When I was unemployed, all my working friends told me, “Work is overrated.” At the time, I thought to myself, “Easy for you to say, you have a job.” Well, I’m in week two now of the new job, and although the people and the content are really cool, I’m already starting to feel the fatigue of the grind. Yesterday, my drive home took an hour. Today was the same. I had purchased all this candy to distribute for Halloween, but in the end, I still got home too late. Not a single soul came knocking on our door. I’d better get rid of the candy fast though, because John is munching away!

So at this point, I still prefer employed status to unemployed, but it’s just a totally different lifestyle, that’s for sure. Today, I delivered my first training presentation. As with all my presentations, I obsessed to no end. Lost sleep over it, got numb fingers, the whole shebang… in true neurotic fashion, of course. Fortunately, the obsessive preparation paid off. The session went off without a hitch, so that’s good.

Also, my job involves a lot of project tracking, so all my control freak tendencies get a lot of play. And I’m pretty good at riding people’s asses (just ask John). Beyond that, I’m just really psyched to be involved with the alternative energy/fuel cell thing. Being a part of something progressive, no matter how small the initial market or implementation, and being a part of the startup energy is really invigorating.

I just try not to come across like such a bore to my colleagues. Everyone always asks about hobbies, and I swear I should just prepare a response; otherwise, John and I sound like total rejects. I mean, maybe that’s just the cold hard truth of it. I don’t feel like such a loser, although I know we aren’t as active as we could be. What can I say, I was born an old, grumpy lady. Besides moving to new places every two years, I’m not one for risk and adventures. For example, some coworkers today suggested John and I head downtown to Castro Street for Halloween. Apparently, there’s a huge party/celebration there every year with lots of craziness. Think Mardi Gras. Well, frankly, that’s enough to keep me away from that for years. I don’t like craziness. I don’t like noise. I don’t like big parties with random people. See how I’m still such an anti-soc? And you actually thought my social anxiety exercises were helping? Me too. Shrug. I am who I am. I can network with strangers if need be, and I won’t avoid an event just because I don’t want to talk to strangers. But that doesn’t mean I’ll throw myself into madness. John and I are perfectly fine eating pot pie at home while watching my crush Andy Lau in “Infernal Affairs.” I mean seriously, what could beat that? Ha!