Joy's 3rd Quarter Report

October has begun and now you get the chance to catch up on my life, what a glorious day.

Does anyone out there remember where I left off in the saga of my life?  I don’t.

I think around August 6^th I started working for Dowd and Guild Inc. that means I’m almost celebrating two months of waking up (and getting dressed) five days a week.  For some of you this may not seem like a big accomplishment but it is something I haven’t done regularly since high school. I like my job.  Lots of people ask me if working in an office is like the TV show.  I think I could easily write a 23-minute bit every workday (and I only work 4 hour days), there would be none of the romantic tension. 

More specifically, what do I do?  I am the receptionist i.e. the face of the company.  I sign for a lot of UPS packages.   Today I spent close to an hour and a half decorating the bulletins board for October.   Where do people come up with clever things to read while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew?  I made a list of daily things to celebrate in October.  The 9^th is moldy cheese day.  And October is Pickled Pepper month.   The rest of my job consists of answering and routing phone calls, updating things, running reports, filing papers, mailing things and extracting data from excel spreadsheets.  

Soon I might start working full time.  My possible change in schedule has been the drama of the week.  Some people may think that me taking on a job fulltime would make me a sellout.  I figure it is either sellout in that area or sellout to socialized healthcare.  I have expressed my desire to have a modified vacation schedule. You can pray that they will think that is a great idea so that I can still be open to travel for philanthropic reasons (they’re really into philanthropy).

I was also working on getting that restaurant started.  That kind of fizzled out the end of August but then last week they mailed me a bonus check. 

A few weeks ago I decided to get a new bed.  My parents voted for a full because it would still be a change but wouldn’t take up less of my room than a queen. So for a whole week I was on craigslist trying to find a bed and finally on Saturday morning (the day my dad could go with me to get something) I found one.  I got to the house, they lowered the price, I brought it home, rearranged my furniture, went and bought sheets, and then figured out it was a queen.  Why the people didn’t know that, I don’t know, I guess because the nanny was in charge of selling it.  Oh well, it fits fine in my room and I got a great deal.   Now, during the process of rearranging my furniture I moved all of my excess stuff (lots still un-organized from moving home) into the spare bedroom.  Now I am in the early stages of getting rid of stuff.  During this process I have learned that I am, in fact, a hoarder, I just store things well hidden.

That is mostly what is going on with me, now go enjoy some homemade cookies and get ready to name your car tomorrow and let me know what’s going on with you.

Love, Joy

PS Yes! You can still buy my book!

grandpa vermon

I have a grandpa Vern.  He looks nothing like this:

He lives in South Lake Tahoe, the previous owner ran the local brothels.  I guess the house attracts "characters."  Anyhoo this weekend he wanted to host a garage sale so I went up with my aunt and mom to help out.  If you saw the pictures I posted in March you may have started to understand that he has more junk than any other person on the planet (hopefully).  Here are some of my favorite pieces:

I sold the hats, $3 for 2 (he wanted $3 each or for me to take them myself) and the picture for $20 (he wanted $25) even better, I sold them to the same person. I hope they display them they same way I did.

 

This African CD stand we didn't sell until day 2 so he dropped the price from $20 to $12, another thing I wish I needed. 

But it wasn't all awe at finding amazing things, here are some other emotions I dealt with...

Bitterness:  My grandpa challenged my pricing one too many times.  Trust me -- there is no way he paid $10 for the tacky umbrella I sold for $1.  

Shock:  So a lot of the garage sale patrons were my grandpa's biggest fans.   He was selling his paintings for $100 and people were walking away bragging that they got an "original" and telling me how lucky I am to have such an amazing grandpa.  I kept thinking of The Emperor's New Clothes.   I could expand but either you understand the analogy or you don't.  Another shocking thing was that he made over $4,000.

Disgust:  The first night on the way in we met him, Ethel (his ex-girlfriend) and two of their friends for dinner at the Lakeside Inn.  I really don't like the Lakeside Inn, or the Smokeside Inn as my aunt likes to call it.  I don't every know what to order there, I think I need to start going with the prime rib special because that is what the old people get and the restaurant definitely caters to old people.  Instead I got what I thought was going to be seafood with a white wine sauce over linguine.  What came out was this flavorless soup with chunks of fish and a side of spaghetti.  It did not go over well with my stomach.  After dinner when we stood up to leave I realized that the lady that I was sitting across from was like 4 feet tall, I mean she stood up and was the same height as she was sitting down.

Awe:  This morning I walked down to the lake.  Some of the houses in his neighborhood are beyond massive and gorgeous.  But then I got to the lake and it is much more massive and much gorgeous than any 5 million dollar home.  A little perspective is good every once in a while.

 Now I will share 3 completely unrelated things:

1) Even though I've been back now for 9-months, my body has not adjusted to the climite.  Henceforth I have really bad dandruff, I feel like I have that gross cradle cap disease that my sister's kids get.

2) This week I am working full time.  8 to 5.  That means I have to leave before I usually wake up.

3) It is raining right now.  Very odd for September.  I head there were thunder storms yesterday, I missed out, I hope they come back, those are something I miss from my former life.

Survivor

Yesterday at work I had a very Survivor like experience. I've only seen about four episodes of Survivor, all on my NYC trip to the Congdons, but it seems like everyone is making alliances all the time, behind people's backs. So this lady literally cornered me in the copy room to ask me what I think about this other lady in the office. I said I liked her and that for the most part I try to live liking people, a very unexciting response,. She shared her undermined opinion of the lady in question and then we moved onto a more neutral topic. Do I look like I want my life to be filled with middle-aged drama?
On a brighter note, yesterday I got to deep-clean some cabinets, a break from the spreadsheets I've been spending my time with.
Another thing I get to do is sign for UPS packages. The UPS guy scares me, I guess he is just really friendly. I don't know how to deal with it so it is always a very awkward time.
Today I was informed that I am not supposed to just transfer every call to customer service because they are very busy. Good to know because unless someone calls and asks for a specific name I transfer them to customer service, because I don't have a clue what the rest of the people do.
In honor of the three day weekend, tomorrow is casual Friday. I now know how students feel when they usually have wear uniforms then get a free day. A lot of pressure.
Speaking of students, my commute is no longer exactly 30 minutes. It has been taking at least 35; 45 today because of an accident.
Last weekend my friend Morgan came to visit. She's from Iowa and been living in New Mexico, but we know each other from Nicaragua. It was great to get to spend time with her and lucky her, she got to house sit with me one night. To follow tradition, we played Boggle and Speed Scrabble. We probably played 10 rounds of Boggle and all but 3 rounds her score was double mine -- exactly. We also went to pick fruits and vegetables from my neighbor's house. He has something like 30 fruit trees and 50 tomato plants. He carried what we picked home for us down the road on his riding lawn-mower. He is 82 so I guess he can ride a lawn-mower down suburban city streets wearing a cowboy hat.

more on jobs

I still like my primary job. I think the number of stupid mistakes I am making is decreasing, that is good.
The other day the head boss walked in, it was the first time I'd seen him in the office this course of employment
He said: I heard you were were working here again.
I said: Yeah, and I heard you were in charge.
He made no further comment and walked away.
I know almost everyone's names now, except for Carol, I don't know who she is. Well, I guess she is the one I see whose name I never know.
Today I was thinking about the people I work with, as Bob Grieco would say, some of them have high IQ and not so high of EQ, I don't know about SQ.
A lady asked me if I am a "plant person" I didn't know what she was talking about but I guess it was just her transition into asking me if I like sprouts. I do. The next day she brought me in a zip-lock of mixed sprouts. I have been enjoying them.
This week my secondary job is dog-sitting Dani Girl and Buddy Boy. Before bed I am supposed to say, "Poo poos for night night" and supposedly, "They know exactly what that means." I personally do not think they know what that means.

wedding and work

Last weekend I went to San Diego to participate in the wedding festivities that correspond with the the previous post's faux wedding. It was super wonderful to spend so much concentrated time with my college roommates.

Here we are: The groom is in the suit and the bride in the white dress and veil

I drove down (with the two girls on the right) in my little Honda and discovered I can get 400mi/tank with freeway driving, that is very exciting since I won't be getting a hybrid anytime soon.

I've hit a dead end at the restaurant job for now. I've turned in all of my initial reports and am waiting for him to assign me something else to do.

I haven't gone to my office job all that many times yet but so far I really like it. 9 to 1 is a really great schedule, someone asked me if I have kids because I guess if I did that would be the perfect hours to work. The HR lady told me to not just have kids because of the schedule, I agree. So what do I actually do...
1) I drive to work, it takes me exactly 30 minutes.
2) I answer the phone and transfer calls.
3) I listen to people tell me about their lives.
4) I file papers.
5) I run reports (I don't really know what that means but it encompasses a variety of things and takes a lot of time)
6) I mail things.
7) I book reservations.
8) On Mondays I open Saturday's mail.
9) I do anything that THT tells me.

Right now I am at a coffee shop drinking iced tea, waiting for my college roommate Katie (on the right) we are going to motivate one another to do projects. My project it putting together a photo album from the last 3 years of my life.

Time slipping away

I'm not very good at remembering to write here but I am into turning over new leafs so I'm going to try to be more faithful.

Dowd and Guild has been going well. I've now learned how to say "Good morning, Dowd and Guild, this is Joy." Hopefully after I say that they introduce themselves and then I know who to transfer them to. When people call and ask like they are my best friend and don't tell me their name I get really frustrated but today I decided that no matter how embarrassing it may be I am always going to ask who it is, because that is my job.
On Thursday something very dramatic happened. It was Rachel's birthday so someone brought this caramel dip thing and apples, some people didn't realize it was the equivalent of a birthday cake and started eating it. When we went to get it to surprise Rachel, there was a big wedge missing. Gale used the apple slices to fill in the gap. Crises averted.
Friday, yesterday and today I was supposed to work from 8-5 to get a feel for a full day. I went in at 9 instead of 8 because the girl I am working with, Christie, said that nothing happens before 8. I wasn't disappointed that I got to sleep an hour later. Today I started this excel project around 3:30 for Guild, of Dowd and Guild. It was nowhere near finished at 5 so he asked if I could stay and finish it. I think on your 4th day of work when you're about to take a week's vacation and the head guy asks you to stay and finish, you stay and finish. I was there until 6:30. On the way home I found out my sister and cousins were eating fro yo so I met them.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the restaurant job but last night I stayed up late and finished the sandwich part. Now onto soups, 5 vegetarian and 5 non. I don't like soup.

This weekend I went to Davis, (and to Evan's show in San Francisco). I like Davis. On Sunday I went to Elk Grove (or as I like to call it, Fair Oaks) for my college roommate's faux wedding. I didn't really know what to expect of a faux wedding but was pleasantly surprised.

Being given away by her faux dad

The Faux Bridesmaids

Some Delicious Fauxcakes

Tomorrow I am leaving to go to San Diego for the real wedding, I'll be back on Monday. I need to pack now. I'm not unpacked from this weekend yet. I can't imagine how crazy my life would be if my mom didn't do my laundry for me.

jobs

I now have not one but TWO jobs (three if you count watching "Oprah" with Mrs. Johnson). Both of them are paid and one of them is not a joke, neither of them are full time. You may wonder where this step into stable adulthood came from, good question. They were previously closed doors and then within the week they opened. I clearly believe that these opportunities (with virtually no effort on my part) are God's way of telling me that it's time for me to be here for a while, so I will.

Job 1: Hello again Dowd and Guild. Last Jan/Feb I found my self as assistant to a personal assistant at the lovely chemical sales firm, Dowd and Guild. I went in twice a week for four or five hours, probably a total of 9 times, to run errands and order pictures at costco.com. All that effort paid off (and the aptitude test I took last week) because starting tomorrow I will be working there Monday to Friday 9-1. There is the opportunity to go full-time but I let them know that I am not sure if I'm really ready to do the full-time thing. We'll see. Oh yes, I'll be an office manager aka receptionist. I'm really excited, the job seems to offer adequate diversity of tasks and I really like the company. I'll have to come up with five business casual outfits every week, except the week of the 12th -18th because I'm taking those as vacation days.

Job 2: S3Technologies, Inc commonly known as "Little Caesar's Guy" For some reason I really hit it off with Indian men, first thousands of free books in Nicaragua and now a job. In March I got this job interviewing Little Caesar's customers. This venture capitalist owns a few Little Caesar's and was interested in opening another one so I had to find out where people we coming from so they could decide on a good future location. Now he has hired me again but for something completely different. He wants to open a new salad restaurant, I guess they are all the rage right now. From what I understand I am in charge of the menu. So I've gone to eat at our future competitors to discover all their secrets and have been making lists and charts of crucial salad toppings and popular recipes. We'll also be offering some sandwiches so now I need to do the same research but for those. When we nail down what is on the menu I get to decide how to display it and then work on marketing (I guess at the women's gyms in the area). I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm taking things one step at a time.

So there you go folks, I hope that clears up some miscommunication about me becoming a Mexican citizen (at least for now). Now it's time to find something to wear.

Love, Joy