Mental Wastecan

So I realize this is waaay uncool..

I go for months not updating this journal, and then when I actually show my face, I'm soliciting favors.

Oohh...sounds dirty.  OK now that I have your attention:

MY PARENTS FINALLY MOVED!

They are all nice and snug in their new digs in NC and enjoying the wonderful feeling of newness (being surrounded by).

Unfortch- this also means that I'm running an estate sale.  Like in 4 days.

I've got the basics covered, but because there is so much stuff to sell, I've planned an all house open sale event for people to walk through.  I'm trolling for sympathetic folks who either are feeling sorry for me, or just don't have any other hot plans for this weekend, to help me run this thing.  Basically, I just need people to help be my eyes in the different rooms in case shoppers have questions and/or they attempt to bogart anything. 

I promise any helpers will have all their basic desires met in the way of food, drink, tummy rubs, and constant flattery.  Also- for those who've never visited- bring your suit for some drunken night swimming after the sale.

Please let me know if you'd like to help, and if so, when you're available.  The sale is this Sat and Sun from 8am - 6pm.

Thanks!  And next post I promise to cut the strings.

Glad you can join us!

In an effort to finally beat the system, this order form has been developed so that we can hit the field in less than the usual hour that it takes us to get organized.

This means MORE PLAYING TIME!

Please complete this form and make your payment by March 10th. At 11:59 that evening this form will be inactivated and no more sign-ups will be accepted. You also need to download the field waiver form, sign it, and fax/mail/bring it to the field with you.

Select the player options below depending on whether you will be bringing your own marker, or renting. I have also included a button if you wish to buy paint at the field. If you are renting, you must use field paint. Generally, the average player will go through 400-500 rounds in a session. If you are more like my husband, you will need more than that and when you run out, you will then begin to pummel your opponent with the barrel of your marker.

This form will allow you to pay your fees through paypal via checking account draft, credit card, or paypal account transfer. If you mistrust all technology, you may send your payment to 8 Glengyle Court, Sterling, VA 20165 (please allow for mailing time by the deadline).

If you have any questions, please call me on my mobile at 703-618-8344, or comment on this post and I'll get an answer to you as quickly as possible.

I have my own marker, and will only need to pay $19 for field fees:

I need to rent a marker, which will include a marker, mask, air, and 100 paintballs for $41:


I need to rent a marker, which will include a marker, mask, air, and 500 paintballs for $52:


I would like to purchase an additional 1/2 case (2 bags of 500) of paint for $42:


I would like to purchase an additional WHOLE case (4 bags of 500) of paint for $72:

Thank you for your cooperation and we'll see you on the field.

fyrecrkr511 (8:41:35 AM): there was tirimisu left
fyrecrkr511 (8:41:45 AM): if i didn't have diabetes before..i have it now
fyrecrkr511 (8:42:08 AM): im going to be one fat little green fairy at the party
mkinguillo (8:42:14 AM): yay!
mkinguillo (8:42:20 AM): fat fairy!
fyrecrkr511 (8:42:25 AM): hehe that just sounds funny
mkinguillo (8:42:31 AM): she who brings weight to all the little waifs of the world
fyrecrkr511 (8:42:35 AM): HAHAHAHA
mkinguillo (8:42:38 AM): first on your list, Nicole Richie
fyrecrkr511 (8:42:40 AM): i was thinking "elton john"

Ok yea..It's been a while.

But I have pictures!

www.nest-eggdesigns.com/gallery/coke

www.nest-eggdesigns.com/gallery/beach-06

So I plan on updating this thing..but remember what I was talking about earlier- about hating my job and being so bored I was more stiff than a 15 year old with a contraband playboy magazine? Yea, well. I got the new job, and have just about come out of warp 9 to slow down enough and try to catch up with family, friends (HI MOUSE!), and everything else that fell to the said as I was frantically trying to prove that "why yes.. I CAN do uh, whatever it is that you just asked me to do!". I mean, I have the internet and google, right? I can figure out anything!

gulp.

Friday I was swamped at work as everyone started finding out that I was leaving. I kept getting projects in that I finally told everyone that Tuesday (today) is the last day I will be accepting new projects. Luckily, I have most of them under control by now so today shouldn't be that bad. I stumbled out of work late on Friday to get home and get back to NED work. The last few weeks of the year and it seems like all my clients have called me requesting new web sites, print materials, etc. for their new year's campaigns. It's been nuts. I was up pretty late catching up. I vaguely remember crawling upstairs to get to bed...


Only to sleep for a couple hours before Monkeybutt woke up and suggested that 7am was the perfect time to get up and get out shopping as "hey the stores are open!!". I got dressed and I think we went to Walmart and Nordstroms before I was handed greasy food to wake myself up. It sucked, but it worked out for the better as we managed to finish our Christmas shopping by 9:30 am and get home right as the crazy people were starting to get into the shopping areas.

Then I slept like the dead until about 4pm.

I got up, and got ready, as Monkeybutt and I were going to a holiday party for the company in Bethesda that he has been doing a bunch of work for. They were getting together in MD that evening to celebrate. We got all gussied up and hit that party by about 8pm. I found a new red zinfadel that is fantastic! I had two glasses and Monkeybutt had 4. hee. After the party I poured him back into our car and took him home. He was nice and warm and tipsy and suddenly speaking German!! I didn't even know he spoke that language!!

After we got home (about 10) I got ready to head out to a club with a girlfriend. The club was celebrating it's last night as it's going to be torn down to make way for the new baseball stadium in DC. I ended up dancing and drinking and hanging out until we threw in the towel at about 3am.

Got home, went to bed. Hubby was snoring off the wine buzz still.

The next morning we headed over to my aunts house in Fairfax for the family Christmas celebration. It was very nice to see everyone and as it was a brunch, there were lots of nice greasy things to eat to help with the dual hangovers we were suffering from. Oh, and a ham. You can't go wrong if you have a ham. Especially one with the cripsy, crunchy brown sugary stuff all over it.

After the party we headed home and did more NED work, coupled with slouching on our respective couches so that I could watch my guilty TV and Monkeybutt could watch the game.

And Monday- not so bad. I managed to get home at a decent time and started to print my business holiday cards- I am so behind on this-

This morning, I'm still keeping busy. I have one more big project to ocmplete today and then I will be mostly done. I brought my business holiday cards just in case so perhaps I can catch up with those and still send them out today. We'll see.

My office is packed up and it is so bare! I had 6 years of stuff, plants, posters, etc in here. Now it is just an office. I should graffitti it before I leave: AMF!!

To the tune of Snow’s Informer



What's up man hey yo what's up
Yeah what's goin' on here
Sick an' tire’ of workin’ nine to five-yo
You know what I'm sayin'
Yo A- they came around here lookin' for you the other day wit like powerpoint yo
Word word bust it

CHORUS:
Slow worker you no get any ding done in time get blamed
yo needa new job nowww
A freaky boss mon said you getta dat done before I mad
yo needa new job nowww.

CHORUS.

Nutin’ to do an’ now they come back with mo
I sit and mumble and I sleep on da flooor
So they give me bits an’ pieces, tell me when they be done
It don matter it’s my restitution
For years of work and toil an’ all clawing my way up
An now it ain’t worth much of nutin my rep fits in a cup
So poop on dat man I needa better place to go

CHORUS.

Bigger company you tink they got mo to do
Take 3 months to sign a paper when its gone past due
And you try to find your bennies and so you make a call
Find out dat they been cancelled, you no sign up last fall
So you sit down and you type and you look all busy
But after your checkbooks balanced you just go stir crazy
So you watch de tick tick tock clock all up on de wall
If 5 don’t get here sooner out the window you will fall..

CHORUS.

Bridge-
Come with a nice young lady
She’s got an offer you no turn away
Everywhere you look you see eve’one happy
Sit at dere desks they look well paid and no shabby
Roam between da cubes and da offices o plenty
You see the place that yo name all ova
Turn to her to say you in no problem
Only to wake up to fight a brand new day, oowwwwwww

CHORUS.

Well, any second I should be receiving an offer package from my (hopefully) new career home.

It is sad here as we are purging ourselves of all SMETA branded items in preparation for the Smapptis stuff. I threw away 6 years of work yesterday; Here's just the trade show portion:

http://www.nest-eggdesigns.com/gallery/album02

At least it is a great opportunity to start packing up my office without raising any suspicion.

Pictures Here

So the day had finally arrived.  I headed into Springfield about 8am Monday morning to pick up Pixie and to get the ball rolling.  She was nervously waiting in the dining room, having not been on a vacation in over 29 years- my age- coincidence?  I think not. 

We drove back to my place in Sterling to situate the luggage.  Because Pixie was going to be parked in a wheelchair to expedite out trip through the airport, I wanted to make sure that we had as little luggage as possible.  For a weeklong trip, we managed to get most of the items in a rather large suitcase, with extra clothing and personal items stuffed into a carry on.  2 bags for 2 women.  I was impressed.  We then went out to her favorite restaurant (Red Lobster) to ease her nerves, as it had been a while since she had flown.

( the story continues )

 

 

 

 

Monday was pretty bad. I had to wait several days before I could write about it while maintaining a constant blood pressure.

Having been working overtime most of the month, Monday was to be my last hugh production day, as I had a huge red team review taking place at 1pm, which required 200 pages of documents to be read, reviewed, and formatted, as well as 2 proposals that would hit my desk in the morning, needing to be out the door by 5pm. It wasn't going to be pretty, and then the phone rang.

It was the hubby of one of my staff. She had broken something, and wouldn't be coming in the next day. My staff had now just been cut to 2. Me and a technical editor. I contemplated breaking my own neck.

I decide the only plan of action is to get into the office butt crack early to give myself as much time as possible. Monday morning I'm in my car heading to the office at 4:30am- downing coffe so strong it almost makes me vomit. I get in, get settled, get some immediate needs off my desk and being to go into early production by about 630 am. At which point I discover that my production printer is not working. I consider jumping out the window.

The printer was supposed to be checked by brokenbones on Friday to make sure it was running. As I was not here (hoping to catch up on my overtime- but sitting in front of the glowbox sending emails anyway) we had had maintenance performed on Friday to ensure proper operation.

Needless to say, livid is not a good color on me.

I began pushing 5000 color pages out of my poor desktop backup printer- made to print about 1000 every few months. Bless its little drums, it chugged contentedly. As I was trying to overcome the previous set backs, Big Red came strolling in.

Now BigRed has been out of the office for about 6 weeks; it's her position that I am filling in her absence. No heads up, no prior notice, nothing. 8 am she comes walking into the office amid a flurry of co-workers who are cooing over her return.


But it's over now. Thankfully. And now, I have no purpose here. 7 Years of learning, and pushing, and creating such a broad range of experience, and I am sitting in my office developing about 1 Illustrator graphic a day. We have another huge proposal due on the 7th, so I can't even leave here as workers could need my support "at any time!".

Sigh.

I have been job hunting. This is a miserable experience, and I'm getting pretty depressed about the whole thing. Marketing position descriptions use such flowery language- yet then can describe anything from a sales assistant to an executive VP. I end up on the phone trying not to insult anyone who is looking for a 30K/year administrator, and then get scared off the positions that require experience with managing large teams and a $4M+ budget. I'm smack in the middle- lots of experience, broad range of activites, but I need a little polish.


---

Now it's Wednesday. And I'm just doing..nothing. I need to get on track and figure out what to do. So far, "straightening" my office is passing the time nicely.

Clicky

After almost 6 months of sporadic painting and assembly, the craft room is complete.  Monkeybutt is convinced I'm designing a nursery.  I say it's just whimsical.

 

Harumph.

 

Dammit. When do I get my watermelon sized boobs?

So after being told that the engine in the jeep was most likely blown, the miracle workers at Dulles Motorcars brought the thing back to LIFE!!

The water pump seized tossing boiling water over the engine, melting belts, which blew the radiator, which overheathed the engine, which then poured black and white smoke from the rear and front (respectively) of the truck.

THEY BROUGHT IT BACK!

$500 vs. $20,000. Thank you god!

So Monkeybutt will be unemployed on October 1st. His job has gotten him to the point where he just dreads going into the office, and at 35, that's nuts. I don't expect my job to fill me with immense feelings of joy- but when you actually start feeling like you're wasting your life by going to the same place day after day, it's time to leave.

He's been perusing the want ads, asking around, and if all else fails, will join our dog walker lady in her daily business because DAMN- she makes bank. What does it say about the area we live in, when a chick who walks dogs all day (and LOVES it I might add) brings home as much as us office drones.

It says I'm in the wrong industry!!!

-Pardon me while I get more tea- Monkeybutt was also kind enough to pass on his germs to me- freakin' carrier monkey...

So this area is nuts. You have an average house price of 600K and peoples buying them like crazy. Lets analyze this a bit shall we? A couple move into a home. They buy it for 600K (which is on the low side) and end up with mortgage payments of close to $4,500 a month. (Assuming they had some money down) At that rate- they have to be bringing in at least $70,000 a year JUST to afford their house. Which, in this area, is not all that unusual. But that's JUST the house. It usually means that both people are working to bringin in over that 70K so they can pay for other things they will need, like food. And a BMW. Add kids to that mix, parents who both have to work to afford everything, now children in daycare, and that expense, and you end up with two people who now are forced to stay on that hamster wheel because they have to many monetary obligations.

I personally feel it all stems from the house issue. Having a house you can't afford then leads to having a child in day care rather than raised at home; parents who are exhausted at the end of the day and have no time for anything- therfore opening up the way for the maid, landscaper, petsitter, dry cleaners- all the convenience services to be taken advantage of- which just adds to the bottom line of debt and money scarcity causing the original couple to keep working more and longer, just to feel like their keeping their life going.

When does it stop?

Most people in this area are almost millionaires. They just happen to be living in their savings account; their house.
You could sell a house up here for 500K, move to an area with a lower cost of living, but with a strong job market like Atlanta or Raleigh, NC, and it would literally be akin to winning the lottery.

You would take your $500K pay off your existing mortgage, pocket at least 100-200K, be able to put over 20% down on a larger, less expensive house with a mortgage payment of under $1,000/month, and still have tens of thousands left over. Hit me with the wand!

So there's the money issue.

What about the me first issue?

Ever feel like that person behind you in Starbucks would gladly slit your throat if you take that last croissant?

Yea. That's what I mean.

When did we all get such a feeling of entitlement?

Is it deserved? Is it our long commutes in traffic with under-the-speedlimit-drivers that make us feel like it's our right to wing around them- in an effort to show them they're going too damn slow?

Is it our sense of anonyminity? I don't know him- I'm trying to get home to feed my kids/dogs/myself- so that I can try to have 30 minutes before it's time to go to bed to myself?

Wounld't it be better just to all slow down?

Isn't it nuts that I'm already looking for a simpler, slower life....at 29?

End of the fiscal year.

No matter where you stand it sucks. Especially in the middle of a proposal shop in an IT company when the proposal coordinator is out on leave.

Last week it was the DOI proposal. Went out on Wednesday- we even flew a guy out there to hand deliver it to Arizona so we could have the extra time. Somewhere over Texas- the entire solicitation was cancelled. I believe in addition to my normal hours, that prop involved 2- 16 hour days and the entire weekend.

Just cancelled.

"Sorry for the inconvenience folks"


This week it is FEMA. Due tomorrow. You might ask yourself why I'm here writing instead of running around like a crazed chicken. Well see that because I'm sitting waiting for the final pieces to come in. The day before. This is the same proposal that had to be completely rewritten 4 days ago because the hired help we got was a snot phd who felt that we should do everything his way regardless of any existing procedures or policies already in place. In this process, he managed to rewrite everything that was given to him to the point that the concept and point of that particular piece was eroded enough for it not to be compliant. Which meant it then had to be rewritten. Last I heard of the phd, he had walked out of the office around 7pm last Saturday to head back to who knows where.

FEMA count: 40 hour week + 1 night to 1am and all weekend.

It has been 4 weeks since I've seen a clear weekend. And yes I know there are others who work there asses off, etc, etc. But this isn't my job! I'm in this position because a coworker needed time off, and because of the recent turnover in my team, I am the only one left who knows how to put these things together.

Did I mention that the Contracts department is also short staffed due to a baby arrival?

It's a bunch of factors all coming together.

I can't wait until this is over- because at this point- I think I'll take October off.