Quick update

Nothing that much going on right now to update. I scored my 2nd goal on Sunday night with another assist from Vivian which was sweet! Seems like we do very well playing together and I have learned so much from her. She is like a mini hockey wiki for me!

Oh I went to the UW Women's hockey game Saturday as well which was awesome! They are so good, and quick! DAMN! Anyway, we had so much fun! It ended up being my friend Mel, Loni and Vivian but that was just enough to make it enjoyable!

What else..my new schedule is going good, I just love being done at 230 in the afternoon. It worked to my advantage today with the weather since work wasn't letting anyone leave, pathetic really...they don't really care that much for our safety. The job hunt is still on but I am working on something, of course it requires a few essays which are taking me a while to write but I have until March.

Next week I head to Tampa for work..don't really want to go though. I leave Wednesday morning and fly back Sunday afternoon. I was supposed to go with another girl , who incidentally is turning in her letter of resignation tonight. She finally decided that her happiness is worth more to her and will be leaving.  Lucky girl! So, that means I will be traveling alone with my laptop for company!

Other than that, I could go on forever about how I am unhappy in my job etc, how depressed it truly makes me, how anxious I feel every day when I walk in the building.

Oh something I forgot to mention... Rocky Mountain School of Photography is coming to Madison for a weekend seminar in May that I might be signing up for. Some great classes are being offered that I think will help me tremendously! I am very excited about it!

Caution, temper flaring!!

Okay I am so irritated and downright pissed with Citibank. I will hereby and forever more encourage people NEVER to use them. They have the shittiest customer service of any company I have worked with. Seriously, let's share a story:

St. Patrick's Day 2007, I go to Ashley furniture and purchase a couch. A lovely micro-fiber thing, biggest purchase to date (before the house of course) and get approved for 12 months no interest, no payments. Happily I stroll out the door. Fast forward to Nov 2007, just after the house purchase, I get a charge for NSF. Since I have not had one of those, and I am sure my bank would have sent a nasty gram, I call customer service because they must have added this in error. After getting the run-around from Citibank, and them telling me that my check was returned by my bank, I hung up the phone quite ticked off. I checked my online account with the bank..funny that my check was cashed with no problem! So I get someone on the phone that confirms this, agrees to fax something to Citibank stating this. Problem solved!

Yeah right!

I get a letter from Citibank stating that they have reviewed my bank information, and the charges remain. (WTF??!!!) I try with no avail 2 more times before January to have this reversed.

Today January 25, 2 months after the first charge..is a late payment charge (please see above NO PAYMENT, NO INTEREST FOR 12 MONTHS) and the lovely finance charge. So, once again I get on the phone with these irritating individuals... after waiting over 8 minuets for someone to answer, the guy asks for my account number and then puts me on hold for an additional 10 minuets!!! Not sure what he was looking for, perhaps went for a burger or smoke.

Anyway, he wouldn't answer my questions about why I would get charged a late payment charge (Did I mention a 100$ payment on Dec. 14?) Anyway, as a courtesy since I have never been late on a payment (Duh!!) he will remove those charges.

Which still leaves me with the damn bounced check, and terrible customer service when I call to get it taken care of.... I have become the new poster child for Anti-Citibank!!

I feel like Sally Field

First of all I totally feel like Sally Field right now…you read it, you really read it! Anyway, enough of that!
Nothing much to report lately other than my days just seem to be flying by! I am happy to report that today my boss realized that my current sucky schedule of 10-630 was just not a worthwhile one, and had decided to move me to the 6-230 one. This is a huge win for me on work happiness, although slightly early, I am going to focus on going to the gym after work. I am excited in the summer I will be able to get out and snap some pictures as well…good times!
I got my new issue of Rangefinder Magazine (it’s a professional photography mag) and it is all in black and white and the pictures are just fabulous! I have not had the camera out since new years now…damn I think it’s time to change that! I am thinking with the $$ I made doing Angela’s wedding this summer that I will look into getting 2 things for the camera. I need a backpack that can hold all my gear and my tripod, they are not cheap at all, holy crap they are expensive. The other item I am looking into is a Wacom tablet. I don’t know a ton of people that have used this, so I am not sure if it will be worth it or not. But it seems with editing photos with a mouse is quite difficult and this would make that smoother…thoughts??

I am trying to think of the best way to get the biggest bang for my buck since I don’t know when the next paying gig might happen again. This could really be the end of the paying ones, which isn’t that bad. I do my photography for fun anyway, and I really don’t want to be classified as a wedding or portrait photographer. I would love to be more of a photojournalist…but not really sure that I could do anything like that anymore.

On the hockey front...I still have not turned in my essay. I decided to add more “personal” stuff in it. I think that is why I have not submitted it … it feels like I am just putting myself out there. What if I am selected? What if I am not? What will people think when they read it? I know that is silly, and it should not matter, yet it does. I did email Bri for the cover sheet which she provided promptly, so now it’s a matter of sending it.

Okay I am still hopelessly bored at work…perhaps I will think of more things.

I am tired...very tired

So it's early, 445am actually..and I have been awake for 45min already. Hard to believe after my day yesterday. I had to coordinate Thurs night so I was up for over 24 hours since work won't let you count that as working time. I think that will someday be the downfall of work, someone will get so exhausted and try driving a long distance either back home or to a case and get in an accident.

Since I was wide awake I took the dogs out and DAMN it's cold! Like your breath freezes in your chest cold (-7 with -15 wind chill currently for those that want to know)

Since I am sitting here I am watching ER from last week and they played hockey...it was rather amusing! Speaking of hockey, they have an essay contest about what gay hockey means to us (they pay for us to go to a tournament in NY if we are selected) so I have been working on that since New Year's Eve. The interesting thing, is that as I was writing I realized that hockey is more than a sport I play once a week. It is so much more than that. Perhaps when I tweak it a little more I will post it on here. I should be turning it in this week.

okay this is getting long, time to relax a bit.

So I have decided that no one really reads my blog. Not that I mind, it gives me a place out in cyberspace that I can share my thoughts and observations or whatever. Actually, I think I just have blog envy. I look at some of friends or family and they have TONS of people that comment. Oh well..that's how it flows.

On the exciting front, I have an interview tomorrow morning. Yippie! But I don't want to get too excited, this is just the beginning. I need to be very selective and really decide what it is that I want. What will make me happy. I will gladly shovel hay if that will make me smile and alleviate some of my stress.

So how is this for irony jumping into you email box in the morning. I subscribe to a daily email thing that said this

"Everybody in our life – one way or another - comes to help us in our correction process.  Even the people who may hate us: ex-husbands, disgruntled employees, downstairs neighbors, former friends.  Every person in our life is here to awaken another part of our correction. 
It doesn't mean we aren't going to react.  We can't always expect to thank someone who slaps or slanders us.  But in the bigger picture, if we look at ourselves from afar, we can see that everyone in our life is here to teach us. 

Today, as you deal with unpleasant people - especially the ones taking a big bite out of you – say a silent "thank you."  Know they are there to open something for you in your corrective process."

Yup, just what I needed today. I think I said thank you a billion times today, kill 'em with kindness, I can make it though this.

New Perspective

So with a new year comes another chance to change one's perspective on things in life. The most obvious thing for me lately is just how much I need to remove myself from the job that I have. It is effecting my health, my soul, my personality. Everyone that knows me knows that I am a very happy-go-lucky, love to laugh type of person. But when I pull up to work I get a wave of depression that just overwhelm's me. My energy is sucked away and I just am not me. I won't say I am desperate to find a new job right now because desperation will make a person do crazy things but I am on the prowl. I will find that something that I will be able to let me come shining through again.

Things have been busy, lots of meetings for steering committee. It's hard to believe that we are busy planning the Act 6 ride and before we know it the day will be here! I am trying to gather up a list of mentors for the ride, to make the 1st year riders more prepared, more supported and more involved.

Then there is still hockey, we are over the 1/2 way mark which makes me slightly sad. I am enjoying hockey so much, I will I was better at it, but I am having a blast! I would actually love to be on the board for hockey some day as well. I want to keep this wonderful venue open for other people long after I am unable to play (which hopefully we can turn this into a senior league some day!)

Off to make it a great weekend!

Reflections for a new year

This year I did some things differently, tried some new things and gave up on others. Here is a short reflection of my 2007:

• Said I was going to do the Act ride..and actually did it!!
• Earned my Bachelors of Science AND graduated with honors
• Joined hockey
• Stopped eating meat
• Purchased our first home
• Scored my first goal in hockey
• Made some outstanding friends
• Started Punky Productions
• Selected for the Act 6 steering committee as a co-chair for participant support

So, I don't really believe in new years resolutions, since people tend not to stick with them anyway..however, here are some hopes and wishes for 2008

• To remain healthy
• To find a job that I truly enjoy, that challenges me
• Train properly for Act 6
• Learn how to do the hockey stop both directions..and actually use it in the game
• Go to the gym at least 3 days a week
• Laugh more
• Let people know how much they mean to me
• Get my snow blower to work
• Be proud of myself
• Create my family of choice