Kitten’s Mewlings

Wednesday was terrible.

All I will say is that we had a great guy quit because of all the shit thrown at us drafters.

Actually, it was a bunch of shit thrown at me and him. Not that kinda shit, rumors like that fly about all the employees at least once. It’s a thrill when they turn out to be right (meaning the people get irritated and complain; innocent people just don’t do that). No, it was rediculous shit involving every single supervisor above me, including the president of the company himself. This guy quit just before the public ass chewing, which I had to endure alone. Fun, no?

I was even trying to have a good day, too; I mean, I was doing my best to feel sexy, which meant I was actually wearing eyeliner and lipstick (that’s how you know I’m really not feeling like I look good…I pull out the lipstick). I was also wearing my white shirt. Yup, the lovely little top that I love. Along with my collar and the bunny

Yup yup. I think that is the ONLY thing I like about this place; they let you dress in your own style, so long as it’s not insanely immodest or overly obscene. Me? I only have the collar and the bunny. And my shirts. There’s this other guy…yikes…that’s all I’m gonna say.

Pay attention to the news the next few weeks, those of you who are in the DFW area. You may very well see me and the other drafters from work on strike. Why? Many reasons. Those grievances against the company are hereby listed below:

(keep in mind, while reading, that our pay period is from Thurs-Wed)

1. If you are going to pay as little as possible to the employees, you should at least have SOME form of insurance offered. Do you? NO. A SALESMAN had to bring in a buddy of his from an insurance company to try to calm the company down a little. Let me tell you, the least you could do was welcome them with open arms and made a deal with them to offer lower rates. What money we do make would, if we chose to take them, would go directly into their greedy pockets.

2. Is it so much to ask that we make a decent wage? I understand that we may not all be qualified by collegic standards, but we know AutoCAD to a T and we know the database and we know what the fuck is going on! Hell, the guy who got me my job has been with you for SIX FUCKING YEARS and IS JUST NOW getting another 50c "raise" to an even $20/hr! THAT’S FUCKING BULLSHIT! I made that AS AN ENTRY LEVEL EMPLOYEE at my previous employer! The guy who sits next to me has been with you a little over a year now and is BARELY making $12.50/hr! Why not hire a completely staffed section of highschool employees? You’re already halfway there! FUCK! The PART-TIME employees make more per hour than the guy next to me! AND THEY WORK HALF THE TIME!

3. You wish to employ more people, therefore you CUT over time OUT of our shrinking list of possibilities? That makes NO FUCKING SENSE! Which works out better, paying one person time and a half at $13/hr (best scenario pay scale), or paying two people $13/hr? For a 40/hr week, you pay out twice as much as before, but, no! You’re looking at overtime as well! One person working overtime for one file is roughly 46hrs, which is $637 pretaxes. Paying two people to share a file at EXACTLY 40hrs pays out $1040 for that week, or roughly $520/person pretaxes. How does that save you money? And with the new policy in place, we are not allowed to clock in before 8am, yet you expect us AT OUR DESKS, ALREADY CLOCKED IN, READY TO WORK, AT EIGHT! Now we have mandatory ONE HOUR lunches? It was nice with a mandatory half-hour lunch with maximum allotted time set at one hour, but docking us the minutes we don’t stay away for the full hour? Counterproductive on SO many levels! And shall I begin with today’s announcement, at noon, "Those of you who have already clocked your forty hours, get your ass out"? By three today, there were roughly 6 of 18 drafters still click-clacking our keyboards. I missed half-day on Friday, and being yelled at because I’m still fumbling with my belongings AT FIVE FIFTEEN because I haven’t left yet DOESN’T allow me to make up those four hours I need to even REACH my required 40. And I hope you’re happy, I didn’t make my 40, which means my paycheck this Friday will be quite small and I will be lucky to be able to pay for fuel after bills are paid.

Oh, wait, you want to keep money out of our pockets while you line yours with as much of the good green as possible. Greedy bastards.

4. The "teams" you put us on cause nothing but trouble. We compete to put things into production, however if the salesmen don’t sell, we don’t produce. Not to mention that salesmen are unfairly divided among the teams, some teams (like mine) have ALL new people and two veterans under one bitch who knows NOTHING about leading a group of people, and the work is unfairly balanced upon those teams that are weaker. Our quota each quarter hovers around $700,000 of drawings, and with record breaking sales the last two quarters, our expected quota has risen, not taking into account the weaker teams BARELY scraping by. And the "rewards"? JUST for making quota, a team gets "bonuses". These are a load of crap. It started with the winning team getting $3000 to split among the members. That was fine. Now it’s shifted to simply making quota gets you a minimum $50 "bonus". The higher up you are in the team structure, the more money you get, and the "winning team" gets nearly a double paycheck. We rake in a MINIMUM of 2.1MILLION each quarter, and all we get is an extra paycheck? Where’s our .5% of that 2.1MILLION? That’s a MINIMUM of $10500.00 to split among roughly 18 people, a MINIMUM of $600 a drafter! This $50 minimum simply for making quota is bullshit. Our quota gets you millions a quarter.

5. I don’t owe you a gawddamn bit of loyalty. If I hear that fucking lecture one more fucking time, I’m going to scream! I took this job because at the time, no one else would hire me. Same goes for 90% of the rest of the drafters. Not to mention that to expect loyalty you must be loyal. You are only loyal to the upper management. We work our asses off and they sit on their high thrones and fill their pockets. MILLIONS. WE, the drafters, put MILLIONS into production each quarter. Salesmen see 9.5% of that in commission (a load of bullshit), our supervisor (who does NOTHING) sees .5% of that as a quarterly bonus. That .5% is SUPPOSED to be divided among the DRAFTING DEPARTMENT, not stop with the drafting director! We see NOTHING for our hard work except the heel of your boot, and you expect us to be loyal? Fuck that!

Keep in mind that these are simply my rants against the company. I’m sure that once us drafters get together for our final organizational meeting, this list will expand. I’ve been there six months, some have been there six years. A few longer than that. One thing we all agree on: something has GOT to change.

I tried to leave my company Monday.

Tried.

I had an offer from another company, doing mechanical drafting, which is where I will eventually have my degree (mech engineer).

Perks:
- higher pay
- insurance benefits

Drawbacks:
- farther from the apartment
- more traffic (HELL, it is literally right across the highway from Texas Stadium!)
- contracted position (possibility of hire)

My immediate boss is out of town (in Jamaica for mother’s day — she has a lovely husband…I think; I never see a weddingband) so I had to discuss things with her boss — the VP of the company!

"If you were any of those other drafters, I’d say ’see ya, have a good time’, but you’re not. You’re one smart woman and I can’t afford to lose you." Was I dreaming? "How much are they offering?"

Ah, there’s another problem here…

See, originally there were two positions available. Both were offered at $20/hr. Nice pay for someone like me. Then they called back; they’d filled one with a guy with 18yrs of experience. They didn’t think it’d be fair to him to hire me at the same rate…what happened to pay confidentiality? They "scaled" my experience with his and offered me $15. That was slightly more than my paycheck!

Then we look at the pros and cons again….

….yea, they have insurance benefits…current employer doesn’t….

Oh, hey, another call from them! This time, they let me know there are two resumes on the table; mine and some guy’s from out of state. They’d prefer me because it’s a better resume but mostly because I’m local. Oh, did we mention the contract would be more like two months, not three to six with possibility of hire?

So I told the VP that they were offering $15/$16 and their reasoning why. "Give me a few minutes to mull this over; send in your team leader" Done. While they discussed, I decided to turn down the other company. Not very consistant with the offer and I’ve got a long ways to go for my degree; there’ll be other learning/experience opportunities.

I was called back in. "I hate doing this, makes me feel like I’m buying your employment…but business is money, what’s your price? What will it take to keep you here?" I had no answer, so I just pretended to think while staring at the decorative wall. He got slightly impatient (I think I was keeping him from a meeting). "They say whoever speaks first loses. I’ll offer $16/hr. We don’t have benefits, but we’re looking to have it by the end of next year, after the construction finishes draining our pockets. I don’t want to have a bidding war, so that’s my final offer. What do ya say?" That’s a $2 raise! What could I say? I sat there shocked. "I talked it over with TL and she tells me your worth every penny of that; you’re here every day possible, you’re never late, and you work your ass of and you have things out in a timely manner…what more could an employer ask for?"

Yea, I think they were thinking I was upset over a 50c raise…but it’d only been 3months, I was fine with it; if it had been the yearly review, I’d've been pissed, but only 3months? And after telling him I wasn’t expecting anything like that, he gave me his evilest look (which isn’t evil, it’s one of those cute little faces men make when they’re trying to be intimidating, but you know they’re too soft hearted and it doesn’t work) and then gave me a short speech on company loyalty.

Did I mention the raise was retroactive to the beginning of the pay period?

I still can’t believe it’s real. I keep waiting to wake up. I mean, when was the last time you had a $2 raise literally over night? ESPECIALLY when I’ve only gotten ONE paycheck at my 50c raise!?!?!?!

Monday Blogger refused to publish or update. I sent an email to a few of you telling you to look at Kitten’s Mewlings. Obviously Blogger is better and allowing me to post, so you don’t have to look now, but just in case you ever think it’s been too long since my last post, everything is simulposted there; look for an update, mehbeh.

And unless anything crops up unexpectantly, I will not be blogging the next two and a half weeks; I’ve got work, multiple doctor appointments, and finals. Weeeee!

(anyone wanna do my research paper for me? It’s over the Druids and Stonehenge…)

Technically, Spring Break was last week, but for me, it’s TODAY, Saturday. Only.

So I’m celebrating in style. For a whole week AFTER everyone else. All on my own. Yup. My lonesome Spring Break. Officially, according to the state, my Spring Break coincided with BigEd’s, but since I have online courses and a long Saturday….

Today we were *SUPPOSED* to go to the zoo, the gardens, have a picnic, possibly the aquarium, enjoy a steakdinner, etc. But it be rainin’ on my parade. Quite literally. Therefore, BigEd is sleeping in (after waking at 7:30 and finding he couldn’t sleep, I drugged him with an enjoyable round of "say goodmorning, morning-wood"), and I am up doing chores that need to get done. Early before he wakes back up. Y’know why? So I can play all afternoon

To-Do today includes…
- clean up the dried flowers (I HATE to throw them away, but jar space is limited)
- dispose (read:eat) the aging truffles
- feed the fish [check…and found a dead one too…]
- clean the kitchen [half-check]
- do 3 chapters and a test for one online course [check]
- do 4 chapters of another online course
- write a postlab
- write a prelab (maybe ALL of them so I don’t have to see this on my list ever again)
- read a few chapters for the Saturday course
- deposit/cash my paycheck
- pay an overdue bill to the unnamed college that screwed me over yet still charged me for the year I wasn’t there (i’ll rant on that later)
- write a check off to my sister for the SpazKat
- pull cash to loan to Bitch — I mean Mother (her baby is due any minute now…any bets?) ((and no, not my mom, my friend nicknamed ‘bitch’ but since she’s due, i can’t cuss around the baby, so she’s ‘mother’))
- do some tummy-work exercises (i’ve been slacking…majorly…)
- nap
- blog [check]
- relax

Yea, that’s Spring Break for a young woman who works 45hrs-ish a week and tortures herself with schooling. It’s not like I need it; I could stay on indefinately at the company I’m at now without needing my college degree. 90% of those employees don’t have their degree (which is amazing) or have a useless degree (not in the right field). But then again, because of this job, I desperately want to get my degree — you don’t understand how fucked up things can get when one of your coworkers can’t do geometry and is working in AutoCAD, drawing all day long, and is supposed to figure out angles and whatnot for a piece of product to get produced to fit nicely into the home of the customer!

OH! And in honor of Spring Break, I changed the song: Travis Tritt - Girls Gone Wild. It’s such a fun song, how can you NOT enjoy it?

Callin’ all girlfriends, spring break weekend,
Meetin’ at the Texaco.
Wine coolers, six-packs, cigarettes, and Tic-Tacs,
Fill it up an’ hit the road.
Passin’ round the Cosmo, wearin’ out the cell phone:
"Make it to the beach by ten."
Flip-flops an’ lip gloss, bikini tops and cut-offs:
Baby, let the games begin.

The girl’s gone wild,
Reality TV style.
Just a-miles an’ miles of those girls gone wild.
Breakin’ hearts; usin’ daddy’s credit card.
Momma hollers: "Stop that child!
"Don’t you know the girl’s gone wild."
Girls, girls, girls gone wild.
(Girls, girls, girls gone wild.)
Girls, girls, girls gone wild.

And, yes, this Spring Break I plan on doing something crazy… We’ll see if I get up the nerve for that tatt…. Or maybe just simply get to feeling better first; this lousy body of mine is refusing to calm down from the medicine switch, my bloodpressure is out of whack, I pulled another muscle in my shoulder, my back is killing me, my knee is killing me, my head is constantly pounding (blood pressure headache), and I’m all around not well. Maybe after I’m better I’ll worry about what crazy thing to do?

Just thought I’d post before work today and push that depressing post down a little.

Yup, I’m posting in the nude. I’ve been lazy this morning; been awake since 5, but lay in bed curling up to BigEd, refusing to start my day. Since it’s almost 7 and I should be leaving within the next fifteen minutes, I figured I oughta get up. So I’m out of bed (reluctantly) and getting ready for work.

I haven’t told y’all about where I work since I had the interview. I’ll tell ya this (cuz it’s unsafe to have the name and link up)…I work for a masonry company and it’s my job to do autocad drawings of our products to fit the houses. Right now I’m working on one pain of a house…custom window trims, custom entryway, and a MASSIVE custom fireplace! It’s all been sent for approval, yet gone directly to the president of the company for looking over, and I got my ass chewed because it wasn’t perfect. Go figure. I’ve decided that once it’s completed, I’ll scan that damn fireplace and you can tell me how much taste money buys *shiver*. (I can’t do a .jpg otherwise; I have no internet connection at work–they’re afraid they’ll hire a sabatour or something!)

Well, I guess I should go now, it is three minutes ’til seven and I have to be out by seven fifteen….

Smooches, Spanks, And Smiles! Have a wonderful day, folks!

*****EDIT*****
Hehe…this is what happens when you run out the door late , you leave your blogger control panel open…This is BigEd posting for a second…Let’s see, anything embarrassing we can say about her…nah nothing that wouldn’t get me into trouble….at least…oh yeah, here ya go

Since she pointed out the curling up-ness earlier in the post, I just thought I would share with ya…when she sleeps all curled up, she snores…loudly …she refuses to believe it, but she does…not enough to keep me awake of course, I sleep like the dead once I DO get to sleep…but it’s funny to watch her protest…especially half asleep, completely naked and with her long gorgeous (freshly dyed) hair streaming around her body…

Anyway, just thought I’d share…now I have to go before I’m late for work!

Cheers!

*****EDIT*****

Don’t bother me right now. I’m not happy. The weather made me miss classes on saturday…

…and I have to make up that lab…but Saturday courses are the last ones to do a lab; therefore I can’t makeup the lab.

Valentine’s Day. Need I say more?

So last night I was supposed to post for this morning.

Obviously that didn’t happen.

Wanna know why?

Well, I’ve been keeping a secret from 99% of you. See, since C and I split, I’ve moved into a new apartment and gotten a new boyfriend. The thing is, the roommate is my boyfriend, my boyfriend is BigEd.

He enjoys spoiling his kitten, Kitten of Doom. ‘Course it doesn’t help she’s holding his soul ransom; she can easily steal it from his body, but she prefers to let him keep it, threatening to pull it to put in her catnip mouse. Since I’ve moved in, she’s gone from threatening me because she thought I was usurping her position, to owning me and my soul too. We have also bonded — kittens have a tendency to do that, y’know. Being a kitten, and being considered his, BigEd has deemed me spoil-worthy.

Oh yes, he spoils me.

Insanely.

Completely against my will. Don’t believe me? Ask TJ. He enjoys spoiling his friends, too (err, fuckbuddies [Yea, he’s one of those that makes you scream "oh my gawd" and get the neighbors involved]).

Anyway, BigEd’s been trying to spoil me. And Valentine’s Day seems to be the perfect outlet for all the spoiling I’ve been denying him. So far, here’s the list of things:

- $200 shopping spree at the local mall
This started as $150, but he tacked on a few more items for every "You’re crazy" that slipped past my lips.
A few of the items included new thongs (six total), a new clubbing top (for private use since I never go clubbing), jewelry (a new choker and a pair of earings), a new bra (omygawd it fits like a GLOVE!), a new pair of thigh highs, and this: Private#1 Private#2

- Two dozen roses delivered to my work
Oh Dear Lord!

And these roses? HUGE! Over half my size!

(see KoD on the fish tank?)

And the card that accompanied them? ADORABLE!
(If I truely was a kitten, this would be me!)

- Grey’s Anatomy Season 1
Thank you TJ AND BigEd. They both decided to snag it for me; though BigEd had it already purchased, the thought still counts.

And that’s just so far. I still have Friday night and this weekend to go! Friday night, I’ve been warned, will be his attempt to make me pass out from pleasure and Saturday night / Sunday will be my sex-free fun weekend.

Think I’m spoiled? Repeat my statement from above!

And the people at work are going apeshit over me right now….

"See, she came in all innocent and quiet, but now we find out the truth: she’s just a little wild playah who KNOWS the game and plays it well!"
All because BigEd gave me the two dozen red roses (Godiva chocolate truffles included) and C, the ex, hand delivered a second boquet with Russell Stover chocolates (yum!).

Stu, a salesman with the company, and a HAWT HAWT HAWT guy, has conspired with the rest of the team and decided that I’m just simply a hot little thang who knows how to play…
…apparently it’s uncommon for a girl to have a boyfriend send two dozen roses, have the ex hand deliver a boquet, and go over to a male friend’s home Valentine’s evening to cook him dinner and catch up on chitchat. Stu, the dear, told me, on my way out the door, to grab one of his business cards off the front desk, "just in case [I] need a rescue tonight"

The only rescue I’ll need will be if I go into cardiac arrest from lack of sleep. According to BigEd, he was my lifeline last night (a night I remember very little from). After my Valentine’s gift backfired (it was supposed to be a night for him; I cooked dinner and then was going to spoil him for a change, but he turned the tables on me), supposedly I nearly broke his arms with my thighs and then spasmed so hard bones popped that shouldn’t pop (but my back hasn’t felt this good in forever) and I fell asleep in record time after he stopped giving me orgasm after orgasm because he was afraid I’d hurt myself. I will admit I’ve yet to finish filing down all the chipped nails…damn wall….

Anyway, so that was last night, the reason I didn’t have a post up on time today.

The post originally deigned for posting today? Long lost. Courtesy of Blogger.

**NOTE: THE FOLLOWING POST WAS WRITTEN DURING MY LAB YESTERDAY WHILE WAITING FOR MY CRYSTALS TO DRY — A VERY BORING WAITING PERIOD**

There is just something about hydrochloric acid….

My last post was in regards to the massive amounts of work assigned for one of my courses — no matter how I split it up and work it, I always end up shoving things together the night before class. In this case it was morning. I am steadily but slowly getting back in the habit of getting roughly three or four hours of sleep each night.

However I am just getting over being sick. I am on the dot. I am in NO shape to be getting fewer than my body’s requisite seven hours.

So I got roughly five hours of sleep last night. No worries. I can still function. I can still drive the long trip. I will still be fidgety in class. I won’t be ready to pass out in class, no matter how boring it is.

But since I’m just getting over being sick… I swear I better have the flu or border having the flu! TWICE so far this week I’ve been severely nauseous without cause. "But, hon, you’re on the dot!" Yea, no excuse.

Back to the hydrochloric acid…. Yea, fun to play with! (But the zinc chloride we created? Yea, chlorine has a powerful scent, which is why I HATE cleaning the pool…but now, no pool, so I’m good.)

I’m ready to simply up and walk away.

But I can’t. I’m dedicated.

This always happens to me. Maybe I’m too easy, too workable, too predictable, too easily coerced into situations which I KNOW the terrible outcome before I even set foot on that path. Jerks. They’re everywhere.

Yes, I’m bitter. I have that right. Don’t like it, fuck off.

But I’m a comment whore, so speak up before you do.

I’m off to get a power nap before I get up for my long ass drive to class tomorrow morning — err, later this morning….

…see? I should just say ‘fuck it‘ and quit now.

SuperBowl XL…

…the first football game EVER I have put money up for. Sure I’ve made bets on games before, nothing too serious, though I did have to flash a guy the last time I made a bet, but that was litterally over a year ago. Yes, I’ve refrained from football betting since then. The game I chose to come back on was the SuperBowl.

See, the guys at work drew up a square and sold those squares. $5 a piece. Then, the Friday before the game, cut a deck of cards for the numbers. My numbers were 7,1 - Steelers. This meant if the score, at the end of any quarter, ended with 7 for the Steelers and a 1 for the Seahawks, then I would win. That, honestly, wasn’t too bad; the score could have been any number of combinations. Not to mention the fact that there was a 5point buffer (winning straight got you $100, winning off 5 got you $25).

I am still sore with the Seahawks. They dissapointed me. JP, hun, they’re your team, <em>what happened???</em>

What gets me, though, is that at work, they think I’m just some little girl; they sit and explain everything to me as if I don’t know a damn thing. I, of course, let it happen; stroke the male ego, y’know?

And it’s not just the football they downtalk to me about either (that one just makes me smile; I do admit to not knowing enough of the history and past games and whatnot, but how to play the game, how to keep score, which call <em>should</em> have been called as opposed to what the refs say, etc, I got down perfectly). They also tend to be all knowitall-ly about computers. For now, I’m playing dumb. But just wait…one day I will rise up and let them know that I am not some ‘little girl’ when it comes to living in a man’s world! *mwahahahahahah*

Today was my first day on the new job. I’m getting paid $14/hr to sit at a computer from 7:30am (earliest arrival time) until 5pm (earliest leave time) and take MANDATORY 15minute breaks and MANDATORY 30minute minimum lunch. At least for three months. Then I get evaluated and my pay boosts according to skills.

I thought I would go insane today. And if it was like any normal office, I probably wouldn’t've returned after lunch. The entire office is really the showroom for all the products the company sells or custom creates. My computer sits right under a FABULOUS chandelier and in front of a ceiling deco mounted to the wall for lack of available ceiling space. But it’s not just the scenery; it’s the coworkers. It’s a young company–not by years in business, but by age of employees. The employee who slipped my resume and talked me up is in his mid twenties! And the roughhousing! OMG! They shoot rubberbands at each other! I’m in a deadly warzone! Haha! It’s great!

While getting the tour of the place, I was introduced to a dozen or so other employees. One employee looked at me and The Other New Guy (Tong), and after shaking hands, spoke, first to Tong, then to me… "I read a lot about you, you’re the highly experienced one. And I saw your work. Fabulous; welcome aboard! And you! I’ve heard a LOT about you. You’re the smart one!" I never have blushed so deep before.

After filling out the ginormous stack of dead tree required by new employees, I was escorted to my new desk. I was fortunate, it seems; Tong got a display desk and laptop because spare stations are rare. Though how fortunate I don’t know exactly. Tong has a lovely new gorgeous laptop (office use only; no home-bound journeys) while I have a Dell from who knows when (bulky cpu and tiny screen), loaded with Win98. And I was set to the most boring of tasks ever invented for AutoCAD: trace a jpg image and scale to correct measurements. Try doing that for nearly 10hrs straight! (Now you see why I nearly went insane? Thank God for men who act less than half their age!)

And the time clock…OY! To clock in or out, I have to actually go into the shop area (which is caked with plaster dust, stone dust, and resin dust), swim through a dust cloud, dust off my card, punch in/out, and then shove my card back into the slot before dust takes its place. Oh, and then make my way, nearly blind, back to the double doors to the office portion of the building. One day I’m going to come home looking like a ghost.

And I’m thinking, as soon as I get my paycheck, I’m stocking up on hotpockets. I’ve become addicted to them from not working and not cooking, and it’s only been a week without them and I’m having withdrawal!

Oh, yea, money, that’s a lovely issue. Remember when I posted my budget? It seems that this job is a Godsend, and though I do complain about it’s mindnumbingness and mundane duties, even on the first day, I’m grateful I have it. After all my bills are paid on Wednesday, I will have LESS than $50 IN MY SAVINGS account and NEGATIVE $5 in my checking. Here is where I would like to give heartfelt thanks to two friends who are taking me in for a few months (a week at each’s place at a time so the other doesn’t get jealous). Without them, I wouldn’t be able to go to work (it costs $24 to fill my tank…every four days…traveling from home to work and back). Both live within 15miles of where I work as opposed to the hour and a half drive I would have to make (on a good day), thus saving my gas and money. Thank you (you two know who you are).

I do believe this post is quite long enough, and my hair is quite tangled and I have a grooming appointment with my brush. Then dinner. Then sleep. Sometime in there I’m doing some homework. And checking emails. And enjoying a facial scrub. Enjoy your Mundayne.

I got an email in my "professional" email inbox. In fact, it was spam that had bypassed all filters. I have my email address on my resume, which is posted up on a few job-finder webaddresses, and it is openly out there. Well, I got this email from a lady claiming to be a recruiter. I’ll admit it had me slightly interested, then confused. In the end, it cracked me up. I’ll paste a few lines and explain a little. Let’s begin:

The company is a real company. The address in the email is legit. However, this email, for obvious reasons, is not a real email from that real company (company name not mentioned for company’s sake).

My phone number is on my resume which is posted online to several places. I have tried to call you a couple of times, but have been unsuccessful in reaching you. Not possible considering it is my cell number on the resume and my phone has had no unlisted, restricted, or unknown numbers dial it.

If you feel that you have reached the ceiling at your current place of employment… Anyone who looked at my posted resume would know that I have (or at the time at least) no current employment.

I mentioned it cracked me up, right? Here’s why: (and it took me reading the email a few times through to catch this one) The opportunity in 2005 is greater than it has ever been. Catch that? 2005.

There’s just something about expired spam that you gotta love….

My schedule just got really booked. If you need to speak to me, feel free to email me and I’ll pencil you in.

That is all.

*yes i got the job

I’m nervous.

My portfolio was completed ’round about midnight and an outfit set out. I feel as fat as can be; I look great, yes, but since I last bought anything for work, I’ve gained pounds. Nothing really fits the way it is supposed to. So I’ve resorted to wearing something Sis picked out for me way back last May. No, I won’t have a picture of it put up because I hate it. But I will describe it: a long black skirt that fastens damn near at my breasts and a tent-like red button-up. Conservative, a hint of sexy, and not too terrible looking. Of course my self-critical eye thinks it’s one of the most vile outfits ever, but I’m dealing.

I haven’t eaten anything since about nine or so last night. I am hungry, but I can’t eat. One thought of food…*shiver*…nerves, I tell ya, nerves.

I think I should go and try to go over any questions they may ask or try to relax a little so I don’t choke up on the draw test. Wish me luck!

I’m all a flutter with nerves. I’m bouncing around the house and am uncontrollably nervous. It’s hard to focus on what needs to be done….

[x] laundry (need something clean to wear to the interview tomorrow)
[ ] portfolio (i don’t have a portfolio pulled together…i’m scrambling)
[x] breakfast (it’s after 9 and i’ve not eaten yet)
[x] post office (overnight a package)
[ ] lunch with c? (not sure if this will be beneficial to the day or not)
[x] get directions to company (google maps!)
[ ] find company (i find that it’s sooo much faster getting there if you’ve been there the day before)
[ ] calm down (HA!)
[ ] shave

OMG I know I’m missing something….

Normally I’m not this nervous. People who know me can vouch for that. But this? This is a HUGE company! C kept trying to calm me down with "what’s the worst that could happen? they not hire you?" YES! Aside from all the pressure of needing this job, look at it like I am: it’s a fucking huge company that does work on, not only the Ballpark in Arlington, but the Texas Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, glorious chateaus both in the US AND FRANCE, and all their work is so acutely detailed it makes what I’ve been doing look like childsplay! "look, you’re smart, pretty, and you know your stuff. you’re good at what you do, you have nothing to worry about"

Honestly…I fucking wish!

When coming in for your interview if you could please bring a portofolio with you.

Thank you,
XxXxXx

Shall I jump for joy now or wait until after I figure out if this severe case of nerves is worth it?

I was simply sitting here with my baby, my spoiled little prince (see? –and my hand is inside my jacket; see, I was even all dressed for that nonexistant interview) when I got the phonecall. It was an urgent call, she said. It was one of my friends. Her voice was all high pitchy and kinda squeally.

"I have some good news!"
- male voice: shush! who you calling now?
- to the male voice: it’s [kitten], she has a right to know; and i’ve already told mom, she’s happy for me
==Running through my mind: oh fuck, not another pregnant woman! I can’t HANDLE another one!

Then she returned back to me and told me her news.

Mandy announced that it’s now official. She is engaged (it’s now more than just speculation and wondering when he’d pop the question). The details were not shared with me, but they are overjoyed.

It will be a September wedding. This year. No surprise really, it’s their two or three year anniversary. They were made for each other.

And the fun of the whole thing? (the reason I "have a right to know") I’M THEIR WEDDING PLANNER!

This ought to be interesting….

…and fun.

It’s known that I’m accident prone. Just how accident prone? In one week alone last year I was nearly in four different accidents. NONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE BEEN MY FAULT. I repeat: I would NOT have been at fault.

Well, things have settled down. Or they had….

I ventured out of my home today to pick up Mickey to give her a ride to get a CD. Things went smoothly; I mean people were doing nice things at random! Then we started our trip back to my place.

The highway was fine. Eighteen wheelers all over the place but traffic flowed smoothly. Exited just fine. But when we got to the light to turn left, I had an iffy feeling. Double left turn lanes I hate with a passion. It’s a fear that someone will try to get into my lane. Irrational? After today, I think not. We were in the far left lane of the double left turn lane. When I turn from that lane, I aim to straddle the white line between my lane and the new turn lane so that if there is a car trying to get into my lane, I have enough time to accelerate or swerve. In this case, there was a huge truck behind me who apparently does the same thing; he was directly behind me. The little blue thing next to me tried to take my lane. She was so close she was roughly half an inch from scraping my car. And her front bumper was even with my passenger door! Mickey flipped, I layed on my horn and hit the accelerator.

See, I only hit the pedal my foot was on. Which means if I was one of those stupid people who break for a turn (laws of physics AND driver’s education: accelerate to turn), I would have been hit by her in my side and the truck behind me would have plowed into me. That could have been deadly for Mickey and highly painful for me.

In the end the only thing wrong was a few fluttering hearts and butterflies in stomaches.

And you know what pisses me off about the whole thing? That little blue thing, who had the WHOLE FUCKING ROAD to turn into, ended up, at the next light (not even two blocks down) turned RIGHT!

People are stupid. Stupid people are allowed to drive. It breaks my heart. (and as Mickey said: "‘people are stupid. stupid people are allowed to drive’ We’re fucked.)

*-*-*EDIT*-*-*
So Mom’s babysitting has paid off. I just had a restricted number call my phone…it was a friend of that woman. He works at a contracting agency and has promised, hands down that based solely on the fact that I had a certain contracting agency listed on my resume that my resume would be the first one he pulls for the next autocad opening at a certain massive big-name company.

If you or anyone you know in the DFW area knows Pro/E and needs a job, email me!

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I went to campus and picked up the books I need for my night/weekend courses (did I not tell you? I’ve re-enrolled) and then gave Mickey a ride to sell back a book her mother used last semester (yea, she’s in this too) and tried like hell not to lose my composure around C (that last post referred to some personal issues…C started it all). Not to mention I was suffering still from a stomach ache (not the flu. possible bad food). Aside from that I sharked Careerbuilder.com and submitted my resume like crazy; even created a dummy-freeforall resume that I used to apply for front desk jobs and highschoolerlevel parttime gimme jobs.

Ya know what the result was? That dummy resume pulled me in two phone calls. My first two phone calls in the entire month since I’ve been looking for a job! Both of them promised something, but near the end, they both seemed too far out of my reach. The first I know I won’t hear from again; I don’t have enough Inventor under my belt. The second though….

…The second I am rather pissed about. I have all the AutoCAD experience in the world, which is exactly what the company is looking for, at least according to the headhunter lady. Interior design as a plus, but not required, which suits me just fine. She said $18/hr, which isn’t what I was making, but I can deal. She even asked me if I could commit to a 10 or 11 o’clock interview today!

The problem? She said she’d send my resume to LookingCompany and then give me a call back. Not only have I yet to recieve a return call, but I have no fucking clue where this company is, who they are, or how to get there. Ten or eleven o’clock interview? Yea fucking right.

My mom is a highschool teacher. One of her students tried to commit suicide during Fall Finals week. That student’s mother has asked my mother to "babysit" him from the moment he gets to school (usually two hours early) until his first class. As a payback, she has taken it on herself to help me with my job search. So I sent my mother my resume to forward to her.

I get a forwarded email conversation in my inbox:

ok..perfect..I am working from home and you guys live real close. I noticed the address on her esume and I used to swim in your pool! We knew people that lived there a few years ago!

(emphasis added)

She is not only willing to help me with my job search, but is willing to train me to fit into a company she works with (she works for DART - Dallas Area Rapid Transit). How cool is that?!?

Sometimes, it’s good to have a bitchy strict teacher for a mother; they get all the connections!

Dear [Kitten]:

Sincerely,
[][][]
Human Resources/Recruiting Manager
[EngineeringCompany]
Engineering + Solutions

Shall I give up yet?

To be honest, I had a thought, but it would KILL me through stress.

See, there’s this family friend in OKC. He’s a cool surfer dude kinda guy. Talks that swagger all the time. Borrowed his son’s skateboard mulitple times, much to his wife’s chagrin. He works a civil engineering firm up that way. Offered me a job way back when I first started my AutoCAD classes. Had a thought that I could finally accept that job offer. Thing is, I’ve re-enrolled in classes down this way. Good news about that is, when I was registering, I kept in mind a 9-5, mon-fri job; this means I have a full-time career and school. I really only enrolled in two courses, one online and the other ALL day Saturday (lecture in the morning, lab in the afternoon).

Know what this means? Following my train of thought? Drive up and work in OKC Monday through Thursday, overtime and part day Friday, drive back this way, rest and go to school, then head back up for work on Monday.

Yup, stress would work against me. And my car would suffer. I mean, I do own a home in OK, which is an hour or so from where I’d be working, but that’s still a 3hr drive from there back here and then right back up.

And just so you know how desperate I am for a job…
…I applied at the local animal hospital for an unlikely position at the front desk…paying a little over minimum wage…

Contacted FamilyFriend. I have a serious job offer in OKC. They want to know how good I am before they say anything definate.

I told C. I figured he’d be happy — A serious job offer, a steady income once more, and no more fighting about me spending all my free time with the "bad" friends here.

As soon as he found out where I’d be staying (I have a house in SmallTown, roughly an hour and a half or so from Jobsite) and making my home until the weekend courses back down this way (yea, that’ll be fun), he hit the roof. Apparently I can’t go stay in SmallTown because when we broke up, that’s where I "partied it up". I did little partying; felt the whole time like a piece of shit for searching for fun.

Direct quote from our recent IM:
C: and this is of course the town with more awesome friends
Me: what?
C: ppl u went to hang out with when we broke up
Me: point is?
C: just makes me feel nice and cozy inside thats all

By now you should all know that I was released Dec 9th, the contract fulfilled.

Upon my release, I was invited to the company Christmas party, as I was an employee well over my two-month summer contract (five months to be almost exact). The party was Friday night, Dec 16th, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. It was nice. There was a cash bar (of which I did not partake–I know how I get when I’m liquor’d up). Each person was given three "free drink" tickets and three casino tickets worth $500/chips a piece. I was able to trade my "free drink" tickets for five more casino tickets, which is what the night was really all about for me–as well as seeing the Reindeer Parade!!

I stayed at the Black Jack table all night and doubled my chips. That was a thrill! Cashing in the chips equaled out to exchanging them for raffle tickets.

My raffle ticket won.

Yup. I was the BIG lucky winner that night. Won a Phillips DVD Theater System, which I gave to C for Christmas. Lucky ass, no? Especially considering we are no longer a couple.

***

[CLICK HERE] for my Christmas gift to my loyal readers (I feel compelled to give a warning about mature content, but only for a brief second).

***

And to those PC types…

Have a Merry, Happy, fucking Christmas.

….come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind a little fucking for Christmas….*sigh*

The Temptress You are the one who comes into people’s dreams at night to drive them mad with desire. You are sultry, sexy, and passionate. Others find you hypnotic. You have the sort of smoldering eyes and bedroom glances that are the stuff of egend. What’s so scary about you: Like sweet poison, you are addictive and deadly. Your gemstone: Garnet Your moon: Rose Moon (July)

brought to you by Quizilla

Must thank el sid for the link to that lovely little quiz. Dead on about the temptress part. Excepting my recent weight gain…. Yes, I am alive. I’ve been fighting with the family again. Seeing as there are 6 of us in a 4bed and soon to be 7…you see the reason for the tension. I’m fighting for interviews right now, but it being the holiday season…I doubt I’ll get much. I’ve already had four ignored messages from a very promising company looking for about 150 AutoCAD people and been stood up about three times for interviews from another company. Still living in this house, my parents have decided I am still governed by their rules, which I’m fine with; it’s the whole "while you’re under my roof" syndrome. Well, yesterday they hid my keys. Seems that if I don’t have a job or interviews, I can’t drive anywhere. THAT was too far and extremely uncalled for. So I hitched rides with Mickey. I felt really terrible about that, then got pissed at her for her decisions. Next post, mehbeh. Well, seeing as they had my keys, I was locked out when it came time for me to go to bed. Imagine my fun! Troubles in paradise with C too. That’s driving me up the wall. I honestly love him, but the way things are going, I will have to give him up. He despises Mother and Mickey and Mandy too much and I refuse to stop seeing my girls. This morning I came home after staying at Mickey’s and then grabbing StarBucks and shopping. As soon as I got my keys back, I was headed off to pick up a Christmas gift from a pal. But, alas, that was not meant to be! My.car.won’t.start. The ignition turns, the engine turns over, but the engine won’t start! It has 1/2 a tank of gas, it’s in park, and there are no blown fuses. Don’t give me the crap my dad tried to feed me; it IS getting fuel–you can smell it!! Oh! My dad! Wonderful news. He’s getting old. He’s in his fifties. Really not old, but he’s getting there. Griping about this and that and was put on Viagra awhile back to control his blood pressure. Well now, the poor guy, is on a liquid diet–he has a colonoscopy Friday. Ouch! And keeping to family news: If I haven’t told you already, my teenage sister is pregnant. Not even out of highschool yet. What a shame. And Mom is all in an uproar–with nesting. She’s registered with every online shop and is disgustingly favoring her. Her "house arrest" lasted less than a week; she’s out more than I am, and I’m quite legal to go everywhere! They went out and got her checked out and got an ultrasound. Her baby, so far, looks like a baby chicken (didn’t know we were related to NonGirlfriend!!).

Um…

Not sure if there’s any other exciting news. I do have a Christmas post coming up. Not for the sensitive. ‘Course neither am I. I I’m missing something. I have been all week….

…I’m still alive, busy going insane…

((being unemployed has me lost as to what to do!))

…Again, I’m in the process of a HUGE post. Therefore, I leave you with some artwork I created last night!

And I will return with a long long long post.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HUGE ARTWORK AND POEM. *smiles*

WARNING: THIS POST NOT SAFE FOR VIEWING AT WORK!

Honky Tonk Badonkadonk