so i went to my office's christmas party tonight. kinda felt weird going having only been working there for four days. but oh well. dinner wasn't served until after 8, which was a little irritating. i had the pasta mediteranian, which was pretty good (although it doesn't touch the amaretto penne from carmine's) and i was happy with my choice because the chicken dish looked bland and the prime rib just looked huge and scary. yeah. so. they gave everybody a $15 gift card to best buy, and then at the end of the night they drew names from a hat to give away $10 in movie cash. I was one of the winners (rock). so i came out $25 ahead for the night. i'm glad i went. even though i was the only person who came alone. but oh well. i'm single and fabulous and if anyone has an issue they can eat it.

yeah. so i'm hella tired now. I'm such an old woman. I'm gonna go to bed... tomorrow is casual day because it's friday and we get to wear jeans to work, which really excites me. wee! it doesn't take much...

so the job seems to be going well. I handled my first claims yesterday. I'm not sure I knew exactly what I was doing, I had to ask my supervisor for a lot of help (which annoyed me because I hate asking for help... but oh well). I hope they don't "set me free" too soon. Ugh. I had to call some people... I've only been doing the first part where you gather the preliminary information and enter it into the system. I haven't done any sort of investigation at all yet. I hope that instead of just giving me some more really easy claims (like cracked windshields) again today they'll do some actual training with me. I guess they said that they ordered training books for me, but they haven't come in yet. great. anyway... I can't believe how tired an 8 hour day makes me... I was so used to working those nice, short 4 hour shifts at the doctors office... dammit, the real world sucks. beh.

so the first day of work was pretty much how I expected it to be. The horoscope below rang pretty true it was just a passing moment. Everything seemed a little overwhelming and confusing, but I didn't let it bother me too much because I figured that it'll just all come in time. It seems like a job that you really have to just learn by doing. Soyeah. Everyone seemed nice... I got there at the same time as the branch manager (Andy) and so he let me in and showed me my cube. I've got a new computer that's really cute... it's black and silver (only a 17 inch monitor though)... a compaq with a 1.7 ghz processor (soyeah, it's 3 times faster than my little computer here at home...). It's the newest computer in the office and the only sleek black and silver one and I'm just so happy to not have a beige box like everyone else. soyeah. tomorrow promises to be pretty much the same as today, but they mentioned something about me making some phone calls to people which i'm not too excited about doing already... I really don't know the policy any better than they do just yet, so I'm not going to be any good at fielding questions... yeah... anyway... we'll see.... I've been invited to the company christmas party at the century house on thursday night. i told them i was going, then had to tell them that no, i wouldn't be bringing a date. single is fabulous, but i'm going to need to line up some guy friend that i can get to go to functions with me in a pinch...

so i can't believe how tired I am... i did aerobics today after i pigged out and felt hella guilty.. no more pigging out. more aerobics...

so i found this awesome framed four leaf clover at redenvelope.com. I'm just fascinated with it. I think I need it. If I had $28 to spend on myself I'd have it right now (or as soon as it could get shipped...). But I don't have $28 to spend on myself. I don't even have $8 to spend on myself. I'm ass, ass poor. Can't wait till I get paid, but most likely that won't be until the end of this month (30th) because I just don't think payroll will be able to get everything ready in time for me to get paid the 15th... suckage. I'm so poor.

so tomorrow's my first day at my new job with the insurance company. I'm a bit nervous. Well, I'm not sure how nervous I really am. I don't feel like I'm going to throw up every time I think about it, and I don't think I'll have much trouble getting to bed. But I keep saying that I'm nervous. I think I'll really be nervous the most when I get there tomorrow. I'm not sure where to go. It's a very small office (so they tell me anyway, I've never gotten a tour or anything), but I don't know the code to get past the reception area. I hope my supervisor will be there to meet me. Or at least I hope the receptionist is there when I get there to tell me where to go. Ick. That's the only part that I anticipate sucking. Yeahso. I'll most likely just do the first day stuff tomorrow: filling out paperwork, getting the tour, etc. They know that I have absolutely no experience in the field whatsoever, so I don't think they'll be expecting much. I'm excited for my own desk :) Yeah... I better get to bed. Frankly, the thing that makes me the most nervous right now is if I'll get up on time tomorrow and if I've got it figured out right timewise (how long it'll take me to get ready, get out the door, and get there). beh. so wish me luck!

I just checked out my horoscope for tomorrow at ivillage and this really seems to apply for a first day at a new job... weird... :

Different ideas may confuse you initially, but once you take the time to hear them out, they may grow on you, Cancer. You don't have to be totally right, just don't be too wrong. This is a place-holding day, a passing moment on your way to greater, more noteworthy things. Go through the motions and blend into the woodwork. You may be able to rely on your friends and coworkers to get you through the rough spots. Know when to ask for help and when to work it out on your own.

I'll take that to mean that it'll be like pretty much every first day at a new job: not too great, but not awful either. I like the "This is a place-holding day" line... that seems like it'll ring pretty true...

Yeahso... sleep now for good day tomorrow.

Friday was my last day of work at the doctors office. I was very sad to leave, because Jeff and Bill were the best bosses ever. They took me out to Carmine's which was excellent. I had the Amaretto Penne, which consisted of grilled chicken, shrimp, and penne in an amaretto cream sauce that was sweet and excellent. I really enjoyed every bite. At the end of the meal they presented me with a thank you card (with a humorous note) and a $50 gift certificate to Crossgates with instructions to buy more shoes. I gladly followed those instructions later in the day when Michelle and I went to the mall. We hunted all over the mall for a pair of tall brown boots that didn't look cowgirlish and that had a notsohigh heel because I'm tall enough already, thank you. We were about to leave when I decided to try and look in Lord and Taylor even though I rarely shop in there. We went in, and I immediately found boots I loved. They were exactly what I was looking for (well, except that the heel is pretty tall, but dammit, I guess I'll just have to own it that I'm taller than the general population) and they were on sale for $55. The saleslady was very weird. She seemed like a character straight out of SNL. She talked very oddly, kind of slow and very dorkish (I think she snorted when she laughed) and she could only handle one thing at a time. And she kept making mistakes and she was extremely slow. But, when I went up to pay for the boots and I showed her a tiny scuff near the bottom of the boot (which, honestly, you'll never see, and it's not like I'm not going to scuff them up) she took 10% off of the boots which meant that after I applied my gift certificate from the doctors I only had to pay $1.47. I was very excited about my $1.47 boots and I got to wear them out Friday night (see post below for details of Friday night activities). I'm thankful that Michelle came along, because she told me to show the saleslady the scuff and that I'd probably get $ off of the boots. Yay! Anyway. Still excited about the boots. In fact, as I recall, they were in my dream last night (which was an odd one... something about dimensional traveling using a remote control... i dunno), I think I was wearing them with a skirt (a plaid wool skirt, now that I think about it. Dammit. I wish I really did have that skirt from my dream. It ruled).

so Friday night I went to McGeary's with Dodi, her friend Dallas, Eric, and Ryan. Hair of the Dog was playing, and I was very excited to go. I decided to handle my extremely tight financial situation in this manner: I'd pre-party at my place with the alcohol I already have here, pay the $5 cover to get in, and hope that if I needed a drink, someone would buy one for me. It worked out well: Dodi bought me my first Guinness, Eric bought me another one later, and Dodi and Dallas each contributed some of theirs to fill my glass (plastic cup) again later on. Actually, I was pretty ok (read: hella drunk) after the first Guinness because the prepartying at my house consisted of two (double) shots of tequilla, but the drinks kept getting handed to me, so what was a girl to do?

Anyway. The crowd that night wasn't that big and most of them didn't seem to be familiar with HOTD, so that was annoying. As a result, they played mostly songs that everyone would know (Brown-Eyed Girl, Out My Back Door, Mrs. Robinson, etc) and didn't play a lot of traditional Irish music. And their songs that you're supposed to interact with (Tim Finnigan's Wake) didn't really go over well because the only people who knew them and knew what to do were like me and I think five other people. In fact, during Tim Finnigan's Wake, when everyone was supposed to yell "Lunch!" only a few of us yelled and the singer actually said, "That sucked." At the end of their set, I was a little afraid that everyone wouldn't cheer enough to get them to play their encore. But they did. They played the shortest version of I Used to Work in Chicago that I've ever heard, which was a little disappointing because that song's great. But then they ended with The Parting Glass, which they hadn't been doing at the last few shows I've attended, so I was happy to hear it :)

There was some sort of Christmas party there before HOTD started their set, and the women who were attending were very drunk and dancing during the show. This provided a sort of horrific entertainment because they were all pretty much not attractive and they were bad dancers. There was this one woman who wore a white fleece hat, scarf, and gloves the whole time. It was so freaking hot in there, I just wanted to go over and rip them off of her. We speculated on them being lesbians because of the glaring lack of males, and Eric said later that he saw really ugly woman kiss hat and gloves on the hand (through the gloves. odd).

anyway, so it was a good night. I had fun, enjoyed the band, and spent very little money.