Suzanne Calling

Right before I started the new job, I got some items for my desks to customize it. Knowing that my computer would only have 2 USB ports and that I'd need more, I got a nice TARDIS USB hub from online. Alas, only one of the 4 ports works with my headphones, but the other three work with everything else, so it's fine. At the same time, I bid on and won two of the Tenth Doctor. Now, I didn't expect the sizes to match up, but there were several jokes about it being a good thing the TARDIS is bigger on the inside! Here and there, I will bid on Doctor Who action figures on eBay, because the selection here in the US is pitiful. I don't care about new in box, just good condition, and as a result, I now have a few characters and a TARDIS that is the proper size for the Doctor seen above. Recently, I got an 11th Doctor for a really good price, so I tried to get him a Clara or Amy and found a fantastic offer for Clara. I won the bid and just got the package over the weeken...

My friend Trisha started a 'Hey Girl' meme with a twist, asking us to post ourselves doing mundane things. This has been my week, and next week will be more of the same. Did you know defragging numerous hard drives is one of the seven circles of hell for a Type A personality? You do now!

You really thought you'd see Fifty Shades of Gray in there? Don't you know me by now?

Is all around us. It's becoming so prevalent that I'm doing a group project on creating distance learning about it, and my employer had a sheriff come talk to us today on the subject. The magazine subscription bullshit is identity theft, albeit one that hasn't done much but annoy me. (And at that, it's at the point that I rip the address labels off them and leave them on the counter at the post office when I pick up my mail-someone will enjoy them.) Still, it's theft, presenting oneself as me, Ed or the boys to the magazine companies. But, there are other, scarier forms of theft. Credit card skimming, which can happen when your card is taken by the server at the restaurant, as well as when you pay by credit/debit card at the gas station or use an ATM. This year, the IRS reports that many social security numbers are being hijacked and W2's fraudulently accessed to get returns. The real owner of the number goes to file their return and boom, they get a mess...

Well, maybe not. This is, after all, Florida-the lowest number on the thermometer has been 53 in the morning during the past week. However, at work, you can tell something's up. There are coworkers I haven't seen for a week. Add that to the 10 day break our employer gives us and it adds up to a very nice vacation. Alas, my classification doesn't get paid time off, so it was not an option. It will be interesting tomorrow. We shut down on Friday, and I suspect those who didn't have a whole week of vacation to use probably added tomorrow to their time off in order to get last minute things done. I think we'll get in the Christmas spirit Friday with a detour over to Orlando. It'll feel like I'm playing hooky!

When I first started this job, I'd get asked pretty regular by visitors "where's your candy dish?" Apparently, at one time, someone saw fit to stock a candy dish and did so for a while. No one in my department can remember exactly who did it or for how long. We relocated our department and in my desk was a pretty crystal candy dish. Eventually, when buying Halloween candy, I figured I'd get a bag of candy for the dish at work and make the visitors happy. Thus began the candy dish experiment. An occupational hazard of analyzing things all the time for work, for school and for future research is that even when you don't intend to dissect a topic, you do. I bought a bag of Tootsie rolls midgies and they were gone in just under two days. I had occasion to go to the dollar store for something else and grabbed a bag of Smarties, and the next morning, I refilled the candy bowl. Those lasted a week and took us to the day after Halloween. I visited Target to pic...

I was asked to write a blog for work, partly because I have experience working with one and because my boss was familiar with my writing. Now I have a new boss and she's quite pleased with my social media savvy and Adobe CS5 skills. So, I have some new tasks-creating a Twitter account and Facebook page as soon as I get some guidelines from legal. Heck, she wanted me to start things up today, but realized that waiting for the green light was the way to go. In the meantime, I'm also treading some ground I haven't seen in years. Client sign in sheets have been scanned in for a long time, and someone manually goes through them to create Excel sheets of how many contacts were made, what form of interaction there was and who worked with the client. The job was time consuming and it was expected to become my task while they searched for a software package that would import the information from Outlook into a database. Instead, I asked if we wanted a relational databas...

My colleagues, that is. In my current employment situation, I finally feel like a round peg in a round hole. I enjoy what I'm doing, I can use the skills I've gained so far in my graduate program, and there's a lot I can learn that will help me in the future, too. It's funny when there's a department meeting that I didn't need to attend, people come out and they file past my desk on their way to the Keurig and tell me "you're going to be happy." See, I've been hobbled to the desk by the work demands of August and unable to unpack boxes and do other things that need to be done. They realize that while surfing the net, writing blog posts and reading my GRE guide are diversions, I'd rather be productive. Collectively, they found a few things that I can do for them while I'm at my desk and greeting the many clients that come to us this time of year. So, I spent about a half hour shuffling between the scanner and the duties a...

The first week at my job, my boss and I sat down and discussed what I would be doing in my year's tenure. I am employed in a contract position, and that contract ends next June 30th-right about when I'd be seeking a fellowship as a Ph.D. candidate-so it works fine for me. The coworker who does *some* of my duties, but not all, had given me some of the basic information, so when my boss said "and we'd like you to start up and maintain a blog for our group," I had to restrain myself from squeaking out 'Really?' and doing a happy chair dance. Instead, I told her I'd get right on it-and promptly asked a dozen questions that got answered with 'do it whatever way you'd like, I trust your judgment.' Part of me wondered if it was because she'd noticed the link to my blog on Facebook (we're friends on there and have been for a while) or just that she knew that I like to write. In any case, it's taken some work to get the server space...

While my employment does not require my budding skills as an instructional technologist, the fact that I know how to use these programs does come in handy. For instance, I'm in the process of making something in Photoshop that we'll use with the client base, and the combination of Uncle Sam's 'I want YOU' and one of our staff on a sign with an appropriate message is making all of us giggle. In meetings, we've talked about issues that crop up, and I suggest a way to work with it (basically, creating simple training materials for the clients) and one of the team wants to run with this. She asked today what programs could be used for this purpose and I ticked off the six I've used, that I've got two available on my laptop and that we can access two of the others without too much effort, through the employer server. I could see the ideas churning and hope that this means we'll be making web content soon. :) At the same time, I'm being trained on ...

In my touch base with my boss today, we were going over things I need to do. Shredding, filing, still waiting on IT to give me access to the software I need to do a large portion of my job (and help me to do a great purge of old files, too.) She tells me "one of our goals this year is to set up a blog, and I want you to do it." Really? Me? I restrained myself, because jumping up and down about getting to do something I really enjoy and get paid to do it would have irritated My Stupid Leg more than it's already messed up. Meanwhile, I set about starting the Facebook page and will show her tomorrow our blogging options. Then I'll hit up everyone in the department on topics they thing should be addressed. Hopefully, that'll give me plenty of fodder to get things rolling. Unlike this one, that blog will probably be posted weekly to be a resource for those we assist. Still, I've really been enjoying what I do, and this is like the cherry on top. Sweet.

This Outlook thing has really been interesting. For work, our email is all done through Outlook. The good part is that I can't access it from home. The bad part is that I can't access it from home, too. We currently use a proprietary scheduling product, but we are pretty sure we'll be losing it in the near future. So, the hunt is on to find a program that will do scheduling for us, similar to the one we already use, but with the added ability for people to 'check in' on a laptop when they arrive for appointments. Others are working on finding alternatives, perhaps even paying to have something built, but I'm sure there's something already available that does what we need. I'm just not familiar enough with the Outlook product base and add-ons to say 'Hey, this does what we need.' They're paying me, but I'm learning useful things that have practical applications outside the job...

Since I've owned a computer (1991), I've enjoyed creating forms for whatever employer needed them. Heck, at one time, I had a great bartering deal going with the espresso cart in the mall when I lived in Maryland. I had one of the best home graphic design packages on my computer, and I made them some really nice menu signs and fold up menus. In return, I had plenty of free biscottis and Earl Grey tea gratis. Anyway, forms and signs are my thing. I enjoy creating them. Most retailers give their stores bare bones computers with very structured tools without productivity software like Office, so if there's a need for something, you have to create it yourself. Excel is a pretty good program for basic things, and now that I know how to navigate Photoshop, it's another good tool. As I was getting the information about this morning's staff meeting (that I don't have to attend at this stage of the game), I was told "we need forms for this, that and the other...

As I'd mentioned in a previous entry, I need work clothes. No one is enforcing a dress code, but it's a given that when I'm greeting VIP's, I should be dressed nicely. College student apparel isn't exactly dual purpose! Yesterday, I went out to augment the few pieces I already have. The capris I'd mentioned that are considered dressy are Dockers, and I remembered where I'd purchased them. Subscribing to my philosophy of "buy it in multiple colors," I went back to Beall's in the hopes of finding the same ones in different colors. I struck out on that front, but did find two pairs of dressy capris and another pair of Dockers. Due to the pain issues with the PF and RSD, I usually don't bother with store fitting rooms, preferring to try things on at home. Of course, I run through a checklist of sorts while still in the store. You probably do, too, but there's a few extras I have to think about now. Are they my size? Are they appropr...

For a week and a half, I've been at work with no computer and no phone at my desk. This is because we had to wait for IT to provide me an access code and email address, but there were other things that took priority. No worries, though, because I brought my laptop to work every day. I was able to do some work related items and the past couple of days, I've been immersed in a PowerPoint presentation for my boss. The plan was to link to a YouTube video about upcoming plans for us, but I didn't want her to have to deal with the possible WiFi connectivity issues at the meeting, so I worked on embedding it with YouTube Downloader. It's a Mac native product. One of my colleagues already has a little bit of Mac envy and was asking if I liked the machine, would she have a hard time adapting to it. Yes, I love it and no, it's much easier to use. The three of us sat at a desk today and I navigated things to add to the presentation, took screen shots of the work website to...

For just over two years, I've been in college student mode. I've got my casual capris, a couple of pairs of jeans and a boatload of USF t-shirts. Until I was on that committee, where I needed to look professional, it was usual to see me in casual attire. A few months ago, Meghan went out and bought a new wardrobe thanks to her weight loss and inspired me to buy a handful of nicer tops. I'm loving the fact that peasant-style blouses are back in, so I grabbed a few of them in different colors. When I had the interview about a month ago for the GA position, I went and got a pair of dress capris. Last week, another dress shirt that was more summery than the shirts I got for the committee interviews. It was paired with those dress capris. (In black, will I ever realize I have a cream-colored cat?) I wasn't looking at the big picture, because I'd had two previous interviews and didn't get the jobs-besides, they were campus jobs where it wouldn't matter if I...

After graduating college with a 3.45 (and a 3.89 in my major), you'd think that job seeking would be a breeze, that the world would be my oyster. Add that to a 25 year tenure in retail and a successful retail management career (except for the last year of it), and hey, I could apply for anything that matches my skills, right? Not quite. It is amazing to look at Monster, Career Builder and local employers and scan the opportunities. There are many that I definitely would be a great candidate (and employee) for, but the last year or so of my tenure in the retail arena makes me gun shy to even consider them. Yes, my plan is to pursue my studies full time and work part time, but hey, I'm realistic that I should see what is out there with my qualifications should the need arise. That said, I saw a half dozen jobs that paid 25% more than my highest paying job because of that piece of paper and the idea of applying for them scares me to death. What if they won't consider me be...

This time, I was there on behalf of school, not as an applicant. If there's one thing that would not be a good idea, it would be to start a new job in the next month with all the moving stuff. I've written of the things I've seen before in this space. At that time, I was responsible for hiring. Things have not changed. Well, a few things have, like the fact that there were 40 employers (three were branches of the military) and probably 600 applicants. So, if you're headed to a job fair, consider the following... The t-shirt with the cutesy/raunchy/offensive saying, shorts and flip flops will definitely get you noticed. So will the neon green hair. Just not in a good way. If you look like you're one of the employers who are recruiting, those recruiters will spend time talking to you. Job hunting is a solo effort. Gossiping with your friends about the extra curricular activities is not going to make as good a first impression as you standing in that line looki...

Remember last week's post about creating a rubber band ball? As the week progressed, I worked on the ball, little by little. It was a source of amusement for my seatmates, and even the boss had a good laugh. (I was still answering questions while I kept adding to the thing). Friday morning, I succeeded in finishing it before we were released from training. Part of the effort was to stave off boredom, part of it was because I didn't want to carry the box they came in. See how much space I saved? Now that training is done, I'll be working for about two weeks. Of course, on the first day, I would come up with one scenario we didn't cover last week. At least it keeps me on my toes!

This week's presentation of What's For Dinner Wednesday was a repeat, homemade Macaroni and Cheese. You've seen it before, maybe even gone to the tab to get my recipe from over at MomDot, so I won't bore/torture you with a picture and a recap this week. Besides, I'm hurting, happy and harried-all at the same time. The details, you ask? Hurting-the neurologist appointment isn't until mid October, but the shoulder/arm issues are increasing in severity and frequency. You don't notice how much you use an arm daily until it starts hurting. Lifting a half gallon of milk hurts. Today, I started to scratch my back and had a lightning bolt radiate down my arm as soon as I rotated the shoulder to allow the arm to reach behind me. I'm making mental note of what type of pain, how bad it is and how long it lasts to be able to provide specifics to the neurologist. As these issue increase, it is time to write them down for fear of missing something that is impor...