Gonna keep this entry short, simple, and to the point. I’m being lured by the siren song of my bed, and nothing sounds sweeter right now than a good ol’ fashioned full night’s rest. Mmmm, gotta love those seven to eight hours of unadulterated zzzzzz’s.

First and foremost, no, I am not dead. Despite the lack of writing that’s gone on here, I am pretty damn alive. Just been distracted as of late by the new job. I work Monday through Saturday, and considering I’m not home until ten o’clock most nights the last thing I feel like doing is sitting down and typing up a blog entry at the end of my day.

Basically my excuse is that I’m lazy – but what else is new?

Some actual proof that I am very much alive – and being social! Crazy!

So the job.

Just as a refresher, I’m working as a door-to-door type salesman, but for charity. As a whole, I am quite enjoying myself. It’s different, to be sure, and nothing like any job I’ve ever held before. It has plenty of ups, and quite a few downs. I’m now accustomed to doors being closed in my face, and I may have gotten in an argument with some guy the other day about the importance of sharks to our ecosystem. And then there’s the rain. Holy hell, I am not a fan of working in the rain. One thing I’ve learned about myself in this job is that my mood is very much reflective of the weather; sunny is a happy, positive-out looking Julia, and rain means I just want to curl up on stranger’s porches and beg them to sign up.

But besides the few downs of the job, I am honestly enjoying myself. I’m getting to see parts of New Zealand I’d never get the chance to see on my own, even if I was still traveling about. I’m getting exercise, developing sales skills, and strengthening my self confidence, in a nutshell. The cause I’m going around for is a really good one as well. We’re helping save a whole hell of a lot of sharks, and that’s gotta count for something.

Think of how much money I’d make if I wore this on Halloween.

Not to mention the people. With the exception of one or two assholes, everyone whose door I’ve knocked on has been so amazingly lovely. It’s not everyday a stranger offers to make you a cup of tea and/or coffee and you don’t have to fear it being poisoned. I’ve had a lot of great conversations about the campaign I’m promoting, and some memorable conversations about a slew of other things as well.

Plus I saw a sheep hanging out on a porch last Tuesday. It was confusing and wonderful all at once.

Only in New Zealand.

Then there’s the fact that I get on well with everyone on my work team, which is a huge plus. They’re a good group of people and I’m glad I get to be one of ’em.

Anyway, yeah, the job is good. I feel like I’m still learning, but I also feel like I’ve definitely improved quite a lot over the last week. Let’s hope I just keep getting better.

In other job related news, it looks like my writing life is being revived from the dead. CGT asked me back on as a writer – but this time I’m getting paid, wahoo! – and it looks like BP may be rising from the ashes in the not too distant future and I might be co-heading it. It’s going to be interesting seeing how well I can handle writing articles for web-sites while doing a full time job, but I have faith in myself.

In non-job related news, Cheryl and I are pretty set on having a Halloween party. It’s basically just going to be us and a handful of people sitting around, dressed in quickly thrown together costumes, and gorging on Halloween candy. What more could a person ask for?

We sometimes like to pretend Kathleen is still with us.

On a final note, I should mention that this blog’s going to be slowing down quite considerably. As I already said, I’m too tired at the end of most days to sit down and pound out entire blog entries. Not to mention my life has taken a sharp turn to dullsville. Well, that’s a lie, I find my life quite interesting right  now, but do you all really want to read three entries every week about my job and nothing else? No. I don’t think so.

I’m thinking of just posting once a week on Sunday’s, ie. my only day off of work. I’ll try not to make every entry devoted to my job, I swear. I still need to write about the religious experience that was visiting Hobbiton, so expect that soon. I might still do some Fan Girl Friday entries as well, if I’m feeling up for them.

Once I get into the groove of things, blog entries might pop up a bit more often, but don’t hold your breath. For now just expect weekly updates on Sunday and be content with that. I’ll try to keep the ranting about sharks to a minimum.

I never realized I had such masculine legs.