*sob*

DAMN HALLMARK HALL OF FAME!! WHY did I WATCH? It's only 45 minutes in and I'm sobbing already from the Hallmark commercial with the girl at her parents house for her birthday and the mom tells her the card is from both of them and she doesn't believe her mom and the girl starts to read it and the dad comes around the corner...

WHY did I watch?

A friend of mine says that everyone has one movie that they love that they would never tell anyone about. For me, it's not one movie, it's one genre. I rarely let anyone know that I get sucked into these TV movies all the time. (Also, Hugh Grant movies, but that's not AS embarassing). These Hallmark Hall of Fame ones are the worst! The commercials are mostly Hallmark commercials and they are ALL meant to make me cry. Weep even.

Stupid Hallmark and their heart warming commercials and made-for-TV movies. That little boy didn't know what Christmas was all about until he took his mother's Christmas card to that scary old lady. *sob* And that dad didn't know how to communicate his love to his daughter. *weep*

I better go. There's another hour left in the movie.

Good News/Bad News

Friday was like one long Good News/Bad News joke.

Good News: I woke up feeling rested and happy that it was Friday
Bad News: It was -15 (Celsius) and was supposed to drop to below -20 by afternoon.
Good News: I got an early start on my way to work
Bad News: Deerfoot was backed up and I still ended up being late
Good News: The day was quiet in the morning
Bad News: The day suddenly got crazy busy after lunch
Good News: My manager suddenly (at 4:45 pm) told me that I didn’t have to come in on Monday and Tuesday and that they would pay me for those days.
Bad News: He sat and watched me finish up as though he expected me to sabotage something or steal something.
Good News: It was my last time having to spend upwards of 20 minutes each way on Deerfoot just to get to and from work.
Bad News: I got rear-ended on my way home.

Seriously. I got rear-ended. About 5 minutes into my drive, traffic suddenly was stacked up. I came to a complete stop, as did the 1000s of other drivers on the road. Except the guy behind me. Who did not stop. Well, he didn't stop until he hit me.

My head whipped forward, along with every item in my car, and then whipped back (or it may have been the other way around. I wasn’t really paying attention to the sequence of my head whipping around). I sat, stunned, for a few minutes, realizing “That actually happened!?” and realized that my neck hurt. And my head really hurt. And my back hurt.

I finally pulled over onto the shoulder (luckily I was in an outside lane) and slowly got out. I expected the whole back end to be smashed in. I thought I had heard glass breaking at the point of impact. Amazingly (to me anyway) there was no real damage to my car.

The other driver pulled up behind me. I won’t go into the whole thing here because, frankly I don’t have a lot of kind words for him. Let’s just say he is new to Calgary (and probably to Canada), he didn’t want to give me his insurance information, and his wife kept telling me “Oh, you’re fine! Your car is fine! It’s no problem.” Um. Excuse me lady but shut it. You are not a mechanic nor are you a doctor so shut it. I nearly lost it when the driver started telling me that he had skidded “on all the gravel”. (There was no gravel on the road, nor was it icy)

I’ve been driving Deerfoot every work day both directions for 2 years and have never had even a real close call. I’ve had to stop suddenly and nearly got sideswiped a couple of times, but nothing really had ever happened. After I stopped being freaked out I just kept thinking: “This was the LAST time!! My LAST Deerfoot commute!!”

So, overall, a very strange last day at work. Especially since none of my coworkers know that it was my last day. The managers at that place do strange things and have this wierd secrecy thing. And, also, my manager suddenly realized on Friday that I would be gone a few days before they had to do inventory. (Ask me how disappointed I am about that)(haha)

At least today has been good news.

This morning, I was looking at the phone at about 10:30 my time, thinking about calling my mom. Then, I thought “Well, Keri will be having the baby today so Mom won’t be home.” My mom was on constant watch to be on the road immediately when my sister, Keri, went into labor, but I hadn't talked to either of them for several days. Initially my sister’s due date was November 26th. Then they changed it to Dec. 5.

At about 3 in the afternoon my sister-in-law called to tell me that they had just heard that my sister had the baby. Guess what time she had the baby. Go on. Guess.

At about 10:30 am my time.

(Spooky, huh?)

So, I will be relaxing* this coming week. I start at the new job on December 4. I'm looking forward to it, especially considering the way the Cool Kids were acting this week. (Whew am I glad to be done with them!) I plan to spend my week working on Christmas presents that I am knitting and I'm hoping to brave the mall one morning. I may be delusional, but it seems to me that a weekday morning will be much less crowded than an evening or a weekend.

*This is what the week's forecast looks like (these are in Celsius):








See that? This is a pretty normal Calgary forecast. Monday and Tuesday (when I can stay home and warm!) the weather is "Sweet Fancy Moses! I can't feel my nose!" then by Friday (when my niece wants me to take her to the zoo!) it's "Where are my shorts?"

Je m'amuse

Take This Job and Shove It Countdown: 5 (well, 4 1/2 now) days remaining!!

Add to the fact that I'm feeling slightly bitter and/or cynical about my current employer and about the fact that the owner of this company asked me to "keep it secret" until Monday (for who knows what reason, really.), I'm bored. We have been very slow for a week or so now. I'm trying to get things cleaned up as much as possible for my replacement and training him as things come up but, there's only so much a person can do.

So, I've been amusing myself. While I've been keeping on top of the work that needs doing, I've tested my hand/eye coordination and practiced parking. I studied Miss Swan videos in order to perfect my imitation. I may have watched some Stuart videos as well. (I have come to the belief that a well-timed, unexpected Stuart imitation will make almost anyone laugh so hard they turn bright red and stop breathing.)

So far today, in addition to some mundane paperwork, I've talked to my sister and a friend online, I've contemplated RSVPing that I will be attending the company Christmas party. It's 3 days after my last day, but, since I'm supposed to keep it a secret, they don't know that. I've made mental lists of what I will do with my days off after my last day here and before my first day at the new job (hints: sleeping, watching daytime tv, knitting). Blog reading takes up some time, as does random link-following.

So, now, I'm trying to come up with other ways to amuse myself while keeping up with the little bits of work that need doing. Ideas? I want something that will cause people to wonder what the hell I'm doing (but since the cool kids don't talk to me no one will actually ask). I'm thinking about making a big countdown calendar for my desk. Or sending myself "Congratulations on your new job" flowers. Maybe I'll just start knitting at my desk during work hours. Or I could bring in my sewing machine. Or, I'll just keep reading blogs and watching YouTube.

(4 1/2 more days!!!!!!!!!)

I just had the best idea! I have about 990 of my business cards left. Maybe I'll work on a craft project with them. Ooo. That sounds like fun.

Ahhhh... That's better

Last time I wrote, I was stressing about the job decision I had to make. I finally had my meeting with the manager in question. They were not willing to move on the salary. In fact he seemed flabbergasted (I love that word) that I felt I could get more elsewhere.

I informed them about the other offer which they seemed to be skeptical about. I went back to my desk and waited to hear from them. They declined the opportunity to counteroffer. In fact, they basically told me I'm not worth it. Which was nice of them. (imagine for a moment the amazing self control it took to not yell at him. I just sat calmly and said I would think about it)

I handed in my resignation this morning. I feel so free.

Except for the fact that these people, for whom I have put in an average of 9.5 hours per day for over a year now, are responding to me as though I am a marginal employee at best. As though I have no real input or contribution to make. These are the same people who are constantly praising me to customers, who offered me the job because they saw that I was already doing that work on my own because I saw a need. Then they turned around and told me that they weren't interested in offering more money (their offer was what I should have been making as a starting salary)(and was less than the starting salary of the guy who will take over my job)(he started 3 months ago). They said that I needed to "prove myself capable" in the new job before they would consider an increase in pay. I have already been doing the job. For 2 years.

When I handed over my notice, the response was, "Well, we wish you well" and "Please keep this secret until Monday" (I'm done on the 28th! Yay!!). No mention of "We'll miss you" or "We're sad to see you go" or "Thank you for all your hard work".

Ask me how sure I am (now) that I made the right decision.

I quit. I QUIT!!!!!!!! The new employers are very excited to have me come work for them, which definately cancels out the response here. I don't have any delusions that the new work will be magical and fairytale happy, but I know that I will be appreciated there and that counts for a lot. Plus, I've seen the other employees and there is not a muffin top to be found.

Whew. I want to make a big count-down calendar and make a big show of tearing off a page a day. I'm also mentally listing all the stories i can tell now that I won't be an employee here anymore. Yay.

PS. Antonia, thanks for your comment. and, *blush*, you're too kind... The email announcing your comment came as I was sitting back down minutes after handing in my resignation! The email from you sort of reminded me I did the right thing!(Thanks)

For the rest of you, if you haven't been to see Antonia's blog (and brand new baby, awwww...) you should. So. Funny.

AAAGGGGHHHH!!!

I haven’t written/posted anything in a long time. To my vast readership (har) I apologize. The thing is, some stuff has been going on that I really wanted to write about but didn’t/couldn’t because of one or all of the following:
a) people involved know about this blog
b) it was work related
c) I couldn’t figure out how to write about it.

I still don’t really know how to write about any of it other than to say this: If you are EVER, for any reason looking for a sure-fire way to make me completely insane and trigger my stress-related intestinal issues (ew) here’s how to go about it:
1. Put me in a situation where a decision has to be made.
2. Force me to make that decision
3. Give me 2 options with equal pros and cons to both
4. Add to the mix the fact that my decision will affect other people
5. Force me to wait 3 weeks in between telling me I have a decision to make and the time when I can finally have all the info needed to make the decision.
6. Add in some guilt and self-recrimination about issues that are only marginally connected to the decision but which have somehow made themselves integral to the decision.
7. Stir and allow to steep.

In a nutshell: I was approached 3 weeks ago by a manager at my work asking me to switch to his team. This would be a promotion and was to be accompanied by “a significant raise”. This manager then went away for 3 weeks without providing me with the information needed to make a decision about this promotion (i.e. the salary and job description).

In the meantime, I was approached by another company who want me to come work for them (eee!!). The salary they offered was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than what I currently make, but the work itself is exactly what i’ve been doing for the past 2 years. By the time this offer came to me I had started to really look forward to the change in position that the offer from my company afforded me.

Then the salary offer from my current company came in and, well, it was disappointing. Almost insulting, actually. I know for a fact that their offer is lower than the starting salary of at least one of my coworkers (a guy). In fact, that particular coworker will be taking over the position I am to be promoted out of. I have been with this company for 2 years. This is my second promotion with this company. My coworkers (the non-Jr. High Cool Kids ones) generally come to me for answers and/or help with issues all day, every day. But somehow I am worth less per year than he is?

It sounds like a no-brainer: go with the money. I realize this is the obvious answer. And, if my current company balks when I ask for more money then I will go with the money. The thing is: the new job doesn’t really entice me. The idea of moving away from the Jr. High atmosphere at my current work is appealing. The new job is closer to where I live, also appealing. But the actual work is what I had been hoping to get away from.

AAAGGGGHHHH.

I try to turn my brain off but it doesn’t work. I had finally gotten ahold of the manager at my current work on Wednesday and he assured me I would have answers first thing Thursday (my birthday*. Yay me). Well, I didn’t have the answers first thing Thursday. Then all day long I had to stew about it, ended up getting in an online argument of sorts with a friend about it, then finally got my answers which ended up raising more questions... Let’s just say this birthday was not the best one ever.

I did have lunch with one of my best friends and my other best friend took me for dinner and to a concert, so I really did have some celebrating. But underlying (or overshadowing, one of the two) everything was this looming decision.

I meet with the manager tomorrow. They don’t know about the other job offer because I haven’t had opportunity to talk to them about it. Salary aside, I have concerns that I want them to address before I accept the job, assuming they would meet the other offer. If they don’t then this is all moot.

Did I already say AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH?

Also, to add to the fun times happiness: One of the other managers announced to the staff that I was taking the new position within our company. 2 weeks ago. Before I had even said anything about it. Which started a shitstorm of hate from the Jr. High Cool Kids I work with. Whee.

I know: why am I even stressing about it? Take the new job! But... But... AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I’ll be back posting (irregularly) about nothing when this all gets sorted. Although, if i take the new job I won’t have any funny new stories about the cool kids to tell. But, I guess I would be free to tell the stories that I have about them since I won’t be working there anymore.

See, it’s hard! Both sides are equal!

*36**
**Just 2 weeks ago someone assumed I was 25, so I’m not too too pissed about turning 36...