Catsup/Ketchup

June 15, 2011 at 1:45 pm (General Gobbledygook)
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Point The First:
In April, right after I posted that last entry, Kevin was told that he would be losing his job as of June 24th. We did not panic for at least a month because I still have a job and therefore we would still have health insurance even if we ended up living out of our car (because yes, that would be preferable to living with any of our various parental units). So we rewrote his resume and I lit fires under his ass and he’s been looking for a job. Ironically, there is a very good opportunity that has been dropped into his lap that would mean more money, more advancement opportunities, a better group of coworkers and a generally happier spouse. The ironic part is that it is at his current company, so all of my fluttering around redoing my W4 to cover insurance payments and figuring out how we could live on just my salary may be all for naught. Maybe I will instead try and figure out how to live on his salary! Anyway, hopefully we will know something by Friday but in the meantime, I will keep practicing burying my anxiety under layers of sarcasm, tears and wine.

Point The Second:
Last Friday morning, I worked for Company A. By the time I left for the day, I worked for Company B, because a third of my company got acquired/merged/all of the above so the rest of the company projects got spun out into a new company. It took a year to make the deal, 2 months to prep the spin, and we’re all still trying to remember which company we work for when we answer the phone. We have a new logo, which I designed and Leslie’s brother-in-law refined, but I have not yet been allowed to order stationery, and for some reason that is driving me bonkers. (And I just got cc’d on an email from my CEO and damn if he doesn’t have his old email address in the signature. Oy.) Everything that is filed under “Minor, Annoying and Necessary” is something I am in charge of, and for some reason those things just keep popping up and landing on my desk. Which leads me to Point The Third.

Point The Third:
Saturday is my graduation ceremony, when I will receive my MBA in all its glory in front of friends and family and yadda yadda. And my friend is throwing me a party and my mother-in-law is driving down from Sacramento and all of this is leading to a lot of “So what are you going to do now that you have your MBA?” And the simple answer is I don’t fucking know. I feel like Dustin Hoffman except no one is telling me to work in plastics. I have at least figured out that I want to go into project management, but without some actual experience that degree isn’t going to help me much. So I’ve made sure that my CEO and my CSO and my direct boss (who happens to be one of my best friends, AWKWARD) all know that I want to do more than sit at the front and send FedExes and remind people to clean out the fridge (okay, I already do way more than that but sometimes, I am bitter). So the six month plan is for them to start using me to help with existing and new projects and eventually transition me into a new role. I’ve already told Leslie (she who happens to be my boss now) that if the company doesn’t step up there’s no reason for me to stick around much longer than that. Supposedly we will be sitting down in the next few weeks and figuring out exactly what I’ll be doing with the new projects in the coming months. In the meantime, I will continue to be the Most Educated Office Manager.

Point The Fourth:
I am trying to figure out what I am passionate about. I am trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. But I am also so very, very tired of examining myself, going through the minutiae and figure out how to fix things, how to do what I “should” be doing. Maybe I am passionate about being lazy and hanging out with my dog and drinking wine and watching bad TV and worse movies. Maybe I already am what I want to be when I grow up. I have a cute apartment and a good husband and great friends and an okay job and a closet full of dresses. Maybe it’s okay if I’m happy with that and don’t want to chase after something else. Ugh. Now I’m annoying myself so obviously I should shut up.

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To Do or Not To Do, That Is The Question

January 6, 2010 at 4:18 pm (General Gobbledygook)
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I am notorious for having giant long to-do lists. At work I have these hardbound record books where I keep all of my notes, and every day I write a new to-do list with anywhere from 10 to 25 things listed on there to get done in one day. (I never finish them all.) I have a notebook that lives in my purse where I jot down lists of things I need to get done at home. I send emails with lists of things to do to Kevin so I can make sure that he gets his things done.

So with all my compulsive list making, you’d think I would love the whole resolution schtick. It’s a list! Of things to do! Except I hate it, because I fail at long term projects. I am a procrastinator to the extreme, a person who always waited until the last minute to do schoolwork. (True story: One day at lunch my freshman year in college, some friends tried to get me to go shopping with them. I told them I couldn’t because I needed to write a paper. “When’s it due?” they asked, “It can wait!” But no, it couldn’t because it was due at 3 that afternoon. I got a B+) So you see where telling myself in January that I will do something before December becomes a problem.

I am therfore NOT making resolutions this year. Instead, I’ve decided to make small, monthly to-do lists. And by small I mean 3-5 things. I do have an overall goal guiding all of this (Live well, be happpy, stay healthy), but the two main areas I want to improve are my diet/fitness situations and my financial situation. So every month, there will be 1 diet/fitness to-do, 1 financial to-do and 1-3 general life to-dos.

January To-Dos 2010:

  1. Diet/Fitness: Stop drinking soda. I somehow slipped back into drinking Diet Coke like it was water and that needs to stop tout suite.
  2. Financial: Create year-long budget spreadsheet. I used to do this every December to keep track of our paychecks and plan out what bills will be paid when. I stopped and now things are A MESS.
  3. General Life: Walk Sophie at least 3x/week. Even though she’s little and really tends to spend most of her time sleeping, she needs to get out more. She’s crazy when she doesn’t get enough exercise, and now that Laura and her pugs are gone she’s not getting her weekly 12-hour “run around like a crazy thing” sessions.
  4. General Life: Cook at home 3x/week and eat out at lunch no more than 1x/week. Gotta get our nutrition back on track at home; we can survive on cookies anymore. Plus, eating out is expensive.

I’ve also made a commitment to Sheila (she of the insane yet awesome workouts) that I will not miss more than 2 classes a month until at least August. And I made a commitment to Kevin to keep Saturdays open so that he and I can spend them together as often as possible.

So we’ll see just how much of it gets done. But I have high hopes because look how short that list is!

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