News From The Front
2003-12-19,

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Live, from the offices of National Interstate, it's my journal entry.

Ok, it's been recorded and sent home for posting, but the effort's there, right?

Today the department is having a potluck lunch. For my part, I brought along the ever-famous Smoked Cheese Squares, which involves a Boboli crust, caramelized onions, pine nuts, almonds, and three cheeses. It most certainly rocks. I fear, however, that the unsophisticated palettes of the middle-class 20/30-something female are fearful of such delicacies. Here I was trying to wow the ladies with my food preparation prowess. Sadly, though, they were quite impressed that I had made it all by my self like a big boy. It reminds me of just how pervasive the gender role thing still is in our day-to-day society. Clearly, I'm living in a box. It's a nice and open-minded box, though.

So comes about the halfway point of the last day of my first week here. So far, so good, I think. I'm slowly starting to memorize some processes that I expected would take me longer to pick up. My brain's been awfully healthy this last couple of weeks. I think it was a desperate act of brain chemistry that has been keeping me seemingly alert and competent. To be honest, I think that my interview process was one of the shining moments of my interact-with-the-outside-world life. Which, granted, isn't saying much, but still - I knew all the right things to say at all times, which is an extremely rare occurrence for me. Perhaps, instead, it was that this position just happened to be exactly right for me, so all the things I had to say just fit into their expectations by default. That sounds like the larger improbability, so it must be true. Riding fate seems to have paid off once again. Sure, it put my loved ones and I through a year and a half of hell, but in the long run I'd like to think that it was worth it. And by god, I am so much more content now. I can think. I don't come home from work grumpy or witless (at least no more witless than usual). And I can see my family, whom I love so dearly. H and I were perusing our quote door in the kitchen - it's a whiteboard we put up to keep track of bizarre things that we say in daily conversation - and I found myself filled with joy at being so lucky to have what I have. I think I'll put some of these up on my home site and paste in a link at the footer of my journal. [author's note: consider this an official request to do this, James.]

Lunchtime is drawing to a close, and with it, my time for writing. I guess I'll have some time to peruse my office-issued manual on the basics of insurance concepts, which should, by its content, be called "How Insurance Saved the World and Keeps You From Dying at Any Given Second". You think I'm kidding. I'll cite some examples at a later date.

-- End Transmission --

p.s. I like the sound of snow falling on tin foil.