Friday, June 27, 2008

Swamped

The reason I have not been updating lately is because I am completely swamped at work. I am now working two jobs for the price of one. I have kept all the responsibilities of my old job (setting up interviews, educational assistance) and have now acquired all the new responsibilities (basically taking care of all the vision, dental, FMLA, COBRA, short-term disabilities, long-term disabilites for a company of over 1000 employees). On top of that, we are just finishing open enrollment so I have a ton of data entry to do. Also, one of our subsidiaries (about 60 employees) is closing and laying everyone off and guess who gets to send out all the COBRA stuff for them? Yep, me!

I recently sat down with my boss and I brought up the possibility of a raise since I had been promoted. She told me that right now she is looking at this as "a shifting of responsibilities" and not a promotion. My company does performance appraisals in October and she basically told me that this will come up then. I am a little worried though. I am working overtime this week and have been busting my ass to get everything done. If my boss makes up for this in October then that will be great. But what if she doesn't? I am going to feel so taken advantage of. I sort of feel like I need to trust her right now especially since I haven't even been here for a year. I guess the only thing I can do is stay hopeful that come October I will get a nice raise. Please, please, please, please...

Friday, June 13, 2008

Try it!!

I got this from Tragedy Strikes. It is really cool. Here are the directions:

Answer each of these questions and type your answer into Flickr Search.

Pick an image from the first page only.

Copy and paste the URL for the pic into fd's Mosaic Maker.


Here are the questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.


Here is what mine turned out to look like:





1. Les Trois Becs 2. Chocolate Ice Cream 3. Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Civil Rights Area 4. Forest Green 5. Wade 6. Mojito 7. Positano 8. Special Brownies 9. To Be a Mother 10. Nature's Invention 11. Loyal 12. Les Trois Becs

I have no clue why I got Mrs. Coretta Scott King for my high school one. That has nothing to do with my high school (Antioch High). I love the mother pic and of course the Italy one. Everyone definately needs to give it a go!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Life is Good

I have a meeting in a few minutes (I don't know why but just saying "I have a meeting" makes me feel more grown up) but I wanted to give yall an update.

We have someone leaving HR for another job. She was in charge of benefits such as short term disability, long term disability, accidental death and dismemberment, FMLA and 401K. And guess what...I got her job!!! I am keeping some of the responsibilities I have now and then I am going to take over everything she is doing. We are going to hire someone else to take over the rest of what I was doing before. I still have to sit down with my boss and work out the specifics but I am really hoping to get a decent raise out of this.

I was so tired of being bored at work. I would come in to work each day, work for about an hour and then be all caught up. So I would be bored the entire rest of the day. It was completely killing me. Being bored at work is way more difficult than being busy. I was depressed and tired all of the time. I felt completely useless. Now all of that has changed! I am spending every day in meetings and getting trained. Everyone is so happy for me and I am so proud. Apparently there were about 3 people that recommended I take her responsiblities over. I actually feel like a member of HR instead of just a secretary.

Oh and I am also going to graduate school! I am going to go back and get my Master's in Social Work. That will help me in my new job as well as if I decide to ever leave my current job. I have always wanted to do something in either the psychology (which I have my BS degree in) or social work field so I am doing it! I am a little nervous to take on such a huge task but I am going to work my butt of and do this!

I have felt so stuck and hopeless for the past couple of months and now everything has turned around. I am happy and confident in my job, I love my new house, JJ and I are doing wonderful, I am in shape and healthy, I have a vacation coming up and I am going to start school again. Everything is falling into place. Finally!!!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Yay!!!

I got a big promotion. Well sort of...

I will tell you more this weekend. Right now I have to train for a completely different job! Yay!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Drunk and Disorderly

Last night after eating dinner, both JJ and I really wanted some ice cream. We had a little in the fridge but not enough for both of us to have a bowl (because we both like to have BIG bowls of ice cream!). We decided to run to the grocery store that was about 3 miles away. I had already showered and was in my pajamas which consisted of running shorts and a t-shirt (and no bra). I slipped on some flip-flops and headed out. I figured with my redneck outfit, I would totally fit in.

We got to the store and we ran in and bought some ice cream (chocolate with brownies! Hell yeah!). When we got to the checkout line, there was one guy in front of us. I could not see what he was buying. At first I thought he was mentally retarded. He was talking funny and very loudly and sort of swaying. I asked JJ what was wrong with him and he said that the guy was drunk. I am really surprised I was not better at figuring that out. I mean, I had my share of good times in college. Not only was the guy drunk but he was buying more beer.

As we got closer I smelt him. BO and beer. Yum. He was talking to the checkout girl. He must have asked her how old she was because when I got close enough to hear she was saying, "No I'm in college." The checkout girl was a cute girl with blonde hair. She wasn't gorgeous by all means, but she was still somewhat pretty. She did have some acne on her chin. This is not something I would ever bring up but it will make sense why I did when I tell you what happened next.

He then said, "Oh I thought you were younger because of all that..." as he pointed to her acne. I could not believe it. Then he says, "You should try Proactive or something." My jaw dropped. The poor girl just mustered up a tiny smile and tried to finish him up so he would leave. It was so wierd because it seemed like he was trying to flirt. Um...just a hint buddy. Telling a girl that she should get Proactive is not a great pick up line. He then turned to JJ and I and started asking us questions. He asked us if we were married and how old we were. He then said, "Man I am 29 and I don't have a girlfriend." He then said a bunch of swear words about being single that I do not want to repeat. I just stood there giving him the dirtiest look I could muster.

The whole time I was trying to figure out what to do. Looking back on it now, I should have gotten someone to call a manager up front and let them take care of it. But the whole thing lasted only a minute or so and I was just so stunned. So we hurried up and bought our ice cream. When we got into our car we pulled up behind him so that we could write down his license plate number. I wanted to call the police and report him but I did not know the local police number. So I tried dialing 411. It just rang and rang so apparently they don't answer on Sunday evenings.

By the time we got a number for the police, we were driving down our road behind him (he happened to be going in the same direction we were). The whole time he was swerving on and off the road and into the other lane (it was a two lane road). I was totally freaking out. I was so sure I was going to watch this jackass kill someone else and I would always feel awful that I didn't do more to keep him off the street.

We finally got the police on the line and JJ explained what happened. The lady said "Thank you sir" and hung up without even asking for his license plate number. So basically they were going to do nothing. Thanks a lot guys.