And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting

Here's a long overdue post, laundry list style.

Since my last post:

1. I turned 20. For some reason this birthday freaked me out more than my 18th, which hardly made me feel like a grown-up. I guess this year has brought about a lot of growth in different forms, so I guess the title "in my twenties" follows. But still. Freaky.

2. To exacerbate the situation, my family just returned from a "family vacation" to out East and up to Canada. Minus me. Maybe it was good to unglue myself from the fam for awhile (I've been kind of a homebody since I returned from Spain), but I can't say I wasn't left out. Noche and I were experiencing some abandonment issues.

3. My experiences at my job have varied widely over the last few weeks. At first when I started scrubbing, I was pretty stressed. To make things worse, though, I had to have scrubbing done by 9:40, State Farm returns done by 1 and the afternoon to work on the spreadsheet. No one else seemed to get that, though, and my boss(es) would wander into my cube at 9:35 asking me to do something with the spreadsheet, oblivious to the sweat forming on my brow.

Not to mention that I've officially sat at 5 different computers since I've started there. I had to move from the last one (which was, by the way, in the middle of nowhere) because the computer I was at would mysteriously reboot at random intervals, causing the woman in the cube opposite mine to hear a loud beep, followed by my groan every ten minutes. Now I'm borrowing Tuyen's desk until she gets back from her trip to Vietnam.

Life has been much quieter as of late, though. They got a new temp to do State Farm returns, so all I have to worry about is scrubbing (which I'm doing much faster now) and the spreadsheet.

But the best news is that I convinced my boss to keep me on to work Fridays during the semester (when I don't have class) as the official spreadsheet person. Mee will do the daily adds and deletes to the spreadsheet, but I'll enter dates and do other maintenance. I'm so happy; it should be the most convenient part time job ever.

4. I've done quite a bit of painting. While my parents were gone, I participated in the Paint-a-thon with a group from St. Joe's. We spent the day painting the trim of a little old lady's house in St. Paul, listening to Larry-isms and eating tacos from Boca Chica's Taco House (yes, this is a real place). It was fun.

I've also been working on painting both the bathroom and the kitchen of my house (blue and yellow, respectively). Melanie started on her room last night. So it's been kind of a work zone around here.

5. I've actually gotten a chance to socialize a bit, too. Yes, yes, the hermit does come out of her shell occasionally. I've had some great dinners with Lauren, Danielle and Vicky at Chino Latino, Hooters and Ichiban. I miss those girls a lot sometimes, it's weird not to have them around constantly like in high school. We also had a BBQ, which was relocated to Vicky's basement. The outdoor activities planned were replaced by Pictionary and consuming large amounts of food. It was great.

The highlight, though, was this last weekend when Robin came up from Cincinnati to visit Danielle and I. She stayed over at my house, and we had a fantastic weekend of giggling shopping, touring, eating and drinking tinto veranos--so really a lot like our travels but more relaxed and in English. I miss that girl, man.