A Day in the Life

Well, it's been a crazy week so far. Here are the highlights:

The good:

• Today I had a second interview with a company I liked a lot. So my fingers are crossed that they make a decision soon--me!
• I launched our revamped website at work.
• The intern from hell is improving slightly.
• The boss is out the rest of the week.
• I submitted a quick little story to the Washington Post. Let's see if it gets picked.

The bad:

• The dog has diarrhea. Again.

Turkey Talk

My Thanksgiving was pretty nice and un-drama-filled, unlike a friend of Jeffro's that we had coffee with the day after Thanksgiving. We drove to New Jersey late Wednesday night, but apparently not late enough since we hit a ton of traffic. Turkey day was celebrated at a family friend's house. We visited some other relatives, and wanted to visit a friend in the hospital, but Jeffro came down with a cold so we couldn't do that and we wound up leaving earlier today instead. The highlight of the trip was going to our favorite used CD store, Tunes. I traded in some CDs, got a $5 credit and spent only $12 of my own money on this stack of great CDs that I'm working my way through:

Chicago: Greatest Hits 1982-1989

Peter Cetera: World Falling Down

Best of Corey Hart

Phil Vassar: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1

Diamond Rio: Greatest Hits, Vol 2

Since we hit tons of traffic again today, we took a nice detour through Southern MD on Route 301 instead of staying on 95. Hope everyone had a safe and happy turkey day.

Work Week from Hell--Happy Thanksgiving!

I've had the craziest week. I had a new intern start Monday and I kid you not, she is terrible. She's like 40-something years old, going back to school. She's worked on a Mac, so she barely knows how to use an IBM. I had to teach her HOW TO CUT AND PASTE BY RIGHT CLICKING! Oh my God, with that kind of help, I'm sure I'll get a lot done. Then she put some info into a template, mispelling the title of it, and lost the entire thing. Lord. She was supposed to help me with this big web update project, but I don't want her anywhere near it.

That's why I spent most of today and yesterday updating our entire website, which everyone was supposed to help with. Because sometimes help just isn't help. So I'm just wiped out. Then they decided not to let everyone go early today because they were giving us Friday off. What stupid, frigging cheap grinches! Finally at 4:00 when I thought I'd go cross eyed, they finally relented and let us have a free hour. How generous!

Anyway, thanks for listening to my vent. I gotta go pack cause we're joining the legions of people traveling today. But hopefully by the late hour we get on the road, it will all be cleared out.

I have an interview next week, and I pray I get the job, cause I'm not going to be able to handle working with this intern.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and a great long weekend.

Elvis Has Left the Building

I had the day off work on Friday for a Stephen Covey class on time management and planning. The only thing was, I wasn't expecting this workshop to be 8 hours of how to use the Covey planner. We literally all sat there for like 45 minutes putting the planner together. Except we'd gotten our planner in another class and had no planner, so I just sat there and watched everyone else. My boss thought it was a waste of time and left during the first break. She was going back to the office and gave us the option of staying in the workshop or going with her. Even though it was 8 hours of wasted time, I opted to stay. After all, a day out of the office is a day out of the office. I have to say, I did learn some stuff about time management that might be helpful, but I think an 8-hour workshop is excessive.

This weekend has been fairly productive. I got some much-needed things done around the house. Last night was fun, we went to the Old Dominon Boat Club to see Elvis impersonator Michael Hoover. He puts on a good show, if you like Elvis music. The whole thing is a little silly, but it was a fun time and I even got one of the scarves that he gives to the ladies.

Today is mostly errands and drudgery, but I have a bookclub meeting tonight to discuss The Painted Drum, which was pretty interesting. I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have an intern starting and we're kicking off a huge project, so I'm really NOT looking forward to it, even though this is going to be a short week.

I Love Short Weeks

Well, I had an interview yesterday, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and an out-of-office training on Friday. Gotta love these short weeks. Next week our office decided to close on Friday, which means I don't have to continue digging into the vacation hole that I'm in. Despite all this, however, I have been incredibly busy at work and have gotten almost as much work done this week as a normal week.

My interview yesterday went ok, but I'm not sure I like the organization/position. We'll have to see. I continue to send out resumes, but things are definitely slowing down as the holidays approach. The job interview I loved last week is trying to find a time for me to come back, but it might not be until after Thanksgiving.

Not much else new and exciting to report this week.

It's a No

Well, I heard back from one of my job possibilities--the one I had two interviews with. The answer was no thank you. I was upset in a way because the job was 5 minutes from my house, I really liked the person who would have been my supervisor, and well, quite frankly I would rather have been the one to say no to them. So that really sucked and made me doubt myself now. Maybe yesterday's interview didn't go as well as I thought? But they did ask for my reference list, and today I did get a positive email back from one of the women I met with, so who knows. She "looked forward to talking with me more in the coming weeks." I have to say I am getting really sick of all this interviewing crap and just want a resolution in the way of gainful new employment.

Busy weekend ahead, looking forward to having tomorrow off even though I have to be at the allergist by 9. I think I have a phone interview, I might go visit my friend MJ who is working, and I have tons of errands to run, like buying birthday gifts for my niece and my mom. This weekend we're visiting friends on Saturday night for dinner and I have my first drum lesson in weeks on Sunday.

Country Gone Wild and Life in General

Well, I'm sure you've all heard the controversy over Monday night's CMA Awards, where Faith Hill was caught on tape getting mad that she didn't win--and rightly so. She should have won instead of first time out, undeserving, American Idol Barbie doll. But trying to play off that she was just joking instead of owning up to being human and being upset that she didn't win isn't flying with anyone . . . overall, the CMA awards were very disappointing. Brooks & Dunn won every friggin thing and I got so sick of seeing them at the end of the night. If you're up for 20 million awards, you shouldn't be the host. Isn't that a conflict of interest or something?

This week I have had two interviews, one that was just so-so and one today that was just phenomenal. If only I could get lucky enough to work for this company--provided the pay and benefits are right. They have a very laid back attitude, come in whenever you want, work through lunch if you want to leave earlier, work from home if you need to, whatever. I just love it. Most of the people have been there 5+ years, which can be a good or bad thing, but they seem open to new ideas and creativity. So keep your fingers crossed, as I had a very good vibe about them. Plus they are like 20-30 min commute.

Tonight I'm waiting for the next Lost episode to begin and will finally do a little much-needed housework. Just need to live through tomorrow then the long weekend begins!

Gone Country

This is a huge week for country music fans. I'm sure there are tons of y'all out there. Tomorrow night, Monday, November 6 at 8 p.m., ABC presents the 40th Annual Country Music Awards. It is THE award to win if you're a country singer. Not so coincidentally, two of my favorite acts and CMA nominees are releasing new albums on Tuesday. Sugarland releases their second album, Enjoy the Ride and Keith Urban (who will miss the awards cause he's in rehab) releases his fourth album, Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing. So you won't catch me blogging tomorrow cause I'll be glued to the TV. And Tuesday night I'll be at Best Buy spending a giftcard I got a couple months ago for my birthday that I have been saving for just this occasion.

Colonial Weekend

This weekend Jeffro and I visited my alma mater, William & Mary. It was the first time I'd been back in probably five or so years, and a lot has changed. There is a lot of new construction on "new campus." I got to show Jeffro my campus (far superior to his alma mater), where I lived, took classes, all my old haunts. It was a pretty decent time, except for the frigid weather on Saturday.

Sunday the weather was prettier, and we spent part of the day walking around DOG Street, as we students liked to call Duke of Gloucester Street, the main drag there. We had lunch both days at The Cheese Shop, which is absolutely the best sandwich place in the world. Just ask Jeffro, he agreed that it was pretty amazing. It's moved to a new, larger location since my college days, and seems to be just flourishing. We bought some colonial souvenirs and spent way too much time at the bookstore on Sat, but all in all it was a good trip. I just wish we'd had more time to spend there.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind, and I have an interview first thing in the morning. I'm pretty psyched cause it's a great organization. Wish me luck.

Victory is Mine!

Tonight was the board meeting to address the parking issue and I won! I can't tell you how ecstatic I am after all the hard work and agony that I have gone through. It passed unanimously, as it did with the parking committee. I found out tonight that this was the first parking petition to ever pass the parking committee unanimously. Wow. I must say, the arguments I presented were pretty impossible to refute, and we had several other homeowners show up to support it. It takes effect December 1 (they wanted to make it Jan 1 initially but then some board members argued and decided to make it earlier!) and I can't wait to tow the first violator. I am so thrilled after all the stress of this week.

What stress, you ask:
1. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Woke up this morning feeling miserable, still feel that way. So it's lots of echinacea for me and maybe calling in sick tomorrow or Friday.
2. I had my second interview yesterday. It went pretty well, not earth-shatteringly well, but good enough. They say they'll make a decision by the 17th, which is weeks away, but that is probably good because . . .
3. I had a phone interview today (not a good fit), I have two other interviews scheduled for next week and one other interview pending for a job I was really interested in. What is up with that? I'm totally a hot commodity right now. Hopefully I can use all this to my advantage to negotiate a fabulous salary and benefits.
4. Took my dog to the vet for various problems and was told he might need a root canal (they do root canals on dogs?) and they want to biopsy this weird thing on his nose.

To end on a good note, how amazing is this weather? I wish it could be like this all year long. Well, I guess it could if I moved to CA. I hope the weather lasts through the weekend, when I am supposed to go to Williamsburg for a tiny bit of R&R. That's all I got.