New Job Update - One Week Yesterday

It was a week ago yesterday since I started my new job. So far it's just been mostly training... got to go solo today. As for going solo, one good thing right now is that if we question anything, we can flag it for our tainer to check it before we approve it. Whew... takes a little pressure off.

By "we" and "our" I mean Renee and I. We started together. She was in that group presentation/interview thing I had with the five other people... we both got hired, yeeeaaa! Our offices are right next door to each other... unfortunately she got the one right across the hall from the main door, so she gets that annoyance all day. It's kind of loud with the security beep, the clunk of the unlock and the bang of the door shutting. Plus her doorway is straight across from the door, so everyone walks through looking at her sitting at her desk... no privacy unless she kept her door shut.

My office is about three steps down from hers and I've been able to tune out the noise... I just jam to my music while doing my work. We're on the sixth floor... just wish I had a window. And I haven't figured it out yet or bothered to ask, but several times a day I feel the floor rumbling and vibrating. This is an office building... with like... concrete floors or something. So I got no idea whats going on down on the fifth floor??

It's quite a building... shnazzy building. Very artzy with shiny metal and glass. I had trouble just trying to work the elevator. The button looks like a bolt cover... very deceiving. The entryway is like a small plaza and our parking garage is on the other side of it. So it's like parking in the garage and walking across the patio to the front door. My last job, we were in a small three bedroom starter home with everyone trying to fit their cars in the drive. Most times I would park in the yard. God forbid if we had customers... they had to park wherever they could get their car.

What I love most about this job... I don't have to answer phones while trying to get all my work done. That is draining when you're trying to fill multiple positions, you know, the "wearing many hats" type of jobs or concentrating on something in particular that needs your full attention. You get burnt out and frustrated with the constant interruptions. This position is relatively stress free compared to my past jobs. It might be nice to be a little more laid back for awhile. It also gives me training in a new area to add to my resume. Broadens my future job prospects... you gotta like that!

Big News... New Job... Starts Wednesday!

Since I haven't posted in awhile... let me catch you up.  I didn't get that job I blogged about earlier... the 500 resumes, phone interview, application packet, video interview.  I was disappointed.  Anyways...

I had an interview last Monday... actually a presentation with five of us interviewees, then one-on-one interviews.  There were three men and two women.  The company is looking to hire a couple of individuals.  We were referred by a temp/staffing agency.  I called the agency Friday, but no decision had been made.

This morning I got the call... Can you start Wednesday?  Less than I was previously making, but a little more than the "I hope to make at least" figure.  And it's not way downtown Raleigh... it's in Northern Raleigh... which makes for an easier commute from how far out I am.  Just take Capital down to 540, short run to Six Forks exit, then a hop, skip, and a jump down the road.

I must admit... I immediately had a small anxiety attack.  It's been 18 months since I got laid off.  It took 15 months to get even one interview.  That does a number on you psychologically.  I feel really out of the loop professionally. Plus, it's a MUCH bigger company in a bigger city than I'm used to.  I'm not sure if I have the right wardrobe... the small companies and type of companies I've worked for had very casual dress requirements (casual/jeans/sweats/shorts).  This place is business casual... I have no idea what I'm gonna wear!

My sister Laura, my friend Danette, and I went to the "Red Lemon" (DQ) to celebrate.  Danette bought me a cone... thank you Danette.

Winter Storm

This is what it was like about 4 days ago... Missy and Simon sharing a chair on the deck.

THEN...

We had a nice little winter storm blow through last night and today.  When I got up I went out and measured the accumulation... 7" at my house.  Missy tried to go out and landed in snow about as tall as her.  Talk about an about face and back through her door.  *LOL*  Simon didn't even bother to make an attempt.  I took some pics... through my windows.

My Back Deck

The Main Road (Hwy 96)

Birdfeeders In Backyard

My Car In The Driveway

My Street (and neighbors house)

You can barely see some tracks on the road.

My Front Steps

The Subdivision Entrance From Hwy 96

Missy checking things out from her new found vantage point.

Simon decided to spend the day napping on his chair.

And a side note... It was one year ago that I got laid off, January 30th, 2009 was my last day of work.  I'm still looking... still applying... still waiting!

NC Snow Pics

Here are some pics I took the day of the snow.

Missy's First Snow - I took a handful in for her to check out.

These three pics I took when I got up for work. I was checking out the situation, trying to decide how long I should wait before venturing out into it. I have a 45 minute drive to work, thank God my boss told me not to come in.

These pics were taken later in the morning.

My bird feeders that dad put up for me.

Looking out my office window.

Breathing A Sigh Of Relief...

It's been a stressful week... I found out, as I was leaving work last Friday, that the company I work for is out of money and I wouldn't be getting paid this week. Kept me in panic mode all weekend. I had a heaviness in the center of my chest, I was breathing heavy like I was constantly out of breath. I was nauseous.

All these things that needed to be done were swirling around in my head so fast. I was in such a panic that I couldn't figure out what to do first. I ended up standing still, majorly overwhelmed. I eventually gave it over to God, because it was pretty much out of my hands, why should I be stressing this hard over something I couldn't do anything about. It's hard to do when you're in the middle of that kind of panic.

When I went to see the doctor for my radiation follow-up Tuesday, my blood pressure was 177. Not good! It's never been that high.

I'm happy to report that last night before I left I was informed that we were getting some money from the investors. So I will get paid... might be a few days later, but I will get paid. Whew! Thank you, Lord.

Week Update

Let's see... went back to work Monday. Dead tired! About 2 AM Sunday night/actually Monday morning, I guess Jackie Cat (Jackson) attempted to jump from the counter to the top of the refrigerator to get on top of the cupboards to hide or get away from Missy Bug. What exactly happened and why... who knows for sure! All I do know that I was in bed and heard a horrendous crash. Not something where you roll over saying, "I'll see what it was in the morning." Kind of like when I hear Jack throwing up in the middle of the night, I'm not jumping out of bed to clean it up, it'll be there in the morning. Just make a mental note to watch where I walk when I do get up!

This was big-crash-need-to-check-out-NOW noise! I didn't see anything in the livingroom, or the spare bedrooms, but as I come back out through the little hall... I see stuff all over the kitchen floor. And Jack barely able to walk. I whisked him up and and laid him on the bed; gently started pressing around his leg and foot. He was making alot of noise, I knew he was in some pain. Jack has had bad injuries before but never growled at me. I was afraid he may have broken something. His leg felt like knotted muscles or something. I thought maybe torn muscle or charlie horse... you know, panicky thoughts when an animal gets injured in the middle of the night. No one to call, unless of course, you feel it is a very real medical emergency and call the vet for an outrageously high-priced emergency room visit.

Well, I attempted to put ice on it... but my ice bag was old and sprung a pretty big leak. I tried draining the water out and just put the bag of ice on it - lightly. He was having nothing to do with that. So I gave him half a diazepam then just held and petted him. Gave him a back and shoulder rub. I heard that purring causes some chemical stuff to release in their brains helping to soothe them and dull pain or discomfort. (Never assume that a purring cat is happy, he may be injured, nervous, or scared.) After about an hour and a half, we finally got to sleep.

In the morning he seemed a little better. He was limping pretty good but was walking. When I got home he was sleeping on my bed, which is pretty much where he's stayed for several days. He's much better now, slightly limping if he over exerts.

Now Missy Bug... when I came home Monday night, she was back to her rip-tearing self.

Tuesday afternoon I received a call from my radiation doctor's office. I had an appointment for this coming Monday. They needed to reschedule it because my doctor was in an accident over the holidays. He was hit buy a transit bus. I guess they were unsure about his condition there for awhile. He is doing better now, out of the woods, but he will not be able to come back to work for a few months. They had to reschedule me with another doctor. Totally blew me away. How awful for him... and his family.

On Wednesday the office had, much to my surprise, a belated birthday lunch for me. Wanda ran around getting everything. She stopped at Olive Garden and picked up a big salad, dressing, and garlic breadsticks; Food Lion, I believe, for one of those roasted chickens and some drinks. She picked up plates, silverware, cups, a tray of dessert cakes. My oh my! It was really nice.

Last night... really funny. Ever have a burp pop out, literally out of nowhere, leaving you thinking, "Where the heck did that come from? Excuuuse me!" Well I had an explosive loud one burst out last night... Missy hit the floor, honest-to-God, she's laying flat, hugging the floor, ears back, looking around for the attacker. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing.

While I was sorting dirty laundry, she was diving, jumping, and snagging everything I threw. I toss a sock over to the white pile and she would come flying through the air arms flailing to snag it. Pants, shirts, bath towels... she goes after it all. I even have to fight her off to get dressed. Do you know how hard it is to get your pants on when you have a cat hanging onto the other end of them? I now sit down to put them on so I don't lose my balance and fall. She is definitely entertainment. I told my mom she's like having a puppy.

This morning I saw something laying on the floor at the foot of my bed. I'm thinking, "What the heck is that?" When I pick it up... it's a chunk of ceiling! My heart jumps, I start running around to see where my ceiling was falling in. We just had some bad storms go through the area. Then I realize, the flat edge has popcorn stuff on it. I had my ceilings scraped before I bought it. It was a chunk from when they did the repairs. She must have found it somewhere... probably on top of the cupboards. A good-morning jump start for the heart! LOL

And Simon is finally letting me pick him up freely. I even turned him over on his back to inspect the bottom of his paws. Whoohoo! Breakthrough.

Radiation Update 2

I have one more radiation treatment to go... it was supposed to be Monday morning, but they told me I could come Sunday morning instead. I really don't care to get up that early Sunday morning but for a chance to NOT have to drive down with the crazy Monday morning commuters... I couldn't pass it up. ~~rant warning~~ [We have had wet foggy mornings most of this week... I am appalled at the number of drivers that don't have their lights on! ID10Ts! I wish I could have a license to go around and bop them over the head with a big stick! Or smack them on the forehead like those V8 commercials. Maybe it would knock some sense into them! No wonder there were so many accidents. I-D-I-O-T-S!!]

Great suprise! My dad works out of state, so he's only in town for an extended weekend every few weeks; upon occasion, months. He just came in for the Christmas break, he's going to go down with me and then we're going out for breakfast. Yeaaa! That'll be nice.

Another great surprise... I didn't burn from the radiation like they thought I would. I must be one tough bird! LOL

I was told that the radiation would continue to work (stay in my body) for 10 days to 2 weeks. I have a follow-up appointment on January 12th. If the lump still hasn't completely gone away, they will possibly cut the rest out. They can't radiate it anymore; at this time, I have had the limit that can be done safely. I do have my qualms about cutting... I have heard too many people say that once you start cutting, it starts spreading. My doctor said it was nonsense... I'm still not so sure. I gotta tell ya... I am really concerned about it.

It looks like I will be getting some time off from work this Christmas. In the past, we try to wrap everything up and shut down for two weeks between Christmas and New Years. This year it looks to be from December 24th thru January 4th. We have a couple of late closings we couldn't get in this week, so there's one Monday and one Tuesday. May have one or two closings the following week, so I may have to come in for those... won't have to make a day of it, just an hour or two. It will suck to drive for 45 minutes for an hour or two... but these are the adjustments we must make. They don't have to close the office down and I would have to work that whole week. So I'm willing to make those adjustments for 12 days off (w/ pay) with a minor hiccup or two. I'm grateful to have that time off and I'm grateful I haven't gotten laid off... not yet anyways. LOL

I finally broke down...

Ok Laura, I finally broke down and bought a bra... since I received a $25.00 off coupon in my email, I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Don't want to be at work and have it bust wide open... that wouldn't be a pretty sight!

I just got done eating peanut butter & jelly on toast for lunch. I was gonna go to Subway and get a sub, but decided at this point I needed the bra more. The phones are barely ringing and our heat is out, so Ron and I are sitting here in the quiet and COLD. If the HVAC company doesn't get here soon, we're going to close up early. According to my little digital temperature thingy... it's 66 degrees in here; cool yes, but not as bad as expected. Not much lower than I've been keeping it at home to keep the electric bill down.

Had my radiation session this morning. Hit an unexpected traffic jam just before Crabtree Valley Mall, made me 8 minutes late for my appointment. But I did get a nice surprise this morning. The technician I had last spring was there this morning... Matt. He's such a sweet personable guy. I wondered where he was last week and thought maybe he had changed schedules or something. Matt & Martha... great people! They make the horrid trip down worthwhile.

Well, must get back to work. Oooo... tonight it's my 'Get LOST Again' night. Four hours of LOST on SciFi channel.

It Figures...

Right now I'm eating lunch at work...

Yesterday was my boss's (and owner of the company) birthday, he took the day off, but, as he was going out the door Monday, said he was going to be back in Wednesday. So the birthday lunch party we were planning would be postponed 'til then.

I had my nephew's birthday party last night and didn't get out of there until after 8 pm. I had to stop at the store to pick a few things up, then get things ready for the lunch. I had to get the meatballs & sausage done, doctor the tomato sauce, put together a salad, and make the dressing, and get it all packaged for travel. It was a late night, needless to say.

The Menu:
- Meatballs & Italian Sausage in tomato sauce (w/my home grown & dried basil)
- Ceasar/Spinach Salad (w/homemade ceasar dressing)
- Italian Bread
- Baked Potato Salad (compliments of my mom & sister)
- Cake

I got to work today and got the crockpot of meat heating up, was waiting until just before lunch to put the salad together (it's sooo much better fresh). Then I got a call from Ron, the Sales Manager, he was calling off sick. Good grief!

It was nearing lunch and still no David... I had an excuse to call him, so I thought I'd casually ask when he thought he'd be in. Got voicemail. I left him a message asking him a work question and then bluntly asked if he was going to be in anytime soon because I had brought lunch in, had expected him to be in by now, and lunch is ready. I soon received a call back... He had told Ron yesterday that he probably wouldn't be in today, if he did make it in, it wouldn't be until late afternoon. He was currently on his way to a lunch meeting. Ron never told me. It figures... so I told him there should be leftovers for tomorrow! We three girls ate without them!

It is terrific, if I do say so myself!

We did save the cake for tomorrow, we aren't heartless.