Yay Longhorns, Fight Fight FIGHT

Friday night was Davey's first playoff game and Me, Liz and Mom went with Joanna. It was SO much fun. Crazy game with some of the weirdest plays I've ever seen. It was the one of the coldest nights we've had in Texas so far, so we were all bundled up. And poor Liz had gotten sick so she kept running to the bathroom under the stands to throw up. But other than that I really had so much fun!!

Davey #32

Poor Liz made it as long as she could. I took her home at the fourth quarter. She made it 2/3 of the way there before we let her puke at a 7-11.... one of 3 parking lots that got the royal treatment that night. HAHA.

Mom, Me, Joanna, Liz

Mom was FREEZING. She was so funny. She couldn't get warm, so I showed her how I used to wear my coat when walking through the blizzards in Rexburg. It worked, but she was laughing too hard to keep it over her nose.

Something I learned today

So I have an hour for lunch everyday.. but I sort of work in the middle of nowhere, plus I try not to eat out everyday, so I basically have this hour that I don't know what to do with. A lot of days, I end up at Wal-Mart just wandering around, talking to my parents, or getting stuff for the apartment. But I kind of have realized that I'm wasting a lot of time and money driving to a store for no good reason. I rarely make it out without something.

So Yesterday on my Wal-Mart run, I decided my purchase would be a book and I'd use the hour everyday to do some reading. I had gotten really good at reading books while I was at Utah, and I kind of liked it. So I thought this would be a good way to keep up with that. My first lunch-hour book is......

I don't have a lot opinions about him considering I was 12 when he was elected... However, I saw him on Oprah for about 2 minutes and he was talking about what he was thinking when September 11 happened and the things that were going through his mind, and it occurred to me it might be kind of interesting to read.

75 pages in...... there are about a million things I've never known about him and its just kind of interesting to hear his about his experiences in his own words. So far, I'm satisfied with this purchase. There are about 400 pages left to go, I'll let you know if it worth your time!!

Its been a long day.. and I just wanna hide away

So its been a little over a week since the Lay Off heard around the world. And its been a crazy one.

Starting Monday I started my training to take over the girl who's last day is tomorrow. I'm REALLY nervous about it. I thought there were so many rules and exceptions in real estate, but I think there are about 1000 more in logistics. Its so hard for me to remember what carriers go to what cities, and what people I'm allowed to report to and which ones I have to go through someone else, and what trucks have to be under 15,000 pounds, how long it takes to get from Utah to Canada, when people can and cannot deliver on the weekend, how to make a change in the 3 different computer systems we use. I feel like my head is just spinning with random, usless trucking knowledge.

With that said.... I do think I'm getting better. I trained on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, I did the work myself, but with someone sitting with me. And then today, I was sort of on my own. I know I'm getting better because I was able to do a number of things from start to finish without really any supervision. I know that I'm doing the easiest things first, but I am hoping I can just wing it until I feel a little more certain in my whole thing.

The best part about my new tings I'm working on.. the days are FLYING by. I am always busy. I usually leave around noon for lunch. Today, I was just working on stuff not paying attention, and it was after one. Finally I thought.. hmmm, maybe I should eat a little something. It's really nice to not be counting the minutes tick by cause the are flying so fast.

The good news is, the more I learn, the more I feel like they really do need me and they can't let me go. I am getting way more involved in different things and I know that there is no way they could decide tomorrow to make me stay home. So unless some MAJOR changes with the client (and lets hope that doesn't happen anytime soon), I think I'll be at Ryder. Speaking of which, I'm about to apply for some permanent positions in different departments of the company. A couple of girls on my team seem to think that I would be able to snag one down since I'm already there and learning how stuff is done. I'll keep you posted on how things go next week when I'm flying solo...... eeks!!!

If I only had a brain..........

A very wise man named Ron White once said.. "You can't fix stupid." Its very possible that after the events of last week, he was talking about me.

I have a standing rule that I don't go to gas stations at night. I think its freaky. But last Saturday, I didn't really have a choice, I needed gas before Sunday and I knew it. So I went, and I was 99 percent done.. and still alive... and thought I'd throw a bag of trash I had in my car while I was standing there. So I grab the trash, lock my doors.. cause its freaky there and even though its only a second... and walk over to the garbage. As soon as I shut the door, I realize the keys are sitting right there on the console. I freaked. Everything was in there, my keys, my purse. LUCKILY, my cell phone was in my shirt pocket.. which is never it.. so I was blessed. I called Liz and had her bring me my spare. Thank heavens that we only live 5 minutes away. I had to wait at the gas station there alone.. which TOTALLY freaked me out, but luckily there was a police officer there and it definitely made me feel safer, and obviously I made it out alive.

Fast forward to the following Friday. You make it through a long week, you have dinner plans with your sis, you grab your bag to go home and once again, you don't have your keys. KILL ME. I was hoping that when I got to my car, the doors would be unlocked and I'd be able to get in.. sometimes I forget to lock the doors. Obviously, that was not one of these moments. I didn't know what to do. Everyone had left for the night.. I was screwed. So of course, I called Liz again and asked if she could come get me. This time I was about 40 minutes away, or should have been. There were about 5 accidents and traffic was horrific. I think it took her an hour-ten to get there and I felt SOOO bad. Basically we spent the next million hours trying to maneuver our way to a restaraunt. I think we were both close to saying some bad things, but we held on to the faith.. at least I did.. I wasn't in Liz's car... After about 4 hours, we made it. Dinner was good.. although I'm not really sure that it was worth what it took to get there.

I'm thinking about the ways to cure my stupidness... maybe I'll keep my spare in my purse??? Maybe I should just leave my car unlocked.. and take the chances that it gets stolen?? I think anything would be better than the events of last night.

It's a Crazy Life, A Crazy Life, It Keeps You On Your Toes

So I figured I should inform you of the latest and the greatest.

Today I returned to work. I was really nervous about going, just because I knew that everyone there would know what would know about what happened, and I think I was just a little embarrassed, and was afraid it would be awkward.

Luckily my team pulled through, and I had nothing to worry about. They were all excited to see me and making jokes about how I was the new hire and they were so excited to get to know me. Then they started going on and on about how they hoped I enjoyed my vacation and did I do anything fun with my time off. Once Jon got in, they chastised him about not giving me enough notice for my vacation cause I didn't have time to plan my trip. HAHA. It was perfect cause we got all the awkwardness out of the way right at the beginning and then everything just went back to normal.

That might have been the weirdest part about today. The fact that NOTHING was different. I went right back to my desk... pulled up the same old reports...... went back to the same old same old. It honestly was like the previous two days had never happened. I sometimes would forget that it had. But in the back of my mind I would be like, "Remember how this time yesterday you didn't have a job?" It was just so strange. But I'd definitely take strange and employed over normal and unemployed.

Updates on my job status so far.... One of the girls on my team named Kendra is pregnant and has decided to stay home. Her last day is a week from tomorrow. I would guess that is why I am back. To fill her shoes. I don't know that exactly for sure, but I have already started learning a couple of little things that she does, and I was told that there is more training in store for me tomorrow. I'll be intrigued to see what all my new duties will involve.

That is the other thing I think is strange. Nothing is really being communicated to me. I'm completely lost all the time about what is going on. I have no idea what the plans are where I am concerned, or what my future holds at Ryder and it is sort of driving me crazy. Its all I think about all the time. But at least I'm back and working, and I have to remind myself to just take one day at a time and be grateful.

Geesh, who knew the world of trucking logistics was so CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you serious?!?!?!?!?!?!?

This sentence has been said A LOT the past two days!!!!!!

Soo.... a little background before I tell you this story.. Jon is the man who told me I was leaving last night. He was my manager and the nicest most awesome guy to work for. He swore up and down that he loved me and didn't want to see me go but that it was out of his hands and he was going to do whatever he had to do to get me to stay. I really did believe him, he was so sincere, but I didn't think he would be able to do anything. But, after my very emotional night last night, I got a phone call from the lady who got me my job. I assumed it was about the contract job I told her I was interested in. She goes..

"I just got off the phone with Jon from Ryder. He went to two of his managers and really plead your case and fought for you and said there were going to be some longterm effects of letting you go and has gotten approved to bring you back. You are approved through the end of the year and he most likely thinks that you'll be there permanently after that. He wants you back tomorrow if you're okay with that."

My response...

"Are you serious?!?!?!?!??!!??! Of course I'm okay with that!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So now I'm just enjoying my imprompu day off and gearing up for work tomorrow. This has been a very strange couple of days and quite literally a roller coaster of emotions. I haven't cried this much since who knows when. But luckily the tears today are tears of relief and happiness, so I'm okay with that. Now I just have to think of how to thank Jon.. what to do you get the guy who just saved your rear?!?!

I should do this more often

So because I have been so busy lately, I haven't been able to blog. Well things change pretty quickly in my life. A quick update.

I have been working at Ryder in Ft. Worth. I got my job there through a placement agency, which is fine cause you just work under contract for the first few months and then Ryder could hire me full-time. It was the same thing I did at the Cancer Center a couple years back. When I was offered the job, they told me it was a long-term, permanent position and that I would be there for a long time. Plus, my manager seemed to really like me and up until today was telling me how he was gonna increase my responsibilities today and incorporate me more and more into things.

Then today at about 4:30, he asked if he could talk to me. I didn't think anything of it cause I thought we were gonna talk about my new responsibilities. Unfortunately.. that was not the case at all. :( He said that the client we worked for wasn't going to approve a 9th person anymore and that he had to let me go. He went on and on about how much he loved me and he fought for me. He said that he was going to look at all the other accounts that Ryder has and see if anyone could use me. He said that most likely he would have a job for me in a couple months, but that he couldn't give me a time frame. I was blown away. I didn't even know how to respond. After we finished talking, I spent my last half hour of work training a girl the best I could with no notice on all of the things I have been doing recently. I made a point not to cry and made it out of that office tear-free!! Needless to say, this day has pretty much sucked.

The lady who got me my job called me as soon as I left and told me how sorry she was and that she was sure I was going to be there forever. She once again told me how much they loved me and wished and wished that they had been able to keep me. She did say that she had a contract job that lasted for 6 weeks that she would try to get for me, it is supposed to start pretty immediately. That would be great just because I hadn't really saved up cause I was planning on having this job forever. Hopefully this would quite literally buy me some time.

I know it'll all work out, but this day definitely went differently than I was planning. I think I just struggled with this cause it was such a shock. In the morning, he was telling me how great I was doing, and how he was going to increase my role, and then that afternoon, he was telling me that was my last day. Just a hard adjustment to make. I'm hoping maybe this is the big guy's way of helping me find a job closer to home with a better commute. The hunt already began tonight for a new job and if anyone knows of ANY leads in Texas... I'm not too proud to ask for help!!!