not sure

At this point, I'm not feeling very happy at work.  I'm learning a lot of difficult and confusing procedures, which mostly involve paperwork and a proprietary computer system, and in no particular order.  I don't understand how they flow, what comes first, and how they fit into the overall process.  A couple of the supervisors have spent some time showing me these procedures, but it's difficult to be instructed when the work is not in front of me.  I have then been expected to actually do the work, without having had any time to put my notes in order; no one seems very happy when I ask questions about a detail.  Either the job is not as described or I didn't really understand what was involved.  I'm not sure that anyone except Stephen cares about jewelry.  It's basically a manufacturing job.  He's been quite pleasant so far, but has now asked to see me in the morning, and it doesn't seem good.  This is why I'm up a little shy of 6 AM -- can't sleep.  I hope I have time to learn the job and to make good, but I'll have to be ready to move on if they don't want me to stay.  The last person in my job stayed nearly three months, but she was absolutely hopeless on any computer applications, even Excel, and she left something of a mess.  I'm at least getting the hang of the system, and haven't wrecked anything yet. But I'm not even sure I'll get three months.  The whole thing is very depressing.  I work every minute of every day and do my best, and that's all I can do.

There's not much "otherwise."  I come home, eat, and go to sleep; I've been in bed around 9:30 every night.  The computer caught something, a virus or trojan, and once more had to go to the shop and have its hard drive wiped.  My online storage system, Mozy, somehow lost a third of my music.

We did have a nice brunch on Sunday for my dad's 80th birthday, at the Blue Water Grill.  My brother, who's basically been out of touch with everyone, did not attend.  The word is that he has to move, even though he's been living in his mother-in-law's house (she's in assisted living).  Seems that her money has run out and the house has to be sold.  My brother and sister-in-law have barely worked since they left New York for Providence -- he worked for a short time in a Rite Aid Pharmacy call center, and then he worked for the Census.  I don't think she's worked at all.  On top of that, he told my uncle that the last time we'd spoken, we had a fight. (???)  My uncle says that life is too short to be estranged, which is certainly my feeling, since I recently sent my brother a birthday e-card, a clipping from the Times involving his old high school, and an e-mail about my new job.  No response.  Anyway, the rest of us had a good time and a nice meal.

Regardless of my job, I did make a new necklace the other day, first one in a while.  My aunt Tina (my uncle's second wife) didn't have any of my jewelry, and was interested in the gem heishi necklaces I'd described to her, so I made one. I had some really nice citrine and I used that with a little carnelian, some silver wheel beads, and some gold rutile quartz.  Afterward, I went poking through some of my old stuff to pull out some other things for her, and came across a heishi necklace I liked better for her, so I kept the citrine one.  I'm also planning a multi-strand green necklace with jasper and some pearls. I still have a lot of material I haven't touched since the last bead show, which was maybe a year and a half ago (maybe two and a half years, I can't remember). I'm actually pretty well stocked, and don't need to buy anything at the moment.  I'm not quite as stocked as the bead room at work, of course, but there's really nothing there that I don't have or couldn't get easily.  (There are even things there I don't like, like frosted beads and heaps of rock crystal.)  I think I'll be doing a lot of jewelry this weekend, whether or not I still have a job.