A paycheck right now would be much appreciated. Hmm.

I spent my first couple of months here at The Office asking everybody for more work, because the CTO for whom I was working directly really didn’t have all that much for me to do except arrange travel, do his expense reports, and manage his fundraiser. As I said before, I was doing loads of work for HR and various projects for other people.

I started assisting the marketing department right before the new year, and now my title has officially changed from executive assistant to that of marketing coordinator, which makes me feel important even if I’m not really. The major bonus of this is that I finally get to utilize some of the skills that I haven’t used in forever, namely web design, and I love that. Basically, then, I am absolutely swamped with stuff to do, but I’m enjoying most of it and the days just fly by, something that never happened at The Firm when I worked there.

This also means my hours have extended somewhat, as I feel guilty leaving before six or six thirty. I’m hoping all this work will pay off when bonus time comes around … we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m having a blast and that’s what counts.

Apart from work, what’s been going on? Meg and I had our one-year anniversary on Saturday night, which we spent by going out to dinner and spending a night at the Hilton, which was just wonderful. I always forget how much I like room service.

Also, Jen and I went to the L Word premier party in the City last Sunday at the Copacabana. Awesome. Apart from me getting absolutely tanked, which is always a good time until the next morning, we spent the evening dancing, watching the first episode of the new season of the L Word, and listening to live music. Plus, we got to see Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame), Marlee Matlin, and series creator Ilene Chaiken.

Something in the office smells like bologna (or ‘baloney,’ if you’re one of the people who spells it as it sounds), probably my favourite lunch meat ever, which is affecting my gut. I’m so hungry! Ack. I could take lunch now, but that wouldn’t make an even split in the workday. Must … hold … off … just … a … little … longer …

The lady who works nearest to me - I’ll call her ‘Alice’ because she reminds me of that character from The L Word - let me know today that all was not as simple as it looks. That is to say, I mentioned that I was going to sign up for the 8-day insurance course that is occuring the week of the 24th of July, and her jaw dropped. “That’s not enough time for you to prepare for it!” she exclaimed. Personally, I’m appalled. Sixty-four hours straight of studying seems like overkill for any test, really. But the way she put it, it’s “extremely intense, and the test is really tricky. They’ll try to get you on a lot of the questions, and the material is not going to be stuff you’ve seen before.”

The question is, how am I meant to get this done - pre-studying and all - before my four months are up? The answer: it ain’t gonna happen. Let’s hope Big Boss Man doesn’t notice this. I’m getting it all done as quickly as I can, but you don’t realize how much stuff there is to do and how much information there is to take in (interesting though it may be) until you’ve been here awhile.

I read in a Yahoo! Health blog today that the human brain loses its attention span six to eight times every minute. Crazy, innit? But it makes sense for me. I’ve been getting more bored/distracted/otherwise occupied so frequently lately, it’s not even funny.

Props to Alice, though. If she hadn’t told me about the insurance program, I assume I would have gone to the late-July course grossly unprepared. For a training program, those in charge aren’t doing much ‘training’ at all. Maybe it’s a ploy to get us all used to working independently, but let’s be honest, the Firm and its business is a complex thing, and a little guidance would be helpful! As is, it comes as no shock to me that no one is left out of the last fifty-two trainees, as stated by a friendly neighbourhood informant. Little is being done to keep up the morale of the trainees, I’ll tell you that. And it frustrates me to death.

Today’s lunch break will be dedicated to getting in contact with my insurance company in an effort to figure out exactly what the deal’s going to be with my now-defunct vehicle.

The cops found my car, still running, a block from my house. The cop who ‘interviewed’ me (read: photocopied my driver’s license) said that it had been “stripped,” but didn’t elaborate. So I called up the inpound lot where my car is resting now, and apparently I can’t even go and look at the car until charges have been paid to the tow company. *grumbles* The lady on the phone then said to me, “Well, we’re not supposed to tell you what’s on the report, but …” and then proceeded to say that my baby is “heavily damaged, with broken windows,” “all electronic equipment has been removed” (bye, bye XM Radio), “seats have been stripped from the vehicle,” and so on, and thereforth. Anyway. I need to have the insurance guys take a wander down there and check out the situation. Pain in my ass.

On the upside, Big Boss Man was very understanding. However, I’ve now been informed that the insurance exam that I’m meant to take pretty soon requires a week-long class after some self-study time. The nearest location for this that I’ve found is over in Edison, NJ, which isn’t bad at all. I guess it’ll be okay. Need to get my act in gear and sign up for a course, though. I’ve only got so much time left!

Ooh. Meg and I finally got to see Imagine Me & You last night, the film with Piper Perabo that we’ve been dying to see forever. And it was completely worth the wait. That was the cutest romantic film I’ve seen in a really, really long time, and I highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for one of those ‘I’m going to eat junk food and give myself a facial’ kind of evenings.

Meg surprised me last night by taking me to an honest-to-goodness drive-in movie theater out in the boonies of New York State, around Middletown and Fair Oaks. I was thrilled! I mean, I’ve always said that if there were a decade in which I’d be the most content, it would be the fifties, and what exemplifies the fifties more than a drive-in movie?

It was a beautiful night for it, too; warm, but not too warm, not too many bugs, and lots of stars. We saw The Omen, which I found to be pretty good and quite riveting - and yes, I did jump once. Of course, I’ve never seen the original film, so I can’t compare the two, but for a remake, this one seemed pretty decent. A few random thoughts: I love Liev Schreiber. That was one freaky-ass nanny. And how cute was Damien when he was trying to look evil? Aw.

The best part of the “American Idol” finale: a crying David Hasselhoff at the announcement of the winner. I was rolling. As for Taylor winning … meh. My personal fav was Chris, but he was voted out a few weeks ago, and my passion for the show never returned. Actually, my passion for the show really wasn’t there to begin with. Give me the first season, back with Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini and that lot, or one of the British shows: “Pop Idol,” or “The X Factor.” Now there’s some good entertainment.