Today is Ginny’s last day of college. Well, except for her final, anyway. I know how it feels…bittersweet.

And I’m more than a little sad about not being named among the people who have influenced you. 🙂

I’ve now finished Christmas shopping for three people, which is three people more than I’m normally done with at this time. Being your typical male and a computer geek, here’s my method for when shopping is done:

if (month = 12 && day >= 20)
     shop();
else
     procrastinate();

Also, I have an interview with BellSouth on Thursday for a potential job here in Birmingham. Wish me luck!

Oh, and there’s another insane thought up. I must have let my mind wander recently…

I interview with ComFrame today at 2:30.

A couple of other things that I plan on doing today: I need to go to the closest Hallmark. Why? Because I need a Yankee Candle for the holidays. I’m also planning on making a Bama Fever run, because I want to get another Alabama ornament. One of these days I’m just going to have an entire Bama tree. 🙂

What’s that under the options section? Could it be a new Christmas theme?

Actually, if this is your first time to pressing on (hi, by the way!), I’ve made this theme the default for this time of year only. It needs to be tweaked a little more (maybe a bit too much red and green, I think), but I wanted to get my decorations up as soon as possible. 🙂 I like the different font style, though…a little change of pace from the rest of the themes.

Speaking of decorations, I spent the better part of the afternoon looking for the perfect Christmas tree. I finally found it: it’s a 7½’ Manhattan Pine. It’s one of those nice prelit ones that comes apart in three sections that fold up pretty nicely. I like it. It’s pretty plain right now, because all of my decorations are in my storage area. But I got some glass balls for it, and my grandparents believe that they’ve found some of my grandmother’s old ornaments. So it will be ready to go soon. Pictures to come, I’m sure.

Hm. An on-the-fly thought: that has the makings of a good project, doesn’t it? How about sending me pictures of your Christmas tree, with perhaps some history behind it and how it’s decorated? I’ll put up a special section if I get enough stuff.

Today I’m going to interview with the company that I’ve been temping with for the past week. This, of course, is a very good thing. I also turn in my invoice today, which means I shall be paid in a week. This, of course, is also a very good thing. Excelsior!

It’s just that you don’t have as much time to update when you’ve got a job.

Sadly, the job is not of the permanent variety. It is, however, a pretty nice setup for a temp job. I can’t really go into the details. You’ll just have to believe me.

I’ve been doing this for a few days now, and hopefully I’ll get a few more before the position expires. Thanks, Mary Lisa!

Some random thoughts during the course of the past week:

• While driving to lunch: I’ve learned more about the Birmingham roadway system in the past five months than I ever knew before. I’m almost dangerous in terms of getting around town.
• Upon getting up early for the third straight day: How did I do this all those years growing up?
• While sitting in a restaurant during lunch hour: Those who complain about their jobs need to come over to the other side for a while.

And finally, a preview: look for information on Flannel Quest 2K1 and the special Iron Bowl edition of UA Football Facts!

So I’ve found something new to pass the time: Command & Conquer. Ricky has let me borrow one of the discs to play around with, and I have found myself engaged in virtual battle for much of today. And proving to myself that I would not make a very good general.

Command Alkon called me this afternoon and wants me to come in for an interview on Thursday. They are a technology company, and they’re located in Birmingham! <Phoebe>So, yay!</Phoebe>

This serves well to balance out the bad news of this morning…

From an e-mail from Hewitt received just now:

Unfortunately, we will not be continuing the interview process at this time. This decision should not be interpreted as a negative reflection upon your accomplishments, but rather the result of our particular needs.

Uh, huh. Sure. In our communication class in the MBA program, we learned how to write letters to soften the blow in certain circumstances, “ding letters” being one. Once you’ve written a couple, you start figuring out just how half-hearted they can sound. They’ve always got that “It’s not you, it’s me” feeling to them.

Somehow I can’t help but believe that it is actually me.