The Big Thaw Begins....

Woke up this morning to a gorgeous snowy landscape. Thing 2 got up and romped a bit, but is now curled beside me. The temperature is at 34 right now, so roads should be clearing pretty quickly and traffic is picking up a bit on the main road behind my street.

Our office is opening at 10, although I think that is a bit ambitious for the side streets everyone has to navigate. I will probably go in around 11. The Princess has to work at 11 too, so I'll make sure she gets there safe and then head to my own office.

Secretly I had hoped for a full day off -- but oh well, gotta do what they pay me to do!!!!!

I'm Staying Put....

Our office sent us home at 12 today as the Alabama EMA advised people to be where they were going to be by 2 -- since we have many people that live an hour plus away from the office and since our CEO spent 13 hours stuck in his car during the real Clusterflake two weeks ago, the company erred on the side of caution and sent us home early.

So, after watching it rain all afternoon, then switched to sleet at dusk, and finally after dark, it started snowing for real. After just about an hour this is the view out my front door.

I think I'm in for the night.......

Still Waiting For The Clusterflake

You know, if we are going to have bad weather, I wish it would just go ahead and happen. Seriously. I stayed home from work yesterday morning waiting to see what the weather would do. Stuff froze for a very short time, but I ended up getting to work around 10:45.

Now the waiting game begins again... the forecast calls for icy conditions this afternoon. I do not relish the idea of getting stuck at work or walking home --- I live close enough that walking is an option, but it is still a pretty long walk. Schools have been closed for two days now. Honestly, I think they should have waited until yesterday morning to make the call as a delay would have worked fine. Today, they could have gotten in at least a half day. I know they are gun shy due to the serious Clusterflake we had two weeks ago, but still.

I admit to being a bit gun shy myself. I had friends that spent the night in their cars. Definitely not where I want to be! This is Alabama though! We are not supposed to be living in a constant state of "will it or won't it" in regards to winter weather.

Guess I'll get ready for work and see what the day brings! Y'all stay safe and WARM!

Clusterflake Round 2

Down here, we've been bracing for another winter storm. It looked like it was going to come in overnight. With the dawn of the day however, we've jut got a lot of rain, but temps are at freezing at the moment. Not wanting to get caught in the absolute gridlock of two weeks ago, a lot of my co-workers have decided to stay home for the day. Since the office hasn't closed, I'm planning to go in, however, I'm watching the conditions for the next hour or so to make a final decision.

I talked to my boss a bit ago and told him to just plan on me being late. I live on the side of a mountain and it is a bit icy, so for now, I want to err on the side of caution. So I sit here with hair and makeup done, but I put my jammies back on for comfort until I make a real decision.

How are you faring this winter?

Unexpected Snow Day!

The last couple of days, South Alabama has been bracing for snow and ice. Every forecast said that we weren't going to get anything other than a light dusting. Around 9:30 or so this morning, it started snowing. I was like "Meh, it won't stick around". By 10, it was building up in the parking lot. Uh oh. At about 10:08, my supervisor came around and told everyone to pack up, clock out and head home. Office was closing for the day. The weather forecasters had it way wrong unfortunately.

As I got out to the main road, I could tell that road conditions were going downhill fast. I said a little prayer for safety and another one of thanks for a short commute. Then I headed on home. As I neared my neighborhood, the roads were completely white and it was coming down good. But we were all safe and sound.

So, we are all here, staying warm and even venturing out to play a bit. Roads around the city have gone to hell in a handbasket. I've got co workers that haven't made it to their homes yet. I've got friends that hiked miles to get to their own homes. Alabama is not well equipped to deal with snow when we are expecting it. When it hits the largest metro area without being expected... well, its pretty much a disaster!

I probably should have taken advantage of the unexpected afternoon off and gotten a lot of stuff done. Instead, I've been watching the news and playing in the snow and playing on facebook, pinterest, google+ and all that other stuff. And I'm okay with that.

Sick Day

Woke up at 3 a.m., sick.... ugh. So, looks like I'm staying home today. Fortunately, I'm completely up to date at work so I shouldn't be far behind when I go back tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be in our local Christmas Parade tonight with a group I volunteer for (and that I'm Vice President of). I wouldn't be so worried about it, except I missed the Halloween gig too being out sick. I hate to be undependable.

However, I just don't think it would be a good idea to go do another event if I skip work... even if I feel 100% better. Especially since our CFO might be at the parade since she lives in the same town and we were talking about it last week. I just don't think that would look right.

So, looks like a couch and bed day for me today... sigh.

The Princess Went Back To Work

After four days of being cooped up in the house, the Princess went back to work last night. I don't think she has ever been so excited to go to work. She was starting to go a bit stir crazy being cooped up. And honestly, I was pretty excited for her to go too. She's a good patient, but I was ready for a bit of time to myself too. Not that I did anything exciting -- laundry and watched football -- but not having to tiptoe around the house because she was trying to sleep was pretty nice.

She's a hostess in a restaurant so her job requires her to be on her feet her entire shift. On Saturday nights they usually have two hostesses, but the Princess is "lead" --- which means she generally has the most responsibility. In deference to the fact that she was not up to full strength, the managers had someone the other hostess take lead "just for tonight", much to the Princess's relief. They also relieved her about once every hour and told her to go sit down for a few minutes. They also let her be the first "off shift" so she could get back home and go to bed early. All in all it made her first day back to work as easy as it could possibly be when recovering from pneumonia.

She got home and I heated her up some leftovers because she was "starving" (I generally have dinner ready around 4 on weekend nights she works so she can eat something besides frozen or canned crap before her shift). She ate her dinner, and went straight to bed.

She goes back and works again tonight. Sundays are often a mixed bag.... either super busy or slow. I'm kind of hoping for the latter tonight since she will be the only hostess on shift.

Here's hoping it all goes well!

Long, Long, Long Week

So glad the weekend is finally here. I'd had just about all could take of this particular week. It started simply enough. Just a normal week. A bit high pressured at work as I was struggling to catch up from being away from desk for the better part of three days last week (leadership classes), but seemed pretty normal all in all.

Monday night the Princess started feeling kind of icky. Tuesday it got worse. Wednesday she went to classes, but went to the doctor right after. Diagnosis: Walking Pneumonia. Lovely. She feels awful. Beyond awful. In addition to just the ick of being sick, she's weak, jittery and at this point a bit afflicted with cabin fever. She missed her shift Thursday night. And Friday night. Working today will totally depend on how she feels when she gets up. The doc said she could work when she felt like it (after the first couple days). Our priority is for her to be well enough to attend class on Monday, so work is secondary.

As for me, work pretty much blew up in my face on Thursday. A department meeting, a change in my job duties..... which accounts for about tripling my workload. I will be getting some "help" with it, but as the girl that will be helping me is retaining about 75% of her prior workload, that will NOT make up the difference. I'm beyond stressed and quite honestly pretty pissed off about it.

What REALLY gets me, is that these grand changes came about as part of the Leadership Project in the class I was taking. There were 8 of us in the class and we each had to create a project to "improve" certain areas of the company. Come up with ideas to streamline processes, to promote programs and initiatives, etc. And we were SUPPOSED to work with the people that would be affected to get input. I was pretty shocked when listening to this particular presentation last week that my job could be potentially and primarily affected by all of these "ideas" and none of it had been mentioned to me at all. Our CFO even asked the presenter directly if she'd gotten input from all who would be affected and the presenter said "yes". My jaw was on the ground. In hindsight, I should have said something, but I didn't want to flat out call a co-worker a liar for something that when looking at it, I felt was kind of too far fetched to even be workable.

Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe I should have said something.... Thursday we had a department meeting and BAM! I got my workload tripled. Yeah, I am NOT happy at this point in time. Glad the week is behind me and I can go back into workload hell on Monday. Fun times ahead.

Phew! Glad That's Over!

For the last five months, I've been participating in a leadership class at work. Eight employee were selected for this class, in order to have well trained people ready to take on leadership roles IF the contract mess ever gets to where it should be. The class has been well worthwhile, if somewhat grueling. We are in the class for a day and a half once a month, with a lot of "homework". While that doesn't sound like too terribly much, my inbox keeps growing while I'm in the class, so losing a day and a half a month, well, catch up is a royal pain in the behind...... add in that I've had to take a couple sick days over the past five months and YIKES! I've found that it seem that as soon as I get everything well caught up, I'm in class again.

The class is winding down now. Yesterday we presented our projects to upper management, got some really good feedback and then finished off the day with four hours of lecture and discussion. Today will wind down the class. And wow. I'm glad. It has truly been exhausting. Worthwhile, absolutely. I've learned a lot. But I'm glad to be getting out of there. I need to catch up on the work I get paid to do. I need to get back into a routine that works. And honestly, I'm ready to take some time off. I'm HOPING that need to take some time off will result in a free beach trip in October.

However, that's a totally different post!

Schedule Adjustment

For years I have worked an 8-5 work schedule. That has generally suited me well. My commute in the morning is generally about 7-10 minutes. My commute in the afternoon, 12-15... meaning in most cases, I was home by 5:15. But that has changed. Recent "improvements" along the main road has made traffic back up in my Office Park when leaving at 5. That has made my commute time go from 15 maxiumum, to 30-35. Generally speaking, I don't walk in my door now until at least 5:30.

I hate sitting in traffic. So, last week, I went to my boss and asked if I could adjust my schedule, nothing big, and most people work some variation of a flex schedule. So I asked if could try out 7:30 to 4:30, but for the first week keep my finish time at 5, until I'm sure I can get there at 7:30 consistently. She approved, so today I start work at 7:30. I'll still work til 5 this week and if it all works out, I will change next week to a 4:30 quitting time. I like the idea of getting home earlier. And since I'm an early riser anyway, the getting up and moving shouldn't be TOO bad. At least I hope not!

So, wish me luck on getting out the door earlier than normal!!!!!! As I type this, all I have to do to get out the door in 55 minutes, is throw my clothes on (which are already laid out) and rinse my coffee cup. I should be able to do that, right?

Another Cave.... I'm Beginning To See A Pattern Here....

For the past few years, my smart phone has been provided by my company. When they issued them to us, they were perfectly happy and even encouraged us to use them personally. Cool beans. I got very attached to my iphone.

Then out of the blue yesterday they announced that they had changed proxy servers and would be monitoring every single bit of internet activity. Including data usage on the smart phones. Ordinarily I wouldn't be concerned with this as I am not an abuser of privileges. However, the Big Brother aspect of it creeped me out. And it irritated me too --- they want me to have that work cell phone with me at all times, but want to monitor what I do with it when I'm not at work? If I was doing anything creepy it would be one thing, but keeping up with two cell phones is a pain in the butt so mostly I just carried the work one with me after hours and never caved to having a personal smart phone.

However, I still want my private life to be private. I don't want them viewing what I say to whom on my own time -- whether its the Princess texting about grades or whatever. So, on my lunch yesterday, I went to the Tmobile store to check out smart phones. I had some research in hand about the $400 - $600 phones, but once I talked to the clerk, I ended up going with one that was $240. It should fit my needs just fine --- once I get used to it. I must say I got way frustrated with it at first as it didn't "do" stuff the way the iPhone does. But honestly, I'm probably smart enough to figure out how to work another phone. And a savings of $160 - $360 makes that a LOT easier to do!

Plus, Tmobile now lets you add the payments for the phone to your cell phone bill, interest free. If you end service with them before you've paid for the phone, then you have to pay off the balance, but that's workable. Main thing is that I didn't raid my savings for it. And that makes me happy.  The additional $10 for phone payment and $10 for data plan doesn't make me so happy though. Time to start crunching numbers again.

This Was The Week That Would Not End

So, the week started out well enough..... I had my annual performance review and received and excellent evaluation, plus a $1500 bonus ($1200+ after taxes). When a week starts like that, it is going to be a good one right?

Not so fast there! The long awaited contract announcements came out. And it was worse than we expected. While we retained the contract the most affects me, we lost some other key ones. And the ones we picked up don't make up the difference in lost revenue. This likely means an even larger shrinkage in the work force. While theoretically I should be fine, there is also the chance that I won't be.... there are four people "ahead" of me whose departments will have to be reduced. These employees have been with the company for probably 10 years or more each. The decision could very well be to retain a some of them but backslide them into my position and hand me the pink slip. I just don't know at this point.

That worry has been on my mind all week. It made the week seem unending. So much so that I woke up Thursday thinking it was Friday! Talk about a letdown!!!!

And, that $1200 after taxes bonus? Yeah, its getting banked --- I still have looming vet bills for Thing 1 to come and at some point I need to have my car window fixed --- but for now the window is not going to take priority.

That's been my week around here -- sorry I've been absent -- I've had a lot of processing that needed to happen!

Waiting Waiting Waiting

Does the waiting game get to you sometimes? Last Thursday we were supposed to finally find out whether or not we got our "permanent" contracts back at work. We have been on temporary interim contracts for two years now. As part of the interim contracts, my "normal" job was put on hold. When it became obvious that this interim period was going to stretch longer.... I was temporarily reassigned to another deparment. That was almost 18 months ago. It was hard, but I accepted that reassignment with mostly a smile (after a crying jag and bottle of wine at home -- ha!) and have been doing it with a good attitude ever since. Nevertheless, I want to get back to doing what I was hired to do.... because I really love my normal job.

So, last week we waited on pins and needles. Many of us trying to get through the week without dissolving into a bundle of nerves. And then on Wednesday, we found out that the much anticipated announcement was being postponed - AGAIN -- until Tuesday. Sigh.

It seems we sometimes spend a lot of our lives waiting.... waiting for the weekend, waiting for announcements, waiting for vacation, waiting for temps to cool off or warm up. Waiting for stuff to get back to normal. Waiting for one day. Maybe we need to enjoy the day. Today. We only have so many todays and then its all done. We need to try and enjoy the moment and whatever it brings.

But for now, I probably need more coffee as I'm not sure any of this rambling made sense!

Feeling Like Crap

I feel awful. I truly do. I've had a sore throat off and on for a week, but yesterday I started getting more symptoms. I'll spare you the "ick" of that, but I'm going to the doctor today. I made the appointment late yesterday afternoon because I could tell that I wasn't going to just "get over it". And I was right.

I've already notified my supervisor that I won't be in today. I feel terrible about that since I just took a vacation day last Friday to have a four day weekend. Oh well, I bet they don't want my ick around there.

Staying home for me is always hard. Staying home sick I mean --- I always see the hundreds of things I need to do and usually I do some of them. I'm going to try not to do that today. Try being the operative word. Wish me luck.

Time Clocks..... Geez.

Our company has decided to start making employees clock in and clock out every day using their computers. This is almost a completely foreign concept to me as I have not had to clock in using a time clock since I worked in a shoe store in college. That was 21 years ago.

Previously, we just used paper time sheets. But of course someone had to screw that up. A girl in my currently "temporary" department was notoriously and quite obviously fudging her time sheets. And got caught several times. However, management opted to not discipline her, but instead instituted a new policy. It is irritating as hell.

I'm not worried about the time management issue. I work my hours and I'm a salaried employee. However, it just adds another level of stress. OMG! What happens if I'm one minute late clocking in from lunch? Since we can only clock in on the office computers..... what about those of us who travel? What is that protocol? For those of us that are salaried, how do we handle paid time off during the day for doctors appointments? What if the internet is down? Those questions have been asked, but none have been addressed so far.

And then there's the insult factor --- after almost five years, I feel like I'm not trusted anymore. I'm trusted with rental cars and credit cards, but not actually to be present and working? I'll get over it as I get into the routine, but goodness, I hate policy changes directed at ONE or TWO people that affect everyone else. Deal with the bad apples and let the rest of the bunch do what they normally do. I'm not the only one that's unhappy about the changes. After almost two years of being in limbo and weird jobs piled on everyone that was affected by the state of limbo, morale is low as it is. This just doesn't help.

Good To Be Home

I've been on the road this week again for work. Traveling has now officially kicked my behind. I am woefully out of practice for that. It was a busy and tiring three days of working and LOOONNNNGGG days. 10, 11 and 12 hour days, Monday through Wednesday. We drove back yesterday in horrendous torrential rain. I was a nervous wreck.

Traveling with others has its own unique challenges every time. You have to really be able to go with the flow. Especially when no one tells you what the plan is ahead of time. Suffice it to say, I'm just really glad to be home.

The Princess stayed home with the pups and I was glad to see that the house was still standing. She did a pretty good job of keeping it at least not any messier than it was when I left. The cupboards are pretty bare and I noticed that my coffee creamer was almost gone this morning. I'm thinking I might just be stopping at the closest grocery after work and picking some up instead of going over to Aldi. I'll pay more, but honestly I don't want to fight traffic at rush hour this afternoon. I'm just too worn out. I'll give it some thought today, but I think that's going to be my plan.

Anyway, that's where I am this week. Tired and glad to be home! And just wishing I could take a day or two off.

Yawn!!!!!

Its going to be a really long day. I tend to be an early to bed and early to rise type. I used to be a late to bed and early to rise type. I used to do just "fine" on 5 or 6 hours sleep. Since I've scrolled back to an earlier bedtime though, I'm generally getting 7-8 hours and it has made a big difference in my functionality.

I went to bed a bit later than normal last night though. So, I was only on track to MAYBE get 7 hours of sleep. Then as I was sinking into sleep, the Princess came in to tell me that her BFF was having boyfried problems and was coming by. Sigh.

Okay, fine... no problem. But by the time we finished talking.... I was awake. Wide awake. Not wanting to go back to sleep awake. Ugh. I think after all was said and done I managed about 5 hours sleep last night. And I have a meeting today. A two hour meeting. A two hour likelyveryboring meeting.

Sigh. Yawn. Need more coffee.

Conferences Schmonferences

I spent the better part of this week at a regional industry conference. While it was great to get out of the office for a few days, I don't like the added commute (and therefore addition to my gas bill), that the conference added. My office is a quick 10 minute drive away --- if I hit all of the lights. The conference was a good 30 minutes away. Sheesh. I filled up my tank this past weekend and it is now more than half gone! I can usually stretch a tank of gas for almost two weeks! THAT won't be happening this week!

Then, in addition to that --- my inbox got SLAMMED while I was out. I came back to the office this afternoon with an overflowing box. Sigh. Looks to be a super fun Friday tomorrow!!!!

How has your week been?

Crock Pot Cooking

I really love my Crock Pot. I really do. I love the concept of throwing a bunch of ingredients into one pot, and letting it do its thing, and at the end having an easy breezy meal, ready to serve. Such was the case this afternoon.

The Princess tends to work on Sunday evenings starting at five o'clock. That means, that generally we do dinner pretty early so we can enjoy a decent meal and so she isn't STARVING by the time she gets home from work. Since I do NOT work on Sundays, I prefer to have a real meal -- and not something of the heat & eat variety.

Thanks to a sale at the local Piggly Wiggly, I picked up pork tenderloin and asparagus yesterday. Threw the tenderloin in the Crock Pot this morning and with about 30 minutes of TOTAL prep time for everything you see above, we had an easy and fabulous dinner, albeit an early one!

That got me thinking though --- I really should use my Crock Pot more. I hear people rave about doing just what I did, but before work and having a tasty dinner waiting when they get home in the evenings. However, I just tend to use mine on weekends. Mainly because most recipes I come across call for 6-7 hours of cooking time -- I leave the house around 7:45 in the morning and get home around 5:15. That's 9.5 hours away from the house -- and my office is SUPER close.

If I left something cooking for that length of time, either it would be hockey pucks by the time I got back OR the house would likely be burned down. I've talked to some of my friends -- the Stay At Home Moms and the Full Time Work Outside The House Moms --- and it seems the SAHMs tend to use their Crock Pots the most. They adore them! The FTWOTHMs, well, they tend to do what I do, use it some on the weekends, but never during the week!

So what about you? Do you use your Crock Pot a ton? If so, which category do you fall in? Sometimes, or ALL THE TIME? And if you have any recipes that work great for super extended hours, I'd LOVE for you to share them!!!!!!!

Patience? Not So Much....

I have recently realized that I am not a very patient person. I used to think I was. But now, I realized I'm really not. I don't like to wait for things to happen. I like to MAKE them happen. Unfortunately, the rest of the word just doesn't work that way....

For instance:
My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby. They aren't even 8 weeks along, and I'm sitting here tapping my foot wanting to find out if it is a boy or a girl (because MY GOODNESS there are some awesome clearance deals on baby stuff right now!). But guess what? That baby is not going to grow any faster and that ultrasound isn't going to be done any soooner just because I'm tapping my foot.

Another instance:
My Mom had her follow-up with the Neuro on Monday. We had hoped she'd be able to get out of the collar and get life back to normal. But 70 year old bones take their own time to heal.... and they aren't going to heal any faster just because we want them to! (Seriously, she's much more impatient about this one than I am --- maybe it is genetic!)

Another instance:
STILL IN LIMBO AT WORK. Still just sitting here bored out of my mind waiting to get back to my fast-paced, awesome, somethingdifferenteveryday REAL job. Government bureaucracies definitely don't move any faster just because I want them to!

And there are plenty of more instances where my patience is getting the best of me. I've just got to sit back and realize that one day doesn't get here any faster just because I'm ready for it. Everything comes in its due time. But dang, I wish it would hurry!