mini-vacation without using vacation time.
• If my vacation request is approved, I will have 10 days off in June while using only 1 week of my vacation time.
• Every holiday that falls on a Monday (and there are lots of them), I’ll automatically get off work but I’ll still get paid for them. (Working Turkey Day every year, and Xmas & New Year’s for the next 2 years, however. Le sigh.)
• And the best part of the change: no more working at that nasty little office on the hill that I call Exile Island! EVER!!!

The oh-god-hundred wake-up time I’ll have to suffer will be grievously miserable, though. Perhaps I shall bring in some cubicle decorations that express my feelings on the matter!