It's a new Era in my job situation.  After 2 months of some internal maneuvering, my current company has performed a dive and catch, and offered me an “end state” position. One that for now, will reside in Scottsdale (rather then Florida or Ohio).  That being said, this brings a level of comfort and discord for me.  It’s a comfort knowing that I am well employed through year end, the Holidays and of course this bad economic outlook.  

The discord this brings about however, is my original CIO and several of my coworkers have some strife over this. I am being transferred to a different business unit, and they have no demands for me to relocate.  This rightly so bothers those individuals who are being forced to move or lose their jobs. I went to lunch with a few colleagues last week, and I could feel their angst. L

And if THIS was not enough stress, I actually have an interview with another company tomorrow.  This brings much agonizing and guilt to me.  I know my current employer has fought to keep me and literally moved mountains. They did however, take a long time to resolve, so what was I to do? I had to look out for my situation, versus go on “hear say.” Since resolving my status, the new organization has reached out to me numerous times to welcome me. And now I go and interview at a new company that could have written the job description direct from my resume.  I also have contacts inside the new company.

It’s a good problem to have all things considered, but stressful none the less.

So be the change I want to become. In the last several months I have failed miserably to manage my health.  My diet has been poor and inconsistent. I haven’t really exercised, and my sleeping pattern is bad. I have the perfect opportunity to bring my lunch every day now that our cafeteria is closed at this site. I WILL start doing this.  This of course should also reduce how much I spend on lunch and even breakfast (another guilty exposure). I seriously need to exercise as simple things like walking upstairs wind me. The weather is breaking finally, so now is the perfect time to start walking at night. I think both these strides will positively affect my attitude and mind set.

Ok, back to work!

I am soooo ready for vacation at this point.  After a very long weekend as our PeopleSoft transition went live from Malaysia, I got to return to work to now focus on re-hosting some remaining websites & applications that cannot move to our Corporate Intranet.  In addition, I must fight the rest of this week, and part of next (YES I am on vacation), with the Architect team over archiving requirements for HR Data. Sirs; I don’t make this crap up, there are legal and regulatory reasons why HR payroll and timekeeping data must be saved for 7-10 years. Get with the program!!!

If you ever catch me on facebook, I am a lot more vocal about the work crap (although I don’t name my employer, and I don’t “friend” people I work with). I have a lot of IT friends, so I share these comical stories.

I am partly in vacation mode. I have gone as far as to get the suitcase out, put ½ my clothes in, along with 3 cans of mosquito spray (there are tons in ND), and my camera. I also have the passports packed. I love my hubby, and I love his family, but seriously, we are talking about going to a town with 125 people.  At least 1/3 of those people are related to him in one way or another.  

It takes me a few days to settle in.  To begin with, it doesn’t get dark until 10:30 at night. This creates this vertigo sensation for me.  Next, because they only get together as a whole group about 1 or 2 times a year, the LOVE to all sit in one room, and well, TALK. They talk endlessly about people and places I don’t know and haven’t been.  I have little to add.  That said, I have packed 10 books to read.   Jeff understands this fortunately.  On the other hand, all the "kids" have to help cook and clean up after meals.  Kids means "girls".  The men don't do skirt work.

My new goal (also while on vacation), is to start to learn jewelry making with beads and wire.  I ordered a starter kit that comes with instructional DVDs. I also have 2 books on the basics that I purchased.  I told my Chica friends that they all get home made gifts this year for Christmas.

I am feeling a bit optimistic about the job market.  3 folks have recently left earlier then their end dates now as they got jobs elsewhere. A friend of mine had 3 interviews today and 3 scheduled for tomorrow.  It sounds like it is loosening up a bit.  That may make my bucket list a little hard to achieve if I go right back to work, but oh well, keeps me busy in the off time.

For several weeks now, my close friends sister, along with me and a few other friends have been planning a baby shower.  This is her (Melody's) first baby, and very exciting amongst us Chicas. The direction we were given was no games and the usual babyshower fodder, just a casual relaxed atmosphere.  The mom to be had several chats with me emphasizing that we didn't need to go all out, just keep it simple. YEAH RIGHT!!!   We were all too happy to make this a beautiful day for Melody!!

The weekend began with a flurry of activity whereby Jeff and I completely rearranged furniture. I wanted all attendees to be seated in one room.  This meant swapping my formal dining room furniture with my family room furniture. Moving my area rug, and stashing extra items in the garage. With that done, I had Saturday to run last minute errands; groceries, getting the car washed, picking up the table linens from the rental place etc.  At approximately 3:00pm, Melody's sister Gail arrives to help me assemble "diaper cakes".  These are an adorable center piece that also serves the dual purpose of setting mom up with over a month supply of diapers! They are also very labor intensive, with each cake requiring approximately 85 diapers!

This idea stolen from when I did Tanya's shower, we hung a clothes line of baby clothes as decoration.  In order to hang these however, we had to decorate the doll head clothes pins first.  Fortunately at 4:00pm on Saturday, 4 of the Chica girlfriends arrived to help finish up everything. 2 of the 5 girls claimed they are not creative or crafty, but we ended up with some adorable decorated clothes pins.

Next, a crisis.  The rental place gave me all ROUND table cloths!!! I had ordered 2 oblongs, and they messed the order up (the paperwork was correct).  Sadly, the rental place had closed and would not be open on Sunday, the day of the Shower.  Some quick and extremely creative thinking, Tina created these gorgeous bows and we swagged the table cloths in the center on each side.

We proceeded to decorate the tables with sheets of scrapbook paper that served as place mats.  We also adorned each napkin with a pacifier or large decorative baby pin as a napkin ring.  These of course were a hit.

Mahlaima and I wanted to grab some balloons and we came across this very cute Baby balloon.  This was tied to a floor weight, and was the perfect ad hoc decoration to the room. 

All the girls contributed to the menu.  My contribution (with lots of help) were the finger sandwiches. We took bread cut out shapes of Baby Buggy's, Ducks, baby feet, Onesies etc.  We prepared egg salad, cucumber and Turkey sandwhiches. Each sandwich was adorned with a Cheese cut out of a heart, giraffe, star etc. Mahlaima prepared a gorgeous fruit salad, AND fruit punch.  Becky prepared 3 kinds of dip and a veggie platter.  Tina brought this beautiful dessert tray from AJs.

We had a total of 22 guests at the Shower.  A final touch was a prepared play list from my iPod with baby rock music, childrens music and some Enya mixed in.  This created a very calm and relaxing atmosphere. I even had a baby powder room candle burning. Everyone loved the food and decorations. Melody received a LOT of presents!! We all received a lot of warm compliments on our effort, our decorations and our preparation. 

It's just too bad the mothers water broke at 6:00am, and she had to miss the shower!

I pulsed this a few days ago, but DAMN the housing crisis!

Our house is going on 2 years old (in October).  I thankfully had sold my house right as the market turned, and Jeff sold his the summer before at market height. This made for a decent down payment, although we bought up. That being said, and I have mentioned this before but the house next to us foreclosed last week.  This is the second house this same family has lost in my neighborhood (they previously owned the house behind them).  They actually bragged on the fact that they had not had to make a house payment in over 15 months. Sigh…

The WORSE of this is the house is now on the market for ½ the price of any house in this neighborhood. It’s gut wrenching to  say the least. That coupled with the fact that they let the yard go (HOA be damned), and the weeds are trying to creep into our yard.  It’s the K-Mart Blue Light special….

The job situation is bumming me out. I think it’s PMS more then anything, but I have seriously been in a funk since last week.  It could also be the incident with the IT group that occurred on Thursday. Either way, it has seriously taxed my attitude. But I need to look at the positives.  I had a good interview last Monday, I touched base with both my headhunters today, and I also applied for 2 jobs today. Baby steps, I am still employed for 2.5 more months. Additionally, although unemployment is hitting almost 8%, in the IT job market it’s still under 4%. That’s a bit uplifting, although I seriously want to get back to Business Change Implementation.  It’s my passion.

This weeks reason for living (stolen shamelessly from Kim):

·         Received beautiful flowers from 3 of my kids for mothers day

·         Spent quality time with Aniston (sans a minor upset when he wouldn’t nap on Sunday)

Otherwise, Arizona is hot as haties right now!!!!

***WARNING**** A major vent is forthcoming

It’s Tuesday, and already my week is looking bad. Today’s post is more therapeutic then informative.

Lets start with Mothers Day.

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you are probably aware that I have two sets of In-Laws.  The ones from my current marriage, and the ones from my previous marriage.  I am very close to my “Ex-Laws.”

For 7 years now we have carefully managed around birthdays, holidays, and family gatherings.  My Ex-Laws make certain that Jeff and I are included on most occasions.  In the majority of cases, events are on neutral turf, so we can avoid awkwardness.  By THAT, I mean, my Ex Husband and Me do not generally end up on each others turf (his house or mine) for such holidays and events.

This year my MIL suggested a brunch celebration at a local eatery that would be centrally located between 6 different families.  Sounds well enough; however, my Ex has counter suggested a BBQ at one of the sibs houses to cut down the expense of eating out (given the current economic environment).  The “problem” is; he wants it at his house.

Thus comes the Bigger Person dilemma. 

Mind you, my Ex and I technically live in the same neighborhood, and his child is in pre-school across the street at my neighbors house.  That aside, we still don’t visit each others homes. But my dilemma is HIS MOM. We haven’t seen her since Christmas, and worse yet, my grandson has not seen his great grandmother since then as well. If I DON’T go to Steves house, then someone is disappointed.  Either my daughter comes here, and her baby doesn’t see great grandma (and vice versa), or I do the bigger thing, and go there (against every grain of desire, not to mention my husband won’t go).

This affects 3 different generations of Mothers. I am leaning towards the path of least resistance.  I am going to boycott Mothers Day!!!

#2: My job is making me crazy. YES, I know it's only temporary, but it's quite possible I will go insane before I finish in July.

#3: A whole nother blog.....Since when does "No Child Left Behind" translate to it's not necessary to do your homework for the rest of the year, as you are not going to fail the 5th grade....