Friday, July 29, 2005

TGIF Part Two

Two weeks down at my new job. I still feel like an invalid at the end of this week as well but at least now I know what I don’t know. Last week, I just walked around like a zombie completely ignorant to everything around me.

One thing I know is that I am really bad at being trained. If only I could pay attention for longer than one minute, perhaps I could get a better handle on things. I try to be an active listener, but it just doesn’t work for me. I see their lips start moving and then five minutes later, they say: “In a nutshell that is how that works, any questions?” This is when my question should be, “Yes, what did you just say again? I am sorry I started thinking about traffic patterns in Cleveland and drifted off.” Instead I just say, “Nope, I think I got it. Thanks.”

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

That Moment

There is that moment when you realize you have made the right decision to switch jobs. The moment when you say to yourself, “this was the right decision and I am so excited about this move in my life!” That moment came to me this morning.

I was sitting in my office talking to two of my co-workers when one of them noticed my Ani DiFranco sticker. The conversation soon turned to Bitch and Animal and the woman who asked me if I had ever heard of them was so excited when I said I had. I revealed, with a little hesitation, I have Bitch autograph my chest whenever I see them perform. She turned to me and said: “Me too!” That was the moment I knew I had made the right decision to switch jobs. Who cares about the promotion, the raise and the self-fulfillment this job will bring me at the end of the day when I am working with someone who also gets a little tipsy and has Bitch sign her chest.

The very best part about the whole conversation was I would never have expected him to ask me about Ani DiFranco when I first met him, and I most certainly would never have expected her to pull out a picture of Bitch from her desk when I first met her.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Thought For The Day

My boss gave us this quote this morning:

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are--you aren't."
-Margaret Thatcher

Hopefully he wasn't trying to say something about me with this thought.

By the way, he is hilarious! To keep things light, he quotes lines from "Mommy Dearest"--what else could you ask for in a boss?

Friday, July 22, 2005

TGIF

Finally! It is finally Friday. The last day of my first work week at my new job and I couldn't be more excited. Don't get me wrong, I love the job, but I am so exhausted from the amount of intake I have done over the past five days. I can't wait to not be the "new girl" anymore. Last night I was actually in bed asleep by 9:15. However, I did have to get up at 10 for Being Bobby Brown on Bravo and then go back to bed. If you get a chance, you have to catch this show!

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The New Blog Entries

This job is going to have me running all over, all the time. I love that. My blog will suffer. Many posts are going to look like today's:

New job is so great, can't wait to tell everyone about it. Running around like crazy. Rumor has it LeBron is going to have his own reality show on MTV.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Thank You

I may have hated a lot of aspects of my current job, but I really loved some of the people I worked with over the past three years. Tomorrow is my last day and as I look back, it will be my co-workers (not all of them, believe me) that I will miss the most. I wish I could take some people with me in my new professional adventures but I guess this is part of growing up and moving on (it seems like I have been doing a lot of that lately).

There are a couple of people that saved my ass on a weekly basis but who made me laugh on a daily basis. You know who you are! If you are reading this which I am assume you are because there are only three people in my office with this blog address, than I want to say thank you. Tomorrow I will tell a bunch of different people how much I will miss them and what a difference they have made in my life, but to the few of you I bonded with beyond work issues, who got my stupid jokes, who knew exactly what I was thinking before I said it and who looked out for me so often, from the bottom of my heart, Thank You!

Thank you for all of the real conversations we had. Thank you for making it fun to be in this office. Thank you for helping me with the boring little tasks I could never complete due to my attention span. Thank you for laughing with me when nobody else knew what I was talking about. Thank you for going along with all the stupid things I did. There aren’t enough words to describe how much I will miss you. We have become like family and I will never forget you.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

If You Ignore Sexual Harassment, Is It Still Sexual Harassment?

Last night I had an interesting experience inside my favorite little ghetto gas station. I try not to throw the word ghetto around loosely, but in this case, it really fits. This is a gas station I have driven away from on more than one occasion because I was pretty sure they were being held up inside. Nonetheless, it’s close and the cashier is a nice guy who likes to talk sports with me. His cousin from Brooklyn on the other hand is a little much.

His cousin hasn’t been around since football season when we used to talk almost every other day about the comings and goings of the NFL. I thought he was a little crass to other people, but he never said anything weird to me, so I didn’t really care. Last night he may have crossed the line, but I ignored him, so it doesn’t really count, right?

The conversation went a little something like this:
Him: “Hey baby where you been, I haven’t seen you in months. I have been missing you so bad.”
Me: “I need a pack of parliament lights and ten dollars of gas.”
Him: “I know you were missing me.”
Me: “Did you guys see the home run show Bobby Abreu just put on at the home run derby?”
Him: “I wake up every night thinking about you.”
Me: “The guy hit 24 home runs in the first round alone--nobody has ever even passed 15 in that round.”
Him: “Sometimes when I wake up my sheets are so wet…”
Me: “You guys getting ready for the football season?”
Him: “I know you will be going out with me by the time football season rolls around.”
Me: “I am really looking forward to my fantasy draft this year. It seems like forever since the Super Bowl was played.”
Him: “You know you got me so hot right now.”
Me: “It was good to see you guys. Take care.”

Maybe it was sexual harassment, maybe it wasn’t. I was trying not to pay attention.

She's Back

After months and months, Aquamego has gotten her act together and has started updating her blog again. Oh how I have missed the windy city stories from my old roomie. This is one of my favorite blogs in the world because she is such an incredible writer and her perspective is so unique. Welcome back, I missed you!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Irony

The ironic part about wrapping up my job is that this is the most work I have done in the three years I have been in this position.

More irony...the CAVS desperately need a shooting guard with range and they sign Larry Hughes.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005


The gang at the garage last weekend

Impromptu dance parties are the best

Birthday Dance Party, Who Knew?

Thanks to the best public relations practitioner in Cleveland I was able to get some pictures uploaded to my blog from a birthday party last week. Lately things always seem to end up as an impromptu dance party and this event was no different. Karen and I decided to break it down right by the door. Those poor people.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

It's Not Just A Meal, It's An Adventure

Last Wednesday I had an amazing dinner. A dinner not enough people in Cleveland know about which is so unfortunate. Yes, this entry is six days after the fact, but this just illustrates how pleased I was for it to keep my attention this long.

I went to OPA! last Wednesday for the Greek Fest and I was very impressed with the final result. My dinner companion and I stopped at Dave’s to pick up a bottle of wine and then carried our bottle across the street to OPA! where they gladly let us bring in our own wine for a $5 fee. Considering what a nice bottle of wine can cost you at dinner, this is an incredible deal. We couldn’t decide between the Cabernet Sauvignon or the Zinfandel—luckily for us Coppola makes a nice mixture of the two.

Our next pleasant surprise came when we entered the restaurant and found we practically had the small intimate environment all to ourselves, which means we also had the waiter all to ourselves to explain everything we were about to eat. And did we ever eat. The fest starts you off with an appetizer platter consisting of spanakpita, stuffed calamari, feta, olives, pickled vegetables and stuffed grape leaves. It was a very exciting and interactive dish to share as we tasted and discussed everything in front of us. Once we were done with that, we both were presented with large greek tomato salads which also included capers, onion, green peppers, feta and a greek vinaigrette dressing. Following the salad, you are introduced to your entrees: pastitsio, lamb kabobs, stuffed chicken and the braised vegetable of the day. It was all so very good but the chicken won my prize of the night. It was an “airline” chicken, which our waiter had to explain to us, stuffed with pastourma (a Greek version of prosciutto) and kasseri (Greek cheese). To top off this dinner, the desserts included baklava w/ouzo ice cream and coffee. Because of the food coma I was about to fall into, we actually got to take our dessert to go.

For a fun dinner for two, you can not beat the quality and the quantity of food you get at OPA! on Wednesday nights at the Greek Fest. Your palate, stomach and wallet will all thank you for the experience. (To add even more class to this experience I highly recommend following this lovely dinner with body shots at The Grid for ladies night, but that's just me.)

I Got A New Job

It is true. I actually got a job offer last week which I accepted and I now I am crazy busy for the next two weeks. As a matter of fact, I took a real job where I actually will have to pay attention and do real work, so hopefully this will not be the end of my blog. I might just have to get me a computer.