Monday, February 28, 2022

Weekly Round Up: Player 2

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I tried two new recipes and revisited two old ones, winter is fleeing the scene, and Player 2 has entered the game of my kinda-sorta-probably job search.

Eats

The most exciting thing that I made this week was Beef with Snow Peas (idea c/o Life of a Doctor's Wife).  It was easy, came together quickly, and as a bonus there was one portion left over that made a delicious lunch.

I tried a tofu recipe earlier in the week for lunch that was just so-so but it left me with a good amount of air fried tofu that I needed to do "something" with.  The stars aligned because I ended up having a single girl night on Friday so I whipped up some General Tso's sauce and raided the freezer for rice and Costco stir fry veggies along with some green onions that were hanging out in the fridge.  My sauce recipe was just OK so if you have these ingredients in your fridge, just google a sauce and I think you'll come out as good or better than I did.


For repeat hits, we had Instant Pot Copycat Chipotle Chicken burritos one night.


And on date night we had the oldie but goodie Cheddar Bacon Ranch Chicken burgers.


The Jobby Job Update

The TL&DR version of the story that I shared last week...out of nowhere a Hot Startup contacted me on LinkedIn about a job that sounds near perfect for nice $$$.  I had a great panel interview with them this week and feel even more enthusiastic about the job now.  If they decide to move forward I'll have another interview with a Big Cheese this week, and I asked to have a follow up interview with the supervisor as well since our conversation was brief and he didn't leave much of an impression.

And then Player 2 entered the game!  Please understand it is not normal for jobs to come to me, I go to them so having TWO opportunities come up without me doing a thing is unheard of.  A former coworker said that her company is opening up a job that is right up my alley, and asked if there was any possible way that I would be interested...oh yeah, just a little bit.  Player 2 is a newer startup that several people who worked at my previous employer have joined.

Player 2 was very nice and I have a second interview with them this week.  The red flag is that it's super informal.  I don't know what the job title is or what the pay is.  Why haven't I asked about these minor details?  Because I can't resist playing the game that's why!  I think that this one has less of a chance of working out so my main reason for going through the interview process is to be less "all in" on Hot Startup and to continue to blow off steam on my frustrations with my current job.

I think that staying in my current job is the most likely outcome, and that's fine.  There are still things to learn blah blah BUT talking to these other companies has really cemented that I'm bored and that my current employer isn't a "happy" company even though they do a lot of things right.  So that's where things stand as of right now.

Workouts

It's still pretty cold but most of the snow has melted off so the roads are accessible again.  I got two count 'em two outside runs this week including my Saturday morning long run so that was nice.  My long runs will get longer by a mile each week for the next few weeks, so this week was "just" 6 miles and next week will be 7.  I'm ready to ramp things up again.  I've been trying to "just run" instead of slavishly trying to run All the Miles and I have to tell you that February has been my lowest mileage month since...since...thank you blog archives, since August of 2018.

Watching

Move over AFI Top 100 movies, I finally have a TV show that's treadmill worthy.  Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is out and it is fabulous.

I've skipped my AFI Top 100 rewatches for a few weeks, so let me catch you up.  First of all, it made my day that Grace posted her update for the past few months this morning.  Here's what I've got:

Some Like It Hot.  I've seen this movie a million times and love it to pieces.

On the Waterfront.  For those times when you coulda had class and coulda been a contender.  I know I'm supposed to tell you that it's a brilliant and important movie, which it is, but sheesh I struggle to get into it.  There's just something about it that's "off" to me.

The Grapes of Wrath.  It's pretty good, albeit a little talky and preachy here and there.  What I'm trying to say is that it's worth watching but I forgive you if you skip it.  I started this on the treadmill and moved it to the couch and watched it in pieces in between episodes of Love is Blind...now that was an interesting pairing.

The Best Years of Our Lives.  I think that you HAVE to watch it for Harold Russell (a man who lost his hands in WWII playing a man who lost his hands in WWII) and there are some other brilliant moments but I also echo what the recap video says...there's just too much chunky dialogue that makes this movie an hour longer than it needs to be.  Yay that it's currently on Amazon Prime.


Annie Hall.  I feel like I spent my entire childhood watching my parents watch Woody Allen movies on repeat and it's all one big pretentious angst ridden blur.  I would not have signed up to watch this again but for the companion Unspooled podcast, and on a whim I asked my husband if he wanted to see it.  He said the same as me, that he'd already seen it at some point in his life and he was pretty sure that it was a whinefest but sure he was down to watch.

Well lah di dah to us because from the get go it was fresh and brilliant and new and stands out as one of the best movies that we've seen in a long time.  We were both very surprised.  And then I went looking for a recap video to give you a taste and everything that I see looks whinny and pretentious.  The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.

Reading

The Christie Affair was good enough that I finished it but so far fetched that I was left rolling my eyes.  ISO the next read!



16 comments:

  1. Wow, Birchie, you're hot stuff on the job market right now! Brilliant!

    Your interviews with Hot Startup seem to be going well. If the supervisor leaves a good impression in the upcoming interview I think there will be nothing stopping you from changing. To me, the most likely outcome is that you will be switching to Hot Startup.

    So nice to have a Player 2 in the mix - it helps to boost your confidence and to do well in the interviews.It's all so exciting!

    Well done on your workouts! I like the plan to add a mile each week. Yay for outdoor running!

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    1. Thanks Catrina! It is fun to just talk to these companies and not have the pressure of needing to make a change.

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  2. I too watched Annie Hall years ago and can't remember anything from it, but don't remember it standing out. That said...considering I was barely out of my teens when I last watched it, I have a suspicion I could have a completely different take on a movie now that I'm...no longer barely out of my teens.
    The food looks delish. All of it.
    Ugh. I need to start running again. I gave up this winter. Pure and simple. The weather has been absolutely horrendous here. I did my last outside run in December, slogged through 3 treadmill runs/week for about a month and decided life is too short to do 3 months of treadmill runs I hate. But still...ugh. It is going to be so hard to jumpstart running. It is currently -15C with the windchill, the sidewalks are covered in snow and so I continue to walk daily and that has to suffice. Maybe I'm not actually "ugh" about the running, but just feeling very bitter about this Canadian weather?!

    http://elisabeth-frost.com

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    1. Yes, there is nothing in that movie that I would have understood when I first saw it, or in my teens, or in my 20's, and probably not even in my 30's. But now that it's age appropriate for me I really like it.

      I am incredibly bitter about winter and I live south of you! No matter how much someone wants to, there just comes a point where the cold, the dark, the ice, the snow...the whole package just makes it impossible.

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  3. I coulda been a contender! I coulda been a somebody!

    Wow, you are on FIRE with the job thing! I hope it all turns out the way you want it to.

    I *could* run outside, but it is just so icy - we are on the melt/ freeze cycle right now - so I am still doing indoor workouts. I *could* go to the treadmill at my gym, but I don't feel like breathing heavily now that restrictions are opening up (up until today, you needed to be fully vaxxed before entering the gym, now those restrictions have been lifted, but even with restrictions I didn't feel great about it, with Omicron). Ah well! It's not like I'm an Olympian or anything, I'm just running for fun.

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    1. 100% with the ice!!! It's really frustrating when the temperature starts to get comfortable but I still can't run outside b/c it's too slick.

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  4. Wow! I'm so impressed that people are just flocking to you with job offers! (I'm also a little jealous as I sit in my current blah job sending applications out in force.) You are awesome!

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    1. Last year one of my LinkedIn connections posted something like "I applied to 10 jobs and got three offers" and I'm just sitting here like "dude I've applied to 300 jobs and didn't get the offers for the ones that I wanted and had to turn down a couple of offers that sucked while I keep punching the clock at my current job". My streak is impressive but it's once in a life time.

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  5. I LOVE Annie Hall. I've always loved that movie- I'm a big Woody Allen fan.
    So, the Christie Affair. I think she should have gone all-in and done it in true Christie style, with the detective gathering everyone together at the end and stunningly revealing who the killer was- I mean, if you're going to have Agatha Christie as a character, why not? I agree- I liked this book but didn't love it.
    Well, good luck on the job search- you have options! Actually "search" is the wrong word since they're coming to you. That's a nice position to be in!

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    1. I was blown away by Annie and I'm curious now to take another look at some of his other movies.

      Yes to your ending for the Christie Affair!!!

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  6. Wow! Look at you with all these hot jobs panting after you! I hope the interview this week goes great and gives you some answers (or at least something weird and wild to share!). Glad you liked the snow pea stir fry! I may just have to make it again this week. Yum.

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  7. Wow, there's definitely been some excitement happening in your world! Good luck navigating all the "job stuff." It's great to have options, though, right? Gotta say, the Chipotle Chicken and the Cheddar Bacon Chicken burgers look quite tasty!!!

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    1. The Chipotle chicken and the chicken burgers are both super easy to make!

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  8. Goodness, you have so much going on on the job front! I hope that, whatever the resolution is (and it's likely been resolved by now, since I comment so late!) that it is aligned with who you are and where you want to be in your career right now.

    And, also - as per usual, I have never seen any of those movies. I'm fascinated reading about them, though, and how popular they are (still)!

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    1. Ha ha Anne you are completely up to date on the job situation! Other than the fact that I've decided to start looking on my own.

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