Thursday, December 6, 2007

Coming Together

"I love it when a plan comes together..." Anyone know who said that? I'm embarrassed to say...but it was Hannibal from the TV show "The A-Team." Aw...come on! It was the 80's! How about "MacGyver?" Now that show was good! Where else could you learn to use a stick of chewing gum to hold a one ton piece of metal to a piece of wood? ;p OK, OK...back to the present!

I've been busy not working! Got lots of things finally coming together. (For those of you following the travels of my Ecuadorian Mountaineering Man...you know I've been keeping up with that too.) I think I remarked last time (or meant to) about not realizing how much time it takes to apply for a job. So, I met with some great peeps at Adecco yesterday. I had a contact person there already from when I hired a temp for Ostrich Man's office. And we got along well. We especially bonded well when his bill was not paid...surprise, surprise. Anywho...I sent her my resume and asked her what she could do for me. Filled out an online app and met with them yesterday. It was nice to finally put a face with the cool person I've been dealing with. So, I met with one of her coordinators and he already had a possible job lead for me. It's temp to hire, but hey...it's a job. Sounds like a lot of coordinating , which I feel I'm pretty good at. I might have an interview with the company next week.

I also applied for a bunch of jobs online this week. I applied to Home Depot, Costco, a telecommuting Google gig (which would be WAY cool to work from home and get paid for it!) and an English tutoring job.

Why the Depot? Welll....after I dropped Ray off at the airport, I went to Home Depot. I came up with this project for myself while he's gone. I was going to work on painting the second bath. This bathroom has wallpaper all over it...CEILING included. And it's like this blue and gold tribal lookin' stuff. ICK! But...why the CEILING?? Oh, so while I was walking around the Depot looking at paint samples, it seemed like it'd be a cool place to work. I've got a couple DIY projects under my belt. You get to wear comfortable clothes all the time. Help people find stuff for their projects...seems like fun.

The bathroom project...to remove the wallpaper or paint over it? That be the question. I hemmed and hawed, evaluated the condition of the wallpaper and decided to remove it. It's the "right" thing to do. I got out the perforator tool (damn good thing ray and i were still able to text while i was gathering supplies!), scored the wall, applied the Baracuda stuff I got at the Depot and voila...the first layer came off great! But the backing was not coming off so easy. ARGH!! I could tell this was going to just SUCK! So, after working on it for almost three hours and getting really nowhere fast, I decided to outsource. I found a guy on Craigslist. He came out to look at it Tuesday night, told me he'd charge me $100 bucks to remove it, and here he is today...removing the wallpaper! Yahoo! He had me at "100 dollars..."

I'm getting closer and closer to being rid of Ostrich Man once and for all. Although, this is AFTER having a direct deposit posted to my account and then the next day it got reversed out. What a frickin' loser! Couldn't even get his shit together enough to make sure that an ex-employee's pay wasn't paid. One last thing to be confirmed with unemployment and then I think I (we) can finally be rid of Ostrich Man. I do feel less stressed in general knowing I don't have to go to work for a completely inept person. I think this will completely go away once I have a job.

I think things are s-l-o-w-l-y coming together. I just need to breathe a bit more and not stress so much...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Lu-Zah!

Well...finally found out that Ray's company is moving forward...just NOT with me. It's very bittersweet. I wanted to know, but now that I know, I feel like a loser (and make sure you pronounce it "Lu-Zah!"). I'll still keep applying to jobs, but having an "in" really helps at a company. The recruiter is going to forward my resume onto what sounds like a pool that HR peeps can pull from. So, hopefully someone will see it and want me. Oh well...

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Waiting Game

It just hit me that the title of this blog applies to more than the one thing going on in my life right now. I originally was thinking in terms of hearing back from Ray's company. I had my second interview last Thursday and haven't heard back. Wrote an email to my recruiter last Friday, but haven't heard back from her. And to be even more of a pest, I called her this past Wednesday trying to find out status, etc. Had to leave a voice mail. :( Ray's been asking around, but hasn't heard anything except that it took someone's roommate 4 weeks before she heard anything. And with Turkey Day weekend coming up...well, it could be awhile.

So, the days are quickly ticking down to Ray's Ecuador trip. You can go to his blog to find out exactly how much time is left to go before he departs...he has a ticker on his blog. I know this is something he really wants to do and he has trained really hard for this trip, BUT...I'm still nervous about him going. But also excited for him. :) I just hope he'll be able to call or email me somehow from Ecuador. We don't know if his cell phone will work (or how much that's going to cost). Maybe I'll call T-Mobile next week to find out the deelio on that.

Hoping for my first unemployment check to arrive sometime next week. It won't be much, but at least it will be something. I don't feel like I've really been "hitting the pavement" that hard yet. I've applied for a few jobs online and will apply for more next week. And I have a contact from a temp agency that I'm going to send my resume to next week. She was really cool to work with when I got a temp in the Ostrich Man's office. Hoping she does Direct Hire, but assuming she does Temp-to-Hire. I'm sure she could hook me up with a temp job too. And...my BIL might be hookin' me up with some internet research. ;)

That's all for now...just hangin' around...waiting...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Ugh...

Maybe someone can explain to me why the last part of my last post is such a small font! I can't seem to fix it either. I've tried several times to highlight my whole posting in edit mode, change the font type and size and then re-publish. Nothing happens. Weird. Of course, if no one else is seeing what I'm seeing, then ya all think I'm just technologically challenged and losin' it.

And since I'm here, is it crazy to spend $3K on a bed? Even if it helps alleviate Ray's back pain? How nice would it be for him to wake up and not feel any pain? This bed is so comfy! It's a Tempur Pedic Celebrity Bed. It might even help with my neck pain. But I think my neck issues are due mainly to stress. I still need to order my Theracane! Have you tried this thing? OMG!! It's like having a little masseuse whenever you want it. If the bed helps with his back pain, then he can stop going to the chiropractor. He's been going for a few months now and it's not really alleviating the pain. The cool thing is that we'll have 90 days to test out the bed. If it doesn't seem to be working or we don't like it for whatever reason, we call up Sleep Train and they'll take it away. Then I guess we would go ahead and get a regular spring mattress...for a little less than $2K.

When I was coming home from the gym this morning, I saw lady waiting on the sidewalk while her dog was doing it's thang. I did NOT see a poop bag in her hand. I REALLY hope she didn't just leave her dog's crap on all up in the bushes.

And let's hear it for our neighbor's who did NOT have a loud music fest in their home last night! Whoohoo!! Gave us quite a scare when we came home at the same time they were coming home and they had a case of beer in their possession!

K...now, I think I'm done for today... :)

MIA?

K...so it's been awhile huh? Was August really the last time I blogged? I told ya I'm not so good about keeping this kind of thang updated. Wow...where to begin...

How about with Firestorm 2007? We live in Rancho Bernardo (because of the fires, peeps now know where RB is). We went to bed on Sunday night and there were two fires burning. Bummer, but I thought they'd be under control by Monday morning. The wind was SOOOO strong and gusty that Sunday night, that it kept waking us up every couple hours. Finally, at 5am I turned on the TV and there were now EIGHT wild fires going. The fire got about a mile and a half away from our condo. We were packed and ready to evacuate if need be. We were also glued to TV and watching the news. Every new street they named in RB where the fire was, we would Mapquest it to see where it was and how far away from where we were. The air was very smokey. Even with all our doors and windows shut, the smoke was getting inside our condo. At times we would wet face towels and breath through those. At one point on Monday, we had to go take care of Jane's cat since she was out of town. But in order to do that, we had to pack up the car and take our cats just in case we weren't able to get back to our place. For the same reason, we didn't want to split up. What if Ray went to take care of Jane's cat, but wasn't able to get back? Monday was the most stressful. Not really knowing what the winds were going to blow where. But we didn't really feel that our area was in too much danger. Although, in addition to watching the news, we looked out our windows often.

So...what else is going on? Oh! I know...how about me being gainfully unemployed. Yup! Got "let go" on 10/25/07...for those of you keeping track...that was the week of Firestorm 2007. There was no way I was going to work on Monday. I don't remember if my ex-boss called to tell me I didn't have to come in, or if I called him and told him I wasn't coming in. Then Tuesday, he called and told me he was going to keep the office closed and we'd try again on Wednesday. Then Wednesday came and I got a call that he was going to keep the office closed again. I was ready to go back to work, but he told me I didn't need to. Then Thursday morning, he called and told me he wanted to have a "little meeting" and asked what time I would be in. I don't know about you, but when a boss tells you that he wants to have a meeting, I get a little concerned. I didn't know what the meeting was about, but figured it was just a meeting to discuss work stuff. So, I go to the office, go into my office and notice things are looking a little bit cleaned up in my in boxes. Stuff I had IN my drawers are no longer in there, but are now out and on the shelf above my desk. Interesting. I get situated and ask if he did some house cleaning and he tells me "Kind of." So, we have our meeting and he tells me that he just doesn't know what he wants to do. Part of him feels like he wants to make a change, but part of him doesn't know if he should. We talk about his lack of communication. That I can't read his mind, yada yada. We had a pretty good honest discussion. I tell him that I am feeling frustrated because I can't do my job am not getting what I need from him. I tell him I've tried several different approaches and still not getting what I need. He tells me that he KNOWS he doesn't communicate with me, that he knows he needs to. That he knows billing is KEY and just needs to do it and give me his time so I can bill for it. Same stuff we've talked about before. So, seemed like the meeting was finished with him committing to trying harder to communicate and give me the stuff I need in order to do the billing. He leaves my office. A few minutes later he comes back in. And tells me that he has decided that he wants to make a change. That it has nothing to do with my performance (which is why I have a hard time saying I was "fired") and I didn't do anything wrong. I told him it's his company and if that's what he wants to do then that's his prerogative. But also told him that I don't think it matters WHO he has working for him, he still needs to communicate and get his billing done.

OK...so here's what sucks...on that Thursday, after we had had our first meeting, I was helping him with something at his desk and saw a message that was taken on 10/23, in someone else's writing. I asked him about and he said it was a friend of a co-worker who happened to be in the office while he was on the other line. Hmmm...that co-worker supposedly wasn't in the office that week. So, after doing some investigating on my own...I KNOW he had someone else working in there while the office was supposedly closed due to the fires. Ya know...fine, I got let go, but it's just the sleeziness of how he handled the situation. That's what bothers me the most. I shouldn't be surprised though. The way in which I was hired was handled in much the same way. However, I believe the lady I replaced could tell a change was coming. I was pretty much blind sighted. But honestly, it was the kick in the ass that I needed to get the HELL out of there. Who would want to to work for a man who is a HUGE procrastinator? And a terrible communicator? Nice guy, but really not a good business man. And not honest. How do you work for a man that you don't know if you can trust? In August, my paycheck did not get direct deposited. The company that processes his payroll had been leaving him messages for him to call back, but he was not returning their calls. Well...payday came and I did NOT get paid. I called him and asked what was going on. Got a call back that said he was going to look into it and would be in touch later that day. Never got a call back. I spent that whole weekend stressing about not getting paid. And the disrespect I was shown by him not prioritzing and taking care of it. Or at least making it a priority to make me feel at ease. It was until the next week that I actually got paid. And that was after I called Paychex to find out what needed to be done. I would take messages from design clients wanting to know the status of their remodel jobs, he did NOT return their phone calls. So, they would keep calling and I completely sympathized with them. If it were me, I would have dropped his ass from the projects and hired someone else. He told me he is a procrastinator. That even in college, a project would be due on Thursday and he would pull an all nighter to finish it. And then he would say something like "not that we're expecting you to pull an all nighter." But really, I think that is exactly what he is looking for. Someone to put up with his bullshit and not try to make his company successful and run smoothly. So, yeah...I'm a bit bitter. But it really was the jolt that I needed to find something better.

So, I've had two interviews for a job at Ray's company. The second one was just last Thursday. I'm going with the "No News is Good News" mentality as I didn't hear back from them on Thursday afternoon or Friday. I've passed my resume on to a couple people and hope I get good results from my little network. I applied for a job that Monster sent me. It's in Carlsbad. Sounds like a pretty good company to work for. They won some type of a Best Workplace award back in 2003. Also qualified for Unemployment and will hopefully get a little help from that.

Let's see...what else is new? Still not preggers...and not due to a lack of trying either! ;) We kid with each other that maybe his swimmies are old and tired and that my eggs are old and dried up. We haven't really gotten into the ovulation tests and the temperature readings yet. I have done an online ovulation calculator that predicts when I'm going to be most fertile based on the last three months of rag times. I'm more of a spontaneous kind of person and would like it to just happen. I don't want to have to chart it all out.
Ray read somewhere that if after trying for a year and no results, to go see a doc. So, while we aren't getting any younger, we still have some time. :)

Hmmm...I think that's about it for this time. I'm not MIA, just not very good about keeping my blog updated. I didn't think anyone really read it or cared what I had to say. Then there's the other side of that where I could say more and really put myself out there, but feel like I have to be careful and not say too much. It seems like a very fine line. And is probably why I don't blog as often as I could. Anyway...til next time! :)

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Changed My Mind

Ya know how in my last post I said there's nothing wrong with there being a lot of Europeans around? Well...there is when they traipse through our campsite. Not only that but WHILE we're eating dinner! WTF?! There should be a rule book handed out to people when they check in. Or better yet...something that has to be signed saying you read the rules. That way, you can't just get the stuff handed to you and never read it.
And- while I'm on this tirade...I know it would suck, but given that I can't drive to or from work without coming across some person driving with their head up their butt, I think it should be a requirement that people have to go to to traffic school once every two or three years. I just recently had to do it because I got a speeding ticket back in May. I didn't want to do it, and wasn't really happy about it while I was doing it, but I did learn a lot. It should be a requirement in order to renew your license or something.
OK...now I think I'm done...for now. ;)

Now What?

So...we're on our road trip vacation in Bryce Canyon on our way to Yellowstone. I wasn't expecting to have an internet connection until we got to Denver, but Ruby's RV Park came through with a wireless connection! I checked email, made sure we still have money in the bank...now what? Perfect time to do some bloggin'. ;)
I've never really been on a road trip vacation. Yeah, my family drove places, but not like week long road trips. I've never been to Bryce Canyon or Yellowstone. I didn't go to Yosemite til '95. So, this is all new to me. Plus doin' it in an RV...but it's beautiful here. We did a small hike today. I think it was called the Queensland Loop? Went down into a canyon. Saw some really cool crevices and other amazing natural rock erosions. Going down was easy...but ya gotta come back up. That was a good workout. :) I woke up this morning feeling like I had no energy and had a bit of a stomach ache. WOW! Ever had one of those Power Energy powders? You just add to water and drink it. That thing did wonders! Just the kick start I needed! :)
Something very interesting that we've noticed. There are a LOT of Europeans visiting here. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just interesting. It's not like the national parks are an amusement park or your typical tourist attraction. There are also a lot of Americans, but just really interesting how many Europeans are checking out our national parks. Something else...there are a TON of rental RVs! Just looking out in front of me, there are at least 3 rentals out of 10.
Well...I think it's time to go cook dinner (all this fresh air is makin' me hungry!) or take a shower (remember that good workout coming up I mentioned?).

Thursday, June 28, 2007

IS/WAS?

OK...so it's been a little over a month since we got married. That means it's been a little over a month since the missing groomsman (aka Kurtiss) didn't show up to be a groomsman. At this point, he's not missing. Now he's just dissing. Not cool.

Early on, I thought about sending him a nasty email, but what's the point? What are the chances he's really going to read it? And it's not like we don't know what happened to him. Apparently, we don't rank. Even asked him the day after our wedding, as we were heading out for our honeymoon, to call us just to let us know that he was alive. Did he call? Hellllll noooo... We found out from Gerry (thanks dude! at least he called you back...) Ya know, we accept that he's a bit spastic (aren't we all to some point?). Realize that he has a tendency to be a bit irresponsible and wild, and that's fine! Part of what we love about him. But we soooooo didn't think he would choose our wedding day (or the night before...) as the time to partake. Good thing he wasn't the best man! I seriously hope he doesn't think that by not contacting us at all that it's all going to blow over. Forgive and forget? I tink that requires some kind of an apology of some sort first? Maybe he doesn't care about his friendships, certainly makes one wonder if he was really a friend. He is/was more of a Ray friend than a Mandi friend. But we were all friends, he is/was just closer friend of Ray's than mine. So, as far as I'm concerned...this is just rude. And he's more of a WAS than an IS...

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Booted

So, I guess we got booted from Ray's fancy shmancy blogging engine that he MADE to use on GoDaddy. Apparently, they don't support some XML thang. So we've moved to Blogger. Cool. It didn't really make a huge dent in my blogging world since this is really the first blog I've done. Well- there was that one on mySpace, where I was stoked about being able to wear junior size 9! But that was just a little tiny one compared to this one.

I'm really new to this blogging thing, but already I'm already starting to feel a liberated and less bogged down. It's always helped me to write things out, but I've never been consistent with a diary or journal...so we'll see how often I blog. I think blogging will be useful since I work in a very small office setting and am usually flying solo. Unless of course you count hearing every word that comes out of the idiot next door. Of course, what better clue-in to his idiocy than the fact that he laughs his ASS off while listening to Howard Stern...every day...OH! and his damn computer speakers are set high enough for me to hear, through a wall mind you (!!), when he gets an email. Most people have little dings or something similar...not this guy. He has his email notification set to say "Me So Horny"...you know, just like those hookers in "Full Metal Jacket." I can go on about this guy, but I don't want to air it all out in my first real blog. :)

Well...now it's time to go. Gonna go shopping at Costco with my man. :) Til next time...