Day Two Report

So, I've now finished my second day on my new job, and I really like it so far.

Admittedly, yesterday was a very slow start.  I didn't get a computer until part way through the afternoon, so I was sitting and reading procedures.  There's only so much I can absorb without actually doing it.

However, today has been much better.  I've been working on some analysis and budgeting, and I feel it's been going well.  And my co-workers all seem nice, which is a huge step up as well.  Plus there's the flexibility of schedules, which means I don't have to stress if I'm running a little late.

Traffic yesterday was perfect both ways.  Of course, I started at 9AM and left at 6PM.  Today, aiming to arrive at 8:30AM, there was a bit more traffic.  Still, it was less time than I was commuting to my last job, and that was without the school/college traffic that has been building back up.

So far, I'm very happy.  Hopefully, they are, too.

New Job!

So, it’s been obvious to me since week 1 or 2 that the job I started at the end of June wasn’t a good fit for me, and I’ve kept looking.  That’s paid off because I am now officially done with that job!

I’m starting a new job on Monday for a bigger company.  The pay is better, and it’s in town, so I won’t have to get on the freeway.  Considering those colleges start up on Monday and my commute was about to get much, much worse, that’s a very good thing.

I’ll still be doing accounting, but on a much bigger scale since I’ll be responsible for a bunch of branches of the company.  Sounds like it is a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to tackling it and learning more in the process.

I’ve known for a week now but was keeping it fairly quiet until I knew for sure my current job knew I was leaving.  That happened yesterday (finally).  And that’s when it felt real, and I’ve been celebrating.

The only down side is that I have to actually dress up, which has meant buying a new wardrobe.  The hardest part has been dress shoes, but I think I’ve finally found some that will work.  Going to try to buy a second pair tonight after work, in fact.

This new job is temp to hire, but that’s what I was still doing at the job that just ended.  I’m sure I can do it and get hired on there, so I’m very excited overall.

Word Association for August 20th

And here we are at the word association post of the week again.

1. Chocolate :: Yum!
2. Spike :: Dog
3. Puppy :: Cute
4. Corner :: Bakery
5. Charcoal :: Grill
6. Game :: Over
7. 28 :: Divide by 7
8. Summitt :: Mountain
9. Tuxedo :: Wedding
10. Winner :: Game

Mostly Quiet Week

It's amazing how quiet my week gets when I don't have an ultimate Frisbee game in it.  Heck, my blog had pretty much become an all ultimate blog anyway, so what do I have to talk about?

Thursday, I went to hang out with some friends.  We hadn't all hung out in a couple of months, so that was nice.  That did mean I missed my mid-week ultimate Frisbee game, however, which was a bummer.

Other than that, I stayed home.  My new roommate was able to fix my garbage disposal and I finally got him a new facet for the bathroom sink.  That dragged on longer than I intended.

Saturday was a work day at church.  I showed up late, but they were still able to use me for a few hours.

See what an exciting life I lead outside of ultimate Frisbee?  Heck, my next mud run isn't even for a few weeks.  Not until the 20th of September.

Well, there is one thing, but I'm going to wait until the end of the week to blog about it.

Yes, a blog post with a cliffhanger.  Now you've seen everything, right?

Summer League Tournament 2014

I will admit I found myself looking forward to Saturday starting on Tuesday.  No, it wasn’t because I was looking forward to the weekend that much, but I was looking forward to the Summer League ultimate Frisbee tournament.  I’d missed it last year, and I really enjoy it every year.  It certainly helped that my team was the #1 seed going into the tournament.

Unfortunately, we were missing several of our key players, which meant we were down excellent players and down men.  We only had three subs all day instead of the normal six we’ve been having all season.  But I was ready to dig and do my best.

Since we were the top seed, we started out playing the eighth seed and immediately went down 2-7.  I’m not sure what was going on that first half, but we battled back to win the first game 14-12 in overtime (these first two games were to go to 13).

Semi-finals proved to be the easiest game of the day.  We won that one 13-6.  Again, I don’t know why exactly, but the other team just didn’t seem to have it together when we played them.

Which put us in the finals!  I honestly thought we’d be eliminated in the semi’s.  But by this point, most of the team was exhausted.  I probably should have played more, but I got plenty of playing time in the finals.  This game was to 15, and we wound up losing 8-15.  No one on my team was mentally in the game and we were making some pretty basic mistakes.

However, I was 100% for the day.  With how little I played, I really only got open once.  They threw it to me, and I caught it and successfully passed it on.  No drops.  No turns.  No throw aways.  (If only I could say the same about my pickup game on Sunday.)

Honestly, I am still very happy about the outcome.  My winter league team finished in 5th, and that’s been my best finish for years before this.  Remember, my beach league team didn’t win a game this last spring.  To go from that to only losing two games all season is wonderful.  And this was my first time in the finals for a while, too.

Can’t wait until next season.  Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the glow of this finish for a little while longer.

We’re Number 1!!!

Tuesday night was the final regular season game for my ultimate Frisbee team.  It was a rematch against Green, the only team we’d lost to so far.  Since they also only had one loss, we were in second because of that loss.  However, if we beat them, we could take over first since they’d have two losses.

We beat them handily.  It helped that we had even more subs that normal – 9 of them, instead of the usual 6.  Only seven play at a time, so we had over a line of subs.  They had two subs.  Now that is not a guarantee of who will win or not.  I’ve seen teams with no subs beat teams with as many subs as we had.  You have to keep your head in the game at all times, and it is easy to do if you are playing quite a bit.

But in this case, it was an indicator of things to come.  We started out on a 4 point run.  They got 2, we got 1, they got 2 more to make it 5-4.  But then we went on a 4 point run again to take it to half at 9-4.

I didn’t keep tabs on the score quite like that in the second half, but we came out on top 17-11.  Not only does this get us top billing going into the tournament this weekend, but it also means that we don’t have to be there until the second round starts at 11AM.  I’m much happier about that than 9AM.

I only played two points during the game, one each half.  But I’ll get more play time on Saturday since at least 5 people won’t be there who were there Tuesday night.  Since they have all been key contributors to the team over the course of the summer, it will be interesting to see what this means for us come Saturday.  Not only that, but no team that is ranked first going into the tournament wins (at least I don’t think so).

Either way, it’s been fun to be on a winning team again for a change.

Word Association for August 6th

And here's this week's word association.

1. I think I love :: ultimate Frisbee (okay, so I already know I do.)
2. Obsessed :: Dangerous
3. Dancers :: Lovely
4. Guitar :: Worship
5. Hurry up! :: We're late!
6. Thump :: Upstairs
7. Conquest :: War
8. Lights :: Camera Action
9. Rose :: Perfume
10. Birthday :: Party

Roommate Shuffle Again

Yep, I’m doing the roommate shuffle again.  Since my job isn’t paying enough to live on, I’m having to find some new ones.  I thought I was done with that part of my life, but obviously God has other plans.

Anyway, my last roommate moved out at the end of July, and one of my new roommates moved in Saturday.  The other one will move in the end of the month.  The two of them are friends, so that is a huge help in how they will get along.

So far, both of them seem nice.  I’ve just interacted with the one via e-mail and phone, but the one I’ve met in person is a friendly, pleasant guy.  Hopefully, all three of us will get along great.  I think that will be the case.