milkring.com

A: hillarity will ensue, i just bought the domain jerkin.us, just to create stop.jerkin.us
J: You seriously did?
J: That’s brilliant.
A: yes i certainly did
J: I’m gonna create a subdomain called ‘pleasestart’.
A: oh yes all sorts of funny vhosts to be had

N: so i watched VH1 yesterday
N: and the stupid bret michaels show was on
N: and I got sucked in
N: and my iq dropped like….20 zillion points.
N: the women completely set women’s lib back about 2 million years
Me: lol
N: it’s a guilty pleasure
Me: I don’t know the Bret Michaels show.
Me: What is it?
N: its called ‘rock of love’
N: so he lives in this house with all these girls…
N: and he’s trying to find ‘love’
N: so the girls do challenges and stuff to win ‘dates’ with him
Me: Dear God.
N: dude, i’m telling you
N: it’s so offensive…and yet…i can’t NOT watch.
N: he was the lead singer of poison, right?
N: and these girls are soo…pretending to be into him
N: and he’s pretending to be into them
N: and its a trainwreck but it’s beautiful
Me: Does buddy with one arm come over?
N: no
N: LOL
N: that’s def leppard
Me: OH!
Me: I’m all, “Buddy with one arm.”
N: “Ain’t lookin for noooothin but a goooooood tiiiiiiiiime!”
Me: Wow.
N: Yeah.

I still haven’t received my 2007 W-2 from my former employer. I dug through old records and found their payroll phone number, so I gave them a call. I’m immediately connected to India, where I spoke with “Rebecca.” The conversation was so circular - much too circular for my patience at 6:32a.m.

“What is your employee ID number?” I don’t know, I can’t remember. I’m a former employee. “What is your social security number?” I gave it to her. “Can you please verify your address, ma’am?” I gave to to her. “Can you please verify your mailing address?” Umm.. I just gave it to you? But okay. “No, we’re sorry, that mailing address is incorrect.” What do you mean it’s incorrect? Turns out they had an old address in their system as my mailing address, and the current address of where I physically live. When I explained that I hadn’t been at that address in well over a year and a half, she promptly told me I “could have changed it in the system.” Right, but see. I’m not an employee anymore, and I’m pretty sure I gave you my new address, considering you have it. Maybe someone on your end didn’t change it in both fields. Either way, what do we do? “Well, you’re going to have to wait until the W-2 gets sent back to us, and then we’ll re-send it out. Call back after February 11th.” Alrighty then.

I think the most frustrating thing was that there was a huge language barrier, followed by lots of gaps of silence, and she and I talking over each other due to the slight delay in phone reception because of the distance. Anything to save a buck, eh?

P.S. - I’m going to start posting more.

You know what I hate most about the whole finding-a-job process? You spend hours getting the most kickass resume together. You spend hours looking for work, connecting with people, etc. 48,000,000 resumes are sent out. You wait. And wait. You may get a call back from three people, two of which offer $10/hr less than what you currently make, yet their job description states “Masters Degree Preferred.” Yeah, right. So you get the one call that sounds promising. You set up an interview. You’re told they’re very interested in you, and oh yeah, we’re going to contact HR to find out what we need to do next, etc. Then…

You get the general piece of crap canned response e-mail advising how they enjoyed meeting with you, but some other poor sod that closely matched the job description was hired. But that oh, they’ll keep your resume on file for six months.

Great. Thanks.

I don’t understand why, if they’re unsure if you’re the candidate, they can’t keep it general. “Thanks for coming in.” Why do they pump you up, making you feel like you’ve just scored a gig, it’s just a matter of time before you get the You’re Hired! letter, only to be shot down two days later? Jerks.

I feel better.

This afternoon, we had a branch-wide meeting regarding our new monthly goals and incentives. We had a restructure of our monthly goals, due to the real estate market being a little on the funky side, as of late. Overall, the volume hasn’t been there in any market. Incentive for us used to begin once we managed to hit 80% of our monthly goal. It’s been moved up to 90%, due to the lowering of the monthly goal. What no one realized, I don’t think (it seems so obvious now) was that our incentive amounts would be lower, as well. With our goals decreased dramatically, how could they really stay the same? Anyway, back to my point. We’re in the meeting, and K announces that we hit goal this month, and to promote more volume next month, we’re rolling out three specials all of which include a product that’s rarely used anymore and one that involves a great special on lower-than-norm loan amounts. Of course, there’s going to be a huge influx of these due to the special, which means there will have to be even more work pouring in to hit our goal because the typical loan size won’t be there. Then K says to everyone: “Because we have enough staff and enough of you that don’t get paid overtime, I feel we can more than handle this projected volume and hit incentive this month.”

So, let me make sure I’m understanding this right. I’m going to have to work harder than I have any other month, continue to not get paid overtime, and then - if we hit our goal - our payout will be considerably less than what it was before?

It’s my lack of understanding how this makes sense that will forever prevent me from becoming management.

…I think I’ll scream! I’m so tired of flying, time zones, ticket agents, eating out, blargh! I think if I ever see another airplane, it will be too soon. I got back from a business trip. I learned a few things, which is always nice, from all kinds of spectrums. Going from the west coast to east coast, and actually trying to have a somewhat normal sleep schedule is near impossible for me. 2 a.m. hits, my roommate is out like a light, and I’m sitting there, blinking in the dark, wide awake. Then the 6 a.m. wakeup call hits, and it’s like “Are you kidding me right now?” It doesn’t help that I got food poisoning Round Deux last night. It wasn’t as bad as 6/6/06, but it was a pretty good second. Note to self: It doesn’t matter how much you try to mask sound in a hotel bathroom - it’s a friggin echo chamber, and no fan or fake cough will ever mask that kind of onslaught. Especially at 4:30 a.m. Ahem.

My company put me up at Ballantyne Resort and Spa. The grounds were amazing, as was my pedicure, my room, bathroom, etc. I’m just really glad to be home.

My head is a sea of pale flesh coloured files, numbers, LTV’s, DTI’s, names, social security numbers, and anything else mortgage-related.

What day is today again?

Been awhile, hasn’t it? I’ve been doing some thinking about some things that need to change in my life, particularly the line of work I’m in. I’m not happy where I’m at. I think I need a career change. I use that term very lightly. I’ve never been a career-oriented woman. A job is just a job to me; something to allow me to live the lifestyle I want to. The trouble is, it’s become something a lot more. I feel it’s taken over my personal life, and then some. I don’t feel appreciated where I’m at, nor do I feel like any sort of valuable asset to anyone. So, I’ve decided to enlist myself with a head hunter, and change job paths altogether. I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing, but I do know it has to be something I enjoy. It makes me feel good that I’ve decided to take this proactive step and just do something else completely. So, wish me luck on my new venture. Thanks, Alex, for writing your latest post. You inspired me to get off my ass and do something.

You’d better settle in and get a nice comfy blanket and a cup of tea for this one. You’re in for the long haul. I got a lot on my mind. Ready? Let’s do it.

A while back, I’d talked about making my life more simple, and while it was easier to do it when the idea of it all was so new, it’s becoming harder; nearly impossible at this point in my life. I feel like I failed my life-o-simplicity, temporarily, until I get myself back on track. I still think it exists and is not some made up pile of crap I whipped up one day in some utopia haze I live in. Lately, though, I’ve been having thoughts and concerns piling up in this here head of mine, and haven’t thought much about them until today, when something as simple as an e-mail from my boss nearly pushed me over the edge. I guess we’ll start with my issues at work.

There are a few people in my group of folks I work with that live at work. They’re not happy at home, or have nothing to go home to, so they slave away at their desks. I guess they expect the same to take place in me, sometimes. The event that I’m talking about specifically, involved me leaving yesterday at 5:30, when I (am supposed) to get off. Matt and I met with our now booked photographer for our wedding. I came in this morning, to an e-mail that basically asked me what engagement I had last night that took me away from helping out the team by putting in some extra time. Well, first of all, I wasn’t asked to do any extra overtime, because as far as I could see, we weren’t busy. Secondly, yeah, I had a commitment to do something else after my work hours. What business is it of yours? This is one of many incidents, this being very mild, that has gotten under my skin. It really comes down to my feeling screwed over in taking the job that I did. I don’t regret leaving my former employer; they’re not very stable. But I regret going back to this one. I even told my boss the reasons I left the company in the first place, two years ago. I explained how much environment’s very important to me, and she understood. I realize things are out of her control, that perhaps things used to be different in our small office environment, but they are very quickly becoming the things I hated about the company previously. Oh, and as of Monday, they’re taking away access to even more sites, like hotmail, yahoo, e-Bay, etc. That’s another thing - I don’t understand what managers are doing when they think taking away freedoms like that at work, are going to make their employees work any harder. To any manager out there that agrees with what I just wrote, a big fat shame on you. We work hard for you because we respect you and believe in the work we do. The second you start treating us like little kids, is the second my morale goes down. Get a clue.

Another bit that keeps me awake at night, is where some of my friendships are going. Sometimes I end up feeling a bit used at the end of the day, in some instances. I try to be a good friend, help people out, but then it becomes tiring, because that’s all I ever end up doing. Help, help, help. I don’t mind helping, but when I get no respect, or worse off, the person never tries to help themselves, what am I supposed to do? I’ve been in those situations before, admittedly. It’s a tough one. Especially when you don’t know how to help yourself. Yikes. But what if you’re just too lazy? Kind of like I am now?

So I guess here’s where we get to the b.) part of my post. I have to (finally) do something about these things I don’t like. It almost sounds hypocritical of me to say things, offering bits of advice in situations like this - especially when I’ve been miserable for about the last three months when it comes to certain places in my life, and haven’t done anything about it, but it really all comes down to taking action against said event you’re not happy with. How am I going to change it, therefore making me happy? Well, perhaps I could look for a new job. Perhaps I can make better choices in events I choose to place myself in when it comes to friends. Make the best of my situation now, and make sure the spot’s only temporary, and take action on getting us on to point c.) Happiness.

Life is too short to have it be spent miserable. I need to figure out what would make me happy, that is within my means right now. Matt makes me happy. Perhaps spend more time with him. I want to learn how to golf. Maybe I should look into lessons. Get out. Do stuff. Take more photos. I get in these grooves where something goes wrong, I’m not happy, so I keep not being happy. It’s easier to sit back and complain, realistically, and hope that things get better. And when they don’t, oh man. A new flood of complaints.

So, does a plus b really equal c? Maybe. I think it can, with a little work. It’s the ‘little work’ part that gets you there. Surprisingly, I went into this whole post regretting even typing the first three letters. I wasn’t sure what was going to come about with this, or if I’d feel better, feel worse, etc. I feel better, though I’m not sure why. I haven’t really solved anything, really. It’s amazing how situations that keep floating in your head seem bigger and badder than they really are, the longer they’re not dealt with. Then you write them out on a piece of paper, or what have you, and you’re like, “Oh. Well. Okay…. ” Kind of like I am now.

Tomorrow’s Friday, last day of the week, and I’m going to try to go into it with a positive, more fresh outlook. And I’ll make it my mission to make the best of what can be in the position I currently am in, in life, and maybe eventually I’ll get to c.)

The last couple of days of my life have been a blur of mainly work crap. We ran a special that lasted one week, and the second to last day before the special expired, we got buried in enough paperwork to keep us busy for what seemed like years. With mostly all of us working some amount of overtime, we managed to get it under control in three days. That’s working early in the morning, through lunch, and a bit after 5:30. Ugh. Needless to say, my brain is currently a melting pile of goo. And I have THE MAN to thank for it. Suck it.

Only two more weeks until I get to see my daddy and stepmom. I’m stoked! This means a Monday off of work. Excellent.

I get paid Friday!

Have you ever tried to talk to some young-sounding pharmacy tech on a cell phone in front of a Mack truck? Screaming, “BIRTH CONTROL PILL REFILL! RIGHT. GOT IT? HELLO?!” isn’t the brightest of ideas. Then again, I’ve never been the sharpest tool in the shed.

I wonder how many times I can hear, “Footloose” on the mix station during a work week? So far, I’m counting four.

Tomorrow is Hump Day. Bring on the kink. Er, wait…

Oh yeah, meant to ask you - what’s another term for ‘not that bright’? I’ve heard a slew of them, and I wondered what your favourite was. So far, ‘dumber than a box of rocks’ is up there on my list. What’s yours?