hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go

Despite popular opinion that my job is top secret and not keeping me busy enough, I thought I'd shed a little light on my current "occupation" and denounce any myths floating around out there. I'm in a new career field for me - purchasing. And I work for "The Winnebago". (You didn't really think I was going to really tell you where I work, did you? Silly readers!) Of course all my other careers (as varied as they've been) have had certain aspects of purchasing involved, but this time that's what I do according to title. What I really do on a daily basis is anything but purchasing.

Here's a typical day in my worklife:

7:30am - Arrive at work, log-in to desktop computer (no laptop for me this time around) and wade through the 20-40 some odd emails that have accumulated from the day before.

8:00am - After a quick scan of emails, deleting whatever I can, I launch our SAP system and check for new orders that need to be placed.

9:00am - Here's where the fun begins! Go back through the email and deal with all the "Why hasn't this puchase order (PO) been paid?" or "We received your order but need xxxx changes made before we can process it." or "I know this isn't your PO, but if you could just check the status..."

11:30am - Walk with Groove - unless he decides to have a FAW or FOF (I'll let you decide what those acronyms stand for)

12:30pm - Start the process all over until it's time to go home. Oh, and work on clearing my "opens" from prior months.

4:00pm - Get the heck out of Dodge!

Pretty glamorous, no?

So, as I mentioned the other day, my manager called me into her office shortly before quitting time last Thursday. Actually, she sent an email that said "Can we talk before you leave for the day?" Not the sort of email you want to get when you're a) a contract employee, b) just coming back from a break, and c) it's the day before your manager leaves on vacation for a week.

Well she sits two cubes down and across the aisle, so I can hear her on the phone as I'm reading the email. I email her back and tell her to let me know when she's ready. Not 2 minutes later she calls my phone. My PHONE!! Have I mentioned I'm only 2 cubes away from her!?! I answer (tentatively) and am summoned to her cube. After having a minor attack on my walk over there I park my ass in her "guest" chair and she asks "Would you be willing to take over _________?"

Have you ever had someone ask you to do something and know damn well that they aren't really asking, they're just telling you in the form of a question to make you think like it's your idea in the first place?? Um, yeah! Apparently the other part of her group, who I've had nothing to do with since starting and barely get a "hello" out of most days, is drowning (her word, not mine) and needs some help. And I'm the elected savior. Yay me! Notsomuch.

What does this mean for me? Well, it means I'll be doing a workload of at least two, if not three, people, making the same amount of money, still not getting any benefits, and wondering where my next job will be when my contract comes to an end a mere 9 months from now. Sounds appealing, doesn't it?

So this week I'm in training hell, am still taking off early on Wednesday, and have had a change in plans for the weekend. Man, I love Mondays, don't you?

Coming soon: They're back! The carnie adventure continues

someone has a crush on me

Someone has a crush on me. Hehe! I'm not sure what I did to warrant him having this crush but I like it. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside and kinda school-girlish. (And, yes, I went to a parochial school, so put that in your image maker minds! LOL)

So you probably want to know who this crush is, yes? It's none other than Neilochka at Citizen of the Month. I was just toodling through his site this morning before heading off to work and happened to notice my blog listed in his sidebar, there on the right hand side under the Blog Crush of the Day listing. There's a new blog listed there now, but I know I saw it and it put a smile on my face. And, if damned blogger hadn't been giving me fits this morning, I would have posted this then instead of now. Doesn't matter. I still know I was Neil's blog crush for a day. Yay me!

Can I just tell you how freakin happy I am that's it's Friday? Good Lord, this week's been crazy! Just little things - like almost getting run over by a semi on the Interstate, getting a migraine while driving (after almost getting run over by a semi on the Interstate), dealing with the rotten kids in the neighborhood playing ding-dong-ditch at my front door, stupid drivers that seem to think if you don't know where you're going it's okay to stop in the middle of the road to figure it out, getting called into the bosses office just before leaving to find out that your workload is increasing by half a head, and dealing with little Mr. Diarrhea of the Mouth for the past two days.

Knowing that I am someone's crush has made it all worthwhile. Peace out!

music mania

I spent a bit of time this weekend stocking up on some new music, updating my iPod, and ripping a few CDs. Picking out some new tunes was (obviously) the best part. Music is such a big part of my life. It takes top billing over teevee and movies. And most of the songs I listen to somehow intertwine themselves in my life in interesting little ways.

Have you ever thought about your life put to music? What would your soundtrack sound like? Just for fun I thought I'd go through some of my current and old faves and put together a little soundtrack of my life as it is right now. Enjoy!

tell me what you think

Sometimes I just have to jump on the bandwagon and go for a ride. First it was Snackie, then it was Sizzle. So, now I really want to see how some of you answer THE TWENTY "QUESTIONS" MEME.

Lisa is.....
Lisa needs.....
Lisa's best friend is.....
Lisa's dog is named.....
Lisa smells like.....
Lisa drives like.....
Lisa craves......
Lisa's favorite TV Show is.....
Lisa hates the actor whose name is.....
Lisa's alcoholic drink of choice is.....
Lisa's NON alcoholic drink of choice is.....
Lisa's favorite musical artist is.....
Lisa's favorite cupcake flavor is.....
Lisa's hair is.....
Lisa's celebrity crush is.....
Lisa's occupation is.....
Lisa's favorite book is.....
Lisa's favorite color is.....
Lisa hates.....
Lisa wishes.....

so, you wanna know about meme...

Freak Magnet wants to make me suffer as much as she did, so she tagged me with this little meme. Thankfully, there's no thinking required. Good thing since my brain's a little mushy today.

Anywho, the rules: You go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day) Then you write down 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and tag 5 friends.

Events
1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1987 - The Simpsons make their television debut in the short "Good Night" a segment for The Tracey Ullman Show.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murder Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, was executed in Arkansas.

Births
1946 - Tim Curry, British actor
1969 - Jesse James, Television personality, Custom motorcycle builder

Holiday
Bicycle Day.

And now to do the obligatory tag.

Liss because she loves doing these crazy things.
Stacie cuz I always tag her.
Lesley so when there's a day she's got nuthin' else to say she can just put this up.
Marni cuz she really doesn't have much time to think about what to say these days.
Kyra because after the horrible return trip she just had, she might need something to just have fun with.

brother can you spare an ice cube?

Does anyone have a couple of fans to spare? Even a few dozen bags of ice to throw in the tub would be great. We're burning up here! It's a scorching 94 today after hitting 90 yesterday and never dropping lower than the mid 60's last night. The best thing about today was going to work. Yep, bet you didn't see that one coming. They've got A/C, and lots of it. So much, in fact, that stepping outside every now and then for a smoke actually felt good, defrosting the bones for a few minutes. Coming home to a house with no A/C that only had the windows cracked all day since we can't give the creeps attempting to break in any help, notsomuch good.

Speaking of creeps, I'm confident that the attempted break-in of my front door was definitely someone up to no good. When we (my neighbor and I) changed the locks, we found damage on the door frame and weather stripping obviously made from a sharp object (like a screwdriver or something). Then last weekend, another neighbor from down the block came home from being away over the 4th and told us about thier dog sitter walking in to two young males in zipped up, hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses trying to break in thier backyard windows. She called the cops, but by the time they arrived the culprits were gone (of course!). I'm thinking it's time for a neighborhood watch program and a few lessons in target practice (HINT, HINT!!!).

On the lighter side of things, I finally got my hair cut today. After waking up from my mid-morning migraine nap on Monday I remembered I'd wanted to call and make an appointment. Lucky for me she had an opening this afternoon, which I gladly took. Nothing much different except all the dead ends and scragglies are now gone. Oh, and there's less to tie up off my neck on hot days like this. I just love the feel the first day of a haircut. My whole head feels lighter. No, it's not the air seeping out of my ears!

One last random thought since I've jumped around a lot here and am now hot and sweaty from doing so. I couldn't help myself from checking out my rating. Hehe! I am pleased to announce that I've hit the big time, baby!! This blog is Rated R.



My rating is based on the following:

• shit (9x)
• crap (3x)
• dead (2x)
• kill (1x)

So now that I'm done rambling about crap you could care less about, I'm gonna go crack another brewski to cool down before this shitty heat kills me dead. Peace out, bitches!

accident update

Thanks to those who sent prayers and positive thoughts the other night for Liss and her roommate. Here's a quick update and request for continued P&PT.

The night of the accident G was airlifted from one hospital to another in preparation for surgery. He had much internal bleeding, a broken pelvis, broken leg(s), broken thumb, but was so very fortunate to not have any head injuries and only a small scratch on his helmet. (They really do save lives!!!)

They monitored him overnight and the following day (yesterday) put a pin in his leg. He was scheduled for surgery today to try to rebuild his pelvis but he never made it to surgery due to being rushed in last night to stop the internal bleeding that seemingly was stopping the night before.

This boy is in some bad shape and can use all the P&PT he can get. And our dear, sweet Liss is a total wreck, so she can use lots of P&PT as well.

Thanks for any support you can offer.

Updated: Liss spent some time giving more of the details. You can read it here.

prayers for a friend

Our sweet friend Liss' roommate has been in an awful motorcycle accident. He's headed to surgery now and your prayers for him are much appreciated. Even moreso, your prayers for our dear friend Liss to be strong through this trying time are appreciated as well.

Liss, I love you girl! Hang in there!!!

hair days of summer

For weeks now I've had hair on the brain. Every morning when I fight with my unruly hair it reminds me it's time for a cut. Nothing drastic, just a reshaping really, getting all the old, dead ends taken off and the layers redone. My days of drastic hair changes are over. Afterall, who'd want to see a 40 year old woman with a mohawk? Hehe! I was thinking about coloring it again, but I'm pretty sure that'd be a big waste of money at this time of the year when being out in the sun naturally lightens my hair.

I know that because I've been thinking about making a hair appointment I'm more aware of conversations having to do with hair, but this past week's been ridiculous.

It started off with a conversation at work with one of the girls telling us about a coworker who commented on her haircut by saying "Oh, I see we've got a new 'guy' on the team!" Uh, yeah. WTF? She cut her hair really short. And, yes, she's a lesbian and doesn't get all foofy and shit, but c'mon. Why does our hair style make people want to say nasty things to us? Then this other coworker was telling us about the cafe manager stopping her in the hallway to tell her "Your order is taken care of and will be delivered at xx:xx time." She just looked at her and responded, "Huh? I'm not S. I'm K. S is the blonde." (which is funny because S is by no means blonde, but in comparison to K she's a little bit lighter). That of course prompted S to tell us she's really sick of her hair (the color, the length) and needs to do something different. Then A starts in with "I really need to get my hair cut! It's such a PITA, but my hubby doesn't like short hair." Okay, that one got me going. Since when do men get a freakin' say in how we keep our hair?? It's our hair, dammit, and until they start washing, styling and taking care of it for us they've got no damn say in what we do with it.

Then at the BBQ on the 4th the topic of hair came up again. The two teenaged neighbor boys (not brothers, just friends) are in some funky phase of growing their hair long. The hanging in your eyes, greasy, scraggly sort of long. One comes walking past the adults wearing a baseball cap. Apparently the parents finally said 'enough' and made him chop it off. LOL The other, well as of Thursday he was sporting a brand spanking new summer cut. You can actually see ears and eyes on him now.

Even my kiddo who fights me every time I make an appointment for him was looking at a picture taken at school last year when I'd gotten really lazy and hadn't had his hair cut in a couple months. Looks like he's got a mop on his head, literally. He say, "Mom, I hate that picture of me!" When I asked why he tells me his hair is too long. So I reminded him about the fit he pitches every time we go to get his hair cut and he says, "Yeah, I know. I just don't like going, but I like it when it's done." Kids!

And finally, of course, where is Stace today? Taking Michael to get his hair cut. Okay, let's all say it together now. Shocker! Uh, yeah.

So, I still haven't made a hair appointment. And I'm still not really sure what I'm gonna have done if I ever get off my ass to make one. But I'm sure until I do, the topic of hair will be floating into my life over and over again, cuz that's just the way it works for me. Sheesh!

wednesday wrap-up (is there even a version anymore?)

It's been ages since I've done a Wednesday Wrap-up and since today I'm off work and I've actually had time to catch up on reading and commenting on all my favorite blogs, I thought I'd do a quick wrap-up before getting my lazy butt in gear for the festivities of the afternoon.

The Birthday Circuit - Bad, I know, but I didn't even post a birthday message to my main squeeze. Happy Birthday Kiddo!! The kiddo brought in his 7th year with a birthday bash at one of the local bowling alleys. And that was just the start to almost a week of birthday celebrating. His actual birthday (the 26th - same as Dan's) was spent dining at his favorite restaurant, The Mayan, and playing with his hot new PlayStation, courtesy of his grandparents. Then last weekend was spent attending two birthday parties for friends. I swear he's got more of a social life than me!

Break-in(g) News! - I am now the proud owner of a new set of front door locks. Thanks to my awesome neighbor who came over on Sunday to help me get the crazy thing installed, I'm resting a little bit easier now. I'll always wonder who was trying to get in, for what reason, and when, but with all my neighbors on alert, the 100+ pound furry protection system I own, and the sparkling new jewels adorning my front door I'm not worrying about it. Not too much at least.

(Not) Flying Under the Radar - My second round at The Winnebago has been educational, frustrating, enjoyable, and as of Monday, rewarding. I know I haven't really talked at all about my new job, so suffice it to say I've embarked upon a new career. The world of procurement. I've done my fair share of purchasing through all my previous careers, but this has been a new game entirely for me. One thing I vowed to myself when starting this job was to maintain a certain amount of restraint. By that I mean not get in there and give more than 100% right from the start. That was a hard decision to make for me because I'm one of those people who feels that if you're not performing the best you can, then you aren't doing what you should be doing. Last time that got me nowhere fast (unless you count heading out the door 3 months before my contract was due to expire). Anyway, I've been holding back. Attempting to fly under the radar. And obviously not doing a very good job of it either. During our biweekly staff meeting on Monday afternoon I was presented with a Customer Recognition Award. Not one but three of my customers sent beaming emails to my manager about me. Ugh! I truly hate being in the spotlight, but what I hate even more is that I can't even get myself to just do what needs to be done and stop trying to fix everything that's broken. Ah well! At least I got a teeny tiny little bonus out of it.

BBQ Fever - We're off to the neighbor's for a BBQ this afternoon. No. The evil spawn won't be there. They're gone on vacation and the neighborhood's been a peaceful haven ever since. This is the party crowd getting together. Last Saturday night we sat around drinking, and talking, and drinking for hours while the kids ran around the neighborhood. All without incident. What fun! And today should be more of the same. It's gonna be damned HOT but with the help of the sprinklers and a new slip-n-slide, not to mention the A/C coursing through the neighbor's house, we shouldn't have to put up with too many sweat beads in our eyes. Now I've got to get off my ass and get my fruit platter put together, dig out my chip bowls, and get this place picked up before the good times begin. I hope all of you are off enjoying some holiday fun today!

Cheers!!