"Grab It By The Horns And Run With It"

Perhaps the greatest advice I have received in the past 3 days was that line and I believe with that little bit of encouragement, I was able to prove that I'm serious about my job and I do have a clue as to what is going on. It all started on Tuesday morning when I got an email from my buddy J down in Laredo thanking me and telling me he was in chocolate chip heaven with the cookies that M and I sent down the day before. Of course I emailed him back and let him know that it was not a problem and we enjoyed baking them and I appreciated his friendship. Small talk went on through email for a bit and then I decided that since my meeting was at 4, I needed to get on the ball and get everything sorted out and organized for that and I figured that since he had helped me in the past, J wouldn't mind helping me out a little bit again so then we started emailing about customers and the meeting that afternoon. I told him that I was extremely nervous, especially with the little bit of experience that I had and having to try to explain my strategies to 3 other people in the meeting and then have them help me determine what the next steps should be for some of our deadbeats all while taking down minutes to report back to the President of the company. The next email I get is that line and only that line, "grab it by the horns and run with it." So of course, I had to email him back and ask what exactly he meant....come to find out after talking to him and a few of my other work friends, I exude some sort of confidence in my job and while I may not have all of the experience in the world, I am serious about it and everyone sees that. I was actually quite shocked. I have never found myself to be a person with very much confidence, I have been a wallflower all of my life because I don't ever feel good enough to take that next step. Perhaps I'm changing or perhaps I just have numerous personalities and I adapt for the situation and maybe at work the stronger personality comes out. But one thing is for sure, whether he is 1,110 miles away or down the hall J (like M) knows exactly what to do to calm my nerves and I am truly grateful for that. I definitely owe him a drink (or numerous drinks) the next time he comes into town.

Yesterday ended up going fairly smooth and even though it was Wednesday it was a lot calmer than many of the other Wednesdays I've experience lately. Today was a pretty good day as well. I had a few minor issues to attend to this morning but after that, I was able to focus my time on many of the things we talked about in our meeting. C called me to tell me that he was working on the 4 accounts I gave him to take care of while he was down in Laredo and he had a few of the others gathering information that would be helpful to our operations in accounting and billing as well. This afternoon I was going to town on researching loads and customer information and I got one of the nicest emails. It was a friendship email and it actually left me kind of speechless after that. It had been passed around our company but I never expected to get it from the person that I did. In fact, M and I were joking that I should send it to him but I didn't want to bother him since I spent Tuesday racking his brain and taking some valuable time out of his day by emailing him. Anyway, if you haven't figured it out yet, I got the email from J which was an extremely sweet thing for him to do, especially since not everyone was special enough to get the email. I actually felt kind of important to him. :)

Anyway, tomorrow is Friday again and I'm sure I'll have something going on...I hardly ever have a boring day at work. I don't know what is going on after work or this weekend, but M and I will figure something out....we don't let a Friday get by without a plan for some sort of fun. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

First Day of Spring My Foot...

Yeah so today is supposed to be the first day of spring and what kind of weather advisory do we get...a winter weather advisory and our dear meteorologists are predicting 3-5 inches of snow and right now it is getting ready to sleet. What the heck! I definitely need to go south! But, I have more important things to worry about right now, so I'll just move on.
Last week was a blur at work and by the time I realized it, it was Friday afternoon and I'm trying to figure out what I've been doing the entire week. The President of the company called me into his office on Friday to tell me what he envisioned for my job and my department and wanted to get my input on everything. He also told me that starting this Tuesday, I'm going to have weekly meetings with our Controller (my boss), Director of Operations (C) and our billing department regarding accounts receivables and billing and report back to him summarizing our progress. I'm a little nervous, especially considering my first meeting is tomorrow afternoon at 4 pm. I'm leading these meetings and letting everyone know what needs to be done in order to improve some of our business procedures. Little ol' me...the one with 8 months of trucking experience telling men who have been in transportation for years the changes we need to make to be even more successful financially. However, I have also been informed that there will be incentives for the progress that I make, so I'm a little excited and hoping I can pull off something to make a noticeable difference. Wish me luck!

So anyway, after work on Friday, M and I hit a place in St. Charles for drinks before we went to see one of our favorite bands play at the Bottleneck Blues Bar. I was feeling really good by the time we left the first bar and all I can say is thank goodness I didn't drive! 4 Margaritas do quite a number on me and the Smirnoff Ices afterwards did not help either! We had a great time dancing though.
Sunday ended up being a pretty fun day too. M came over and we baked cookies for our friends down in Laredo and brownies for the office up here. C took our care package to Laredo today when he left on his business trip. Hopefully the boys down there will enjoy them. Pretty much it was just a little token of how appreciative we are that they continually help us straighten out our jobs up here. Then we talked about all of the crazy stuff that has happened the last few months. She and I have been through a lot and it's so great to have a friend that can relate to everything that the two of us have gone through, especially now that more and more people are giving me crap about a certain aspect of my life. Although I do think I'm going to have to have a talk with a few of these people that are starting stuff because for one, it is not professional and two, it could cause waaaaayyyy too many problems if anything else gets said, even jokingly. I guess this is the kind of stuff that people have to put up with in the real world.

One final note, I would like to wish my baby bro (who is now taller than me and much cooler also) a Happy Belated 19th Birthday! I know I called you on Friday and wished you a happy birthday, but it never hurts to say it twice. I hope you had a great time out with the guys and whenever you have a free minute, I'll take you out to celebrate too!

This weekend turned out pretty well

I have actually had a pretty awesome weekend for a change...no fights, no work, just all out fun for the last few days. Friday night after work, M and I and a few others met the President of our company for drinks after work and then M and I grabbed dinner and hit one of our favorite spots to listen to Dr. Zhivegas. (I think we're becoming groupies! In fact, the guy at the door didn't even check my ID this time because he said he recognized me. That's a little scary that with so many people coming through that bar that he knows me. I do go there waaaay too often!) Anyway after a long day of work and a few drinks we weren't really in a dancing sort of mood so about halfway through the first set we decided we would just leave and get home at a fairly decent hour. We got back to my car at work and ended up sitting in the parking lot and talking for like a half an hour. I know I have not filled everyone in on all of the stuff happening in my life and trust me, it's really not worth spilling my guts out to everyone about it, but there has been a lot that has been on my mind and bothering me for a few months and it is so nice to have a friend there to listen to me and help me sort out the mess I put myself into. You would have thought that I would be able to move on, but it is still taking its toll on my thought process and my emotions and pretty much every other aspect of my life. One good thing is that I'm finally getting some clarity and I think that eventually I will be able to take a deep breath and realize that I will be alright, especially since M now has the full and uncut story on everything and she can help me find some closure.
Saturday I just ran a few errands and went to the grocery store and came home for a relaxing day. M called me later in the evening to make sure that I was hanging in there and to invite me to a dinner at her house since today was one of her son's birthday. I had an awesome time over there today. I hardly knew anyone in the extended family but I know all of her kids and her side of the family so I did feel a little bit better than if I would have known just her. They are a riot though! We played Sequence tonight and had a blast. I was so afraid of feeling awkward, but I just tried to be myself and I think it turned out alright.

It's back to work tomorrow, hopefully we'll be moving forward this week rather than trying to pick up the pieces of the messes we've had lately. After work I'm going over to get my hair highlighted and cut at M's sister's place. It's time for a update and change.

Other than that, it's been same ol', same ol' here.

Happy 21st Birthday Cuz!

I would just like to say to one of my favorite people in the world Happy Birthday! Today is my cousin Mary's 21st birthday and like all 21st birthdays for our family, we hit the casino after work. It ended up being a blast and even though I lost some money, I'm glad I was able to get off of work at a decent time and go meet everyone. And Cuz, as a personal note to you...watch out now because you know this means more trouble for us to get into now that you are finally legal!

As for everything else, well it just keeps piling up. I thought I was actually doing good for a change by the middle of last week and then all hell broke loose. The email server at work crashed during an upgrade and from Wednesday afternoon on it was a complete disaster. Not only did we lose email, but I also lost Quickbooks which is the main accounting software for two of the companies I work for and our Laredo terminal lost all of their files. We finally got everything up and running on Monday morning after 4 and a half long days (yes, I consider weekends because our operations are 24/7) and we come to realize that nothing had been backed up and therefore all old emails and contacts and pretty much anything else stored in Microsoft Outlook were completely gone and the only backup that I had for Quickbooks was from January 20th. So I have spent the last two days trying to create the last month and a half for two companies and then find all of the information I can to recreate my address book for my business contacts. Finally at 4:45 pm today I had both companies re-entered and I had a start on my email contacts. Perhaps the best advice given to me today, which really I should have known but didn't really think about until it was mentioned, came from J, who told me that I need to go back to the old time ways and write everything down in a notebook and print out as much as I can. I guess I do rely heavily on computers and servers and everything electronic and perhaps much of my generation does, but I know better now and you can bet to sure that I will have everything backed up should that ever happen again. Actually the whole reason why I called J was to give him some great news. Finally, after 3 months of bugging and hounding him and pleading for all of his help, I got a check from the client that he was helping collect payment from. I could have done cartwheels around the office today when I saw that check come in and I guess I do owe him a batch of cookies now. I better get baking this weekend!
I don't know what I'm going to spend my time working on now. It seems like every day I was calling or emailing or sending him messages across the system asking him what the status was on payment. Oh how will he survive without me hounding him??? I'm sure I can find a million other things to call him about! ;) He is the brains behind the operations in Laredo now...and I told him that whenever I have questions he the first one I'll call because even if he doesn't know the answer he will come up with something and make it sound right. (A lot like myself according to Josh.)

Tomorrow is crazy, hectic Wednesday again. I'm never prepared for Wednesdays...even though I work hard to make sure that everything goes smooth something comes up and throws that plan out the window. At least I have something to look forward to after work. We're taking D out for her birthday and since M and I celebrate "Mexican Day" every Wednesday we're going to finish off the day at Casa with margaritas. (By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with "Mexican Day," it's the day that M pays all of our logistics carriers, most of which are Mexico based companies...hence the name.)

So that's the scoop for now. I'll be sure to update on all of my adventures...and hopefully I'll stay out of trouble for the time being!