Per my employee handbook, the following has been added to my userinfo page:

CMA (Cover My Ass) Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this journal are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Not only is the vending machine at work refusing to dispense product, it is speaking Spanish.

Oy.


In other news, not one single person noticed my stylin' new glasses today. Not even my sister. *pouts*

Last night during the happy hour in the hotel lounge, a random businessman started talking me up. He approached me by complimenting my tattoos, and the conversation eventually turned to music.

It came out that I sing and play guitar, so he asked if I had a guitar with me. (I did.) He said I should go get it and play a few songs, and my first reaction was "Man, HELL no.". I told him that I brought to play by myself in my room, not in front of other people, lol.

The only times I've "performed" with my guitar have been with my whole band backing me up, but I finally gave in and went and grabbed my guitar, and went on to experience my first-ever impromptu performance. I felt very exposed, just my voice and my guitar, but everyone seemed to think I did a good job. :) I played & sang 4 songs.

The businessman later asked me if I had any weed on me. I said no. I lied. ;x

( emotion )

This is really fuckin' hard, you guys.

Hey Mad-town LJ-ers!

I was informed yesterday that I'll need to attend some training in Madison later this month and in May for some new software we're getting. I've been hoping to get to Madison for quite some time to see/meet some of you!

It looks like I'll be in Madison April 24-27 (heading back home the afternoon of the 27th), April 30-May 2 (heading home the afternoon of May 2nd), and May 14-16 (heading home the afternoon of the 16th).

Who wants to hang out? :D The training sessions go until 5 PM, but my evenings will be free, so dinner/drinks/general hanging out/etc. would be sweet.


In other news, this is going to put a serious strain on the band's rehearsal schedule, with all the gigs we have coming up. :/

Today, so far:

1. I have had a window with THIS open on my work computer ever since lotus_n_my_hair posted it earlier today. Harry Potter is hot? Why yes he is! Hubba-hubba!! I keep "accidentally" clicking on that window. ;)

2. I totally busted myself for not showering for work this morning (No, I don't stink. I took a bath yesterday afternoon.), when my supervisor said "Oh! You curled your hair today!" and I responded "No, I just slept with it braided!". Cue awkward glances at my hair from co-workers. Oops.

3. Yesterday, I came across an old friend on myspace. We had been boyfriend/girlfriend off and on in middle and high school, and I remember him as one of the sweetest, most romantic, most gentleman-ly guys I've ever met. It seems as if that hasn't changed. He is melting my heart today, saying sweet things like "If I could blush...images and thoughts of you smiling at me when we were kids, still fresh in my memory!!!". (To which I responded: "No worries, I'm blushing enough for the both of us.) He still lives in town. He's still extremeIy attractive. I wonder if he's into dating married women? :x

4. I'm currently reading Prodigal Summer, a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. This passage in it struck a chord in me:

Since you asked, yes, I DO believe humankind holds a special place in the world. It's the same place held by a mockingbird, in his opinion, and a salamander in whatever he has that resembles a mind of his own. Every creature alive believes this: The center of everything is me. Every life has its own kind of worship, I think, but do you think a salamander is worshipping some God that looks like a big two-legged man? Go on! To him, a man's a shadowy nuisance (if anything) compared to the sacred business of finding food and a mate and making progeny to rule the mud for all times. To themselves and one another, those muddly little slamander lives mean everything.

It puts into words better than I ever have a big part of why I made a commitment to live as vegan a lifestyle as possible and practical.

Yet to come today:

1. Nap? (doubtful)

2. Ginger Presley rehearsal. We're going to play two songs during the set break tomorrow night at Ryan's band's gig. We are SO excited. I am going to be SO nervous, but we will kick ass.

3. Boinking? (more probable than nap)


Happy Thursday y'all.

It's pretty cool when, after introducing myself to my class of new hires*, one responds with a sigh of relief and "Oh, thank goodness. I have a friend who works here who said she hopes I get Joella for training." and then another says "Oh my gosh! Me too!"

:D

I guess I must be doing something right!


*Incidentally, between training new hires (which occupies most of my time at work for two weeks) and practicing as much as possible with Ginger Presley, my presence on the internets will be minimal for the next couple of weeks.

I'm attempting to keep up with my friends page, but I'm skimming, so get my attention one way or another if there's something you specifically want me to read/respond to.

All my love to all y'all!! :)

Boy, am I glad that is over! :x

Friday night, I hosted a ladies night (later named Vag Fest) at my house. Out of the 30-some women I invited, 4 showed up. Even though it was a small group, we're all pretty awesome vagina owners, so we had a blast. We barely put a dent in all of the food I made, which meant that I didn't really have to cook for the rest of the weekend, lol. We ended up heading to a bar near my house, and eventually ended up down-town, after which Lisa and I were driven home by a cab driver who thought my name was Chihuahua. That was a first. After I arrived home, I ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning chatting with adudeabides and yayheaven.

My experiences Friday evening got me pondering on why I often find it challenging to develop close friendships with women. I'll save those ponderings for another day, though.

( Read more... )

A special thank you to adudeabides, yayheaven, and lotus_n_my_hair. Whether or not you realized it, you made my lonely weekend a lot less lonely. You are wonderful friends. :)

Today, it's back to the grind at work. Both my manager and supervisor are out this week, so I'll likely be signed on to the LJ Chat thing-o (the only IM I can use at work) most of the week. Hit me up! :D

OH MY GOD.


That banana bread smells so good, I want to climb into the oven and make love to it.





In other baked good news, my vegan brownies were a huge hit at work today. I love over-hearing things like "Who made this? Joella? But...it's delicious!" :D

I really try not to bitch about crap at work too much, but this is ridiculous.

We have been informed by our manager that we are no longer allowed to have trash cans at our desks. Instead of having our own little garbage cans, there is now one large garbage can for our entire department. The logic (?) behind this is that the organization wants to reduce the cost. Part of this is the bag cost, (which I can understand, however, it's not like they NEED to change the bag every time they empty the little cans) but part of it is the labor cost. The higher-ups reason that they will save money in labor costs because the "environmental specialists" won't have to take so much time emptying all the little garbage cans.

Environmental Specialists are among the lowest paid positions in the organization. So, instead of paying them to empty my waste basket, they are paying me (I make nearly twice as much per hour) to walk thirty feet back and forth to the garbage can every time I have to throw something away.

Um. Okay.

I wonder how long it will take before I stop instinctively turning to my right to throw away my banana peels, and having them land on the floor instead?

Searching for Mitch Hedberg quotes causes much audible laughter, and is therefore an activity best reserved for when your supervisor is not nearby. :x

My supervisor is so cute, the way she asks "Would you like to take tomorrow off?" as though there's a chance I might say "No thanks, I'd rather work!".


5 day weekend, HERE I COME!! WOOOOOOOO!!

Today, I'm responsible for the e-mail hotline, to which end users send questions, requests, etc.

E-mail from user:

Is Siemens have troubles?
The only document type that can be selected for scanning is a lab form.

My response:

Is your scanner turned on? If so, and you're still having trouble, give us a call at Ext. 56992 so we can troubleshoot.

-Joella

Her:

Thanks, having it turned on works better.

Me: (After bouts of laughter)

That's been my experience, too. :-)

-Joella


*giggles*

I'm home. I'm the frickin' bomb at driving to and from Chicago. Seriously.

Y'all didn't listen when I very clearly asked you not to be too post-y while I was gone. 240 entries to read. Please don't be mad that I'm skimming. If there's something super important that you want my input on, please link me to the entry, or summarize for me.


After the welcome home I received, I'm convinced that there is no one in this world who loves me more than Sadie loves me. <3 That's her in the icon for this post. :)


The conference was a success. In the end, I'm happy to have had the experience of doing it, and I'm proud that everyone found it to be not only valuable, but a lot of fun. I'm mostly happy that it's over, though.

If I never hear the Survivor theme music again, it will be too soon.

Oooh! My hubby just pulled up, and I haven't seen him since Tuesday morning, so Adios!

The co-worker I'm sharing a hotel room with totally snores. :/

I'm super proud of myself for figuring out how to rig up an internet connection (albeit a very SLOW connection. 37.2kbps? It's even slower than at home. I didn't know that was possible!) in the hotel room with the clinic laptop. After failed attempts with the ethernet (?) cable, I rigged up a dial up connection. I'm awesome.

The spacebar on this laptop is annoyingly small.

It makes typing rather frustrating, so I think I'll just go to bed. G'night, LJ.

So, um, according to Ed, who doesn't even have an LJ (*pokes Ed*), I'm overdue for a post. I guess I don't post enough about him? Here I thought I was saying too much! ;x

I had a relatively mild Oktoberfest weekend, as far as Oktoberfest weekends go. I did manage to get a teensy weensy bit drunk on Saturday night and stay up until 2 am hanging out with my friend Skippy. Everyone was downtown, so the bar next to his place was nice and dead, just how I like it. :) I ended my evening with drunk dials to my husband (who answered! fun!) and adudeabides, who didn't answer, and as such, probably had a lovely lengthy "I lufff yooooouuuuu" type voice message from me. w00t. I awoke to an amusing text message from him the next day, which lead me to wonder, just how drunky is a dual? o.O

I got lots of outdoorsy time this weekend! Ed & I took the dogs to Pettibone park on Saturday, and then Emily and I met to walk our dogs on the marsh trails on Sunday. That's a lot of exercise for poor little Sadie.

Let's see...Ed made me a tasty dinner again on Saturday night. It's awesome having someone cook for me and not having to ask a million questions about what's in everything or give reminders about what I do and don't eat. Awesome. I dragged Ed to what I thought would be a raging Oktoberfest party, but ended up being just a handful of people, as everyone else had split for the bars. (Which the rest of them did shortly after we got there too, leaving Ed, Skippy, and I alone in their house with cute dogs who we wanted to steal.)

So...yeah....um...... Hi. How y'all doing?

Tomorrow I leave for Chicago for the dreaded Survivor-themed PEDA conference. You won't be hearing from me again until at least Thursday, unless I get motivated again tonight to get some actual deep thoughts down, which I've been meaning to do. But, since that takes more time and effort than I'm willing to put forth right now, you get to be bored with what I did this weekend instead. There's been a lot of that lately, no?

Well kids, have a great period of time until I LJ again, and try not to post TOO much over the next couple days. ;p

Oh, I'm happy and healthy and drama-free and all that stuff, and I hope you all are too. :)

Okay. Bye now. For real.

Work is like a frickin' soap opera right now.

The stress and drama surrounding me in the workplace is beginning to wear me out. I took on organizing this conference in Chicago next week, which has involved a fair amount of responsibility, remembering to take care of all the little details, dealing with incompetent staff at the hotel it's being held at, arranging presenters and catering and give aways and blah, blah, blah. So whatever, I took it on, it'll be the best damn stupid conference ever, and I can't wait until it's all over.

The three other trainers are attending with me, and I was actually looking forward to spending some time with them away from the office, away from our boss and supervisor, getting to know them a bit better on a more personal level and kicking back and relaxing a bit.

But oh no. We can't just all have a nice time together. We must have DRAMA!!!! Our supervisor has kept all of our schedules crammed full of stuff, much of which is not urgent, despite our requests for adequate time to prepare for the conference. Okay, so we're busy, and it's not fair. Waaaaah!!

( None of you really care about this, I'm sure... )

I have a headache. :(

Okay, I would really appreciate it if someone would do me a HUGE favor.

I am in the midst of organizing a conference that the clinic I work for (and when I say "the clinic I work for", I mean "ME") is hosting in Chicago. It's the annual conference for the PEDA (Professional Education and Development Association, not to be confused with PETA, lol.) organization.

( Help! )

My workday has somewhat redeemed itself, in the form of a young man who was both charming and adorable (and looked to be in desperate need of some hippiecritter-style corruption) who required my training expertise.

I guess my job does have it good points. ;)

My job can, at times, be quite stressful and un-rewarding. I often feel as though my work as a trainer and support to the medical receptionists is under appreciated. Every so often, though, someone does take the time to show appreciation, in various ways, for the work I do.

Each time I complete a new hire training session (which lasts two weeks), my supervisor sends out an e-mail to the trainees asking for feedback on my performance. She then passes the feedback on to me.

In my most recent new hire session, there was a girl my age who, in addition to being intelligent, focused, funny, and enthusiastic, was incredibly cute. (I developed a bit of crush on her, actually.)

Anyway, this morning in my in-box was her training feedback which concluded with:

I feel fortunate to have had Joella as my trainer. She was exceptionally patient and helpful. She created a stress-free environment that made learning the computer system seem easy and fun. I felt prepared going into my position with the training she provided and reassured that she is only a phone call away if I have any questions or concerns. I hope she is being generously compensated for her incredible job performance.

Now that was a nice start to my Monday. :)

I wonder if she wants to go out some time? ;x

Tomorrow, a co-worker (B) and I will be attending the wedding of a former co-worker of ours. You may remember me referring to her (the one getting married) as "Icky Co-Worker" (IC). I posted a little about it HERE, and in probably in some other entries I'm too lazy to look for right now.

So, tomorrow's the big day, and B and I are the only ones from work attending. Because we want to see the freak show. :x

The wedding is in small town in rural Minnesota, about 45 minutes away. B and I will be meeting 2 hours before the wedding to have a couple of drinks and get a bite to eat. (She's concerned she won't like any food at the reception, I'm concerned there won't be anything to eat that isn't meat-laden.)

IC doesn't drink, and her hubby to be is a recovering alcoholic. As such, this is a dry wedding reception. No booze. It's their wedding, and I respect that decision. (But do y'all think it would be in poor taste to bring a flask? I'd be discreet and keep it well hidden!)

Here's the kicker, though. They are not having a band for enertainment at the reception. They aren't having a DJ. So I'm sure you're dying to know what they ARE having...

KAROAKE.

That's right. Karaoke. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?

How in the hell do you have karoake without booze??? Isn't having a few drinks a pre-requisite to singing karoake?