new favorite: ridiculously awesome biking

youtube's 2009 most memorable #23

new favorite: surprised kitty

youtube's 2009 most memorable #20

new favorite: mysteryguitarman

voted YouTube's 2009 most memorable vid

(I can name a few reasons why... hehe ;))

Office Christmas Party

Just returned from our Office Christmas Party up in Suncadia. It was a terrific time! I'll post more on it soon...

post-thanksgiving smokey stew

We made this up with some homemade cornbread & honey butter tonight for Ryan and his friend...turned out to be a success so I thought I would share it!

post-thanksgiving smokey stew

4 chicken breasts, cubed
4 celery stalks, diced
3 carrots sticks, diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup pearl barley
6 cups water
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 T liquid hickory smoke
3 bouillon cubes, chicken
1 bouillon cube, beef
2 tsp sage
2 tsp parsley
1 tsp bay leaves
½ tsp marjoram
½ tsp celery seed
1 tsp pepper

1. In a large soup pot, sauté onion, carrots, celery, garlic in 1 T vegetable oil until onion starts to get some color starts to get transparent.

2. In a skillet, brown chicken cubes in 1 T vegetable oil until golden. Pepper just a little.

3. To pot: add water, soups, barley, hickory smoke, bouillon, herbs & spices. Add browned chicken when ready.

4. Cook on low for 30 min. to let flavours merge & chicken to cook through. Check taste & adjust as necessary.

Serves 6-8.

Customize it...!!

- Turkey, quail, or pheasant instead of chicken.
- Rice instead of barley.
- Shallots instead of garlic & onion.
- Cream of Whatever (Mushroom, Celery, etc.) soup instead of Cream of Chicken - or no soup at all!
- For a TexMex twist: add 1 tsp (or more!) of smokey chipotle seasoning or 2 tsp canned smoked chipotle peppers for some heat; 3/4 cup tomato paste; 2 tsp oregano; maybe even some chopped up green & red peppers and/or some corn.

sleek graphite: giveaways!

Wish I could tell y'alls that I have my hands on the beautiful UK sleek graphite palette for my own giveaway, but nooooo...apparently they can't even keep it on the shelves over there! That said, a simple ebay search shows I could win a bid on it for about $40 (ha!! I don't think so). So instead I've found a couple folks out in the blogosphere who are giving it away as part of a promo for their site. Take Princess Livia and Cosmetic Candy for example...

Send me pics of your lovely looks if you win it, you lucky dog you!!

new favorites: youtube - makeup trends, tutorials, & reviews

I don't know WHY it took me so long to stumble upon YouTube for its vast wealth of homemade how-tos, but now that I've experienced it, I'm hooked. LOL :)

It started with my October search for the perfect 1940's look for a themed Gala I attended for our local Pacific Northwest University...(some of my favorite inspirations included Old Hollywood hair by Ford Model's Johnny Lavoy and this retro-style make up tutorial).

In my search for this look, though, I came across many, many, MANY, great make up artists (MUA's) with some fantastic tutorials and product review on their channels and vlogs. It's fair to say I'm now hooked on YouTube makeup. :)

Here are some of my new favorite YouTubers:

- pixiwoo

http://www.youtube.com/user/pixiwoo

(aka: http://www.fashionfacetv.com / http://pixiwoo.blogspot.com/)

These two, AMAZINGLY, talented (and gorgeous!) sisters - Sam & Nicola - consistently put out beautiful, artistic, make up tutorials, chock full of knowledge, British wit, and helpful product reviews! I only wish I had a smidge of their artistic talents! They have opened my eyes to the world of timeless & trendy make up beauty, as well as to fantastic products (top of the line and drugstore variety - and some only available in the UK: such as Illamasqua's Liquid Metal or Sleek Makeup's I-Divine palette in Graphite...

...which btw, if I happen to find either of these from you as a birthday present, I will love you forever and ever and ever [and may even kiss you!!] - I've been hot on the hunt for it ever since pixiwoo's Greyscale review!). I highly recommend starting here if you are interested in being inspired by the latest runway looks, creative design, or maybe just to listen to their awesome British accents. :)

- makeupbytiffanyd

http://www.youtube.com/user/MakeupByTiffanyD

(http://makeupbytiffanyd.blogspot.com/)

I find that Tiffany also provides consistently beautiful how-tos and products reviews. She has a great sense of humour, the longest eyelashes to envy, and very wearable looks (I just wish she'd do more dark lip colours for us brunettes!). Check out her "Basics" playlist - I learned a TON from those! I also credit her for introducing me to the NYX brand of cosmetics (which apparently is a step above the common drugstore lines, but yet has super reasonable prices). I have a yet to try any, but the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk is one that Tiffany often uses as a base for her eyeshadows (gives 'em something to stick to on the lid), and is definitely on my "list" to try - looks like it retails for about $3.50. Not bad, eh?

- enkoremakeup

http://www.youtube.com/user/EnKoreMakeup

(http://enkoremakeuponline.com/Beauty/Home.html)

Koren (and sometimes his alter ego Korinne!) provide THE GO-TO channel for any product review, demo, and DIY info on make up that you could possibly need. I have learned so much from his brush reviews, how to depot your eyeshadows, brand comparisons, etc. He is a wealth of knowledge and talent! (And I envy his make up collection!!) If ever I'm not sure about something (shading, contouring, even colour 101), he's my first stop on the internet for getting up to speed. Thanks to Koren's review of artist brush dups of MAC models, for example, I was able to hit up Michael's for their Loew Cornell Maxine Mop brushes to fill a void in my eye makeup collection...at 40% off, they were about $3 a pop. Pretty nice vs. $30 a pop! :)

- emilynoel83

http://www.youtube.com/user/emilynoel83

(http://beautybroadcast.blogspot.com/)

By morning Emily is a news show anchor for her local network, but during the rest of her day she (and occasionally her husband Tyler, who makes guest appearances!) runs her Beauty Channel on YouTube. She was the one who first introduced me to the ever-popular Coastal Scents line of cosmetics, most specifically the 88-palettes, which many YouTubers claims is quite comparable to MAC. (I've yet to try it myself, but the warm/neutral 88-palette is definitely on my list of makeup I'd like to try someday! The same palettes are also available here: BHCosmetics.)

Her vlogs focus on reviewing affordable makeup (often drugstore brands) that deliver high reward for the price. For instance, before spending a small fortune on primers, be sure to take a look at her massive eye shadow primer review! So I like to watch her and then read the Sunday papers for the next buy one get one sales at Walgreens. :)

So as you can probably guess, you will probably be seeing a bit of a theme from me in my upcoming posts: fashion & beauty! I plan to do at least a nail polish and a lipstick post, as soon as I find my camera that is.

I'm curious for your guys' feedback! Have you discovered a website or YouTube channel that inspires your fashion and beauty?? Comment about it! I'd love to hear from you. :)

new favorites: yet to come...!

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been on a girlie-kick lately. It's still true. :) Check back soon; I will have some more posts to come!

new favorite: kappa danielson (youtube artist)

alright ladies...

...time to get your fashion bug on!

I just discovered a website (yeah, yeah...you've probably been playing with it for ages...I'm slow to catch on, I know) that allows you to shop the web all in one place and put together your own virtual dressing room.


(this would have been fun with my rocker chic eyes from last night! and can you believe the 80s are coming back, anyway??)

check it out here: http://www.polyvore.com/ it allows you to search by color, designer website, price range, etc. pretty fun time waster, or perfect for your next "I need a new outfit, let's go shopping!" moment...!

and I probably should take this moment to apologize to my male readers in advance: I'm on a bit of a girlie-kick at the moment - consider yourself warned. ;)

happy halloween!

my best attempt at a costume was as a "rocker chic": black, blue, & silver eyeshadow and teased out hair. my big outing for the night was to Target for candy for all the trick-or-treaters we DIDN'T have this evening. haha :) oh well - at least it was fun to play with my makeup a little. stay safe all you party animals.

on the corner of 8th street... (j/k)

so here's what I came up with! I was going for vintage 40s Hollywood glam vixen starlet pin-up girl: wavy hair ala Veronica Lake (which promptly collapsed about an hour into my five hour event, thank you rain), bright red lips (thank you Connie for making sure I didn't get it all over my teeth!), the back in vogue moon manicure (and here2), as well as sparkly jewels & pearls. Tried to win a gorgeous fur caplet off ebay, but failed miserably (the bidding soared way out of my price range). No worries though; I at least had a luxe velvet stole, which actually worked out just fine.



Big thanks to our local fashionista, Mrs. Gay Dorsey, for forcing me out from behind the camera man for a brief kodak moment myself, and for considering me worthy of her fashion blog! (I stole her picture of me for the bottom left of the above collage.) I wish she would have taken a picture of herself: she looked absolutely perfectly 40s herself. (If you are curious to see more photos from the night, be sure to check out her blog - she has a ton of great ones on there!) And thanks to Dad, as well, for again suggesting I should at least smile one last time for his camera before collapsing into my sweats, t-shirt, and bare feet. LOL

It was all terrific fun!

having a ball...

Last night I attended a black tie, 40s-inspired Gala in support of our newest local school: the Pacific Northwest University. It was actually a really fun work assignment (the company I work for was the Tribute Sponsor for the night), so my role was as the photographer's assistant for the night. Chad (Portraits For A Lifetime) would take pictures of the guests and I made sure we had their addresses to send their complimentary photo to them. This is the second event I've attended for work where I've assisted Chad and it's a really fun time.

(Ok, I just have to put a plug in for Chad, just 'cuz - he's truly a terrific photographer, great to work with, and his work is gorgeous - call him if you need a photographer. You won't be disappointed. And I don't get anything for saying that either.)

Back to the event: it was pretty neat to see everyone's take on the 1940s! I sure didn't know what the heck I was doing being a child from the 80s, but I grabbed some Veronica Lake and Dita Von Teese photos and did my best to channel the decade.



I hope to be able to post more pictures of my whole look and the event soon. Check back within the week!

"sorry, due to site maintenance your account is unavailable at this time"

withdrawals...... ok, so not really, but I haven't been able to access my facebook account for over a week now! and if you try to find me on there it will probably look like my account has been deleted (which I didn't!)

fb is being pretty cryptic about what the issue is...and what's taking so long to fix it:

I guess it's a small percentage of the fb population that's been affected, but yet enough to create a stir out on cnet, yahoo, and elsewhere. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10372417-36.html)

kinda frustrating, but what can I truly expect from a free service anyway? oh well.

sooooooo...just know that I'm still around (even if I haven't posted on fb or here for eons and a day)... :) I'll try to do better about at least some part of that!

nothin'.... (thank goodness??)

rain choir

yearbook time travel

what a fun wedding idea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=player_profilepage

What's his story?

Last week on my way to work I was behind this guy ... and couldn't figure out for the life of me what he was doing.

It's an old dude wearing what looks like his war vet helmet while riding in a bucket seat in the back of a beater pickup. He had his mouth hanging open and was just staring blankly at the world going by.

Is he a war survivor, who never took off his helmet?

I think he needs a story.

Post your best storyline as a comment!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

creative website

Here's a cute email I recently received:

Subject: HEMA

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores in the Netherlands .

Take a look at HEMA's product page. You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

Don't click on any of the items in the picture, just wait and see what happens.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer, ya?

http://producten.hema.nl/

new favorite: Barbara Padilla

America's Got Talent: Barbara Padilla's Performance

"bear: where's goofy??"

Bear LOVES his little Goofy pal. He carts it all over the house and often wants to play fetch with it. I find it hidden in the strangest places, though (slid under the doorway to the storage room under the stairs, etc.). If we ask Bear, "where's goofy??", he'll start meandering around, looking under chairs and into crevices, like he's trying to find it. Pretty cute. :)

The latest place brought a huge smile to my face, though: face up, in his food bowl. LOL :) Not sure what Bear was thinking when he put little Goofy here...



He's had more fun with this "free" Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal box plush toy than he's ever gotten out of the pet store toys I've purchased for him. (I should have invested in more Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereals for the "free" Disney mini-pals!! Surely would have had some cost benefit sense there!!)

my little girlie

Dallas loves to be carried around, draped over my shoulder. Shortly after this picture was taken she conked out, totally asleep, just hanging there. She feels like a warm, soft, limp ragdoll. LOL :)

home, again

(click to make bigger)

ahhh, home...

new favorite: Kings

Anyone else into this new show, too?? With the House season over, I really wasn't finding anything else to watch on hulu...until I stumbled onto this series. The first couple episodes the acting was tough to get through (not to mention the loosely written story-line in terms of the corresponding Biblical story), but six shows in now, I'm hooked. (I think I'm a sucker for the romance & political wars!!)

US to Trade Gold Reserves for Cash through Cash4Gold.com

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

Obama to Hold Job Performance Review with Every American Worker

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_to_hold_job_performance?utm_source=a-section
Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker

laugh

woohoo for country music in Yakima!!

Just checked the fall-time fair concert schedule and we have two - count 'em: TWO! - great country artists, actually coming to Yakima!!  Phil Vassar & Billy Ray Cyrus!  Sure beats out the last time I went to the Central WA State Fair and heard John Michael Montgomery slur through his songs and forget words to music he's been singing for years...and "sip" from his water bottle on stage rather than "drink" from it.  Great.  Can't get much worse than that, right??

  

Oh yeah, and Boyz II Men are coming as well - only about 18 years too late (they were "the" boy band of, let's see...my 4th grade year....).  hahahahaha.  geeez.... 

Mark me down for Vassar!

clever

sun & guns: fire arm clinic day at a high-country desert orchard

This weekend has been gorgeous; we've finally had some nice warm weather after an extraordinarly long winter and slow spring.  I got out on my bike twice, felt good (minus my psoas cramping both times - I'm working on it at least).  Pruned on some yard plants.  BBQ'd tonight.  Putzed around the house with the kitties.  AND, made it out to a fire arms clinic at an orchard way out in the Naches/Wenas area...

Sure was a fun event!  Got to see several guns I'd never seen before (including some muzzle-loaders), as well as test out some various pistols first-hand.  I decided I have a new favorite:  the .500 Smith & Weston revolver.  Oh that baby is powerful and has sweet aim - and it is HUGE!  Apparently it's the most powerful production revolver out there.  I guess you can even hunt game with it at over 200 yards!!  The kick felt (to me) like I was firing a low-power rifle.  Very fun!  I was pretty proud of myself too...the instructor and his hunting buddies played with it before I got off my test shot.  They were trying to hit a hunter-orange "bomb" about 200 yds out on the ground that they had made with some explosive powder (I was told it's all legal - LOL) and were all off by a ways from it.  The instructor then handed the gun to me and told me it was my turn to show them all up.  I hit the dirt just 8 inches or so to the left of the target; very close, compared to all them.  He looked quite impressed and said had I aimed the gun just a hair to the right I would have hit it.  Woohoo!!  ;)

Just to give you an idea of how hurking big the 500 is, here are some pictures of the gun and ammo.  (I have no idea who the people in the pictures are - just pulled them off a google search.)

(that's pretty much what I looked like - LOL)

(yes, it's about as long as my forearm too)

(the thing takes HUGE bullets)

So all very fun.  Keeps me dreaming/drooling about that over/under shotgun I hope to buy this year!!  S.M.M.: you are definitely going to be there when I buy it, too, k??  I'm gonna need your help!!

"where'd I put my phone this time??"

I was pretty sure I'd finally lost my mind.  For almost the whole past week I've had the worst time finding where I've left my phone!  And of course I'd leave it on vibrate-mode, so that didn't help any.  And when I would finally find it, I couldn't figure out what I'd been thinking (or not thinking) when I left it in the places I'd find it!

Until today.  It all became clear...

I was eating dinner in the kitchen with mom when I heard "clink, knock...clink clink, knock...clink" coming from the stairs.  I got up to see what the kitties had found to play with this time, and to my surprise, Dallas had my BlackBerry in her TEETH and was dragging it up the stairs, dropping it, picking it back up, and dragging it again!!!  She was brining it up two flights of stairs, all the way from my headboard in my room across the basement!!  Crazy girl.

I quickly took it from her, and she protested by squeaking at me.

So mystery solved.  I'm not loosing my mind (as badly) as I thought I was.  One of my kitties just has a thing for my phone...

"thumpa...thumpa...thumpa..."

...that was my email code to Dad back in college, when I'd get too busy to write much, to at least let him know that my heart was still beating and I wasn't slumped over my books in some remote corner of the library where nobody had missed me enough to come looking yet...

So thump, thump - I'm still here and not laying prone somewhere past East 'G' Street on North Naches Ave (thank goodness).

I've been busy lately, but honestly, not sure it will sound like much once it hits the keyboard here...

-  work

-  back dr. appts. 3x/wk

-  stretching

-  making dinner for the fam

Yeah, that's been about it.

The exciting news is that my back finally started to turn a corner about Wednesday of last week - after over a YEAR of constant pain and ever-decreasing mobility and range of motion.  My 'therapy' has been kicking up a lot of toxins as my muscles finally relax and stretch out and my body starts moving like it should again.  It took a good 2-3/wks of therapy where I felt horribly miserably achey all over, dizzy as my body re-balanced to the appropriate height on the right side with my heel lift, and thinking through a dense fog of toxin-release before it seemed like the sun started shining again.  The best part:  I felt up to riding my bike this weekend - TWICE!...and my muscles didn't scream at me afterwards!  Granted it was only 15 minutes (about 3 miles) each time, but that is a HUGE accomplishment for me to do without experiencing any adverse pain!!

I still have a long ways to go and it takes about 1-2 hours out of each day by the time I'm done with appointments, stretching, exercising, and stretching again...but it's so nice to finally feel like I'm making progress.  Finally.

My best friends in this process: a roller massage table at my back dr's office and a foursquare-like rubber therapy ball that I roll around on at home.  Oh, and my dr is a good guy too.  :)  And then there's also calcium, magnesium, potassium, vit D, grape seed extract, fiber and water, which have all been fantastic as well.  And my job.  Thank you Jesus for a paycheck again to support the process.  

Speaking of my job: it's been a very very mellow one - so much so that when I get home, I don't even think about it any more (I can't remember the last time I haven't taken the day home with me).  It's left me open to doing a lot of daydreaming/scheming during my night-time hours.  The latest on that to come in another post, another time...

scoliosis

So, the new word on what's wrong with my back is.... scoliosis.

Not sure if it's congenital or functional (muscular) or what, but found out I definitely have a short right leg that's causing about a 3/4 inch drop in height on my right compared to my left leg, which is causing my low back (lumbar) to sway to the right and throw off my mid-/upper-/neck regions.

I'm on my fourth back doctor...and finally the first thing he did was take x-rays.  These aren't mine, but mine looked pretty darn similar:

The good news is all my discs look pretty healthy (with the exception of the one being pinched in my iliosacral joint, between my S1 & L5).  

Apparently this is what is happening, biomechanically:

My new doctor gave me a heel lift to wear under my right foot (instead of the heel lift my last doctor gave me to wear under my left foot - what a mess).  And he said that surgery is far from even necessary for me at this point, so at least that's good news. 

I'm hoping that over a year of chronic pain, lop-sided clumsiness, and downing ibuprofen like candy that THIS doctor will finally get to the bottom of what's wrong with me.  He says he can.  (And if he can't I want a referral to an awesome specialist - this is getting ridiculous & expensive!)

I'll keep you posted.

under the stars: "oh, my aching back!": an update

rickity old ladder

I'm home alone, watching a really scary movie, at 2:00 am (never sleeping now).  Decided during the commercial break I should get some bread for tomorrow out of the freezer in the garage, shutting the door behind me so my kitties wouldn't follow me.  

At this point I realized the handle didn't feel right.  I tried it again...yep, it's locked.

!@#$.

The folks aren't due back until late Sunday night; all my neighbors are asleep; I'm barefoot & coatless in my pjs; I don't have a key to the house or to my car; and I don't even have my cell phone with me.  And all I hear is the super creepy music from the scary movie and the screams of people being attacked by zombies.

I figure I have three options:  

(1) wake the neighbors (and then what??), 

(2) crawl into mom's car and try to get comfortable in the backseat until morning (like I could sleep in there, esp. with all the scary background noise), or 

(3) try to get through the only unlocked window in the house...the open kitchen window, two stories up.

I decided to try option 3, figuring it would either lead to option 1 or would have to try option 2 if I failed.  

I paused as I looked at the rickity old wood ladder in the garage: it's been around longer than the house - would it hold me?  I prayed the adventure wouldn't result in an option 4:  a night in the ER.

I started around the house to check out the window...and realized the night was pitch black and I had turned off all the house lights.  I couldn't see a thing.  But I could hear gun fire blasting from the living room.

Totally creeped out I hurried back to the garage to look for a flashlight.  Nothing.  How could we not have a flashlight in the garage??  Probably the same reason we don't have a spare key hidden outside the house.

So I found a portable construction light...but it would need to be plugged in to work.  Which means I would still need to walk around to the back of the house in complete darkness and fumble for the plug-in on the back deck.  Which I did - praying for protection from whatever the whole time.

Ahhh, light.  So much better.

Back to the garage for the ladder...to find it blocked in by snow tires.

!@#$.

The back seat was seeming more and more like the option I was going to have to pick.

Eventually wiggled the thing out of it's location (probably hadn't been moved for years) and hauled it off in the near-darkness to the side of the house.  I started having flash-backs to the night I helped my Irvine roommate crawl through her kitchen window to unlock her place.  ha!

Managed to get it set in place, now praying the whole time that it wouldn't slip and I wouldn't fall...and crawled through the window onto the sink counter...while Bear stared at me wide-eyed from the kitchen floor.  LOL

I made it!  Whew.

Back to the garage to close things up, I opened the freezer to get my bread...

Turns out we're all out.

Damn it.  Go figure.  Such is my life...

beautiful

dance today

i-wannabe-irish beef stew

Alright guys...y'all left me in a lurch on what to do with my huge side of beef and multiple bottles of Guinness (the latter not being so much of the issue - hehe).  NO ideas AT ALL??  I'm very disappointed.

You left me no choice but to wing it on another recipe...

I-Wannabe-Irish Beef Stew

by:  yours truly, cvo

huge chunk of stew beef, browned

cubed up fresh veggies:

- 5-6 cloves garlic

- 1 lg onion

- 3 potatos

- 3 rutabaga

- several celery stalks

- dump in some baby carrots

2 C beef stock

good-sized handful of various herbs & seasonings

and...

3 bottles of GUINNESS! -->  two for the recipe, one for me...  ;)

It's cooking in the oven at 350F right now and will continue to do so for probably a total of 2-3 hours I'm guessing.  Already an hour into it though and it's smelling the house up something fierce....yummmmmmm....can hardly wait!

What's up with this serious lack of comments, though?  Don't think for a minute I don't see you parading by on my Feedjit widget...come on now...  ;)

need...coffee...now...

The night before my first day of work, I was way too excited about the idea of finally starting up my job (after nearly a half year [if you can believe it - time has flown] of not working...!!!!!!  talk about penny-pinching and getting sick of job hunting)...so excited, in fact, that I couldn't sleep................................at all...

I had to double my daily dose of B-vitamins...and reach for coffee (LOTS of coffee).  haha  ;) 

Sadly, by the time 5 o'clock rolled around, I was certain I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open long enough to sit through a professional networking lecture series on Music in the Valley at the local New Leaders meeting at the Seasons Performance Hall (which I was very bummed about - I had been looking forward to that for a month!!).  Bummer.  Rather than nodding off in front of my local peers, I went home, fixed dinner, and crashed at 7pm instead.  ;(

I feel so much better today.

Work is going well so far!  Second day under my belt.  Right now they are training me on their software systems and data management protocols (yawn).  The technology itself seems pretty intuitive for the most part - it's getting used to the new lingo that's been the biggest challenge yet (...picture filling out an application form you've never seen before, one that you have a basic idea of how it should flow - but about half the language on the page looks foreign to you, as though it's written in some latin or germanic-based words that you kinda get the jist of and/or has a bunch of "abbrv txt spk 4 P/C MODs, liab ins, pip, & other ins sys" that you have to guess what it stands for based on its relationship to the rest of the page, but some context is missing & recorded demo training voice guy has some weird accent that distracts you from the program every time he explains the "dee-fot" [default] buttons and "dec" page [all I can think of when I hear him say that is the liam show!...sad!!  focus, focus.....]................huh?!....that's about how it feels).  

Apparently this "training" period takes about 6 months before I start to feel up-to-snuff on how things run.  (I told mom I already feel my competitive edge kicking in: "well if it takes 6 months, I'm going to show them - I'll have it down pat in 2-3!!  I'll be their fastest learner yet!  Promotion here I come!!")  ha!  right.

 How did I get this way??

Anyway, the company is built to function entirely internet-based & completely paperless, which is very cool.  In fact, they have it so streamlined that I rarely need to move away from my desk to do anything (except reach for more coffee of course).  Faxing?  Receiving scans?  Sending insurance docs?  Email.  Email.  Internet.  All at my computer.  I'm excited about how progressive they are.  Everyone has three monitors on their desk as well!  Which does beg the question:  why would anyone REALLY need to be IN the office, so long as they have a good computer and a fast cable connection?  The work can be done VIRTUALLY anywhere.

(sample picture - not my real desk)

In case you are curious, my actual job - or hired position at least - these days is as a Commerical Lines Assistant for a local insurance company that handles some large-size regional clients (hospitals, farms, etc.).  I'm not totally sure what that means yet, but I'm getting the sense that it involves mostly data management and some project management as support to a small division in charge of Commercial Property insurance: some folks in the division handle sales (or as they call it, "production" - why not just call them sales people?  I don't get it), some are client relationship managers (portfolio mgrs), some are team managers (supervisors), and others - like me - process the data as support staff (administrative support assistants).  The position I interviewed for was a portfolio manager position...but obviously I have to walk before I can run in this new industry, since I don't have direct insurance background.  So, they are showing me the ropes to see how high/fast I can climb before assigning me to management (if I get there).  Which makes sense.  There's a lot for me to learn.  It's exciting to be flexing my brain again (but I have to admit - I am still pining to be crunching market population statistics instead, analyzing financial data trends, and driving around a new cities scouting out, assessing, and cataloging old-peoples' homes....I'm just telling myself that this background in Commercial Insurance will only better my understanding of property management, should I go back to the Senior Housing industry in the future someday).

God's got it in His hands.

Little blessings, so far, that I'm happy about (far over and above my last job) - all things said:  awesome, fast, up-to-date, company-provided technology (with NO expectation that I am to personally fund and/or maintain my own technology for company-use).  A window in my cubicle...it lets in lots of natural light (even if the view is of a brick wall...oh well).  My desk faces windows on the opposite wall that let in more natural light and I can see some greenery (even though it's mostly a view of the parking lot and the ghetto-ville neighborhood that our building is located in...at least I can keep an eye on my car).  Friday we can wear jeans if we want to...and everyone actually does (versus my last job where we could wear jeans but everyone was competing so fiercly we all still wore our suit get-ups, and maybe just ditched the jackets for the day).  I'm expected to be there at 8:30am, to clock my two 15 minute paid breaks, to take my full hour lunch, and to leave no later than 5:00 sharp (lest I be the one to lock the door & turn the lights out at 5:10!! - which you should be very happy about, SMM - it means I have no excuses and may actually be saving YOU a chair at Bob's one of these days now, instead!).  The people seem way nicer to work with than in California, easily by 10 fold if not more.

I should probably get going.  I have a lunch to make and shirt & slacks to press for tomorrow!

Hope you have a great Friday.

cvo

job

The rumors are true (despite this being April Fools) - it's official: I am finally employed!

Today is my first day back in the world of cubes.

Yes, cubes.  

Sadly my new job isn't my "dream job" in the sense of it being another step on my Senior Housing management career path.  Or is it?  Maybe it's just a side step, and I just don't know it yet.  Either way, I still feel like I'm making some personal sacrifices and taking some professional steps backwards just to HAVE  job in this current economy... my accustomed income level, an office with a door, a position with the word 'manager' in it, business travel points and key chains from states I haven't visited yet, etc.  You know, that material ego-stroke stuff that somehow, some sneaky way, becomes important in a professional life.

...(sigh)...

What I am GAINING from this job, though, is priceless to me right now:  a steady paycheck, great hours (8:30-5, with no frowns or strange looks if I'm not in the door before 8am and leave before 6:30pm), in a city I want to live, near family & friends & 5 minutes from Bob's (crucial - ha!), a chance to start in a new industry broadening my resume (yeah, yeah), working for people from a culture that is people-focused & friendly, time for exercise & fun stuff after work, short commute, low-stress job, ...basically, a better, healthier, more fun lifestyle than the one I had in OC.

So, I guess 'so what' if I'm back down at the bottom of another ladder.  At least I already know how to climb...and have been given a new ladder!

calling all guinness fans...

I'm looking for a new favorite slow cooker recipe involving Guinness...any suggestions?  Leave a comment!  I would love to hear from you!