Meanderings

This morning, the news had a segment on how to tell if it's time for you to change jobs. Included on the list were such items as being bored all the time, and not caring if anyone asks you about your job. I sat there and laughed, because I was doing my usual workday routine: talk myself out of going to work, then rush to get ready and go to work. The first part nearly worked this morning, but my better self won out.

The people I work with are, for the most part, extremely nice. The work environment is reasonably pleasant. But I am bored out of my skull here! If it weren't for my plans to do teacher certification classes this summer, I would have asked the temp agency to get someone else in here. There is no way I could do this job long-term. As it is, except for the very few days where there's enough work to actually keep me busy all day, I spend 2/3's of the day reading, studying, writing, blogging, reading other people's blogs, etc. It makes for very long and tedious days.

Moving on to other things:

Joe's turning into quite the chef. Last night he made a chicken and vegetable concoction, seasoned with Indian spices, that was just incredible. The chicken was so tender one could cut it with a plastic spoon. So I turned control of the kitchen over to him. That pretty much means no more Weight Watchers, because he is very liberal with olive oil and butter. But I'm getting into the habit of taking long (i.e., 90 minutes or more) walks, and think that if I'm careful about what I eat otherwise, it will still end up with my losing weight.

It is interesting to note, however, that when I do the cooking, I also have to do the dishes. When Joe does the cooking, I have to do the dishes. How does that figure? And Joe is not a neat chef. He flings things all over the place in his exuberance, and creates quite the mess. Well, if I can manage to convince myself that cleaning up after him constitutes a bit of exercise, maybe that will help me not get too resentful. I have tried, in the past, getting him to do his fair share of the kitchen work. Bless his heart, at the most, he'll do the top layer of dishes, and leave the bottom layer. While we were separated for 2 1/2 months this summer, that's how he functioned. When I moved back home, there was just a ghastly amount of unwashed dishes and some serious stuff growing in the sink. I ended up throwing away all the dishes with the exception of our good cookware and the glass bakeware. Then we just bought flatware and dishes for 4, and bought 4 glasses only. I'm not quite sure why we had so many dishes previously, but we could literally eat for two weeks before running out of dishes and glasses. And I'm really embarrassed that I know that fact!!

We have had extremely dry weather here in Texas, and have been plagued with many fires. The authorities have been getting the word out about the burn ban: the freeway signs indicate there is a burn ban, and the media are also constantly reminding us there is a burn ban. Yet people still flick their cigarette butts out of the car windows. They still lit firecrackers over the holiday weekend. They still burn leaves or trash. Our state is on fire, and these irresponsible people just don't even seem to care. On Sunday there was smoke thick and heavy in the air in our neighborhood. My allergies are acting up horribly (which is why I was almost successful in convincing myself to stay home today) as a result. I hope and pray that we get some substantial rainfall this spring. One might argue, however, that spring has already arrived, after three days of winter.

Joe and I have talked about returning to Utah. If he could make the money there that he does here, we agreed that we'd move back in a heartbeat. I miss my mother and stepfather, miss the climate, miss the mountains. But reality rules, and that reality is that he can't make the money there that he does here, nor could I. So for the foreseeable future, at least, we remain in Texas.

Before I end this post, I must proudly proclaim that I have, thus far, kept 100% of my New Year's Resolutions! It's so much easier when the list includes things I'm going to do anyway, rather than things I have little to no intention of realistically accomplishing!