Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Happy Springtime!

Are you enjoying spring? I love it.  It is finally warm enough to sleep with my window open – now maybe my room won’t smell like dying dog. Literally my dog is dying and I feel bad for her and let her sleep on the floor in my room she smells and likes to pace my room in the middle of the night.
Work is fine. I got a top-secret raise. It came the same paycheck as my 401k started being taken out so my take-home dropped, but that is life. I’m still waiting for my performance review but I think my job is safe.
Yesterday someone came to me because the printer was broken. I told her that since it was only 8:05 it was probably still in sleep mode. She assured me that wasn’t the problem. I walked over to it pressed the on button, and miracle of miracles it worked.
On that note I am not a very internally kind person. Some of you may not think I’m kind externally either but I try really hard to suppress outward expressions of my distain in the work place. Working with people is hard! It is amazing how quickly I get annoyed by people. It is really good I have a 40-minute commute so at least I have time to wake up before I get bombarded with conversations that I have no desire participate in. Anyways that was my venting – don’t hate me. I’m waiting for the internal transformation but am learning self-control in the meantime.
On Saturday I went shopping. I bought 9 items 5 of them were cardigans.
Saturday night I went to the drive-ins with my friend Keri. We saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Alice in Wonderland. The first one was pretty hilarious we were going to leave during Alice but we couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot. Over all, the drive-in experience was better than I was expecting. The bathrooms were closed so I had to use the port-a-potty. I just coached myself though it by reminding my self that people all over the world use grosser bathrooms that those all the time.
I’ve been watching “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Reality TV is totally addicting so I usually avoid it but this is job research. My goal is to be the receptionist on that show. Sending people in to meet with Donald Trump. Maybe God has me at D&G to prepare me for that position.
Well lunch is almost over and now it’s time to go to the store to restock my boss’s supply of Pepsi.
Love, Joy

Thursday, March 4, 2010

enjoy!

There was such friendly feedback after my last update that I’ve been inspired.
I am writing this during my lunch break at Peet’s coffee. I had big plans of going to Starbucks because it is a little closer to my work but after I ordered my hot chocolate I asked for internet access and realized it is a very complicated process. When the girl was explaining it to me I cut her off to say that all I needed was to get on my computer. I guess she had been telling me that process the whole time; something about buying a gift card and then buying 5 packs of gum and then scratching off a code and some more stuff. I cancelled my order and left, very graciously and am now sipping a kind of burnt tasting decaf latte.
Now that I only have 30 minutes left I’m going to share some highlights.
One day last week traffic was stopped on the freeway because there was a turkey in the road. I realize for those of you from the Midwest that may not seem like a huge deal but it made me smile for the rest of my commute.
Last Thursday I was throwing an after-work baby shower for a girl in the office that is going to have a baby. People were really good at giving money for the group gift but then when the day of the party came people started throwing out excuses. Here are my top 3 favorites (yes I’m being serious) – I’m getting my hair done, I’m moving my furniture, my dog might be sick. Really it was their loss because I throw an excellent baby shower.
So the girl having a baby is an Administrative Assistant (like me) so they decided that while she is on maternity leave all of her tasks can just be passed to me. We were working a few hours a day on training for her expected departure date of March 18th. Last Tuesday night her doctor put her on modified bed rest AKA go along life as normal except for going to work. The phrase that comes to mind, “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” You see the problem is I have a full time job and she had a full time job and there isn’t a whole lot of overlap. I still haven’t quite figured out A: what I’m supposed to be doing B: how I’m supposed to get it all done and C: who will be the most angry if I’m not assisting them speedily enough. The good thing is I’m learning a little more how to pray and so far this week a lot of grace has been shown.
I got an email at work yesterday that they are going to give performance reviews (not a normal practice). I don’t really know what that means because this is my first real job. I’m a little nervous, what if they tell me I need to start brushing my hair or that rain boots aren’t acceptable office footwear? I guess in theory they could critique my quality of work but they can’t be too harsh on that since I’m doing way more work than they hired me to do. And that whole dog portrait thing.
Tonight I’m flying to LA to spend some time with college roommates. I’m very excited to see them and to take tomorrow off. My boss told me that this is my last day off until Kimmi gets back from maternity leave (sometime mid-June). But mostly to see them. Maybe my next update I’ll tell you about my social life – it will be a short one.
Okey Dokey back to work I go.
What’s going on with you? And what’s the deal with retirement plans? I’m supposed to meet with our HR rep before the pay period ends to decide on a saving plan but it all sounds terrible to me.