i’m feeling rather homesick this week because thursday is thanksgiving and i won’t be with my family.  it seems to hit at weird times.  last night we were watching a movie and they mentioned something about the year 2000 and it made me think about my mother stocking up on bottled water and canned peaches to prepare for Y2K.  she’s nuts and i despair my parents more often than not but i miss them immensely, especially now.

my mood is making me a tad bitchier at work. last thursday i sent home one of my staff for wearing a t-shirt to work. he said he’d come back when he changed but i told him to stay home (unpaid) and think about how he pissed me off.  today i told DB that i wouldn’t do something for him until he got me a piece of cake (and i was serious).  i left work at 6.30pm today without finishing any jobs. i usually hate leaving things undone but today i just couldn’t be stuffed. it’d still there for me tomorrow.  it’s going to be one of those weeks i fear but i’m taking thursday off:

Me: Thursday is thanksgiving in america.
DB: oh really? what are you thankful for this year?
Me: I am thankful for having Thursday off.
DB: What?
Me: you’re letting take the day off on thursday and for that i am truly thankful.
DB: um, okay, i guess it’s okay.

our neighbour two houses away is having a 40th birthday party.  the Brit and i are going to stop by.

me: what time are we heading over?
the brit:  i was thinking around eight.
me:  EIGHT?  that’s so late already.
the brit: well, if you get tired,  you can just go home.
me: do you think people will notice if i wear pyjamas?
the brit: do you care?
me: not really.

i did it.  i took the day off today and after the guilt wore off (ten minutes) i felt pretty damn good.  after the kind of week(s) i’ve had,  i deserve it.  i spent the first half of the morning talking to people in india to get my phone service sorted out and then by the time i was done with that, it was too bloody hot to do anything constructive like cleaning my closet so i plopped myself on the couch and watched lots of bad television.  DB texted me at about midday to tell me that i was a star for working so hard over the past few days and that he hopes i have a good day.  ick. i feel like he’s kissing my ass but it should be the other way around. i just don’t like/respect him enough to do it.

enough about that.  it is friday and that means the weekend and not thinking about trivial thinks like work. i am very excited because our cable company has given us all of these channels to preview for free for a month and there is a murder mystery channel – 24 hours of poirot, maigret, marple and matlock.  it’s like i died and went to … the nursing home.  i love it.  i’ve been watching it all day.

i was doing some xmas shopping on amazon today and i saw the perfect christmas tree for us:

how great is that?  not only do i love charlie brown christmas but it’s also indicative of my spirit around the holidays- it’s hard to get used to here and i get homesick. i put it on my amazon wish list hoping maybe my sister will buy it for me but i know she’ll choose the practical oven mitts over the tree.  my family is always trying to domesticate me.

i got the Brit a christmas gift – the complete BBC DVD collection of shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies and histories.  it’s on its way from america now.  i’ll just need to keep my mouth shut. a few more books and CDs and i’m done with him.  and for those inquiring,  the first gift i got him was a temperature control tea kettle.  yes, you heard me correctly.  a temperature control tea kettle.  i didn’t think they existed or didn’t even think about it but about two years ago,  a friend of ours was telling us about a tea kettle that would turn off right before it hit boiling point which was ideal for press coffee.  that was it.  the brit was convinced he had to have one (thanks andrew). but alas, it was not to be found until the other day when i did a random search.  voilá! i quickly called around until i found one and rushed out the door at lunch time mumbling to DB that i had to see about a tea kettle. so you see,  after all this time,  it was so hard to keep my mouth shut.  the look on the brit’s face was worth it. he was speechless and surprised and very happy.  we’re trying it out this weekend.  it better bloody work.

i didn’t leave work until 9pm. at 6pm,  DB logged off his computer, slung his man bag over his shoulder and THEN asked if there was anything he could do to help.  helpful, eh?  i’m taking the day off tomorrow.

i actually left the office at 2.30pm. amazing.  i didn’t know what to do with myself. i’ve been sitting here bored senseless waiting for the brit to come home from work. i was so bored i even did the dishes. i also did some online shopping for the brit since i gave him his first pressie early. i vow to keep this one under wraps until christmas day…okay, maybe christmas eve.

]]> http://meandtheaustralians.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/hump-day-3/feed/ 0 the american http://meandtheaustralians.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/told-you/ http://meandtheaustralians.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/told-you/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:06:11 +0000 the american http://meandtheaustralians.wordpress.com/?p=1415 ]]>

the brit came home.

i told him about my day in five minutes.  “it was crap”

he told me about his day in ten minutes.

i said “i have a pressie for you”

and that was the end of it.  i didn’t even try.  all i kept thinking about was the box in my closet.  i thought if i could find some wrapping paper i could wrap it up and then it would be easier to keep it until christmas.  see what i’m like?

i know i shop no matter what the season but xmas is really the only time of year i can justify it. 

i went out during my lunch and bought my first gift for the Brit.  i don’t usually buy things so early.  i’m normally so woefully unprepared for christmas.  but now i realise how my preparedness is really a downfall.  i want to give it to him NOW because it is that good.  i won’t be able to keep it a secret.  anyone that knows me knows what i’m like with gifts/surprises:  c-r-a-p!  i’m tempted to just give it to him tonight.   now it’ll be torture for me until christmas.  i’m buying him other things so perhaps i can give him this one now and hold on to the other ones until then…  what do you think? 

nothing says christmas like 30 degree heat and flies. i’m contemplating getting a tree this year.  not a real christmas tree. i don’t know if you can get them here.  i saw some conceptual, arty fary ones on the neimen marcus website.  the brit rolled his eyes but actually liked the nativity scene i wanted to get.  the whole thing cost way too much for something i would onlyput out once a year, but i was almost tempted because if i didn’t buy the baby jesus, mary and joseph,  the price was actually quite reasonable.  i dismissed the idea.  i imagined my mother and father finally visiting us in australia for christmas and noticing that our nativity scene had a camel with spectacles and top hat in the centre instead of a baby jesus.  that wouldn’t go down well. 

i know i’ve been a slacker.  you wouldn’t believe how incredibly CRAP work has been lately.  i blame DB. i will tell you all about it when i have time…

incredibly busy.  good news is that i dumped a whole heap of work on DB so i feel much better.  he left his list of “first day” notes sitting on his desk and i had to use his desk because mine was being occupied by someone else (we have a shortage at the moment).  of course i shouldn’t look, but it’s right there, next to the phone, i can’t help but look at it.  you shouldn’t leave things out if you don’t want other people to covet them.  that’s why i also ate the apple on his desk.  just kidding.  i thought about it though under that same principle.  i’m not that bitchy.  okay, maybe i am.  anyway, if he didn’t want it to be seen, then he should have put it away.  also, my manager told me to sit at his desk because i was deskless for the week so really it’s his fault. my initial offer of “working from home” was quickly turned down.  DB’s notes say “keep it simple” and then a it says that these are the questions to ask:
“hello. i’m glad to be part of the team.  may i meet with you and discuss your role here?”
“what motivates you?”
“what are your strengths?”
“where do you see yourself in five years?”

i can’t wait till he gets to me.  these will be my answers

“no”
“cake and money”
“manipulation, delegation, taking shortcuts”
“not here”
…things may get a bit awkward.

in other news, it’s still bloody hot here which is a good thing in a way because i walk home now because the trams are too smelly.  the hot weather still sucks.  i told the brit that i may die of grouchiness this summer because of the heat.  he said that if grouchiness were truly an affiliction, i would’ve died long ago. see what he’s like?  i get no sympathy.

okay.  i’m over summer now.  it’s too hot.  i don’t like walking around with heat rash.  it looks like i have a horrible skin disease.  i don’t like the flies of summer that swarm around me and try to get in my eyes.  i know that it’s only the first week of truly summer weather,  but i am over it now.  i will be grouchy with blotchy skin until autumn arrives.