Goodbye July

That super clever rhyme of a title just made me think that I haven’t written you any poems recently. But don’t get your hopes too high, it isn’t going to happen today either.
July has been an inspirational month for me in the world of ice cream sandwiches. It also served as a reminder than not all inspiration is good. Ginger cookies with lemon ice cream = good, chocolate chip cookies with coffee ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies with chocolate chip ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies rolled in salt with chocolate chip ice cream = I’m still believing that this had the potential of being wonderful.
At work my position is changing, unfortunately no one has clued me in to what it is changing to. I do know that I’m still the Ambassador of Goodwill. In that role I run a scholarship program for students that are serving in their communities. We are supposed to award one a month but we were on hold for 2009 and the first half of 2010 so we’re playing catch-up and in July we gave four. My boss and I screen all the applicants first and then call in the winners for interviews with some of our staff. It’s a pretty neat program and since my boss and I are very like-minded on some things we are able to help out some very cool people. I really like the interviews, they are a great way for people in the office to be exposed to those in need and many candidates have a strong Christian testimony. Another great part of my job is yesterday I re-organized my boss’s files. They are now color coordinated; I forgot how gratifying it is to organize files.
Upcoming events:
From September 4th to 20th I’ll be back in Nicaragua. I’m excited to take the time off work and to see people and things. I’m sure more details will follow about that.
Tomorrow night the Roller Derby is in Richmond. My friend Keri invited me to go with her, she probably just wants to use me for my un-fancy car and those cardio-kick boxing classes I took at Davis.
Today is casual day and afternoon snack day at work.
August plans are up in the air, maybe I’ll hear from you.

life unexpected

I, surprisingly enough, don’t have a lot to say right now. But today is the designated day to send out an update so I will fill you in on two anecdotes from my week.
On Monday I was reminded why I never want to be a homeowner. I live at my parents’ currently and I have very little home responsibility. Well my parents were gone for a few days and my dad told me to make sure I turn off the sprinklers if I was going to park in the driveway because we have well water and if it dries on your car it is a mini-disaster. Well, you see, I remembered on my way home. But then when I pulled up to the house I had to bring in the garbage cans and bring in the mail and bring in the 6 burritos that my cousin was getting rid of and I got distracted. Tuesday morning at 6:40 I heard the sprinklers outside my window so I jumped out of my bed and threw on some sandals and turned them off. They had already thoroughly drenched my car s then I had to wash off the well water with city water. I guess I am the crazy person on the block that washes her car in her pajamas before 7am.
Last week I was off work. I saw quite a few people that get this little piece of spam. You are great. Now I am back to work. Yesterday I had a meeting with one of my bosses to keep him updated on the projects we have pending. He is very intense. I’ve been working for the company for almost a year and about 3 months ago he decided we should work more together. I am pretty good now at not being caught off guard and answering him confidently. Yesterday he asked me how many people I go to church with and if I know the pastor, I stammered out some answer and most likely he now thinks I’m in a cult. He wanted to know if I wanted to head up a service project at my church based on a book he recently had me read that I enjoyed. I said I’d think about it, I didn’t want to tell him what the likelihood is of a semi-inspirational service project getting approved. To some people this paragraph will make perfect sense, and you’ll understand my predicament. Others of you will have no idea what I’m talking about and that’s OK.
Lunch is over.
What’s going on with you?

welcome to july!

I like July. Tomorrow at work we’re having a BBQ for the 4th and I’m taking next week off. Today I get to redecorate the bulletin board in the kitchen. I like doing that; it puts my years of high school leadership to good use.

June on the other hand was a little rough work-wise. I think on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning nothing goes how it is supposed to and 10 being everything going according to plan it would be about a 6. The problem with making mistakes constantly is I have to go back and fix them. Doing everything twice takes a lot more time than doing things correctly the first time. At first the mistakes really could be blamed on other people but looking back (especially the past two weeks) quite a few were completely my fault. Really I can’t blame anyone for me missing the big red warning on the Hilton website that said my credit card was about to be charged and the reservations are unchangeable. Thankfully God is gracious (and so are the people in hotel and airline customer service).

Last time I wrote about bringing in snacks to work and people not understanding the snacks were soccer mom classics. The next week there was another World Cup game (USA vs. Algeria) so I made rice krispie treats. My boss asked me what they were. I told him and his reaction very clearly gave away the fact that he had never heard of them. Actually I’d put money on the fact that he hasn’t heard of the cereal either. Another lady asked me if they were those things people make with marshmallow fluff. I guess rice krispie treat isn’t in her vocabulary either.

Other life news.

I think things are going well. My life is becoming more balanced. I enjoy doing un-work related things but they are less entertaining to write about.

The girl from work that ignored me last time I asked if she wanted to hang out after work changed her mind so we hung out on Monday and it was really good. I can add her to my list of new friends, I’m up to 4.

My lunch break is almost over I’d better be on my way.

Go Team USA

My new way to keep entertained at work is by giving rewards and treats. The rewards have the potential of costing the company a lot of money but usually people don’t participate in my challenges so they are pretty pointless.
Here are some recent ones:
I put a suggestion box in the kitchen any suggestion and I give the person a $5 gift card. Do people write down their suggestions? Rarely, mostly they just complain.
We’re thinking if switching the coffee in the kitchen, it has been a very dramatic process. Since I don’t drink coffee I told people to try my 4 samples and give feed back and they would get participation prizes. I gave $5 gift cards to each person that turned in at least one response. Only 7 people got them.
We have a new girl Kayla, with new people I like to put a fun fact and their favorite ice cream on the board in the kitchen. She told me that she is boring and couldn’t think of one. I told the office that they have until today to ask her one question each and whoever gets the most interesting response wins a $5 gift card. So far I’ve only received 4 facts and one of them is that she has “a brown dog that is kind of large.”
Today when the World Cup game (which I really have no interest in) ended at 9 I set up snacks: orange slices, Capri Suns, and Quaker granola bars. People really liked it but only about 5 people understood the correlation between the foods I brought and soccer.
I’m going to keep doing these things for the remnant (and for myself).
The other day when I was proofing BBQ invitations for my boss I caught that it asked people to bring appetizers and hors D’vours. I had to double check fist that they were in fact the same thing (I never know about rich people rules) then I told him. He and his wife both separately expressed their gratitude, maybe I’ll get a raise.
I’ve been continuing to pursue being social…
I’ve been talking on the phone more lately, and not just to my sister.
Last night I went to dinner with one of my Davis roommates she only lives an hour away and we hadn’t talked since December.
Last week I emailed this girl from work to see if she wanted to go out to coffee when we got off. She never responded.
Last Saturday I went to a wedding by myself and actually stayed for the reception. I was talking to this girl (white like me) and this black man asked if we were sisters, that is the second time that I have been asked that this month.

On hair and taxes and other things unrelated

As you may remember, a few years ago I stopped brushing/combing my hair, then some time after that I stopped conditioning too. I picked backed up the conditioner thing after a five-year hiatus because when people give me shampoo it often comes with the matching conditioner and I don’t like it when one bottle gets finished before the other. Last weekend my friend Amaris encouraged me to give the brush another chance. As I discovered my hair does look a little smoother when it gets brushed with a brush instead of my fingers. I don’t want to become vain so I wasn’t sure if actually buying one would be a good use of my money but then my aunt was just giving one away so I took it as a sign and snatched it up. Now in the past week I have used it at least three times. Literally I think that is more times than in the last probably 8 years combined. Amaris assures me that now the boys will swoon. I personally am excited that if I brush out my hair maybe I’ll find less of it on my clothes, in my car, in my sheets, etc. (it works for my dog). We’ll see how long it lasts, old habits die hard and all that.

Here is a picture of me at my friend Lora’s wedding with brushed hair.

Recently my car did not pass smog. I was quite a bit bummed but the lovely people told me about a government assistance program to subsidize the cost of smog related repairs. To qualify you either have to be poor (which I guess I’m not anymore) or have a car that they expect to fail. Me and my ‘92 Accord fell into the latter category. So thank you tax payers! I got $540 worth of repairs for $108.

And speaking of ’92 Accords, do you have one? Because I swear every person that I have driven lately either has one, or had one, or their mom has one, or their brother has one. So when I’m driving people from work that now drive 7-series BMWs I give them an opportunity to reminisce about the years they spent in a boxy Hondas. It is very equalizing.

Now some other fun facts.
-Memorial Day I was in San Diego, it was great.
-I switched up the coffee at work today, I expect there will be a strong reaction tomorrow morning.
-I’ve made a few non-related friends recently – it only took 17 months.
-Today is my oldest brother’s birthday – Happy birthday Jeremy, this is your gift.
-Is summer here? – I think it is getting closer
-I think you’re great!

Good Works

The weekend getaway was lots of fun.  We wandered around and looked at hippies, ate and solved life’s problems.  I’ve attached a picture of my view on the ride up there.

One of my bosses is really into philanthropy so I get opportunities to be into that too.  Just last week I went to a super nice wine and food festival sponsored by the Rotary club.   I went with my cousin and sister-in-law, we were way underdressed but got to eat some fancy “hamburgers” (note the attire of the man the background)

and some amazing bunt cake.

Also along with the philanthropy we got to paint doors at the San Francisco Rescue Mission.  I think about 1,000 pictures we taken so everyone will see how good we are.  On that note my doorframe got very high marks.

This weekend we’re going to feed the homeless in Oakland.  It is recommended to go to these things so that we feel good about ourselves.  Fortunately last weekend on the way to painting I read this in John 6,“Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them,  ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom I sent.’”  It is fine for me to go around doing good works but I can’t confuse that with what God is asking me to do.
D&G also recognizes my neediness, sometime soon I need to make an appointment at a day spa by my work and put it on my boss’s tab.

What’s going on contigo?

Seis de Mayo

I know some of you have been concerned that my Spanish is not being practiced in my new lifestyle.  But don’t you worry, I used it THREE times in the past week:

1) My boss’s wife called because her gardener just had a son, Mateo, she wanted to know if that had one T or two.

2) Different gardener, my dad needed help with a word, completely unrelated to gardening – no surprise there, he likes to talk to people.

3) I was inspired to throw a Cinco de Mayo party at work. I labeled all of the foods with their names in Español and English.

Speaking of Cinco de Mayo…a few weeks ago my boss asked me what the next office celebration should be and I picked Cinco de Mayo (or pretzel day).   On Friday I got the go ahead and I went ahead.  Instead of getting it catered, like every other employee would have done, I decided to cater it myself.  I think the best part of my job is no one really knows what I’m supposed to be doing so I get to make things up as I go along.  Thus the catering…much more exciting than whatever the last person at the front desk used to do.   I did a classic taco bar with this amazing vegetable tray…

I don’t think people really got it, they aren’t as clever as you.  They did really like the fiesta and the shredded sweet and spicy crock-pot chicken.  People can’t stop talking about it; it’s very awkward.

I think there will be many more of these parties to come because it was announced last week that we got our “mojo” back.  What that translates to in the chemical sales field is we just signed the biggest contract of D&G’s history. What that means for me is:

a) More mailings (I worked an hour late today compiling addresses)

b) More perks (I recently earned $25 for Starbucks and $25 for Jamba Juice)

c) More decision making (should we stick with Folgers or switch back to Starbucks in the kitchen)

Tomorrow I am going away for the night with my sister (Julie) and sister-in-law (Cristina) for the 2nd annual mothers-day-weekend-girls-trip.  My payment for catering is getting off work 3 hours early tomorrow.  Julie’s goal is to eat a lot and Cristina’s is to stay up late and watch movies.   It’s bound to be a blast even if we have no clue what there is to do in Sebastopol.  More on that next update, for now I’m going to get ready for bed.