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We have our Ugly Sweater Brunch and White Elephant Gift Exchange today, but I don't want to write about that until I have photos to share along with it, and I will need to edit and process those at home first. That just leaves last night for me to tell you about, of which there isn't much to tell.

The online movie watch party with Kwanteria didn't happen after all—I texted her to confirm, and she wrote back asking if we could do another day sometime before Christmas. She was getting home too late from her second of two jobs last night. We settled on Saturday night, which she said worked well.

This worked out well for Shobhit, in any case. He sure went on and on about wanting to dedicate two hours to his audition tape, and with my evening now wide open, I had all evening to help him. We ran through the sides maybe five or six times, but that certainly didn't take a cumulative two hours. He wanted to take a break and watch some TV. We'll likely do some more practice runs this evening before we go see Moulin Rouge! at The Paramount. His aim is to do the actual recording tomorrow morning. I suppose by the time that happens, it may be a cumulative two hours we've worked on it together. I won't have specifically tracked it.

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So what else did I do last night? Not much. Knowing I will have lunch covered at work today, we both ate the last of two different sets of leftovers for dinner. Mine was the final lunch container of couscous with peanut sauce added, which I did not want to keep until Monday. Shobhit had an eggplant based vegetable dish he made. I think. I can't remember what it was made of for sure.

I wrapped three of the calendars I am giving as gifts. I even brought those to work today, at Shobhit's suggestion, to go mail them at the Lower Queen Anne post office after work instead of first thing tomorrow morning, so that we have more time tomorrow morning to work on his audition tape. We have tickets to Avatar: The Way of Water at 12:15 so, with the audition submission deadline at 5 pm, we only have the morning, really.

I actually still spent most of the evening in the living room with Shobhit, until I was ready to start getting ready for bed. I caught up on my socials on my iPad. I had my new library book with me too but didn't read it much. I mad chai for both of us, which I had to do twice because I burned it the first time. I think Shobhit may be right that it's easier for that to happen when the milk is past its sell-by date. I don't know what the reason for that would be.

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I ate too much crap yesterday, including a couple of Biscoff cookies with my sugar sweetened chai, on top of like two doughnuts at work, and somehow my weight was down a pound this morning. I had to be careful not to eat breakfast at home this morning, with brunch provided at the office today.

I opened Grindr yesterday and have gotten pretty enthusiastic messages from, like, three different guys, all of them pretty attractive, in very different ways. That was new. I almost felt popular, which has never happened to me on Grindr. It was odd but fun.

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Oh, I nearly forgot about the work news from yesterday afternoon. I had gone into the phone room thinking I was getting on my weekly 1:1 Zoom call with Eric, then saw on my calendar he had pushed it back half an hour due to a dentist appointment today. I came back to my desk, worked for half an hour, then went back into the phone room—only to have him knock on the window. He was actually here. We went around the corner to a quiet spot with sort of an open meeting chairs space.

I suspect he came in largely to give me this news in person, just as he had when he had to break it to me that they did not increase head count for 2023 as he had hoped, so the whole plan for my transitioning to a new position vaporized. This time, the news was that he had applied for a position in Accounting, as a Senior Financial Analyst—and he got it.

I'll still report to him for the time being, probably until they hire a new Pricing Manager and he gets that person fully trained. After that, although I'll apparently see him in the office more often as of next year, it's goodbye-Eric. For all I know, they will switch me back to reporting to the Grocery Merchandiser, as this switches between that and the Pricing Manager every few years. Whether that would be Noah or Shelley remains to be seen. Or maybe it will remain the Pricing Manager. Who the fuck knows. I'm not worried about it. I just hope Eric's replacement is someone I like. It probably will be.

The conversation was interesting, because I wondered if Eric would suggest I apply for the position. If there was ever a time to do so, that would have been it—and he did not. Whether that has to do with my presumed lack of qualifications (which is likely the case) or my very open lack of ambition (which is very much the case) is unclear to me. He says he assumes they'll hire from within, and I have no idea who would be the best candidate who is already here. Is there anyone else with the same extent of institutional knowledge as I have? I have no idea. But, that position also necessitates a lot of institutional knowledge of other departments, which I do not have. Plus, it's clearly been a stressful and often overwhelming position for him, which I suspect is the reason for his decision to apply for a position in Accounting instead.

Shobhit almost certainly will think I should apply for this. He did when the position was open before Eric was hired into it, and I wouldn't. The thing is, had the sort of assistant position he had hoped to create for me actually materialized, that would have been a perfect stepping stone toward maybe one day taking over that position, as it would give me far more time to ease into its responsibilities and learn what it actually entails. Trying to get the job now would likely be a trial by fire that does not appeal to me. I suppose I can just see what the job description says when it's posted and see if I think I might make a good fit. But, honestly, I still doubt it. Just easing out of my current position and training someone else to do all I do now would be a big enough pain in the ass all on its own.

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[posted 1:04 pm]