Welcome to the workforce....again

Well, I start my new job tomorrow. While 75% of me CAN'T WAIT, the other 25% of me is a bit worried. The only reason I don't look forward to it is because of the abnormally long commute. The first few weeks are going to....well....suck. I will have to get up at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. and then won't get home until 7:30 or so. Then I will have a whopping 2 hours of ME time before I must go to bed. Blah.

(All the more reason to consume lots and lots of coffee.)

On a more positive note, once I get past the first few ugly weeks of the drive and training all day, I think I'm really going to like it. When I interviewed, it was for an in-office position doing pretty much the same thing day after day. A friend, and sorority sister from college, was going to be the one training me. Well, my interviewer had other plans for me. He asked if I would be interested in sales because I had a "sales-y" personality. (and no, he didn't mean used car sales, but a relatable and make-you-feel-at-home personality type) (at least that's what I tell myself). I told him that I'd be thrilled to get into sales for their company, if they would have me.

Fast forward a week, and he offers me a job. Not the office job (that doesn't pay great) but the sales job that I didn't even know I wanted until the interview! I gladly accepted! All logic and reason was telling me that he wouldn't offer me a sales job because he said they didn't normally hire someone without a true sales background. Then he mentioned not having any open positions for sales at this time. Then my imagination got away from me and I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, he was creating a new position for a newbie like me. That maybe he liked me enough to find a place for me instead of losing me altogether. But perhaps that was just wishful thinking...

But that's exactly what he did! He found a place for me! A position that was created with me in mind. :) And I figure, if they believe in me so much, there's no reason for me not to. I know that if I work hard, I can really kick butt!

So you are now looking at the newest member of the sales team for a Dallas-based Title company. I get a territory that hasn't been touched yet. They are also gonna give me a blackberry, laptop, car allowance, etc. And when God decides it's the right time, I will plan a move closer to work. I'm thinking that might be around April.

Hoooray!!! God is good. Now I just pray I can do this commute for several weeks until everything falls into place.

I will be tempted to do this on a daily basis...

And on warm days, maybe this will be the ticket....

And if it really does snow in Texas this week, I may get stuck in this unfortunate scenario...

But let's hope that's not the case!!!

A week of hard(ish) conversations

Remember I started that job that didn't pay well, but it was something in a time where I was desperate?

Well, my last day was Friday.

Pros:

No more waking up at 5:30

No more driving an hour in God-knows-what kind of traffic

No more wearing a suit every day

Cons:

No more paycheck (even if it was teensie weensie)

No, I didn't just up and quit. I thought long and hard about the thought of staying there. I also gained information that I wasn't given in my interview. Information that may have swayed my decision in ever starting. I was finally able to ask my questions and I got a highly disappointing answer. The day I found out that the chance of them paying what I needed was very low, I was completely bummed. Then I had to go to work every day pretending to care when, mentally, I had already checked out.

I remembered during my interview, Holly asked me to be totally honest with her. If I ever got bored, or decided it wasn't for me, to tell her and she'd be happy to find me something else. So I called her on a Thursday right at 5:00 and spilled the beans. It would have been MUCH easier to just leave and never come back and assume they understood why. But I owed it to them to tell them it wasn't where I saw myself in a few years down the road, and that it would never pay me what I needed. I have never in my life sat down a boss and told them that it wasn't going to work. That was hard convo #1.

Once the owner got wind of my leaving, he scheduled a time to sit down and talk to me. So I gave him the same info that I gave Holly. And, bless him, he didn't beg me to stay. Sometimes I get caught up or put on the spot, and I'm too nice and I'll agree to almost anything. But thankfully, he could see that I just wasn't passionate about the company. He was very gracious, and so was I. But it was still hard to look him in the eye and tell him that HIS company, his blood, sweat, and tears, wasn't my calling. That was hard convo #2.

Some other night that week, on my long drive home, I was talking to my boyfriend. He is probably almost as stressed as I am about my lengthy and painful job search. So during the conversation, we both got really stressed out and started taking it out on each other. However, we finally decided to act like adults and share our feelings - stuff we've put off saying (because at times, there is no point in bringing it up when there's no solution). He feels very out of control of the whole situation, as do I. The situation being us having been together over a year, and never having lived in the same area code. He lives in Austin and I live in DFW. Does it make us not want to be together? No. We can't imagine not being together. He said if we have to continue doing this long-distance, then he's in it for the long haul. But wouldn't it be great to not have to schedule a week in advance to see each other? Wouldn't it be amazing to just have dinner together after work? Unwind with a glass of wine together? Cuddle up and watch a movie on a rainy day? HELL YES! We want that!!! So that was hard convo #3.

Now I start from square one tomorrow. I have a list of places I want to call/email/apply. Some in Austin, some here in DFW. My boyfriend was up visiting this weekend, and we had a wonderful weekend together. It really made all the craziness fade into the background. :)

I also want to add A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful sister, CJR. She turns the big 3-0 today. I just know that this year is going to be an amazing one for her and her new life with Lobster. Love you guys!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Let's start with the bad and the ugly, shall we?

I'm STILL unemployed. It has now been a long 2 months and 6 days. I have not only called The Boss Man on an (almost) weekly basis, but I have also applied for jobs on my side of Texas and on my boyfriend's side of Texas. Yes, we have sides. I have yet to receive ONE call or email back from a real job prospect. When I say "real" it's because I have received a crapola response back from a scam artist. (Note: Never do business via e-mail with someone who claims to be in Australia, wants to have a strictly online business relationship, wants you to go purchase goodies for the orphanage he sponsors, and claimed he loved your resume when you never sent him one.)

I'm now at the point of dipping into my savings that I was saving for bigger and better things than just paying my bills, but whatever.

Enough depressing stuff. Time for the good!!

Today is my dad's birthday! Hooray! 'Tis also the month of many birthdays, including mine and my aunt's! November babies ROCK!

Another good thing: We attended another fun Halloween costume party this year, as usual. I dressed as Daisy Duke, my man was (you'll never guess) a banana. Many jokes stemmed from his random costume choice. We also had wolverine, a couple of sexy pirates, a witch, Dr. Acula, a killer bee (a big letter "B" with blood all over him), and a few other costumes I paid no attention to. All and all, it was a good time.

More good news, you say? But of course!

I played golf for my very first time on Sunday. It's quite the accomplishment. You have no idea.

My dad is an avid (and pretty much obsessive) golfer. My boyfriend loves to golf and doesn't get to do it often, so when he's in town, he tries to play golf with my dad. This time, the boys invited my mom and I to join them. "Of course we want to ride along!" I said. But what they meant was that they wanted us to PLAY along. Have they lost their marbles?

"What??!!! Oh no, you don't want that." I say.

Then I ran down a list of excuses as to why that was a huge mistake on their part:

We'll slow you down.

I may injure someone with a bad shot.

I may injure myself with a bad shot.

You guys will laugh at me.

I have nothing to wear.

I may be so talented that I embarrass the two of you.

My resistance was futile, so my mom and I ended up playing the front nine with them. It was a painfully slow front nine. I will say I had a few good shots, and a few hundred terrible shots. I am proud of myself for getting out and playing though, because it's the only way to learn. I have a feeling there will be a lot more golfing in my future and I'd like to be able to play alongside the men in my life.

Ok, time to go try to be productive. Peace out, Bloggies!

My 'Pseudo Vacation' To-Do List

For those of you who don't already know (that would be 80-87% of you), I am once again "on vacation," as my boss likes to call it. Simply put: I've been layed off again.

That's the beauty of oil and gas; work comes and work goes.

During this time, I have learned this about myself:

Week one is a swell time. I basically treat it like vacation (except I must constantly fight the urge to spend money). I scream "woo hoo!" and run to my car and make the 3.5 hour trip to see my boyfriend. Then I stay for a few days, come home, blog, scrapbook, clean stuff, watch TV, play and cuddle with my tiny dog. I stay up late just because I can and I sleep late just because I can. Week one is like my favorite icing on my favorite cupcake. Yummy.

It's week two that freaks me the hell out. Week two makes me lay awake at night and wonder how I'm going to pay for my new car. That's when I spend an hour or more per day on my laptop searching for temporary (usually low paying) jobs. Then after my job hunt, I get slightly depressed because no job ever compares. However, any job will do (for now). Then my staffing lady ignores my emails and I feel like I'm the one doing HER job and I should be making commission off my job finds!

Perhaps they are swarmed in the staffing office due to the economy and sky-high unemployment rates. I should be more understanding, right?

No! She needs to do her job. And now.

Anyhoo, the point of me venting (is that ALL I do lately?) was to make a list of all the things I'd like to get done while "on vacation"because, honestly, I need to just make the best of this time off. (And I WILL continue calling it vacation because it's my fantasy world and I call it what I want.)

Things I want to accomplish while on pseudo-vacation

1) Finish Eclipse (once and for all) and begin Breaking Dawn.

2) Have a movie marathon of some sort, either:

-Disney movie marathon

-Musical movie marathon

-I don't do scary and I don't do westerns, so what else is there? [ideas welcome here]

3) Clean out my medicine cabinet.

Expired medicine + things with no labels = bad news.

4) Run/walk more. Let me rephrase that - run more. I already walk every evening. My rear still jiggles more than I would like, but I've decided I'm not allowed to whine about it if I'm not doing everything I can.

5) Read another book. Which book is yet to be determined. (feel free to chime in with your opinions on the following):

- Time Travelers Wife (synopsis here)

- Homer's Odyssey (here)

- The Host (here)

- The Wolf in the Parlor (here)

- Outliers (here)

- Breaking the Bank (here)

- The Palace of Strange Girls (here)

- The Weight of Silence (here)

- Modoc (here)

- The Hunger Games (here)

6) Try to force myself to love yoga. Or more realistically, give yoga another shot.

7) Quickly earn $20,000 to start my own business. Oh wait...

8) Clean off my desk. I HAVE A DESK!? I thought that was just a mountain of papers, dog treats, and receipts with a computer monitor peeking out from the top. Hmph..

9) Become a Big Sister (with Big Brothers Big Sisters). I'm pretty cool, not even gonna lie about it. I'd be a good role model for a young girl. I love doing kiddy stuff. Plus, I never had a little sister to pick on. What more can you ask for?

10) Finish my scrapbook. I spent a zillion trillion dollars buying supplies for this and only have 8 pages done. Come on, woman! Find your inner Martha Stewart already!

11) I'm seriously contemplating getting my real estate license. Here's the catch: I have boatloads of time to take the courses, yet I can't spend that kind of money right now. Blah! Still, it's something I'd like to do.

Ok, that's all for now. Stay tuned for my September 'Faves and Craves' in the next few days.

Cheers!

Thoughts About March

Good morning fellow bloggers! I have nothing profound to say today, but actually have a semi working laptop and a decent wireless connection, so figured I should entertain myself.

I have decided to write on the pros and cons about March.

Pros:

1) It's FINALLY spring! (Isn't it? I'm not sure what the groundhog decided, but I have decided it is spring). Spring is my faaavorite season. Not too cold, not too hot. The fantastic spring clothing starts coming out, such as tank tops, flip flops, and bathing suits. I love that stuff. And the colors and patterns are so cute too! I love spring...

2) Back in the good ole days, March meant Spring Break. But now that I'm old and boring and responsible, I guess I don't get a spring break. Wait...this should have gone in the cons section.

3) March also means St. Patty's Day. St. Patty's Day means green beer. Need I say more?

4) Boyfriend's birthday is in March. If he would give me the slightest clue as to what he wants for his birthday, I would be a happy camper. :)

5) After a long wait, I finally get my first paycheck from my new job this month. Heck yeah! And can you guess what I could buy with this money? A cute bathing suit, green beer, and boyfriend's bday gift! Works out well doesn't it?

Cons:

1) I guess I should mention not getting Spring Break anymore. (Wahh!)

2) I was told today that March was said to be the most windy of all months. As if the daily hurricane force winds where I live isn't enough? This bugs me. It is already inevitable that when I open my car door, important paperwork gets sucked out by the vacuum suction I have unintentionally created by opening my door, then my hair gets blown into my face, blocking my vision and eliminating any chance of catching the important paperwork, now traveling away from me at 50 miles per hour. Sigh... I guess all you smart readers are going, "Freakin' secure your 'important' paperwork before opening your door in a wind tunnel, idiot!!" And I don't blame you for thinking that. But my days wouldn't be nearly as interesting if I took your advice. ;)

3) March is 9 long months away from my favorite holiday. Christmas! Ok, so that was a stretch. I felt that I needed to have just one more con. ;)

Click, click, typey, typey...

Sooo...yeah. Since I will be out of town for the next 5 days, I decided that I would post one last blog for the week. And here it goes...

I have been on my laptop all day trying to learn a thing or two about life. And my new job, of course! Things like, what is an HSA and do I neeeed one? Shall I move my 401k over to an IRA? If so, which kind? Traditional or Roth? And what is the airspeed velocity of a coconut laden swallow? (Just kidding.) But really, who understands these things? Well, apparently I'm going to have to.

So needless to say, my eyes hurt. I'm now moving on to bigger and better things, such as American Idol, which will be on in T minus 48 minutes! :)

I hope everyone has a great week!