Work, the holidays and Pharaoh

Pharaoh went to the vet a few days ago for his yearly checkup and shots. I'm proud to say he's fit and in great health, just very large-- 17 pounds, according to Dr Maxwell's scale. ("Oh, he is a monster," she said when I brought him into the room.) He fell into a strangely subdued funk afterwards, though, that he's only slowly coming out of now. I don't know if it was because he was traumatized or angry, but I actually miss his surliness.

In other news, my job situation seems to finally be changing for the better. I still have my full-time job, but I started a part-time job a few weeks ago at a video game retailer and am loving it. It's my first experience in retail and it's been a big challenge to adjust-- I wrongly assumed that good customer service skills could be applied equally in any field. But I'm making progress, I (of course) love the merchandise, I get along well with the rest of the staff and there are some exciting opportunities for advancement that will hopefully be opening up for me there in the future. Until then, it's kind of refreshing not being in a managerial position. Organizing a display of games doesn't have quite the same stress level involved as, say, going to court and evicting people from their homes. And hey, it's some pocket money in time for the holidays.

And that reminds me to note that we're having our office Thanksgiving lunch in about an hour, then tomorrow Evan and I are going to my sister's and brother-in-law's in Atlanta to have the main event with them and some of their friends. For as long as I can remember my dad and stepmom have held a huge family dinner back in Asheville-- far and away my favorite day of the year-- but this year they're out travelling. I'm sure Atlanta will be fun, but it would have been really great to be back in Asheville in a year that Thanksgiving and my birthday coincided.

But this is a time to be thankful, not complaining, right? I know we'll have a fantastic time, and hope everyone else does too! (I'm making a cheesecake just to be safe.)