An Interesting Find

Well, I decided to take it easy on Sunday, but since it was my birthday and I had gotten numerous automatic emails wishing me a happy birthday from the mailing lists I belong to, I went through most of those and clicked on some of the links. One I found pretty interesting...it was a sample astrology reading. Now, I'm not usually big into these things but because I just needed a break from my life for a minute, I decided to put in the necessary info and see what came out. It actually read me like a book. After entering my birth date (1/29/83) and the time of my birth (7:33 pm), it generated this report:

Section 1: How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others
Modest, unobtrusive, and often rather quiet or shy, you are a person you is content to be in the background or to serve as an assistant, in the supporting role rather than in the lead. You are quite humble in your own assessment of yourself and you have a very strong perfectionistic attitude, with a tendency to be overly self-critical. No matter how well you do something, you always see the flaws in it and how it could be improved. Often you will simply refuse to atttempt something because you feel you cannot meet your own high standards.

Section 2: The Inner You: Your Real Motivation
You are a freedom-loving, strong-willed, and independent-minded individual, and you insist upon living your own life as you see fit, even if that means ignoring convention and tradition. In personal relationships you cannot be owned or possessed, and while you are willing to share yourself with another, you do not always adjust easily to the emotional give and take of a close relationship. Though intellectually open, you can be enormously stubborn, opinionated, and inflexible on a one-to-one level. You have strong convictions and feelings about fairness and equality, and you try to live by your ideals, but your ideals about how people SHOULD treat one another don't always take into account human weaknesses, differences, and needs. You probably dislike sentimentality and traditional gender roles and "games".

I just thought it was interesting. Anyway, yesterday was also the start of the Chinese New Year and according to the Chinese calendar this is my year. We'll see what kind of changes that brings for me too. Supposedly, a "fire" in the Year of the Dog will stimulate confidence and energy and I will make a difference no matter what cause I choose to fight for or for which underdog I reach out to. I am also sweet, warm and loving, but I won't be pushed around either. In 2006, I'll show management that I'm a leader, not just a follower and someone will appreciate my talent. (Ha! I think that just means more work for me!) As for my personal life, it says that I'm charismatic and this is my year for enduring love, but not to rush into something because my special year is 12 months long. (Haven't rushed yet - what will make me start any time soon???)

Today was back to the daily grind and it was completely crazy. Tomorrow is the deadline for getting out W-2s, 1099s and other tax documents necessary for filing taxes and I'm rushing around like an idiot trying to make sure that my company is compliant. Everything was going smoothly until my computer decided to freeze when I was almost ready to print out a batch of 1099s and I lost the files that I was working with. So rather than having a 9 or 10 hour day, my day was 12 hours long and I still had stuff to work on here at home. But, as much of a pain it was to have to redo that batch, I have a huge one to process tomorrow and I'm hoping that it runs smoothly since I'm cutting it really close this year. Tomorrow will also be crazy considering it is the last day of January and all of the monthly books need to be closed as well...hard to believe we've made it through a month of 06 already. Time is flying by!

Finally, I would like to brag about what great people I work with. As most of you know, I'm good friends with quite a few of my coworkers but today was such a surprise. Usually we take turns baking cakes for birthdays in the office but today there was a feast for me and everyone was so nice. D bought me a candle and made a carrot cake and brownies and taco dip and M bought me pink roses and everyone in the office signed a card for me. It was so thoughtful! Even with all the stress, this is why I continue to put in all the hours that I do. Call me crazy but I think it all evens out in the end.

Happy Birthday to Me

As promised I have a rundown of the festitivies from Friday night and I must say...my friends are freaking awesome! Last night was one of the best nights I've had out and it is only behind the nights we took J out. In any case, we started out at Patrick's for Happy Hour and to meet everyone and just started off slow. The music they were playing in there wasn't all that great but we muddled through that and waited for everyone to show up so the real party could get started. M ended up being unable to come to celebrate because her son had to have surgery yesterday afternoon, but K, D, T and S all filled in nicely for her. (Keep them all straight now...there will be a test later!) At one point, a few of us left the table and when we come back K has some guy there trying to pick her up. It was hilarious not only because the guy was completely wasted but he kept asking the same things over and over to her and she'd be friendly and nice and answer him with the same answer she told him 10 minutes prior and finally at one point she says to him, "what the hell can't you understand here....we just talked about this 5-10 minutes ago" and he still kept up with it until finally K wanted to ditch the guy and the rest of us were fed up with the crappy music so we went over to America's Pub. That is a happening place on Friday night and we ended up having a lot of fun in there! First off, we were looking for a good place to dance and while it got off kind of slow when we made it in there at 9, the place started getting going a little after that. K and I were the first two to hop onto the dance floor basically because if I didn't start moving the alcohol was just going to soak up in my system and I'd feel completely wasted in no time and I didn't want that to happen, especially since I have to work today still. Once we got out there neither one of us could stop laughing -- there was a group of guys probably pretty close to my age but they were doing the Justin Timberlake and N'Sync moves from a few years ago and it was funny as hell. It was like a dance off between like 4 guys and it made the evening more entertaining than it already was. Also at one point, K and I decided that we should go up to the DJ to see if he could play something so we could rock out. The DJ put on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" for us and we got everyone out on the dance floor then. See it just takes a little bit of classic rock to get the party pumping and from that time on, most of us stayed out on the dance floor for the rest of the night. I did miss my dance partner out there though and since he couldn't make it up here to celebrate, K and D decided to find me another one. There was this really hot guy dancing behind us and he did have some pretty good moves and D says to me, "you need to ask him to dance with you." Well of course, I was too chicken to do that, so a little bit later, I see K walk over and say something to him and next thing you know, I have a new dance partner. He danced with me pretty much the rest of the time I was there which was cool, but I still missed J and C for that matter since he was out of town and couldn't join in on our little party. Leaving Westport was the real comedy though. Most of us parked in close to the same part of the parking lot but when it's dark and there are tons of cars out there its really not that easy to find your car. K and I walked around that parking lot for about 10 minutes hitting the remotes for our cars hoping that one of them would beep and neither did until we were like directly in front of them. So much for panic buttons! It was an awesome night though and I'm so happy to have such great friends -- they made the evening a blast for me and one of the best birthdays ever! Thanks a bunch everyone!
Also, while I'm thinking of it, I would like thank J. I was at the copy machine at work at about 3 minutes to 5 yesterday afternoon and K yelled over to me that J was on line 33 for me and it was extremely important for him to talk to me before we left for Westport. Thinking I screwed something up and but also being excited to hear from him, I started turning weird colors in front of K and D and one of the other dispatchers who was sitting out in our operations area. I picked up the phone and tried to be as professional as I could be and on the other end of the line I hear, "hey girl, I just called to tell you happy birthday since I won't get to talk to you on Sunday and have a good time out tonight. I wish I was up there to celebrate with you but behave yourself anyway." I couldn't believe that all the way in Laredo, Texas he remembered my birthday -- what a guy! No wonder he's my bestest buddy!

Anyway, now I'm off to work for a few hours to get caught up on a few things and to get reports out to my bosses since I didn't have time last night. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

The Glass is Half Full

Well it looks as though most of my personal issues that I was left sorting out fixed themselves in the last two days. It's amazing what communication does for a few people...let's say 3 people just to have some sort of a number. But hopefully things keep moving forward and everything falls into place like it should over the next few weeks. I'm going to be positive for the time being because it's easier to get through everything that way.

My work life continues to be a mess. I'm working like crazy and just when I think I'm making progress something else comes up and I'm left sorting through the pieces and trying to take care of each situation. I was a little bummed today. I've been at this company for 6 months now, in a position that I considered fairly important until my boss introduced me to the auditors this morning. Rather than introducing me at the "Accountant" that I am, he tells them I'm his "accounting person." Perhaps this wouldn't bother anyone else, but I have worked my ass off to get the title of Accountant. Anyone can be an "accounting person" -- I have a degree and I have the experience and while I'm still young, I think I deserve the title. Hell, I'll stop working the hours I am if I'm just an "accounting person" and go back to the 40 hour week that any other accounting person would. I know I probably shouldn't get this worked up about it but it did bother me quite a bit this morning. The only thing this afternoon that helped brighten up my day was the phone calls I got from my buddy down in Laredo. He always knows what exactly to say when I'm bummed or stressed out. Actually he called to talk to the Accountant about business and collecting one of our accounts but just hearing the disappointment in my voice he was able to cheer me up. Let me tell you...when you're day is going like crap...it's always uplifting to hear that southern drawl and someone calling you Sugar or Darlin'. (Note to everyone else: Remember that when I need to be cheered up!) Anyway, I was a giddy little school girl the rest of the afternoon. M thought I had completely lost it by that point, but it provided some comic relief for her as well.
Speaking of M, she and the rest of my work friends are taking me out on Friday night to celebrate my 23rd birthday. We're hitting Westport so if ya'll are free, you're more than welcome to come join us. Time for a little bar-hopping and dancing the night away and perhaps a little Korean Kareoke. We're definitely going to live it up though! And I'm sure I will have a few stories for another post. The stories are always entertaining when our group goes out and I'm sure this time will be no different. :)

Normalcy is upon me....I think.

After weeks and weeks of crazy stuff going on, I finally had somewhat of a normal weekend (if there is such a thing) and its nice to see that everything is slowly falling back into place. I'm still working a ton of hours which is nothing out of the ordinary, but being able to take almost an entire weekend (minus like 2 hours) and not having to work on something for my job and just being able to enjoy the company of others was a definite relief. In fact, I might be able to stay partially sane for a few weeks longer than my previous estimate.
My week at work was spent getting tax stuff together in order to finish up the last of the 2005 reporting, working on AR reports and projections and my usual duties with cash, fuel, payables and billing. On Friday afternoon, M and I finally got to take a short break from the accounting monotony and when the two new people in billing got to our office with all of the equipment from the C-town location we got to go into our brand-spanking new office and plan out the operations and arrangements for in there. It was actually pretty exciting and we're looking forward to the move in with the rest of the administrative functions of our company although we both know that with this move we're going to have to behave ourselves a little more than what we're used to, especially since she and I have a lot of inside jokes that shouldn't get out. We'll be fine though and it will be great working all together rather than in offices that are 160 miles apart.

Friday night was our weekly outing for a happy hour and a night on the town. This week we hit Casa with a few of the other girls at work for margaritas and then because it was still early and we wanted to party we went to a Korean kareoke bar. Don't laugh because we had a blast. There was like hardly anyone in this place and we could belt it out then without feeling so self conscious. Everyone else in the bar (which was like 5 people) would get up and sing a song in Korean and then M and I and one of the other girls from work would get up and sing something like Deep Purple or Whitesnake or Journey or Bon Jovi. M also did her rendition of Killing Me Softly, which if I may say so myself was really good. We ended up closing the place down and I came home and crashed.
Saturday was a busy day of just getting caught up with errands that I needed to run and meeting up with my cousin and then my dad and then looking over the work that I brought home with me. Around 7:15 or so I talked to my buddy J to get the latest scoop from Laredo and like the week before he couldn't believe I was sitting at home on a Saturday night. He ended up convincing me that rather than staying here and doing nothing, I should go out and find some trouble. He knows me too well. ;) Of course then I had to call M and see if she wanted to get into trouble with me and come to find out she was out at one of our favorite hangouts and Dr. Zhivegas was going to be playing that night so I got ready and headed up there for another night on the town. It was a blast like always. I'm starting to get used to this going out all the time when I'm not working. Although it is nice to also have a day like today to regroup and get ready for my week ahead. I think I'm finally starting to find a balance with life and it's only taken almost 23 years -- I've got a few more personal issues to work out and then I think things will finally be set. Hopefully those will be ironed out soon enough also.

And Life Just Keeps Rolling On

I wish I had something exciting and interesting to write on here, but as I'm sure everyone is fully aware now, I have really just been working a lot for the past month. In fact, that is about what my life boils down to right now, work, sleep and then having a few "coldies" (as M likes to refer to them) after work. There is a joke between the two of us that if things don't slow down at work we're going to be alcoholics in no time. (seriously though...I'm just kidding with that alcoholic remark!) But getting back to work, I finally decided to track all of my hours this week, just to see exactly how much time I put in at work and then when I come home and bring stuff with me and it was shocking. For the week of the 1/1 to 1/7, I worked 63.5 hours in between our office up here, the office in C-town, the car ride down there and back and then at home and I'm still not even close to being caught up.
It was actually pretty funny last night though. Yesterday I went into work for an hour and I brought AR home to start researching past dues since some of our customers have websites that I can check to find the status of invoices on. So I spread out the mess on my desk here and start working on everything and shortly after I get started my cell phone rang. I knew exactly who it was and I was excited to hear from him, so I didn't mind the disruption and the chance to take a break. It was my bestest buddy J in Laredo who just wanted to see how things were going and let me know that he did receive the FedEx that we sent down to him the day before. Anyway, we were talking about work and the office up here and how things were going down at the terminal and life in general. He also had to rub it in that it was a nice 80 degrees and sunny down there today while I'm sitting here in St. Louis and it was like 40. Hell, I'd move down there just for the warm, sunny weather if for nothing else. He was surprised to find out that I was sitting at home on a Saturday night and working on receivables rather than going out and livin' it up, but he also knows how dedicated I am about my job and that I put my work before going out. In fact, he's exactly the same way, hence the reason why he is in Laredo right now because everyone at work knows that he will get the operations turned around down there and its better to do it now than down the line when there is more of a mess to deal with.
Other than that, my evening was uneventful and I'm assuming the rest of my weekend will be that way too. With being gone the last few weekends because of the holidays I have kinda slacked on going grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning (of course, it's kinda hard for an apartment to get too dirty when you're hardly ever home, but it's still nice to vacuum and dust on a regular basis) so I'm going to do all that today and get caught up with the household duties. Exciting...I know, but that's what you get when you grow up. Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken all of this on already or if it would have been better for me to just live at home and get through the adjustment of a new job before taking on anything else, but then I think about the freedom and independence I have and I realize that now I am truly in command of my destiny and if I screw up then the only person I have to answer to is myself and that's the way it should be. In any case, my housework is not getting done so I'm going to get out of here, so until next time -- adiós. (I've decided to start practicing my spanish again - if you don't know why then you really don't pay much attention to my blog.) :)

Happy 2006!

2006 is finally here and so far at day 2, it's going about the same as the end of 05 did for me, but I do have to say....New Year's Eve kicked some major butt! This past New Year's Eve was the first time I actually had plans and went out somewhere to celebrate the new year. M and I decided that rather than sitting home by ourselves, we were going to have some fun so we hit a techno and hip-hop club downtown. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not, but we had a great time just dancing and meeting new people. It was fun going out dancing again but I did miss my dance partner (J) so M and I called him at midnight and wished him a happy new year. We also tried to call C, but he was down in the sticks with family and either my phone wasn't getting reception or he wasn't because when M tried to talk to him she couldn't hear him so we don't know what the heck the problem especially since he could hear us. In any case, he thought the gesture was nice and wished us a happy new year when we saw him at work today. Speaking of work, today was an extremely long day. I spent most of my 11 hours trying to get everything entered into 2005 so I could close out the year and have everything ready to start fresh tomorrow. The actual closing wasn't that bad it was just doing everything to get to the point that was a little stressful. Anyway, at least I'll be set for billing down in C-town tomorrow, since I'll be down there again this week. I am kinda looking forward to another trip down there...just because of our impromptu hotel parties and run to the drive-thru liquor store. We've been doing this for about a month now and it's been nice to just get to talk and hang out with someone rather than coming home to an empty apartment. Don't get me wrong...I love living by myself, but sometimes it fun to just kick back with friends and goof off.

That's about everything so far. I spent the rest of my weekend creating 2006 spreadsheets for work. I think I created like 10 spreadsheets on Sunday and I still have like 4 or so left that I forgot about. They'll have to wait though because my brain is fried for the night. My mom and step-dad did take me out on Sunday afternoon and that was nice. We went to a place in the south city and had lunch on our way back from visiting one of my step-dad's rehabbed houses.

Finally, I would like to apologize to Shell and Tom and anyone else I haven't been able to get back to lately. I have gotten everyone's voicemails and I haven't had the time to return your calls. Hopefully everyone understands and knows that I don't mean anything by it. As soon as my schedule slows down I will have time to talk and hang out and catch up on life.

Hope everyone has a great 2006!