Meeting Planning is (usually) Never Boring...

OK, I mean sometimes it is when I am dealing with meetings that involve only water stations, no F&B, no room block, no nothing and when I am dealing with heinous financial processes that I detest, but overall I love what I do for a living and cannot imagine doing anything else.

So, today I get an instant message from one of my internal clients saying "This is random...but did I tell you about the bed bug situation at the hotel in New York last month?" and I'm all, NO YOU DID NOT! So he proceeds to tell me this story and how awkward and weird it was when he was downstairs with this attendee at 1 AM when she is trying to check out of the hotel and go elsewhere, etc. And then the best part-about how the next day a member of the management staff comes over to him with the "bug report" from the exterminator and is all "Those weren't bed bugs. Those were some other type of beetle."

Oh, that clears it up! Bugs in my bed are fine as long as they aren't BED BUGS, per se. OMG. I was not only itchy but also snorting and generally guffawing like a jackass after my client tells me this. Because really? Pretending that bugs in your bed are OK as long as they weren't actually bed bugs? Is not OK. So awkward.

And of course we are supposed to have a meeting at this property again in November...he doesn't want to hold it there...do I blame him? Heck no!

Never dull...

So, my dog likes it when I leave the house.

OK, so one of our dogs (Lacey) is a lab and as labs are known to be, is a totally food-motivated chowhound. SHE LOVES FOOD.

And she loves it when mommy goes to work in the morning, because when mommy leaves, HeidiLacey (what my two dogs are called together) get a treat.

Now Heidi is a German Shorthaired Pointer who we call "The Supermodel", because she's all legs and she's lean and not very food-motivated. Of course Heidi will EAT the dog biscuits, but she's not going out of her way to ask for them.

Lacey is another story...she has my morning routine figured out and in my last few minutes of getting ready, starts following me around the house and gets all antsy. It's really pretty funny. I can see her thought process of "Mommy. Mommy, please go. Lacey want treat. Mommy please go bye-bye so Lacey can has treat. Mom. Mom, go away."

I wish she'd be a little less obvious sometimes!

Ok, um...so, I haven't really posted since I got a job. And Metal Chickens named Beyonce. Read on...

So, I guess these days I don't have much of a life, because you know, I have a job and all. So I am either working or sleeping. Or possibly at work wishing I was sleeping.

But this...THIS was just so worthy of a post.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you...Beyonce the metal chickens.

Perhaps I should backtrack and introduce you to The Blogess. The Blogess is based out of Houston, and she's damn funny. http://theblogess.com

I first read the post about Beyonce (http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/) because it was linked to Jen Lancaster's page on Facebook. And yes, I found it hilarious (duh). But then my demented (I mean that in the best possible way) cube mate at work stumbled upon it somehow. And then it was shared with the rest of the gals on the team I work with. And then another co-worker only slightly less demented than my cube mate was on the Beyonce bandwagon. And it became a joke that never stopped being funny.

AND THEN, Tuesday night I was at HEB and as I was leaving the store, what do I drive past but a FLOCK of Beyonces! I mean, a flock! And I take a picture to share with demented cube mate. I show it to her. And then the less demented co-worker sees it. And they decide they MUST have Beyonces. I mean, my cube mate went out during lunchtime THAT VERY DAY and looked at TWO DIFFERENT HEBs and found no Beyonces. And then it was decided that I had to buy Beyonces for both of these co-workers, because apparently only the HEB in my hood is cool enough to sell metal chickens.

These Beyonces were SERIOUS BUSINESS. I was supposed to go to HEB again last night to get them, but wound up not being able to. And given that HEB makes me need valium and I think I have been there a total of four times or less since I started my job on May 23rd, being willing to return to HEB so soon after my last trip was a big deal. But to procure metal chickens, I felt that it was VERY worthy of my time.

So this morning when I shared with these lovely ladies that the Beyonce buying trip to HEB had NOT in fact happened last night, there was disappointment. But I PROMISED I would make it tonight, and I did.

You don't know how excited I was to be the batshit crazy lady at HEB buying metal chickens.

One of these gals called HEB this morning to ASK THEM TO PUT TWO OF THEM ON HOLD. That how necessary the Beyonces were. They told her that they couldn't place merchandise on hold and that they had plenty and it shouldn't be a problem to get two of them this afternoon. I am sure this employee of HEB was thinking "What? Those fugly things? You want them? TWO of them?"

So, I run into HEB and buy Chorizo and the guy at the register asks me if I need anything else. (Ice? Stamps?). I said yes, I need two of those metal chickens outside.

He had to go outside and get a price tag. So he did that and then came back inside to finish ringing me up. And then he had to call to figure out who needed to actually get me the metal chickens, because they were chained up (perhaps I should call the SPCA?). And I went outside with another exemplary HEB Partner and then realized that I had been rung up for the inferior, smaller, $29 model, when I wanted the $39 model. So we went back inside and upon informing the manager at the self-checkout that I owed them for $20 worth of chicken.

While this transaction was going on, I told the Partners at HEB about The Blogess, how this was such fun for us in the office, how one was going to live in the cube and the other was going to be a gift for her mother (which will THRILL her and be presented on Saturday). They seemed amused but I am sure that to them, I was just the batshit crazy metal chicken buying lady.

Finally, the transaction is complete and the nice guy at HEB took me out and released two Beyonces into my posession. One is in my trunk and the other is in my back seat. We don't want any chicken fights, you know.

I cannot WAIT to bring one of the Beyonces into the office tomorrow. The other one will live in my car until my other co-worker (the one giving the gift of Beyonce to her mother) gets back from Houston on Friday.

OH, almost forgot. When I was outside with the guy, I see that there is a $68 Beyonce that is probably 4 feet tall, no kidding. That's about TWO FEET more chicken than the Beyonces I bought. So when you think about it, a great value because it's about double the size of the Beyonces I bought, and those were $39. So really, the $68 version is like getting $10 of chicken FOR FREE.

Seriously, the highlight of my week. I love these warped people.

PS-there are no pictures here because my iPhone is being an asshole. I will post real, live pictures of the Beyonces once it behaves itself.

I need a nanny. Or something.

OK so my mom is retiring this week after 27 years of teaching. Some of her colleagues have asked her if she's going to move to Boston to be a Grandma, and she's like "No, don't you know it's cold there?".

The week before last (Friday right before I started my new job) we were heading to my cousin Sean's graduation from UT and I was doing my makeup in the car and I was joking with my mom that I needed her to move here so that she could chauffeur me to work, so that I could get out of the house faster in the mornings and put on my makeup in the car.

Now in my second week of work, I'm not joking! I also need my mom to move here to do my errands during the day. I am putting in some LONG hours at work and the drive can take me up to an hour one way, so errands after work are NOT high on my list of things to do. And of course, neither is spending my whole weekend doing errands. So this is one area where I could surely use my soon-to-be-retired mom's help.

Mom also figured she needed to move to Austin so that the dogs could be fed at exactly 5 every day. Because we all know that my Lacey dog needs to be fed at 5 or she will absolutely die of starvation.

So...no, she's not going to be moving to Boston to be a Grandma...I am proposing she moves to Austin to take care of her nearly 35 year old daugher (and her even older son-in-law).

Mom, you're on board, right? ;)

Well, so-I did it.

I was offered a job today. I accepted. HOORAY. This is a bit of a dream job for me. I've been applying with this company for about a year and a half, and first started actually talking to humans there last June, I think.

After not working FT for 10 months, I am nervous! I know this position is going to be a BIG challenge-the work load will be heavy, and I will be busier and have more meetings than I ever have. It's a challenge I am definitely up to, but still makes me nervous.

PLUS, I have never worked in an office this big. Seriously, there are like 2000 people in the facility where I'll be working. Instead of being the only meeting planner or one of a few, I'll be one of several. I'm entering the (much faster) pace of corporate meetings. I'm thrilled and excited and so ready to do this.

I am not patient. It's genetic. But patience and persistence paid off here. I got one of (in my opinion) the very few jobs in Austin worth waiting for. I've said it before-there's just not a lot here, outside of state associations, which don't float my boat since I've worked in international and national associations. A state association would feel like a step back at this point.

Anyway...yay! :)

Bitchpanic about hitting the one year mark...

OK, it's not *that* close yet, but we all know how time flies...even though I continued to do some work w/my employer in Chicago after I moved back to Austin, I count the beginning of July as the "official" start of my job search/period of unemployment. Even though I started looking for jobs before that, that date is good because that's when I actually arrived back in Austin.

9.5 months later, I have applied for over 100 jobs, had lots of interviews, and zero offers. Which I am pretty okay with, because I have had lots of interviews for positions that I thought would be "okay" jobs, but not really something I was totally jazzed about.

I guess I'm just feeling blue this week because I had an interview Thursday last week, and one on Friday and, you know, I want to know NOW if there are second interviews in my future. Both of these interviews were with companies I'm really interested in. Patience is a virtue, and it's not something I was blessed with (I blame the Davison genes).

I've also been thinking a lot about what happens if I reach the one year point? What do I do then? Get sympathy cards in the mail from everybody who didn't hire me? ;) No...but I might have to seriously reevaluate some things. Beg my husband to move somewhere that holds more job opportunities in what I'm looking for? Give up being a meeting planner? I don't know, and I hope that is a milestone that I do NOT reach.

Things I miss about working.

I mean, besides the obvious (the paycheck).

1) Going to Starbucks for a little break. Woe is me if I don't work walking distance from Starbucks.

2) After work happy hour (which I never did as well as in Chicago, ha!).

Of course, these aren't the ONLY things...but I DO look forward to them, I won't lie!

(Edited to add) 3) Awesome people like Fiore and Trisha. Duh, how did I not remember to include this originally?