TGIF - Friday Foolery

What's funny about today? That I'm still standing up. Let's see... One week of a new job down. Beerman is still in Denver. C-man doesn't feel like sleeping at night. 2 dogs who bark non-stop at every little noise. Whew! Hopefully C-man and I will get to a pumpkin patch this weekend. It's been such crappy weather, but Sunday's supposed to be good. Maybe we'll go hiking. It is also associate shopping weekend - so I get 30% off at my newest favorite retailer. If C-man's cooperative, maybe we'll go there too.

4 Days Down

4 days down in this job. Whew. It's quite an adjustment period. I hate that I get C-man from daycare so late. But other than that, there aren't any drawbacks that I can see so far. So, so far so good on the decision-making to do this move. Beerman is still judging da beerz in Denver. Today was some Belgian style beer that I didn't recognize the name of, so I can't tell you what it was. C-man's Halloween costume came in and it fits. Thank God, because I don't have the energy to look for a different one. Speaking of energy, if I were a tank of gas in my car, I'd be on fumes. C-man was up from 1:30 a.m. - 4:45 a.m. last night crying. He was grumpy at daycare today too. Wonder why. I can barely see straight. Tomorrow's Friday, though, and I get to wear jeans to work. Jeans! Can you even believe it? It's like a dream come true.

Blog, Smog, Fog

I'm 2 days into my new job. It's always an adjustment period, which sucks. I see one of the Sr. Managers of Human Resources is someone with whom I spent some time in South Africa. I remember, although I'm not sure she does. I'm really not sure how she ever passed that drug test! Whew! Anyhow, my new employer is like none other I've ever had. As far as I can tell, they meet a lot to tell each other how much work they have to do, and how they need to move at the speed of light. Best I can tell, nobody's moving anywhere except into a meeting room. I sure hope that isn't true, although I think it's just a slice of the typical corporate life. The atmosphere is nice, and the cafeteria gives out free coffee all day long. Beerman is in Denver for the Great American Beer Festival until Sunday. So it's C-man and me on our own. I think we'll manage.

I'm Outta Here!

Today is my last day at EJM. I can hardly believe it. My boss is in complete denial, asking me to do some projects that clearly can't be done before lunch today. (That's about as long as I'm working, by the way) We're all doing a goodbye lunch, which is nice. I plan on drinking too much. I'll miss a few, and not some others. So goodbye suckers!

Penultimate Day

Oh my goodness, it's my penultimate day at work. I can't really grasp that it's even real. But I'm getting pretty excited to move on. I'll miss a few here, but am really glad to be going somewhere with so many people closer to my age. The thought of no travel or Stinky Le Pew doesn't hurt either! Beerman has been working incredibly ridiculous hours, so I missed book club last night. To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorites... oh well. It happens. Next month's selection is Atonement. Am I the only non Frank McCourt fan out there? Depressing. Wicked is the selection in my other book club (The other one I had to miss last month because Beerman was working. Boo.) In big news, C-man can now blow his nose. I almost cried I was so proud. Hopefully this will help keep his ears clear!

Because there are only 3 days left...

This makes me laugh hard. Watch more funny videos at FunnyJunk.com And this is just plain ol' good advice:

Weekend Leftovers

ME: "C-man, what's my name?" C-MAN: "Mommy" ME: "Right! Now what's your name?" C-MAN: "Pizza" We went to the Thiensville Fire Department Pancake Breakfast on Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure we paid $11 so C-man could run around and touch "BIG TRUCKS!" Best $11 a person could spend on a Saturday morning, as far as I'm concerned. He was in heaven. By the way, whoever said firemen could cook never ate the hard disks called pancakes at the TFD pancake breakfast! It says something about me that I somehow went from knowing the menu of every great restaurant in town to knowing every great park and playground in town. Lions Park in Thiensville is a great one right on the river if you're in the area. There's even a path you can run down as fast as you can and shout "DUCK! QUACK QUACK!" at all the ducks swimming around in said river.

Friday Foolery

Since there have been some new Virgin Mary sitings in food, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorite topics and post a few posts of the wacky ones. The infamous grilled cheese: Popcorn with Mary and Jesus: The ever-tasty tortilla: Pre-soup turtle: And while not food, this MRI is too ridiculous to not deserve mention: Happy Friday!

Is It Really Only Thursday?

Having to be in Detroit all week is making this week move soooooo slowly. I miss my C-man and Beerman very much. Tuesday night I did do something I've never done before - went and saw a movie on my own. I saw Little Miss Sunshine. It's full of such morbid humor that I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes during parts of it. Good thing there were only 4 other people in the theater. There are loads of f-bombs in the movie, so leave the kids at home. But once you get past that, it's hilarious! It goes on my highly recommends list. Last night my boss and I went to Eileen Fisher in Somerset Mall. Nice! ____________ Today was another thrilling one. Me taking notes on a course that I wrote, as asshats who don't know how to train stood up in front of a group and pontificated on each point as if they knew what they were doing. At one point, they proclaimed, "Who is Malcom Knowles?" I could have cried. Then I lost my cool and went a bit batshit crazy. Then I calmly stood up and introduced Malcolm Knowles to be the grandfather of adult learning and education, and without his theories, there would be no official field of adult learning and the theory of androgy. These people are supposed to be trainers?!? It makes me so sad. I can't wait to move to a new job in which there are teams of trainers - real frickin' trainers - not just people who call themselves trainers. Sorry about this rant, but it's like me calling myself an architect because I know what a Roman Column is. Or a chef because I can cook coq au vin. Or a racecar driver because I can drive a minivan. Grrrr!!! On a good note, I had some Tim Horton's coffee and donuts today. (No chunky chicken sandwich for me. I still can't bring myself to order that!) Another goodie is that I'm going home on the 3:30 flight tomorrow. I. Can't. Wait.

Making Me More Sure Every Day

It's one thing when I'm in the office and have to deal with the rumor mill of working life. But when I get to come to Detroit, I learn some very interesting things about myself that I'm glad I now know - all propagated by the Office Stinky Le Pew (whom I will not be missing for a nanosecond). I thought you should know too:

• My boss was so angry at me for job hunting that she fired me
• I am taking a job as the top person in Kohl's Human Resources (wow! good for me!)
• I had to resign because I've been plagarizing all my materials for the past 5 years
• No one has ever seen my boss angrier than when I told her I was leaving

In addition to the rumors, I've been told the quality team has gone around telling people to come to their class for "the great view". Oh barf. As if crap like that isn't enough to make you get out. No matter how bad the new job is, it's going to be better.

Last night I ate at Mon Jin Lau, a Chinese restaurant on Maple and Rochester. If you're ever in Detroit and hankerin' for some Chinese, I highly recommend it. Just skip dessert - they aren't worth it.

De-Troit Rock City!

It's my first day of my last trip to this city. I don't know how I feel about that. Like everything about quitting this job, it's both good and bad. But, mostly good - which is why I know I've done the right thing. I do know one big thing, I miss my family a ton, and will be soooooo happy to not travel for work anymore.

Friday Foolery

Verbatim from yesterday afternoon: Boss: "I need you to push back your final day another week so that you can go to an important meeting in Detroit on September 25th." Okay, for those of you hard-to-pleasers who aren't on the floor holding your stomach, wiping tears from your eyes, and peeing your pants from laughing as hard as I was from that, how about this:

Have a great weekend!

Um... Yeah... I Don't Care

Any question at my job that starts out with, "What are we going to do about..." ends up with a very smart and polite response from my mouth. But in my head, I've got a whole different dialogue going on. For example: Boss says: "What should we do about combined sessions?" Mouth says: "We need to bill the entire amount to one facility and they pro-rate it on their end" Head thinks: "Um... Yeah... I Don't Care." Boss says: "Which trainers should we send to xyz city?" Mouth says: "We need to determine which trainers meet our new NMSDC quota..." Head thinks: "Um... Yeah... I Don't Care." I've got 11 working days left, and I'm already at the "Um... Yeah... I Don't Care." stage. Luuuuu-cccccy, we've got a problem!!!

Woo-Hoo Wednesday!

Notified my husband... check. Notified Kohls HR department... check. Notified my boss... check. (but did I have to cry while doing it?) Notified my clients... check. Notified my co-workers... check. Yes, I've officially quit my job, pending a successful drug test later today. (They better not get all Floyd Landis on me!) I'm here until September 22nd, at which point I'll officially become the Assistant Manager Learning and Development at Kohls Corporation. I've been tearing my hair out about what to do since I got the offer last Tuesday, but finally decided that it's time to move on to bigger, hopefully better, and more exciting things. I won't have such a nice view out of my window (I am overlooking Lake Michigan on the 6th floor), won't have a nice drive to work (I do love Lake Drive), won't be the office pet, and won't get morning breakfasts with my boss at City Market (this could fall into the good category as well). I'll miss a few (surprisingly few) people along the way too. But moving comes with some major advantages -- it's a large corporation, great career exposure, next to no travel, and a well-needed (and deserved in my opinion) change that all comes neatly packaged in a salary raise, profit sharing, stock options, sweet little signing bonus, and on-site childcare (I'm still undecided whether that's something we'll be using). So the decision has been made. And thank God for it, because we now owe $399 for foot orthotics I need but insurance wouldn't cover and $520 for front and rear brakes on the car! It just doesn't end...

Thoughtful Tuesday

Kind of a weird day. So much in my life is in transition right now. But it's for the better. Change is neither good nor bad, or so I write in my change management course... C-man was sick all weekend. I took him to the walk-in clinic on Saturday thinking it was ear infection. His fever continues in the 102 range, though, and he was heaving a little this morning. Beerman is home with him today. Looks like I've got sick duties tomorrow. I'm so worried about him. And of course, because this made me giggle:

Friday Foolery

This just cracks me up.