Archive for the ‘Work’ Category
Saturday, May 28th, 2011
As of 6pm on 5/27 I am a free woman. The last almost three years with that company completely sucked the life out of me and now I’m doing everything I can to scrub their evil scent off of me. Unfortunately my energy bursts are limited thanks to the uber nasty cold that I picked up over the course of the past week. I’m patiently waiting for my nose to unclog itself, and the meds to kick in so that this fever can go away. It’s the worst feeling in the world to even have a fever when it’s freaking 90° outside. Hopefully something will kick in soon. I’m hoping it’s after I eat some dinner though, I don’t want to spend another night going to sleep without something to eat simply because I can’t TASTE anything right now. I HATE IT.
I spent a few hours on Thursday getting my laptop in order. I’ve got Microsoft Office Suite setup… one benefit for working where I did for the past few years is Microsoft Outlook. I know that not many people use it, but when it comes to scheduling, organizing and keeping tabs on EVERYTHING, it really is just a necessity. The customization is much nicer than Thunderbird, and I’m sorry but the options that Outlook 2007 comes with are just mind blowing. Different colors for everything, inserts up the wazoo and for some reason the line spacing on the emails is always perfect no matter what fonts you use. My default font of course is a black century gothic 10pt, it blends nicely with the logo I setup for my signature. There’s no way that I’m going back into everything without having all of my shit in order, outlook is part of that shit.
Photoshop is where my problem is, I’ve spent so damn long looking at estimating software that I’m having trouble getting myself back into the swing of things. Of course since this is a new laptop I don’t have the luxury of all of my old brushes/fonts. It’s hard to start completely fresh but it’s a “Challenge Accepted” situation at this moment in time. After a few days I’m sure I’ll be back up to speed, it’s just the ability to unlearn everything I’ve learned in the past few years to open the file deep in my brain where my ultimate creativity is.
There’s a few ways of triggering it, unfortunately it’s not going to happen overnight. I always had much, much more going on in my head when I was living down in Delaware, and with the addition of the new truck, Sean and I will be taking frequent trips down to Delaware, especially the boardwalk where all of my inspiration came from. Jersey is turning into an inspiration point for me too. I honestly don’t know why, could be all of the interesting people, cool looking diners, and the fact that every job offer I’ve been getting lately is IN Jersey. I will not be moving there, however. It would be the halfway point between my family and Sean’s, but if I go anywhere it’s out to Suffolk County. I love the Centereach/Ronkonkoma area – no idea as to why – but I will be looking into it more seriously when money gets to where it’s supposed to be.
Sean and I have been discussing financials a lot lately. We know exactly how much needs to come in, in order to handle all of the bills, and how much additional would need to come in, in order to be comfortable. It’s our ultimate goal to bring in about $6,000 a month, which is doable considering the industries we’re in, it’s just the matter of scheduling and contacts. I’m starting off small this time, I’ll start local and then work my way to the corporate accounts that I used to have. Those were the ones that paid the bills and god damn were they great to have. I thankfully have all of my old mailing lists so I can send out a blast to get the ball rolling, it should be smooth sailing from there. :crosses fingers:
In any event… I was able to locate the template I’ve been looking for and need to do some major tweaking to get it to where I want it. I’m also loading in some new aps/plugins that will make things easier for me. You can’t be a member of the DROID community and NOT utilize all of its benefits. I’m giving myself a week off from “work” and getting myself back up to speed. I’m taking it easy this weekend only due to the fact that I am nursing myself back to health at this immediate moment in time. I just popped a few more NyQuil Gelcaps, hopefully I’ll be sound asleep in the next half hour… if it actually works the way it’s supposed to.
In the meantime I’ll be watching the rest of “Scott Pilgram vs. The world” Let me tell you this movie is dumb as shit.
Technorati:
WordPress,
Work,
Krissy.nu,
Photoshop,
Microsoft Outlook,
Microsoft Office,
Templates,
Movies,
Fevers,
Cough,
Cold
Tags:Adobe, Daily, Life, Microsoft, Sick, Sitely
Posted in Boyfriend, Randomage, Work | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 13th, 2011
In just a few weeks I will be closing the book on a major part of the past 3 years of my life. Today I sat down with my manager and informed him that I will be leaving the company. I’m no longer capable of working for a company where having a conscience is considered a handicap, where employees and vendors are used up and then spit out. I’ve been blessed with friendships that I hope will last for years to come, but I can no longer physically have anything to do with the company. The corporate office can go fuck themselves as far as I care, the ladies in the east coast office… I’ll miss them deeply.
So where do I go from here? This should really be titled “Guess Who’s Back?” I’m going full force back into the world that I left so abruptly. There will be no begging for money, no bull shit internet dramas. I will be solidly working in the code/design world and am spending the evening, and the next few weeks getting myself back into the swing of things. Unfortunately the position I was previously in required the ability for me to retain as much information as humanly possible. With this, I’ve lost a lot of the key skills to be successful elsewhere. I’m doing everything I possibly can to get back into things and hope that with just a few weeks of a refresher course, and a lot of reading (HTML 5?) I’ll be able to get myself back into it with absolutely no problems at all.
This will not just be a personal domain, I will be working with sponsors and frequently updating for just about everything. Twitter will more than likely overload, projects are in the works (in my head) that have yet to be put on paper (err… Photoshop). I purchased a new laptop in September that I haven’t used more than twice. It’s fully loaded and capable of handling everything I could possibly need. I just need to get my hands on a copy of Microsoft Office Outlook. I’ve been using it for the past three years and the functionality really fits where I’m looking to go in reference to mailing lists, contact storage, calendar dates, etc. If there are two things that I picked up in the past few years it’s my love of Outlook and the ability to bite my tongue.
Obviously with my personality the ‘bite my tongue’ will go out the window the second I punch out for the last time. Thankfully I will be leaving on good terms with just about everyone, if there’s a big ‘ol fuck you coming out of my mouth it’s primarily targeted to the corporate office.
In any event, it’s going to be a few weeks but a new template is coming up (well, recycled old one that I was in love with) that will be compliant for whatever standard is the norm these days. Alternate sites (AGN Designs, Health Blog and other stuff in the works) will be popping up as well. I’ve got a lot of space just sitting here and little time to fill it up, but bet your ass I’ll get it done.
Tags:AGn Designs, AGn Solutions, General, Life, Randomage, Work
Posted in Daily, The Web, Work | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 17th, 2011
I woke up this morning in a relatively good mood. It was instantly shot to shit with bad news. An old friend of mine from high school was killed this weekend for no apparent reason whatsoever and its caught everyone off guard. I’m taken back considering he wasn’t the type to get himself involved in anything like this. He was a great guy with a very large heart and never had any trouble with anyone. Its strange to even hear that he, of all people, was taken so quickly and violently. He will certainly be missed by all.
In other news. I’m still actively searching for a new job. I’m doing as best as I can at my current one to stay on my toes and get everything done. Thankfully with a drop in inventory I’m able to keep things moving with plenty of time to spare during the day. With this I’m actuallt getting out at a reasonable hour too so that’s always an upside. I was getting sick of eating dinner after nine at night. Tonight my goal is to get out of here by six thirty (half hour late today) and then ill get some grocery shopping done so I can go home and enjoy the usual Monday night line up for cbs with the addition of a special epsidoe of jersey shore tonight. I have no idea why that stupid show is my new addiction but I’m definitely hooked and its scaring the crap out of me lol.
In any event. Almost time to punch back in from lunch. Time to suck down two cigs and get my ass back in gear.
Tags:Death, Life, TV, Work
Posted in Daily, Randomage, Work | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011
So it’s officially 2011 and so far things haven’t been too bad. I’m working very hard to get myself on track as there are a lot of things I’m interested in doing this year that require a lot of attention to detail, and stamina to get through them. I’ve actively been searching for a new job, working hard to try to get myself up to speed with the new requirements as far as web design are concerned. Over the course of the next few days it’s my goal to have a new hand-made template up, as opposed to the freebies I’ve been using for the past year. My links list is very short, so I’m also working on finding some new interesting sites to push into a regular routine as well. Another big thing for me is to throw myself fully into the paid blogging world again as I haven’t been into it for so long that my resources are limited. Once I can regain some traffic to any of my sites I’ll work on getting the financial aspect of things back on track as well.
Sean and I are doing great, we haven’t argued and are finally in the relationship we’ve both wanted for a very long time. We veered off a little and now we’re back on track and couldn’t be happier. We went away for new years weekend and enjoyed every minute of it. It made us realize how badly we need to get into a better place with our relationship and we’re both working very hard to get there. This is exactly why I’m feverishly searching for alternate income and really working on finding a better 9-5 so I can be done with the shit hole I’ve been in for the past few years. I’m actually taking a break from searching through job sites just so I can update here since I hadn’t done it in so long.
I changed back to an older theme for the time being as the Christmas season is over. I had a wonderful Christmas, Sean picked out a gorgeous necklace for me that I’m absolutely in love with, I’m also overloaded on new clothes and DVD’s, even older items that were on my amazon list for god knows how long. The biggest YAY moment for me was unpacking my new Kureg Coffee Maker, I’m head over heals in love with it as I’ve wanted it for so long! I already picked up a 24 pack of my uber favorite French Vanilla blend and can’t wait to try out all of the other ones. I’ve been addicted to flavored coffee for quite some time now, and now I have the option of doing it all from home instead of dropping money in random coffee shops around my house, and my job. It’s great for iced coffee too by the way, there’s even iced tea mixes and the lovely hot chocolate flavors which should just be a requirement considering the weather lately. Ugh, even talking about it here is making me want a large cup of coffee lol.
I’m taking even more of a break from reality by hanging out at the train station people watching. I have my netbook in my purse and thanks to our local internet carrier, wifi is pretty much free no matter where I go, the strongest feed is down at the train station for some reason, but I’m sure that has something o do with all of the metal on the ground in front of me. A few people floating around down here are amusing the living hell out of me though. I’m amazed at how dumb teenagers have become since I was one, I know my friends were stupid, don’t get me wrong – but they were never this bad. One of these pricks watches way too much jackass and is looking to see if his tongue will freeze to the tracks, or at least boasting that he’s willing to try it. The sadistic person inside of me wants to see him get his tongue stuck and run over by a train. The “mom/cop” in me wants to zap him with a tazer and watch him squirm in the grass safely away from the rails. Damn me and my caring nature, lol!
In any event, based on my little word counter I’m up in the 750 range which means I’ve been hard-core typing for a good 10-15 minutes and have no idea what my initial point was for even starting this entry.
Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season!
Tags:Blogging, Netbooks, Stupidity, Templates, Travel, Work
Posted in Boyfriend, Career, Daily, Work | 3 Comments »
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
The last couple of weeks have been a full blown roller coaster of EVERYTHING going on. I haven’t had the time to really sit down and update anything, but I’m now being forced to do it (thanks Karen) so lets get the ball rollin’.
#1 – Sean and I were able to work out everything and are back together. We spent the weekend together, just us with no friends or family around and worked out just about all of our differences. We talked about everything, got a lot off of our chests and now we’re just 100% positive and honest with each other. I can honestly say that for the first time in a few years we’re both happier than we ever could be. Right now he’s down in Jersey getting his stuff from his father’s house. We’ve gone one solid week with no arguments, major disagreements or awkward silence. Things are going to be much, much different this time around and I truly can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.
#2 – Work sucks, but what else is new there? A lot of changes have been made recently, tensions are extremely high and as usual the company has found a way to screw you out of actually enjoying a holiday with your family by making both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve a mandatory work day. I still put in for New Years Eve because Sean and I are going away for the weekend, but it’s still bull shit to have to work on Xmas eve when I worked on the freaking fourth of July. Fuck you Cali office, big ‘ol FUCK YOU!
#3 – Christmas is two weeks away and I’ve been feverishly getting everything together so that all shopping has been completed without my having to actually walk into a damn store. Unfortunately, there are just a few things you can’t find online and instances of you having to physically go somewhere to feel them out. I’m done with just about all but 3 people, I will be hitting up the stores for them when I get paid on Friday. My bank account is down to only a few hundred dollars so since bills are paid, everyone else is going to have to wait and unfortunately I’ll have to go out with the weekend before Christmas rush in just about every major store known to man lol. I know it’s going to be slim pickins but what choice do you have?
I say this just about every year but I really need to start getting all of my shopping done in August lol. They start putting the ‘winter’ stuff out in October/November, I think anytime before black Friday would be a good idea for getting all shopping done. All I know is there are going to be quite a few boxes delivered to the house over the course of the next two weeks and I need to make sure I’m staying on top of everything to insure everything ordered was received. Thankfully there are a few people I’ll be seeing after Christmas so there’s no major rush involved with getting their stuff shipped to the house, but I refuse to wrap anything the day after Christmas haha.
I wanted to have dinner at the house this year, I haven’t done it in a while and figure Christmas is the best time to get all of the Soper’s together. Sharon may be going to our cousins for dinner and coming over for dessert, I’ve decided to do it all the next day, which would free up Christmas for me to spend more time with Sean, Dad and Maureen. I do want to get together with Alicia, Dave and the baby for Christmas Eve, figure we’d go to dinner or something, but that’s something that will be worked out over the course of the next few days.
I really do want to spend time with my best friend and god daughter for Christmas, it’s the baby’s first Christmas you can’t NOT want to be there! I was there for the Christmas pictures at Sears, all of the wordrobe changes and the really crappy photographer definitely made it a long afternoon. Thanks to both me and Alicia being as creative as we are, with little help from the photographer we were able to come out with a few cute ones!
So yea, needless to say there’s A LOT going on, and today – while hanging out waiting for my aunt to come home so I can go back to my house, I was actually able to sit down for ten minutes and write up a REAL entry. There’s still stuff that I would actually like to find the time to talk about, but for today? I think we’re good hah.
Happy Holidays!
Tags:Boyfriend, Christmas, Family, Friends, Shopping, Work
Posted in Boyfriend, Family, Friends, Randomage, Work | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
I don’t like this change in weather. Its seriously got my system completely out of wack. Its hard to concentrate and stay on top of everything at work and everything outside of work is pure chaos at this moment in time. I just can’t wait for the damn weekend to start and have to wait three days to get there. So unfair!
I’m havin trouble finding another job cause trying to get onto any freelance contract these days is like pullin teeth for me being as I’ve been out of practice for so long. I don’t know what to do anymore. I just need things to start making sense again and unfortunately I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I need a major mental break. Or a really long nap!
Tags:Daily, Life, Work
Posted in Annoyed, Daily, Work | Comments Closed
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Ok. So for the past couple of weeks I’ve found myself being trucked to work by Sean on a regular almost daily basis. Business is booming for him and im standing still in my shithole job. Its to a point where job number two is more than likely going to have to happen to get anywhere close to what he’s making so were back to being equal partners again. I’ve decided to see what I can find that will keep me busy on nights and weekends and give me the ability to at least make up another five hundred or so a month as I am now in desperate need for my own transportation.
When you factor in the cost of an auto loan plus the cost of even having your foot on the ground in new york…let alone a damn insurance policy…I figure it’ll cost about five hundred a month. The loan itself would probably be in the three hundred range. Insurance is an easy one fifty thanks to two points on my license (fuck you nassau pd) and then the gas that goes into it. Im basically screwed.
So for the time being until something comes up ill be punching up my resume and floating around on freelance sites to see what I can bring in. I can’t possibly work out of the house seven days a week so an at home position will have to suffice for the time being.
With that being said- how’s the paid to post industry doing these days? I used to be able to bring in about $3g’s with no problem. Hoping to make even a percentage of that. Let me know!
Tags:Life, Money, Work
Posted in Boyfriend, Daily, Work | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
So I’ve wanted to actually post something for the past couple of days but things have been kind of hectic and I haven’t been able to sit down and accomplish anything. Since I’m on my lunch break and it’s a really nasty day outside I decided to stay at my desk and actually get it done. So yay for having a 10+ day break between things.
Since the last time I posted a few things have happened but nothing overly interesting. For the superbowl I headed down to New Jersey for the day and while the day itself was relatively enjoyable the ride home was absolute agony. For some reason, out of absolutely no where, my tooth began to bother me so much so that I wound up screaming in pain for the bulk of the ride home. I have a broken wisdom tooth on my upper right side and I believe the nerve is now exposed so it’s been causing a problem over the course of the past week or so. After over a week of dealing with it I decided to call up my dental surgeon and book an appointment to have it removed. At this point it’s causing so much of an issue, physically, that it’s not worth trying to save the tooth at all. So on Monday I’m going to leave work early and head over there to get it extracted. The upside is I’ll get a prescription of antibiotics to start clearing up the issues with another tooth. I’m going to be enrolling in EDP Dental. It’s a $99 a year policy and the two dentists that I would prefer to use are both covered under this plan. The only thing I’m trying to work out is whether or not I need to have existing dental insurance because EDP is NOT an insurance policy, it’s a discount dental plan. If I don’t need regular insurance it will certainly work out pretty well for me. My surgeon is right at the top of the list for coverage which is great considering it’s going to cost me about $700 out of pocket to get my tooth removed considering I need to be sedated and they’re going to run a full work-up of xrays as well. So that gets that accomplished.
I’ve basically already spent my tax returns even though I haven’t filed them yet. The cost for extraction is going to be covered by my father until I get my check, plus I owe him money from this weekend considering Bella had to make an emergency visit to the vet as there was A LOT of blood in her urine. She’s on a heavy dosage of antibiotics for the next couple of weeks until that’s cleared up. So figure I’m instantly handing him $1,000 when the check clears. I’ll also be using the rest to completely pay off one of my credit cards. From there I’m taking another financial route that I’m hoping is going to help me out over time. I’m pretty much done with HSBC and I’ve decided to consolidate my loan through Wachovia. I still have another $7,000 to pay off on my loan and about $2,000 for my credit card through HSBC, so I’m going to Wachovia to request a personal loan for upwords of $20,000 so I can pay off all of my debt and use the rest of the money on a car. I found a car for $11,000 with only 20k miles on it and while it’s not the Chevy Equinox that I’d absolutely love to own, it’s the 09 Chevy Cobalt, it’s close to my house, it’s got a very clean interior and absolutely no external damage. Power everything, anti-theft, the bells and whistles. Of course I would be happier if there was a sunroof but at this point, considering Sean’s car has slowly been on the verge of death for quite some time – a course of action needs to be made and damn it I’m making it.
Having to only pay the loan and car insurance (which can just fall under general liability as I won’t have a lean on the car since I’m paying cash) I should hopefully be able to save some money during the month in order to accomplish more important things in life – like attempting to ENJOY life for a change.
In two days it marks the one year anniversary of Lucy’s death and I have to say that the past year has not been a good one – AT ALL. I miss her terribly and still haven’t fully dealt with it considering the series of events that happened around the same time of her passing. I don’t know if I’m now rebelling against everything but I’m taking the bull by the horns and changing my life for my better. Having to deal with all of the issues going on with school has pissed me off on a daily basis, but I’m going to do everything I can in order to get that taken care of. Once I enroll in school I’ll hope that financial aid and student loans will assist me in working towards the degree that I deserve. Being in the design industry for the past 12 years has taught me alot about running my business and the overall wants and needs of people. While I haven’t actively been into it for quite some time, due to my work schedule, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have the drive. I want to say that Lucy is the one giving me this determination. She was always my muse in life, and the fighting force behind my straight-forward way of living. I believe that she’s giving me the drive and determination to reassure me that she’s still around and will help me in death the way she helped me in life.
I do believe in ghosts, and I also believe in angels. When it comes to her there is no difference between the two.
Tags:Cars, Lucy Ann, Money, School, Work
Posted in Annoyed, Daily, School, Work | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The past few days have been interesting but in the same thought… there’s really nothing new going on. On Monday the other dispatcher that we recently hired needed to quit during her lunch break because she has personal matters going on, but it kind of left us high and dry. Then yesterday one of our inputters looked at my supervisor and said “Yea, I guess I’m done here, I found another job”. I’m more amused with how he put it than anything. Who seriously says “I guess I’m done here” that isn’t a super hero lol.
On the drive to work yesterday I wound up getting pulled over. It was entirely my fault but at the same time it still sucked major ass. I was clocked doing 55 in a 40 and typically when I’m on that road I tend to do 50 with the rest of the flow of traffic but this guy singled me out and that just wasn’t very nice of him. The ticket is for $175 which is bogus but the issue of having points on my liscense just bothers the absolute shit out of me. I’m sure I’ll get over it, I have to pay for it either way because it’s not worth arguing it – by any means.
I’m waiting on my stuff to come in from Amazon and DecalGirl so I can start to deocrate my new laptop. The plain black is kind of boring and I’ve made it a point to keep the protective plastic on it just so I don’t have to ever worry about it getting scratched up. I do know that the nylon case that I ordered was shipped out yesterday so at least I’ll have a safer place to keep it. For now I’m using a sleeve from a purse that I purchased from target, it’s for 15″ laptops but it’s holding the mini with no major issues. I just want to be sure it’s property protected considering I intend to use it for as long as humanly possible.
I did also order myself an old school backpack. With the way my back has been treating me lately it was time for me to get rid of my bulky purse and just deal with the one bag to cover everything where it isn’t so much of a strain. I’ll then downgrade myself to a much smaller bag on the weekends just so I don’t have to truck my laptop around everywhere.
So yea – that’s pretty much all that’s going on right now. I’m honestly not even in the mood to blog but I’m trying to get myself back into the habit of writing up regular entries just so I can get back into floating around the web.
Tags:Accessories, Computers, Daily, Shopping, Work
Posted in Daily, Randomage, Work | 4 Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
It’s been a pretty productive evening for me. I’ve just ordered two skins from DecalGirl.com, one for my new laptop and the other for my iPod. I picked up the “Drama” skin for my laptop and “Her Abstraction” for the iPod. I also did some shopping on Amazon and picked up a new protective sleeve for the laptop as well. My laptop bag is WAY too big and I wanted to be sure that this new computer has absolutely no dents, dings, scratches or smudges.
Yes, I’m one of those anal retentive people that likes to keep everything nice and clean. Granted, you couldn’t really tell that by looking at my room right now but it’s hard to keep things in ship-shape condition when you have two people living in a small room. It’s been my goal, for quite some time, to get myself motivated enough to do some cleaning but that just never seems to happen for me. It’s really just the matter of straightening everything up, it’s just a lot to organize and I don’t personally own enough containers and a label maker in order to get the job done to the degree I’m interested in.
I called my old high school today to request my transcripts so I could get things squared away with Phoenix, since I waited 8 years to get back into school they’ve had to go to the archives. The lady I’ve been speaking with is very helpful and seems happy to help as well. Hopefully this will get me back on track considering the hiccup I’ve had to deal with over the course of the past couple of weeks.
FYI to anyone even remotely considering picking up ANY kind of degree from Stratford Career Institute (scitraining.org) or Penn Foster (pennfoster.edu). These are both BULL SHIT schools and any degree that they provide to you can not be used to further your education ANYWHERE ELSE. Prime example – My sister recieved her high school diploma from Penn Foster and while they claim to offer associates degrees after high school, their diploma is not valid to ANY OTHER SCHOOL ON THE PLANET EXCEPT FOR PENN FOSTER! The exact same thing is going on with my diploma AND certifications recieved from Stratford. So I’m trying to get everything squared away with my physical high school here in town to see what I can do to get the transcripts and call it a day. I may wind up having to go back to complete like one course but for the most part I don’t see that as being much of a problem at all considering I’m motivated as all holy hell to have that Bachelors.
In any event, it’s getting to be that time when I’m sick of looking at a monitor considering I’ve been looking at a computer since 9:30 this morning at work. I also have to consider that this one is much smaller than the one I get to use at work (20+ inch wide screen set on the maximum resolution available), needless to say my eyes are SPENT.
Tags:Amazon, DecalGirl.com, HP Mini, Scams, School
Posted in Daily, School, Work | Comments Closed
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Ok, so I’m 13 days late in wishing everyone a Happy New Year but that’s also based on the fact that I really don’t get to spend much time in front of the computer for personal things anymore. I just pulled my laptop out of the closet today because I had to take two days off from work and I decided to help out the girls considering my department gets pretty backed up during the day, it’s even worse when we’re down a person so I logged in and assigned some claims so everyone could at least get out of there close to on-time. Oddly enough it worked out pretty well. If we could only figure out a way to do it when all three of us our there it would be a pretty cool deal hah.
So yea, this year hasn’t really gone too well but I’ve pretty much been under the weather since it started so of course I can’t say that there’s anything interesting going on. I’m waiting very patiently for my paycheck on Friday so I can punch all of the numbers into the FAFSA website and hopefully get a decent amount of coverage so I can get myself back into school. The University of Phoenix is pretty expensive so I really have to figure out how to get myself fully covered so I can complete a Bachelors degree. If I really wanted to stretch a penny I’d figure out a way to get my Masters but for now the Bachelors will suffice. I know I’ve been talking about going back to school for a very long time but I’m finally able to do it without having to worry about being under my fathers income. Essentially.. waiting until you’re 25 is a good thing when it comes to trying to get as much help as you can. It also mentally prepaired me to learn how to buckle down and get myself organized.
I’m working some pretty long hours lately, it’s not working out too well for me (mental health wise) but at least the overtime is paying the bills. It sucks that I’m averaging over 20 hours of overtime each paycheck but I’m also working six days a week and typically doing 10-11 hour days from Mon-Fri, that’s more than enough to say “I no longer have a social life”. Granted, my social life kind of died off when Lucy passed away last year but I’ve been making up for it by surrounding myself with people who are actually worth an ounce of my time and writing off the ones who aren’t. It may sound cruel but it’s just the way life goes. I know what I need and what I don’t need and having enough strength within myself to cut any ties with the people who just weren’t really worth it to begin with is more than enough of a reason for me to do what I need to do to get by. I’m lucky enough to be graced with the good people instead of the bad and that certainly works for me!
Sean and I are doing OK – yes, we’re still together. We had a bit of a rocky-point last year but I want to assume that everyone was smacked in the face with their mistakes. In July it’ll be four years, and while I know that’s still six months away, it’s still a shock that I’ve been able to stay with the same person for as long as I have. With him it’s really not an issue though. We get along, we’re living in a semi-tight bedroom but we manage to make due. Financial matters have kept us from getting a bigger place but for the time being we’re content with what we have. It gets a little stuffy when you throw Bella into the mix (who’s also doing very well now that the Tumor has been removed from her stomach) but we make due and that’s all that matters.
I’ve been home for the past two days and the only thing I’ve managed to accomplish is the laundry. I know I’m sick and should really just be resting but I hate just laying down and doing nothing, I need to do SOMETHING productive or I wind up going crazy. It was my ultimate goal to just clean up the bedroom today and that just didn’t happen. Maybe when I’m done here I’ll just get up for the sake of organizing a few things to make me feel better about the mess in here. I desperately need to organize my closet, it’s a terrible mess right now. Instead of hanging things up I tend to just fold them and stack them. I’ve had to keep shifting the stack around so I can get to the clothes that I’m wearing that day. It’s been pretty annoying.
As far as “resolutions” are concerned, it’s my ultimate goal to get myself back into school and finish what I’ve started. It’s also my goal within the next six months to come up with enough money for the down payment on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox because that has been my final choice in a new car and the one I know I’ll stick with. I bounced around for a little while but after reading the reviews, doing the research and really just learning everything I can about the Equinox, the 2010 is the most well designed and fuel efficient model that they have. The older models had a lot of design flaws, one of which I saw as a safety issue and the gas mileage just wasn’t worth the price tag. Everything that’s offered with them now is everything I could ever need and I know that I’ll have it for at least 10-15 years so it’ll certainly hold up well for me.
So yea, School, Car, find a better job that pays at least double what I’m making and it’ll wind up being a good year for me. I just need to keep myself on track.
:: crosses fingers ::
Tags:Bella, Life, Resolutions, School, Sean, Work
Posted in Bella, Boyfriend, Randomage, Work | Comments Closed
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
I know I said I’d update more but that requires effort and where’s the fun in that? I’m at work right now, yes.. I’m aware of the fact that it’s Sunday. I’m taking a break between phone calls to clear my head, it’s hard talking to southerners to get information for their cars when half of them don’t even seem to remember being in an accident… have to say it’s kind of weird haha. I’m working on my 10th hour of overtime this week and I can’t even begin to tell you how exhausted I am. I really can’t wait for any kind of a vacation away from this place.
I’m spending my birthday in Atlantic City with Sean. We’re going to stay at Harrah’s for two nights (three days) and then heading up to East Brunswick, NJ to float around his old neck of the woods. We’re going to the Jersey Devil Hayride to start off our Halloween celebration and I think there was another haunted house that he wanted to bring me to, but I’m not sure on that one yet. I just can’t wait to be sitting in front of a slot machine without a care in the world other than hoping to hit a nice jackpot to pay off some bills quicker. We’ve saved up and put some money aside but I’m one of those people who’s feeling lucky right now and I hope to be able to triple that money before we leave the casino haha. Instantly that would get my loan down to half of where it is now, and all credit cards would be paid off. Oh the joy of wishful thinking, I forget that it gets you no where heh.
I did some serious decorating at work, Franny and I hit up the dollar store and A.C. Moore and we’re overloaded with Halloween decorations and candy. Our department is certainly the most festive. Can’t wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’ll blow everyone else out of the water haha.
In any event, I have a few more phone calls to make and a shit load of other crap to do so I can get out of here and do some grocery shopping. I also need to start packing too… it’s not easy packing for two people when you’re going to be away for five days haha.
This should be fun.
Tags:Daily Life, Gambling, Holidays, Work
Posted in Randomage, Work | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
It’s only Wednesday and I’m itching for it to be Friday. I can’t wait until my paycheck comes in so I can get some bills paid and enjoy a little bit of self-pampering. I’m going to pick out a new uber-cool nail polish and head down to the salon to get my eyebrows done, I’ve let them go for three weeks and even though I’ve been maintaining them myself I’d really like to get them touched up. I’m also going to dye my hair because the gray roots are getting way too freaking long and it’s about time I do something about that.
I’ve already noted on acidgloss.net that I’d like to start doing a little more with my sites and I know I’ve been saying it here for a while but with the way things are going lately I think I’d be able to properly budget my time for a little while so I can actually get something done. Lately I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime at work and being as it’s approved for my department it’s not such a major deal anymore. I’m now doing the Saturday afternoon shift completely by myself. Originally I was alternating with another co-worker but she doesn’t really like coming in on the weekends and noted that she’s not hurting for money as badly as I am right now. Sean is bringing in really good money with a few clients he’s working with but I’m pretty much stuck within the same price-range every two weeks. It’s paying the bills, and that’s all that matters right now.
Over the course of the next few months we’re really going to be skimping and saving just about everywhere we can. We both have agreed that it’s time to move on with our lives and we need to get ourselves into a larger apartment and I really need to have my own car. I set my car budget around $12,000 and that’ll be more than enough to get me a 2007 or 2008 Chevy Cobalt that includes everything that I need in a car at this point in my life… power windows and decent gas mileage to get to and from work. I’m going with a sedan as it will give me a little less to worry about on my car insurance and I’ll have an alarm system to give me even more of a break. There’s also a defensive driving course that I could take to drop things down as well. I’ll take as many deductions as I can at this point of my life. I’m hoping to put about $5,000 to $6,000 aside for a down payment so I’m not stuck with a loan for an extended period of time. It would help me out in the long run considering I’m still paying back my personal loan and all of the credit cards that I’ve managed to max out over the last year.
I’ve been at my current job for over a year and if you didn’t notice it’s put a major damper on just about everything INTERNET related for me. I hardly check my email, and really had no interest in blogging for a very long time. I was dealing with getting used to a 10-7 and that took up just about all of my energy. Now that I’m in a fixed routine with all of that I’m learning to deal with everything else going on in my life.
My best friend passed away in February and that’s really been kicking my ass for the past few months because it was the last thing I’d ever expect. Sean and I were rocky for a little while but now we’re back on course. Bella went through surgery to have the tumor removed from her stomach and a few other things have sprung up over the rest of the year that have had my attention – mainly health related issues with both family members and myself. It’ll all work itself out in the end so I’m not going to get that far into detail about it.
In any event… it’s after 10pm which means it’s past my bed time. I don’t ever actually fall asleep until after 11:30 anyway… but I do try to be in bed so I can get some decent amount of sleep. I’m working on about 5-6 hours a night and I’d really like to sleep for a full 8 hours once in a while. There’s always the weekends I guess… that’s typically when I make up the time. I make up for it more on Sunday than I do on Saturday considering I have to work but either way things are getting done and that’s all that matters.
So yea… I’m still working at the same job… I’m still dealing with my own gripes and issues with life. I’m also hoping to get some time to myself so I can actually start doing something with the sites that I own… it’d be great.
Tags:Daily, Family, Life, Pets, Sitely, Work
Posted in Bella, Boyfriend, Randomage, The Web, Work | Comments Closed
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
This week has been the week from hell and unfortunately it doesn’t look as though it’s going to let up any time soon. On Wednesday it was announced that we’re switching over to the new system at work that has been in the ‘creation’ process for the past couple of months. The problem with this is the fact that there has been absolutely no training put towards this system so everyone is basically lost right now.
We had a little bit of a ‘training’ session on Wednesday and come Thursday morning we were all kind of thrown into the system that has so many errors it’s unreal. It’s heavily coded with ASP/AJAX and with the way it’s trying to read the database things just aren’t working out the way they’re supposed to. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much choas at work as I have in the past few days. We’ve wound up switching over to the old system mid-way through the day on both Thursday and Friday because the productivity that we usually have with the old system was well beyond what we’re able to accomplish with the new one. So it’s my hope that we’ll get to use the old system a little longer just so we keep moving at the pace that we’re accustomed to. This new one has slowed us down so much it almost feels as though we’re wasting our time with it.
Over the course of the day on Thursday we were able to input about 100 assignments with the new system – this took us 8 hours. However, when we got fed up and switched back to the old one we managed to put in about 150 assignments in the course of 45 minutes. This has to tell you something when it comes to how things are going to look within the next few weeks. As of right now I’ve got about 6 hours of overtime, this includes the two hours I’ve just spent at the office this morning (Yes, I also go in on Sunday mornings for a few hours – I told you this place was sucking the soul out of me!) – so my next paycheck should at least be for something decent which helps me considering there are a lot of bills to be paid in upcoming weeks.
On Friday I left at 6:30 – when I’m actually supposed to leave – and ran home in time to wash up and wait for Alicia and Dave to get to my house. We were treating Dave to dinner for his birthday and went to Friendly’s. Yesterday Alicia and I were out for a few hours at KMART and Dollar Tree to pick up stuff for the surprise party we’re holding for him later this afternoon. So right now I’m finishing things up at work and Alicia’s going to pick me up and then we’re going to head back to her house to finish getting things together.
We have this pretty elaborate plan in order to keep Dave out of the house for the afternoon. He keeps wondering when Sean and I are going to get married. So I said “RING SHOPPING!” So I gave Sean my dinky $7 walmart ring and said “Here, this is a half size too big for me, go to Zales and do some ring shopping – take Dave with you and then I’ll text you when I want you guys to head back to Alicia’s house”. Alicia thought it was a great idea, Sean was confused (as usual) and Dave is completely clueless as to what’s going on so it’s working out VERY WELL right now. As of my last text from Sean he and Dave are eating lunch at Johnny Rockets and then probably surfing through a few jewelry stores in the mall to see what he can ‘find’. So that gets Dave out of the house and gives Alicia and I plenty of time to get the rest of the stuff setup.
I also told Sean to throw his bathing suit in the trunk of the car cause it’s a rather warm day and I know the pools open at her house. Granted there really isn’t anyone going in the pool but I know Sean will more than likely dive right in anyway so at least it gives him something to do. We more than likely won’t be there for that long, everyone has work tomorrow so she’s expecting things to clear up around 6:30. Which is fine for me, I still have some things to do to prepare myself for the week ahead.
We’ll be down one person in Dispatch tomorrow, she’s taking a much deserved day off. But Monday – unfortunately – is one of our CRAZY BUSY days. So on top of going to the new system plus all of the claims we’re bombarded with on a Monday morning/afternoon – I’m hoping things run smoothly!
In any event, Alicia’s on her way here to pick me up. Sean just sent me a text where he sounded surprised because the waiters/waitresses dance at Johnny Rockets during certain songs. Boy is it going to be an INTERESTING day!
Tags:Engagement, Family, Friends, Love, Work
Posted in Boyfriend, Daily, Randomage, Work | Comments Closed
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
It’s not the greatest of pictures, but I snapped it quick with my phone before I left work yesterday. My supervisor presented me with my plaque on Wednesday. She’d announced it previously but with being sick and then the whole shit storm that is my life kind of threw up on the table last week, nothing really happened with it. But since it showed up at the office (obviously it was ordered) and there’s quite a few extra people in the office this week (mainly appraisers buying franchises and a boss flew in from Cali for the meetings) I was asked to just display it on my desk. I’m totally bringing it home tomorrow night to show everyone. I personally didn’t feel as though I deserved it when I was told that I was getting it but now that I’m thinking about it, I’m proud of myself for being able to fight through the headaches and annoyances known as our office…heh. So it’s been on my desk with all of my other bits and bobbles. I’ve got it next to the heart shaped Bamboo that Sean got me for Valentines Day. Everyone in the office is like in love with it, so I’m glad I can give people something funky to look at during the day.
Today was OK. I had a little bit of weapyness on the way to work because I’m having a lot of trouble dealing with the fact that Lu isn’t around anymore. My right-hand on numerous occasions and always eager to just come and hang out with me and just relax outside to shoot the breeze. It’s just so strange to wake up one day and know that there’s a huge part of your life that isn’t there anymore. I know I’ve mentioned her in every update, but I believe that’s heavily based on the fact that I’m still in shock about things. I haven’t officially had a melt-down yet and I’m just not sure of when it’s going to hit me…all I can do is hope that it happens when I’m at home thinking about her and not while I’m at work trying to keep myself composed for a ‘professional’ environment. I’m actually surprised at the fact that I’ve been able to stay at this job for as long as I have. I have a lot of trouble focusing on things but I guess I’m just one of those people that needs to be in an office environment because working from home never quite felt right for me. Sure the money was better, but it got pretty damn boring, and my wrists always freaking hurt all day long from typing on AIM all day.
In any event, it’s getting pretty close to 10PM so I think it’s time to get ready for bed.
Tags:Family, Lucy Ann, Work
Posted in Family, Work | 5 Comments »
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
On Friday my supervisor announced to me that I have been chosen as Employee of the month for January. I was a bit shocked by it, to be honest. I honestly don’t feel as though I deserve it considering I’m still in the training process but I’ve been thinking about it lately and I have to say that I finally do believe that I actually do deserve it.
For the past month I’ve been coming in early to cover absences for other employees. I don’t usually leave until well after I’m supposed to because there’s numerous files to status and make follow-up calls on and I’ve worked on a few different claims in the past month that have caused nothing but problems thanks to incomplete information and I’ve managed to actually get in touch with owners who typically wouldn’t answer their phone in order to get the information we need.
On top of my actual job of handling all of the emails that come in to the company (I’m the master email account for claims, statuses, assignment updates, cancellations – etc.) I’m in the process of learning how to assign claims to appraisers, what key terms to look for (photos only, heavy equipment, invalid phone numbers, etc.). I also send all of the digital files to the appraisers for certain insurance companies, that’s probably the most time consuming thing considering there’s typically 2 files for every one assignment (hard copy & digital copy) and each digital one not only needs to be emailed to an appraiser, it also needs to be downloaded and added to the server individually from the website. So naturally the work load is a bit overwhelming to me right now, but taking it day by day I’m picking up on things a lot quicker than I thought I was going to and I’m very happy with the turn out.
The upside would be that I get a plaque for my desk so I can have it as a constant reminder that I did actually work my ass off and have been since I started the position. The only downside to being employee of the month is they no longer put a $200 bonus in your paycheck. You’re just given a free day off where you’re punched in in the morning and then punched out at night. I just need to give a little bit of notice before I decide which day I’d like to take off. I would like to take a three day weekend and maybe head down to Atlantic City since I haven’t been there in over a year and I’d really like to get away. Unfortunately I also need to deal with the NY DMV considering my liscence needs to be changed so I don’t get screwed on my taxes next year. So it’s a toss up on which one I’d like to do first. I’m actually thinking of just taking care of the DMV stuff on my way out of town and then heading down to AC right after. The only problem is I won’t have any photo identification on me because NY sends your liscence in the mail, they don’t print out right then and there the way DE does. So yea, that’s the downside.
Tags:Atlantic City, Perks, Work
Posted in Randomage, Work | 4 Comments »
