Friday

It is good.
I had my yearly evaluation with my boss today, and it went very well. It made me smile, actually. It's funny, really, how when you have such a close work relationship with someone as a personal assistant, after a while (we worked together for almost 4 years now) you start to kinda being a counterpart to the other in the 8 to 5 sense of things (most of you know exactly what I am talking about). This is not exactly the job I imagined when I came to the US--but, I have to tell you, it could have been much worse. There are sucky moments and days, and it's generally pretty hectic here, but after so many years tending to someone's appointments, travel arrangements, emails, spelling problems and reports, and listening increasingly often as the person uses you as a sounding board and contributing with some minor ideas--you kinda grow on each other, and after the few frictions at the beginning, you both learn to respect each others' little quirks and habits, leaving the big ones alone while carefully trying to improve the ones that you actually can.
Really weird. Besides learning about business and transportation, finances and report analysis, I learned a TON about interaction, relationships and just plain old social interaction in this job. And that is a Good Thing...seeing the positive in the less desirable outcome of my life.

And this weekend we are going on a real camping trip down to Norh Padre island, with a chance to see sea turtles! Yay! Ocean, beach, animals and travel...with industrial-strength sunscreen, sun hat and mosquito repellent, of course.

UPDATE: Another good thing working here: if the managers who work for your boss catch you in the cafeteria before you had a chance to pay for your lunch, they buy it for you, unasked. I was waiting for my pizza to get ready and two of them, with their lunches already done, sneaked up on the cashier and paid for mine. Sweet...I am sure they''ll expense it, but still...