More progress, and a step backward-ish
Mar. 24th, 2024 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thelaughingmuseSo I got the bookcases moved back into the sunroom and the living room, and then populated. Then I began assembling the two bookcases that I bought nearly a year ago and just kind of...leaned up against a wall. They're the same type of bookcase (Hemnes), but they're just a skosh taller than the first two that I bought nearly 10 years ago. And one of my two existing living-room bookcases is getting a little fally-aparty, so while it's still empty I'll take some time to retighten things, add wood glue, and reassess. If that particular bookcase is just too frail to make the journey, there is an Ikea in Mexico City. The sales tax is 16%, and the price is higher because it's imported, but I'd rather not have a bookcase that's falling hazard...especially since I load those suckers down with actual books that I regularly pull down and read. (I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that the heaviest non-furniture item I'm shipping down is my book collection.)
The downsizing continues. Today I took two carloads of glassware, curtain rods, small drawer units, books, a few small kitchen appliances, and some cookware to the donation dropoff. I also took a box of live-flame candles that I've decided, sadly, that I'll never ever use while I have cats. I value their safety more than I want real live flame on actual candles. If the kitties knock a battery-powered candle off the shelf, I might have some dinged-up wax to deal with. I won't have a housefire.
Work...is. The checks keep coming, so I keep logging on, but sooner or later there's going to be a reckoning. We've all been in reactive mode for over a year, and our boss has been trying to limit the new stuff that we're asked to handle. Last week we had a sudden schedule change the second-to-last business day before Things Were To Happen, resulting in everyone on the team suddenly reaching out to all the teams they support and confirming, yes or no, that their particular items were staying on schedule or moving out three weeks. And then, of course, reworking a lot of things to account for said new schedule. Super fun. Anyhoo, my boss was not pleased at all. Boss has been trying for the better part of the time that they've been here, to get the other groups to communicate with us, to bring us in on the process, to not make docs an afterthought. But here we were, another afterthought. (No one communicated directly with our group about this change. I just happened to see the single broad-blast post about the change and linked it for everyone in my team's chat, and then told them that I was probably going to spend most of the day following up with my various assignments.) We were all quite aggravated and, I'm sure, ready to start drinking heavily. Or throwing things. Or both.
I'm thinking about starting to keep a separate journal of brief daily schtuff in English, and then in Spanish on the opposite page. My Spanish will be kind of meh, and I'll probably look back at my first bilingual journal and just cringe. But, hey, learning takes both time and practice. Seeing real evidence of my progress could help me realize how much (or little) I improve month over month, and then year over year. I would dearly love to get fluent enough to read a book straight through without needing to check a word's meaning. I've bought several books that I love in English, in Spanish translation. It's Spain-Spanish, which differs from Mexico-Spanish; but it's a starting point. I'm kind of interested to see how Hogfather (Papa Puerco) fares in translation. I've already gotten through El Orgullo de Chanur (The Pride of Chanur).
...and I just re-realized that since yesterday was Saturday, today was Sunday and so tomorrow I have to get up early and go to work. Guess I'd better get to bed, then. Eeeey, Melatonin (Ay!)
The downsizing continues. Today I took two carloads of glassware, curtain rods, small drawer units, books, a few small kitchen appliances, and some cookware to the donation dropoff. I also took a box of live-flame candles that I've decided, sadly, that I'll never ever use while I have cats. I value their safety more than I want real live flame on actual candles. If the kitties knock a battery-powered candle off the shelf, I might have some dinged-up wax to deal with. I won't have a housefire.
Work...is. The checks keep coming, so I keep logging on, but sooner or later there's going to be a reckoning. We've all been in reactive mode for over a year, and our boss has been trying to limit the new stuff that we're asked to handle. Last week we had a sudden schedule change the second-to-last business day before Things Were To Happen, resulting in everyone on the team suddenly reaching out to all the teams they support and confirming, yes or no, that their particular items were staying on schedule or moving out three weeks. And then, of course, reworking a lot of things to account for said new schedule. Super fun. Anyhoo, my boss was not pleased at all. Boss has been trying for the better part of the time that they've been here, to get the other groups to communicate with us, to bring us in on the process, to not make docs an afterthought. But here we were, another afterthought. (No one communicated directly with our group about this change. I just happened to see the single broad-blast post about the change and linked it for everyone in my team's chat, and then told them that I was probably going to spend most of the day following up with my various assignments.) We were all quite aggravated and, I'm sure, ready to start drinking heavily. Or throwing things. Or both.
I'm thinking about starting to keep a separate journal of brief daily schtuff in English, and then in Spanish on the opposite page. My Spanish will be kind of meh, and I'll probably look back at my first bilingual journal and just cringe. But, hey, learning takes both time and practice. Seeing real evidence of my progress could help me realize how much (or little) I improve month over month, and then year over year. I would dearly love to get fluent enough to read a book straight through without needing to check a word's meaning. I've bought several books that I love in English, in Spanish translation. It's Spain-Spanish, which differs from Mexico-Spanish; but it's a starting point. I'm kind of interested to see how Hogfather (Papa Puerco) fares in translation. I've already gotten through El Orgullo de Chanur (The Pride of Chanur).
...and I just re-realized that since yesterday was Saturday, today was Sunday and so tomorrow I have to get up early and go to work. Guess I'd better get to bed, then. Eeeey, Melatonin (Ay!)