AudioPlay, Life

Gimme Sweet Potato Pie

I don’t dislike sweet potatoes, but I don’t go out of my way to eat them, either. The only time I ever eat them is at Thanksgiving, or whenever Kevin is having a craving and makes them on the grill. (Which is actually not half bad, quite honestly).

You’re going to totally sing this song the rest of the day, aren’t you. HA! You’re welcome.

So. People. How was your Thanksgiving?!? Good? I hope so. If not, then I’m sorry. 😦

We had Thanksgiving over at my sister-in-law’s this year. We rotate dinners every year between Kevin and his two sisters. Last year we hosted, this year it was at Kevin’s oldest sister’s turn and next year, his youngest sister will host. Though I really stress out whenever it’s at our house, I really like this rotation schedule because it takes the pressure off one person having to host it every year.

thanksgiving

I had a headache. It was a combination of too much caffeine and not enough sleep. I’m afraid we cut our day sort of short because of it. The food was scrumptious, though. My SIL made some sort of Waldorf salad and WOW. We’ll have to make it a family tradition. She had SO MUCH FOOD, but we were feeding SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE that by the time the afternoon rolled around, the table was pretty much empty.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful families. No drama. No grudges (that I know of!). We all pretty much agree on politics and religion (sort of). We’re not perfect, but we are certainly blessed.

We’re putting our Christmas tree and outside lights up today. Will post more later!


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(Glee Christmas – “We Need a Little Christmas”)

AudioPlay, Twitter Messages

Four Days Off? Whatever Shall I Do?!

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/139325042231230464

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/139325181616324609

Four days off? Whatever shall I do?!

How about BLOG!! How about stuff my face with Thanksgiving goodness? How about putting up the Christmas tree? How about finishing my Christmas shopping! (Don’t hate me). How about giving my house a good cleaning?

Let’s skip that last one.

In other words? I’ll think of something! πŸ™‚

As promised, here is the first song for the Christmas season. I’m impatient – I can’t wait anymore.


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Michael Buble’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”

And speaking of Christmas – I just found what I want for Christmas. I know, right??

Have a lovely day, friends.

AudioPlay, Work Stuff

Oh Goody. Another Challenge

IT’S FRIDAY, LET’S PAR-TAY!!


(Click the blue arrow to play)

So I’m trusting you can chair dance and read at the same time .. if not, then I can wait until you get your groove on to continue.

Ready? Let’s all chair dance together.

*busts a pretty cool move .. for a chair dancer*

I love Fridays, and not just for the obvious reason – THE WEEKEND. I love Fridays because they’re quiet at work and I get so much work done it’s not even funny.

In fact, I answered all but two voicemails (a new record, thank you very much), did three pre-certs, (which only puts me one day ahead, but whatever!), and caught up on some referrals that I figured out, too late, I did wrong and will have to clean up on Monday.

BUT STILL!

I finished the day feeling like I actually accomplished something and let me tell ya, it was a nice feeling.

It was an up-and-down week. I made a MAJOR goof on an order and it will likely result in the company eating a few hundred dollars so that someone can get paid. (Sorry. But that’s about as specific as I can get). I felt so bad!! But it was a freak thing and thankfully doesn’t happen very often so HOPEFULLY I’ll remember how to handle it the next go-around.

(And let the record show that I’m now sort of a joke at work. Because any odd or weird situation that comes up nearly always lands in MY lap. Oh well. I’m learning from each situation so I guess that’s the one bright spot).

And then, on Tuesday, I was working away when my boss comes up behind me and says,

“Karen? Do you have a few minutes?”

Well of course I said, “yes!” Because it’s my boss and I’m not stupid. Duh.

I follow her back into her office where she proceeds to shut the door.

And the office manager was in there, too.

*GULP*

I gave a nervous laugh. “What did I do this time?”

Because honestly. I’m new. I make mistakes. Plus, I figured if I owned up to whatever was wrong at the git-go, maybe I could soften the blow, you know?

I must have looked petrified because my boss laughed and reassured me that it wasn’t bad.

I’m thinking, “define bad,” but of course, I didn’t say that out loud.

I relaxed, but not much.

The gist of the meeting was to ask me this: Would I be interested in traveling to outlying clinics to help out?

Which seems like a weird question. But shortly after I started working there, I mentioned something about how it might be fun to work at the outlying clinics once in a while.

I said it mostly to show that I was team player. I never DREAMED they would take me up on it.

They took me up on it.

Be careful what you say when you’re a new employee, my friends. Just a little tip, there.

At any rate, I said it and I wasn’t going to back out now. Here’s the deal: once a month, our doctors work at clinics in surrounding towns to help the folks that live a distance away and can’t make it into town.

I know, right? How cool are our doctors?!?

A few of them go to Branson. A few more go to Harrison, Arkansas. One goes to Mountain Home and one goes to Rolla. The Branson and Harrison clinics are actually the closest to Springfield, so if I help with those clinics, I will likely drive myself. (And get mileage, of course). If I go to the other clinics, I would likely ride along in a car pool which *SQUEAL*, SMALL TALK, PEOPLE! With the doctors and nurses!!

I’m intimidated already.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. They want me to go to the Branson clinic coming up on November 16th to “get my feet wet.” So, I will get up at the crack of dawn and drive down to Branson so I can learn the ropes of working an outlying clinic. It’ll be cool, I think. I’ll get to do a little of everything. I’ll check patients in, take them to their examination rooms, and of course, schedule/check them out.

I’m nervous as hell, but excited, too. I’ll get to work with one of the two doctors I schedule for and this will give me an opportunity to get to know him and to learn his “style.” I also figure, this will make me a little more “valuable” within the company and hopefully build a little more job security, you know? Plus, this will give the people who always work the clinics one more person to rotate with.

I’m also terribly flattered that they asked me to do this so soon after starting. They must think I’m doing an okay job for them to ask me to do something like this. My boss did say that I was “a little sponge” when it came to my work, so I’m taking that as a good sign.

So. That was the big highlight of my week. The doctors only work outlying clinics once a month, but there are several doctors who work those outlying clinics so I could potentially be doing a lot of traveling. Which I’m okay with, actually. It’ll break up the monotony of the every day and I’ll get to know the staff a lot better.

Have I mentioned that I am really enjoying my job?

Because I just don’t feel like I’ve said that enough.

*snort*

At the Moment, AudioPlay

Pause is An Awesome Song – Also? Sleep is Pretty Awesome, Too

Someone linked to a Zumba video that was playing this song on Facebook today – I’ve been jamming ever since.

Listen to this song and tell me you’re not shaking your booty, or wagging a finger at least.


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If you’re not, then you’re lying.

Or dead.

Or a dead liar.

Today was busy. I was all over the place today.

I got up to the office at ten (I had a bunch of emails to answer at home first), and then I went on an interview at 1:00 this afternoon.

I’m pretty sure I blew the interview. No, no, I’m not just saying that – I couldn’t focus and I knew right away that me and the person just didn’t click. It was hot, I was dressed in slacks and a blouse and I had to park a ways from the building, so by the time I got into the building, I was sweating. And then, when I couldn’t think of how to respond to some of the questions, I got nervous. Which only made the sweating worse, which only served to make me more nervous and before long, all I could think was, “I wonder if she sees my sweat mustache?”

I did not leave with a good feeling.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be called for a second interview.

Then, I sold four books. Actually, I received an email from the buyer of the third book before Amazon even alerted me that I had sold a third book. The buyer wanted me to address the book to a certain person, and he wanted it NOW. So, after I picked Jazz up from school, I gathered up the books and was packaging them when someone bought a fourth book.

I mailed all four books today. I bet the person who bought the fourth book minutes before I walked out of the door thought I was all kinds of awesome for shipping her book not even an hour after buying it.

She’d be right – about the awesome part.

After all of that, I had just enough time to get to the office, answer a few emails and then race home to get dinner ready before Jazz had to report back to school for yet another band practice.

I had just returned home, got settled in and was updating some sites when Jazz called – thirty minutes later – he was ready to leave.

That boy NEEDS to get his license.

Which we’re working on.

Slowly but surely.

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/109455535706873856

I live for Fridays. Not only because it’s Friday, end of the workweek, start of the weekend, but because they’re late days at our house this school year.

I can sleep an extra hour on Fridays.

I like sleep.

Sleep makes me happy.

Especially on our new bed (which is becoming more and more comfortable).

I miss my Euro pillows though.

Which I bought, arrived on my doorstep but somehow I didn’t receive.

FedEx is investigating the case of the missing pillows as we speak.

I hope the thief who stole them doesn’t get any sleep.

Because stealing is wrong.

Jerk.

I think I need that extra hour of sleep.

Wouldn’t you agree?

*The song is Pause by Pitbull

AudioPlay

Weekly Podcast – August 10, 2011


(Click the blue arrow to play)

Wow. Sorry for the length. I knew it was running long, but 20 minutes??

Ouch.

But this is me. I get started on something and it’s hard to shut me up.

One correction: I think I said something about 43% of people being unemployed. Whoa. Obviously, that’s not right. I think the 43% stat is the percentage of people under qualified to find work in our country. (Which would obviously be a direct result of our crappy educational system). That’s not the unemployment percentage. Wow. Can you imagine unemployment at 43%??

Uh, let’s not imagine that.

Here are the links to the articles I mentioned in today’s podcast:

Is Obama Smart? A case study in stupid is as stupid does

Wisconsin Republicans Hold On to Senate Majority in Contentious Recall Election

Thanks for listening. Be safe.

P.S. I used this microphone for the podcast, in case you’re in the market for one. It works pretty good and it’s reasonably priced!

P.S.S. I gathered, from the little that Dude told me, that the interview went okay. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the gal was talking to him just to see how he conducted himself. He said it only lasted ten minutes, which tells me that he probably won’t get the job. (I mean, a short interview time is not necessarily an indicator that the interview went badly, but in my experience, short interviews are not generally a good sign). I would never tell him this, but I hope he doesn’t get this particular job. It’s quite a drive away from home and he can do better, in my opinion. However, if they offer him a job, he’ll take it with the intention of continuing to look for a better job down the road.