Yep, I'm a Whiner

Before I blog, I have to say, Bonnie- I feel the same way when I read your blog. Glad to know you're jamming to Christmas carols as well and I will put up pictures soon, I promise. (By this, I mean I've taken my camera to work for 2 days now and forgotten to take pictures, but I'm bound to remember eventually.)

Shout-out over. Actual blog post, begin.

Today was one of those days where I finally just had to leave work (at hour 10) because all I was doing was staring at the computer screen and thinking, "There is literally no way I'm going to get everything I want to get done, done."

It's week 4 and I know it. I'm not going to be able to do everything I want to do. It doesn't matter if I stay late every day and bound in every morning with endless energy. It's just not going to happen.

Housekeeping is a repetitive job. You clean things, just so that someone can use them and you can clean them again. There's satisfaction in walking into a room to see a complete mess and walking out half an hour later with everything clean, shiny and lined up perfectly.

But then, 2 days later, it's dirty again.

This is even more frustrating when it comes to laundry. I have my goal: get everything clean and folded. I have to break it down. First, get everything clean. I do it. I stay late to change over laundry and at the end of the week, my dirty carts are empty.

However, I have 6 clean carts loaded with unfolded, clean laundry. That's OK, we'll catch up on folding next week. But, oh yeah, a small weekend filled up 5 carts of dirty laundry again. Sigh, regroup, start it all over.

For a task-oriented, grind-it-out type of girl, this kills me. So I'm deciding right now not to let it. I'm going to do all I can with what I have and ask for help when I need it.

Hold me to it, friends. Because I can almost guarantee I'll be right back here, complaining about the never-ending cycle again soon.

Sorry to whine, but really, what are blogs for?

On a lighter note, here's another installment of Old YouTube Videos Revisited: Japanese Mob Scare Prank (This, combined with my roommate's dog and blog venting have completely restored peace and happiness into my heart. It's so funny.)

Hear Me Out

I'm gonna make a statement, and some of you are going to be kind of judgy about it. I would just like to preface this with: I don't care. Be judgy all you want. Because I think you're crazy if you don't agree whole-heartedly with me on this one.

It is perfectly acceptable (and I would say a damn fine idea) to listen to Christmas carols in October.

Again, I realize some of you are screaming out loud right now, but hear me out.

Fall is my favorite season. I love that it's warm in the sun in the afternoon and cold at night. I love that everything turns beautiful, rich, warm colors. I love that you can get pumpkin flavored anything. (I'm drinking pumpkin ale right now. It's pretty good.) I love it all.

However, there is no fall music. There's no Autumn Carols. All that fall has is the Monster Mash and soundtracks of creaky doors and ghosts wailing. That does not really make me want to curl up by the fire with a cup of coffee. It also does not make me want to bake pies and bundle up to play outside.

Christmas carols make me want to do all of those things.

Now, I don't go crazy and put up a tree and start wishing people Happy Holidays (PC) in October. I only listen to Christmas carols when it's cold enough to build a fire in our fireplace and when I'm just chilling in my house.

When the Christmas season really gets into swing, I'll be playing them all the time. For now, I still play the year-round selections at work. That will change as soon as Thanksgiving is over. Then it will be non-stop Christmas joy.

To sum up, Christmas carols in October are like a good movie trailer. They give away just enough to make you want more, but they don't ruin the real thing. Try it this year. See how you like it.

P.S. I treat myself to one (or two) new Christmas albums every year. My favorite last year was the Hotel Cafe one (see below). Please send me suggestions if you've got a favorite.

Song of the Day (last year's favorite): Winter Song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson (Song starts at 2:50) (See? Enjoyable even in October.) (Watch the actual music video here. It's really cool, but BMG disabled embedding because it would probably be bad to have people promote your artists on their blogs.) (I like parentheses.)

I Know You've Been Waiting

OK, so I know that I've been blog-slacking a little lately, but there is one particular issue that it is inexcusable that I have taken so long to weigh in on. I know you have all been waiting patiently.

That's right, it's official. Jake's the new Bachelor.

Now, before I say anything else, I just have to say I TOLD YOU SO (several times)!

Seriously, not only did I call it that he would be the next Bachelor, but I also came pretty close on what they were going to call the season. My guess was The Bachelor: Love Has Wings. However, the Bachelor producers, in all their cheesy wisdom, went with The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love. To-Mate-O, To-Maht-O.

Now, I have mixed feelings on this. Is Jake an interesting person? No. Is he someone I would want to spend time with in real life? Not at all. Is he a soul-less pretty boy who is obsessed with finding love? I think so. And that, my friends, makes him a perfect candidate for the Bachelor.

My prediction for this season: Jake picks the girl I like least, who most likely has big, fake blonde hair (wasn't sure where I was going with big and fake were you?) and is either an elementary school teacher or "consultant" of some kind.

As much as I despise myself for it, I am pretty pumped to watch the extreme uncomfortableness that will be this season. However, I do have a couple of personal hurdles to overcome before the premier in January.

1) I have to mentally prepare myself to not curl up and cover my eyes every time something awkward happens. Otherwise, I'm never going to see any of the show.

2) I'm going to have to convince someone that it would be fun to have me over to watch it every week. (I no longer have cable, but I'll come up with a solution.)

Looking forward to the blog fodder! I'll see you in January.

Employment is Nice

It's been 5 days since I last blogged.

I want to post, but I literally can't get my brain to function in any way other than to think about Housekeeping. And I'm exhausted. Like, it's 9:00 and I could legitimately go to sleep right now, exhausted.

I love it.

I love the first weeks of a new job, where everything is so crazy you feel like you're always on the verge of being completely overwhelmed. I love working so hard and exercising my brain so much that I have to turn it off at the end of the day.

I know that in a few weeks this will all be routine. I'll know who to call when my washer breaks and I'll know how to turn in my invoices to our bookkeeper. But for now it's all wonderfully new.

Oh, yeah, and it's also super awkward, hard, grating on my pride, and has caused me to fall ill.

Back at it tomorrow!

Song of the Day: Song Up in My Head by Sarah Jarosz (my new favorite to listen to while answering emails/wading through the mass amounts of docs saved on my work computer.)

I'm On a Business Trip

Do you know what 8 housekeepers, a beautiful lodge, an empty camp, lots of talking, lots of eating, and a whole lot of learning equals?

I do! I do! Call on me! (Hand waving in the air in a Hermione Granger-esque furor.)

A rollicking good time, that's what it equals.

I laughed so hard I cried, I spent 12 hours a day talking about my new job, I felt encouraged, uplifted and equipped. I love working for this organization.

I want to write more, but all I can think to write is that the dimensions of a twin mattress are 39x75, the standard color for sheets in camper rooms is white, dry extraction carpet cleaning is the cutting edge of carpet maintenance, and blacklights show urine.

I don't think you all really care about any of those things, so I'm going to post what I've decided is going to be a recurring feature on my blog (a la songs of the day).

I present to you: Classic Youtube Videos Revisited. (I've had a couple of nights recently of reliving classics such as Bubb Rub and they are funnier than I remembered. I hope you enjoy.)

Entry #1: Safe Hands (Full disclosure: I can't watch this without dying laughing. I love when he tries so hard to hold in the f-bomb, but just has to curse. So funny!)

Just As I Expected

My life is crazy.

Now, I can't claim that I had a whole lot going on before I moved out here, but the last 3 days have been the most exhausting I've had in a long time.

And I love it.

(Liz- You might want to stop reading now. I'm going to blog about what I've been doing and I know how you hate that.)

I got here Wednesday evening and moved my stuff into Katie and Jen's which is where I'll be staying perhaps permanently, perhaps just until they hire someone for the kitchen (depending on who that is). It is beautiful and quiet and peaceful at their house and I really enjoy it. The room I'm sitting in right now has 10 windows and they all look out into trees, trees, and more trees. It's completely quiet, except for when you hear the train. (I find the sound of trains soothing, I think because it always makes me think of my grandparents' house.)

That night I went to Family Dinner, the weekly staff hang-out/potluck. I am a big fan of potlucks, so this makes me happy.

I started work bright and early the next morning with the 7:50 daily staff meeting. I spent the rest of the day with Katie, who was doing my job on top of hers (she's in Guest Services) for the past year. It seems like she did an awesome job, but I'm sure she's glad to get it off her plate. It's actually great for me that she's still around because she'll be an awesome resource.

I spent the day listening intently to Katie as she walked me through everything having to do with Housekeeping at Lost Canyon. They're trying to give me a crash course before I leave for training on Monday, so it's a whole lot of information coming my way that I'm desperately trying to catch and hold onto. At one point, I was walking around with a stack of binders/folders/manuals that would've put any freshman in high school to shame. I had to consciously remind myself to make my face not reflect complete and utter intimidation, but I think I held my own.

Thursday night was Women's Bible Study, which was fun although I had lost all ability to functionally communicate by that point. I found myself talking and thinking in my head that what I was saying had nothing to do with the topic at hand, nor made any sense, but I kept going anyway. Despite this, it was encouraging and there are some great women here that I'm excited to get to know better.

Yesterday, I spent the day cleaning with Esther and Linda, the two Housekeepers on staff. They are funny Williams locals and quite the characters. I'm sure I'll have a lot of stories from the two of them. They were sweet and very welcoming and showed me the ropes. They're still catching up from summer and being short-handed while hiring me, so there's a lot to be done.

I spent the rest of the evening getting my office (semi-) in order and playing with my new work email. (It makes me feel so legit.) I came home, watched the Cardinals game on my computer and was asleep by 9:30.

I slept in today, woke up to watch the early Cardinals game in bed, grabbed some Subway with Jen (my other roommate and the area director for Young Life here in Williams), and then began to wade through the stack of manuals that I brought home with me.

Also, there's a giant wildfire burning a couple of miles from me. They started a controlled burn that went rogue and had the camp on high alert for possible evacuation of the group in this weekend. The sky is filled with smoke and I've been listening to helicopters and planes that are dumping water all day. I don't really know what to do about this. I found myself listening for the tornado sirens, but I don't think they even have those here. I'm just assuming someone will call me if I need to evacuate or something.

I'll keep you updated on whether or not I burn down.

Much Love.