hanging out

 

 I hope everyone is enjoying the day as much as Charlie!

Halloween house

I don't know when I fell in love with the idea of Halloween decorating but I really do love it. It ranks right up there with Christmas decorations...maybe even a teensy bit higher. 

Maybe it's because it feels edgy which isn't a word that people normally associate with me and I do so love to shock people every once in a while.

I've had the same set of decorations for a few years now and I was itching to get a few new ones but tombstones are expensive...until I discovered the dollar store in town! 4 new tombstones and 2 new signs joined my regular roundup of scary, creepy things. We even pulled out the fog machines which seemed to be a big hit with the kids and their parents.

Now if only we'd gotten more than 15 trick or treaters. Oh well, there's always next year!

 

birthday month

Did you know that November is birthday month?

Well, it is in my family because about half of us celebrate our birthdays this month so each November 1st we declare the whole month a celebration.

I'm big on celebrating birthdays. I don't understand people who don't take advantage of the opportunity to be queen for a day...or a month. Life is already full of routines and ruts and drudge, why not break out if only for a little while and say "it's my birthday!"

So happy birthday to Gari and Lisa and Todd and Sue and Michelle and Ryder! We are all kinds of awesome because we were born in 
 

NOVEMBER!

Happy birthday Carmel

I really love this time of year, especially when it's time for the annual birthday parade in Carmel which is held on the Saturday closest to Halloween. This year it actually was on the big day itself. Carmel incorporated on October 31, 1916 which made this the 99th birthday.

My favorite part of the parade is that anybody can join in so every year we drag bring our dog to walk alongside us. Jasper got off easy every year, all he had to do was walk but each little dog has had to wear a costume. (insert evil laugh here)

  This was Charlie's parade debut so she had to have a special outfit. Luckily a wonderful friend is an amazing sewer and she offered to make something for my princess. It was so much fun picking out the pattern (Steampunk Princess) and all the material when my friend visited (from Maryland) in early October.

My sewing skills are pretty non-existent (although I really would like to learn) so I am so grateful for her offer. 

 We joined the big group of walkers - adults, children, and dogs - and walked past the cheering, laughing crowds. I saw several people point their cameras right at Charlie and heard a lot of "how adorable" comments from the onlookers. Charlie seemed to love all the attention and walked right along with enthusiasm.

Her hat was a little less enthusiastic; it kept slipping under her chin. We'll have to fix that for next year.

 After the parade we stopped at Nielsen's for lunch. This grocery store has been in Carmel since the '30s and they are the best lunch value in Carmel. If you're ever in town, try their 3.99 burger. You won't be sorry.

While we were at lunch, a couple of people asked if they could take Charlie's picture. She and I loved all the attention.

I can't wait to do it again next year!

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I got a job!

So, lots of things to catch up on.

You might remember hearing me bitch and moan a bit over the summer about my desperate job search. As you may recall, I was feeling very sorry for myself for having left my wonderful job at Tor House to move to Florida only to end up moving back to California and have to look for another job.

Truth be told, I still feel a bit sorry for myself over that.

But, I'm working on looking forward, not backward and so I spent the summer doing temp jobs and sending out resumes.

And going on interviews and not getting jobs.

Dream summer, right?

But then, as summer ended and autumn began, things began to happen. Weird things.

First of all I had an interview at a non-profit in Carmel. The interview went well and the next day I was asked for my references. I was told I'd hear something by Friday...Monday at the latest.

Friday came and went and I heard nothing. This didn't bode well. On Monday I had an interview at another place for a job that seemed nice. They told me I would hear an answer that afternoon. 

And that afternoon I heard from both that interview and the non-profit. Same answer. NO. Believe me, it is not fun to be rejected twice within the space of an hour.

I cried and cried...all afternoon.

But then I interviewed for a bookkeeping job at a small business and I got a call 2 days later from the owner telling me that I was everyone's first choice and he just had a few more questions which I answered and he promised to get back to me on Monday.

Which he did. He called and asked me to come in the next day and get started. 

YAY! 

or not

The next week was the weirdest of my life. I went into the small business on Tuesday expecting to meet with the owner's wife who had been doing the books. She wasn't there when I arrived so the owner had me start cleaning off a table and making files. Then the wife came and instead of starting with her, the owner decided to take her out to lunch and told me to keep making the files. Then they came back from lunch and the wife had another appointment so she left. Then the owner had an appointment and he left. I finished up the files and I left.

Before the wife left, she and I made plans to meet the next day but at 7am, the owner texted me and said he would be out of the office all day and I should come by on Thursday so I did but instead of starting work, the owner said his wife was mad at him because she wasn't available that day (and he had scheduled this all without consulting her) and he really needed about a week so that they could both get organized on how to start the process of transferring the books over to me. I asked if he wanted to get back to me when they were ready and he seemed relieved at my suggestion. He said he'd given his wife my contact info and she would call me to set up a time to start.

So I left.

I haven't heard from him since.

When I walked out I knew that things probably weren't going to work out there (and I really never wanted to see this guy again) so I immediately called the temp agency and told them I was available again. I also had another job opportunity up my sleeve although it was a longshot.

Earlier in the week I had an interview scheduled with a local nature reserve non-profit but I had canceled it when the other job came through. I decided to email the nature reserve to let them know i was available again just in case they hadn't found anybody although I truly doubted it would work out.

Imagine my surprise when they immediately responded and scheduled an interview with me. Then more joy and surprise when I had a second interview with them and then a job offer. I guess it was meant to be. I started 2 weeks ago and it's a lovely place to work with super nice people.

It's also a wonderful place to hike on the weekends and T and I have really been enjoying our time there.

The reserve, also known as the Slough, encompasses 3500 acres much of which is former farmland. There used to be a dairy farm there from the '20s through the '70s.

So I've landed in another beautiful place and for that I'm truly grateful.

 

NaBloPoMo

After toying with the idea of NaNoWriMo (for about 2 seconds) I decided that NaBloPoMo was more my style...so here I am getting my first blog post of November in under the wire.

Basically, NaBloPoMo is a commitment to post on my blog every day in November. Considering that I have been absent from this blog for quite a while, this might be a challenge but I'm up for it. It's been an eventful couple of months and I've got lots to say...tomorrow.

Until then, here are a few cute pictures of Charlie.

 

Until tomorow