a search for authenticity
Nothing like seeing your husband learn to knit in one night to make you sit down and not get up till you too have learned. Tonight is the night….tonight is knit-night.
I started to unpack Christmas decorations today and at the bottom of a box I found The Soulsister’s Guide to a Very Merry Christmas!! I love this zine by Jen Lemen & her sis, Patience. I don’t know if they have anymore for sale, but if they do I highly recommend getting a copy. I can’t wait to practice some of their ideas.
Also, Dan has learned a new skill, ask him to find out what it is?!?!? 
Read Dan’s blog to find out about the cool things we did last night & tonight.
Thanksgiving was just want I needed to bring me out of my funk. We had a very good time with Dan’s family on Thanksgiving Day. I ate so much food that my stomach still felt full when I went to bed. Then on Friday my mom & grandmother came to visit for the weekend and we had a good time, kinda surprising. Luckily there weren’t any fires, murders, or possums while they were in town.
Now it’s time to decorate for Christmas!!! Where do Richmonder’s like to buy their Christmas trees? In Maryland we always bought ours from the firehouse.
Please join us for some simple Advent celebrations. Tomorrow we will be celebrating with A Different Richmond at 7:00 pm in Shockoe Bottom. The following Sundays we will be celebrating in our home around 4:00.
This years Thanksgiving miracle: my sister is expecting twins!
Tomorrow is Dan’s birthday!!! Last night we went out with some new friends to eat at a cute mexican place. Today I tried to convince Dan that he should blow his birthday money on junk. Instead, he is going to order some books. Tomorrow Dan gets his big surprise gift from me and pumpkin pie. I think I’m more excited about it than he is, but that’s only because he doesn’t know what it is!!!
Most of you are aware of the fact that I have a very soft spot in my heart for cats. I stinkin’ love cats! If I wasn’t married I’d probably have 20+ cats (thankfully, I have Dan). When we moved to Richmond and a couple of cute kittens started hanging around the house I was so excited. Just like when I was a kid, I put out some food for the cats and a box for them to take shelter in when it’s cold. I did this a lot as a kid and never did it bring anything other than cats to our porch. But, then there was last night…..
Seriously needing a piece of cake, Dan & I were going out to Buzzy’s. As I was about to get into the car I saw something in the box. It wasn’t one of the cats I was familiar with, so I tried to get a better look. It wasn’t a cat at all! It was a possum!!! (or opossum) What the crap!!?!? Do possums live in the city? The possums in my hometown are known to have nasty tempers, so I called animal control. Apparently they did not think that having a possum on my front porch (living in my stray cat’s box) was an emergency, so they didn’t come out last night. They are suppose to come out this morning, but the possum is already gone.
Today I got a new laptop!!! My wonderful husband ordered it for me and set it up. I would like to use my first blog post from my new laptop to say that I am married to a totally cool, sweet, awesome guy! I love you!!
Yesterday I went to check out the library and get a card. I love libraries! I could have spend all day there and brought home a hundred books. Unfortantely, you are only allowed to check out 2 books when you first get your library card. So, I picked up The Monastic Journey by Thomas Merton and Stitch ‘N Bitch. I am determined to learn how to knit this year!
Warning: rambling ahead!
I may have gotten a job. Last week I responded to an ad for a gym hiring management trainees. I had been trying to avoid the gym scene, but in a moment of desperation I grabbed my resume and ran right over. I met with the guy, who is going to be running the gym. He has been quite successful with other gyms across the country. We talked for over an hour. His ideas interest me. I think I could learn a lot from working with him. In fact, I think I learned a few things just from our conversation last week.
He started to tell me about the position of a personal training director. The job sounds very interesting to me. I would have the opportunity to gain management experience, mentor trainers (probably young trainers), and hopefully gain some business sense. He never came out and said “Alicia, you’re hired!”. But by the end of our conversation he was no longer saying “The p.t. director will do this”, he was saying “You will do this”. So, I got the impression that he wants me to be his p.t. director.
There is a lot about this job that interests me, that I think would be good for me, yet, there is also a couple things that make me feel slightly uncomfortable.
The good stuff: I think this job could really stretch me to a better professional in the fitness industry. I want a job that will help me move forward, not stand still. I want to grow. I want to learn. I want to have good experiences. I think I could find all of that in this job.
Now for the stuff I don’t feel so comfortable with. First, the gym is about 25-30 minutes away. This may seem a little petty. But I hated driving 30 mins to my last gym. Adding an hour of travel time onto a long day doesn’t make me happy. And I’m certain that this job will require long days. Life in Maryland was so disconnected. I often felt like I was living multiple lives. I had my Dan life in Owings Mills, BSW life in the city, and college life in Towson…rarely did these lives cross paths. I hated that because it made the world feel too big and too lonely. I would love to have a connected life here in Richmond. I want to see my neighbors at my place of work, I want to run into my co-workers at the neighborhood bar/coffee shop. I want the people that I’m getting to know to be involved in more than one part of my life. Anyway, I’m scared of that big disconnect happening if I work half an hour away from home.
On to the next issue that I’m not so comfortable with. The guy in charge seems like a very wise businessman. He has had great success in the industry and I am very interested in most of his ideas. However, I don’t agree with everything he said. Mainly how he chooses to “discipline” employees. His methods include forcing the employee to clean the gym or parking lot, or to do push-ups. Yeah, if you’re wondering he was in the military. There is no way I will ever feel comfortable punishing someone physically. Looking back to high school sports I remember we often had to run extra sprints for losing a game, goofing off during practice or whatever. I didn’t think much about it then. But looking back I hate the idea of using running as punishment. There has to be an alternative, especially in this industry where we are challenged with trying to help others obtain a healthy life through exercise, how can we do that if we use physical activity as a punishment? We are then equating physcial activity with something negative. Right now I don’t have an alternate solution. I don’t have another punishment that could replace push-ups. And I don’t really want to come up with one. I want a better way of managing a staff.
So, that is my recent employment dilemma. Thanks for letting me working some of it out on here.
I found this quote scribbled on the back of an old notebook:
I was seized by the power of a great affection.
I had a really good time in CA. The highlights were the wedding and walking around San Francisco. I hope that we get to go back some day, San Francisco is such a beautiful, interesting city. And the people we ran into were very nice, including the man with a magical garden in his alley.
But, as good as the trip was, I love being home! Today was full of exciting things happening at home. First, we discovered a new stray cat hanging around our house. That brings our total of strays visiting our porch to 3. I’m not sure what we will do if we keep collecting stray cats on our porch. This may be the way that I talk Dan into letting me get a dog?!? Also, I got my Virginia driver’s license today! Plus, I got a Richmond phone number. Now all that’s left is a stinkin’ job! Ahhhh……if you count searching for my internship, then I’ve been job-hunting for almost a year. It is getting old. Especially when I don’t feel like the process goes very smoothly for me.
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