Holiday Preparations and a New Job to Look Forward to

I'm quite proud of myself, as of yesterday all my Christmas cards are in the mail and all the gifts I have that are ready are sent or wrapped. This past weekend my parents were out of town, so I took advantage of the time to myself to get all my Christmas cards done and ready to be sent. I also had fun wrapping presents. I'm only missing a few people as far as gifts, and most of them are merely on their way to me, since they've already been ordered. The only two people I have no idea what to get are my grandpa and my godfather. I'm also going to find out soon when we'll get our tree and discuss with mum how we want to decorate it. She wants to sort through our ornaments and see if there's anything broken or not worth keeping for any other reason, as well as lights that may not work and garlands that are too old and worn, and so forth. We usually do a theme color and stick with it, and then put sentimental ornaments to fill it out, and we haven't decided on colors for this year yet. One of my favorites was Red and Gold, though the blue and silver also looked very pretty, as well as the purple and gold. I think I may suggest silver and gold, though I don't remember if we've done that recently. There are keepsake ornaments, and things that my sis and I made during school over the years, and dad's Bronco ornaments. I kind of wish I'd gotten an ornament to put up from Japan. Oh well. We're also gonna try to put the tree in a new spot, perhaps the dining room, to change things up a bit and keep pine needles off the carpet.

I've also got some good news to report. I quit my job last week. I had put in my resignation, since I already had confirmation on at least one new job, and another pending, and then the company did something that I didn't want to be involved in anymore. There are specific laws regarding collection tactics for companies, and this company was breaking them fairly blatantly by calling multiple times a day starting as early as the second of the month, with two weeks or more left in the grace period for most customers, and also calling before and after the designated times allowed for calling. The customers, as can be expected, were very angry or quite panicked, and we were having to deal with a huge flow of calls from people either furious with us and swearing up and down and threatening suit, or else panicking and wanting to know what was going on, or else we were being expected to help participate in the calling, and having people swear at us about that. Along with being tired of being yelled at, I couldn't in good conscience continue to help this company harass people by means I knew to be illegal, so I resigned early. My parents are cranky, as usual, but I have money to last through the end of the month, and I'm still expecting my last check, which won't be a full check, but I don't care. I'm starting a new job as soon as the results of a background check come in. I'll be working on counseling with kids who have emotional or other problems, as a result of things like personal or family tragedy or broken homes or the like, sitting with them in school, helping parents with coping mechanisms, and making sure that if they're lashing out violently, they don't harm themselves or others. Better pay, guaranteed hours, and a job that seems really fulfilling. Not perfect, but way better than what I was previously doing. I can save more and hack down my existing bills before I go back to school, and I may even have extra to travel or something if I want to. I'd like to go visit my friends in other parts of the country and so forth. All in all, a good holiday season. I'll be home and able to spend time with my family, I'll have a new job to look forward to, and of course all the joy and blessing of the holiday.