Nice... Long... Vacation!

I’m relaxed after 10 days away from work. Unfortunately I go back today and I’m not looking forward to it. I haven’t heard back from certain people that I should’ve heard back from and I might have some e-mails waiting for me when I get to work.

So I’m nervous to say the least.

But let’s talk about nice things - the past 10 days!

Thomas has to travel for work several times a year. Several times it is in boring places like Missouri and New Mexico (oops… anyone reading this from those states?) but other times he gets to go to fun places like Baltimore, Maryland - barely an hour away from Washington D.C. I have been to DC before, but it was when I was 10 and on a school field trip so my memories are fuzzy.

I had been hoping he’d be sent to Baltimore for the last year and it finally came through. We headed out there on Friday morning for a week long trip. Thomas only had to work on Monday for a few hours, and then all day on Tuesday and Wednesday which gave us plenty of time to spend some time together and tour the cities.

Because of the time difference we didn’t have much time to do anything on Friday after getting the rental car and checking into the hotel. We were starving and enjoyed dinner at Guy Fieri’s restaurant in the local casino and in the afternoon, while Thomas caught up on sleep, I watched Argentina win a game in the Copa America (which they sadly came in 2nd place this past Saturday).

The weekend was dedicated to DC. I found a walking tour of the city on TripAdvisor who was awesome. It was a free tour that functioned just on tips. The guy is a retired teacher who loves the city. He gave a lot of information and showed us the main sights. We started off by checking out the White House and Washington Memorial - from a far of course. We also saw the Vietnam, World War II, Lincoln, and Korean Memorials.

Saturday was a muggy day with rain in sight. Luckily, though, it held out all throughout our tour (for the most part). As soon as it was over, though, it started pouring. In such a way that my jeans were soaked, my sweatshirt was soaked, and my poor shoes were completely soaked. It made the afternoon uncomfortable, but we were able to enjoy the American History museum. I was cranky most of the time, but Thomas did well to pull me out of my crankiness (he has had to learn!).

We ran out of time on Saturday, so on Sunday we headed to the National Holocaust Museum which took a few hours to go through. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice lunch before braving the DC Metro to get to Arlington National Cemetery and then to the Pentagon.

On Monday we got to enjoy visiting the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and have some fun.

On Tuesday I got to go to Pennsylvania where one of my dad’s cousins’ lives. My dad has never met this cousin and they’ve never been in contact until several years ago when I got in contact with them. This was the first time that anyone had been able to visit him and I was very excited to get the opportunity! This cousin is 94 years old and is still moving around, cooking dinner, and has better printing than most men a third his age. He knew my grandma, whom I never got to meet and has been the family historian. I was glad to get to pick his brain a little bit!

It was an all around great trip and I’m glad I got to go along with Thomas on it. I’m hoping he gets sent to New York City again and also Niagara Falls! In the meantime this will suffice.

Coming home was nice because I still had 3 ½ days left on my break and I also got to celebrate the 4th of July - one of my favorite holidays!

I also got to buy a Chromebook which is where I’m typing this. My MacBook Pro is on its last legs and was not lasting on a battery charge for long and took forever to do anything. So far, after a false start with a Samsung version of the laptop, I am liking this Toshiba version. The laptop is light, portable, and easy to use! Score! Even better, it was only $300!

Work Drama & Gratefulness

Life is very crazy right now. Soon after I wrote my last post there began to be a lot of upheaval at work. 

Unfortunately, because it is all sensitive and private information I can't discuss it on here. Which sucks because I really do need to vent about the whole situation. 

What I can share is that I was forced out of the unit that I had been in for over 2 years (with a supervisor I adore and co-workers I get along with) and moved across the office. 

I'm hoping that it all ends up for the best and makes it so that I can transfer to a different office that is closer to home as well as one in which I will be able to do more. 

But the in-between is really driving me nuts. The anxiety I have had under control for years flared up and I had to get a prescription to help with it. 

Our breaks were also cut from 25 minutes to 15 minutes - and man, those 10 minutes make a big difference. So on top of being in meetings and pushed from one cubicle to another, my blog writing time has all but disappeared. 

I'm grateful, though, this Monday. Grateful for the amazing co-workers who have stood by me and helped to guide me through this difficult time at work. When something like this happens you really find out who your true friends are, and several have stepped up to the plate for me and made me feel truly loved and cared about. 

5 Types of Callers - Things That Annoy Me Thursday

I work at a call center (it’s just as glamorous as you think!) and I take anywhere between 15-30 calls a day. You can imagine that I get to talk to many different personalities during the day so I thought I would share with you the different types of callers that we see daily.

1.      Know It All’s: You know these people. We’ve all met them. In my case they tend to be the people who call, presumably because they need help or have a question, but then start telling ME what’s the situation is as though they were teaching me. They don’t let you talk or help them. You tend to have to cut them off so that you can get a word in and actually help them. Which leads to the asshole callers…

2.      Assholes: Not long after I started working, when I was still raw and not completely sure of what I was doing I got a call from a lady who was not happy (but very few are). She was talking to me about her problem and I was trying to help her and telling her that I was going to send a message to the proper person. When I told her to give me a moment to write she said “you aren't done?” I told her that I was waiting for us to stop talking to write it and her reply was “what? You can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”. That is the worst one I've had, but luckily we are able to hang up on callers (After warning them) if they are rude to us.

3.      Repeaters: These are the people who will repeat themselves over and over. They will tell you their story many times even though you've already resolved their issue. I will listen to them, I will fix the problem and I will tell them what I did, and then they will say something like “okay because (repeat problem here)”. These are some of the worst and you definitely have to interrupt them or you will be on the phone forever.

4.      Entitled: Oh, goodness. These I think are just as bad as the assholes. These people feel like they are entitled to the services we provide. They are not grateful for what we give them, but instead think that it is their God given right to them and heaven forbid they don’t get them on time. You can hear them saying: “I want to know where MY benefits are and when are YOU going to give them to ME?” Which leads me to…

5.      Grateful: These are the ones I like the most. They are so thankful for getting the benefits we provide. They continuously say thank you or God bless you. They tend to ask for a supervisor to let them know what a good job you are doing. They acknowledge that they are being helped and sometimes seem to feel ashamed or embarrassed for needing the help. 

I take Spanish calls and 95% of the time my callers fall into the grateful category. A grateful caller can also be a repeater, though. They sometimes are Know-it-All’s, but not generally.

Wednesday Wishes - Missing My Hubby

My husband is out of town this week and I miss him tremendously. I got to kiss him goodbye on Monday morning and he’ll be back in time to kiss me goodnight on Friday night, but I miss him very much each day in between.

My husband does say “I Love You” throughout the day when we are together, but sometimes does just feels like the same ‘ol same ‘ol. But on Monday I talked to my hubby while he was at the airport waiting for his flight and the first thing he said was “I’m already missing you, babe!”. It just tugs at my heart strings.

I can be a judgmental person and not believe the things he says, so sometimes I just brush it off as something he feels forced to say. But I have to remind myself that it’s not. He loves me and I know he misses me like I miss him (although I think it’s easier on the person who leaves than the one who stays).

While my husband will only be gone a few days and he only travels a few times a year for work, and at most 2 weeks at a time, there are so many husbands (and wives) out there that are gone for months and even years at a time in the military. Amber, over at Airing My Dirty Laundry, is currently doing the solo thing while her husband is deployed.

So my wish today is for the wives and husbands at home who have to do the job of mom and dad to their kids – I wish them a peaceful and stress-free time while their loved one is away. I wish their spouse returns soon to hug and kiss them good morning and good night. My wish for them is also to hold on to every “love you” or “miss you” that they receive – your spouse loves you and misses you too and can’t wait to get home to you!

Things That Annoy Me Thursday

I'm joining Amber at Airing My Dirty Laundry for this lovely topic today! 

I had written a post for last week, and then I re-thought it because a) it was too detailed and in case anyone in my “real” life reads this from work I may have gotten in trouble and b) I wanted to add to it.

The basic gist of what was really annoying me all of last week was a situation at work. I won’t describe the situation, however I will say this:

/start rant:

I do not understand some people. Unless they actually suffer from a mental illness, and I think this one person may, I just don’t get it. One moment this person is my best friend and she stops in my cubicle to chat and we give each other advise, etc. etc. THEN the next she wants NOTHING to do with me. This is what happened over the past month. When she gets into the hating me mood I just ignore her. She doesn’t add anything to my life to make me waste time worrying about. But then she does some things that seem aimed at me and I get annoyed.

Maybe I am overreacting and I shouldn’t let that get to me, but sometimes I can’t help it.

That same day that I wrote the post (Wednesday of last week) she decided that the hating me part of the moment was over and she was going to be my friend again – and so that helped in me wanting to hold back on the post.

I just don’t get it.

That same evening Thomas and I (in separate cars) met up with his parents for dinner. On my way home I was driving behind two exceptionally slow drivers. I was able to get around one but not the other, so I was stuck behind the car at a left turning arrow. And I mean stuck.

She didn’t pull up to the crosswalk line so it didn’t trigger the arrow to turn green. Writing about it, it doesn’t seem that big of an issue – but I wanted to be home! I honked at the car and she pulled up just half a car length, but luckily far enough that she triggered the light to change the next time.

Why do people not pull up to the line? Do they not know that there are sensors under the ground that let the lights know you are there?

Okay…. /end rant.

Week In Review

This will be done in bullet/list form – mostly because it is a bunch of mumbled thoughts.

• While I enjoy learning and appreciate getting new information that will help me advance in my job. I hate having to sit and listen to the same thing over and over. That’s especially true when it’s something I already know. This was a problem during the training I had this week. I understand that it is because not everything in the training has been around for as long as others, and they need to make sure we all know how to do things – but it drives me insane to listen to. 

• If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you would know that I acquired a pet fly over the last week. Last Friday night there was a fly buzzing around my bedroom. It kept getting near my head and then landing on the TV screen. I went to sleep and the next morning I saw it on the window. When I went to kill it, it fell into the window sill (and no, I didn’t throw it in the trash). Then on Monday night I was home with my niece and a fly kept buzzing around our heads in the kitchen and then in the master bath. It would bump into the mirrors over and over again. Out of curiosity I went to check the window… the original fly was no longer there. We have named him Norman. 

• Wednesday was employee appreciation day at work. Let’s say I didn’t feel appreciated. We’ve had a lot of negative things going on in our office over the past few weeks and having the management serve us some cold food (that I wasn’t even fond of, although many did enjoy) was not really showing appreciation. Other offices throw big parties for their employees with lunch and dessert, music and decorations. Ours was in the conference room, no music, no decoration, and the managers just passing out boxed up lunch. Last year we had some music and the atmosphere was better. 

• We have some plumbing issues at home. They aren’t severe and they don’t require immediate remedies, but I do want to take care of them sooner rather than later. I had a plumber come out last week to take a look. This week he told me that it would be $545 for everything. My jaw dropped a little bit. I asked him for a run down on labor vs. product costs. He didn’t give it to me. So instead I’m going to give my brother a hundred dollars and have him fix the things (which include the washers in the bathroom faucets, replacing the kitchen sink and master bath shower head, and fixing the shower/bath mixer). 

• Lastly, but most importantly, Thomas came home on Friday after 2 weeks of not seeing him! He’s not a texter, but on Thursday morning I got a text that said "I was just thinking... I can't wait to see my wife tomorrow!" 

My 9 to 5 Day!

I don’t know why it’s call 9 to 5. That would indicate a no lunch day or that people only work 7 hour days. That term always confused me. 

I work from 8:30 to 5:30pm and my view is always the same.

I do my best work seated there (here). You’ll notice there is a window behind the computers, but the worker on the other side of me can’t deal with the sun in the mornings, so she likes to have the blinds closed. Sigh 

I work for the County and specifically for the Social Services department. It might sound fancy, but it’s not really. I work in the customer service center which means I take calls from participants all day. I tend to take anywhere from 35 to 50 calls a day, depending how long my calls are and if I have to be off the phones to do something else. 

Unlike some of the other posts about work days, my days are pretty uniform. 

8:30-11am: I answer phone calls. My calls are 99.9% all in Spanish. I get paid an extra $100 a month to use my Spanish skills. Sometimes we have fundraisers that include selling food, raffle tickets, or other things which means I get to either sit in the lunch room to sell food or walk around the office.

11-11:25am: The regular break time is 15 minutes, however we can sign up for an extra 10 minutes in order to be able to do some sort of exercise. I typically just sit at my desk, but I do walk when the weather is good – or walk around the office.

11:25-12:30pm: I continue taking phone calls. Sometimes our fundraisers are lunch events which would have me off the phone during this time. 

12:30-1:30pm: My lunch time. I usually eat my lunch at my desk while I read blogs, write blogs, catch up on twitter, and do other non-work items. I also tend to take care of couponing and personal phone calls during this time. I also eat, usually a TV dinner, sometimes leftovers. Other times I’ll go out to lunch with my husband who works a couple of blocks away. 

1:30pm-4pm: Same as before. Wow, this is a boring post. If there are raffles to be had we’ll do it during this time as well and in the summer sometimes we’ll sell ice cream after lunch. 

4-4:25pm: This is my afternoon break. On Wednesdays’, in the summer, I’ll use this time to go to the Farmer’s Market at the mall a couple of blocks away and buy myself some popcorn. I’m writing this on a Wednesday and this might be what I do today. Otherwise I’ll usually go to my friends’ cubicle and chat with her. 

4:25-5:30pm: Back to the phones. This is usually the most boring and longest stretch of the day. Although I get off at 5:30pm I get to get off the phone about 10 minutes earlier because they want to make sure I don’t get any overtime – which would happen if a call takes me past 5:30pm. 

That might have sounded like my job is boring or that I don’t like it. I do. I actually really enjoy my job and do not dread coming to work in the morning. I’ve definitely had jobs in the past in which I moaned and groaned that I had to go to work every day – including when I was a substitute teacher.  

I have a supervisor who is great and who is dedicated to doing what’s best for our participants and I have co-workers that are awesome. I am very fortunate to work where I work and with the people I work with. 

My compute is about 5 minutes which is the icing on the cake for me!

Wednesday Confessional... I needed it!

Wow. I have quite a bit to confess this week or at least they are heavy confessions, especially since some things have not been going the way I hoped. A few of these confessions will lead to posts in and of themselves. Let’s get straight to it:

I confess…. that I get angry very quickly and take a while to “move on”. Examples of this include the current situation with our realtor. She has not been very good at communicating with us and her way of expressing herself has been insulting. I’m still angry and I have to watch myself before replying to emails.

I confess… that work frustrates me sometimes, even though I love it. For some reason there are people in my office (of 300 people or so) that don’t like me and complain about me even though I have done nothing toward them.

(I feel like this way too often!)

I confess… that I have made a great friend at work and she is great at lifting my spirits and listening to me. I am so thankful for her and many other people who are great! I don’t make friends easily so it is great to work with people whom I can consider friends and not just co-workers.

I confess… that I am a cry baby. I hate confrontations and will usually get emotional about them. When I get bad news (like when I didn’t get the townhouse we wanted to buy a few weeks ago) I can become inconsolable. It’s pretty ridiculous sometimes.

I confess… that I’m doing well so far this week at sticking to my eating goals, although I am going to dinner tonight for Thomas’ parents wedding anniversary. It’s a seafood restaurant and I don’t eat seafood – however there will be chicken on the menu!

I confess… that I am getting excited about having our own home and how I will decorate/organize my home. It’s really a dream come true for me and I am SO looking forward to it. At the same time I am being very cautious because I’ve gotten excited about 3 other homes and I didn’t get any of them.

I confess... that I don't know where to get good gifs from, so if you have suggestions, please tell me!

To end on a happy note….

I confess… that I will be married in less than a month and a half! That is just mind-boggling!

Pit & Peak!

This was quite the week! Unfortunately my post is a bit lopsided. 

PITS

• My best co-worker was not at work on Monday or Tuesday. Work is pretty boring without her. 

That's about it as far as pits go. I sat here for a few minutes trying to think of pits for the week but everything was pretty positive for the week. So let's get to the...

PEAKS

• Thomas and I got to go and see a condo that I thought I would like. 
• Thomas and I liked the condo and signed an offer for it right then and there and handed it over to the seller. 
• The seller, Thomas and I were able to come to an agreement and we entered into escrow on Thursday! 

(the fireplace in the condo)

• Today we complete our inspection and are now waiting for the official report. 
• My sister and her family came into town on Thursday night! I am very excited to have my nieces in town. They live in the Bay Area so I see them only a couple of times a year. 
• We celebrated a co-workers birthday on Thursday and had some Claim Jumper pie. Delicious!!

(my coworkers cubicle)

• On Friday morning I went to a special breakfast hosted by the American Red Cross. I'll go into detail about this in another post in a couple of weeks. 

So as you can see I had a lot of positive things going on this week. I'm very excited for this weekend with my girls and nephew and seeing what the next step is in buying our new home!