"Trust me...I really am a nice person"

There are a few people that might not agree with that, but it is only because I'm passionate about many things in life and I don't want to see things messed up if they don't have to be and perhaps that is the reason why I get a little testy with work and the rest of my life. Work is the main issue right now for me still however it is getting better by the day; however, me being the impulsive and demanding person I am -- that is not nearly fast enough. Geez...how do my friends and family put up with me???? No wonder Josh still lives 2 hours away from me.
Anyway, there was problem after problem at work this week, but I got most of it cleared up or at least fixed to the point to where I can deal with it this upcoming week should there not be any other fires to put out. My boss will be gone the next three days so I'm sure there will be a few things that come up and I will have to deal with. This past Friday night I stayed late to close the April books. It is very hard for me to believe that the first day of May is tomorrow. Where has almost half of 2006 gone? It's been 10 months since I walked into our office for the first time and was a nervous wreck in front of my current coworkers...almost been a year since I walked across that stage at McKendree for the commencement ceremony...and, it's been nearly 5 years since I graduated from high school. My how time flies!

As for this weekend, it has been pretty good. Friday night was an absolute blast! I stayed late at work to get the month-end stuff done and then M called me on my way home and told me that since I could finally drink again, she picked up some Smirnoff Ice's and Bud Select and the party was at her house. Really it wasn't a party, we had just decided that since next Friday is Cinco de Mayo and we were planning on going out that night that we would just take it easy this week and behave and have just a girls night in. So I went over to M's house and we had a few drinks and talked about all the stuff going on and danced our hearts out. M's husband thought we were nuts when he got home from work because it was just the two of us in the living room blasting the CD that M's son downloaded for her and singing and dancing around. I haven't had that much fun in a long time! I ended up leaving M's house at like 3 in the morning and I was completely worn out.
Yesterday morning my alarm went off waaaayyyy too early and I was out of it but I had to get up and drive out to my Grandma's to visit my dad and her out in S. Illinois. It was nice to get to see them especially since I haven't gotten out there in quite a few months because of my hectic schedule. I missed seeing my bro while I was out there but I was finally able to bring out his birthday card -- it's only a month and a half late!
Today I spent most of my day getting caught up with household things that I have put off the last few weeks and going grocery shopping, etc. Nothing too exciting but I have to get things like that done at some point and I knew it wouldn't happen next weekend with Cinco de Mayo on Friday and a wedding on Saturday. I'm sure I will just need Sunday to recover next weekend! But, I'll get an update in there somewhere!

Truckin' Accountant

Well I must say, I feel much better since that last post. Granted I am still working quite a few extra hours but I was able to meet with C after our AR meeting yesterday and he was a big help. Really I just wanted to let him know about some of the things I had been seeing with my job and even though he's not my boss directly (since he's in Operations and I'm in Administration) I knew he would be the most help to me getting things corrected. And I have to say, he seemed to take everything to heart and I have already seen some changes that will be beneficial to our company. I'm quite impressed too especially since I never thought that I had enough guts to go to anyone in an authority position and give them my ideas and have them agree with me on a majority of what I mentioned. Maybe I am growing up and actually learning something about the industry I work in...who knows I might be a Truckin' Accountant in no time. There is a reason I say that. Yesterday afternoon while I was getting ready for my meetings one of our fleet managers came back to the billing and accounting office to find someone else who is usually in his department and when he asked where she was at, someone else told him that he thought she might be in accounting. So he walks back to my desk, which is the first desk in the department and says, "is this accounting? I was told to come back to accounting to find so and so and I didn't know we had an accounting department here. Are you really accountants or just accounting wannabees?" My response to him was, "yes there are really accountants back here. You're staring at an accountant right now." He was amazed and of course he next question to me is, "do you have a real degree from a real college?" And in my head I'm thinking...no I just printed one out on my computer...but I was nice and just came back with, "of course, I graduated from McKendree College in December 2004." I guess it is hard for people to believe that I've been so serious and got myself through school so fast. So perhaps I educated one person yesterday afternoon and maybe now he realizes that I'm more than just the co-chairperson of the "Party Planning Committee in Accounting." HA!

In other news, I talked to my buddy J this afternoon before I left work. Even though I haven't had much of a chance to talk to him lately but nothing has really changed...he's still the great guy that seems to care so much about his pals up here in STL. I asked him when he expected to be back up this way and he's not sure. We would love to see him up here soon though or M and I just might have to make that trip to Texas sometime this summer!

Anyway tomorrow night is Parties at the Plaza after work and it should be fun. We all definitely need a happy hour after the last few days. M, S and I went out last Friday to our regular hotspot and had a great time dancing. This week will be no different....we have fun wherever we go. If anything exciting or noteworthy happens I'll be sure to remember it for the next time I write.

Just call me a sucker...

I guess I have it written on my forehead because it's been 4 days since I've decided that I couldn't change everything at work and I was going back to working the 8 or 8.5 hours a day that I had agreed to. And what happens today I go back to working 10 hours at work and then I bring stuff home with me. My brain is telling me I'm a loser and I just let everyone walk all over me but I can't stop. Just from the few days that I decided not to go in early I've got an extra days worth of work to do and no time to get it done. Everyone has deadlines of 5 pm on Friday afternoon and of course I'm supposed to meet them. Is it possible? No. But, will I work myself into a shambled and emotional mess trying to please everyone.....of course. Something has to give and eventually it is going to be me, but that will only be when I become so frazzled I have a heart attack...maybe then someone will realize that I'm only one person because I sure as hell haven't realized it yet.

I feel so old...

In a little over a months time, I have found out about 4 upcoming weddings of friends of mine. This would not be that big of a deal to me but I have grown up with some of these people and it just does not seem possible that any of us are old enough to even start thinking about getting married. I wish all of them the best and I will be there to celebrate the big day, but wow, I'm starting to feel old now. I know I'm definitely not at the point in my life to get married myself and I'm just trying to have fun and experience what I can from life right now before taking that next step and completely settling down. I will say though that next Saturday(April 15th - tax day for all of you financial whiz kids) is the 3-year anniversary of Josh & mine's first date. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We met down in South County for lunch and watched a movie together. Hard to believe that he has been willing to put up with me for 3 years!
Speaking of Josh, he called the other night to tell me that he joined the National Guard in Cape and he's getting ready to take his test for pilot training. I am proud of him for deciding to do this, but I'm still scared for him too. Call me crazy, but even though he knows what he is doing, I worry about him. Hopefully we'll see each other soon because I do miss him tremendously right now.

As for my weekend, well I haven't really done much but I needed this time just to reflect a bit. Everyone at work was busy on Friday night so after I finished the last of my emails to customers and coworkers I came home and just took the time to unwind. It had been a very stressful week and the lack of sleep had finally caught up to me so I kicked back and watched a little tv and called it a night about 10:30. I must have been tired because M called my phone at like 10:50 pm and again at 11:15 pm and I didn't hear it play, "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" or even vibrate across the table onto the floor and it was barely a foot away from me. She went to the Train concert at the Pageant and they were playing my favorite Train song and she wanted me to hear it. It ended up going into my voicemail so I have a nice 3 and half minute message playing "Drops of Jupiter." Actually it did sound pretty neat though! M is good for playing these songs in my voicemail. The other night she was driving and left me a message playing Shinedown on my voicemail for me because it was on the radio and I absolutely love that band. For all of you that don't know also, when you call me and I don't have a specific ringtone set up for you...it plays Shinedown so if I don't answer my phone right away it's because I'm rocking out to "Save Me."
Yesterday I did a bit of spring cleaning and some organizing and just tried to get some of the stuff here at home in order and then last night I watched a few episodes of my new favorite show, Tuckerville. That show cracks me up!
Tomorrow all hell breaks loose at work again but I have decided that I can't change the world and I'm going to do the best I can and work normal hours again for the time being and maybe then I won't be so irritable all the time and I can go back to being the normal happy-go-lucky girl that everyone else has come to know. :)

Who am I becoming???

There is a reason why I haven't updated in well over a week and that reason is that really the only time that I have spent any time at my place I have been asleep or I've come home to change clothes and head back out. I think in the last two weeks I have gone out 6 nights for either happy hours or parties with friends...and that is just not me (ok, it's the new me). The other nights I've spent extra hours at work trying to get caught up with the new policies and procedures we have put into place. I do have a few good stories from this past week though.
Last weekend ended up being a lot of fun. Friday M and I hit a few spots around town with our co-workers and then went to Syberg's. The band there was amazing...I think I'm going to become their groupie. The bass player was a hottie and reminded me of Josh.
Saturday M and I hit a bar in Brentwood to celebrate her sister's boyfriend's birthday and then we drove out to Wildwood for another party, only to miss the people at that party and by the time I got home it was pretty late.
Tuesday night we went out for D's last day at our company. We went to HotShots after work and that was a nice release after my AR meeting that afternoon. Even though this was the second week for our meetings, I was still nervous and especially with C sitting right across from me rather than on a conference call from Laredo. But, I got through my meeting and I think we're making a little bit of progress. We'll see for sure after this Tuesday when I apply a somewhat large payment from one of our main customers. C made the comment that I'm becoming quite fiesty with taking care of the past dues and he knows I definitely want to try to make a difference.
Thursday ended up being a pretty good time too. Actually M and I were minding our own business working late when the owner of the company came in with the President after he came into town for a meeting. We got to talking and he told me what my goals should be for collecting AR and helping billing. M and I got back to working on our project while they went to talk in the President's office but around 7 or so they told us that they were going for drinks at one of our favorite hangouts and that if we wanted to we could join them. This was so awesome! I thought it was a perfect opportunity to mingle with the big shots again and we took them up on the offer. We made small talk while we were out having drinks and then they invited us to go have dinner. Since C was craving steak, the 5 of us hit a Japanese steakhouse. The night ended up being a blast -- I caught a piece of shrimp in my mouth when the chef launched it in my direction (the only one at the table who was able to do it also!), the owner of the company spit water at me when the president asked M what the key was for a long successful marriage and everyone was joking about my age, but I will say they are impressed as well!
Friday we hit HotShots again for another happy hour with our work bunch and then finally I was able to take my step-dad and mom out for dinner last night for my step-dad's birthday. We went for Mexican and celebrated with margaritas. I had a lot of fun...my parents sure know how to kick it! Anyway, I got home and pretty much crashed. Today was the kind of day where I would have loved to stay home but I'm actually glad I didn't because of the horrible storms this afternoon. We're getting back into the time of the year where tornadoes are a major factor and today was a good example of that. The weather changed drastically this afternoon and within a 10 minute gap the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Thank goodness my mom has a basement in her house otherwise I would have been freaking out. Luckily there was no real damage besides a few shingles coming off of the house and some of the soffits falling off.
Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone at work, but I think with working a few hours on Saturday morning, I will have a little less pressure on me than most Mondays. Granted, I say that now and tomorrow will end up being a complete disaster. In any case, I'm going to take these last few hours and go relax and try to clear my mind a bit.