Life and Temp Work

I've been called by the temp agency a little lately, and for the past week I worked at a law firm in downtown Milwaukee. It was pretty fun, actually. For one week, I felt semi-important as I drove up to the valet parking service at a parking structure in downtown Milwaukee, strolled into the tall office building with my dress shoes delightfully clicking against the marble floor, and worked in my own large office (with a great view of the riverwalk). Granted, I was just a "temp," but it was still fun to imagine myself as some high-powered executive.

Actually, what I really did most of the day was answer phones, make copies, prepare documents to be mailed or faxed, typed up dictations, and when there wasn't any of that to do, read a book. Nothing terribly exciting, but I must say, it felt great to finally be doing some work. I enjoyed getting to know the two lawyers who owned the firm. The firm consisted of a man and a woman--both middle-aged--and both incredibly nice. They practice family law, which unfortunately, often means doing divorces. Although my experience was brief, it was interesting to watch a little of the "behind-the-scenes" work of a divorce, and I will say, it reaffirmed to me that I never want to go through one of those. I would have liked to have asked the lawyers more about their perspective of divorce, since they have been witnesses to so many of them, but I never had the chance. By the end of the week, I was almost a little sad to say goodbye to the small office--I was starting to really enjoy working there.

I also started up at my seasonal work at Kohl's Department Store this past week. My first real day of work (after the training) was a little intense--I came in for someone who was sick, and this person was in charge of the entire Junior's department for 8 hours. I hadn't yet worked in the department at all, so I was dropped into the deep end on the first day, but I managed (with some help from some very nice co-workers) to figure things out. It wasn't too stressful really, just busy, but it took a while to figure out where the clothes went when I was supposed to return them from the dressing room.

I think Kohl's will be a fun place to work. The co-workers are really friendly... several middle-aged women, so it's kind of like working with a bunch of your friends' moms :-) Seriously, they made me feel very comfortable right away. And... I get to look at clothes for several hours at a time, so I'm definitely making mental notes of things I might get. My discount will come in handy I believe, but of course, I'm pretty broke right now, so I won't be buying much. I do think I'll have to be careful though not to get too distracted looking at cute outfits to try on and just do my job :-)

Anyway, I'm glad to have some work going on to help me bring in some money and to keep me busy while I do my long-term job search. I definitely need to make a good push on that, because the work at Kohl's will end by New Year's, and I really want to have a long term job figured out by then. I got a little distracted for a while from the long-term job search as I settled into being back in Milwaukee and did the short-term job search, so now it's time to get crack-a-lackin' again. Keep me in your prayers friends that I can put something together!

Post-Election Thoughts...

I didn't blog about the election--I'm fairly politically moderate and not the most politically outspoken. But, that doesn't mean that I don't care about politics and their effect on our government and society. I do care. I'm not exactly sure why I abstain from the political fights that I see all around me. Then again, that last sentence alone might explain it--I'm not the fighting type. However, I do think expressing opinions, even on the ever-sensitive topic of politics, has an important place, and sharing a strong opinion does not necessarily constitute an attempt to bash. Which is why, in the future, I will try to get some of those opinions out in the venue of the blog.

I have many other thoughts and reflections on politics rushing through my head at this point, but they aren't formulated enough that I want to express them right now. Instead, I thought I'd post some interesting pictures I took around my neighborhood on and shortly after election day.

Ok, this has no relation to the election, but here's just a peek at why I'm glad to have the opportunity to be in Wisconsin for the fall. I love leaves.

My mom and I were out for a walk in the neighborhood near ours and saw this. It made me sort of sad. The signs of support waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck.

McCain signs down the road from our house. The majority of the county definitely supported McCain over Obama (one of the few counties in the state to do so), but I was surprised to see several Obama signs around the neighborhood, too.

I was struck by this, because it seemed very deliberate that there was an American flag hanging near the Obama sign, as if the family wanted to say, "Obama supporters are patriotic." The neighbors next door also had an Obama sign with a small flag next to it. 

My vote was for McCain, but that doesn't mean I didn't consider Obama and that I don't like the guy. I wrote my final paper for my English capstone course on his book, "Dreams from My Father." He is an excellent writer and I'm impressed with his life. It'll definitely be interesting to see how things play out in the next 4 years. 

Halloween in Wisconsin!

Although I've always enjoyed Halloween, I never seem to find the time to prepare an amazing costume for it. I'm not sure why, but my preparations for this holiday are often neglected until the last minute. :-( Maybe that's what happens when you get too old to go trick-or-treating? I didn't even carve a pumpkin this year! I've realized from this experience that I may have to make my own efforts to get excited for holidays like Halloween--cause I've noticed that holidays can be pretty fun if you just put a little effort into it!

Anyway, I digress. My ward at church had a fun night, with a fright hike at Lapham Peak State Park and then a bonfire/costume party at a member of the bishopric's house. The fright hike wasn't very frightful--staffed mostly by middle and high school-aged kids, but it was still pretty fun and I did get startled a few times. Walking through the woods on Halloween is always a good time.

Here are some of the pictures from the costume party/contest!

Carmen is wearing the same costume she wore at age 2. "I got a lot of candy wearing this costume!" she said about the costume's original debut.

Jared and Megan were Happy and Snow White. I voted for them for best costumes and they tied for first in the group category!

I also LOVED Jeannette's costume. Seriously, isn't she the cutest can of Spam ever?

Nicole tied for first in the individual category. This hair is AMAZING, isn't it?

Paco was Patch Adams and I was a nerd. I like this one. Especially cause it gives you a nice view of Paco's amazing pants! He bought them in Israel.

It was a great night and I'm so glad that fall holiday season has begun! I am a little shocked though that I heard CHRISTMAS MUSIC already on Halloween on two different Milwaukee radio stations! Wow--early start this year, huh?