Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Are you settling for something?

I don't believe so. Unless settling for not having something because I cannot afford it counts. Like nightstands. Otherwise, nope.
 

2.  It wasn't that long ago almost every store in the US locked doors and turned out lights on Thanksgiving Day. This year many will be open all day Thursday, giving shoppers a jump start on 'Black Friday'. In your opinion is this a good thing or a not so good thing? Will you be shopping on Thanksgiving Day?

NO, it is NOT a good thing at all. I find it disgusting! Unless I need something specifically for Turkey Day dinner, I am NOT leaving my house. I will enjoy my day off with my family and friends, hosting it for the first time. I've never really understood Black Friday to begin with, but at least it didn't tread too much on the holiday. I'm sorry but it's just absolutely ridiculous and out of control.
 

3. Speaking of shopping... I saw a recent article on the twelve best shopping cities in the world. In order they are-
New York, Tokyo, London, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Vienna, Dubai, Madrid, Milan, and Seoul.
Ever shopped in any of the cities listed? In which city would you most like to pull out the plastic or cold hard cash?

I shopped a bit in New York, but I was only there for like 36 hours. Don't think I bought anything, though. I did see a play, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and bought a meal from McDonalds though.
 

4.  When did you last dine by candlelight?

Hmmm. Several months ago when Boyfriend cooked a nice steak dinner and we ate out on the patio with candlelight.
 

5. What do you have too much of?

Just stuff! lol It's amazing how much one accumulates over time!
 

6. The Hunger Games...are you a fan?  Did you read the book(s)?  Will you/have you seen the movie?  Will you/have you seen Catching Fire?  No spoilers please!

OMG Yes a big fan!! It wasn't until I saw previews for the first movie and it sounded interesting. People told me I wouldn't regret reading the books so I tried them. I was hooked ever since. I've read  the books so many times I've lost count. I own the first movie and I cannot wait to see the second one!!
 

7. Share your plans for Thanksgiving Day. The who, the where, the what...especially the what! As in what's for dinner?  If you're one of my International visitors, whose homeland doesn't celebrate American Thanksgiving (the whole world doesn't ya know!), then still tell us your plans for Thursday.

Boyfriend, Grandma and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our new place. We're excited to have our family out to see the house. I've never hosted it before, but Boyfriend has. My parents are thrilled to finally not be the hosts for once. lol As for dinner, it's a typical dinner with turkey, ham, stuffing, green salad, pink jello-type salad, asparagus, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy with pecan and pumpkin pies and a cheesecake for dessert.
 

8.  Insert your own random thought here. 

 Boyfriend finally got himself a job back in the water industry!!! He's been looking for a long time. It's part time, but he'll be Operations Manager at a small mountain district about 45 minutes West of town. And in the next 6 months, it appears he'll be taking over the small town's neighboring district and be running both districts. It's not ideal and not perfect, but it's a JOB and in his preferred industry. We are just so thrilled!!

Introducing Our Neighbor

I sit here, watching The Hobbit with Boyfriend, enjoying our house. Things are hung on the walls (most of them). We have tons of eggs in the fridge thanks to our chickens. We're learning to remember where things are in the kitchen. Boyfriend cleaned up the garage the last two days. The wood we've gotten is 6split and stacked.

While we are enjoying our new house, there is one thing we are not enjoying. Our neighbor across the street.

It began the week we moved in - their dogs barking incessantly. One night, they barked non-stop keeping Boyfriend up between 1am and 4am. Finally Boyfriend was fed up with the dogs on our property (yep) barking incessantly that he went outside and chased them back home across the street. He knocked on their door and eventually the wife answered the door. Boyfriend asked her nicely if she could keep the dogs on their own property and quiet and she acted all bewildered and had no idea what he was speaking of. He replied with, "You can't hear that?" pointing at the (still) barking dogs. Nope, she apparently couldn't hear it.

A couple days later, the husband came over after getting home from an elk hunting trip to discuss the incident, dressed to the nines and wearing $1000 alligator boots. And by discuss, I mean using his 6'6" frame to intimidate Boyfriend into never ever scaring his wife that way again as she is ill. (Like Boyfriend was supposed to pyschically know that.) Boyfriend is not one to be intimidated, and therefore, got back in the guy's face telling him that his dogs bark incessantly. The neighbor said, "Dogs will be dogs and they'll bark. I also like them barking because it keeps critters away." Boyfriend clearly stated that his dogs barking like that are a nuisance and there are laws against it, and that he's simply asking that the guy keep his dogs on his own property and quiet. He questioned how Boyfriend knew they were his dogs, and Boyfriend replied with, "You have two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, correct? Your two dogs have been getting into my yard, attempting to bother my chickens, pooping all over my yard, and barking at me while in my yard. By law, if your dogs are threatening my livestock, I have every right to shoot them. I don't want to do that. I'm simply asking you to keep your dogs quiet. You're argument that 'dogs will be dogs' is not a valid argument. It's a bother to your neighbors." After a few choice words (started by the neighbor), the neighbor finally said he would do what he could.

About a week later, that dogs were barking incessantly during the evening, for three hours straight .As a side note, it amazes me that dogs never seem to go hoarse. Boyfriend and I decided to go over and talk to them about it. Off we went, knocked on the door, and the daughter answers. We politely ask if she could quiet the dogs as they've been barking for three hours and we can hear it through closed windows and over the TV. She crosses her arms in front of her, gets an extremely pissy look and says, "Dogs will be dogs and will bark. I can't make them stop." I asked if there was a pen they could be put in, or put in the garage for a bit until they quieted down. That wouldn't work either. Boyfriend tried talking to her for a few more minutes and she got pissier with each minute. Because it was dark, we had walked over with a flashlight. Boyfriend began to turn Italian while talking and at one point, the flashlight smacked the door. It was by accident, but that's all it took. She started hollering that she was going to call the cops.

I dragged Boyfriend away. Back home, he left a message with the Sheriff's department regarding the issue. Two hours later a deputy calls back and Boyfriend has a lengthy conversation with him. He told his side of the story, and the deputy eventually told Boyfriend that the daughter called claiming she was scared for her life and that of her toddler. When her dad got home, he also called the sheriff. The deputy told Boyfriend that he does have a right to shoot the dogs if they are bothering his livestock. And asked us not to go back over to the neighbors house.

Now, when the daughter drives by, she stares at us, makes rude faces and flips us off. No joke. And the guy just stares at us when he drives by. Nice.

The worst thing about all of this? This neighbor is a minister. He's unlike any minister I've ever known. Now granted, I don't know very many, but I have never met a minister like this. He has shown us absolutely no respect whatsoever. We both admit that he has made an effort to keep the dogs quiet, and we do appreciate it. When he's not home however, his wife and kids don't give a shit.

And as it turns out, the entire street hates him.

To be continued . . . 

Oh The Tangled Webs We Weave

Wednesday seemed to go about like any other work day. Except there was a training meeting via phone conference for about an hour or so, starting at 8. Rather boring and until we start the new process, we really won't have that many questions or really understand the whole thing. 

Bubbles was her normal self - her utter cheerfulness infecting all those around her. Meaning the complete opposite of course.

I did my work throughout the day, finally coming to a point about 4pm where I didn't have anything to do. I had been working on doing some clean up on my "schedule" (pestering people as to why we haven't received payment), and had walked back in and heading to my desk when L asked me what I was doing. I replied that I was working on my schedule. She wanted to see what I had, which wasn't much as I've been keeping a close eye and it's been only one page long (when I started it was 3 pages) and I had addressed anything over 5 days old. I told/showed her and then asked her if she had anything I could help her with as I was pretty much done for the day. She said she had a project for me. Made me happy as I like to stay busy and didn't want to told to leave early if I didn't have anything to do.

I went to my desk to put my papers away and went back to L's desk so she could show me what she wanted me to do. She was looking to clean up our inventory online and make sure it matches what he physically have. As she's going over all of this, I saw an email notification pop up in the bottom right hand corner of her screen.

Now I'm not being nosy, as I was there for a reason and staring at her computer screen for the same reason. I was not snooping  or accessing anything I shouldn't.

The email was from Bubbles. The notifications also include the first couple of lines of the email. And since the notifications only pop up for about 10 seconds, I don't remember it verbatim. 

However.

What I do remember is this: "Dang! . . . . hope she'd go home early!"

I think the part I'm fuzzy on was something about me being done for the day or not having anything else to do.

Now, here's what bothers me. Bubbles sent this to L. I like L. She and I get along well and she's a good teacher. L is also the assistant office manager.

I will let that last bit sink in.

How fucking inappropriate is that? Only tons. My last hour of work I was really pissed off, but I didn't show it. I sat down with the printouts from L and set about matching what's in stock physically and online. Now, I know Bubbles and L are "friends" to a point. I believe they started at the company about the same time, and they take their lunches together. Well, to be honest, L, Bubbles, and T get to take their lunch at noon. I have to wait until 1. My boss typically doesn't eat her lunch until 12:30 or 1 and she usually eats at her desk.

So basically speaking, I am (in a sense) ostracized from the group having to take my lunch after everyone else.

Also, from day one, Bubbles has (for some reason) been quite hostile towards me. I have been chalking it up to her personality and that our personalities don't "mesh well". I am aware that  not everyone gets along, and I don't go to work to make friends. I do, however, expect civility and I don't believe I really get even that. Either that or her version of civility is vastly different than mine.

I talked it over with Boyfriend - saying I may need to talk to my OM on Monday when she gets back. As the whole situation is inappropriate and creating a hostile environment. However, if I complain, Bubbles will get talked to, and she knows exactly who will have complained. There are only 5 of us in the office, including the OM. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Boyfriend suggested I start documenting everything instead of going to my OM. Which I will start doing. Besides, either way I still take the brunt of it. If I leave it be, Bubbles will continue to exude her contempt for me. If I make a complaint, it will only make it worse.  So really, I'm screwed either way.

Also, Bubbles repeated a comment about having to fix stuff on her "schedules" and that those problems are due to other people's incompetence and laziness. She repeated it at least 3 times. If she's referring to me, I don't know what "problems" she's speaking of. She mentioned a few weeks ago for me to watch something and I have been. I even went to my OM to verify if I was following correct procedure. So I took measures to make sure to not make the same mistakes. If there are other mistakes she's referring to, I have no idea what they would be as no one has said anything. And if they are my mistakes and they aren't telling me about them, there is no way I can stop making said mistakes. I can't learn and grow if you don't inform me and teach me.

Oh. And that laziness bit? I'm not sure you could consider me slacking on the job. I do the deposit every day, process any and all dealer trades and wholesale transactions, process contract cancellation requests, and work on my "schedule". And when I run out of stuff to do, I ask L or the OM if there is anything I can help with, even if it's just filing. I even took on the dreaded task of shifting all the deals in the filing cabinets to make room. Me? Lazy? Doubtful. She may be referring to just our company, however, seeing as I'm getting the hint that she believes I'm incompetent and lazy, I'd like to say this to her:

"You think I'm lazy? I work three jobs, seven days a week. Three weeks in, I'm still unpacking and getting settled in my new place. I'm preparing to host my first Thanksgiving. Most every night I get home about 5:30 and do stuff around the house - clean, laundry, dinner, dishes, ironing, stack wood, go cut more wood, unpack, move shit around, write stuff for my grandparents magazine, do online training for my weekend job, and spend some quality time with Boyfriend. You're only 22 years old and you have a shit-ton of things to learn - one of them is basic civility. And trust me, you're not perfect either and you don't know everything. You are not entitled to anything so you can shelve your 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude. Also? Involving the assistant manager in your hatred of me is highly inappropriate work place behavior. So fuck you and the horse you road in on. Bitch."

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do some more unpacking before I go to bed.

Lazy, my ass.

Humpfh.
 

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What lesson has failure taught you?

That just because you didn't get what you wanted doesn't mean you won't someday. Also? Patience. And that somethings just may not be a good fit for you. It truly sucks to fail at something and to feel like a failure. But sometimes that means it wasn't meant to be.

2. What decision are you glad you made?

To move back to Redding. There were times I felt like a failure in the job searching, but I never would have met Boyfriend had I not moved back. Therefore, I wouldn't have moved into this new house we're renting on acreage.

3. I've been a little bit surprised to see fully lit and decorated Christmas trees popping up for the past several weeks in friend's Instagram feeds. So tell the truth-is your tree up and decorated, and if so when did that happen? If not, when will you be decking the halls?

NO. Just NO. November is too early. Nothing Christmasy is allowed as a decoration until at least the day after Thanksgiving. This includes all decorations, the tree, and Christmas movies. There's a house about a half mile down the main road from us that I saw Christmas lights on a couple weeks ago. I nearly had a fit.

 I usually put the tree up about two to three weeks before Christmas.  Christmas lights and decorations go up as I have time after Thanksgiving.

4. Solitaire-Poker-Rummy-Hearts-Go Fish-Old Maid...which game of cards would you most like to join? 

I like solitarie, go fish and old maid. I'm terrible at poker, and haven't played rummy or hearts in so long I don't think I remember how.

5. This question comes to you courtesy of a Facebook friend, who once upon a time had a blog...When you're feeling stressed do you snack a lot or are you more the 'can't eat' type?

Depends on the stress.  But usually I'd say I eat my stress away.

6.  Have you ever reviewed a product or service on line? Was your review favorable or less than favorable? 

I don't think I've ever reviewed a product online. I know I've emailed restaurants when the service has been absolutely terrible. But probably not the same thing.

7. What was the best conversation you had yesterday? 

Me telling Boyfriend about my terrible Monday at the office, part of it including Bubbles. He let me get it out. She made a comment and because I was having a 'case of the Mondays', it just really pissed me off.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Seriously, there are just not enough hours in a day anymore! Between the three jobs, I just feel like I can't seem to get anything done. I am allowed an evening or two to just relax and not do anything, but still, it just seems to me that I am not getting anything done. A few of the things I have done, I come home the next day to find it undone by Boyfriend's Grandma as she's put something of hers there instead. Oh well. Lots of places to put things in this house, so not a huge worry. Boyfriend even brought in the dresser we're borrowing from Granny (it was a spare, don't worry! lol) for Boyfriend's clothes so we can finally get his stuff out of suitcases and off the floor. It's been driving me crazy. Plus we brought in the bookshelf a good family friend made for my parents years ago. Fits perfectly in one corner, with Grandma's couch on the wall next to it. Now just have to figure out what is going to go on it! lol

Fun Customers

Many weekends are somewhat mediocre when it comes to my Pet Nutritionist Consultant job I do on weekends. Meaning, I don't really talk to that many people, I don't give out a lot of coupons, and in general, walk around bored for four hours. Sundays are typically the worst culprit, but then many people are in church tip 11 or so then often go out to lunch before doing any shopping or potential pet adoption.

And then I have random days or weekends where I get some great customers to talk to. Customers that have great senses of humor and joke around with me.

Much like today. A gentleman and his wife came in and were in my dog food aisle. He saw me and asked if I happened to have any coupons available. I only had the $2 off the bagged food, and I told him as such, adding that I had already given my $10 off coupon away earlier in the day.

He said, "That's a bummer. But I do appreciate even the two dollars off." Bonus? The food he was buying was already on sale through the store for $10 off. My coupons are in addition to the sale price. So really, he still got $12 off the normal price. Not a bad deal.

He asked me if he could get a shirt like mine as he loves the food that I represent, and promotes it like crazy at all the dog competition things he goes to. I told him I'd email my DM and see what I could do for him. We laughed about the shirt and a the fact that he was not the "early bird to the worm" with the coupons. His wife joined in with us and as they were leaving I told her I had doggy scarves to hand out as it was an adoption weekend sponsored by the food I represent. She picked a color and they went on their way.

About 10 minutes later, the pair of them are heading back towards the dog food, with an empty cart. I said, "Either you forgot something, or you lied about loving my dog food and thought you could get past me with another brand of dog food in your cart."

They laughed then said that after they loaded everything in their truck they realized the canned dog food they bought had been on sale for only 30 cents a can (which is like  dirt cheap) so they came back in for more. He loaded up and then as he started to walk way he began again about the shirt he wanted. He made sure to tell me his size and asked if I'm at the store every weekend and if I might have a $10 off coupon for him. Then he saw the scarves in my hand and realized I had been "holding out on him" and asked if he could have one. I told him "of course he could!" and to pick a color, stating I also had a orange in the bag.

His eyes lit up when I said orange, and he asked if he could have an orange one rather than the green one he had originally picked out. Of course he could, so I grabbed him one and officially said good-bye until the next time he needed dog food.

It's customers like that that I really do enjoy. Most customers, while nice enough, don't really invest much time joking with you and creating a rapport with you. They usually just ask some questions, and you send the on their way. But customers like this guy and his wife are good fun customers because they actually take a moment to joke around with you and brighten up your day.

I do wish I ran into more customers like that. Makes my day go by a bit faster.

A Day Without Bubbles Is Like A Day With Sunshine (And A Rainbow)

Last Friday, I had the rare opportunity to enjoy an entire day without Bubbles sitting behind me at work, polluting my space with her attitude.

Let me tell you something: It. Was. Awesome.

It was like the air wasn't as thick; a weight had been lifted so to speak. We all seemed to joke a bit more. Life seemed good. It was really quite amazing.

The work day went by just a little bit faster. I felt more comfortable doing my job.

My biggest problem with Bubbles is that she sits directly behind me and can pretty much see everything I do on the computer. Not that I'm doing things I'm not supposed to, but I know she can see me take the long way to do something because I haven't figured out the short cut yet. She can see me make mistakes. She can see the emails I need to compose.

It drives me nuts.

I know she's doing her own job as I can hear her behind me doing her own thing. But still, I feel like she's watching me. All. The. Time.

It's probably just paranoia. And I really do try not to let it get me. But her attitude is almost like a poison. Her personality just drags on the office morale, in my humble opinion. It seems to strange to me that someone so young is such a rude bitch.

I sincerely hope that when we get our new office, she doesn't sit behind me. I'd rather sit behind her. Or, better yet: I'd like to be on the opposite side of the room from her. That way, her attitude is less likely to poison my day.

But for one joyous day, I got to know what it's like to not have her in the office. And it was wonderful. And it was a surprise, too. I only realized she had the day off when I walked in and didn't see her at her desk. I could have done a happy dance.

I get to look forward to Black Friday without her, too. Oh happy day!

A Sunday Evening

I'm sitting here at the kitchen counter on a bar stool.

Boyfriend is cooking pork chops, Pasta Roni, and heating up some apple sauce.

I made a green salad and set the table.

I'm relaxing after working my shift as a PNC today, running errands, and coming home to clean house and do laundry.

Only to find that I apparently do not have a toilet bowl scrubber anymore.

On the list for tomorrow because that just can't happen.

Boyfriend cleaned up the garage a bit, and unloaded the trailer of his stuff he brought over.  He worked on his grandma's car and made sideboards for his truck if we use it to get wood.

An old co-worker of ours from the wedding rental place brought us some wood this evening. It wasn't the type of wood he thought, nor as much, but we paid him for his time and hard work.

Ran into an old family friend at work this weekend and they offered us lots of free wood. Have to look into what they have.

There's a fire roaring in the fire place.

Charley, whom we are dog-sitting while my parents went camping this weekend, is on her bed, near the fire place, basking in her vacation.

We are spoiling her rotten. Lots of scraps and letting her in the house. Which, according to our landlord, really isn't allowed, but he's not here. And at worst there will be some dog hair on the carpet which I will vacuum up.

So I will rest my weary legs, sit in my recliner for a bit (once dinner is cleaned up and laundry done). 

Next to me will be Boyfriend, resting his weary feet. Probably snoring away.

I interrupt my unscheduled break

Well hello blogosphere! I'm baaaaack. And yes you should be scared. I am.

Shit kinda happened all at once and blogging sorta kinda fell by the wayside. Mostly because I didn't have internet. Seriously, what did people do before the internet? While I wasn't completely without it because I have it at my full-time job (but I'm pretty sure they'd frown on me blogging while there), I was without it at "home" and it was rather frustrating.

Anyway, more details to come, but the reason I was without internet was because I moved! Boyfriend and I found a house with some acreage, looked it on a Monday and moved that same Friday. It was somewhat of a clusterfuck of a move - between the move, looming deadlines, and having to get all our utilities set up at the last minute, not to mention my computer trying to die because of viruses and Best Buy wanted to gouge my pocket book before they even looked at it and having to learning how to use Boyfriend's Mac - all of it about ready to drive me nuts.

I may not get all caught up on previous posts y'all have posted just because that's a lot to read after a couple weeks of being gone. But I will try to get back in the swing of things.

Also, Boyfriend and I are planning on hosting Thanksgiving this year (this will be the first one I've ever even thought of hosting because I'm not a cook). If everyone on the list comes, we're sitting close to 20 people in total. Yikes!

But eventually there will be pictures and details, I promise. Lots of ground to make up around these parts.