I was putting of posting because I was hoping to get some pictures up, but that hasn't happened yet, and I can't let this place turn into a wasteland. I'm massively behind on photos. I have some from this weekend that I'll try to get done tonight, and I still have a bunch from the Academy of Sciences, as well as Hawaii (!). Sigh.
So Friday night, Marc and I decided to rent a movie. We went grocery shopping, so we just rented from the Red Box. The only thing they had that was remotely interesting was The Strangers. I haven't watched a scary movie in a while, and my tolerance for them lately just hasn't been what it used to be.
So we made it about a half-hour into this movie before I couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't even like The Ring or The Grudge. No creepy, pale-faced, Asian ghost with long, black, stringy hair. Nothing like that. But it was still creepy. It was getting late, so we just skipped to the last chapter and watched the end.
Saturday morning we ran a few last-minute errands for our pumpkin carving party later that day, and then cleaned up the house while watching the Cal-UCLA game on TV. People started showing up around 4:30, and we snacked, chatted, and watched some more college football. We got pizza for dinner, and afterwards we set up for pumpkin carving. We had quite the operation going, with 3 tables set up for everyone (I probably should've taken a picture of this). Marc and I have a billion carving tools from all the kits we've bought over the years.
We ended up carving pumpkins until almost 11pm. Once they were all finished, we lined them up and took some pictures. We didn't have an official contest this year, but unofficially, I think I won. Ha!
We slept in on Sunday and ended up having a pretty leisurely day. We went over to Steve and Erin's in the evening to babysit the kids so that they could go out for their anniversary dinner. Poor Jennifer pretty much cried until she was tired and ready for bed. Jacob and Allison hung out with us for a while after that until they had to go to bed.
As for work, they posted transfer positions for South SF, and gave us until yesterday to apply for them. I decided to not apply, for a number of complicated reasons. The main thing is, it wouldn't be quite the same job that I'm doing here, and there would be a good chance I'd have to do some things that I don't enjoy. For me to make the commute to SSF, the job was going to have to be something that was really attractive to me, and it just wasn't.
I went back and forth on it a lot - if I applied and got offered, I could still decline it, but by rule I'd lose the retention bonus and I wouldn't be able to get a job at SSF or Genentech for a year after the end of my severance. Since I was pretty sure I was going to decline it, I decided to not apply at all. It's a hard choice, but I think this is a good opportunity for me to explore other options, or to try to grow in my career. It's scary though!
So, I'll probably still be working here until at least mid-year next year, and then we'll see if they need me to stay on before the move to SSF. And then I get my severance!
Doh! I could have made it since you all were there till 11! :(
Good luck with the decision Bonz. I know it's a hard one, but sometimes you need a situation like this to force you to evaluate what you really want out of your life/career etc. So think of it as a positive thing in that regard!