new position...

My new position has kept me busy. While I absolutely love what I do so far, it’s the prep I don’t like. I spend a good portion of my time in meetings. Meetings with whom might you ask?

Everybody. My team decides or approves every marketing piece. It took 2 hours to go through 4 weeks of stuff, ugh.

I’m not complaining. I’m happy to have a job and I actually like this position better than my last. My bosses seem pretty cool. Even the crazy lady is starting to rub off on me. It’s the other people I’m worried about.

After our first team meeting with 12 of us, I realized this is a team full of A-type personality people. A type personality people are usually impatient workaholics who constantly strive for high achievements (myself included).

It’s just after that meeting, I felt like if I turned my back for too long somebody might stab me. There are three people on the team I’ve worked with a little and quite frankly don’t care to work with again but will do it if I have to. They exemplify these characteristics to the T. Nevertheless, it should be fun.

On that note, with my busy schedule this will probably be my last post of the year. Have a wonderful holiday!

for the record...i probably would have gone crazy too

I just got through watching that Britney For the Record special on MTV and it left me feeling really bad for her. I know we shouldn’t feel bad for her because she has millions of dollars and is a celebrity but all of this started when she was only 15 or 16. She was kid. The attention and paparazzi following her is normal to her. It’s been like that for nearly half of her life. I can’t say I wouldn’t have gone crazy if I had that kind of life.

She says creating music and being in the studio makes her happy and I think that’s why she’s been able to put out two CD’s during all of this mess. I really don’t think her dad wanted her to get back into all of this. It seems like for a while he wanted her to do television for the more structured schedule so she could raise her kids. That’s why she did some appearances on How I Met Your Mother. But Britney got back in the studio and started writing and boom here’s a cd.

I wonder about her financial state. You might think, she’s earned millions but, when you are rich, you can blow through tons of money living a certain lifestyle. And I wonder if this tour and everything else is her dad’s way of making her some more money for those kids. We all know Britney is going to have to provide for those kids at least until they are 18.

Then maybe after all of this she will retire. I think she needs to. She deserves it. She truly doesn’t know what normal, as we know it, is. In the meantime, I think we can all enjoy her latest cd and quite possibly her last tour.

i'm a walking disaster...

I didn’t realize until a couple days ago, what a walking disaster I’ve been for the past couple of months. Since I have so many other important things to take care of, I tend to brush off my “scrapes and bruisies.” It wasn’t until one of my friends pointed out the reoccurrences of my scrapes and bruises.

Back in August, I got hit by a baseball at a minor league game. I don’t like baseball. I only went because the tickets were free and I got an all-you-can-eat pass. Well, I was near the concession stand when the baseball ricocheted off the stadium and hit me on the head. I ducked and tried to try to miss it, but it hit me anyway. It was so embarrassing. I felt like everyone was looking at me. The medic came over to examine me. Then I immediately left the game. No biggie – there just happened to be several co-workers at the game since we all got free tickets.

In September, I got stung by a swarm of wasps in the backyard. I had no idea wasps could sting you through your clothes until that night. I was stung all down the side of my back and right arm. It really was no big deal to me until I started webbing and stinging didn’t go away after 30 minutes. Several hours later after medicating the wound and drugging myself up I was fine.

In October, I burned myself while cooking. I accidentally touched the small part of the skillet that isn’t cool-to-touch. I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal until my wrist continued to burn 30 minutes afterwards.

I suppose this month’s injury could have been prevented had I not been drinking. So I don’t want to get into the details of how it happened, but I severely injured my knee. I really didn’t think it was a big deal until I started bleeding. But I have to say this one was totally worth it since it was a sex injury.

my soap opera...

Sometime between now and the end of this year I was supposed to be tested to see if I’m a match to be a kidney donor for my dad. It was going to be perfect timing because I take a lot of vacation days in November and December, so I would have plenty of time to do the full work up. Then if I was a match, we can go ahead and do the surgery next year.

Of course that plan is now halted. Nothing ever goes the way it’s planned. Before my dad can become a kidney recipient, he has to pass all of these test and get approval from several doctors. So I wasn’t surprised when I was told my dad has to go in for an angiogram to get approval from the heart doctor. Unfortunately, there is something abnormal with his heart so they have to find out what it is. That could result from doctors doing nothing to putting in a stint or opening up his chest for heart surgery.

The good news is everything is done at once. So dad has to have the angiogram. If doctors see nothing he goes home. If doctors see he just needs a stint, they will do it right there and then. That also means he’ll have a longer hospital stay. If doctors see he needs something more, then they wait for our approval; do the surgery and a longer hospital stay.

The bad news is I have to plan for all three scenarios which has kept me pretty busy lately. For those who don’t know my dad is the worst patient ever. So about 20% of my time is spent on health-related issues. If it isn’t one thing it’s another. Sometimes I feel like my life is a soap opera between family, men and work…I just hope I’ll be able to make some money off of it.

there's something in the water.

There are a lot of people at my job popping up pregnant. So either something is in the water, or this theory my co-worker (we'll call her M) and I have, must be true. There are about six people M and I know who are pregnant (one is including her).

We truly believe it is due to the recession we are in. People don’t have the money to go out, so they stay in and make some nookie. Think about it, why else is everyone getting pregnant?

silver lining of a recession

Everyday I watch the news when I come home and I tell you it has never been this depressing. Everyday when I watch the world news they give a run down of what companies are laying off and how many people they are laying off. Each day it’s a new set of companies. Twenty minutes of the 30-minute newscast is about the economy, its effects and of course the election (which also eludes to the current economic state).

It has never been this bad in majority of Americans lifetime and the outlook even looks bleaker. I can’t help but think that maybe all of this means something a little deeper. Maybe perhaps we as a whole are not living the way God intended us to live. We have gotten all caught up in the material things of life – clothes, electronics, cars – that we’ve taken for granted the necessities.

Whatever happened to the days where you only buy something when you had the money? It has become a regular thing for us to get loans (or put on credit) things that are not a true necessities. I was watching 20/20 one night and they quoted an older man in his 80’s saying when they didn’t have the money to buy something they just didn’t.

Now isn’t that a concept? I hate this recession as much as anyone else, but maybe…just maybe we can all learn something from this. Maybe we will learn how to manage our cash a little better. Maybe we will learn not to spend all of our money or so much of our money on frivolous items. Maybe we will learn its not all about keeping with the Joneses, but more of living out your dreams and goals. Maybe we will learn to appreciate people, experiences and moments more than material things. But more importantly maybe we can learn to be a little more grateful for every thing we do have. So next time the economy is doing well and money is "overflowing" our pockets we won't go out on a shopping spree but instead cherish the important things.

ain't this some hot shit...

After three hours of layoffs and a 30-minute “we hate to, but we had to do this” meeting with the “powers that be,” I got my reassignment. They basically broke up all the teams and formed new ones.

As of Dec. 1, I will be on the creative consistency team. I was apprehensive, but interested. And seriously after the morning we had I was just happy to still have a job.

So we all had one-on-one meetings with our new boss. I knew nothing about my new boss. I had just seen and heard of her. We’ll call her KP. The times I’ve seen KP she was dressed in tights, leg warmers, bright colors. (She’s a woman in her 50’s.) KP is very high up in the organization and she is looked well upon. I slowly realized, as I talked to people, it was a good thing to be on her team. I was told she’s crazy, but apparently this is the team everyone wants to be on.
I had a five-minute meeting with her. This is how it went:

“HI! IT’S SO NICE TO MEET YOU!” she said. I write in all caps because she’s very hyper and talks really loud.

I just smiled said the same and sat in her office. By the way, she has office. At my job, you don’t get an office unless you are very high up…very.

“I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU WE HAVE THE BEST TEAM. ONLY THE BEST IS ON THE TEAM. OUR TEAM IS HOT SHIT. AND YOU CAN GO BACK AND TELL EVERYONE THAT” she said.

She got out the organization chart and showed it to me. Our team is on the level of all the other 5 teams, but says “WE MAY LOOK LIKE WE ARE HERE ON THIS CHART, BUT WE ARE REALLY HERE.” She points to the top.

According to my new boss, we may be called creative consistency team, but we are really the creative lead team. We determine the direction of every marketing piece that goes out the company. In other words we set the tone, the voice, environment, etc. We determine what style is used, both art and copy-wise. We are more on a concept level. I will no longer be working on physical tasks so to speak; I will be developing concepts with a small group of people.

So no more Internet or catalog writing. I will now be the one my former co-workers hate. Because I will be the one telling them how they should write things in everything across the board - internet, catalogs, etc.

After listening to her and thinking about it, I think it’s a good move. Basically, I’ve been put on the team who initiates change. There’s only two copy positions. I was picked for one. So maybe someone was looking after me after all. It’ll make more marketable and it will make it much easier for me to move throughout the company.

Now if I can handle my new boss. My old boss was crazy, but this…is a whole other different kind of crazy. My old boss ain’t got nothing on this lady. It’ll be interesting…

a sad day...

It was like they were randomly shooting at people. I knew it would be bad, but its totally something you do not ever want to experience. Good news: I’m safe and I could potentially have a very good job for the future. (We’ll talk about that in another post.) Bad news: There were a lot of people laid off.

We knew it would be a crazy day when we saw a mouse run across from my cubicle to my co-workers. I was pissed. I can’t work under these conditions, I kept saying. I said this would be a good day to do layoffs. Because if they lay me off I won’t be so sad today. I started applying for other jobs after a mouse was found in another co-worker’s drawer. Mice poop was on her desk. This was the fifth mouse sighting we had encountered.

Who knew 15 minutes later the layoffs start? It’s been a year since they told us there would be layoffs. It was like they were randomly shooting people. Six people were set up meetings with HR for packages, one was told he had until Nov. 30, then his position would be eliminated. Thirty minutes later it became apparent, this was the day. They started calling people and asking them to go down to the other side of the building. One by one people’s phone started ringing. You did not want to get that ring.

For three hours everyone was on edge. It was the longest 3 hours of our lives. Whenever a phone rang, someone jumped. After a while, the rule became, “don’t call anybody.” Because whenever someone got that call, they just walked down to the other side of the building. Each person was gone for a while, then came back, got their stuff and left.

I will never forget one of my co-workers who started packing up his stuff. We asked where we was going and he said, “They are going to let me go.” We all looked kind of like, you don’t know that. He hadn’t gotten the call. Then right there and then his phone rang.

It wasn’t just the people who had been there for 20 years and were over 60; there were even some people in their 20’s and 30’s.

There were about 120 in our department. Calls were made randomly on teams. By lunch a whole team was let go along with about 20 other people. That’s not including the people upstairs who were laid off. It was bad.

My boss who was part of the committee that outlined the reorganization came back after noon. She told us they were done laying off people. “That was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” she said. She just started crying and hugging all of us.

I’m not so sure if I like the fact of being warned a whole year in advance or not. But to endure three hours of lay offs was exhausting. It was sad…very sad.

etiquette in the workplace...

I have a lot of pet peeves, but one that bugs me more than most is unprofessionalism in the workplace. I’ve never met so many rude people in my life. Since when it is appropriate for a manager to ask what rumors are going around in the middle of a staff meeting? It only spurs more rumors.

When is it appropriate to ask about someone’s health problems in a middle of a meeting? Even when that person isn’t there.

I think I hit my boiling point this week when I got a political e-mail from a co-worker earlier this week. It’s really not about the fact that I didn’t agree with the e-mail (it was completely endorsing mccain/palin, that’s another entry), but it’s the fact that the workplace is not for political e-mails nor conversation. What really pissed me off is the fact that my co-worker e-mailed it to my immediate boss who has made it (inappropriately) clear she was voting for obama and was pro-choice. So why e-mail it to her? My co-worker fell short of e-mailing it to our higher up who has also made it (inappropriately) clear she was a democrat.

I thought the bad etiquette would end there, but it didn’t. A manager asked a co-worker of mine how much she bought her christmas tree for. It wouldn’t have bothered me so if much, if it hadn’t been the third time I’ve had her ask somebody how much something cost. It’s none of her freaking business! I know she won’t ask me something like that because I will tell her exactly that.

All of this has got me thinking, where has good etiquette gone. Should I insist that our team take an etiquette course? Or maybe it’s that these people don’t have any common sense?

The older I get the more I realize I’m a lot smarter than I have ever given myself credit. I should start aiming a tad higher.

cowboys...

I love how this city is so in love with the Cowboys. If anything happens to our beloved Cowboys, it’s front-page news; top story of the broadcast.

This has been a disappointing week for our boys. I think the headline that summed it up the most (and the one I loved the most was, “pinky panic.”

In any other city, the top news story would not be about how the quarterback will be out for four weeks. Or how Pac Man got into an argument in a restroom of a club (big surprise).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just saying if the world was ending and at the same time Dallas Cowboys starting QB was out of the whole season or Pac Man went on another one of his “adventures,” the Cowboys would triumphant.

I learned a long time ago when I first moved to the city when they interrupted a regularly scheduled program to show the Dallas Cowboys parade for winning a championship.

my own mini recession...

So if you haven’t figured out, I’m on break or a recession; much like our economy haha. In light of rising costs, job loss and other things, I’ve been picking up freelance work here and there to subsidize.

But no fear, I’ll be back with tons of stories soon. So much has happened from my exciting dating life (haha, as if…) to layoffs. I have been keeping notes so hold tight. I have plenty to talk about!

noise...

Do you ever feel like sometimes there’s just too much noise?

I’m not just talking about the sounds of vehicles, children or video games. I’m talking about noise. Even the noises in your head. (I’m not going crazy, I promise.) Sometimes there are just so many thoughts going through my head - from the daily things I have to do to the decisions I must make.

I have had such a hard time blocking out all the noise. Sometimes it so much that I can’t even hear myself.

Now I’m finding that there are these rare instances in my life where I’m able to block out the noise. (It all started a couple of months ago.) I don’t think about anything else but the present - the here and now. It makes things so easy.

Life really isn’t hard. Just live for now. I keep saying this over and over again, but I haven’t been this happy in a very long time.

handicap perks...

I am so bored. I’m so ready to go back to work. The highlight of my week was riding the cart in my favorite grocery store, Central Market. I figured since I’m handicapped I should take full advantage of it. I already begged my doctor to give me a note or something so I could get a handicap sticker, but he said I wouldn’t qualify.

But riding the cart wasn't bad at all. It was nice being able to breeze down the aisles faster. People just kind of move out your way. I did get looks though. All the kids kind of kept looking at me. But I’m just going to chalk that up to beauty. Or maybe they just wish they could have driven the cart, hehe. The only bad part is having to reach for the items on the top shelf or out of reach. But did I get first-class service at the check out line. The cashier at the 1 through 10 item line let me checked me out immediately (even though I had about 20 items).

She said, “Don’t get up. I’ll get everything. You just rest.”

It was great. She put everything back in the cart’s basket and told me I could use the cart in the parking lot. I was having a good time, until my cart ran out of battery in the middle of the street. Thank goodness no cars were coming, or I would have been road kill. I had to get out and push the cart to the side. Being handicap is so hard…

on the wrong foot...

Just when I thought doc/nurse and I were getting off on the right foot (pun intended), boy was I wrong. I’m so mad. I went to the doctor for my follow-up appointment today. The doctor wanted to take a look at the foot and make sure everything was okay. He did and everything is fine. I even got good news. Doc said he didn’t have to cut nearly as much as he thought he would have to therefore, I should heal a lot faster. So he’s hoping to get me out of the boot and into a tennis shoe in four weeks, instead of the five he initially estimated before the surgery. That was the good news.

From there on, the entire appointment went downhill. First off, I’d like say, I know I’m not an easy person to please, especially when I spend hundreds of dollars on something. I feel like I am doing you a service my giving you my money, specifically $574 of my money. So you better do a damn good job.

The day after the surgery I noticed my third toe wasn’t hurting. It should have been because they were supposed to take the knuckle out of the toe since it rubs up against my shoes. It was one of those minor things that the doctor suggested I go ahead do while they were doing the bunionectomy. It’s not necessary.

So imagine the way I reacted when Doc basically told me he forgot to operate on the third toe. Then he tried to blame it on me. Doc said he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to operate on that toe. When he came into the operating room that morning, he talked about the big toe and I said ok. Since I didn’t say anything about the third toe, he didn’t do anything once in the operating room. Doc also said, “and it wasn’t on the paperwork. And if it’s not on the paperwork, I can’t do it.”

That’s where he is wrong. It was on the paperwork. I brought the freaking paperwork to the surgery center that morning. It was on there. I also didn’t like the fact that he tried to put it on me. I'm so mad.

Then he tried to mitigate it by saying, well I can give you a local anesthesia and do it in the office real quick. Hell no, I don’t want to do it in the office while I'm awake. I wanted you to do it all at once while I was under the first fucking time. I don’t want to be in pain a second time. Grrr…I was pissed.

Then I asked the nurse if I could have a smaller boot, because the one they gave me at the surgery center was way too big. I had already tripped over my foot twice in it. She gave me one that fit perfectly to me but she said it was too small and I may hit my big toe on it. It’s better than me tripping over my own foot and falling over. Now that’s going to hurt! They cut me at the top of my foot, not on my toe. Hell, I tripped on the way to the X-ray room at the doctor’s office. I was fuming by the time I left the office. Shit, I’m still mad.

My mom and dad recommended this doctor. In fact, he did foot surgery on my mom last year and it turned out really well - no problems. But of course, with my luck something always gets screwed up. I think I’m going to find a new doctor.

real pain...

I thought I had experienced pain, until Monday morning. The anesthesia wore off the most horrific pain I’ve ever encountered set into my foot. I took the Vicodin the doctor prescribed 2 hours earlier but it still hadn’t kicked in. Thirty minutes later the nurse called me back to tell me to cut slits in my bandage because it was probably too tight, since my foot swelled up more. I was also given the go ahead to take my migraine medicine to try to get rid of the pain. An hour later, I felt much better. I slept practically the rest of the day. That was my worst day after the surgery.

I guess you could say the surgery went well. I wasn’t actually awake for the procedure. The last thing I remember is the doctors pushing me down the hallway in the gurney. Dr. H., the anesthesiologist, just asked me if the meds were starting to work. I told him I wasn’t sure if it was the meds or the bed moving that was making me feel weird. Then the next thing I knew, I woke up and a nurse took the breathing mask off of my face. It only took about an hour, so the actual surgery wasn’t bad at all.

The only thing I knew was that had all males operating on me with the exception of one female. It was interesting because I had never seen so many males in the operating room. I had a male nurse, male doctor, male anesthesiologist, another male who walked in there to introduce himself as someone who would be in the room, another male doctor who was assisting my doctor and then there was an Asian female who would be helping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, as we all know I love males, but it was interesting. The other thing I do know is that they must have strapped me down while I was sleep, because when I woke up I notice an indent on my upper thigh. I guess they didn't want me to move. It was weird because I didn't remember having the surgery, yet it was evident I had it because my foot was in a blue boot now.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to walk until today. It still hurts a little, but more when I walk. I’m supposed to get this surgery done on my left foot too, but I don’t know. Monday was pretty horrific. If I could avoid a Monday like that I’ll be fine. But if there’s another Monday like that one, I’m not so sure I want to have that surgery again. Maybe it’ll be worth walking in pain on the left foot for the rest of my life.

duck hunt...

Its been about two months and the ducks are still here. About two weeks ago as I was leaving for work, I saw one of the ducks in the middle of the road. I ran to get into my car, started up the engine, revved it up, but as soon as I got down to the street, he had moved -- right in front of a car. That damn bird! I would have hit the car if I tried to hit him. Grrr…I was so mad.

At least the birds stayed out of the pool for my graduation party. But that was only because people were in the pool. I say "out of the pool" because the night before they circled our house and decided not to land after they saw my cousins 9-year-old son in the pool. I swear they keep a watch on our house.

So after a reader suggestion I contact Bird-X, Inc.. They have some neat stuff, but much of it is very expensive. After talking to one of their staffers we decided an affordable option was buying a fake gator and putting it in the pool. So we did that last weekend. The gator’s eyes light up and even a light breeze will keep gator moving around the pool. I have to say it worked for a while. That is until one morning we woke up and a duck was in the pool with gator.

This morning again, there were two ducks in the pool with gator playing with him. As soon as I saw them I went out there to shoot them with the Co2 gun. They left feathers all in the pool. Those damn ducks! There’s only one real affordable way to get rid of them for good.

oh please help me mr. hottie...

I’m not excited at all about having this foot surgery. The only thing I’m remotely happy about is the fact that I’m probably going to get some really good sleep. For those of you who don’t know, I love sleep. I could sleep all day if I had the time. In fact, I love drug-induced sleep. You know the kind where you take some type of medicine that makes you drowsy and you don’t wake up the slightest little noise. Oh, I love that sleep. That’s the greatest for me because I’m a really light sleeper. I hear the newspaper guy throw the paper every morning at 5 a.m., unless I’m having a drug-induced sleep. I’ll get plenty of that after my surgery.

Other than that, I’m not really digging this blue boot for 5 weeks. It’s so ugly and big. I have got to come up with something else. I asked Nurse Ellen if it comes in other colors, but she looked at me like I was crazy. Nurse Ellen and I have built a wonderful relationship these past couple of months. After we got past the day she got snippy with me because she thought I wasn’t taking the surgery seriously. We built inroads when she realized who I was (the daughter of two of her other patients they’ve done surgery on. Now we’ve got a pretty good friendship going. I call her once every couple of days to ask her questions and see how she is doing. She does the same for me.

Now I just need some good pick up lines. Earlier today I was thinking and I could really use this whole foot thing to my advantage.

“Oh, I’m in so much pain Mr. Hottie.” I’d say. “Can you pick me up and take me anywhere you want.” (Preferably with your shirt off.)

My co-worker said she’d try to help me think of some good lines. See, there could be a good side in all of this…

cake

watch...

Weekend wrap-up...

Weekends go by so fast - even the ones where we have an extra day off. I slept all day yesterday after the graduation party, which turned out well. I think I spent too much time outside. You know how you feel a bit hungover after a night of drinking? That’s the way I felt Monday, except I didn’t have a drop of alcohol. I felt icky after swimming and spending hours outside because of my sinuses.

I was elated it didn’t rain and everyone got a chance to take a dip in the pool. Almost everyone came who RSVPed, which made for a packed house, but I think everyone had fun. The cake turned out beautifully. I’ll have to post a photo soon. It was delicious too.

Overall, it was a great party. I got all of these presents, which was kind of unexpected. I knew my parents’ friends would bring presents, but I didn’t expect my friends too. I just wanted them to come and get the free food. Most surprisingly, I finally got the watch from my parents I had been saving up for. For the past year, I’ve been saving up my Nordstrom gift cards to by this Burberry watch. Well, I finally got enough back in April. I just hadn’t bought it yet. But my parents bought it for me as my graduation present. Totally unexpected! I didn’t think they were getting me anything because the party was kind of a present. That and I usually can find a present beforehand since I’m so nosy. But this, I had no idea about.

It was good to see everyone though. I feel like it was a good time to have a party, since I’ll be having surgery next week. My dad will be having surgery next month too. So it’s right before we get back to all of our health business.