"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!

It's been a whirlwind ride

So it has been extremely crazy lately and things have gotten a little out of hand for me. All I can say is thank you to those who have understood and helped me through the mess known as my life. After my drunken stupor on Thursday night there was another little issue on Friday night but I'm happy to report that with the help of my wonderful guy Josh, I was able to realize that most of the stuff I say and do is because I care so much. And M, I'm sorry I acted like an idiot at first and I know you're sorry too for what was said and I'm glad that we were able to work through everything. You are my best friend and I would never do anything to jeopardize that, whether alcohol is involved or not.
The rest of the weekend I just kinda kicked back and didn't do anything, which was nice because I have been in overdrive for about 3 months now and I think that has caused a lot of the problems. It was so nice to take a Sunday and be able to read the newspaper and watch tv and cook a decent meal. I have finally started to see that having one day to just take it easy is not a bad thing. I don't have to constantly be on the go, something so simple, but difficult for me to understand sometimes.

Today I went back to the grindstone at work. I had a huge meeting on Friday afternoon with the President of the company, the Director of Operations, Controller and Billing Department regarding accounts receivables and billing and the status of each and I know that there is a lot of work to be done with that so I continued to plug along today with getting accounts up to date. J called from Laredo and surprised the heck out of me because when I answered the phone rather than saying, "Hey Lindsay, this is J," I hear "Hey Sugar, how's work going this morning?" I was a little confused at first but still excited to hear from him. He was inquiring if I had gotten a check from the account he was helping me collect. I promised him another batch of cookies when that account was cleared up and I'm sure he called just to make sure that I didn't forget about that. Of course I wouldn't forget! I'm just waiting until the day when I can finally say...thanks for letting me bug you for the last 2 months. My day turned out pretty well though and I was actually able to leave on time tonight, granted I did come in an hour early this morning, but hey, leaving at 5 is an accomplishment for me! Tomorrow is month end again...it seems to come around so fast and luckily this month I'm not struggling with getting 1099s taken care of as well.
Things are starting to look up and that's the biggest thing for me right now.

Note to Self......

Yeah, so I don't know what the heck happen tonight and I'm not sure if I really want to know, but just a few minutes ago I got a text message back from M. Apparently in my drunken stupor earlier tonight I sent her a text message and from what I can tell I could have gotten myself into some major trouble. I'm not sure if I actually did what I said I was going to do in the text message I sent to her or not...that's all a little fuzzy. But anyway, the reason why this is a note to self is for the simple fact that I have got to quit going to drinking right after work because it only leads to problems....and I'm sure that it lead to some tonight. I guess I'll find out in the morning what kind of damage I did when I get to work. J, if I happened to call you...I didn't mean whatever I said. :)

Right now, I'm going to bed because I feel like crap. I'll deal with everything else in the morning or tomorrow during the day since I have numerous meetings with the people I went out drinking with tonight. Oh geez...what did I get myself into???? So much for my quiet evening at home!

The Shock of My Life

I thought today was going to be a normal Sunday. I had made plans earlier in the week with Josh to meet for lunch and I was really looking forward to that because with the craziness of my job and the holidays and everything else we hadn't gotten a chance to see each other since mid-November (way too long...if I may say so!). So this morning, I got up...excited as anything and wanting to accomplish a million things before we met because I was full of energy, I baked a batch of cookies for him and tried to organize my apartment a bit and then got ready. We met at 1 pm and I ended up being the one that was late this time because I got lost on my way out to West County, but it was so nice to get to be able to spend time with him catching up and just having each other's company for awhile. I filled him on everything that has happened at work and all of my family issues and anything else I could think of that we hadn't had a chance to talk about. Then, he drops a bomb on me. I was a little confused at first because he didn't come right out and tell me what he was hoping to do. I'm sitting listening to him thinking the absolute worst, especially since he says, "I'm thinking about my future and making some changes to my life..." and just when I think he's going to completely break my heart for being such a bonehead and insensitive bitch the last few months he tells me that he's thinking about going to flight school and joining the National Guard. I don't know what was harder for me at the time, the thoughts running through my head or hearing that. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Josh was in the Army before and my step-dad even retired from a military career, but with the state of things now, I can not say I'm fully happy with this decision and I'm sure the expression on my face let Josh know that. Of course, because he knows me so well anyway, he knew I wouldn't be thrilled with this idea and it also doesn't help that if he is accepted to this program, training is in Alabama. I'm wanting us to move closer together, not farther apart...I have had a heck of a time adjusting to the 2 hours & 125 miles between us, I don't know how I would deal with the 694.37 miles (yes, I mapquested it!). Nothing is set in stone yet and I'm glad I have some warning because this is a big deal for both of us...ok, more so for Josh, but still it does sort of involve me.
But, I will say this no matter how shocked I was and no matter what the look on my face implied, Josh, I support whatever you decide to do. Going into any branch of the military is an honorable thing to do and like you told me today, quoting JFK, "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." If you think that flight school is the next step that you should take, then I will live with it and learn to adjust to you being somewhere else rather than St. Louis or Cape. You know you mean the world to me and I can't be selfish right now. The only good thing to come out if it would be to see you in that uniform again because you know how I feel about that! Although a picture of you in your Army uniform would suffice! :)

In any case, our lunch together this afternoon was great...we really need to do that more often. We finally got to exchange our Christmas presents today also. I got Guess' Sweet and Sassy perfume and body lotion gift set, which smells absolutely divine and I got Josh Armani's Acqua di Gio cologne and a Army Special Forces white gold pendant and necklace. I didn't even know that he was reconsidering the military when I bought the pendant months ago, but it just seemed to fit today. Hopefully he liked it, the cologne was a no brainer, especially since I love the way it smells and it's one of his favorites anyway.

Tomorrow it's back to the daily grind of trucking accounting. M and I are supposed to be moving into our new office tomorrow too which should be a trip. I've got a million things to get off my desk before we move so hopefully there is a plan as to when all of this is going to happen. Knowing how things have gone the past few months though...it will be another fiasco, but it will be nice for all of the accounting functions to work together in one area. See, we are making progress!

One Big Ramble

I'm finally starting to see what everyone has been saying to me for the last 3 months. Until the last few days, I thought most of my friends were crazy, but something just sort of clicked this afternoon. For those of you that don't know exactly what I'm rambling about, I'll explain...of course this is from my point of view and I'm sure everyone else is seeing this a little differently. About 3 months ago, I kind of had a change of heart about myself and my life and I decided that I needed to lighten up a bit and just be myself rather than try to fit into a mold of someone I wasn't. I didn't start out with anything drastic. I decided that I would slowly start to loosen up, while still being the responsible, mature person that everyone has known me to be. Small talk with my coworkers was the first step because besides M, I didn't really say much to anyone. J was the first person who really took to the small change in my behavior and he showed me that it was alright for me to have fun while not compromising everything I had worked so hard to become. By the time December rolled around and we threw the happy hour for J, I started feeling a little more comfortable around some of my other coworkers -- joking inside and out of work with all of these people I had grown to know over the last 4 months. The next week at the Christmas party (mostly because I was a little nervous to be going to a company function by myself), I decided that it wouldn't hurt to put myself out there a little bit and show some of the people higher up what I'm made of. By the end of that night and really the end of the week for that matter, I realized that my happiness was the one thing that I needed to start to consider.

Fast forward to mid-January, I decided that I'm only this age one time in my life and I needed to live each day to the fullest. I can't regret saying or doing something or not doing something for that matter. I can't let the what-ifs take over my life anymore and I need to act rather than react. When it came down to my work life, I decided to put together a proposal and take it to the president of the company to show him what exactly I have been working on the last few months. I finally found the rest of my courage and yesterday I presented it to him. He was stunned and really impressed. Stunned that I had put some much time into making sure that I had all of the facts organized and impressed that I went to all of the trouble that I did. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders after I met with him because it's something that I have been meaning on doing for awhile but I finally found the time and the confidence to do so. Well after that meeting I felt on top of the world and like I can accomplish anything. Today I was a completely different person...the person I have looked forward to becoming....a confident, smart and fun young woman.
Funny story with that though too. I had to email one of my other bosses (I know you have all heard about C -- let me refresh your memory if not, he's the other hot guy in our group besides J) about truck mileage for the month of January so I could finish up payroll numbers to pass on to someone else. Being in Laredo right now, I wasn't sure if he would be able to get them to me as soon as I needed them, but I still gave him the benefit of the doubt and asked that it be taken care of as soon as he had a free minute because it was important for the next step which has to be done by next Monday. About 30 minutes later, I get a reply to my email with all of the mileage numbers that I needed. I was so appreciative because it took a ton of work off of me because I plug these few numbers into a calculation and it gets the next piece of the puzzle going, so I emailed him back and was pleasant and said, "thanks...that helped tremendously! How's Laredo?" Just making small talk because we have missed him in the office this week and I got another response back: "It's warm and sunny and 70 degrees!! I heard you guys got snow -- Yuck!!" And becuase I was in such a giddy sort of mood and because I have this new outlook, I replied back. This continued on for about an hour...not constantly but in between what I was working on and what he was doing down at the terminal. I would have never thought that I would have gotten one response back...let alone the 5 or so that I did. I've now determined that it doesn't hurt to get out there and stir it up a bit...you might actually make someone' s day and make them feel more comfortable and at ease also. I know this seems a little strange, but because of the situation, which I really can't mention a whole lot about right now, this was a definite change.
From all of this rambling, I've come up with one conclusion...it's alright to put yourself out there and while you might think you look or sound stupid, it's ok -- a person is usually 10 times harder on themself than anyone else would be. I can't worry about what everyone else thinks and I need to just take care of me...even if it means looking like a complete doofus every now and then.

Finally, if I haven't confused everyone enough already, here's one more thing. M and I found out today that moving day is Monday. We're moving from our quiet, cute little office in the back of the suite to the big billing and accounting addition that was just opened 3 weeks ago. We're looking forward to the change, but we know it's going to be a big difference as well. No longer can we make our crazy comments back and forth about Laredo or dancing at Syberg's on J's birthday or doing our impressions of our favorite people in the office. I have a feeling that we're going to be a bad influence on the two new people in billing. We'll see how next week goes, but they might be asking us to move back into our quaint little office at the end of the hall!

I'll keep you updated!
By the way, Happy Birthday M! The party of the year is Friday night after work to celebrate!

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!

Another week come and gone

Well I hope everyone had a merry Christmas! I know I had a great weekend -- no matter how busy it was. Santa was good to me and I finally can have the chili and margarita party I've been planning since I moved into my apartment now that I have a crock pot and blender! jk! Everyone knows margaritas go better with queso dip rather than chili. Anyway the weekend was a complete blur for me. I started out at my Dad's on Christmas Eve, then drove back to my Mom's and then to my Uncle's and then came home with a car packed to the roof at like 9 at night on Christmas night. Needless to say, I didn't want to do anything the Monday after Christmas even though it probably would have helped me a lot today if I would have gone in to work for a few hours.
Like the past few weeks, today was a complete mess. I don't know why Wednesdays are a crazy day for me. Every other department has a fairly slow day on Wednesday and I get slammed. Of course this week it didn't help that I only had two days in our corporate office and that I'll be down in the sticks for Thursday and Friday again this week. I shouldn't complain though. This week has to be better than last in that regard. Last Thursday was a complete disaster for us at work. I got up early on Thursday morning all ready for my 2.5 hour road trip and emailed our Executive Assistant at like 6 am because I forgot to get payroll numbers before leaving Wednesday night and started to get psyched for learning the billing cycle. As soon as I'm getting ready to walk out the door at 7 am, I get a call from our E.A. and she tells me that both people in billing called in sick and that I probably wasn't going down to train in billing that week. Then I get a call from M saying that our boss had decided that it would be better for us to just stay here and get our own work done and that she would come pick me up in like 5 minutes. So that was fine. I was pleased with being able to go into work up here because I had a million things to take care of anyway. So she picks me up and we get to work and start on our normal Thursday duties. J came into the office for a bit on his way back from picking up his truck up here. It was a nice surprise too because we didn't think he was going to come into the office and we were already suffering from J withdrawals. We ended up talking to him for a few minutes and then find out that the President of the company wanted M and I to go and work on billing in our other office because the billing department couldn't close down for 2 days, especially at the end of the year. So at 9:30 in the morning, we packed up everything we were doing up here and get things set for everyone else and head out on the 2.5 hour drive that we were supposed to make 2 hours prior. We got down there at 1:30 in the afternoon after making a few stops and started on billing right away and ended up working until after 7 that night. It was an extremely long day and after dinner we came back to the hotel and decided that instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we were going to party. Well there are not many places to party down there so we decided to go to the gas station and pick up a few things to drink. Yeah...they don't sell liquor at the truck stops down there so not knowing where else to go, we call J (since he lived down there for 6 months) and ask him where the nearest liquor store is. Not knowing exactly where we were anyway made it that much more fun too. We ended up finding it after J was able to decipher our location and lead us there while he himself was driving down to visit family in Arkansas. Come to find out the only liquor store down that way is a drive-thru one. KICK ASS! That was awesome! So we got our drinks and headed back to the hotel and ended up staying up way too late that night talking and trying to figure out the meaning of life. I know Josh thought I was absolutely nuts because he called me a few times while out Christmas shopping wondering what I wanted for Christmas and I was completely in another zone....not because I had too much to drink or anything but I just had a million things on my mind and I was ready for some fun rather than think about Christmas. I tried convincing him to make the 40 minute drive down but he had too much shopping to get done in only a few hours but I promised him another hotel party this week and I'm hoping he'll come by and visit, especially since we haven't seen each other in about a month and a half.
M and I and even our boss ended up working on billing again for a few hours on Friday and then made the trek back home. We made the drive back in record time too....2 hours and 10 minutes and that's even with stopping for gas! We just wanted to get back home because it had been a stressful two days. This week we're in for a treat again because Friday is the last day for one of the people in billing. I'm scared to death to think what is going to happen for the next few weeks but we will survive. We always do...but its still just scary to think about sometimes....I think that's why I have gone out for a few nights this week already. M and I are trying to get pumped to take over this stuff. Last night we went to dinner and then tonight we hit a happy hour for a bit and just talked and tried to be each others support system. I'm really thankful to have someone who understands exactly what I'm going through right now with work and we work so well together anyway. I'm truly lucky to have her as a friend.

So that's that. Not a whole lot is going on otherwise. I'm planning on behaving myself this weekend with New Year's....or at least that's my thought right now. I have to work on Monday next week and close out 2005. Hard to believe 2006 is so close already -- hard to believe so much has changed for me in 2005. Thinking back on it....in 2005 I acquired my first "real" full time job after graduating in December; quit that job for a better position as a full fledged accountant in July; moved into a place of my own; went on a weeklong vacation to DC with Josh; lost one of the most important people in my life (my Grandpa); met awesome coworkers, many of whom I consider some of my closest friends; became the queen of the dance floor (thanks to my buddies J, C & M); and even spoke up and told the owner of the current company I work for my ideas for helping our business succeed. I don't think I would have been outgoing for even some of that last year at this time....my how things change in a years time! I'm sure some of you have seen the difference lately too.

So I'll leave you all with those thoughts for tonight. I have to finish packing for good ol C-town tomorrow. If you're down that way...call me and you can come to our hotel party. ;) Anyway, Happy New Year to all! May 2006 bring you good health and happiness and lots of time for "kickin it!"

Well, where do I start?

It's been over a week since I have had a chance to update and it's not because there is a lack of things going on in my life. On the contrary...I have been working about 55 hours a week and trying to get ready for Christmas and have a little fun in the meantime. First off with work -- the last two weeks have been the most stressful weeks I have had in a long time. Besides taking care of my regular job, I have also been going down to the office in Southern Missouri to learn billing since our billing department decided to turn in their resignation a few weeks ago. Last Thursday and Friday ended up being a complete blur and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to show the two new people that willl be starting in a few weeks everything that they need to know to take over these jobs. I know there is an easier way to a lot of what they have been doing down in our other office but it's figuring everything out the way they have been doing it and then coming back to our office and trying to tweak it a bit. If that was the only thing I had to do....heck no I wouldn't have a problem, but besides that I have my usual routine as well as finishing up projections for the end of the year and getting everything ready for 2006.
Last Wednesday was a good example of how frustrating things can get sometimes. I was minding my own business, knowing what needed to be done before I headed out on Thursday for the other office and about an hour into my day, everything changed. I felt like I was running around the office trying to meet deadlines and feeling like I was falling farther and farther behind because more problems were arising. At one point, trying to get to the fax machine, J turns around and says, "smile and cheer up - you're doing a great job." That did make it a little better, especially since he flashed that killer smile at me. :)
Speaking of J, he headed for our Laredo terminal last weekend. M, C, J and I all went out for one last hurrah last Friday night and we had a blast. It's going to be hard knowing that we all won't be here to party like that for at least a year or so, but we had fun while it lasted. Dr. Zhivegas was playing at the bar and we spent most of the night out on the dance floor shaking our stuff. It was sad to see the night end.

Also last week was my company Christmas party on Wednesday night. Not a good night for a Christmas party when you have to make a two and a half hour drive the next morning, but still it was a lot of fun. I spent part of my evening talking to the owner of the company about ideas I have for the next year and he spent the rest of the time telling me of things that they have in the works. Most of my co-workers were making fun of me for talking with the big boss for as long as I did, but it was really nice to get to talk to him considering he barely knows me and or what I exactly do for the company. I will say though that he was impressed with some of the ideas I had regarding payables, receivables, billing, financials, etc. I guess college did pay off! I have decided (in like the last 2 months or so) that I need to be more outgoing and work for what I want. I can't sit there and take a back seat role because I do have an important job and I need everyone's cooperation. I think eventually this new outlook will pay off for me. Who knows...I may have already wowed one person.

And finally because I need to get ready to pack my stuff for my little roadie tomorrow....I've spent whatever time I've had left over after work and partying to Christmas shop. Finally, I have everything bought and wrapped and all I have to do now is deliver them and that's what Saturday and Sunday are for. Saturday I'm driving out to my Dad's and spending Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family and then Sunday morning I get to drive back to St. Louis and spend it with my mom and step-dad for a few hours before heading over to my uncle's in Southern Illinois. It will be a busy day but a great time with my family. Hopefully everyone likes their presents too! Monday will be my day to relax....or bake cookies since I have promised to send a batch back into work for the fleet managers and a batch down to Laredo for the terminal. I'm such a nice person!

Anyway, I hope Santa is good to everyone. Merry Christmas to all!

Party Planning Committee Succeeds!

My first major party planning event came off without a hitch and ended up being an awesome evening! So awesome I still can't feel my feet from all of the dancing I did! It turns out that we were able to get just about everyone in the office out to celebrate J's big promotion...a task that had not been accomplished until just last night. Even the President of the company and Controller spent a few hours out "kickin it" as my co-worker M (she's the other part of the party trio along with J and I) keeps mentioning. Really though, the night was great. It was packed at Syberg's but we managed to get a table once everyone got there and we scoped out a huge group leaving. After the band started playing at 9 I don't think anyone of us (by this time the group was half the size) stayed at the table for more than one song. Everytime a new song would come on and one of us would try to head back....we'd pull that person back out onto the dance floor. I don't know how many times I would be dancing with J and then he'd tell me that he needed a break and he'd walk back to the table and I'd pull him right back out there because another good song was playing.

I have pictures of all of this but some are rather incriminating so I think I'm just going to keep them to myself for the time being. The best picture of the night which I think I'm going to have blown up to poster size is a picture of me and J and C. I wanted to get a shot with those two so M took my camera and I walked in between them to get a good shot all of a sudden I hear from both of them to M to wait until they say 3 and then take the shot because they wanted this one to be the best shot of the night. So I'm standing there....kinda buzzed but knowing what's going on around me or at least thinking I do and I hear, "1....2.....3." On 3 both guys plant their lips on my cheeks and I have a picture of being kissed by both of them. You should see the smile on my face with that one! My coworkers are freaking awesome!!! For those of you that don't know, which I'm not sure who doesn't, I consider both J and C very hot guys. Not that anyone really wants to hear that but it's come up as conversation in my personal office quite a few times since I started working here in July between me and the girls. So anyway, the night was extremely fun.....we all stopped drinking pretty early which is a good thing and for the last like 2 hours it was straight water because we were all extremely warm from the dancing. We all rode back to the company together after dropping another girl off at home and picked up our cars at like 2 this morning and I crashed as soon as I got the pictures downloaded to my computer.

M and I are now trying to devise a plan to get down to Laredo for some weekend to kick it with J and maybe even C if he's down there at the time. Laredo is one hell of a drive from St. Louis but I'm sure that we could find a cheap flight for a weekend trip so we can all still party like we've been accustomed to for 3 or 4 months now. Next week we're taking a road trip to our office is southern Missouri....not a trip I'm really looking forward to next week because I have alot to take care of up here with my job but with both of our people in billing giving their resignation earlier this week, M and I have to go down and learn the billing system until we can hire someone else for that position. Another thing I get to learn for my job...pretty soon I'm going to know the entire accounting cycle for trucking. I guess that's not a bad thing though since I am an accountant and I produce the final work for financial statements and reports but I don't have nearly enough time in a day to be able to do everything I'm learning. I'm working about 50 hours a week as is and I still can't keep up sometimes. But, I also have to look at it in a positive light...they wouldn't have me learn all of this stuff if they didn't think I could handle it and they weren't going to keep me around for awhile.

So that is my exciting evening out and its so sad that my dear buddy J is leaving next week for Texas but like he said he's going to fix up our Laredo terminal and get back up here as fast as he can so he can come back and party with his girls. By the way, M and I are the girls. The rest of the women in our office have a pre-girl status since they haven't gone out and kicked it like the two of us have with him. But what can I say, M and I are party animals! Rock on! :)

Finally, one last note...congrats to my aunt and her boyfriend, well now fiancee. They got engaged last Saturday night while I was out in Highland. I wish them all the best!

It has been a long week!

Finally it is Friday night and I have a night to recover! This past week has been extremely busy and its good to have a few days off now. Nothing new has really happened, I've either been at work, bringing work home or out living it up with my work friends....seems like everything right now revolves around work...but that's ok. I still love my job and the people that I work with. In fact, I'm now in charge of the party planning. J is leaving for Laredo, Texas in two weeks time to become the 2nd man in our Laredo office and I was told to plan the blowout for him. Next Friday night we're having the shindig of the year. I'm actually really pumped about being the party planner. I sent out the invitations today (via email) and I think I got the office excited. Actually they laughed at the invite because I signed it "The Party Planning Committee in Accounting." The girl I work directly with is the other big partier in our company...when it comes to going out after work, usually its her, J and myself. Well we couldn't let J plan his own party so really she has been my co-pilot in making sure everything is taken care of. She's off in Vegas this weekend so I'm left figuring out the remaining details. It should be a great time though! I will definitely post after the party!

As for this weekend, I'm going out to my dad's tomorrow morning and spending the rest of the weekend there. We're working on thank-yous from my Grandpa's funeral with my Grandma and the rest of the family and I'll probably end up doing a little bit of Christmas shopping with my Dad. I would also like to bake my Christmas cookies but I might just wait until next weekend...we'll see how much time I have left over this weekend to accomplish that since I would like to bake cookies for my co-workers, family and friends...and that's a heck of a lot of cookies!

So tonight I'm going to relax and do as little as possible. I think I'm starting to come down with whatever everyone else has been getting sick with and after going out last night after work and drinking with one of my work buddies and getting about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep...I need a nap and a chance to do nothing for a change.

Let's Hear Those Sleigh Bells....

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have to say under the circumstances, it turned out to be a very nice day. My aunt and her boyfriend ended up doing the whole Thankgiving dinner thing since my Grandma wasn't too gung-ho for cooking this year with the loss of my Grandpa and for the most part I think we tried to make the best of the day. Dinner was excellent and now I have to work off all of the extra calories I packed in that day.
Anyway, I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, which really wasn't as bad as everyone else made it out to be. I had a ton of work to catch up on anyway so it was nice to be able to go in at least for a few hours without any major interruptions since a lot of the companies we do business with were off. I did have one customer who wasn't very happy with me and tried to call my boss because he thought I was being unreasonable, but my boss gave him the exact same answer that I did. That'll teach him...don't try to mess with me! I can be quite the bitch and he found that out!

Dealing with our customers is a new thing for me at my current job. Our general manager at another office retired and he was the one who dealt with them, well rather than replacing him my boss and I have taken over all of his duties and I am now in charge of accounts receivables as well as numerous other things. It is taking some time to get use to everything especially since I now have to balance everything I was doing and this new stuff. Even with the holiday last week I put in about 40 hours because of the deadlines that I have to meet.

I did find some time for fun though. I went out with my friends from work on Tuesday and Friday night and then Mom and I went shopping for Christmas yesterday. First time in a few weeks that I have gotten to see my mom for any length of time. We hit the mall and a few other stores to pick up a few Christmas presents and had lunch together. Most of the time though was spent browsing and really I have to say, it wasn't that bad out yesterday. I would have thought that the stores would have been busier than they were, but I guess it's still early in the season. I wanted to be on the ball this year. Last year, I waited until the weekend before Christmas to even start my shopping because I was focused on taking my finals and getting decent grades in all of my classes. Amazing what a difference a year makes!

This post is dedicated to my Grandpa

Many of you are unaware of the stress I have been faced with this week and rather than emailing everyone letting them know, I have decided to just post it on here. There is a reason why I have dedicated this post to my Grandpa. After falling earlier this year and breaking his arm, my Grandpa's health took a turn for the worse. We had been dealing with his declining health since about February and after having numerous bouts of pnuemonia, a hip replacement, a minor stroke and the start of Alzheimer's set in, my Grandpa passed away on Wednesday, November 16th in his sleep at the nursing home. This came as a complete shock to me and I have been a mess ever since I found out when I was getting ready for work that morning. The funeral was yesterday and really I don't know how I was able to make it through it. I guess just knowing that he was no longer suffering and in pain was a little bit of a help. I do have to hand it to my family, especially my Grandma who was tough as nails through all of this. She and my Grandpa were married 52 years and she was there for him every step of the way. If couples nowadays were as committed as she was to him, the divorce rates would be half as high as they are now.

Besides being the big baby I was throughout the last few days, I was also in charge of the picture memorial. I was very honored to be able to put together the photos. It brought back a lot of the good memories I had of family vacations and holidays and just regular time we got to spend together. I was also able to learn more about my family history which is one thing that I have been meaning to look into more when I had the time. It's horrible to have to put something like that off because of time constraints and really I have given a lot of thought to prioritizing everything in my life and making more time for family and friends and fun.

I do have to say that I am very appreciative for my job and all of my coworkers though too. They have lent me so much support over these last few days and I'm extremely grateful. I don't think I have ever worked at a place that has been so caring and considerate. The flowers that they sent personally to me were absolutely beautiful and I know my family was thankful to receive the plant as well. My 4 month anniversary was on Friday and to put so much effort into making sure that I was ok after such a short amount of time was very helpful.

I also have to say thanks to Josh who has been amazing as usual. I saw him last Sunday and updated him on the entire situation after going out to my Dad's and Grandma's the day before and I'm sure he figured something was coming. I called crying to him numerous times and he was able to calm me down and ease my mind a bit.
My brother was also a big help at the funeral home when I broke down, so he deserves a hug also. And Bro, I'm sure Grandpa would be proud of you as a pallbearer...you did a very honorable thing under so much stress.

So...that has been my week in a nutshell. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to stay in touch with many people this week...hopefully the next few weeks will be better. The holidays are a time to come together as family and I hope that we are going to be able to do that this upcoming week.

One last thing - my deepest sympathy also goes out to Amanda. If you need anything, please get ahold of me. I know what you're going through right now too and I'm here for you even if we do live a few hours apart.