Out of Town for 1 Week

Its hard going out of town for one full week.  I had to really contemplate and plan a strategy. My approach is different this time.  My plan is what to do AFTER the conference, not DURING the conference.

I believe that I did "OK".  But, I refuse to go broke while being out of town, so I attended all of the breakfast and dinner symposia to save money.  My restrictive pouch is still working, so I no longer eat everything on my plates.  But,  I have been snacking on pretzels and granola bars during down time.  When I did go out to eat, it was salads and soup.  But, I know for a fact, I have gained some weight.

Here is my strategy:
#1- No weigh- in when I return home!
#2- My first weigh-in will be 7 days after I return home.
#3- Go grocery shopping as soon as I return home.
#4- Strict high protein diet for 7 days.

No need to punish myself.  I plan to continue my love for my scale.  I'll see soon if this is a workable strategy! 

Birthday Weekend 2011

I really looked forward to my Birthday weekend of 2011. This was a fantastic weekend!

Friday- 1/2 day at work, son spent the night and I had a doctor's appointment, all went well!

Saturday- I was up at 4am to prepare my birthday luncheon:  spaghetti, baked beans.  I also had barbeque baby back ribs, country ribs, bratwurst, burgers, chicken drumsticks and cake.  Beverages consisted of sodas, punch, filtered water, and martini's.
I attended a church planning meeting and took my new Nikon camera to snap photos for the website.
Then I headed home to entertain and host my Birthday luncheon.
Later, I took my son home and then went powershopping!!!!

Sunday- I went to church, then to the cementeries where my parents are laid to rest.
I went to visit my sister, then I totally relaxed at home.  I had a nice salad, glass of Merlot, Cannoli cake and watched TV.

I am off Monday, June 20, 2011... YES!!!!!!

The best thing is that I ate very little food and when I did eat, it was Subway salads!!!!

Workplace Review on June 16, 2011

I am absolutely disliking my workplace again.  I will give it 12 months, then I will QUIT!  This week was awful, here is why:
1. Meeting yesterday- staff upset and wrongly blaming me for an issue in place BEFORE I even started working there! Application going to vendor that includes membership fees.  Now company not getting membership fees!  I am pulled in the middle of this shit!!!!
2. I worked on 2 huge applications with over 100 sessions.  Little input from staff on usual procedure.  Now questions popping up.
3. Huge exam being built.  Review groups are tainted with buddies of owner.  No scholars.  Fucked up exam.
4. No opportunity to develop huge programs.  Rush as soon as I arrived.  Programs are indeed major!
5. I will start job search in Fall/Winter and get ready to leave in 8 more months!

Frozen Fingers in June!!!

On Saturday, I attended an outdoor grand graduation ceremony.  I arrived at 9:30am. Even though it was the month of June, its was cold, rainy, cloudy and a bit windy at times. The ceremony was very nice.  But by 10:30, I was so cold, I could not bend my fingers!  By the lunch break, my fingers were so cold and stiff, I had to eat my sandwich like a BEAR!  I never imagined this type of consequence from rapid weight loss.... loss of fat insulation from my fingers.  Not an issue in the winter months, but JUNE????  LOL!  Lesson learned... Carry gloves at all times to compensate!  Even though my fingers were frozen, I say NO THANKS to fat insulation!

I regained sensation and movement in my fingers about 1 hour after arriving home.  I left the graduation ceremony right after lunch.  The ceremony was not concluded until 4pm!!!!

Resigning This Week!!

I retired in January of this year.  I started working full-time one week after I retired.  I was very excited to be in this new workplace.  But, after almost 3 months, I am very unhappy and prepared my letter of resignation yesterday.
Here are the problems:

• I was hired to prepare and submit two specialized accreditation reports. Both reports are due in July, but I was sacked with so much work, I have not been able to even touch those crucial assignments.

• I have been the lead person for their certification program, but  I have been required to make statistical decisions.  I am not a psychometrician.

• I have had to fully re-vamp their approval program which has further removed me from working on the 2 urgent accreditation reports.

• I have been involved with certification customer service about 75% of the time.

• I am responsible for the webinars and the follow-up with speakers is horrible!!!  Too much chasing down of speakers.

• Huge annual meeting is coming up soon and I have to redesign educational content on about 150 educational sessions in about 2 months.

• New assignments are on deadlines, so there is no opportunity to evaluate the quality of the newly developed assignment.

• There is a type of symposium that is for customer relations with commercial entities.  I am involved where I have had to prepare the discussion guide.  This takes me out of the office to complete the literature search and collect articles.  This takes a long time and pulls me away from my crucial assignments.  Another one of these unneeded sessions is coming up in June, but I will be gone before then.

• An administrator messed up planning the symposium, so I had to spend time correcting a simple something a clerical person failed to see through.

• The approver unit, messed up before my arrival, had a major problem and someone got testy with me.  NO ONE GETS TESTY WITH ME!!!!

• The administrator decided against me that a computer based test would not give immediate pass/fail results.  This will be a big big problem in June!  I aint dealing with it!!!  The statistician could not explain why he wanted it that way.

Overall its too much work, too many deadlines.  This has been a very undesirable job.  NO ONE will be able to fill the position.  The position has had a very high turn-over anyway.

End of Work Week 3-26-2011

I have been at my new job for about 6 weeks now. Those were the fastest 6 weeks ever! It is an extremely busy work place with a high turn over rate. Most of the employees have been there for about one year and less than five years. Go figure.

I enjoy being busy. Its good exercise for the mind. But, the busy-ness has to be related to goals of accomplishment. We'll see how things go.

I now take the bus to work which is pretty nice with the CTA Transit Tracker.

I am busy at the computer system at work, so I am rather sedentary. But, I make a point of going out for a 30 minute walk every day at lunch, regardless of how cold it has been.

When I get home, I'll chat with my son and sister. Then, I'll relax and fall asleep after watching The Office... I love that show.

I went and had my taxes done, that was a very long day. Thank goodness my accountant uses a tax organizer. I spent one full weekend doing my taxes on that tool, so it was easy for my accountant to make corrections then send off my electronic stuff to IRS. It only took one hour even with an organizer! WHEW!

I have a total chill out Saturday today. I prepared for today all week. I did laundry yesterday morning at 3am! LOL! So, this morning its blogging and reflecting.

Reflections on Friendships

What is a "friendship"? Friendships are balanced relationships. The relationship has to consist of the communicator and the listener. The roles will be exchanged in order for a friendship to exist.

When a person reaches out to talk to someone, that person has to reciprocate by listening at some point. When I am contacted by someone who whines, complaints, wail, groan and generally bitch non-stop that is a very toxic person. But it gets worse. When the habitual complainer goes as far as to call by phone that is very intrusive. When folks call by phone, it interrupts my free time, my me time and my time for relaxation.

Some folks have positioned themselves to bitch and complain so much that they get to the point that they will not be a listener when its their time to listen.

When I check my caller ID and recognize the complainers number, I no longer accept the call. If you cannot receive my calls or return my email with a note of support, but think they can call me, well that time has come to an end.

If you only call me for me to listen to you complain, bitch and whine about your life and work life, FORGET ABOUT IT. I no longer receive those calls. Do not call my home phone and do not call my cell phone.

Remember, friendships complementary, when I listen to you, then you in turn must listen to me. If not, forget about it.

What is wrong with folks? This issue is more extensive than I imagined! Last night, I was relaxing after a long busy work week. Someone called me who I had not chatted with for months. That person bitched and complained for about 30 minutes non-stop. Listen up bitch, I will not receive another call from you. Your shit is over.

What ever happened to nice friendly chats about the good things in life?

Folks, you all better look within and check yourself. Some of you are looking bad, REAL PATHETIC!

I am on top of your tricks. I will not fall for the "bait". Forget about leaving simple messages on my voice mail. Your simplistic game is to try and bait me to call you so that you can start wailing about your pathetic life. It aint happening! Your game is over.