Let me unpack that:

When you were a kid, do you remember the days immediately following Christmas? You wake up every morning and for a little while, as you rub sleep from your eyes and your brain begins to boot up, you think it’s just another morning like any other. But then you remember:

Yesterday was CHRISTMAS. I have all those NEW TOYS!

And you jump out of bed and begin your long day of playing.

Well, ever since I told my manager that I’d like to quit my job and pursue other things, I’ve had mornings sort of like that. I wake up and I’ve forgotten that anything significant has happened. I roll over, hit the snooze button… and then I remember:

N days ago, I finally told my manager I would like to quit my job and go to grad school!

And then comes a flood of mixed emotions: relief, happiness, terror, sadness, etc. Very very different emotions from what you’d feel on post-Christmas mornings, which is why I’m calling this “anti-Christmas feelings” (Sort of like the “anti” in “anti-hero”).

And so far, each morning brings a different set of emotions. The first morning, it was all about the joy and relief. The second morning, after I’d broken the news to my team (who I LOVE btw), it was mostly sadness and heartache.

Granted, I’ve only had TWO mornings like that so far, but I expect this feeling won’t go away until my actual departure date. I’m very excited to be moving on and on my way to do other things, but I expect these last few weeks at work will feel a bit like being in Limbo.

I have absolutely no regrets or second-thoughts though. As much as it hurts to leave a team I love, I think I’ve known for a long time that Tech Writing is not the career for me. It feels GREAT to finally acknowledge that and take steps to find what I really want to do with my life.

Anyway, the full details of why I’m leaving, and why I think Tech Writing is the wrong fit for me will probably come out in a separate blog post.

I’m a whiny bitch, so I was very unhappy about getting up SO FREAKING EARLY for a work-related activity (I’ve been whining to the bf about this for weeks), but as soon as I got into the car, all grumpiness FINALLY went away (partly because the particular team member I was carpooling with is pure awesome) and the rest of the day was great.

This is the second time I’ve gone with my team to volunteer there, although I think other team members have gone more than that. My first time going was during the Christmas donation season, and we packaged up about 16 tons of food! (Not joking here! We did the math on our iPhones and stuff).

Anyway, today we did what I’d consider “light” work… we took barcodes and labeled cases of food while Only The Men loaded them onto pallets (Ms. Drill Sergent in charge of us would not let The Men touch the barcodes or let The Women load the cases. She was hilarious) .

Very worth doing, and easy to get involved with your local food bank if you’re interested. :) And, if you work at a company that has team off-sites, it’s a really great experience (and costs your cost-center basically nothing but gas and lunch if you’re expensing your off-site).

Afterwards, another team member and I stopped on the way home and did two wine tastings (don’t worry, we’re not expensing that!) I bought a Bonny Doon Angel Paille (browse their flash animation menu to find it if you’re interested) which is a yummy light white dessert wine where the grapes are apparently dried on straw before made into wine. It’s tasty. I also bought this tasty tasty apple cider brandy (which I can’t find a link to… and yes, I know that’s not a wine.)

We also stopped at the Santa Cruz Mountain Vinyard tasting room but I decided I had spent too much money on booze for a work day, so even though their apparently big award winning 2006 pinot noir was amazing even by my “I suck at wine” standards, I didn’t buy anything else.

Anyway, overall, it was a good day “at work”. Time for a nap. I’ll have to catch up on non-fun work this weekend. good times. good times.

I also had all kinds of crazy dreams. Like, sitting in a lounge waiting for my name to be called when about 15 minutes before my interview, the reception desk calls me over and says I have a phone call. It’s a client from my previous job asking for SEO consultation. In my brain, this gets mixed up with my current situation, as if it’s the same company, and thus I really should take this call to impress my interviewers.

So I talk with this guy about EngineWorks services, his options, how to make a site-map, etc. Then he puts me on hold because he can’t remember the URL to his website and has to go find it.

Suddenly I realize that I’d been laid off from EngineWorks a month ago and that this call is taking a really long time. It’s now 15 minutes AFTER my interview should have started, and i glance into the smokey room of rumpled businessmen who are to interview me and see their disapproving looks and their impatient glancing at their watches.

It was an odd dream. First dream I’ve ever had where I could read a clock. I thought time wasn’t supposed to work in dreams.

okay. i better start getting ready. *is still nervous* I think I’ll turn off my cell phone when I arrive.

I don’t work for Comcast… Never have. Probably never will. It’s just a very odd coincidence that a friend asked me over IM “how’s your new Comcast job?” while an unread postcard asking roughly the same thing was sitting on my desk.

Odd. haha. :)

Comcast was giving us trouble with our internet… which was PREVENTING me from working for a while. That’s really the only connection.

I didn’t even hear about this before now, but today while reading some of my work-related rss feeds, I came face-to-face with the story of AOL’s big screw up last July… and the fact that now they’re being sued for $5k a person-whose-data-was-released…

wow.

Here’s a link to the complaint and here’s a story and another story.

The “Factual Allegations” in the complaint outline the basic facts of what happened and the consequences of AOL’s mistake. (I read all of it. yeah. really I did.) It explains the basic mechanics of the search marketing business, how companies and regular people can (and have) profited improperly from the release of the data, and the types of potential damage that could still occur from it (including the steps necessary to connect the data with the real names, addresses, SSNs, etc of the searchers).

The thing that makes me sick is that AOL did nothing to make this up to their members once they started realizing what AOL did. All they did was offer members who complained a free month of service (this is even described in the suit). *boggles*

Item 23 describes what happened to one woman whose data was released and the New York Times apparently wrote an article about her after tracking her down THROUGH HER SEARCH DATA. Quote from the complaint:

Once identified, the reporters contacted the individual and asked her questions about her Internet Searches, which included…. As expressed, by the AOL member, her “whole personal life” was revealed. AOL’s response has been to do nothing. AOL has not even bothered to notify its members that their private communications have been released. AOL readily admits that the release of the Database was wrong. In AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein’s own words, “This was a screw up, and we’re angry and upset about it.”

Crazy. (the language-nerd in me cringes at the use of “AOL has not even bothered to…” because “not even bothered to” is not a very neutral way of describing AOL’s (lack of) response.)

Anyway… someone’s heads are probably rolling (three people lost/gave up their jobs over this incident already… I imagine a few more will too once this really heats up in court.)

Anyway… newsworthy, yes.

Distraction from work, yes.

Important? hell yeah.