It's official!

I finally move to my new department this Thursday. All of my projects are still stalled, but at least they'll see me in person and maybe throw some scraps my way. It's gotten so bad that I have created Excel reports for my old department, "for fun".

However, today was really productive at work, despite the fact that my computer crashed and they took it completely away for an hour. I ordered a gift, mailed packages, figured out which wedding photos to copy, planned the calendar for the next musical I'm performing with.... I'm telling you - I can actually get quite a lot done when I'm not actually working! In fact, last Friday I worked from home and was able to accomplish a 2 and 1/2 hour nap!

It is Halloween and I am bummed that I have not seen a single person in costume. My company doesn't really allow that. But I guess in my own way, I am in costume, because I'm dressed as an employee. My desk even adds to the full effect, since I make sure that there are always papers and binders put out to make it appear that I am very busy if anyone were to walk by.

Quotes that make me laugh

I am reading a very good book right now, which I highly recommend: "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's an amusing story, and the way it's written constantly makes me laugh. The following quotes were in a letter written by a citizen of Ukraine for whom English is his second language, to an author who lives in the US:

"Perhaps if I think something is very half-witted, I could tell you, and you could make it whole-witted."
...

"You may decide not to read this part, if it makes you a boring person. I would understand, although please do not inform me."
...

These quotes summarize how I feel about my blog.

Two conversations from today

At lunch
"Congratulations on your new job Mingle!"

"thanks"

"When do you start?"

"Technically, I started on Oct. 1"

"Oh...Why are you still sitting in our department?"


Later on the phone

Mingle: "Hi New Boss, I haven't talked to you since Monday, so I thought I'd check in and tell you I was still here"

New Boss: "Hi Mingle, I don't have much to tell you except that all of our projects are in a holding pattern"

Mingle: "Oh... okay. I don't have much to tell you either..."

...I'm going to live forever...

We started rehearsing for the "Hey Big Spender" number for the upcoming Best of Broadway show I'm performing in. Basically, the song is sung by prostitutes, and we were given the direction of, "you are a bunch of hard women". Great. We learned the dance on Monday which consists of us doing a lot of "sexy poses". Of course, if you know me, you also know that that is not really my forte. (Does anyone remember the "silly dancing" audition from a couple of years ago?) But this time, I decided to go for it, and I must admit it helps to be one of the youngest people on stage. Last time, during "silly dancing", I was the oldest, tallest, most uncoordinated one - so now - I feel like a princess! Um no... a hard, bad-ass chick, doing sexy poses.

Anyway, I'm getting into it and enjoying the song when the "real" dancers from the show go on break from another number and start watching us rehearse. One of them says to the others, "Check out Mingle's pose - I keep thinking she's in Fame, and a bunch of water is going to get dumped on her any minute." Does that mean I'm hot?? Or just pathetically posing in an 80's sort of way? Either way, they noticed me, and that means I will cheese it up for all its worth. Did I mention I'm front and center? "Fame!"

Step 2

After taking the initial steps of starting a blog, when you have nothing else to do - then the question begs - what do you write about?? I have nothing to do!

So, I will write about my cat.

I have a 5 and 1/2 month old kitten who we call "Mini-Z", or "Mini" for short. We call her this because she is a minature version of our older cat, "Zimby". Both are all black, with no distinguishing marks accept for the fact that Zimby's whiskers are now grey.

Back to Mini - up until about 2 days ago, I thought she was the cutest thing who could do no wrong. Even when she climbed up the curtains it was cute. (Because they are ugly and I hate them.) She is an indoor cat, who has decided, on her own accord, that she would now like to be an outdoor cat. We know this because she stands at the back-door and cries constantly. This big gutteral cry that makes even the other cat cringe. She's fixed too - so we can't blame it on the fact that she's in heat. Whenever heat is.

She took her desire to be an outdoor cat to new heights last night when I came home to find the screen to one of our windows broken and lying on the ground outside. It never once occured to me that someone might have broken into the house. Right away I just muttered to myself, "Mini...".

I had about a half second of concern when I thought she may have run away, when she skirted into the door the minute I unlocked it. It was questionable whether she was on the outside and came in with me (since I didn't see her), or whether she was waiting on the inside. However, considering she was covered in cobwebs and her tail was all fluffy from fright, I'm guessing she was out.

Our window screen is now broken completely in half and we can't open that window until it is fixed. And one question remains...do they sell Prozac for cats?

Step 1

What do you do when you are keep yourself busy with activities 3 to 6 nights a week, not to mention a full time job during the day, and then find yourself with free time all of a sudden? You start a blog....