She Works Hard for the Money

In some sort of fit of insanity I accepted way too much translation work to do over the weekend. There is ginourmous litigation going on with a big Japanese corporation and there are thousands and thousands of pages that need to be translated in conjuction with it. I've had so many agencies offering me so many piece of the job that I finally bit.
This is my first experience working in the office of our new house. The office is nice. I have an eye level view of the street and the light hits the room nicely in the late afternoon and early evening, which encourages me to keep on working until night falls.
The sheer volume of the work I was foolish enough to accept (and let's just not mention the entire day I wasted yesterday working 10 hours on a part of the document I didn't need to translate. *sob*) has motivated me to try out a few new tools. Specifically, I got some OCR (optical character reader) software and some translation memory software (Wordfast), and while I don't really know how to use either one skillfully, I am already seeing a bit boost in efficiency. I imagine it will be even better once I actually learn the right way to use the tools.

A Moment in Time

I'm almost a week into living in the new house with the wonderful boyfriend and my marvelous girl. So far, things have been hectic. The move was originally planned for the morning of the 17th, but the big snow and sleet fest that decided to rain on my parade put the kibbosh on that plan. Instead, the big move took place on Sunday. We had many helpers, who were greatly appreciated. My sister was one of them. She told me she occasionally saw me standing there in sort of a daze as people paraded out of the apartment with various pieces of my life, as if I couldn't believe it was actually happening. Exactly.

Goodbye Old Life, Hello New Life

This is my last post from the "old" apartment. It's nearly empty now and I'm just waiting for someone to come pick up a piece of furniture I free-cycled. This place was good. I lived here for 2 years and seven months. It was where I needed to be. Now it's time to move on!

Emptying the Cup

Last night was my girl's last night staying in the apartment. (She stays with her father from tonight until the weekend.) She was very cute about it. Her best friend, who lives across the street, called her shortly before supper time and asked if she would like to go on a walk with her, her dad and her little brother. Although she was a little hesitant, my girl decided to go since it was a "last chance" kind of thing. As seven o'clock started to roll around and my stomach started to growl, I text messaged the girl to ask when she was coming home to eat our Moe's. She showed up at the door a few minutes later, out of breath, sweaty and a little angry . It seems her friend kept urging her dad to make the walk longer and longer and during that time my girl decided she was sorry she had gone in the first place because she wanted to spend as much time as she could with me in the apartment on our last night here together. She's such a sweetie.
We had our sandwiches and shared a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Then we settled into the couch (loveseat, really) to watch American Idol and did our best to finish up all the ice cream in the freezer so I don't have to move it or throw it out. She was so aware that everything she did, she was doing it for the last time here. She even made a point to pause and ask for a "last hug" in the apartment before I took her to school this morning. I keep reassuring her that we'll still be together, but I also understand how she feels.
We're both excited about the move, but I think it's natural to feel some uncertainty. We've been settled into our routines for a few years now and they are comfortable and comforting to us. But change is a constant in life and we can create new routines and new comforts and adapt the ones we have to new situations. Letting go of the familiar is always difficult, but it's the only way to keep moving forward.

It's Official

And it's actually been official for exactly one month, but today I finally had the time and the motivation to head over to the county court house and purchase a certified "divorce packet". That was $15 well spent.
I've read that many people feel a resurgence of sadness when a divorce is finalized. Some people throw big parties for themselves to celebrate, but I think that is lacking in decorum and it's just not my style. I drove home with the packet sitting in the passenger's seat; its shiny gold superior court official sticker winking at me. I felt something like a thrill in my chest, because this divorce saga really is over and everyone is still alive and in relatively good shape.

Misery loves company?

Misery loves company?
Originally uploaded by bassbot.

Please excuse the blurry photo. I think, in a way, the blurry nature sort of lends itself to the subject matter of my trashy neighbor who has now decided the dirt outside her bedroom window is a perfect place to both dispose of and store her vodka.
It disturb me that this woman drives a large pickup truck through this neighborhood, where my child and my neighbors' children play.

Trash Neighbor Trash

lovely
Originally uploaded by bassbot.

Last night, when I took my dog out into the yard to do his business, something down below the deck caught my eye. On closer inspection today it appears that the downstairs neighbor decided to get rid of an empty Stoli bottle by pushing it out the screen of her bedroom window. How classy.
Moving day is in less than two weeks. And not a moment too soon.

For Those Who Like It Dirty

If you like dirty pictures, click here.

42

I had a birthday today. It was great. My sister whisked me off for coffee in the morning. My honey made me a birthday cake (and schemed with my girl to have her help decorate it while I was out doing the grocery shopping.) Then he took me and my girl out to a very yummy dinner. I haven't had a homemade birthday cake since I was a kid. It was extremely chocolately and delicious.
I have to say that so far my 40s are pretty awesome. Most of my 20s were spent searching for some elusive prize I never found. My 30s were spent mostly confused, wondering how the hell I had ended up that way and feeling resigned to having to spend the rest of my life avoiding or enduring the consequences of the choices I had made. Now I finally feel like I'm where I belong and together with the one I belong with.
Youth gets all the hype in this culture, but I'm finding that this "mid-life" phase is way better than I ever expected.