Tuesday in a Snowglobe...

So, it's Tuesday. Finished training today. I've spent the last 7 days in a classroom, being reminded why I dislike classroom education of this sort. When you have people of hugely varying learning speeds in a class, it makes for very slow going. Blech. However, it's done now. I took my assessment, and aced it, 100%. 'Course, that's much to brag about, when you consider it was open book. Would have been ridiculous, really, if I hadn't aced it.

That having been said, tomorrow I start in my real department. I'll be working in the Western region, handling calls from the West Coast, and Canada. Now why Canada is included with the West Coast, I don't know. We handle all the way over to the Atlantic Ocean side of Canada. With those snooty (and snotty) Quebecois. The plus side is that I start at 9:30a.m. Whee! No traffic, it'll be sunny when I got to work, and I get to sleep in. Down side? I work 'til 6p.m. It'll be well and truly dark by the time I get home. Ah well. I'll cope. And everyone on my team that I've met has been really nice.

Thursday I fly home for Christmas. This would be Iowa-home, where my mom and dad live. See, I have a bunch of homes. Guess it comes from moving around so much. Anyway, I'll leave work a little early on Thursday so I can make it to the airport on time. Mom and Dad will meet me in Des Moines, and Nathan and Kim (and Tucker, I believe), will meet us at Mom and Dad's, in Webster City. I'll get to go to the late Christmas Eve service, sing lots of Christmas carols, which I've missed this year. Sleep in my room, with the midnight blue walls and ceiling, the Northern and Southern lights on the walls, the stars and moon. I can't wait.

For those of you wondering about the title of this post, it started snowing on my way home. I stopped at Matt and Rachel's, so we could sign the lease for the house we're renting (it will be the house on Juniper Circle, Kim and Terror), and part way up the canyon road from Morrison, I realized I was seeing something reflected in my headlights. Lots of little somethings, to be more exact. Snow. By the time I'd gotten stuck driving 20 through Kittridge behind a Sheriff's deputy who obviously must have come up from either Texas or Florida, and gotten to town, it was snowing pretty good, and was starting to stick on the road.

Oh, and it's cold. 14 degrees when I drove through Evergreen to drop the lease off. Dunno how cold it'll get tonight.

Also got my last check from ADP today. Yeah! I'm totally done with them, except for getting my W-2s from Minneapolis and Aurora. Feels pretty good.

Hope all is well for everyone, and if I don't post before then, I wish everyone a blessed holiday season. Happy Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah!

Friday, One Week Later

To everyone who's been waiting for updates, I apologize. However, it's been a heck of a week.

I can't tell you how good it felt to walk out of ADP for the last time. Went home, and packed. Saturday, just as I was getting ready to leave for the video conference, my aunt showed up to help me pack. So, didn't make the video conference. Packed instead. Got tons done, and moved into my aunt's house. Sunday, we moved everything out of the house. Ouch. Luckily Annette and I went to the rec center after, and soaked in the hot tub. Ahhhh...

Monday, I started the new job. I have a great group of people, and I think I'm really going to enjoy this job.

However, with all of this, I haven't had consistent internet access since I moved out on Saturday. So email has been almost non-existant. Hopefully it'll be better now that I have access at work. And with any luck, we'll be moving into our house just after the first of the year. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! While I love my aunt, and I really appreciate being able to stay with her, but I don't want to stay there any longer than I have to. My uncle goes to bed at 9, and is a light sleeper. So, I have to be in my room, all ready for bed, by 9. I don't like going to bed so early!

So, just wanted to send a quick update, so everyone knows what's going on.

The Final Bell

I've survived to Friday. It's my last day at ADP. As much as I've longed for this day, for so many years, it's a little odd, finally reaching it. Kim and I used to drive home from work, groaning about work, and praying for new jobs. Now I actually have one. After today, I won't ever walk in here again.

Well, I'll walk into the building one more time; tomorrow I'll come in for the video conference. But that's it. Today, I'll turn in my badge and my car pass. I'll take down all my pictures. Toss all my tax stuff, quite happily, I might add. Delete all my email, and all my favorites. Forward stuff home, so I don't lose stuff. At at 5 o'clock, I walk out of here for the last time.

Now, before I get too giddy about all this, I still have to finish packing the house. Bedroom's done, 'though I need to haul boxes into the garage for I have room to make sure everything's done. See, at the moment, there's rather a lot of boxes in my room, and it's kinda hard to see what's what. Tonight, I'm going to work some on the kitchen, et al. that's left. Was going to do laundry last night, but Jon showed up to move his stuff out, and took the washer and dryer. So, no laundry.

I'm hoping to get on and play some WoW tonight, since I don't know how much I'll be able to play after I move in with Annette. Unless I can convince she and Steve to get DSL, they have dial-up. I'm not going to try and play an online game with a dial-up. No way! Last night, I tried, and the internet wasn't working. I'm praying it's not that the internet's been turned off, but I just don't know. So I'll try tonight.

Tomorrow, I'm sleepin' in! Might be the last time for awhile. Then I'll toddle around the house, head down for the video conference. Then back to the house to finish packing. Annette's going to come over and help. Damion wants all the boxes in the garage pre-Sunday, so it's easier to load everything. So I'll try to have that done. Don't expect it'll take very long to pack the kitchen, but I need to clean out the fridge and freezer tonight. Blech!

Likely the next time you'll hear from me, I'll be living at Annette's, with all my stuff in storage, and I'll be at a new job.

Wish me luck!

Damn Moving to the Hells!

Okay, so packing last night didn't go so well. See, most of the stuff in the basement has been in there since I moved in, due to a lack of space, and not needing whatever was down there very much. Did some sorting, and repacking, and felt like I'd accomplished quite a bit.

Last night, however, was my room. I have a very hard time packing even to go on vacation. It's that whole contingency thing. I always pack way more than I need, "just in case". Imagine trying to decide what to take when everything else is going into storage. I don't know how long I'll be at Annette's. I don't know how long it'll be before I have all my stuff again. Top it off with starting a new job, a job who's dress code is business casual, and I'm sunk.

I got most of my room done last night, in haphazard fashion. Got all the boxes out of my closet, which was a triumph. Got the rest of my books put away, including the milk crate with books I'm taking with me to Annette's. Got almost all of my clothes packed. Shirts are done, trousers are done. Haven't moved the underwear drawer yet, but it's all going into my little suitcase. The huge suitcase I took to Europe has shirts and some sweaters. The medium suitcase is trousers, jeans and skirts. I have a Rubbermaid tote full of sweaters that will come with me. I got most of my knickknacks packed. I need to finish packing the stuff on top of the credenza, clear off the top of my dresser, clear off the top of my desk, and empty the drawers. I need to do something about my shoes. Weed them out. Pack the ones that need to come with me, and box the rest.

Then I need to pack the kitchen, the bathroom (which involves putting everything in the bathroom tote, no worries), and various and sundry other id bits and odd bits. Like the computer, and all it's accoutrements. The laundry room, which just means I need to grab my detergent and Shout! dye catchers.

See, it doesn't seem like much, when I list it out. But for some reason, when packing my room, I drag my feet like crazy. I don't want to do it. That's my refuge. And I'm packing it all away. Makes me VERY uncomfortable.

So, tonight, I'll go home and finish. I hope. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking the stuff I'm keeping at Annette's, including the cat, over. That way I don't have cat underfoot while we're trying to pack the truck. Have a storage unit lined up for Saturday. Still don't know what time Damion'll be at the house with the truck. He's supposed to call me when he knows.

But at least I only have 2 days to go here at ADP, before I jump off into a new direction, at a new job, with new people and new lessons to learn. In spite of it all, I'm looking forward to it!

She's Off and Staggering!

Yesterday, I got a call from my roommate. The one who owns the house. He's concerned that he isn't hearing anything from his ex, or from the courts (mostly because he hasn't bothered to pick up his mail in a number of days). Doesn't want us to come home to find we're locked out of the house, our stuff still inside. To avoid that, he wants us all out of the house by this weekend. He's renting a truck, that I can use to move my stuff. That still means I have to have everything in boxes or bags, ready for storage, by Saturday. Last night, I packed the basement. Tonight, I'll tackle my room. Tomorrow, I'll work on the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and computer stuff. Blach.

Also called the rental office for the house we thought we were renting. See, for those of you not up on the saga, they have illegal stuff in their leases. When we alerted them to this, two weeks ago, they promised to look at it, and get back to us. Last week I called, and was informed they were really busy, and while they were willing to work with us, we needed to understand where they were coming from.

Excuse me? Your lease is illegal. Any judge is going to throw it out in court.

I called yesterday, to see if they'd worked anything out. Gee, the owner and her son are out of the office all this week. Won't be back 'til Monday. Can't I wait that long? I explained that I was supposed to be signing a lease on Wednesday, and I thought having to wait until Monday to figure the lease out was unacceptable. Then I called Matt, and let him know.

So Saturday, I'll move out of the house I've lived in for the last almost 8 months, and move into my aunt's spare room 'til we can find another place to live. Matt and Rachel are hopefully going to be looking at places this weekend. I was supposed to be doing a video conference with the crew from Minneapolis, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that, since I'll be moving.

Just feelin' kinda bummed out. Vast irritation. Ah well.

Hope everyone else is having a better time of it. My sister-in-law is getting better; she's home from the hospital, and is moving around better. I'll be home for Christmas in about 2 weeks. There are good things, they're just a little hard to find at the moment.

4 and Counting...

So, I have 4 days and counting. Still don't know if we're getting the house. Have a certified letter waiting at the post office, presumably from Damion's ex, that I don't have time to pick up. I leave the house before 7, and don't get home 'til 6. Um, last time I checked, the post office opens around 8 and closes around 5. Doesn't leave me a lot of options to get that letter. Not that I want that letter. I don't want to find myself in the middle of their dispute. Don't want to be a part. In fact, it's tempting to bust my ass this week, pack my stuff, and move as much as I can into a storage unit this weekend. Just to be gone. Just to be out of the house, and done with it. We'll see. I'm always terribly motivated first thing in the morning. This morning is worse, because I've had cookies. By the time I get home, it's a different story, 'though.

My sister-in-law, Kim, had an emergency apendectomy Sunday. She's doing better, and is home, but still very sore, and not feeling well. Mom and Dad drove up yesterday, to help.
Kind thoughts would be appreciated, as everyone's a bit crabby.

I am looking forward to talking to the Minneapolis crew this Saturday; that'll be fun! 1:45pm, Rocky Mountain Time, baby, I'll be chatting with everyone via video! YAH! I got to see Eero over Labor Day. Saw Dan and Kim at Will and Saraq's wedding. But I haven't seen anyone else, and the three of you, that was still a long time ago!

I hope everyone is doing well.

Ta Da!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed good wishes, prayers, bright energy and support during this job interview process. All your work paid off; yesterday morning, at about 8:30 a.m., I was offered a position with American President Lines, Ltd., (www.apl.com) as a Customer Service Rep.

I start on the 13th of December. I've already talked to my boss, and the one other person in my department, and let them know. I'm very excited, and tremendously relieved. I've been wanting out of here for quite awhile, and now I have that, just before my birthday!

So thank you all so much. You've helped me get through some really tough times, and all of your support and encouragement through this job search especially, are tremendously appreciated.

Stay tuned for more developments!

Interviews #2 and #3...

For those of you who've been following the interview news, I have updates. Yesterday, I got a voicemail from the lady in the HR department of the company I'd be working for, if I get the job. I couldn't answer it, because I was on the phone. When I played the voicemail, idiot of all idiots, I accidently erased the message, with her number, instead of saving. Too used to hitting 7 instead of 9 on my phone. By the time I called Jay, the guy I interviewed with on Monday, and got her number, and then got a chance to call her, she'd gone home for the day.

She called this morning, and we arranged to talk at 11:30. I actually took a lunch today, which consisted of sitting in my car, talking on the phone. Did a really brief phone interview with Ashley, which went really well. I was pleased. Called Jay, as he requested, to let him know how it had gone. Called Mom to let her know, and while I was talking to her, Ashley called back. I was expecting a call at the end of the day, or even tomorrow morning. Boy, was I wrong!

She told me she wanted me to come in for an on-site interview, which is the final stage before hiring. Told her I'd call her back. Arranged it with my co-worker that I'll come in later tomorrow (about 9), and work 'til 5, and work through lunch. I'm meeting Ashley, and the managers I'd be working with, at 7:30 a.m. Blah. But it's on the way to work, sort of. Shouldn't be a problem to make it there for an hour interview, then turn around and head for work, and make it there by 9.

I'm nervous tonight. I always do this before interviews. I'll be fine once I'm actually there, doing it. Pre-performance jitters, I guess. Doesn't help that I'm in the house alone. No one to distract me, make me talk about something else. Tora-chan is asleep on the couch, but will likely wake up when I go to bed, to demand attention. Such is the life of a cat owner. :)

So bright energy, good thoughts, prayers, luck and crossed fingers/toes are all greatly appreciated. I really want this job. Not just to get out of ADP, 'though that's really important, but also because it's a job I think I'll really enjoy.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.