Stuffed

Well...today went pretty well. I feel like my brain is about to explode with a mess of Amazon but who knows. :) Everyone is really nice and eager for me to get into the swing of things but they understand it's a lot at once which is exactly what I would LOVE to have - and now I do. Yay!!

And in OTHER great news...my masks came!!! I got VERY addicted to Heidi Swapp masks after the 20-hour crop when I got to play with an alphabet on this:

and (unbeknownst to her, I think) Ashley motivated me to give paints and scrapbooking a 2nd chance so I really wanted to get some more! So...I ordered them from Treasury of Memories and they came today!! YAY!!! I'm so stoked!! Asia, I'm bringing them to the crop Friday (yes, I'm going to another crop -this one's "only" 12 hours) so we can PLAY!! :)

Fun Fun Fun

So...it's been a good weekend.

Friday was my last day at my old job and it was ...surreal. It totally didn't feel like it was happening. The department went to lunch at McCormick and Shmidt's (a seafood place - they took me out to lunch at a seafood place?!?!) and it was really fun. They had some good options other than seafood too. :) AND they got me $50 gift certificate at one of the malls here. Yay!

I made it through everyone leaving at the end of the day (Asia was easy - I will see her frequently so we didn't really say bye) until it was down to the last 2. One being the sweetest lady ever (who, by the way, got me a $50 gift certificate to the local scrapbook store...sweet!) and the other being a girl that started after me that I really hope allows herself to "blossom" in the working world. She's growing so much and I know she'll be a great employee-it's just that I'll miss seeing that! :( I totally broke down when I had to say good bye to them. :(

Jason had made plans with his friend for them and their girlfriends to hang out, so we went to the driving range, out to dinner and then to Gameworks. I had never been to the driving range before and it was fun!

Jason and his friend were practically pros:

I, on the other hand, was not doing as well as I would like. I hit most of them between 50-75 yards, with only one going past that. Oh, and I got like 3 whiffs before each connection between club and ball. Details. :)

Jason and his friend were trying to hit the balls into the baskets - they only got one and I got TWO!! I friggin rock. Of course, I couldn't do it if I tried, but ya know. :)

Saturday Jason and I ran some errands, getting birthday gifts for his dad and random other things before his family came over to celebrate his dad's birthday. Jason's neice was there - she's adorable! Love that chick. She got a new toy and she was so cute.

We left there and went to meet up with The Newlyweds Adam and Asia to see a well-known comic at Giggles in Seattle. (sidenote to Asia - I am so bad at getting pictures when the 4 of us go out!! This is the 2nd time I have nothing to prove we did the activity together. Remind me next time. Or else.) :) (which, I guess the "or else" will be that we won't have any pictures)

He's definitely R-Rated and it was okay - different than I expected but still fun. :) My favorite "employee"/host of Giggles, Jeff, was there. I think he's under-rated there or something. He never seems to get the spotlight he really deserves and other, strange, comics get it. Whatever.

Today I ran errands, used the $50 mall gift certificate in conjuction with a sale that was going on at one of my favorite stores and hit the jackpot. Tomorrow - I start my new job. I'm nervous/anxious/excited. YAY! Most of the day will be training and getting situated, but still- YAY!! :) Hopefully I will have ALL of my voice back, as it's still mostly gone. It's better, but not all there yet. :(

Prime example

So, like I said before, I am feeling really sucky lately. My cold (or whatever this is) won't go away and as a matter of fact, I feel like I'm getting worse. 100.4 fever, no voice now, constant pain...yeah...this is the life. :-p But, I am posting this from work. "Why on earth are you there?" you may ask...and I'm starting to wonder the same thing.

This morning I was actually feeling guilty for missing work again for being sick - rationalizing it with the fact that I gave three weeks notice and then would be bailing on the last week. So I decided to try to suck it up and come in. And it just so happens today is my exit interview with HR (which they and I have both been looking forward to, but could be rescheduled) and it's Administrative Professionals day. I didn't expect my office to do anything for me since I'm leaving, but I did not expect what they did do.

They bought the temp flowers and did nothing for myself or the other assistant in the office. This is the same temp they were saying yesterday that they would not be hiring at the end of her contract. But they wanted to show her appreciation and not the two of us.

It's one thing to not do anything. It's another to slap someone in the face. Especially someone that just did you a favor by staying longer than necessary and coming in even while sick.

I'm furious. Again. With this office. And I'm leaving. Friday can't come soon enough.

Playing Catch-Up

So...I never caught up from my blog post last week. Whoops! So this will be a big post. Bear with me. I expect comments. :) (ha)

So first things first - Asia, one of my most favoritist people ever, got married on the 13th. Her wedding was so pretty! I'd never been to a Catholic wedding before, but it was really nice. She did a good job keeping some secrets from me too, so even though I knew of a lot of the things she had planned she still surprised me! :) Yay! :)

Here's the beautiful bride and her dad and step-dad:

Saying vows/exchanging rings:

Me and Asia:

One of my favorite parts of the reception was when one of their friends did his rendition of "Ice Ice Baby" - it was awesome!!!

YAY!! It was really cute.

On the 14th, Jason and I went down to Pike Place and wandered - it was so much fun! I love being down there. Of course pictures of that too:

The market: Of course, I had to take pictures of the fish-flingers. Couldn't get any of them actually throwing the fish, but this was good enough for me. We stopped for some treats and I had a frozen banana which I didn't really think about until Jason took some pictures...silly.... :)
And these artichokes were friggin enormous!!! It was nuts!! And of course, the flowers. The daffodils were so pretty and then there were some tulip/lily hybrids that were amazing!!

Jason (being the sweetie that he is) bought me a bouquet and then bought a bouquet to leave at his friends house that we were housesitting for. He's so nice. :)

Let's see..what else...so everyone and their mother was out of the office last week and it sucked. I don't like when people are gone, and to top things off I had to train the person that's taking over the admin position. I hate training. I'm the most impatient person I know, and that was not fun. Geez. But oh well.

Friday was the big scrapbook event!! I left work a little early and went to get things ready then I went to pick up Ms. Ashley to head up to Bellingham and Treasury of Memories. It was funny because I think we both knew we would get along and do fine together, but since we hadn't spent much time together at all and now we were heading into 24 straight hours, I know I didn't really know what to expect but I had a blast! She's so much fun! :)

Anyway, we got there and were totally overwhelmed - there was so much to this thing - they went WAY above and beyond to make it a fun night! There were probably 70 people there and most people were 4 to a round table, so it was tricky, but fun. They fed us SO much, too!! We had dinner catered by Izzy's pizza and Olive Garden, 3 mid-night snacks, breakfast by Designed Dinners, and then lunch by I think Subway. It was so good!! :) Anyway-pictures!! :)

Ashley and I:

Ashley:

Me:

And here's why I look so tired...it was after 3am:

It was so funny - most of the gals that wimped out went to hallways or side rooms or something but not the gal at the table next to us...she just hid under the table.

We all got goodie bags stocked full of stuff:

We got canvas totes that had all this stuff in it - 12 sheets of paper including new Scenic Route and Karen Teague designs, 2 kits, a destination stamp by Heidi Swapp, a card/envelope pack, and a wooden book kit to make a mini book.

Now you have to understand, usually when I go to crops they give you the crappy stuff they can't get people to buy, not brand new stuff that's CUTE!! That was fun.

They also had felt, buttons, thread and die cut machines to design our totes they gave us. I kept mine simple but I love it. :)

The kits they gave us were cool too...one was for a mini book and the other was for a six pack of cards. Again, SUPER cute stuff - not like what you normally get for free!! So fun!

I also purchased this "I am so lucky" mini book kit and started putting it together - I am totally addicted to the new Heidi Swapp masks! love it love it love it. :) Here's the tiny bit I did so far:

I also worked on the "52 weeks of memories" book - here's one of the pages:
Ashley and I made it through the night!! I took a 20 minute nap before we headed home (the 2 hour drive would have been unbearable had I not) and then I crashed. I slept about 14 hours and felt okay, but was definately ready to sleep again last night, but before that - THE FAIR!

That's right, the Puyallup Spring Fair was this past weekend so of course Jason and I had to go. It was fun! :) We kept it pretty simple - we weren't persuaded to buy anything in the live infomercial room, but we played Whack-a-Mole

And did skeeball:

And for once, I actually won something!! Yay!!

And of course we got the scones:

It was fun! We also got to see the drummers which is one of our favorites!!

CLICK HERE for video one or CLICK HERE for video two

But now...I am sick. I have such a sore throat and am just feeling crappy. It sucks. I had to miss work today which isn't as great as it sounds because Asia was back today. Sad. This week will be hard to be motivated as it's my last week there before I leave for my new job, but oh well. I should go. So...yeah. Hopefully I will feel better for tomorrow. I just hate feeling like this. :(

For now

I have been housesitting for the last 11 days for 3 different homes (one right after another). I get to go home and stay in my own bed tonight. I'm very excited. I miss home. I do have to go to class tonight before I go home which isn't exciting (I'd rather go straight home) but oh well.

I start my new job two weeks from today. Yay!! Today is the first of 3 days where half of our office is gone. It's quiet noise-wise but busy work-wise. And I have a tummy ache. Sad. :( I'm kinda in charge which is weird - I'm one of the newer employees, and I'm leaving, but put me in charge. Sure. :)

The rain is falling outside the window on our work patio. It sounds so cool.

I have lots of pictures from this weekend - Asia, one of my most favoritist people in the whole wide world, got married on Friday and we went to Pike Place on Saturday - so...fun times. I'm glad.

This weekend is my 20 hour scrapbooking extravaganza. I'm excited but I'm tired as I type this so it's difficult to imagine staying awake that long. I will be drinking about 20 Diet Cokes. :)

Until later....

Op pour tune it tee :)

Sooooooo...way back when I was offered that job working with the two real estate agents as their assistant, I had a heart-to-heart with my boss and she gave me a picture of how she saw my position developing. She mentioned salary (and we talked a specific number), hiring someone to come help in the office since everyone felt overwhelmed and that she knew I was capable of "bigger and better things" and that she wanted to help with that.

That was 2 months ago. After the not-getting-paid-for-the-overtime-I-did fiasco, I did get a raise but about half of what was discussed in that meeting. And that took 2 months to get. And there's no sign of help on the way. And I'm frustrated. There's more I could say but I think that paints some of the picture.

So I happened to still have an email from one of the recruiters at Amazon.com, so I wrote back apologizing that it had taken me so long to respond but I would still be interested in the position. She responded! The process started. For the past 2-3 weeks I've been phone screening and then this week I had my interview on Tuesday. Thursday they offered me the position and...I accepted!

I am so excited! I love the atmosphere at Amazon - everything is focused on their bottom line of the customer being the focus. They don't spend frivolously and the people that work there want to be there. The team I would be working with are great - the thought process of the day is logical and, in the words of little orphan Annie "I think I'm gonna like it here".

I don't start until April 30th because so many people are out of the office this month at my current job it would be crippling to them for awhile to not have my help and have to do my job if I only gave 2 weeks notice. So Amazon respected that and is letting me do 3 weeks. Love it. And they are totally fine with me having school on M/W - sweet!!

Now I have 3 weeks to ask dumb questions in my head. Like, where do I park? What's the pay schedule? Bi-weekly? Twice a month? Where do I go for lunch? and stuff like that. I'm a dork. I'm just excited. :)

YAY!!

Laugh so hard you...fall over???

One of my favorite books of all time is The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapmen. I felt like I learned so much about relating to other people in this book!! I also learned that I am definately a "quality time" person.

Knowing that about myself, it's sometimes hard for me to really get to know people face-to-face. I've learned that with the wonders of the internet, I can get to know people pretty well by spending time focusing on them through emails, chatting and just really learning about their life from them. Once I did that, though, it feels harder to get to know people in person. (does that make any sense?) Because I feel closest to someone when I have memories and moments with them, getting to know people is hard for me! And if there's little quirks about people that are hard for me to get past, it's even more of a challenge to convince myself to work to move past those things. (Sounds way more complicated than it probably is).

But my absolute most favoritist way of getting to know people is through humor. I adore people with a sense of humor similar to mine, and when I get to laugh with other people. I feel so much closer to people that I've laughed a lot with.

Anyway, I just started thinking about why I wanted to post about Saturday night and all this came to mind, so...yeah. Saturday.

Saturday night we were invited over to Dan and Emily's, along with Jenn and Clint. (you might remember this group from The Melting Pot Post - Clint is Jason's best friend, Dan is Clint's brother and Jenn and Emily are their wives.) Dan was gonna be cooking (with some assistance) and we were all supposed to be there by 5 to eat at 5:30. Well, we had to stop for a few things so we were a little late (the stops were for them) and it was okay because the food didn't end up being ready until...7:30. No joke. But it was good. I think. :)

While we were waiting, the girls hung out, had some drinks and we all just had a REALLY good time. It was so much fun!! Our bonfire/hang out night was one of my favorite memories of the past year - awwww...

Clint and Jason - BFFs!! (or as I like to call them Heterosexual Life Partners - ha)
Clint reinacting the "evolution of dance" - Running Man.
Clint and I

Jenn, me and Emily
Jenn, Bonnie, me and Emily
Awww...
We were trying to make Jason drink his beer and he was SO confused as to what we were doing.

And my favorite - Clint was laughing so hard at something that he literally fell over. No joke. Like knees gave out - he's on the ground. We were laughing way too hard to take a picture of that, but I did get a picture of him on his knees on his way back up. :)

I had such a good time!!! Yay for fun. :)