It's May 4, 2014 already!

I haven't posted in a while - I know.

I'll try to be better, 'cause I miss you guys out there in the blogosphere (and because blogging can be fun :) What's been going on with you?

While I try to get my game together, bear with me, and remember...

I don't own this image people. It was found here. :)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

She's in a better place.

Today was my maternal grandmother's funeral.

Yesterday was the memorial service/viewing.

It's been a pretty awful week (she passed on the 17th), and an especially emotional and draining weekend. My grandma turned 100 last year, and would have been 101 yesterday. I still can't believe she's gone; and even though everyone tells me she's in a better place (and I do believe she is), the pain is still so powerful.

It hurts even more when family drama takes a seat at the head of the table. It's the type that's been brewing for years and years, but came to a head yesterday. The dagger to my heart throughout the process - well one of the daggers - was when I stated that I had written a little something to read in memory of my grandmother, and the pastor of the church - who happens to be my uncle/my grandma's son stated that 'the tribute list was just so full already', and that 'we don't want the program to run long, so...we'll see'. Yeah, it never happened. I was provided a pre-approved scripture to read, and time was made for multiple members of the church community to tell stories, read letters, sing songs with seemingly unending choruses, and read statements from local counsel members who never even met my grandma. All this while the other children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were allowed to...just sit there.

I said some of the words to my grandma at her graveside today. It was during a quiet moment after most everyone had left, and while it was not the same as being able to share it with everyone at the memorial, I'm sure she heard me from up there and hopefully she smiled :)

For Grandma J:

 

 

For those who don't know me, my name is R. I am [my mom and dad's names here] daughter; and I want to say a few words in memory of my grandmother.

 

It's difficult to put into words how much my grandmother meant to me. She was a strong, intelligent, spiritual woman. She was loving and caring and had an amazing voice, a beautiful smile, and these wonderful cheekbones... She passed a lot of wisdom, conviction and strength down to her children, including my wonderful mother (who is a spitting image of her mother), who I am happy to say passed those traits on to me and my sisters.

 

I didn’t get to spend as much time with my grandmother as I would have liked, but even though our time together was too brief I felt like we had a strong bond. She was the only one to call me the special nickname she gave me, and observing her kindness and faith since I was a child has had a great impact on how I've viewed and treated others throughout my life.

My grandmother loved LIFE. She loved her family, and she loved God. No matter what situations life presented her with - no matter how challenging - she was able to overcome it with a wonderful attitude and belief in the love and power of the Lord. Not once did I witness her giving in to...pettiness, one-upsmanship, guilt...or having to downgrade the worthiness of others around her in order to make herself feel better, or appear better in the eyes of others... No, my grandmother showed me that no matter what happens in life, if you remain calm and positive, and keep your FAMILY and your FAITH in your mind and in your heart, you can overcome it. It was lessons like that...especially her emphasis on the importance of always nurturing each other and being there for your family...that I will remember the rest of my life. 

 

I love my family with every ounce of me. My parents, sisters and my husband travel with me in my heart every second of every day; and I count my grandmother as one of the inspirations for showing me how important love for family is, and what strength that love provides during both the happy AND sad times. It is incredible what an open mind and a kind heart can do.

As long as I can remember my grandmother shared with me the importance of faith. She was a very religious woman, who showed me how a belief in God helped shape her life. She did not feel the need to force anyone to follow a specific path; but instead knew that everyone has to follow their own personal journey to the Lord. I owe my grandmother immensely for my passion and faith in God, and I hope that I can live my life with the same honor, grace and respect that she did.

My grandma often spoke about how wonderful it would be when she would get to meet the Lord again; and while we were blessed to have her with us to celebrate the milestone of her 100th birthday here on Earth with us last year, He called one of his best creations home to celebrate with him this year. Happy 101st birthday Grandma. You will always be loved and remembered; and you will forever be deeply missed. 

Thank you.

Well, I'm exhausted and am going to take a nap. I hope everyone was able to have a more relaxing weekend than I did, and that the rest of the week gets better.

And so I'm trying subscription boxes

I feel so out of it. I didn't know about this subscription box craze that's going on. There are so many different kinds...with so many different prices. I mean $60/month for a box of whatever? No thanks. $10/month, however, I can do :) So, my friend P and I decided to each try ipsy.



Sign up for yourself here :)

Do any of you have any experience with this company? Apparently it used to be a company called MyGlam that wasn't so great, but since the name change, things have gotten better. I read some good reviews and watched some interesting YouTube reviews, so I'm excited to see what I receive in my first bag. They have a pretty cool referral/free gift program, so if anyone is interested in ipsy but hasn't yet taken the $10/month plunge and signed up, I'd appreciate it if you use my link ---> here :).

In other news, I am on vacation from work - out for two blissful weeks. I am already freaking out a bit because I know exactly how much I left undone (there is simply just too much work coming through my department for such a limited staff); but I am so excited to not have to go into that depressing environment for 2 whole weeks. I seriously need this - I'm just burnt out. I feel like I used to feel as a kid, on the last day of school before summer vacation. If only this vacation was two months long :)

TGIF everyone! Have an amazing weekend. I'm off to unset all my alarms.

Turns out makeshift balloon pits in offices are ridiculous amount of fun.

Co-worker C' s birthday was this weekend so, when she was out of the office on Friday, almost everyone pitched in to leave a surprise for her to find tomorrow morning :)

It all started out as a joke with us saying 'let's decorate with a few birthday balloons'...

and ended 15 packs of balloons later! 

She is going to freak out! I don't even know how she's going to get to her desk :)

The bad thing is that she starts work about an hour and a half before me so I can already see her moving them into my office. I took the precautionary measure of telling P that if C tries to do that and she doesn't stop her, the balloons will all be in her office (with her inside) minutes after I find them. She laughed, but I was serious.

I honestly hope C doesn't get too mad, and is able to take it as the fun birthday gesture it's intended to be. We'll see tomorrow. I think I'll hear her screaming long before I even get there :)

Either way, Happy Birthday C!

I'm off to a lovely Sunday wedding for an even more lovely couple. Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone :)

Beam me up, Scotty.

Fresh off of seeing Star Trek Into Darkness (excellent movie, btw), I went to an appointment in this fancy-smancy building. I turned the corner and was instantly on The Enterprise :) A part of me wanted to do something Star Trekkie...but, alas, the time was not right.

That, and the strangers around me didn't look like the joking around type. Oh well. Rest assured that the kid in me played out a running with phasers scene in my head :)

Spend a few fun minutes watching Jeremy Jahns discuss the movie here. The hubby got me started watching him, and I admit, he's pretty spot on.

Saw this quote at work the other day...

Galileo might have changed his tune had he ever met Big Head 2.

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone.

Playing with cats and stuff

So, I'm cat sitting for the weekend.

 

 

She loves my mouse socks :)

 

Have an amazing Memorial Day weekend everyone!

It's Tuesday, which is that much closer to Friday

So, I've been gone for a minute :) I feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the not so fun things - like work - much less to do and enjoy the fun things.

I just found out that co-worker C trades books with the previous head of our department. They're book swap pen-pals, and have been for the past couple of years. It's such a little thing, but it's too adorable. Shuttling books back and forth between NY and FL...I imagine the packages also contain little notes like 'wait 'til you reach page blah-blah-blah' and 'get ready to cry/laugh/throw the book across the room/etc.'. It's just too funny; especially since the two really couldn't stand each other when they actually had to work together as assistant and boss (and everyone could see and feel it).

The way the scene plays out in my mind, from when they first started working together to their becoming book swap besties, feels like a script to a buddy movie...with a lot of cursing. Like when the film would eventually make it to network TV, people would think it was a silent film due to all the bleeped out words. That amount of cursing. This place just brings extremely moody and vulgar sailor out of you.

Anyway, I recently cleaned my office. I had novels all over the place and decided to share them.

Let's see if anyone takes them. I know hard copy books are a thing of the past to most of the people in my office. I love my Nook and Kindle too, but every so often I enjoy turning actual pages while engrossed in a riveting novel. If the weather is nice enough, I may do just that at a holiday outing this weekend :)

Any holiday plans in the works for all of you? This year is flying by.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday everyone!

Magic Mike and watching crotch

Happy Friday everyone! I kept thinking yesterday was Friday, so this week is seeming extra long to me.

To break up the general blahness of the day, almost everyone in the office spent a few minutes watching Harlem shake videos on YouTube.

someecards :)

After that though, P started watching a short clip from Magic Mike when Big Head 2 appeared in the doorway like a freaking ninja. It wasn't an inappropriate scene (and by that I mean it was actually a fully clothed dance scene), but when she hit pause it, of course, filled the screen with Channing's crotch. I almost burst out laughing, but managed to leave her office first. Was it hilarious? Yes. It absolutely was. I'll leave you with the resulting IM coversation between P, S and myself.
  

2 1:26 PM

Hello?

3 1:26 PM

hello

1 1:26 PM

um hi. that was a nice conversation to get out of

2 1:26 PM

Ok. Do you realize that when he walked in

1 1:26 PM

WTF why me?

2 1:26 PM

you actually said

1 1:27 PM

yeah

3 1:27 PM

HIS CROTCH IN MY FACE"

2 1:27 PM

"Yeah. Magic Mike and watching crotch"

3 1:27 PM

that’s what i heard as he was walking in 

1 1:27 PM

i was like OMG

2 1:27 PM

LOLOLOL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Halloween Treats and a Chocolate Lava Cake

Totally forgot...I went baking crazy this past Halloween. I actually ended up making about 12 dozen cupcakes. I had make 8 dozen pre-Hurricane/Superstorm Snady to take in for a Halloween dessert potluck, but then the office was shut down for a week so I sent thought to work with my Hubby and whipped up some more once my work resumed.

 

There were Vampire Bites, Goblin Eyes, Salted Caramel Chocolate Monsters and more!

Of course, the vamp bites were filled with yummy blood, and the goblin eyes were filled with tasty slime. It was Halloween after all :)

I also recently made my Hubby some chocolate lava cake because he's so awesome.

Yep, my husband's the best :)

Now, I just have to figure out what kind of dessert I'll make for Turkey Day...

Two Voodoo Dolls and a Black Friday

My sisters gave my Hubby and I these two little stress reducer voodoo dolls, along with a kick-ass card, for our 1 year wedding anniversary. They are too wonderful :) I can't believe that my darling Hubby and I have been married for over a year! Time truly does fly. I love him so much, I seriously doesn't feel like it's been a year!

It was too cute opening the package from my sisters and seeing two carefully wrapped packages that contained these two beauties. Hubby and I quickly chose the one we each wanted. Claw hand for him (he likes the cap) and pure stealth ninja (with a its awesome tiny sword) for me. With my job, I knew that anything saying "control your frustrations with idiots" was for me :)

Last week was horrible...another co-worker opted not to come back after over 6 years working here. It's crazy. I need my stress relief ninja more than ever. I actually burst out laughing in my boss' face on Thursday; and  I mean tears streaming down my face, bent over in my chair, extra loud laughing for about 3 full minutes. I couldn't help it - I mean I literally couldn't hold the laughter in. While explaining that the previously mentioned co-worker would "not be returning", Big Head #2 had the gall to say that everything would be okay because he would pitch in and help out with the workload as he has done before. I'm not even sure if he finished his sentence as the laughter just exploded out of me and everyone turned to watch me try to get control of myself. The thought of Big Head #2 actually doing work was just too funny. Help out, my ass.

The laughter felt great though.

I can't believe it's almost Turkey Day already! I know that I will be contributing delicious baked mac and cheese to the family meals and both my parents and Hubby's parents. We are going to eat so much and fill our tupperware containers with tons-o-leftovers to take home. Thanksgiving is good :).

Then the day after...Black Friday madness. I don't take the whole thing as seriously as some people. No early morning waiting for  me. I don't remember if I went out last year, but I usually head out at a normal shopping time and pick up a few things here and there. I prefer Cyber Monday shopping for bigger things - shipped right to my door is the kind of convenience I'm talking about. I was making a list of things to bring with me when going out on Black Friday yesterday (bottle of water, hand sanitizer, lists, etc.), and after skimming it, Hubby asked if I was making a Zombie Apocalypse preparedness kit (yes, "Walking Dead" was on yesterday). It really got me thinking about how similar the two lists would be.

So, (1) are you taking part in Black Friday madness this year? and more importantly (2) what would be in your zombie apocalypse preparedness kit?

Have an awesome day everyone!

:)

The other day Big Head #2 told P that he sometimes waits just inside his office door until he sees a shadow, so that he can pop out and scare the person waking by. Wow. Just, wow.

Tonight's homemade desserts for me and my honey...



Vanilla Cream and Rum Glaze filled Rum Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and mini Walnut Rum Cakes.

 

 

 

Yes, I took a bite before remembering to take a pics :)

 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

Mozzarella Beer Bread!

Savory and delicious :)

Honey Beer Bread :)

Sweet and tasty!

Today's a day

So, I was promoted at work. Well, they call it a "promotion", and I guess it is technically. It was initially presented to me as a 'we think you are so wonderful, please accept this great honor', and then the situation kind of degraded (at least to me) to a 'you will be doing this work, so you can either accept the new title and extra 2 cent [practically] raise or not...and still do the work' clustercuss. I accepted. Obviously. The problem I have is that Big Head #1 is going out on maternity leave next Friday. She calls it a working maternity leave ('yes, please go ahead and patch me into that important conference call while I'm nursing'), but the fact is she'll be out of the office for two months. Big Head #2 knows nothing. NOTHING. Not only does he not know anything about his job, the paperwork we have to deal with everyday, the system we use...anything, he makes no true attempt to even try. The problem is that all the higher up bosses opted to leave, so who knows who's even overseeing the Big Heads right now. No one's left to watch out for the worker bees in this situation - at least not that I can see.

In addition to that P's counterparts N and O are out of here too. N was on medical leave for like 6 months and then she opted to leave the organization altogether. It's mighty coincidental that while she was on medical leave she managed to not only finish school and her internship and graduate, but also start a new job/business and a life coach. A LIFE COACH! O took a gamble trying to squeeze more money out of the organization and they called her bluff quickly and completely...not only is she leaving, they actually cut that position. So, P will be left alone to handle three people's work until they hire a second person, who she will likely have to train and support during the inevitable learning curve; just like they told me that I would have to assist in the ongoing training process of my counterparts. How do you assist someone who is so far past clueless that I can't, in good faith, use the word clue in any part of any statement related to him? Either way, I am happy to be recognized for my hard work; so the small smile is there :)

Anyway, enough crap. On to non-work topics.

Hubby and I saw Premium Rush the other day. The movie itself was decent, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Fantastic and oh-so sexy-adorable (sadorable?), as always. B- movie, A+ JGL. It made me want to watch Inception a few more times. yea, blue ray. I sat through Christian Bale's Batman voice and Tom Hardy's "Of Course!" Bane voice three times - time's 2.5 to 3 were overkill - and cannot wait to see Looper. He's s'wonderful. Hubby understands :)

In food related yummy news, I made the most wonderful Honey Beer and Mozzarella Beer Breads the other day (man, I do a lot on those 'other days'). I'll post pics later. Hubby is my resident taste-tester, and he loved them, as did the people at work. To me, the honey version was tasty, but the mozzarella version was divine. I love cheesy goodness and will definitely be making it again soon. I can already taste the cinnamon and pumpkin ale version I want to make for Turkey Day. Yummy!

Hubby and I are going paintballing (is that a term?) next month. My friend K is freaking me out a bit telling me that the pain outweighs the fun, but it's my first time playing so I'm still excited. Nervous fear, I guess. When I imagine myself playing, I picture Tom Hardy in This Means War. His paintball scene was easily the best scene in the movie. In reality, I'll probably be more like the kids his character is decimating, but I still aim to have fun. I'll just have to stock up on Advil, heating pads and stuff beforehand :) Any experienced paintball people out there? How much pain are Hubby and I in for, really?

Enjoy the rest of the day everyone!

Le sigh.

Thanks again someecards!

People...today is a version of a good morning. It's a crappy, messed up morning that I'm sure will mean extra work for me later on, but at least I had a hearty morning laugh.

Big Head #2 actually came down to my office a few minutes ago (looking to be on the brink of frustrated stress tears), closed the door, and said 'Something bad happened to me on Friday.' Now, I had already heard the office gossip while he was on a sick day or vacation day or whatever yesterday, so I already knew what he was going to say. As he closed my door and sat down, I had to struggle to keep my composure. He then proceeded to tell me that (like a moron) he had brought some files home with him in his backpack that day, and they were stolen when his car was broken into. Yes, everyone is okay - credit cards were cancelled, and all that jazz. The point is that he thought that it would be a good idea to bring the files (that I worked on for months) which were chock full of information, home with him, and now that information could be anywhere.

He's going to have a hell of a time re-creating those files, especially due to:

1) the original signature pages that he'll have to request again (what reasoning he'll give? Who knows.);

2) the info that was sent via email - attachments now archived;

3) the info that was sent via file sharing sites - now expired;

4) the info that may have already been filed away in storage...

The list goes on and on.

I feel semi-bad for him, but honestly, I think that may actually be me feeling bad for future me who will have to help clean up this latest mess. For now though, I do feel bad for him but I have to laugh at least a little bit.

Have a great day everyone!

Mr. Rogers would have hated this neighborhood.

Yesterday was a bad day.

I got so angry at work that I actually saw red. I could feel my blood pressure rushing and hear the dull roar of the blood rushing through my body.

I was pissed.

It all started with the compressed workweek schedule. We are allowed to work longer hours 4 days a week, in order to have the 5th day off. We can do this 2 times a month, but I only do it once. Once.

Sooooo, C came around saying that Management (let's call them the 'Big Heads' for this post) told co-worker M that they decided that only one person can be out on any given day because we are so short staffed. M in turn told C who took it upon herself to relay the message in a childish game of telephone. I stated that I have no problem changing my days as needed, but I wanted to first hear the reasoning directly from Big Head #2 (who is two offices away) instead of from M to C to XYZ, blah, blah, blah. Not an unreasonable request, I think.

This sparked M, T and C coming down to my office about 30 seconds later. Their posse rolled up to my door, sneers and all, like that bs was supposed to intimidate me, and looked a bit surprised/flustered/scared? when I proceeded to very loudly state that I did not have time for this sh*t as I (gesturing to my paperwork avalanche of a desk) have too much sh*t to deal with that is actually part of my job. M again asked questions (can you believe this?!), and I started to get pissed. When I get so angry that I start to tear up, it's not going to end well, so I took the high road and not so politely told them to get the hell out of leave my office and not let the door hit 'em where the good Lord split 'em close the door behind them. They then proceeded to go to my colleague, K, next door and, while I only heard muffled words, she became upset and left for the day immediately after.

Taking deep breaths wasn't working for me so I called my husband, who talked me down - because I was ready to go off about all the bull that I've had to deal with over the past 5 years - and when I was finally able to form coherent sentences again without rampant profanity I went down to talk to the Big Heads (because they had, of course, email summoned me down to chat about the incident even though it was seconds away from the day's quitting time.

50 minutes later, I left Big Head 1's office having accomplished nothing because some people hear only what they want to hear. Sad. So, so, sad. Thank God my husband recognized the tone of my voice and plea to come cheer me up, and was waiting for me in my office. Just seeing him brought a smile to my face even after all that.

The drama continues today with HR, phone calls, meetings, and other crap; but we all know that some things will never change. Hopefully though, something will be done about my work load, because if not...well, something has to give.

Oh, that was a downer of a post :(

Anywho, my husband is meeting me after work again today so we can go home together :) so I'm just ignoring all the work bs and focusing on that :) I'm trying to anyway.

Let's end this with something happy :) The Magic Mike trailers and TV spots brings a smile to my face :D

Like this one!

Yep. I am seeing that. Anyone else?

Have an excellent day everyone!

Congratulations Class of 2012!

Congratulations (again) to Sis 2!!! She graduated college on Sunday :) I'm so proud of her.

It was a lovely ceremony - the speech to the class from the honorary degree candidate ran quite long, but it was full of good messages for the graduates. But seriously...it was like an epic poem.

It was lovely having the day off yesterday - I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day as well - and having today off is like the icing on an amazingly delicious cake. If only I would win Mega Millions tonight and not have to go back to that viper's nest at all. I called in to check on things, of course, and P let me know that she'd already heard the assistant's telling a few callers that I was out today. Can't wait to check those annoying messages tomorrow :( And why is it that the rest of the work week always seems longer when you have Monday and/or Tuesday off?

Well, whatever, I've still got hours of my day off to enjoy. If only I had an air-conditioner, because this fan isn't doing the trick. If it's this hot already, this summer is going to suck!

Stay cool everyone, and have a wonderful rest of the day!

I love you 4.5 day weekend.

1pm can't come fast enough today.

Thank God for 1) half days at work, and 2) 4 day holiday weekends (yes, I did take off an extra day :), because this place has me so stressed and frustrated that I'm about to scream. A part of me wants to scream just to see what would happen. Most likely, my manager would speed race down to my office, as he too-often does (use email or IM for goodness sakes) and, after pretending that he didn't just break the sound barrier to get there, ask 'what's up?' in his 'I'm pretending to be laid back to distract you from how stressed and overwhelmed I am/trying too hard to be cool/high school guidance counselor' way. I mean the man actually asked one of my co-workers how to 'do cursive' today so he could sign a document, and then proceeded to misspell what he wrote.

Seriously, the weekend needs to start now.

Sis 2 is graduating from college on Sunday, so it's going to be a wonderful graduation/Memorial Day weekend! I'm so proud of her :)

Anyone else have any fun weekend plans?

Have an amazing day/weekend everyone! My boss just walked by...again. He's going to wear a hole in the office carpeting soon. I may actually scream before the half-day is over :)

Holy crap, I've been in my office for 5 years!

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of my being at my job! 

Image found here

5 years!

It's actually a pretty huge thing for me to comprehend - I seriously cannot believe it. The workdays have been a steady decline of happiness (or a steady increase of suck - whatever) for the last 3 or so years. I seriously cannot believe I'm still chugging along. Having seen a virtual revolving door of people come and go, I have to say, I'm kind of happy and proud.

A new colleague, J, started today. As she was being led around and introduced to everyone, I actually saw the same spark that I had in my eye 5 years ago reflected in hers. She is so super-psyched to be here, and has that whole 'can't wait for life's great adventure to kick in' vibe. She's jumping at the phone calls, zooming down the halls, chipper and positive...I used to be like that. it starts to kick in around month 6, but it's just a tingle in the back of your mind. By the time it's a full grown realization, you can't help but kick yourself for not delving more into that back of the mind though you had oh-so-many-months ago. She left promptly at 5:30pm though. That will become a thing of the past soon enough.

Hopefully, she comes back tomorrow :)

Have an excellent week everyone!