Meandering Melody

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Finds at the Easter Market

Vienna has fabulous Easter Markets!
This year we went to one.
And found some fun things to buy.
The wooden top is made from Olive wood.

The orange oil with the date sauce
has made eating lettuce salads enjoyable again.

fragrant shower soap in bags- hard to choose just two

Hubby chose this sweet glass bunny-with Raspberry syrup

Monday, April 30, 2012

a face lift

A clever & skilled friend figured out how to make
some legs for this photo screen so the photos
can be more at eye level.

I decided that laying it on the bed would be the safest method
for painting it.

It was a bit tricky getting the color I wanted.

clever metal pre-drilled plates
allowed me to add the legs without needing to use
an electric drill.

Back against the wall again!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Transition to employment

January 2012 I was hired by the U.S. Department of State.

February 13, 2012 I was sworn in at the U.S. Consulate in Vienna Austria, as an Official employee.

February 14, 2012 I worked my first official day at the U.S. Public Diplomacy Vienna Training Office.

April 11, 2012 I almost walked away from my job in frustration.

It has been a challenging transition period in my life. I am hopeful that all the intensive training I am doing will give me more employability in the future. And that very soon I will be a happy effective employee.

My job is a flexible time- 20 hour a week job. It is flexible in that some weeks I must work more that 20 hours a week in order to fulfill my job requirements. And it is flexible that I can work shorter or longer days in the week as long as I work 40 hours in a 2 week period.

Sometimes I have found juggling my other responsibilities around the job really difficult.

And I have been surprised at how exhausted I am at the end of the day.

Slowly I am developing a routine at home. And slowly I am gaining competency with my tasks at work.

I was perfectly honest in my job interview that I was completely unfamiliar with the data bases and computer programs I would be required to manage and work with. For the most part learning the new skills has been interesting and fascinating.

I hope that as I gain confidence in my job I’ll have more energy in the evening to return to some of my hobbies, like posting blogs. :-)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Personal Change

I dyed my hair brown just before my family arrived for Christmas.

If you look at the photos taken Christmas day (family portrait) you'll see that my hair is brownish. But each day after that it becomes more red. The brown henna I used literally slid off my hair with each hair brushing and shampooing. So by the time of the birthday party my hair was back to being red. Before "Hawaii daughter" flew back to school she colored my hair again. This time it worked, though I still have some reddish highlights.

The decision was an eventful one for me. I decided to look more like my family by matching my daughter's hair color. To me it was a drastic change, and one that hit me emotionally because I had taken great pride in being the one with the Gorgeous Ginger Hair!

Surprisingly very few of my friends have even noticed or commented on it.

I think my skin looks paler... Don't know how long I'll keep this new color.

I miss my red.

This is how my hair looks if allowed to dry naturally without much styling, just comb through, pin the fringe away from my eyes. Then let the rest do what it wants to do as it dries. Some sections curl some sections frizz.