Two Down - Many To Go!

I have worked two shows now - and this last show was a little more of a learning curve. I have learned more of "what not to do" and some things we might want to try for our other shows. One thing is the receptions - those were a hit. At those, I have learned that when the sponsors of the reception are from a different country, and drinking is the thing to do - "no thank you" is an insult. When they give you a drink, you drink and act like you can't wait for the next. I am just lucky that I had a friend there I could go up to and politely say "I'm a goner" and they will make sure I get back okay. I have also learned to write down your hotel room number somewhere, so when it comes time to go night night, you know where to go. I should be sending Tony a thank you note for taking good care of me. He was my saving grace. All in all everything went well, but I am exhausted!

Now I have a friend here for the night from NC. Her and her boyfriend. I like her boyfriend - very nice guy. He fits right in and is very polite! So I am off to be a good host - and not fall asleep!!

Dear Willie

Apparently this is the only way to for you to read this. If you are going to post, you have to know that your friend will want to respond. Notice how I said friends – that means we care, we love you. We have been apart of each others lives now for at least 5 years, some longer than others. That means no second guessing if we like you. Willie, if we take the time to talk to you, get to know you, hang out with you – that means you are liked. And what the hell do you care anyway? Do you like yourself? That is where you need to start.

Yes, your grandfather was a significant person in your life, and when he passed, it was an extremely difficult time for you. But you know what, he is still alive in your heart, and he always will be. You have all these reminders of him everywhere you go. Use that to your expense. Instead of wallowing, and missing him tremendously, continue to make him proud. He is still watching you, you just can’t see him. Your grandfather wants to see you use your talents to the fullest, not watch you sit on your loral’s and complain about it. Willie – get up, get out there and show yourself what you got, because Willie, you have a lot to give. (You don’t have to show us, we know, we are just waiting for you to figure it out!) Now it is up to you to prove it to yourself to do it.

And Willie, one more thing. The answer isn’t in drugs and alcohol or smoking for that matter, it is in you. And if you need a shoulder to lean on, man you have plenty of those! Don’t doubt that. You have a roommate who will be there to listen. Now he might be strong with advice, but listen – he is a pretty smart guy and it may help. You have Sean and Christine – both very smart people who care and will also give you good advice. And you know you will always have me. If you need another night, staying up chatting all night – count me in. Those are the best times – when friends are there for one another.

Slacker

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday!! I wish I was there to celebrate with you!

Okay, so I love my job, we all know that, I have said it about 10,000 times. And I do, I love my job. I enjoy the people I have met and the whole shebang. But as you can probably see coming – today has sucked. My day was going well, it is Friday – can’t get off to a better start to a day of work! Seriously, how can you not smile on a Friday? Well the day got worse and worse and worse. I have spent most of my day helping a very nice co-worker with something she doesn’t know how to do. And instead of taking the time, that we both don’t have, to show her how to do it, I did it for her. And I will show her how to do it when we have the time to spend on it. Now this other co-worker of mine, lets call him slacker, talks on his cell phone all day with his wife, family members, and friends. He is supposed to be our top sales person in our division, but you wouldn’t think so if you saw his work habits. Now he and I have our tiffs, and we can really work extremely well together. Well today, he has really done it. He has made me madder than ever before. I can almost say that our trust is gone.

So Slacker went to my boss and told him that he didn’t have time to do his own admin work. Now we all do our own admin work – that is part of the job. So my boss calls our division into a meeting to discuss Slacker, and how he doesn’t have time for this and we need to work together. Well the other person on our team has a show in three weeks – so she doesn’t have the time. Well Slacker got it all pinned down on me. So maybe a half hour after the meeting – does he not call me and ask me to update the verbage on his power point presentation and tell me he wants it in an hour. So I told him to do it himself!!!! My boss and I will be having a conversation. I do not have the time to do his “grunt” work just because he doesn’t want to. I will be a team player – but not when you go behind my back and get try to get me stuck with all your crap. I have my own crap to do!

HELP!

Okay, I need some help. Don't worry - not bad.
So my phone rang tonight, and I go to see who it is...it's Tim. Tim is a guy I went to college with, barely knew him in college - we just rememebered eachother, and I worked with him at Wegmans. So I see his name on the ID, and I answer. Now I haven't talked to tim in a couple months. When mike and I broke up, he was just starting to date someone - needless to say, we haven't talked since. Anywho, we are talking and he was saying it has been a while. Now when I first started my "new" job, he came over and I cooked him dinner because he was helping me out with the DVD project I had. (yes this ties in) So Tim was telling me it was so nice of me to make him dinner, and that he would like to hang out again. So he asked what I was doing this weekend, and just so happens, I am doing nothing. Somehow, we are going to dinner Saturday night before we go out with a bunch of Wegmans people. Now I am a bit confused. Now besides the fact that I don't have the money to go out in DC, I am confused as to why we are going to dinner and why he brought up me making him dinner while asking me to join in for the night. Plus he told me, I always look good when we go out. I am all over the place, but this call was random, and now saturday is random, and I am lost. someone help!

It is 5:30 yet???

I have been sitting here, staring at my computer all day. I don’t think I can do it any more. My eyes are so tired. I am supposed to get 50 formal letters of invitation out today. It is now about 4:00 and I have gotten 10 out. They take a little longer than you would think. Plus this morning I got stuck doing a bunch of other things. Tomorrow should go better. Someone, just please remind me to wear my glasses!

Besides work, things are going well. Bart is doing well. He has his own towel in the bathroom – he tends to get in the shower, then at night it is from a squirt gun! He is getting bigger, but he is still pretty cute.

This past weekend, I went to an UVa game in Charlottesville. That was fun. It wasn’t a Purdue game – but it was still fun. We did a little tailgating – which is always a blast. Had a couple cheesy burgers, a braut and a few beers. The weather was beautiful – perfect day for a ball game. UVa won – it came close in the end, but they pulled it off.

This weekend, relax with Bart. I have three more weekends home before I have to truck it back to good ol’ Rochester, and I am welcoming the break. I love being back there, but it is becoming a bit much. This next trip – I am not sure what to expect. It is the wedding I am maid of honor in, and there are many, many, many planned events. The closer we get to the day, the more planned events there are. I am beginning to think I won’t see anyone but the people are will be in or at the wedding. So I am considering getting a date. Yes, me take someone to the wedding. A couple weekends ago I went solo to mike’s wedding, and I hated it. It was the worst. I am trying to find Blakeslee’s number – I have seen him a couple times back home, but we keep forgetting to exchange numbers. We talk about doing it, but then things happen, and we forget. So I feel like a stalker trying to hunt him down!

Okay, enough ranting for me. Back to work. It has been whole five minute break!!

More Bart stories...

Two nights ago I am home, enjoying my time, playing with Bart. Then I had to pee - I know that is the last thing you want to hear - you'll deal. Anywho, so I had to pee. So Bart follows me in, I pee and flush. Bart was interested in the flush - he actually didn't run away this time. He slowly crawled up and was walking in circles around the toilet seat just watching. I knew right then I needed my camera - it was inevitable what was going to happen, and I had to catch it on camera. Well, after a few times circling the toilet seat, he slipped and in he went!! It was great, I had a towel ready and dried him off. Needless to say he was a bit scared, but boy did I laugh. Man, the small things just kill me!!

Every morning, Bart sits on the toilet (I keep the seat closed) while I do my make-up, and he just watches. He stays by my side. After work, I come home, and have to pee. (I know you are enjoying my pee stories!) Bart is always excited to see me every night! So I go straight to the bathroom and put the toilet seat up. Bart comes running, full speed into the bathroom and jumps up and right into the toilet!!! I was crying I was laughing so hard. He plopped right in and didn't even see it coming. Now he is a bit more careful before he jumps up on the toilet seat!

Well I am off to have beer with the girls from work!

Have a good weekend all!

Playing with the window shade strings! He is amused by pens and string! 

Bart sleeping in dad's tool box! 

Dad was babysitting Bart while mom and I went to Target. Bart was sleeping under his workbench. 

This is Bart after Dad got him out of the vent. 

Sleeping on my lap. (the camera woke him up) 

Update

Well, there has been a lot going on. First, Bart is feeling much better. I took him to the vet on Friday, and he had to go on a couple antibiotics to help his little kitty cold. Man does he hate taking his meds! After the vet, I had to pack Bart and my bags - I headed to Rochester and Bart to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend. Grandpa gets really good pics of Bart - those are his above. Needless to say, we are both happy to be home!

I was in Rochester for Mike and Kellie's wedding. It was a nice wedding, and Mike looked nice dressed as a penguin!! Although he still owes me a penguin dance. (Mary Poppin's) Now that Mike is married, things will change, and we both know it. I think it will help that I have changed jobs. I don't think I would have handled the changes well if we still worked together.

Work - work is going well. In two weeks I help out in a show, which will be fun. Derek and I are the two that get to kick back and have fun. Last show was my show, and I couldn't have the fun everyone else was having. This time - oh yea baby! I am in it to work and have fun. Derek is a good time - and since he lives in Baltimore he will know all the good places to eat and grab a beer! Other than that, work is work. Typical stuff, different day. Tonight I need to think about what I am going to say to my admin tomorrow. We are at her 45 day mark and at 90 we decide if we keep her or try again. So tomorrow is a chit-chat point. Fun times!!!

So, it is time to decorate for fall. I have been cleaning - well sean style cleaning. Picking up hear and there, and then well be the big clean job. But I was to get my fall stuff out. It isn't much, but it will be nice to have it out. I just can't wait to decorate for Christmas, jet my monkey stocking out, and now I need to get one for Bart! I love the holidays - even though they aren't like they used to be, I still love them. Although Kyle's face when he saw me on Christmas morning was priceless! This year, I am just waiting to hear what holiday I am hosting. No matter which one, it will be fun!

Okay, off to play with Bart.

Bla

Today I am just annoyed. Not sure at what - but everything is really annoying me. It is making it difficult, and I can't seem to snap out of it. I just want to go home and play with Bart. But I have to go home and pack, I don't want to go home and pack - I don't want to do anything! I am in need of a friend fix, and I don't know if this weekend will be the best weekend. Bla, who cares, I will go and return and go back to work. It is just getting old.

Phone

I was on the phone last night until about 1am last night. The night before it was 12:30. And I love my friends dearly, but I am really starting to hate the phone. But I can't not be there when they need a friend to talk to. So CP is shutting its doors with in the next year. Everyone seems to be in culture shock. Yes, they all have to find new jobs, but right now they are more in the phase "I can't believe it is actually happening." Yesterday I read a lot of the articles in the democrat and chronicle - I really shouldn't have. Some of the comments really make me made, but that goes back to CP being where you are treated like family. It is good to hear how much employees will miss the place, and how much they have enjoyed there time there! When I was there, I know we would all say that it sucks, and we hated what we did, but we all knew we loved it - or we would have left.

One more day until I truck it back to NY. I am really not looking forward to this trip like I was before. The only reason I am still going is because Mike really wants me there, so there I will be. Hopefully I will see Sean, Christine, Willie, and my brother. That will make the trip more worth while.

Well I best go get ready for work - I am being lazy, couldn't sleep - so that will make work even more difficult.

sorry - not in the best mood today.

News, news, and more news!

Today was another day, work was the same - nothing too exciting, but 5:30 hit and I was out the door. I took Bart to the vet today, got a clean bill of health, can't beat that!! However, on the way home from work, I got some unexpected news, Chase-Pitkin is closing it's doors. Now to those that don't know Chase-Pitkin (CP), that is the place I worked for 7 years. That is my "home" where I met all these amazing friends which are like family. Just think, I started to work there because my brother was there! This was something we all knew was coming, but I expected CP to last for another 5 years, not now. My heart goes out to all my friends that are still employeed by CP, they have some big changes headed there way. I know CP will offer them jobs at Wegmans, but take it from someone who knows - Wegmans is no comparison to CP. CP had the family sense to it, Wegmans lacked that family sense. CP is tools and home projects, Wegmans is food. What, are they going to ask the former lumber manager or plumbing manager if they want to work in deli?! I mean seriously, how does that compare? They have a love to tools, not meat! Anywho, that was that news. I have gotten over the shock, but the saddness is still there. Kinda odd - but CP was my Cheers! Everyone knew everyone, and I can still go back and walk in to see smiles of friends. Anywho, moving on...

I receive another call today - Josh. Josh was the bestman in my friend Renae's wedding, very funny, nice guy. Well I was very excited hear that he will be living here for 5 months! Then he asked where I live in the DC area - so I said on the Maryland side, not thinking he knew many towns. Well he went on to inform me that he will be living in Bethesda! YAY! I have a new friend living down the street from me soon! Five months is a long time, and that will give me time to start meeting new people, and he is coming at the perfect time. All the weddings will be over, and things will be settling down. Well that is all my news for today - I have one more CP call to return, then I am off to bed.

I have to say Bart is turning out to be the lucky one - he is sleeping through all the calls. There are a couple calls I just can't return yet - I just don't know what to say to some of my friends. I am just thankful I am not there and having to start over.

This is Bart, my new little kitty! 

Bart

Well now you have seen my new kitty. He and I seem to be getting along pretty well. Bart's first night here. Friday night, he slept in the kitchen and cried the whole night. On Saturday I had to be up early for the Burtonsville parade. I was there to support Habitat for Humanity. It was a great morning, and the parade went extremely well! That afternoon, I got home and took a nap with bart, but first we played a bit. I let him run all over our place so he could get to know it a bit. I am finding he likes blankets and pillows, he doesn't really care for his toys right now. After our nap, I decided to take him over to my parents house, I want Bart to adapt to where ever he is, that way we can go everywhere together. He liked playing in their kitchen, he likes to be where the people are, even though he hides from us the whole time. After a few minutes he decided it was time to see some other rooms...so I followed him to the living room. He seemed to like it behind the couch - and he was behind there for a bit, so I looked under the couch to check on him and as I do that I see his little butt go down the vent. We forgot that one vent cover was missing, and Bart found it! We spent a couple hours trying to get him out. After some time, I put tuna on my hand hoping I could grab his little body and pull him out. Well I was able to grab his little body - but there was no way I could pull him out. The vent went down about a six-eight inches and curved to go under the floor - needless to say, getting him out wasn't going to be easy. So my dad cut a hold in the vent a little farther down - trying not to scare him too much - but that didn't work. So he had to go closer to where Bart was, cut a hole in the ceiling of his workroom, find the vent, and cut a hole right near where Bart was laying. (Too small in there for him to sit/stand.) Eventually dad got Bart out. The poor thing was covered in soot and crying. So I dried his eyes, and wrapped him in a blanket, brought him home and he slept with me the whole night. It was a scarey night, but in the end, dad (to Bart- grandpa) saved my new little kitty. You can say, we all slept well after that!

Right now Bart is in my bed under all the covers happy as can be!

Motivation - Yea, not so much!

Staying motivated this week has been extremely difficult. I am not sure why, but I am still coming down from the past long, stressful weeks. I have things to do, and I am doing them, but I feel like I am not pounding them out like I could Maybe it is because I have so many hours and I don’t need to pound them out. I have all day, and if I get them all done – then what? I have already organized half of my inbox for emails. I already had things color coded, but now I have subfolders inside my folders. This way, it makes it much easier to locate an email if I need to do so.

OH! My big news for the week…and it makes me upset. I come to work on Monday to find that someone took my pen. I had Friday off, so have a good feeling who took it. But that was my pen. It was one I brought in from home because the pens her suck and don’t write. But why would someone take my good pen and not return it. If I find that pen on someone’s desk, I will be mad! I know it is just a pen, but it was my favorite pen. We had a good thing going. Now my pen goes home with me everyday, and that is just the way it will have to be I guess.

So I chose a name for my kitty. Now I just need to make sure when I get it, it is a boy. This name defiantly wouldn’t work for a girl. But I am excited! All I need to do now is get all the doll clothes I had when I was younger!! A kitty in a dress is the funniest thing. Hey dad – I guess some things will never change!

Stress Free!

Well I have been catching up on my sleep lately, and boy does it feel good. It was nice to have my first show go extremely well, then it was off to Rochester for a family wedding. Those are always fun. My cousin got married to a girl he stood me up for. He had called me a couple years ago and asked if I wanted to me him and some of his hockey friends out at a bar – now any girl in their right mind wouldn’t turn that down. So off I went to meet up with my nice cousin and his friends. We were supposed to meet at 10, around 11:30 still no sign of my cousin, so I headed to a different bar to meet up with some co-workers, and at midnight my dearest cousin called asking where I was. I informed him what bar I was at and he met up with me, come to find out he stood me up for a girl. So I asked the important questions: “Did you get her number?” and he did, so he was off the hook. And now those two love birds are married. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was full of dancing and laughter.

So now that I am home, I am enjoying my bed. We are getting along very well. My bed will call my name, and of course, I will be there. It would be rude of me to ignore it, right? But then there is Mr. Alarm. We seem to be having issues again. Mr. Alarm says it is time to get up at 6:30 or 7, I say NO. For some reason, I have been getting into hitting the snooze button. I never did that, but the last 3-4 months, the snooze button and I have become friends and have come to realize it doesn’t do you much good. You fall back to sleep, all happy and warm underneath the covers and ten minutes later you have to peal yourself off the ceiling when the alarm goes off again. Now what fun is that? Okay, so there are days I would love to live in the dream world and pretend that I don’t have to get out of bed, but reality kicks in and so does the grumpiness. Although, I am glad I am not living with Kyle and Willie – they are two peas in a pod. Their alarms can go off for ten minutes before they hear them. How do you ignore that annoying buzzing sound? Well, I am off to think more about how to get back at Mr. Alarm – there has to be a way, and I will find it!

Success

Ah, I am home - well I am really at work, but I am heading home shortly. I was great to be back in my own bed with no wake up calls set for 4:00am. Every night when I had to make that call, I just felt depressed, 4am and at the time I placed the call it was usually midnight. There was only one night I was in bed before midnight - but when you away on work - work includes dinner and drinks, or for us, drinks, dinner, and more drinks!

The show in NYC was my first show. All the stress I had going into this show was worth it, and I was fully prepared. From what I was told, this was the smoothest Maritime show my company has ever had. My boss stayed calm the whole time, and during the prep days, I was told I looked very calm - little did they know I was freaking out on the inside! But all in all, I loved it. I left to go to NYC with a sore throat and as each day went by I felt worse and worse - but I made it though with no one really knowing how bad I felt. Although I must say it is extremely difficult to stay out socializing until midnight and wake up at 4 or 4:30 the next morning to keep going when all you want is your bed. This is one of those jobs, it doesn't matter how bad your feel or how bad you hurt - you have to look your best, smile and keep on trucking, and oddly enough I like that.

On this trip, at night I would have to say I ate like a King. Man, the food was good and the cost of the dinner was never an issue. Our company covered all of our expenses, and we took it to full advantage. Saturday night, it was just me and the operations manager there to GET wine and dined by some people we work with. We went to Little Italy and ate at La Mesa which was family style eating. Man, this guy tony we were with, he wouldn't let you sit at the table unless there was wine in your glass. Well I caught on MUCH quicker than my dear friend Bernadete. I drank that wine sooooo slowly that I made the water my best friend. Everyone was toasted by me. But none the less, I ate lots and had a blast. The second night, it was five of us from my company that went to a steak house for dinner. I got wonderful french onion soup and for dinner sauted mushrooms to go along with my blue cheese steak madallions! Yea, it is safe to say I was happy. The first night of our show, my boss took about 15 of us to dinner. Well, I have never had lobster before, and there was surf-n-turf for two, so I got that with a friend. VERY GOOD! But steak wise, we all agreed the steak house we had gone to a couple night prior was better. Even at the airport last night, we had found a great pizza restaurant - so no night went with out great food!

All in all, we all worked together extremely well and it was a great, well run show!