Happy Holiday Food Poisoning???

It's an ominous start to the holiday season to attend your company party and be sick the next day. I really think I had a slight case of food poisoning, especially since my boss and fellow employee both had the same symptoms yesterday. I felt like I had been beaten with a baseball bat. I finally grabbed a cushion from the lobby couch and snuck into the conference room for a short nap. I felt a little better after that, but I was afraid I'd run out of wind before I could get to the bank and the grocery store after work. So I left at 4 pm, ran my errands, made it home by 5, stayed up long enough to feed Maggie, sync my Palm (yes, I am a geek, no matter how I feel), and eat a cheese stick, and then I laid down for a nap about 6 pm. I woke up a couple of times but finally got up at 11, turned off the living room light, crawled into bed, and finally woke up around 7 am.

I do feel better today, but I'm not pushing it. I'm eating easy-on-the-stomach stuff for the time being and keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't some type of real bug. So far, so good.

Anyway, the party, at the local, old-money country club, was a smash hit as always. It seems to be the first big party of the social season around town, and all the movers and shakers were there. The best part is that I don't have a thing to do with it--we host it with two other organizations, and one of their persons takes care of everything. My only wish was that we could have some different hors doeuvres, because we seem to have the same thing every year. But how can you argue with free food and an open bar? Not me . . . .

So the news is out on the street that I've resigned, and now I'm beginning to see why my boss wanted me to wait to tell anyone. It seems most people's initial reaction is "So he finally drove you off, too!" I can see why he wouldn't want to hear that over and over again--he has a deaf ear and blind eye to some of the issues within the office, and I'm sure he's probably embarassed to have people say that to his face. But anyway, everyone seems to be genuinely happy for me but sorry to see me go. My ego can't help but be a little happy to hear that. It's nice to hear that you're capable and well liked. I'm just considering that a little extra Christmas gift to me.

I'm trying to get the really important work things first, things like my final payroll. It looks like even though I will receive a year's worth of accumulated leave pay, I will end up losing, between what leave I can't be paid for and my short-term disability leave, about 325 hours worth of pay. This really frustrates me because one of the main reasons I'm leaving this job is because it's absolutely impossible for me to take any large chunks of time off--hell, I'm lucky to be able to take ONE DAY off, so I feel like I'm being ripped off twice. But there's nothing I can do about it, and I know I'll be better off in the long run, so I just have to buck up and move on.

But I've been thinking about it, and between the bonus which my boss has promised, my final paycheck, and my final leave check, I should have a nice bit of cash coming my way. If I add in some money that was put into a retirement fund (not enough to leave for twenty years and expect to get anything much from it), I should be able to put a good-sized amount in a savings account and then spend a little on myself. I've been making up a wish list of what I WANT and what I NEED. At the top of the NEED list is clothes (because I've hardly bought anything in probably five years). The WANT list includes a new computer, a spinning wheel, some new furniture, and god forbid, I've even been thinking about a small floor loom (someone stop me, this is insane). I have a second bedroom that I could turn into a little studio--most of my fiber stuff is in there anyway, it's just not organized very well. It wouldn't take much to fix it up and make a cute, cozy little studio.

What I would really like to do is fix my apartment up a little bit. I don't have much furniture, and I think it's time that my living space looked like something a 48-year-old would live in instead of a 20-something's first apartment. I'm hoping over the next six months to spruce the place up a bit. There's a thrift shop downtown that has wonderful furniture, and I'm sure I could get some wonderful stuff there. As much as I'd love being able to do it all at once, I'm just not able to do that, so I'll do a little at a time. I think it'll be fun!

My plan for today is to do my laundry and then sit down and knit for a while. I've almost finished the first front of my sweater (I guess I didn't make that December deadline I had, huh?) and should be able to do so pretty quickly. I keep having the urge to spin some, but I've not gotten there yet. I did order some beautiful cranberry fiber from eBay, so maybe I'll be inspired to get spinning again.

As for next week--we have snow in the forecast. I can't decided if I'm happy or bummed over this--the kid in me loves it, but the adult doesn't want to have to drive in it. Honestly, though, we need any type of moisture so badly here right now that I'd be happy to see some snow. We've had too many fires in the last few weeks to turn anything down right now.