MANdatory Monday

I keep missing days and then weeks and then when I get back on here I feel bad for not keeping track of everything going on.  Vacay was AMAZEballs.  For real.  No we didn't go on some crazy trip to Bali or Europe...just a simple trip to San Diego to show Mr. around all the places I lived and loved while I was a Californian...I still am deep down.  We drove around, hung out with the friends I call my family, and did some fun stuff like kayaking with shark, the zoo safari park, and plenty of beach time.  It was good just to have all that us time.  It's so necessary to validate the work and routine that life requires.  And considering how work has been...it was pretty much necessary for sanity alone.

On the work front...why does it seem every post lately involves work...oh yeah, it's overwhelming me and consuming my existence!  Interviews are popping up this week like comments on VH1 in the 90's.  Bring them on.  Some very cool opportunities though and just in time.  Really crossing my fingers for a few of them...which is weird considering how big these choices end up being in your life...what path they'll lead  down...what marks they'll make on my career...and what stamp they'll leave on my experiences.  For now I'm just wooing each recruiter and keeping every opportunity even and available for what is meant to be.  The benefit being that I have a new found ease to my days...like there is an end in sight to the madness that is my current work day and schedule.  So that's that...on to a better state of being and becoming more open to life and enjoying the now.

Since the new job and then the onset of this insane heat wave I've been running on such a spotty and   uninspiring schedule that I'm about to buy a treadmill and squeeze it into our condo somehow.  I just need that constant opportunity to burn the energy and wear out any anxiety and pent up frustration...and yet I can't see the good in running when it's a heat index of 110 degrees.  So, as I'm always looking for a good deal I'm going to keep my eye out on craigslist for a treadmill and see what options are out there.  Who knows, maybe i'll find something that doesn't suck and isn't a rip off.  We'll see.  But for now I run when I can and do what I can to stay in shape and sane.  Maybe staying sane is just not natural for me at this point.
Who knows...I can try at least. :-)

Ok...here's the good stuff...Start the week off right.

I Survived!

Training month was long and hard...much like the guys in all the pics I find...but I made it out alive.  Wasn't sure where my final location was going to be, but that came in a phone call on Friday.  It wasn't one of my original short list, but apparently I excelled enough through training to be moved into a key location where I'm told, "if you want to be known and have your name in with the big guns, you want to be here".  So I jumped at that chance and I should be starting there sometime this week.  Lots of variables in play as to how my transition into the new role goes and how the team takes to a new person at the wheel.  I'm going in with all the positives in mind and going to do my best to make an impact and move it in the right direction...gotta get up the ladder!

So, other than work life is grand.  Of course I sat down to do my taxes today so I can see how much fun Mr. and I can have on our trip out to SoCal, and realized I should invest finally in a CPA and try and get as much as possible so I'm not relying on the ol' web to give me a figure good enough to make me smile.  I wanna go out there to show him around and have a great time...not just a good time.  So, I at least organized receipts for my biz and have it all set.  I also redid my budget for the next few months and will be tracking things better to hopefully make a bit of a move in a year or so and get some real estate under my belt.  Not here though...hence the move and the need to prove myself to the big wigs...so they support a transfer and I can keep climbing.

Mr. is still amazing me everyday and brought home a huge orchid with double blooming stems that took a giant pot when he repotted it.  I swear if we get any more plants in this place we'll be giving garden tours this summer!  The palm he brought home a month or two ago is thriving and busting out in the bedroom.  Can't wait til it's warm enough to get it on the patio and get that side of my room back.  The boys are well...a bit stressful getting them through my training as my day away was stretched to the max with a massive commute that had me gone 2 or 3 hours more than normal...not fun for two needy dogs!  But they did well with the Mr.'s amazing help and many meaningful and appreciated potty walks before I got home.

I'm more ready for spring and summer than I can even bear to contain.  I just want my flip flops and moonroof back in action.  And my patio for sunbathing.  It's been so mild, I can't complain...but i'm just ready for that switch and confirmation winter is gone.  Here's hoping it's over soon.  Anywho...thats about the reader's digest version.  I've been working, thriving, and trying to keep myself sane in the traffic.  Very much looking forward to an easier and shorter commute and solidifying myself in a new team.  Watch out!

So, for my first post in a month...here's a bit of fashion that is not so street legal!
love it...keep smiling!  - Rin

    Check the site out and fill up your closet...you know you want to!  Slick It Up

Right to Bear Arms

Countdown to Christmas!  Loving the holiday season this year, which is a bit odd for me.  But I'm just going to roll with it.  Today I'm not going to make any major self induced pressured plans...so I'm just going with the flow.  Hoping Mr. gets off early enough to make it to a show we've been wanting to see tonight.  We were bummed not to make it last night, but I just found out it's playing tonight too.  Fingers crossed.

Anywho, up for another cup of coffee and then onto something else I'm sure.  I can't find my good set of art pencils and pencil sharpener and it's driving me nuts.  I can see it in my hands the last time I used it, and i've looked at all the usual and unusual places I put things and still it's nowhere to be found.  I wonder if the underpants gnomes took it.  Damn them!  I have to find the sharpener so I can get one of my little art projects farther along.  I'm going to get more caffeine in me to fuel my hunt.  Things may get kray kray up in here.

Mkay...happy weekend - Rin

Friday Fave Five

I am still in talks with the new potential company.  Really clicking with the person who would be my future  boss.  She's great and I love the fact that the path I'd see myself going down with the company is one that she's walked and adored.  She'll be a great resource and support to find the resources I need to get to where I wanna go.  If I get in.  Once I'm in...it's up to me to get myself there for sure.  

I just love the potential of something new and the rush of adrenaline you get when you start somewhere as the new person.  Proving yourself, and making new connections with people.  Every door that opens is a new journey and potentially new friends for life.  It's crazy to think of all the times I've started at a new place, and how some of the greatest people I've met in my life and some of my closest friends today were there on day one of that journey...a complete stranger.  y That one choice to start new or take on a new challenge was all it took.  And today I couldn't imagine my life without these friends...as if I never really existed as the same person before they were in my life.  People are definitely very much like pieces of the puzzle that makes up our beings as individuals.  There are parts I wouldn't know about myself without some of the people that have come into my life.  Without them, I wouldn't be me.  Intensely amazing gifts they've given me just by being my friend or sharing their life with me.  I can never repay, just hope that I have in some way done the same for them. 

So, that's what I think about when I begin to consider myself in a new position...with a new company...and with a new network of coworkers.  Where will these seemingly strangers be woven into my life in two or three years.  What debts will I obviously owe to them or in what ways can I support their journey in life.  Crazy how simple choices can end up having such crazy big influences on our life.  

Well, that's my deep thought for the moment.  I'm going to stew on it a bit more.  Meanwhile...I thought I'd start a Friday Fave Five.  I'll be picking 5 guys that have some characteristic that makes them particularly favorable.  If you'd like to share a guy for the Fave Five...please send it my way!  

Love & Laughs - Rin 

S'up Saturday

Mr. and I went for sushi last evening...so nice to just go out, low key, relax and eat good food.  Always laughing and always growing.  This morning we were slow to get up, had to push him out of bed almost so he could get to work on time.  Of course, no one shared the plans for a late start, so he was an hour early.  Grr.  An hour we could have been spooning!   

I've just been putzing around the house doing odd chores.  Walked the dogs and realized how much winter is upon us.  So cold i needed, and forgot, gloves!  Frostbite isn't pretty, so I'll remember tomorrow.  We're getting a tree tomorrow and doing a little holiday decorating...so looking forward to the fun of it this year.  So, I'm off to keep up with my list.  

Arms up to the weekend boys!  - rin 

er

MANdatory Monday

Well...it's been a whirlwind few days.  Took a few half days last week just to give myself a  breather.  I have so many vacation days and sick hours I figured it was wise to start using them up.  If I end up busting out of my current gig, I know those sick hours will be eaten up by ahole owner in a heartbeat.  Still frustrated that my good boss won't stand up for me and give me the third quarter bonus I earned.  I'm pretty sure it's illegal to hold a bonus back considering the guy that is holding it back is the guy I testified against in court in August...and the guy still claiming to be part owner and do whatever destruction to the business as he can before the final court date to get him out.  There's a good chance I won't be there to see that day...and i'm hoping that my staff sticks with it long enough for me to be the first ball to start rolling away.  I don't want to to start hiring people in when I'm planning on busting out.  Just feels weird interviewing people and selling the place at such a f-ed up time in the business.

Anywho...Mr. is wonderful and has been so helpful in keeping my mind from spinning out of control with the work bullshit.  We had a great date day last Thursday and did the zoo...with a behind the scenes elephant experience where we got up close and personal with them.  Watched their bathes and training sessions, and got to give one a good pet too.  We went super early so it was stunningly quiet and we could just wonder the zoo with no screaming children and really see the animals.  The apes and orangutans were amazing.  They were feeding their breakfasts and so they were really active and since we were the only ones in the entire building other than the keepers, it was amazeballs.  The apes were interacting with us just sitting watching them. While I do feel it's sad that they have to live in captivity, I am grateful they do not have to struggle with their habitats being burned and destroyed.  It's a weird mess we've made of things for sure.

Last evening we wrapped up the weekend by hitting up a Bikram class.  Mr. and I oddly used to go to the same studio a little over a year ago, but never ran into each other.  Then he started at a new studio that opened closer to his house and I moved on and joined the gym.  Luckily we now have that to share and it's so much better walking out and coming home with company to share the yoga coma with.  He of course is a master and was at one point thinking of doing the competitions for bikram and almost at the teacher level...I'm bendy, but i certainly have my limits as to how many classes I could take in a week...and I certainly wouldn't do two in a row like he does...that's like burning 3000 calories in 3 hours.  Cri-zazy-ness.

So, it's Monday...and thankfully i work 2.5 days this week.  Going to do Thanksgiving breakfast with Mr's family and then swing by our place to pick up the dogs and head up to my parents house for an evening meal.  I haven't seen my aunts in a bit and it'll be nice to just catch up with the fam.  My rents are doing a yard sale on black friday...as a last ditch effort to thin out the goods before they put their house on the market and move to the beach full time.  I have no intentions of working a yard sale...so i'll be spinning back home for sure.

Ok, peace and love.  Oh, duh...they sent a tech guy to my house..replaced my hard drive...and so I'm up and running.  Of course...my entire photo archive was lost...so bear with my pics for a bit until I have time to build up a new collection.

- Rin

Tattoo Tuesday

Good Morning!  Up and at em again.  This time with a bit more sunlight to make it all seem less difficult. This week is off to a good start and I'm not going to let it change directions.  Mr. is looking for a career bump into a more fitted position for his craft and so decided to get some resumes out and see how it goes...in less than 8 hours he had a two interviews, a working design challenge interview scheduled, and two additional interviews lined up just for this week.  Obviously the world sees him as just as amazing as I do. 

 I'm very excited for his next step and I think it will only motivate me to make mine.  I have been slipping resumes out to any opportunity that fits with my experience, but I may move in his direction and get them out to any of the businesses that share my goals whether they're listing an opening or not.  There are lots of businesses within my field, but unfortunately each typically only has one of my positions, and typically that person rarely goes anywhere if it's a good practice with good Dr.'s .  So, there's the pickle!  But, I must keep moving forward...because A-hole isn't going anywhere in my mind...he's only been putting more signs out that he has no intention of breaking away from the business.  *gag*

Anywho...it's Tuesday...and once again the Tattoo pictures only make me want to keep going with mine.  And my coffee isn't working yet...so I also want to get back into bed and wake up when it's Thursday.  But alas, I must get moving and just hope the coffee kicks in before I get in the car and turn the seat warmers on...because that'll put me into a dreamland for sure. 

bon chance - Rin