Monday, September 11, 2006
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
It seems like my life has been going through quite a lot of changes lately. In fact, the only way to add more change would be if I decided to become a transvestite.
The first change, as most people know, is that The Wife is expecting Child #2. Still no word on a nickname with this one. But that’s okay because I keep forgetting we’re even preggers in the first place. When The Wife was pregnant with Luke (nee Blasty), every day was a milestone. “Now Blasty is the size of a grape.” “Today, Blasty has ears.” “Today Blasty gave an odd kick when we were stuck at a railroad crossing waiting for a train.” With Child #2, it’s more like: “Today, Child #2 is entering high school.”
(By the way, I’m starting to like C2 as a nickname. Kind of like how the producers of Terminator 2 decided to just start calling it T2. Of course, that didn’t go over as well with D2, the horrible Mighty Ducks sequel. Still, I like C2. That’s the child’s nickname unless someone can come up with a more worthy nickname.)
Anyway, my point is that since Luke is still developing and learning new words and finding new ways to annoy – er, I mean amaze – us, it’s hard to focus on an unborn child as yet. I’m really starting to understand this whole first child/second child syndrome a lot better. That first child gets SO much attention, starting all the way from conception. This might explain why I, as the third of four children, don’t even recognize my parents. My mom keeps getting me confused with her paper boy. On the bright side, she pays me $10 a week.
The second change is that we just adopted a dog. Several of you know about our last attempt to adopt a dog. We got this really smart and cute dog who turned out to hate people (well, men anyway) and other animals. Well, this dog is like the polar opposite of Mocha. Snow (whose name will be changing soon) is a German Short-Haired Pointer, who’s mostly white. (Mocha was brownish.) And Snow seems to be a bit on the slow side. She needs a LOT of training. Mocha also needed training but picked it up quickly. On the other hand, Snow is friendly to other people and dogs and can be left off-leash. She does chase the cats, but I think that’s more out of curiosity.
Luke, of course, loves the dog. He wasn’t sure about her at first, but that didn’t last. This morning, when Luke woke up, I went in and picked him up. The first thing he asked was “Doggy?” I said the dog was downstairs and asked if he wanted to go downstairs. “Yes.” He loves that thing.
The third change is job-related. I’m quitting LAF and going back into actuarial work. This might come as a shock to some of you. It’ll sure as hell come as a surprise to my boss here at LAF, given that I’ve only been here four months. But this job, and specifically this company, isn’t right for me and I’m thrilled to be going back to actuarial work.
The pay is one major reason. I won’t be getting a raise right away (because I’ve been out of the business for awhile), but I’ll be getting them soon. And they’ll far outpace what I’ll make here.
But it’s not just the pay. It’s the work itself. Actuarial work is challenging. It makes you think all the time. Most people would hate it. It’s a lot of math and stats, but if you’re a math dork like me, it’s just the best job in the world. And one of the problems I have at LAF is that I’m not challenged enough. A lot of what I do is writing reports. I feel like there about a billion people out there who can write these reports. But how many can (and WANT to) figure out the present value of pension liabilities? Hell, you probably don’t even want to read the words “present value of pension liabilities.” And that’s why I’m a dork. One of the reasons, anyway.
The culture here at LAF is another reason I want to leave. It’s very political here. Amazingly so. It seems like every word I say is judged. Things are taken out of context and misconstrued. And some of it is on purpose, I believe, because it’ll help other people advance their careers. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think the main reason is that fully 75% of the people here have been here less than 2 years. So it’s one big pissing contest.
So those are my big three changes. I think the only other major change I’m missing (besides the Change of Life, of course) is moving. Thankfully, I won’t be doing that any time soon.
The first change, as most people know, is that The Wife is expecting Child #2. Still no word on a nickname with this one. But that’s okay because I keep forgetting we’re even preggers in the first place. When The Wife was pregnant with Luke (nee Blasty), every day was a milestone. “Now Blasty is the size of a grape.” “Today, Blasty has ears.” “Today Blasty gave an odd kick when we were stuck at a railroad crossing waiting for a train.” With Child #2, it’s more like: “Today, Child #2 is entering high school.”
(By the way, I’m starting to like C2 as a nickname. Kind of like how the producers of Terminator 2 decided to just start calling it T2. Of course, that didn’t go over as well with D2, the horrible Mighty Ducks sequel. Still, I like C2. That’s the child’s nickname unless someone can come up with a more worthy nickname.)
Anyway, my point is that since Luke is still developing and learning new words and finding new ways to annoy – er, I mean amaze – us, it’s hard to focus on an unborn child as yet. I’m really starting to understand this whole first child/second child syndrome a lot better. That first child gets SO much attention, starting all the way from conception. This might explain why I, as the third of four children, don’t even recognize my parents. My mom keeps getting me confused with her paper boy. On the bright side, she pays me $10 a week.
The second change is that we just adopted a dog. Several of you know about our last attempt to adopt a dog. We got this really smart and cute dog who turned out to hate people (well, men anyway) and other animals. Well, this dog is like the polar opposite of Mocha. Snow (whose name will be changing soon) is a German Short-Haired Pointer, who’s mostly white. (Mocha was brownish.) And Snow seems to be a bit on the slow side. She needs a LOT of training. Mocha also needed training but picked it up quickly. On the other hand, Snow is friendly to other people and dogs and can be left off-leash. She does chase the cats, but I think that’s more out of curiosity.
Luke, of course, loves the dog. He wasn’t sure about her at first, but that didn’t last. This morning, when Luke woke up, I went in and picked him up. The first thing he asked was “Doggy?” I said the dog was downstairs and asked if he wanted to go downstairs. “Yes.” He loves that thing.
The third change is job-related. I’m quitting LAF and going back into actuarial work. This might come as a shock to some of you. It’ll sure as hell come as a surprise to my boss here at LAF, given that I’ve only been here four months. But this job, and specifically this company, isn’t right for me and I’m thrilled to be going back to actuarial work.
The pay is one major reason. I won’t be getting a raise right away (because I’ve been out of the business for awhile), but I’ll be getting them soon. And they’ll far outpace what I’ll make here.
But it’s not just the pay. It’s the work itself. Actuarial work is challenging. It makes you think all the time. Most people would hate it. It’s a lot of math and stats, but if you’re a math dork like me, it’s just the best job in the world. And one of the problems I have at LAF is that I’m not challenged enough. A lot of what I do is writing reports. I feel like there about a billion people out there who can write these reports. But how many can (and WANT to) figure out the present value of pension liabilities? Hell, you probably don’t even want to read the words “present value of pension liabilities.” And that’s why I’m a dork. One of the reasons, anyway.
The culture here at LAF is another reason I want to leave. It’s very political here. Amazingly so. It seems like every word I say is judged. Things are taken out of context and misconstrued. And some of it is on purpose, I believe, because it’ll help other people advance their careers. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think the main reason is that fully 75% of the people here have been here less than 2 years. So it’s one big pissing contest.
So those are my big three changes. I think the only other major change I’m missing (besides the Change of Life, of course) is moving. Thankfully, I won’t be doing that any time soon.
