Work Posts

09Aug
0

I Suck @ This Right Now

Sorry for the epic neglect folks. Life is BUSY at the moment. Here’s a quick status update on a lot of miscellaneous fronts. And read all of them, cuz some are kind of exciting :)

1. Work: Same shit, different day. I’m still working 3 jobs. I still hate working 3 jobs. A major source of my blog neglect lately has come from one job in particular, wiping me out so I have NO energy to blog when I get home. I mean 4 grants + coordinating a scientific conference? I’m one person, and I work there 20 hours a week. Whew!

2. Marla: She hurts. I saw a neurologist and got an EMG and NCV on Friday. SO STRANGE. They put things on my foot then shocked me with a cattle-prod-thing. Get the results on Wednesday.

3. Italy: Um….I have done NOTHING Italy-related in a month. I’m starting to feel bad. But I have other things on my mind…..

4. Love Life: Well, I’m 7 years into my current relationship. We live together. AND WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!

J took me on a weekend adventure, and wouldn’t tell me anything. I had a feeling, but then again, I’ve been waiting for a while for this and thought maybe I’d have to keep waiting (boys are kinda dense). But then he took me to Sea World, where we did a behind the scenes penguin encounter. Apparently everyone else on the tour knew but me. I have tons of pics and a video of me/us petting penguins. Then we went into the back of the exhibit, and magic happened :)

Basically you can go right up to the barrier that separates the staff and the penguins, but you can’t go onto the snow (oh yeah, it’s about 20 degrees in here!). J and I walked up to this barrier, and as luck would have it, a penguin was intrigued and waddled right over to us. The little guy came all the way to the barrier and stuck his beak through it. SO AWESOME. I think I squealed in delight, and then said (to the penguin) “I love you!”. J thought I was talking to him, so he said, “I love you too, (pulled out a ring) will you marry me?”

And so we’re engaged. And we’re 100% ecstatic about it. I feel lucky to have found the love of my life, who is also my best friend, and to know I will spend the rest of my life with him. I mean, he proposed with penguins. This is clearly the guy for me! And that brings me to #5…

5. Wedding Planning: I’ve been engaged for 9 days, and I think I have a venue set. We’ve come up with our first two choices for dates (2011) and are waiting to hear back from the event coordinator. I went out to dinner with some of my friends 2 days after the proposal and they had made a bet as to how many spreadsheets I had already created (2). A week later, I have 5 total. Although the big day is over a year away, I’m not wasting a minute. Planning a wedding is kind of fun (remind me I said that if I start getting stressed 10 months from now). J is totally wonderful too. He is totally interested in this, at least so far, and while I’m the lead on the wedding planning, he’s taking the reins on the honeymoon.

So yeah. I’ve been a busy bee. I really don’t want my blog to turn into a wedding planning frenzy, so I’ll do my best to keep variety. I’ll also do my best to keep up, rather than go for weeks with no posts. And on that note, I’m going to bed. Good night world! :)

Posted by Caro in Blogging, Health, Life, News, Things to do, Travel, Weddings, Work
28Jun
0

Money Matters

Those who know me know I’m a bit crazy/OCD when it comes to certain things. Planning and organizing definitely fall into that category. Today I stumbled upon a pretty awesome post from a fellow 20-something who does the same.

The post was both refreshing and kind of saddening. I took the Schwab Financial Fitness Test, and like Michele, my score is definitely lower than I would have though or hoped it would be. I scored a 68.

It was definitely awesome to see all the things I’m doing correctly: have health insurance, contribute at least 12% of my income to my retirement account, etc. But seeing the things I don’t do well made me sad. Do I have enough money to cover me if I become unemployed for several months? Nope. I haven’t quite rebounded from my “I finished grad school but still can’t find a job and have to start paying back loans” blow to my savings account. I mean can I get partial credit for knowing that I should have something like that?? lol

But seriously, it’s never too early or too late to get started on managing your finances. These are some easy tips I can recommend:

  • Make a budget and stick to it. I was introduced to mint.com a while back and I LOVE it. It tracks your spending for you, reminds you of upcoming bill payments, and makes charts and graphs of your spending trends. And it lets you know instantly if you’ve overspent in any of your budget categories.
  • A book I really enjoy is Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner. My first boss gave me this as a graduation gift when I finished undergrad. It was truly eye-opening, especially since I was literally scraping by on the salary I was making at that job.
  • Contribute to your retirement account starting the day you get your first job. Even if you can only afford $100 a month, the amount that you’ll make off that is better than nothing!! And if your employer matches contributions, take full advantage of that. Seriously – it’s FREE MONEY. And it has your name on it. Take it!
  • Don’t carry a balance on your credit card. NEVER. You’re giving away money, and right now interest rates on those things are abysmal.

And that’s all. Thanks Michele for the awesome financial quiz!

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Money, Work
17Jun
0

Mexico

SPOILER ALERT! I’m going to discuss soccer results. If you’re like me and don’t watch the games til later, stop reading now.

I had the distinct pleasure of watching the Mexico-France game LIVE online courtesy of espn.com. I didn’t think my computer could handle it, but I decided to give it a shot. While it wasn’t 52″ HD quality, it worked.

And Mexico WON!!

I’m really pretty happy about this. And France lost, which is an added bonus! It was also the first 2010 game I’ve been able to watch that involved a penalty kick. As a former goalie, these are particularly fascinating. Guessing which way to dive was NEVER a strong point of mine, and I love seeing how many times keepers are actually able to do it correctly.

Anyway, it was a lively game and a good one to watch, if you’re still interested. Either way, I highly recommend watching games live online. There’s an option to have it subtitled too!

Happy world cup-ing!

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Sports, Work
10Jun
0

Ruined

My new boss has RUINED my diet.

Now before I lay this all on him, I need to take some of the credit. I had been working to get in shape, drop a few pounds, and tone up a bit before Rhianna’s and Jessica’s weddings. Did I succeed? No. Not really. And this was my own damn fault, because I skimped on the gym about 1/3 times that I should have gone, I ate a TON of chocolate (please refer to the title of this blog – that’s my life motto, which unfortunately allows me to eat any and all things chocolate), and with stress comes less than stellar willpower to snack on salads and fruits and veggies instead of chips and cookies.

But while I’m not overjoyed with where I ended up, I’m OK with it. Because I did lose a few pounds, I am in way better shape (yay being able to run for longer than 2 minutes at a time!), and I see the slightest bit of definition in my muscles. Score.

So why this angry blog you ask?

Because I had reached a happy equilibrium where I was eating the foods that I wanted to in moderation (aka no deprivation!) and working out somewhat regularly, and not gaining or losing weight. A nice happy balance between food, exercise, and my clothes fitting nicely. Again, score!

And then my boss ruined things. With bagels.

The man eats two bagels every morning. Two. Gigantic. Bagels. Toasted, with cream cheese. We share tight quarters – if I were to stick my arm all the way out to my right, I could probably touch him. So yeah, I smell them, and boy do they smell delicious!

So I’ve started indulging in bagels. It started as once every week or two, then once a week, and now I’m eating one – in addition to breakfast and lunch – every morning at work. The bagels in the cafeteria are gigantic so of course they require 2 little packets of delicious cream cheese. So if I were to start tracking POINTS! with Weight Watchers again, I would be fucked. Because this bagel + 2 cream cheese is at least 10 points, and I only get 19 per day.

My clothes are getting tight. As previously noted, I can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe. Back to the gym I go. And for the love of god, if you see me eating a bagel slap it out of my hand!

Posted by Caro in Food, Health, Life, Money, Things to do, Work
21May
0

Incompetence

Let me first start by saying that I’m not upset about the 10 cents I was robbed of. It’s the principle that this kind of thing just shouldn’t happen.

I went to the coffee cart today. Ordered an average-tasting mocha from the barista, then moved to the cash register to pay. Asked for a bagel and cream cheese to go with my drink. OK the bagels are very clearly on TOP of the pastry case. This guy goes into the pastry case and fishes around, then pulls out a croissant. “This? It’s our last one.”

No dude. I asked for a bagel. Here let me grab one for you. Cream cheese please? He grabs me a bag. Just a bag. WTF am I supposed to do with that? I guess it’s white – the same color as what I was asking for? Anyway whatever. I somehow conveyed my need for cheese of the creamed variety. Total: $5.41.

I have a lot of change and I certainly don’t want more. I hand the guy a $20, then pull out 2 quarters and a penny. Paying $20.51 should give me $15.10 in change.

This guy was not understanding. I handed him my money and he told me I needed to give him “9 more cents. No wait 10.” Why would I give you ten MORE cents? He grabbed 10 cents from the “take a penny” jar. Then handed me an even $15 in change.

I was going to start explaining to him that he needs to check his math, or better yet, enter the amount I gave him into the register rather than trying to calculate this all in his head, but my coworker was waiting on me so I let it go.

Seriously, maybe you’re hard of hearing and have trouble with an order. Fine. But not being able to make change? Don’t work at the fucking cash register dude.

This kind of incompetence seriously bothers me.

/end rant

Posted by Caro in Food, Money, Rants and raves, Work
13May
0

Spotted: Superman

May 13 is “Bike to work day”.

I’m all about alternative transportation but let’s get one thing straight: I hate bicyclists. They think they own the road, the travel soooooo slowly, and they’re bound to accidentally veer off their path and drift into your lane.

Since today seems to be their holiday, there’s what seems like millions of them on the road. It was almost more than I could handle this morning. I was exhausted and cranky, and being attacked from all directions by bikers. Then I saw it.

Superman was riding a bike. Or rather, some DS on a bicycle was dressed as Superman. Maybe he was crazy. But he made me laugh.

Cheers to you, Superman on a Bicycle. When disaster strikes, you can’t fly, but you can pedal your heart out.

Posted by Caro in Random, Rants and raves, Sports, Work, cool
29Apr
0

Receipt

Reasons you shouldn’t clean out your wallet at work, even if you are on break:

I just found the (insanely expensive) parking receipt from the hospital from the day my great uncle died. Now I’m sad.

As much as it blows my mind that I paid $24 to park for like 6 hours, $24 to be with him when he died seems like a bargain.

I think I’ll keep this in my wallet. Hopefully next time I see it I’ll smile rather than tear up. I <3 him

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Family, Life, Money, Work
29Apr
0

Let Me Whine For Just A Quick Minute

I hate working 3 jobs. I just want to work 1 or even 2. This needs to be done with. I’m sooooooooooo over it!

/end whining

Posted by Caro in Life, Rants and raves, Work
31Mar
0

Yesterday: A GREAT Day

It’s not often that I have days as great as this. You know those days – where everything just goes RIGHT? Not even that. It was like the best possible outcome for a variety of situations.

1. I woke up and wasn’t groggy. I actually kind of felt rested. Weird, but OK!

2. I rolled into work and was ridiculously productive. I never knew I could do that much work in that short of an amount of time!

3. I got a call from the cable guy at like 11:30. He wanted to come to my house right then to fix my DVR. Um…my appointment is from 1-3. I’m at work sir, you need to come later. He told me he’d show up at 1. I got home at like 1:05 and the dude was there. SCORE! He gave me a new DVR box, but it was taking a long ass time to set up. Impatient, he changed it out for another box. This one started working after a while. He mentioned maybe 2 or 3 times that I had a nice telephone voice. Um creepy! And strange too, cuz I was kind of pissy when he called at 11:30. For lack of anything else to say, I just said thank you. As he was leaving, he asked if there was anything else he could do. I told him the customer service person had told me to talk to him about getting a credit on my bill. After all, my TV was essentially useless for like 5 days. He told me to call customer service. Lame, but oh well. Dude left.

About 5 minutes later I got a call from this dude. He wanted to see if the DVR box was picking up the schedule yet. I looked and shockingly enough, it was actually working. The guy then told me he gave me a credit on my bill – for the entire cost of TV for a month!! Here I was hoping to get like $10 off, but I got a whole month of TV for free. That’s what I’m talking about!!

(more…)

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, Rants and raves, Work
22Mar
0

The Devil Made Me Do It

“The Devil” of course referring to Ambien.

“It” being oversleep this morning….By almost an hour and a half!!

It’s been a while since I’ve taken these little magical happy sleepy pills, but after a few weeks of  increased sleeplessness, I decided it was worth a try to dabble into my prescription once again. I passed out hard. I woke up, a little dazed, knowing immediately something was wrong.

Yep, 8:29am. Checked the alarm just to make sure I had actually set it last night (I’ve been known to do stupid things like not turn it on, or choose PM over AM). Sure enough, it was set to 7:12am, ON.

Ah how I had forgotten the power of the Ambien. Alarm went off and I didn’t even flinch.

2 cups of coffee later, kinda awake. I see why I stopped taking these things. Don’t think I’ll try one again for quite some time!

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Health, Life, Work
Next Page »