Ok, ok, I know I haven't posted yet about my trip to Paris last weekend. I've been busy! In the meantime, though, enjoy the pictures:








I think you can guess what this first one is ;-)


Isn't it lovely at night?














and this is what's across from the Eiffel Tower





This is the Orange Garden at Versailles:

I'm looking out from inside the Louvre, remembering how much fun I had racing a South African and an Australian on my bike the previous night on the bike tour ;-)

You know how everyone has one of those special places where they see it and think "oh my god... someday I'll take someone really special here so they can see it"? Well, that place is Versailles for me (at least for now). There was just something about it, even in the mist... I might post my favorite picture of all later on, or I might not. You'll have to wait and see!

Adventures in Television

I swore that I wouldn't get tv here because A) I didn't want to pay the tv tax, and B) I thought I didn't need tv anymore. Turns out I have to pay the tv tax anyway because of my broadband connection (well, I don't *have* to, but I don't want to risk a 1000 GBP fine). and to refute point B- tv will help me relate to my staff. They're always asking me if I saw Eastenders, or do I know of this tv star or that star... besides, I kind of liked having the news on in the background in the morning as I was getting ready for work. So I broke down and decided that I was going to get television. It's not like I had to get cable- the tv license is what pays for all of the "freeview" channels.

Because of my big beautiful computer, I thought "I don't need to buy a tv, I'll just get a tv tuner and watch things on my laptop." So I went to the electronics store last weekend, where the sales associate was ever so nice but no help whatsoever. I picked what I thought was the most appropriate piece of equipment (cost: 30GBP), took it home, installed it, and nothing. Ok, maybe the rinky-dink antenna that came with the tuner stick isn't good enough, I thought. Went to a store to buy a real set-top antenna (cost: 10GBP). Hooked it up, and still nothing. Ok, fine. Maybe I need to actually buy a freeview box (which, now that I think about it, probably does the same thing as the tuner). The freeview box cost me 30 GBP. Did hooking that up do anything? Of course not! I have the receipts for everything, but I'm not sure what I want to take back. Because I'm living over here indefinitely, it's kind of hard for me to stick with my stance of "no tv, ever." And because I *do* want tv at some point, why should I return everything just to have to buy part of it back again, especially when some of it was on sale this time around? I'm wondering if I should now buy a tv set, see if I can get *that* to work, and then return the leftover crap I have hanging around, if it's not past the "return-by" date yet...

I want to give a quick update on work because I probably won't post again until after I get back from Paris this weekend (hee hee hee. yes, I'm going to a foreign country ;-). The past week and a half have been absolutely nuts, and I feel like I can't quite catch a break. Between endless/pointless meetings, My Boss being on holiday/in hospital (yes, he went to the Canary Islands on holiday last week, got really ill and spent some time in the hospital, tried to come back to work on Tuesday but went home after two hours, and hasn't been seen since), a lack of staff, and stupid touring performance promoters... But I rather like being busy like this. It's all good.

Sick ones and Nik Naks

Yesterday was the day that the director of HR and I went to visit the Supervisor Who Turned Psycho, to talk to her and see when/if she was coming back. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive through the countryside (she lives across from an old church, and fields of sheep- all very picturesque), but that was the only good thing about it. I don't know what i was expecting, but I didn't expect this woman to look like she was physically beaten. She looked absolutely horrible. For the two weeks I'd known her before everything happened, she wouldn't be caught dead without looking absolutely perfect. But it wasn't an act. We walked in the door, and she sat down to talk to us, and before she'd gotten a whole sentence out of her mouth, she started crying, and by the end of three sentences, she had to get up and leave us for a bit. I will admit, we thought (before today) she was just putting on an act and playing the system. While she still may be playing the system, she is a very, very sick person. What all of this means is that I'm still short a supervisor, and will be for quite some time, unless her medical report (which should be getting to the theatre's doctor in the next week or two) says that she'll never be able to come back. Meanwhile, i've got a second supervisor who still doesn't know which desk to call her own, or which supervisory duties will ultimately be hers.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I work with the sweetest people. I walked into work this morning, and on my desk was a packet of snack food with a note from my Deputy. The snack was called Nik Naks- a crunchy Cheeto-like base, but instead of having orange cheese powder flavouring, it had scampi-lemon! Definitely weird! But once I got past the mental block in my head, they weren't *that* bad. Dude... who the hell but me could say they've had shrimp scampi flavoured Cheetos! I'm going to have to get some more twinkies for everyone or something :-)

Ok, I should've figured this would happen here. What is the *this*? I have a thing for a guy who works for me. I know, I know! He's tall, blond, and British. reminds me a bit of (if you've ever seen the show) the character Dr. Chase on the show House, on Fox (you know, the show with the nasty doctor with a gimp leg who cures insane sicknesses in people). There's nothing to say that I can't pursue a friendship with this guy, but that is ALL I will consider doing. I love my job too much to risk it for anything like that. He's a very nice guy- on the quiet side, but can come up with some of the funniest things (and he's played his share of soccer and rugby). Honestly, it's good to know that I *can* be interested in someone, because for a very long time, while I wasn't interested in one particular person anymore, nobody else caught my fancy, either. Kind of like an absence of feeling in general. Quality time with the shrink has paid off :-P

Work update, let's see... things are busy, as usual. I'm supposedly going to (finally) do a home visit to the Supervisor Who Turned Psycho. If she cancels again, I'm going to see if we can finally ditch her at this point (there's a whole bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo that has to be looked at). I'm still short two full time sales advisors, and one part timer (he won't be back for another two weeks or so). However, the Deupty Manager and I finished wading through the stack of applicants today, and have called interviews for two weeks hence,

See, I'm boring :-P

Pigeons, street sweepers and the Jesus Army

Northampton is plagued by pigeons. And they're not shy, either. You can practically step on them, and this morning while I was out, one of them just grazed my head. but I guess that's what happens when everyone and their mother is out shopping- there's no place for the pigeons- or people- to move. And on that line, why would any city council tell its street sweepers to hop on their little machines and clean the same streets that are clogged with people out shopping? It's nuts. I was stuck walking behind this one sweeper for a while, and he must've been drunk or something, because he couldn't drive in a straight line. People here are pretty well trained to get out of the way of an oncoming sweeper, so it's not like this guy was dodging someone. He'd drive towards the right for a while, then veer over to the left for a bit... and he'd miss rubbish too! Weird. And to complete the weirdness, the Jesus Army was out in full force. As I was walking one way down the high street, a bunch of them were handing out the usual "Jesus Loves You" pamphlets. When I came back when I was done with my shopping, 8 or 10 of them were singing "This is the Day that the Lord has Made" and rattling tambourines and pounding on cheap little plastic bongo drums. It was like something out of North Carolina. Here I am, on this beautiful cobblestone street with trees lining the sides, giving shade to the shops, and a bunch of Jesus Freaks are banging on toy drums singing their lungs out.... England really isn't that different!

Wearing a suit makes me feel more important and in charge. Yes, there is a dress code at work- either the company issued polo shirt, or a suit with a white or aqua blouse underneath jacket- but I haven't exactly adhered to it from day one. Nobody has said anything, and when I sort of said something about it to my boss, he basically told me he didn't care what I wore. But today I felt like wearing a suit, and it made me feel different.

It would've been nice if someone told me a contingent from Royal Shakespeare Company was going to be at work, taking a tour of the facilities (including an extended look at the box office). glad i decided to wear that suit today :-P They were very nice people, but did look at me a little strangely when I welcomed them in my american accent.

I was supposed to go on a house visit (with the head of HR) to the Supervisor Who Turned Psycho, but late yesterday afternoon she called and said that today wouldn't be a good choice, and could we do NEXT Friday, as that was the next day her fiance would be off of work and able to be there to lend support. We can't freaking talk to him, and he's not allowed to talk, so why do we have to wait for him? I'm so fed up with this situation. 'Supervisor' has been out of work for nearly two months, and we can't do anything until she either decides to come back to work or finally files a grievance (and then we have to wait for that process to play out).

We received ten deal sheets in the box office today, which means ten shows to set up, but I am up to my eyeballs in applications for sales advisor positions (right now we are short two). While I am immensely thankful that I'm no longer stuck with work-study students, some of the applications I read weren't much better. I've got the usual assortment of actors who need money (and would only use this as a jumping ground), general deadbeats who can't hold a job for more than 8 months, and also a number of freaks- one who is suing her former employer, one who has taken off two months for stress and another 3 weeks for other illnesses in the last two years, as well as a stay-at-home-mom looking to get back into the workforce but readily admits she has ZERO computer experience and doesn't know much about the arts. Greeeat.

Despite all of this, I love where I am and what I'm doing. I am just as confident today as I always have been that this is where I'm meant to be. I love all of you, and I like the United States, but I feel like this is my home. This feeling is exactly like what I felt when I said "screw it" and moved with my family to New Hampshire four days before my senior year of high school started. That was an incredibly difficult thing to do, but it was the best decision I ever made. What is going on now is much the same, even down to the people accepting me for me.

Now I've got a three day weekend ahead of me, with no plans at all except for bowling with the Box Office on Monday night. I feel like a loser that I have nothing else planned :-P