Another hoop to jump

Didn't get an offer like I had hoped but instead he asked me to meet with more people from the company. That sounds like a very good idea because at this point I've only met two. Meeting more people cannot hurt. Since I'm destined to charm their pants off too it can only help. ;)

So after I get back from CA next week I'll be meeting with a few more of the management staff and then hopefully I'll get an offer.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm trying to keep my fingers crossed too and not just get frustrated by having to jump through the next hoop. I don't like hoop jumping. I like getting things done quickly and cleanly. But I shall embrace the hoop jumping and keep on keeping on. I'm nearly certain that this job will be worth it.

Willing the phone to RING!

I am sitting at current workplace today willing my cell phone to ring. Please little phone? Please!

The interview last night went so well. I felt great about my answers and by their responses they seemed impressed by what I had to say. Afterwards he walked me out and said that I would have a response today. Today. Yeah for today!

So please little cell phone ring and be him calling to give me the job. Please!

Nerves: The real alternative fuel source

I am what can only be described as a bundle of nerves today. A bundle seems too small of an amount though. I'm the very largest volume measurement of nerves you can think of. A megaliter sounds about right. Every single nerve ending in my body is firing at an extremely high rate and I'm certain that I'll probably expire from overload in the next few seconds.

Why doesn't someone work out a way to channel that nervous energy into actual energy? I'm quite certain I could provide enough energy for half of the city today. It's bad. Stomach knots. Head swimming. Hands shaking. Extremities tingling. Heart racing. Muscles aching. All of that being put to no good use. It's a damn shame.

The interview after work tonight is the cause of all this excess fuel. Haven't had a real interview in a LONG LONG time. So many years in fact I cannot even recall how many. Please wish me luck and hope for the best for me. Can't put together coherent thought. Must stop writing now. Will advise later as to outcome. Ugh.

The time is now 11 AM. Do you know where your co-workers are?

I arrive at work every morning at 7:30. Most of the time I am exactly on time. Precisely. The rest of my co-workers don't have anything like a set schedule. In fact I never know if any of them are going to come in at all on any given day.

Today I know for sure that boss and co-owner will not be here because they are out of town. There is only one other person who might come in today but he hasn't arrived yet and I'm not certain if he will.

I must say it is very odd to be the only person "working" at your place of work. Not only odd but also more than a little bit lonely.

I hope you are having a very nice, socially fulfilling day at your chosen place of employment.

No Ice Cream, but there were sweatshirts and vacuum packed meat

A few weeks ago I was out and about with Amy when we stopped in Ballard so she could get something framed. I was in the mood for dessert and thought maybe we'd stop in to Ben & Jerry's only to find it closed down. Then earlier this week Amy and I were at U Village and we walked by the Ben & Jerry's only to find it had closed down as well. During lunch today I took a stroll along the top of Queen Anne and walked by Scoops to discover it had closed up shop also.

What is happening to the Ice Cream stores of Seattle? Are they going the way of the Krispy Kreme? Does no one love them anymore? Have I spotted the start of an alarming trend in America today? We can no longer get frozen cream with candy goodness mixed in?

Speaking of alarming trends these next two might just have you packing it in for life because obviously the end of the world is upon us.

At two separate locations next to the sidewalk I saw two sweatshirts lying discarded and forgotten. Yes I agree, today is inordinately gorgeous here in Seattle but the weather can turn on a dime people. You should not just dispose of your warmth providing garments with so little regard for their feelings. At least toss them in the back of your closet at home, not on the street where they must learn to fend for themselves. It is a travesty.

And then there's the vacuum packed meat. It might have been pork but I cannot say for certain because I didn't stop to inspect it. You could ask the flies that had taken up residence on one of the four pieces that had busted through it's vacuum tight wrapping.

What is this world coming to when you can't buy an ice cream cone and sweatshirts and meat must fend for themselves? Armageddon, I say. Armageddon.

Helping friends

My friend Amy has a friend Carie who is dealing with a particularly tough of cancer. This is Carie's second time working hard to fight a cancer diagnosis and she's not yet 33. Carie will be walking in the American Cancer Society's Walk & Roll event in Chicago.

She hasn't yet met her fundraising goal and would really appreciate any help you can give.

To donate to Carie simply go to this site. Or perhaps you could put a link on your site so Carie's story gets out there.

Thank you!

Reason number 10 skillion

There are many reasons why my job makes me unhappy and this morning was a swift back hand upside the head reminder of that rolled into a tidy little package.

My job responsibilities include making the customers happy. A task that is more often than not completely outside of realm of possibility for me to make happen. So it goes when in the Customer Service field. I get that. I sleep some what well at night knowing that. But here's when it rubs me raw, when the person who can make me happy, contented and joyful in my job doesn't give a crap.

That is what happened this morning. I came in to mass quantities of emails, system support requests, and voicemail messages all saying the very same thing; "What happened to my assignments? Why can't I see my assignments? Where are the assignments for my Users?" And while Yes these are good questions all seventy skillion of them, I cannot answer any one of them. I must sit and wait patiently until someone who can actually help me finally decides to arrive at work.

My start time is 7:30 AM because being the sole support person for all of our customers I MUST be here to help them and they are all over the country, all over the world in fact. So I arrive diligently at 7:30 this morning to the aforementioned throttling by all forms of communication available to our customers as to why the h-e-double hockey sticks the site has so meanly eaten their precious test assignments. I then proceed to try to wait it out patiently until someone arrives to help me. The clock keeps on ticking, I keep on getting yelled at, my patience keeps on getting thinner.

Then it happened. 9:30 arrived and my savior sauntered in. I immediately told him about the issue that was causing great distress for all of our Users (the Users who just so happen to pay our salaries and keep us fed) and he said "Oh OK." He then walked off to chat with his best buddy for who knows how long as is his usual morning ritual. I managed to stew in my ever rising juices for a half an hour before I went into said best buddy's office and tell my savior "I don't mean to be a pain but this issue is getting too big to manage and I'd really appreciate your help on this." To which my saviour responded "Oh OK." Once my savior finally started looking in to the issue he realized the enormous scope of the problem and proceeded to snap at me and otherwise make me feel like a little piece of dog crap who had most certainly put myself underneath his shoe intentionally and must have made this vile stench occur.

Here's the thing; I can't and don't touch the programming code. That is entirely his job. That's what said saviour does "full time". So when the code is broken there is absolutely no chance in all of the ever loving universe that I broke it. It's completely, utterly, totally impossible for me to have that power. And yet there is one person alone who would have the "skill" to break the program and send all of our lovely, happy, joyous Users scrambling toward me, and that is my savior.

So what is one to do when she has no power to fulfill her job responsibilities and the person who can make her job better, more complete and fulfilling has no interest in doing that and also happens to be her boss? I think we all know the answer to that and it's called Craigslist job postings.

10 pounds of Sourdough and Olive Oil

Yesterday I stopped at the grocery store to pick up lunch. A few weeks back I had found a new prepackaged salad there that I fell in love with. It's spring greens, croutons, feta, dried cranberries and a white balsamic vinaigrette. Nummy in my tummy.

I wanted more to eat than just the salad so I went searching for a roll/bread/carb filled item. I noticed that an entire loaf of sourdough was only slightly more expensive than one little roll so I grabbed the loaf. (Isn't loaf a kind of icky word? Sort of like moist. Blech.)

Brought my salad and bread back to the office to enjoy. I poured some olive oil into a little dish, added some fresh ground pepper and sat down at my desk. It was a fantastic lunch. I brought the loaf (ick), I mean bread, home with me and then proceeded to eat nothing but olive oil and bread for the remainder of the evening. This time I doctored up the olive oil with some garlic, onion and pepper and it was divine.

So if you hear this weird sloshing sound today that's just my arteries running thick with oil, pay no attention and keep on keeping on. Nothing to see here just a girl who's now made of 90% olive oil, happens all the time like again tonight when I get home.

Falling on my face

More accurately my hands and the left side of my thigh/bum.

Today is bring Tally to work day which means I take her out for a walk during lunch. We were walking along a nice sidewalk near work when the sidewalk jumped up and attacked me. Or perhaps I didn't see the large lip caused by a tree root pushing up a section of the side walk but either way I went down. And it hurt.

No one was around. Just me and Tally. I am certain that if anyone were around it would have been one of those falls that make witnesses nearly pee themselves laughing.

You see I didn't go right down. No sir. I stumbled forward for several steps very nearly catching myself several times and then I hit the concrete. So to the outside observer it may very well have looked similar to that time in college when Steph fell all the way down the longest flight of steps at the house nearly catching her fall the entire way down with the sound effects to go with it. That was HILARIOUS! Just the thought of it makes me nearly giggle and it's been more than 12 years since that day.

Steph was OK and really I'm OK too except for a few small blood blisters on my palms and a bit of a sore muscle or two, but wouldn't it have been better if someone had been there to laugh at and with me? I think so and since I'm certainly not going to blab it all to my all male trio of co-workers I thought I'd put it here for you to chuckle about.

Because it's funny when someone falls but not if there's no one there to see it.

The thing about yesterday

See the thing about yesterday was this, it sucked. I hated all of it.

The day started with a phone call from my Dr's office canceling the appointment I had just made the day before because well the Dr was going on vacation. Yes, I was told that when I made the appointment. She is going on vacation and my appointment was to be before she left. The lovely lady on the phone then says "We can get you in on May 27th or you can see another Dr." My answer to those enormously appealing options was "No, I have to get in before that and no, I will not see another Dr." To which miraculously I now have an appointment on Monday.

Then my lovely landscaper calls to "yell" at me because the second round of pavers aren't there for him to put in. The pavers that I had to place an order for because he told me the wrong amount to buy in the first place. The pavers that I actually ordered more than a week ago, was charged for and was told would be delivered on Friday. The pavers that I had to call Home Depot AGAIN on Monday to see where they were and was told that the vendor would definitely call me on Tuesday to let me know when they would arrive. The pavers that I then had to call Home Depot on Tuesday because no one called me at all! Yes you see it is all my fault that the pavers aren't there like I was promised several different times they would be. And it is all my fault that I didn't get the correct amount of pavers the first time because I specifically asked "How many square feet am I supposed to order?" and was told that amount and that amount arrived and oh wait that's not enough you have to get more.

Then came the email from landscapers wife demanding a 50% deposit for the patio because it was supposed to be done so long ago and really you were supposed to pay 50% up front but because this was to be such an easy project we were really nice and didn't make you pay, well yes that 50% you need to write a check for it now and you need to arrange to get it to my husband now.

Then there is the little issue of place of employment where I never get any response from boss even after multiple emails asking for a response to an issue that I cannot solve but that the customer must have an answer to and repeatedly come to me to get.

By this point I had begun to feel like the least capable person on the entire planet. Or perhaps the entire galaxy, no wait the entire Universe. The defeat had hit me squarely across the head and I wanted to disappear into a tiny little hole and rock back and forth in the fetal position.

When I got home I immediately laid down on the living room rug and started petting Tally. It was all too much. I needed something good. Something that might possibly make me feel less like an incapable nincompoop and help me to escape from everything. So I ordered up an "On Demand" movie.

It was the first time I'd ever ordered a movie from home and I spent a very LONG time deciding which one to spend my precious dollars on. In the end the only one that seemed like it might help was "P.S. I Love You." As a general rule I am not a Hilary Swank fan. She's too horsey faced and she was the "Next Karate Kid". (Yeah yeah yeah two Oscars I know, whatever.) But I needed to escape into someone else's dream world for the next few hours and hers seemed like the best option available.

I must tell you the movie was nearly perfect. It made me laugh and cry and want and smile. I nearly forgot Hilary was horsey faced several times. It was well worth the $4.99 plus who knows what ungodly amount of taxes. It helped lift me up off of the rug, out of the tiny little hole and stretched out of the fetal position. I may have still rocked back and forth but you weren't there and you can't prove it.

I am hoping with every ounce of my body that today will not be a repeat of yesterday because there's nothing left "On Demand" that I want to watch.

Chair, how do I love thee?

I am in deep, adoring, abiding love with this chair.

Yes, I realize it might just look like any old chair to you but to me it is perfection in a little teak and aluminum package. I can't explain it properly or fully but I want it. Well, to be exact I want two of it. I know where I can buy them but good god almighty they are nearly $200 each and that's the sale price. What is a gal on a budget to do? I mean I've still got a patio, fence, landscaping and insulation to pay for. I've been scouring the old interwebs for what seems like ever now looking for chairs and a small table to add to my living room.

So what's your vote? Should I just say to hell with it if you love something you should buy it? Or shall I keep on looking? I'll leave it to you and if you don't respond then fine I'll just pout. I probably won't pout but I'll have to make up my own mind and that's not nearly as fun.

Oh and another thing what kind of little (approx 27" diameter) table should I buy? I haven't found the love of my life in table form and would most definitely be open to suggestions.

Listing

Every now and again I feel the need to put my life down in list form. Today is one of those times. I feel as though I have to write down all of the things I want to do, accomplish, gain, strive for and be, must written down or else I will lose it all. Having the information rolling around in my head seems too much to handle. It needs to escape onto white paper using blue pen. It's blue pen because that's what is in front of me. Although I'm not sure it would be as satisfying using a black pen. Yes, that is just how loony I am.

So today sprinkled in amongst my work "duties" I will be creating lists about everything I can think of. Perhaps it will help or perhaps it will increase the anxious, overwhelmed, stymied feelings I am having today. I'm obviously hoping for the former and not the later. Wish me luck.

The Reasons for My Smile

Reason #1 - I am leaving work at Noon today!
Reason #2 - I get to spend the afternoon with Heather!
Reason #3 - I ordered a very cute sweater from Lands End, it was only $20 and I'm wearing it today. It's bright pink. :)
Reason #4 - I'm leaving work at Noon today! (Yes, that deserves two places on the list.)
Reason #5 - The weather is starting to turn a corner. Of course it is May so that's to be expected but still it's very awesome.
Reason #6 - Things are coming together with the patio. Slowly but surely.
Reason #7 - Tally really likes me. Really she does. It's so very cool.

What other reasons should I have?