might be done

As predicted, this past week was a busy one. It was good busy - productive. 

Between testing, tuting, scribing, and interviewing, it was like I had to remind myself that I work part-time and not full. But all good and temporary.

My hiring committee cohorts and I finished up first round interviews for the assistant boss position. There were eight applicants in all, and we ended up recommending a whopping two for second/ final  round with Boss and GrandBoss.

I mentioned a while back that two of the current part-timers expressed interest in the position. One is great, as everybody agrees. The other, not so much. WELL, the Star ended up being filtered out by HR for not having the requisite 2+ years of administrative experience. Bummer. She is young, so just starting to build her skill set. She was fine with it, no worries there.

The other - formerly referred to here as "Slacker", but I feel I should change that, let's call her Kitty - applied and made it through the initial HR filter.

We interviewed her, and it did not go particularly well. In the end, we decided that, just because we know her and like her and work with her, that wasn't enough to grant her a 2nd interview along with the two strongest cadidates. 

So, things could be awkward at work for a while. We shall see. But the whole "be objective" and "beware of implicit bias" was constantly drummed into us from HR, so hopefully Kitty will understand. She is just so not ready for that responsibility. Honestly, I have a hard time believing she actually wants it? I think she mainly  wants full-time benefits. Understandable.

In other recruitment news, it appears that we have new neighbors after the house next door sat vacant for the last two months. 

I haven't seen any actual people, but I did briefly encounter the silhouette of a smallish pooch wandering around their yard. We've had decent enough neighbors since moving here 4 years ago. Fingers crossed that remains true. Either way, I suppose I can stop shoveling their snow now.

We watched a weird movie last night. May December is streaming on Netflix. The names and some circumstances are changed, but it's clearly about Mary Kay Letourneau and the tabloid romance rape of Villi Fualaau.

It takes place years later as their kids are grown and leaving the nest. Natalie Portman plays an actress researching the family so she can play Mary Kay Letourneau in a movie. It had a dark, slow vibe, and then ended abruptly. Good performances, but a bit strange. I'm wondering what message the writer was going for?

50 shades of grey

We got a decent snowstorm on Friday into Saturday, still digging out a bit.  I guess I'll accept that winter is here. As such, I sorted through my clothing, and put away the warm weather stuff. As I looked at my satisfyingly tidy closet, I couldn't help but notice the near monochrome wardrobe left for the next few months.

Really? I had not noticed this happening. When did nearly every warm top I own become some shade of grey?

These are work tops, and my putz-around-the-house tops have slightly more color variety, but Magnum and the pets likely don't care.

While not one to wear ugly Christmas sweaters, I'm still thinking I should make more of an effort with color.

It was a satisfying few days off from work before the remainder of the semester. This coming week is chock full of stuff - panic stricken students hitting me both from the testing side and tutoring side. In addition, I've got two afternoons of interviews scheduled for the assistant boss position. 

I'll be glad to be done with that and have someone to onboard. We've been short staffed all semester, and I'm glad to see several good candidates to sift through. It could be a difficult choice. Fingers crossed we make the right one.

Now, what to wear for interviews? I'm thinking grey? Maybe black?

fourth thursday

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all  'mericans!  

Today is actually looking to be a quiet day for me. Magnum, Wolfgang, and Meego are going to Magnum's sister's for the big gathering. I'll stay behind and chill with the dogs since we had no one to unload them upon. Chaco recently moved out of state for work, so will also be thankful in abstentia.

It's just as well with the mystery dog illness going around. This is no doubt a busy time of year for dog kennels and other boarders. I know there are heightened restrictions in place, but don't know the extent. Turns out it's a good thing to have antisocial dogs - currently anyways.

The four of us plan to get together on Saturday. Might go downtown to check out the Christmas elaborations. Either way, I'm off the hook for cooking this year.

In other mysteries, I parked my bicycle after getting home from work yesterday. I keep the two bicycles I ride most often in the house because I'm a wimp and don't like retrieving them from a cold garage they're precious.

Soon after I'd settled my commuter, the cat snuggled in beneath the bicycles and was rolling around in some sort of bliss. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought he found catnip down there. 

He hung out among the tires and chains for a good couple hours before deciding to, once again, join the sober. He hasn't returned to the seeming euphoria, and I have no idea what that was about.

I'm looking forward to four relatively quiet days off. I worked the last three days, and the place was a bit of a zoo. We thought it would be slow with the students on break, but it seems that everybody and their grandma decided this would be the time to get their professional certifications in. It was like a Black Friday version of testing. Door busters!

As I mentioned earlier, no Thanksgiving day road race for me this year. Recall that last year, I managed to beat the mayor. She no doubt has something to do with sabotaging my foot this year.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

1. Happy Thanksgiving! Share your Thanksgiving Day plans.

... or are you happy to see me?

Thanksgiving week is upon us. At this time of abundance, I'm doing all the prompts from Mama Kat:

1. Tell us about a current interest.

I've been following the Kaitlin-Armstrong-killed-Mo-Wilson sentencing and trial recaps. Sheesh, what a bizarre case. 

2. Write about something you gave a negative review.

This week I bought some cajun flavored sesame sticks from Natural Grocers. After eating a couple, I realized they were not cajun flavored but garlic flavored and mislabeled. And I was all, "gross", because I quite dislike garlic. But thankfully, no one here is allergic. But what if someone was allergic? That could be bad. 

I let the store know about it via their online contact page. Who knows if anyone reads the submissions? Not necessarily a negative review, but mislabeled food products could land them in hot water.

3. Tell us about something you are looking forward to.

I'm looking forward to a slowed week at work coming up. The test center is open through Wednesday, but students are on break all week, so it should be fairly calm and quiet. 🤞

4. Book review! Share a recent favorite (or least favorite) read.

I'm currently reading Happy Place by Emily Henry. I'm about halfway through it, and apparently it's a popular book. For me, I dunno, it's kinda... bad. It might end up a DNF for me.

5. Write a blog post in exactly 7 lines.

My fritzed foot is still not 100%.

But it feels better with each passing day.

I feel I could go for a short run.

But Dr. Internet says not to run for 4 to 6 weeks. 

So, no Thanksgiving race for me this year.

Boo hoo. 

Still very thankful for lots of stuff.

6. Write a blog post inspired by the word: over

We caught a cheater at work this week. Really, it's a rare occurrence. I've worked there for 2.5 years, and can remember just 4 cheaters, all of them college students.

But this guy, he hid a cell phone in the crotch of his pants, then began using the phone during his test. A coworker busted Cheater and took the phone. When going over the video footage, we also learned that Cheater was chewing tobacco and spitting in his testing room.

Party Girl had a justified cow when wiping down the workstation after Cheater finished, at which point he denied doing any spitting/ mess making.

He knew we have cameras, now he knows that they don't just watch, they record.

Game over?

mid-week mash up

• I mentioned a while back that a childhood friend of mine was (surprisingly and strangely) running for mayor of our hometown. I didn't think he had any chance at all, and the polls returned that prediction in staggering fashion.

I took a peek at his facebook campaign page, to which I never accepted the "friend" request, and he's been profanely ranting ever since - not surprisingly.

I honestly wonder about his mental state. 

He and I have been in and out of touch over the years, mostly out. A few years ago, he'd sent a request to connect on Linkedin. His Linkedin profile was very odd, and I wondered if it was a joke or if he's off his rocker. Could go either way. I never accepted that request either.

• The assistant boss hunt is proceeding. All applicants are in, and we're poring over resume's. First round interviews likely won't happen until after Thanksgiving because of... Thanksgiving.

We have two fellow part-timers who had expressed interest in the position. One has sort of developed a reputation as a slacker, while the other has been performing really well. I haven't worked much with either of them as they are very part-time at our campus, but the others have shared their thoughts with me.

SO, turns out "the slacker" applied for the position, but the "the star" did not. I don't know if Star just changed her mind or what, but the deadline has past, and she's not in the running. I shared this quietly with both Party Girl and Sarge, both were quite disappointed.

I think I'm doing well with keeping myself unbiased despite all this chatter. Slacker is not a shoe-in, as a few other candidates look well qualified.

• Screaching tires UPDATE: recall the ongoing screaching tires Magnum and I heard on Saturday night? We did a bit of investigating during a coffee & bagel mission.

Walking across the nearby high school parking lot revealed that our assumption of someone(s) spinning lots and lots of donuts was most likely true.

I can only imagine the heat and smells that were generated. 

And if it was some kid shredding their parents' tires? Consequences?

morning balloons, night donuts

My right foot is on the fritz. It doesn't feel like running. Doctor Internet tells me I have metatarsal(s) stress/ strain. Fine, so be it.

But walking is agreeable, so my feet and I went out and did that on this sunny morning. Not long after heading out, I heard the unmistakable sound of a hot air balloon torch. I looked up to confirm my suspicions.

Hot air balloons are such a strangely calming sight, quietly floating along in the early morning. If I was in that basket, however, I would be anything BUT calm. 

I'm sure the views from up there are stunning, making me a bit jealous of the non-acrophobes. I'll stick to getting awe-inspiring views from the tops of big firm mountains and foothills.

This past week was a good one - felt productive. I was able to stick to my plan of getting up an hour earlier than I had been, putting that dang time-change to good use. 

Last night, we were streaming a movie when I heard squealing tires from not far away. I figured someone was Starsky-and-Hutching it down the main drag. But then... the squealing kept on and on. It would pause then resume, pause then resume... this went on for several minutes. Finally, I paused our movie to listen. 

It was quite noticeable, and I was surprised how long it continued. We stepped outside and concluded that someone(s) who has no qualms about needing to buy new tires, was spinning donuts in the nearby high school parking lot. I'll have to go out and investigate in a little while to see if there's a mess of burnt rubber evidence. 

As far as we know, no one called the cops, although I'm sure others heard it. Maybe most, like us, figured "someone else will report it" or "as long as they're not on the street, let them have their fun". It eventually stopped. I checked nextdoor and reddit, my main go-tos for nosiness. Nothing.

That's about it for the excitement at my end: bum foot, balloon, burnt rubber.

in the middle of the street

The hiring process for our new assistant boss marches on... at a snail's pace. It's good that the process is so thorough, I suppose. My fellow committee members and I have hurdles to jump through, and each jump is evaluated by HR until we are given the go ahead for the next hurdle. We're getting closer to the finish line, the application window closed yesterday.

Once we pare down the candidates, the remainders will go onto second interviews with Boss and Boss's boss. Fingers crossed we get someone in before Christmas.

Boss is able to take a look at materials submitted from the approved candidates so far. A few days ago he noted, "I didn't see anyone with test center experience".

And I thought to myself, "Well, yeah, because if they had actual test center experience, they would know not to apply for a full time job of it...", but maybe I'm just projecting *ahem*.

But I'll say it again, I like the job - the part-time version of it. It allows me time for tutoring and other interests, and I, thankfully, am not concerned about not having employee benefits. 

In other unfulfilled positions, the rental house next door to us remains vacant. Magnum reports seeing a few looky-loos as noticed while working from home. He knows when someone is checking out the backyard because our dogs announce it from our backyard. 

Affordable housing is a concern around here, like a lot of other places these days. Are the landlords asking too much?

... it's not our dogs, is it? 

Nah.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. Write a blog post inspired by the word: future