First Day of School

Do you think I slept?

If you answered NO, you would be correct.  I don't sleep very well most of the time, but when I'm away from home I really don't sleep well.  Then, add to that all the anxiety of being alone and starting a new job, and I think I may have slept about 2 hours the first night.

Do I look skeerd?  Hmmm....  Ok, breathe, laugh at yourself, and try again.

That's a little better.  Notice the black suit - I was trying really hard to be a grown up.  I haven't worn it since my first day, but I'm thinking of breaking that bad boy out again this week - if for no other reason than to see how much weight I've gained in the past few weeks.  (ARGH! but that's another story...)

Lovely, no snow!  YEA!!  My first week, it was in the 30's and 40's and there was no snow.  AWESOME!!!  This isn't going to be as bad as everyone led me to believe - maybe I was over-reacting a bit when I bought those snow boots.  I probably won't ever wear them. (hah - just wait...)

What?!  Are you kidding me?  A parking spot of my very own... and it's in the second row!  It doesn't matter how late I'm running, I will always have a spot close to the door, and it's even got my name on it (kinda)!  I'm in love, are you? 

And this is my new 'home away from home.'  I'd spent the day in here putting a few things up and trying to get organized.  The building is very 'industrial' and 'lofty' with the exposed pipes, vents and brick.  I kinda like the vibe. 

You see all that paper on the back part of the desk?  Most of it is gone.  Well - not really gone,  I still have the one pile on the left, the rest has been hidden. I have no idea what's in those folders, so I probably could have thrown it away, but I kept it just in case I need it in the future.  That last remaining pile - that puppy is a goner this week - that's my goal.  I hate hanging onto paper - I'm going electronic, baby.

Facing the other direction, it's not such a good view this way, but I'll bring some art in and it will get better.  It definitely needs some COLOR!!  (I had to close the door so people wouldn't see what a big dork I was taking pictures of my office!  They didn't need to learn that on the first day - we'll just let 'em learn that over time.)

Did you notice that it's dark outside? It was probably about 4:30 pm. Yeah, it gets dark REALLY early here. I'm not loving that part, I need a grow light or a tanning bed... maybe both - but I only want the grow light if it makes me grow taller, not wider! :-)

So, that's it.  I'm all nested in.  It's nice to feel settled in somewhere.  Now, I just have to find a real home for my non-work life.

Journey

I began this journey in the early fall. It started first on the phone, but quickly moved to a visit to tiny Kohler, Wisconsin.  Wow - it's beautiful here.

After spending a day in Kohler, my next stop was Milwaukee where I realized there was a giant lake up here, doh!

And some really cool old houses... 

Second leg of the journey, back to Kohler to explore the area. Hmmm... would I really want to work here?  to live here?!  Considering and thinking...

Everyone was so nice, and the weather was really cooperating!  (Everyone kept telling me that it was unusually warm - let's just say we were all on our best behavior!)

LOVE these green slate roof shingles!

These were all taken at The American Club - where we stayed during this trip. It's a five diamond resort, with some pretty cool history behind it. It was awesome! During this second trip, we also went to a Green Bay Packers game - that was fun - but pretty darn cold!

The American Club has a lot of history - it was built in the early days of Kohler Company, as a sort of boarding house for Kohler employees (mostly immigrants). Our room was kind of small, but the bathroom was amazing (of course!). 

The building twists and turns for days - I kept getting lost and ending up on the wrong floor (regardless of the one I was trying to find).  I thought it was cool that one of the restaurants, the Horse & Plow Pub, used to be a bowling alley for the workers.

The day before Thanksgiving, I got the call.  They made me an offer to move to Kohler, WI and work for Kohler Company.

Oh my goodness - this is exciting - but oh, so scary!  I have to pick up my life and move to a completely 'foreign' part of the country?  New job, new home, new life...the journey continues...

Just puttin' it out there....

It was truly a blessing that my last day at my old job was August 31.  It was a toxic environment that I am so happy to have left.  Since then, I have been spending at least 40 hours a week trying to find my next gig.  I want to land somewhere that I will L.O.V.E. to go every day, and where I can have an impact.

I've got a bunch of irons in the fire and I'm getting closer...  This has been my goal:  to have at least one great offer (preferably more) no later than October 21, 2011.  I want to start before Thanksgiving (and before the severance runs out)!

Fingers crossed, big prayers, God willin' and the creek don't rise!

Bummed & Baking

I'm going to start with a wee bit of news.  Remember this post last week - I was waiting for (hopefully) good news.  The Mystical Magical Eight Ball must be broken, or maybe I have some bad mojo goin' on right now.  Yesterday, I heard through the grapevine that the positive news is going to be negative.  It's still not official, but I am officially bummed.

Oh well, it wasn't meant to be I guess.  I know God's working on something really good and it will show up at exactly the right time.  I was just hoping that now was that time.  *sigh*

So, what do you do when it's gray outside, a little gray inside, and you can't get out of your drive way? (that's not snow, it's ice)

Bake!

Maybe this isn't the healthiest way of coping with disappointment and boredom, but it is effective.  I pretty much threw everything I had in the pantry at this one - Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I found it online here.  Yummy!

I know that baking is a science, but I tend to look at recipes as a loose guideline.  So, while these were very good and well-balanced, I prefer more peanutty-ness (yep, just made that word up) and more texture.  So, it's not tried and tested, but if I were to make these again, I'd probably reduce the flour a bit so I could add another 1/2 cup of oatmeal and at least 1/4 cup more peanut butter. 

I did manage to make it out of the house late this morning, and I am sitting in my office right now wondering why I bothered to come in today if all I'm going to do while I'm here is blog.  Hmmmm.....

(Note to any future employers:  I'm really not a slacker. This is just a quick break in a very busy day.  Please take into consideration the 7:00 am conference call I was on this morning and the 9:00 pm call I have tonight. )  ;-D

Back to the salt mines....

There's No Place Like Home

Chicken Little came home from school Friday evening, and what's the first thing I did?  Put her to work!  Mwaahahahaha...

She's started temping at my office this morning during her holiday break.  Doesn't she look professional?  Just like a grown-up-in-training.

Spirit Week??

I don't know how I ended up being the leader of the Employee Engagement initiative for my company, but I was the lucky winner of this task. Among many other programs that I'm launching for this, my boss wanted to have a company "Spirit Week".

Needless to say, I have very little time for picture taking or blogging this week. Here are a few pictures I've been taking at the office.

Monday was "Hats Off to You" day. This is the group that wore hats. I'm the one on the far left wearing my "church-lady" hat. I especially loved the girl's pirate hat - that was my favorite! :)

Yesterday was wear your Green day (our logo is lime green), and the picture above is our local HR team (I'm on the far right) in all our green-glory. We celebrated with green cupcakes and custom m&m's in the afternoon.

Today we're having a global culture (celebrating our diversity) potluck...

I find it extremely ironic that I am leading this since I am probably the MOST UN-spirited person in the company. I also am not a party-planner. I'm really terrible at the details. This would have been fine except that in addition to the global program launch, I'm the site leader for our office in Plano. This means that I actually have to coordinate some activities for this office during this week. Argh! (plus I have to continue to do my REAL job!)

I did have enough sense to put out the call for volunteers to be on an Event Committee. I only got two victims, uh I mean, volunteers. These wonderful people have really stepped up to do the bulk of the planning and executing. THANK GOODNESS!

Hope you are all having a spirited week of your own. I'm eager to catch up on all my blog reading this weekend.

Lake Michigan

Here are just a few final shots from last week. The weather and the lake were gorgeous! Even though we worked hard, it was really a treat to be able to spend a few days up there.


This is the view from the back of the house where we were staying. The lake is so big it feels more like the ocean - you can't even see the other side! It was rough.



Just some of the pretty plants and flowers growing everywhere. It was so lush.

The view from an inn down the road. This is White Lake which feeds into Lake Michigan.

White River Canoeing

I mentioned that one day last week we went canoeing down a river. This activity was billed as “teambuilding”. Hmmm….



Looks like a promising start, huh?

All those colorful kayaks and tubes looked like they would be so much fun! The tubes weren’t even an option, so we had to pick a kayak or a canoe. Not being that familiar with how to operate either vehicle, I chose to partner up with someone and float down the river in a canoe.

This is a relatively tame example of the vegetation in and around this particular river. There were so many fallen trees, stumps and branches in the river; it quickly became obvious why tubes were not an option. You would be moving along just fine, and then out of nowhere you’d be wedged between a couple of fallen trees, or tipped over by a submerged stump.

A perfect example of how I experienced most of this particular river - from the side of an overturned canoe.

The first casualty was the beer (refer to picture #1), the second was our dignity and poise, the third was the nice buzz most of us had from the few beers consumed prior to the tumbling, and finally the last thing to give way was our good humor.

I’m all about adventure and having fun, and I really LOVE almost any activity involving being on, in or near the water. This, however, was more like one of the challenges you might encounter on a reality TV show. Half way through our trek, there were more than a few people I had identified who should be voted off the island (or in this case, out of the canoe). By the end of the journey, we were all dead tired and starving, but we were a team again – with everyone grateful just to have survived!

In spite of all the ins-and-outs, it was a pretty fun afternoon… Everyone had a good time, with only a few bumps, bruises and missing flip-flops.