Others putting themselves in my old shoes

I am not as stressed out at work, mainly because I don't lead our software release work these days. It's a nice change.

However, I am the one who troubleshoots and makes decisions on my team that either no one has thought about or can't come to a conclusion. It's one many reason why I did everything seamlessly.

I also find that my colleagues whine and complain about minor things that I never did. Perhaps I need to join in and see how that feels.

I still feel that they took what I did for granted. Now that they are enduring what I used to do, I feel like there's a quieter respect that they have for me.

Still reorganizing, and discovering my love for lacy panties and bras

I am still in reorganizational mode at home. Later on today, I am picking up a few storage cube organizers. I am enjoying the process of getting rid of items that I don't need or use, while reorganizing what I want to keep.

A couple of hours ago, I found some pretty lacy bras. I had completely forgotten that I had purchased them. At this rate, I won't need to buy bras for a few years.

Some women like a matching set of bras and panties. I have never been that way. As long as they look pretty and I feel good in them, they make me happy.

In the past, guys have enjoyed my wearing black bras and panties. The colour matches my hair. I feel sexy in them.

I haven't wore a black bra for a while. I should. I do wear black panties far more often. I love lacy panties. They are surprisingly comfortable.

Travel, comfort, and change

I made it safely to the Twin Cities. It has been a long day, but I am happy and still alert!

I like Eagan, a suburb of what seems to be St. Paul. I have found a hotel that I like. It feels comfortable, modern, and cozy.

Perhaps that's one reason why I am still up at this hour. I feel like I'm at home, writing in my blog. I just happen to be in a different city, country, and environment.

Change isn't all that bad. Then again, it doesn't feel like a whole lot of change at all.

Thanksgiving long weekend and voting

Tonight, I am staying at a hotel closer to the airport. It's fun. It also saves me time in the morning getting to the airport. I don't need to do an hour-long commute.

I voted at the advance poll on Friday after work. I won't be able to vote on a Saturday like I typically do. I also don't like voting on voting day. It takes me forever to get back home and it is whenever everyone is scrambling to make their voice heard. I'd rather do it early.

I like voting. I have a say. It makes me feel good after the fact.

This weekend is the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada. Yes, I'm heading stateside, but it's worth it.

Decluttering and discovering old photos

I have been doing a ton of decluttering these days. While on vacation, I didn't really feel like doing it until just before I went back to work. I am pretty motivated these days that it's surprising me!

I'm not sure why I held on to so much stuff over the years. I found a couple of photos of my ex-husband. It was early in our relationship. He looked happy.

I had no hesitation getting rid of his photos. I kept everything else. I ended up putting these photos in an album.

For years, I held on to my undergraduate textbooks in two domains that I don't use all that much these days. As much as I love math, I have decided to let my textbooks go. I can always look up information and questions online should I need to.

I donated my books on Wednesday. I recycled an old cell phone. I also donated clothes that I no longer love, but hope that others will.

It feels good to declutter.

Thoughts being an interviewee

At work, I conduct a number of interviews. I tend to make interviews a conversation rather than an interrogation. I want the interviewee to be comfortable, which allows that person to open up. I then get as much information out of the candidate to determine whether that person is a good fit.

It has been ages since I went for an interview. It's strange to be the interviewee.

For a while, ever since this job opportunity was plopped into my inbox, I have been mixed about the position. I like the idea of being in a new work environment, being closer to home, and having the challenge of learning a new field. However, after being interviewed by four different people on Monday, I still don't feel that it's my dream job.

The person who could potentially be my manager reminded me of my current manager. Both have been in the industry for nearly two decades. Both don't have a good command of the English language. Both aren't good at listening.

I respectfully butted heads with this person. I saw the passion that came out of me. I didn't back down. If they didn't like that about me, so be it. I'm actually pleased that I took a stand.

This person basically said that this position would be a drastic change for me. He felt that I was doing more of a management role than a writing role. He went on to say that at my workplace, there are tons of writers. You lose one and you're fine. At this company, it's smaller. You lose a person and you feel the impact.

I completely disagreed with him. I have lost a writer a year on my team for at least the past four years. Thanks goes to my micromanaging manager. My team loses a writer. I feel the pain of picking up the slack and doing the job of two people. It is my current situation.

He completely dismissed the fact that I am in the trenches, writing daily, doing the grunt work. I hammered that point. He didn't get it. He's stubborn, just like my manager.

Is it worth taking a pay cut to be at a different company with a manager exhibiting similar personality traits and deficiencies? I think not.

I did feel good coming out of the interview. I got along with the woman with whom I had my phone interview. It was good getting back into the interview scene again.

As much as it would be nice to escape my current job for another one, this open job opportunity doesn't feel right to me.

Rough start just before Thanksgiving

My guy is going through a rough patch just before the Thanksgiving weekend. Yesterday, he had back issues and couldn't attend a car event with me. Unfortunately, he isn't doing too well today.

I am at least in his neck of the woods. I arrived here a few hours ago. Here's hoping that I can visit him tomorrow and that he is feeling better.

Having a quick treehouse moment and retracting a hard cock

The other day, my guy and I were horny. We had just finished eating lunch.

As we were walking out the door, my guy came up close to me and groped my left buttock. Yep, that did it for me.

He asked if we could have some quality time in the backseat of my car. We were at a plaza. I said that we should move somewhere remote. He couldn't wait. I had a feeling that it wasn't the best place. I was parked fairly close to the restaurant's entrance.

Anyway, we headed to the treehouse. He pleasured me once both my shorts and panties were pulled down. Moments later, I came. It was great and I was immediately lethargic.

I then played with my guy's crotch. Hard cock? Check.

He took his erect member out of my jeans and briefs. I was jerking him off.

My weird inclination came true. Out of nowhere, a woman decided to park next to my car. We put his penis away. She got out of her car and walked over to the restaurant.

"Why did she have to park next to us? It's 16:00 and there are only three cars in front of the restaurant!" my guy said in a borderline outraged voice.
"See, I told you that we should have moved somewhere else," I replied.
"I should have listened to you. I just wanted you so much," he said sweetly.
"I know. I can play with you elsewhere," I noted.
"That would be great," he replied, smiling.

It's never a dull moment in our lives.

Job analysis and prospective interview

On Thursday morning, i had to give a presentation to my entire team, which consists of over twenty writers from four different locations.

My presentation went well. I had a couple of technical issues. Otherwise, I was pleased with how it went.

I train folks and meet with students so often that speaking in front of groups doesn't rattle me like it used to. Sure, I still get a little nervous. To me, that's normal. It simply means that I care about what I am doing.

I ended up with an odd acknowledgement from my manager in our team meeting later on that day for whipping together a high-level process description for something that I do often. He normally doesn't make such an acknowledgement in front of the team. It was sweet that those in the room clapped. Perhaps my manager realized how valuable I am as an employee.

I am the longest-serving writer in our group and am the overall team lead for it. It has taken me a while to build up to this stage in my career.

With the job interview on Friday, I assessed whether I would be happy in that position. I wouldn't be a team lead. I wouldn't be coaching other writers. I wouldn't be training students. I love all these aspects of my job.

Sure, I would be saving in highway toll fees, travel time, and gas. I would also be taking a pay cut. It's interesting, but money has never been my main motivator. It's how I feel about the job that makes me happy.

All my development work, meaning writing to support our software products, will go to two other writers. I will focus on a migration tools task, performance statistics, and process work.

I have wanted a change and a reduction in my workload for a while. I will continue training students, supporting my team, and more. I like this change.

I made the difficult decision to decline my interview on Friday. It feels right. The recruiter was understanding. It is the first time in my life where I have declined coming in for a job interview.

I let my guy know. As usual, he is supportive. Whatever makes me happy, makes my guy happy, too. As usual, he is his sweet self.

Nervous energy, in a good way

My guy returns home from camping for nearly five days. It will be fun hearing all about his stories.

I have been preparing for a presentation that I am giving to my peers later on today. I am nervous. I think that it's normal to feel this way. It means that I care about what I am going to talk about.

The weird thing is that my feelings from my past are resurfacing. I feel anxious.

I used to dislike speaking in front of crowds. These days, I talk a lot in front of peers. Yet, I feel that I have a mild case of butterflies-in-my-stomach jitters.

My first bout was back in grade 7. We often did presentations often. I disliked speaking. Mind you, there were a number of other factors that year on top of this issue. I basically skipped a total of a month's worth of classes. I wanted to avoid so much -- people, homework, assignments, class presentations, and so much more.

So, feeling a bit nervous is perfectly good. I know the content well. I have taught it to student interns both past and present, as well as colleagues. If I didn't feel anything, I would definitely be concerned.

Here's hoping that all goes well with my talk today. The crazy thing is that I am slated to give two more presentations in September. I should be a pro at it by then!

What to write about? Missing my guy and admiring betta fish

When I did the A to Z blog challenge, I didn't have any issue writing about anything. Topics were there, ideas came to me quickly, and I just wrote away.

Now that the challenge is over, I find that I can't think of anything to write. At least, that's how I feel.

Perhaps it is also because I haven't been able to talk to my guy. He came back late on Wednesday night and was too tired to call me. Yesterday, he managed to say hi online, but he was dead tired.

I miss him even more when we don't talk while we are apart.

To counter this temporary void, I found an aquarium store on my way home from work. It is huge! I saw some cool betta fish. I nearly bought another one. One of them was purple.

It's unfortunate that you can only have one betta fish in a tank. Introduce another one in the same tank and they will stress each other out, and one possibly might die after they are done fighting each other.

They are nice to look at. I probably stood in front of the betta fish section for ten minutes, admiring how gracefully they were swimming by themselves.

I also can't believe how many betta toys are out there. I browsed. I am sure that I will be back to spoil my fish with a leaf hammock or log.

I can still hear my guy tell me that I am taking my pet fish too seriously. I care about my fish. My guy is genuinely happy that I have a pet fish. My fish enjoys blowing bubbles on the surface and insisting on eating dried bloodworms.

I am glad that I have a pet again. It's nice to watch him swim and love his environment. It also fills the void of my guy not being with me a bit.

Q is for quality time

My guy and I love quality time. It's pretty evident from the posts that I have written so far!

It can be as simple as us cuddling together in bed. My guy can be groping my butt, which leads to a spanking. It is then my turn to give my guy a blowjob. It's fun and exciting. It's intimate and loving. It's just plain nice.

I enjoy curling up next to my guy after getting a hard spanking. He loves wrapping his arms around me when he is dopey. It's a wonderful, perfect feeling.

Rough times for my guy

I could sense that something was wrong with my guy on Wednesday.

I briefly saw the back of his head in the communal lunch room. He didn't come to visit me. That was unusual for him.

He eventually did come over to his cubicle at 6 pm. We chatted along with another colleague. I then asked him if he had a moment to chat. He did. We went into a conference room and closed the door.

Sure enough, my guy is going through a tough time both at work and with how he feels about himself. He openly spilled what was wrong, which he wouldn't have been the case two years ago. He's a moody guy, but we both seem relieved talking it out.

I told him that he was my best friend. He said that it was mutual. He appreciated that I am always there for him and that I am understanding.

Needless to say, now is not the best time for us to engage in treehouse time. However, I had to squeeze his hand and tell him that all would be okay. I also got to caress him freshly shaven head. He felt good after I had done that.

We had planned to go out for dinner on Thursday night to talk some more. It did help that we had spent an hour talking things through at work.

He'll be okay. Time tends to help sort such things out.

Things don't always go as planned

Well, I am a bit bummed out (no pun intended). Sadly, the wait continues.

My guy wrote an e-mail to me this morning, saying that he wasn't feeling too well. Naturally, he wasn't going into the office, and had to postpone our lunch and dessert date (yes, the latter means treehouse time) today. He felt bad about it.

Of course, I wanted him to feel better. I told him to take it easy and let me know if he was feeling better the following day. I wished that I could kiss him and make him feel back to his normal self. We have been apart for weeks now. Waiting another day won't kill us. I am an optimist, after all.

Unfortunately, my longing for him was more apparent as the day went on. I do miss him.

I know that when I am travelling, I tend to get sick toward the end of my trip. I am not sure why that is, but it isn't surprising. My guy coming down with something doesn't surprise me.

I saw some fact recently that said that sex and cuddling tends to increase your immune system. Here's hoping that we can spend some time to remedy our ailments soon.

Passing out or being tipsy when being spanked

The other day, I had come across a brief YouTube video in which a young woman had passed out on her bed. It looked like she was a university student, for there were a bunch of her friends there in a dorm-like setting.

She was lying on her bed in her room, with her backside facing up. One of her friends came around and smacked her buttocks. She didn't flinch. She didn't react. She was out cold.

This video and my talk the other night with my guy got me thinking. My guy and I were having phone sex. He's in Montreal on a business trip.

I like the idea of being a chemistry student, who has to wear a uniform to school. Yes, I envisioned wearing a plaid, red, short skirt, a white blouse, white knee-high socks, and black Mary Jane shoes. My hair was done up in ponytails.

I was a horrible chemistry student. I decided to swipe the answer key off my teacher's desk one day. I memorized all the answers before the test and scored a high mark. My guy liked it and added to the story.

The following day, he called me into his office. He started to ask me questions about the test. I couldn't reproduce the answers. He approached me and said that I could be either expelled or punished. I didn't want to be expelled, so I had to be punished by him.

He stood next to me. He lifted up my skirt and spanked me over my panties. It lasted for quite some time, to the point where it hurt so much that I wasn't to collapse. I eventually did. He pulled me up and had me sit on his lap. He started to touch me, caressing my shoulders, kissing my face, and telling me that I was naughty for showing my thighs in class. I got spanked some more, but with my panties off.

We talked after we had both come. We talked about drinking. He gets aroused when he thinks about a woman who is intoxicated, which would allow him to have his way with her. He liked thinking about me that way. From a fantasy perspective, I can see why that sounds hot.

In reality, I am hardly the type to get drunk like that. I recall drinking three bottles of beer after a shift with a bunch of colleagues years ago. I had consumed the bottles of beer on an empty stomach. I wasn't even tipsy. They were Molson Canadians. I probably need to drink more bottles to feel the effect.

With spankings, I'd like to be relaxed, but I don't like the idea of being spanked and not feeling the impact. I like the thought of being giggly after several drinks and getting spanked for consuming too much alcohol than I'm accustomed to. I also like being tipsy and giggly, and cuddling with my guy with my sore, red bottom. Passed out drunk like that young woman on YouTube? Nah.