Last Day

Remember the count down chain?

Turns out it was very successful and now this is all that's left. That's right, today is my last day. My very last blog posted from work. It's a strange thing, leaving a job you've been at for 4 years, even stranger still knowing I’m not going on to a new job.

Here are a few things I won't necessarily miss about office life but they are things I've become accustomed to. I'll no longer:

1. Carry a key card to gain entry to a professional building
2. Regularly ride an elevator (this includes being annoyed when we stop on every floor and being unimpressed by the person who just put out their cigarette)
3. Wear business casual attire
4. Be excited for casual Friday
5. Ride a city bus
6. Stop by Starbucks / Tim Hortons to buy a yummy treat to pass the time
7. Be accessible through Google talk 8 hours of every day
8. Share awkward Betty stories

I think part of me will miss the structure of a work day but it's a really small part, the majority of me is just ridiculously excited to be finished!

Our internet doesn't get hooked up for a week so you can expect some on-line silence for a little while, wish us luck in the final leg of the move, Lethbridge here we come!
L

Killing Me Slowly

Today I've:

• Booked my next doctor's appointment.
• Re-scheduled my Dentist appointment to a better day
• Looked into prenatal classes (ready to register after some discussion with Brad)
• Picked a weekend for us to move
• Looked into the price of a U-haul
• Made a list of people to help us move both in Calgary and Lethbridge (I bet your name is on it, don't be surprised when you get an email in a couple months :)
• Sent Facebook messages to two friends I haven't talked to in a while
• Wrote out details for the wedding we'll be attending
• Checked for an updated softball schedule at least 5 times

And I still have an hour left… this day is endless and very, very boring and I don't know what else to do to get through it.
L

Counting Down

I'm having a hard time at work these days. There are some very legitimate reasons that I won't got into here but every morning it's difficult to get up. It doesn't help to know I'm leaving soon and it's amazing what you can put up with until you know you don't have too.

Using the tools I learned in Primary I've built myself a countdown to help make it through my remaining 3 ½ months. So far it's proving very successful, I love coming home and tearing off a link.
L

Happy Surprise

The best part of my day...
home an hour early, a warm house and I just finished a hazlenut hotchocolate. Perfect.

My office decided that because of the bad weather we would close and hour early and it was the best surprise. Made for the perfect Thursday after a late night.
L

Business Casual

In my occupational past I've had some great jobs and some truly mind numbingly boring jobs, none more so than Stanton-Smith Consulting. I had recently been laid off from Superpages when, through a relative, a job opportunity sort of fell in my lap. It was a temporary gig but one that was easy to come by and close to home so I decided I could handle it for a few months. This job was boring unlike any I'd done yet, my job was to take a closet full of documents and scan them so they were stored electronically.

The one bonus to this job was that, unlike all my other office jobs this was a very casual office, meaning I was no longer required to wear the dress pant, sweater combination I'd been sporting for the last 5 years. I was excited and showed up my first day wearing jeans and a respectable top. It didn't take long to realize that unless I acquired an old hoodie and some dirty sneakers I'd be the best dressed there and that sweatpants would make me fit right in. For about a month I loved this casual dress but eventually started to feel grubbier and grubbier and I think I even quit putting on make-up, what was the point? No-one else there wore any.

Eventually that job ended, I found the job I'm in now and reverted back to my usual uniform. What's all this leading too?

I've just had two glorious weeks off of work and I enjoyed every minute of it but yesterday while I was washing my hands in the ladies room I took a look in the mirror and realized something, work clothes make me feel just a little bit better about myself.

I like the way dress pants fit and that argyle sweater looks much better with black pants than jeans. I like dress shoes and the expectation that I'll do my hair every once in a while. Don't get me wrong, I sure enjoy hoodies and pajamas and jeans but I need a good balance of casual / business casual.
L

Over Explaining

I'm good at my job, I've been doing it for a while now. So when people come by and give me ridiculously specific and dumbed down instructions it makes me annoyed. The rational side of me realizes that they're only trying to help but the unrational bristles immediately and gets defensive and not so pleasant.

I've done this a lot, I know what I'm doing, leave me your work and I'll complete it, if I have problems I'll call you. Stop Hovering!!

Finally it's Friday
L

3 Years

There are 3 of us at my office that have been here for a significant amount of time. The number of years is different but we all started in August. As a celebration of our anniversaries my boss took us out to lunch and as we made our way to the restaurant Betty said the following:

"This must be where all the Lawyers hang out, Lawyers and Geologists."

You've got to appreciate the strangeness in that statement. I didn't realize Lawyers and Geologists spent so much time together.
L

To Busy to Blog

The overtime I've been accumulating is appreciated but I'm sure tired from this last week. I've been working on two really big projects so I've been super busy at work. Lots of late nights and skipped lunches.

These reports, and the way they're handled is fairly new so I'm allowed to be quite creative and I've put a lot of extra time and effort into them. Some of the people I've been working with have been difficult to deal with also so that was a challenge.

Today it payed off.
Damon, from our Atlanta office was helping to oversee the project so once I was done and had it all printed I sent him a hard copy. Today he called me and told me that this report is the nicest they've seen out there and he wants details on how I put it together and what paper I use so they can copy it and make this their new template.
Yesterday Tim came by, he's pretty much as high up in the office as it gets, and told me that he thinks this is the nicest report we've ever produced.

It's nice to have all the hard work be recognized and nice to know I'm building a name for myself there. This is something I'm good at so it great to have others see what I'm capable of.

Anyway, that's enough tooting my own horn for one night.
I hope you all have a great weekend.
L

Life Goals

Today has been such a nice day.

My boss is gone, that tends to increase production and decrease stress so Iwas extra productive. Here it is 3:00 and we don’t have anything left to do. It’s kind of nice to be so relaxed.

So I've slowly been adding to this list of things I'd like to accomplish in my life, what better place to share them than here...

1. Go to the Conference Centre to watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional


2. Stay at the Chateaux Lake Louise


3. See Straylight Run in concert


4. See the play Wicked

Not life changing activities but things I'd like to do one day.
L

Oh Betty

Today, being the most boring day you can imagine Sarah and I have been hating being here. Anything we can do to waste 1 or 2 minutes we do, even if it’s something as simple as taking my yogurt to the fridge. That definitely required two people right? We’ve done all the work there is to do and we’re now just bored!

So Sarah turns to Betty and says, “I’m so bored I’m about ready to slit my throat”

Well Betty got all concerned and says that maybe Sarah should talk to our boss if things are that bad. A little surprised Sarah assured Betty that it’s just a figure of speech and she’s not literally about to kill herself. Thinking the situation is over she goes back to being really bored.

A little while later actually having some work to do, Sarah went to ask our boss a question and noticed on her screen and email that Betty has sent stating that Sarah had used this phrase! Crazy eh? She really thought that Sarah was suicidal and was offended by what she said!

She sure is different than most people.
L

Yawn...

I thought the first day back to work was tough but this second day is really kicking my butt. I’m exhausted for no good reason except I actually had to get up early two days in a row. I am not loving this.
L

Uninterested

Surprising to me is that in all my years working in an office I’ve never had to deal with a crazy cat/dog person. While I wouldn’t call my current co-worker crazy there is definitely an element there that’s foreign to me.

She has this dog, and she REALLY loves her dog. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand the love of pets but the frequency in which I hear stories about said dog is surprising. She has also uttered the following phrases “My dog is on a sleepover with her boyfriend”. But the sentence that takes the cake, (speaking to her mother) “But you haven’t seen your Grand-doggie in so long!”... Grand-doggie? Seriously?
L

Anywhere But Here

One day at work, months ago, Kim wasn't feeling well, she'd had a cold for a while and had run out of tissues so she asked Betty if she could have one of hers. Betty cooly said while handing her the tissue,

"You know you can buy these at the drug store in 5th avenue place (across the street) for only a couple dollars."

Kim and I were a surprised at her stingy-ness... apparently Betty doesn't like to share her tissues. Later she made some comment under her breath about how it'll be difficult for her to live with someone one day if she can't even share her tissues. Kim and I wholeheartedly agreed.

Yesterday was Kim's last day at work. She's decided to go back to school and I couldn't be happier for her, the only drawback being that she no longer works with me. We've known for a long time that she was quitting so I've been preparing myself for her absence. I went into work today, ready to not see her and noticed she'd put her tissue box on my desk with the above post-it note attached. What a great way to start the day, with a good chuckle, I'd totally forgotten about that day. I'm sure she wouldn't admit it but she'll miss the crazy Betty experiences, you don't get those anywhere but here.

Good Luck at school!
L

Things I’d rather be doing than sitting at my desk doing nothing

1. Finishing Chris’s wedding cake
2. Reading a book
3. Eating pink lemonade Ice Breakers
4. Sleeping
5. Cleaning my house
6. Pretty Much Anything!

Wednesday Woes...

It’s 10:55 and I’ve seriously said two words at work this morning...

It’s one of those days. Brad and I woke up late this morning so we were rushed... I called in sick yesterday and I’m still not feeling super today. I’m working on a project I don’t really want to do.

I expect the day to be long and not very fun
L

Ashamed

Remember the Cookie Scandal of 2006...

Well today I proved that I learned nothing. That I have gained no more character then I had back then.

I made cupcakes for a friends birthday yesterday and there were extras so I brought them to work. These cupcakes are no ordinary thing, they’re a work of art. A yummy chocolate, moist cupcake with pretty piped cream cheese icing on top.

So I pass them out and people are enjoying them. My boss says, “This isn’t Duncan Hines from a box is it?” I shake my head no (It was Betty Crocker so I wasn’t actually lying :). She says, “You can tell, it’s so moist”.

I absolutely let her believe that I made the cake from scratch when it really was from a mix! In my cake mix defense, I was in a hurry, they were last minute and I added some stuff to the mix to make them yummier.

Don’t think less of me...
L

Conversing with Betty

Betty - "Bless you"

Me - "Bless me?" Confused, bless you is normally something one would say after a sneeze but I didn't just sneeze.

Betty - "Oh you sneezed about 20 minutes ago"

20 minutes ago? Are you for real? Let it go!
L

Conversation from Betty

Kim
Laura
Betty

"Hey is Trish married? I never know what to call her boyfriend/husband when I mention him."

"No, but she's been with her Boyfriend for a really long time. I think 14 years ish... actually maybe more like 8."

"She's not married? (insert awkward giggle) She's living in sin? (with horrified expression)"

Sadly I think she was quite serious...
Kim and I both said, almost at the same time, "Maybe you shouldn't say that to her"

Just an average day with Betty
L

There's an Ogre in my Shoes

You ever feel like an ogre woke up in your place?

I'm grouchy today, unreasonable grouchy. I suppose I could blame it on lack of sleep but since I chose to stay up late it's not really a very good excuse.

It's taking all my energy to keep myself in check and not inappropriately rip someone's head off. I'm seriously concerned for Betty... one wrong move and I could blow.

Be patient with me today, I'll be my usual cheery self tomorrow, promise.
L

Betty Strikes Again

Remember Betty, the batty one?

This girl is not normal. She’s the kind of personality that you have to walk on egg shells around because you know that even if you mention it to her it won’t make a difference... she just doesn’t get it.

Well today she crossed the line. Maybe I wasn’t feeling very tolerant today but I can’t take it anymore! I won’t tell you what happened because it’s a long and boring story but I didn’t put up with it. I emailed her and told her it wasn’t okay. She rudely email back and things didn’t really end very well but I have hopes that somewhere deep down it made an impression on her. I want her to at least realize that I won’t accept that kind of treatment. I fully intend to call her on her rude behavior in the future too.

So here’s to standing up for myself!!
L