Back in ACAT Land

Ah yes, the good old days of ACATS...how I have missed you. Actually, Non-ACATS, now. Exclusively! Melanie'll love it!

I have started my new job at a new broker-dealer, and so far, I love it. I am an Asset Delivery Processor. I work with a team of people, and we all do the transfers, in-kind and liquid. I specifically am in charge of two things: check disbursements and deliveries. Check disbursements are exactly what they sound like - someone either signs a letter or phones in a request, and that request is passed on to me and I cut a check from their brokerage account and send it right out to them. Deliveries are outgoing transfers (Non-ACATS! Which means Non-Automated-Customer-Account-Transfers!). That's where another company that's set up an account for one of our clients sends us transfer paperwork and I send the stocks/mutual funds/cash from that clients account to the other company. Well, rather, I request it and then forward the paperwork to our clearing firm, and they send the assets while I keep track and make sure it all gets done properly.

This all sounds so freaking exciting, I know. But here's the exciting part: I'm getting paid $14.36/hour to do this! And my supervisor was like, "Yeah, you can come in any time between 7:30 and 9:00 in the morning. I don't really care, as long as you work 8 hours and get your work done and in on time." Yay for flex hours!

Eric and I got a lot done tonight, in our room. We cleaned up the floor and all the piles of crap, and it looks halfway decent now. We still have to organize a few things, like the closet, shelves, bookcase, and my desk. But one step at a time...as long as we maintain upkeep after that first step is accomplished. Backtracking sucks.

I'm excited for the Instant Theatre thing at the Shelterbelt this Saturday. I'm surprised they chose me as one of the four directors. I'm a little nervous, in fact. Oh well. I'm just going to have a good time. It will be exhausting, though, as I have to be there from 6:30am to almost midnight that evening.

I think our Chess reading went great. I need to remember to make Melanie a copy of the soundtrack.

Yay for Christmas dinner this Sunday, at Vivace's!

I finished Wicked. Wow, not a happy book. But it was really good. Just really, really sad.

Okay, that's all for now, folks.


And you wonder: Will I leave her? But how?
I cross over borders, but I'm still there now.

Merry Christmas, Whoop Dee Doo!

My, my! What a busy weekend.

Lessee...Saturday, Eric and I went shopping most of the afternoon. He wanted to do some Christmas shopping, and I had some things I wanted to get. Unfortunately, one item turned out to be a waste of money. The "refill" I got for my planner doesn't fit. Oh well. We went to Borders at one point, and I got a Candy Cane Mocha. Yum. That's right, yum. Oh, and we got the soundtrack to The Fountain. Beautiful. Yay, Kronos Quartet!

That evening, we went to the play Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge at the Playhouse. It was very funny. The finale was "Merry Christmas, Whoop Dee Doo!" It was a parody of Christmas Carol, where the Ghost of Past, Present and Future (all the same person) had defective magic powers and kept transporting them to the wrong places and times. And Mrs. Cratchit was miserable being poor and kept trying to commit suicide. But then, the Ghost got help from Clarence the Angel from It's a Wonderful Life, and he made it so that Mrs. Cratchit was never born. But then she saw that the world was BETTER without her. So they both got help from Monica on "Touched by an Angel", and she transported Scrooge and Mrs. Cratchit to New York in 1977 where they were happy being rich and rotten and mean.

Then, we went karaoking. I sang "One Night in Bangkok". Got a huge cheer. Melanie said I hate "bite" in my voice.

Sunday, Eric performed in the "Sights and Sounds" Christmas concert up at Dana College. They had an "Alumni sing Christmas on Broadway" thing. Cheesy. But they did well. It had that freaky "Turkey Lurkey" song. But we also got to hang out with Chip for a while. It was a fun day, which is good - it was my 1 year anniversary with Eric. And, coincidentally, we had our first "official" date going to the Christmas thing at Dana LAST year.

Cathy offered me one of the lead parts in Translations. I'm reading the script right now. I'll probably accept. Yay for my neverending busy schedule, yay for theatre masochism! When will our government fund the arts like they do in other major civilized countries?

We're doing the "Chess" reading tomorrow, and I'm psyched about that. Yay for Tim Rice!

Alrighty, I'm out.