Month of April, 2003

Email from the University

You know you go to a rich kids school when you get email like this:
"Feeling Stressed? Give Pet Therapy a Try!

Rusty, a certified therapy dog, will be visiting the University Counseling & Testing Center to help relieve the stress of finals week. He will be available to provide comfort and stress reduction on FRIDAY on the 2nd floor of the Health Center. No appointment is necessary, and visits with Rusty cost no more than a few pats and a tummy rub! Come try this innovative approach to stress-management and discover the remarkable effects of pet therapy. "

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One Down, One to Go

Finished my econ test tonight and I'm feeling pretty good! It's nothing like how I felt after my first econ test. Wow, I can't believe I've actually finished my first graduate class! Now I have accounting on Wednesday - that is going to be a kicker.

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Education = Better Citizen

In class last night, my professor said, "In general, educated people make better citizens." (He went on to make a whole bunch of interesting points about economics, but I won't bore you with that here.) I'm curious to know if you think he's right.

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American Airlines CEO Resigns

I can hardly believe that Don Carty resigned from American Airlines yesterday after being caught in setting aside bonuses and benefits for upper management while asking the labor unions to approve major cutbacks.

The other day at school a few of us were discussing this case. I was totally against the AA management and truly believe they did something wrong. However, a classmate said he could understand what upper management was thinking - that they had to provide these types of benefits to their management team in order to keep them at the company. In my opinion, if the people you've got at the top won't sacrifice along with everyone else to keep a company going, then you don't need them. No matter how good you think they are as managers, if they're not loyal to the company, especially the workers, they're no good. When it's my turn to be upper management, I can promise you won't see me pulling this kind of crap.

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Dallas Happy Hours dot Com

DallasHappyHours.com is a good idea for a site. But you might be drinking too much if you have to look up cheap places to drink every night of the week.

I only wish I was drinking too much.

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Verbiage

Oh my gosh, I just learned how to spell verbiage. All these years, I've been spelling it without the "i." How horrifying is that?!

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Overwhelmed

With my new position at work and finals steadily approaching, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Why am I doing this to myself? Why have I bought into all of this corporate American success? Really I just want to be mediocre. I want to go to work, not care, do a half-ass job, then come home and play video games. Heck, I'd be happy with no job and just playing video games all day long. Wouldn't I?

Ok, so I know myself better than that. I wouldn't be happy at all, but right now it seems that anything would be better than this. All of this stuff hanging over my head. I'm doing the best that I can. Really. What if I'm not cut out for all of it? What if I fail both finals and get kicked out of school? Then my boss realizes I'm worthless, can't live up to his expectations and he fires me? Then I guess I really would be staying home and playing video games. See, really my fate just comes down to video games after all.

< begin internal dialog >Think positive, Erica! It's not that bad. Sure you have lots to study, but you understand this material WAY better than you did the first half of the semester and you passed those exams. Work is going fine and it just feels really hard right now. Very soon everything at work will fall into place, you'll get your groove, and you'll show everyone that you really are the right person for the job. So just like Karen said, little steps. < end internal dialog >

Hey, it can't be all that bad, right? Besides, I just learned my economics exam only covers the second half of the material instead of being cumulative like I thought. Then when all of this is over, I get a two week break before starting it all over again.

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Back from Lubbock

It's Sunday night and I just got back from Lubbock. I had a totally wonderful weekend visiting Kevin and his family. I was more sad than usual at departing but am looking forward to seeing him again soon. (Hopefully in the next 2 weeks.) The weekend was absolutely perfect. I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life.

Looking ahead to finals a week from tomorrow. I'm not in any way ready which scares me. I still have lots to do/think about at work which is distracting from my studies. But I'm setting priorities and this week will be all about school. Now for a good night's sleep.

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Ultimate Driving Machine

I feel like all I do is spend time in my car. Lots and lots of driving. Work and school and home. Now I'm going to drive to Lubbock this weekend too.

All this thinking about driving makes me think about my car. I drive a cute little Civic. It's an awesome car and probably the best purchase I've ever made. HOWEVER. My car isn't as awesome as my friend Phil's car.

Phil let me drive his new BMW well over a year ago when I was visiting him in Houston. Ever since that 20 minute drive, I haven't been content. That BMW drove better than anything I've ever touched. It was truly the ultimate driving machine. I instantly fell in love. After spending 2-3 hours a day in my Civic, I can't help but think about how much better it would be driving that BMW.

So now I'm trying to talk myself into it. It would make since to upgrade to a better car because of all the time I spend it in. I could give up other luxuries to have the car because it's a utility purchase. I mean, I'd use is everyday. But then I remember that my Civic is going to be completely paid off in 3 months and the thought of no car payment is even more appealing than driving the ultimate driving machine.

But you know what? In a million years when my Civic dies (and everyone knows that it takes a million years + a million miles to kill a Civic), I'll buy that BMW I've always wanted.

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More Sleep Please

It's 8 o'clock at night and I just now realized I have my shirt on backwards. Luckily it doesn't look any different on the outside. But the point is I feel like a crazy person! I need more sleep.

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Comments at Work

I just had a coworker tell me that he liked my clothing today. He told me the same thing only a couple weeks ago. For some reason, this makes me uncomfortable. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care what he thinks of my clothing and he should keep it to himself. Besides, I know I look good and don't need to hear it from anyone else. (At least that's what the voice inside my head says.)

In general, how do you feel about compliments about your appearance at work?

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Great Weekend!

What a really, really great weekend. I needed it. The past week was slightly rough for me. I'm in my new position but I haven't settled down yet. There's a lot to do, but I'm finding direction. Hopefully this next week I'll have a better grasp on priorities and where my focus should be.

Anyhow, it was really nice to get my mind off work for a few days. Friday night started with a trip to Home Depot on the way home from work. We planned on doing some lawn work Saturday morning so I figured it would be best just to pick everything up that evening. I love Home Depot and could spend hours there. That day I just went in and got what I needed. The bulk of my purchase was bags of pine bark (to fill in our flower beds). I bought 20 bags. It was very entertaining to see so many men freak out that a woman of my stature (in case you didn't know, I'm short...really short) was hauling these bags around by herself. I'm not sure how much each bag weights individually, but it can't be more than 15 pounds, if even that much. So I wasn't exactly straining myself. But I did get quit a few offers for help which I kindly accepted. It was cute. I mean, if someone wants to work for me just cuz I'm short and female, then go for it! The best part was when I loaded all of these bags in my little Civic. The Home Depot employee helping me load looked at me like I was crazy. "Are you sure they'll fit?" he said. Of course they'll fit...I've crammed a lot more in that little car before. And they did.

Later that evening, I went over to Chao Camp. Hung out with Anna Beth, Lyn, and Christine. It was a perfect evening outside on the porch in the newly designed backyard. Everything looked great! When it got chilly, we headed indoors. Even though it was only 10:30pm, I was delirious and headed home to sleep. I slept and slept and slept.

I even slept in Saturday morning! Boy was that a treat considering I usually have class Saturday morning. This week, I went to class Wednesday night so I wouldn't have to go Saturday. It was a good decision since I needed the sleep. Spent the rest of the day working on the house. (That's a whole other story that I'll get to later.)

Saturday night Kristen and I went out for sushi. It was pretty much her first experience with sushi so we had a really, really great time. I loved that I can share my love of it with her! After dinner I just lounged around the house, surfing the internet, reading, watching TV, cleaning my room, taking clothing inventory (with plans to get rid of some), and rearranging my bedroom. I stayed up until almost 2am since I made the mistake of taking Excedrin for a headache earlier in the evening. I knew it had caffeine but I anticipate it would keep me up all night! At least I was productive.

This morning, Sunday, I laid in bed reading for a few hours before getting up. What a treat! I can't believe I'm spoiling myself like this when final exams are only 2 weeks away. I am so getting into gear this week. Eventually I did get up and got pretty. Karen, Kristen, and I met Mom and Dad for brunch around 11am. They took us out to celebrate my new position. It was a fabulous meal and as always the company was the absolute best. I love my family so much. Part of the reason this weekend was so good was because I hung out with the family a lot!

This afternoon I went birthday shopping for Kevin. It's on Thursday. The really exciting part is I get to see him on Friday!! He's going to Lubbock to see his parents for the weekend and I'm joining him there. It will be so nice to see him and his family. Plus we'll celebrate his birthday together! I spent the rest of today around the house. I watched TV, read, talked to Kevin a couple times, talked with Autumn, watched Xmen, played with the dogs, etc. It was a lovely, lovely day at home. I am so happy.

And to top it all off, Kristen just dragged me outside to see the moon. I'm so glad she did because it had the widest halo around it I've ever seen. According to her, it's from ice crystals in the atmosphere. Whatever it is, it was a beautiful sight.

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Phone Booth

Mojave Desert Phone Booth

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Home Improvements

We're talking about redoing my bathroom so Mom sent me a page she found called Latest in Luxuries. I know you might not know me all that well, but let me assure you, I am ALL about luxury. No matter what the price! (cough, cough) So as soon as I can, I'm heading off to buy these two fabulous and very necessary pieces.

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Quote of the Day

"I just got high speed DSL so I'm finding out about all kinds of sin."
- Econ prof

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To Blow

I left for work this morning 20 minutes later than normal. Oh my gosh, I won't do that again anytime soon! I haven't experienced that many rude drivers in a really long time. I guess maybe they were all running late (like I was), so they felt justified. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry and just tried to get out of the way. Remember, people, it's just work.

Note to self, when referring to testing for a software crash, don't refer to it as "seeing if we can get it to blow."

Call

"I'm all dressed up for my conference call."

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Small, small world

Today I got two separate email from two long-time friends asking if I knew someone else they knew. CRAZY. All of this techonology bringing us closer together. Isn't it cozy? Today's lesson of the day - it's a small, small world afterall.

Oh, the two friends of note are AB and Peter. I love the internet.

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Cockeyed.com presents:

Baghdad City Comparison Size

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Get Fuzzy

Get Fuzzy is one of my favorite cartoons. Today's strip had me rolling. It made me think of a conversation I had last night with Steph.

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Passing Gas

Heard an interview on NPR today with Gary Gladstone, a photographer who did a book called Passing Gas. It's photos from towns with strange names like Gas. Other great names are Purgatory, Tightwad, Suck-Egg Hollow, and Bitter End.

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School Makes Me Boring

When I was accepted into the MBA program, my friend, who had just finished his first semester in the program told me that I wouldn't be updating my site as much as I had in the past. I totally respect this guy, but I thought, "Nah, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I know I'll be busy, but writing is such a priority to me. I'll always write."

Now here I am with only 3 weeks left of the semester looking back to see that he was right. No matter how important writing is to me, it's taken a backseat to other things in my life. I've found that I simply don't have anything I want to write about. I've become quite boring recently because I'm always thinking about school and work. Shoot, just the other night when I talked to Kevin, I realized I talked about work for probably 15 minutes straight...he couldn't even get a word in edgewise! Just know that it's gotten bad and I imagine it will only get worse over the next 2 years I'm in school.

So I'm going to have to try not to obsess over what a boring person I'm becoming. Instead I'm going to have to make an effort to be well-rounded. I'll watch the news and surf the net to get back into pop culture and current events. I'll call my friends and return email. I'll write in my blog! I'll even get out for a social event or two. I'll get to all of this and much more just as soon as I'm done with final exams in 3 weeks.

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Supposed to be Studying

I'm supposed to be studying right now. I have a big accounting quiz on Saturday over 3 concepts I haven't begun to master. I should be stressing out (and kinda am), but instead I'm goofing off. Studying is simply the last thing I want to be doing.

Work is keeping me plenty busy as I transition into the new position. I'm the kind of person who could stay at work all night until I'm exhausted. After staying an hour late tonight, I came home to study. Or so I thought. Earlier I sat around talking with my parents (who were wonderful enough to stop by with dinner...we're so spoiled). Now I'm distracted with thoughts of work, and I'm cooking a dish for our goodbye potluck for my boss tomorrow.

Right now I am so thankful. Thankful to have all that I do in life. Feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the responsibility, but so glad to have it. Now I just need to dig deep and find the focus to get school work done. Back to the books.

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