Goodbye Winter

hello spring!

Work

In september I got a call from the volunteer coordinator in my town whom I spoke to back in february.

She called to say that she was quitting her job. And she called to say that she wanted me to follow her up. Oh man, I was psyched! (sorry, that was the RVA in me coming out).
A week later I was in her office chatting to her about the job and what it entailed. A half hour after that I was in her bosses office, having an informal job interview.

Then everything went totally silent, painfully so.

I KNEW she was leaving her job in october and that her position would be vacant in november and that I was a strong candidate.

So I waited.

Then I networked. I went to a volunteer conference organized in this area and spoke to anyone who means everything, including the bureaucrat responsible for volunteer policy. I sparkled, I chatted, I gave my educated opinion.

And I waited some more. Because you know, new policy was being made, lots of bureaucrats had to bow their wise heads over this job, opinions had to be asked and budget had to be checked.

Then I started looking around for another job. And got invited for an interview, in december.

THEN, then I started stalking. I talked to the boss, told him I was interested in THIS job. Oh yes, he said, we're interested in you to. But you know... bureaucracy......
I stalked some more. Listen I said, there's a big chance I might get this other job, whatcha gonna do about that?
A flurry of activity ensued.

Meanwhile, I did not get the other job. You know what they said? There's a job opening in your town. YOU WOULD BE A PERFECT CANDIDATE FOR THAT JOB!!

Finally, last week, I had THE job interview. Oh, they said, we can't wait to have you! Can you please start tomorrow?!?
Sure, I can do that, I said.
But... they said.. though we are offering you this job, first the director must say he agrees.
Ok, says I.
And... they said... we also have to get verification of your good behavior. This will take up to 4 weeks.
Ok then, I said.
But after that, they said, after that, can you please start immediately??
Yep I said.
After all, after waiting 4 months, what's a month more? Patience, after all, is one of my virtues ;-)

So though I may want to start my new job tomorrow, and they may want me to start tomorrow, bureaucracy will stand in my way.

And this folks, is what I am going to have to deal with IN MY NEW JOB!!
I am officially going to become a pencil pushing volunteer coordinating bureaucrat.
Yeah for me!

This longwinded tale is the tale that I referred to here.

Why was I being so mysterious, you may wonder?

Well, on the first day of the job I have now, one of my colleagues came up to me and said, Hey I found your blog!
This is something that I do not want to have to deal with here. The job I've accepted is quite a public function. I will have to do a lot of networking and I will meet a lot of people. I want my blog and this job to be two totally seperate entitities. That's why I have taken all references to my family name, my husbands name, my real name and where I live out of the blog. Also I will be changing the url, for extra safety. The new url is going to be www.eliseblogs.blogspot.com (I'll let you know when I switch... soon!). This way I hope to protect myself from unwanted interest in my personal life. It may not be enough in the long run, but I hope it will be enough for now!

So ends the tale of the search and conquest of my new job.

(and the flowers? I got those from Herman!)

It's beginning to look a lot like

Christmas!
I don't make the best pictures, but here's an impression of what has been Christmasized in our house.....

Favorite color

The fifth question was: What is your favorite color?

Care to take a guess?

Happiness

Ever notice how much easier it is to spread happiness when you're happy yourself?
I was in Utrecht today, meeting up with old colleagues and volunteers. It was great to walk into a room and have people know and recognize me and greet me like a long lost friend. Well, ok, maybe not that enthousiastically, but it was good! I had a lot of lovely chats and some intelligent conversation and went home feeling uplifted and happy.
I also went home with a bunch of flowers given to me on the spur of the moment. I came into the train with my flowers in front of me and immediatly got a reaction from the old couple sitting across from me. While on the subject of flowers the lady happened to mention she didn't get a lot of flowers from her hubby.
So I gave them to her before I got off the train. So nice to see the look on her face! Still has me smiling.
It's ever so much easier to be nice to somebody when somebody's been nice to you!

Op een grote paddestoel

There's a dutch childrens song that I think every single dutch person has grown up learning to sing. It's called op een grote paddestoel. It's about a little gnome who sits down on a red mushroom with white spots. He dangles his legs and all of a sudden the mushroom breaks, flipping the gnome upside down.

Somehow, it loses its charm in translation!

But here are some of the mushrooms that are mentioned in the song:

Marinda, the photographer

Two days ago I posted some pictures I took when I went for a walk with a friend. On that same day Marinda came along as well.
Here are her pictures. She has such an eye for detail! She sees things or looks at angles I totally don't see.
To the left is a shot I took of her in action. The rest of the pictures are entirely hers. Please leave a comment, I'm sure she'd love to read what you think of them!

Sunny Day

Garden

Tulips anyone?

We took a drive today, and this is what we saw:










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Currently reading: Readers Digest from 1984. Yes 1984! I found them in the secondhand store here in town, along with a number of other english books. One of them was so annoyingly cloying (it included cutely bumbling angels, for pete's sake!) that it almost made me gag. Hopefully the other books will turn out beter.