Happy St Patricks Day!

Hope everyone is having fun and being safe this St Patty's Day. The only thing I love about St Patty's Day is the wearing green part. I hate the pinching thing, but I love wearing all kinds of green all over. Its just fun. I bought cupcakes for work Friday for it also. Hope everyone liked them!

So, work has been awesome since Tuesday. Leslee is out of town, so I have been the only person up front, and although I have a stack of work that never seems to get done, I love that I am busy and that people are trusting me with bigger responsibilities and seem to be appreciating the work I do. I"m not sure if I was just overshadowed by Leslee before, or if there was something else, but now even the boss says I'm doing good.

They even trusted me with taking care of JC's customers while he was out of town for a day or two. That was nice. I kind of enjoyed having my own customers to talk to. I was lucky though that no one got really mad at me. Sometimes people get mad when their vehicle isn't done on time, and there were a few I had to call and tell them their vehicle wouldn't be done on Friday, and JC would have to call them monday to tell them why. Some people get mad when you don't have all the information for them.

I have to work today too, half in parts and half up front. Parts is a mess. I guess the dealers delivered a lot more than normal or something, and Danni has been in Fairbanks helping out, so the parts room is more packed than I've ever seen it. Danni is back though, so hopefully we will be able to get alot of them recieved. I hope I have time to get my stack done too. That would be nice!

Another nice thing about being so busy at work is that I'm making tons of money. I'm working 8 hours a day, usually 3-4 hours of OT a day on top of that (because sometimes I will work from 7:30-7:30, and now I"m working today at LEAST 9-3. Even all that is a plus for them because they are paying me for all that, but they aren't paying Leslee anything. So it actually is cheaper for them. The downside to all this is that I get home at like 8pm every night, and have to be at work at 7:15 in the morning, plus I"m fasting so I cannot eat until 7pm, and I'm usually at work then, so I don't eat dinner until after 8 because I still have to go home and cook. Then, I'll eat dinner, and want to go right to bed.

Speaking of the Fast, it is going well. I am very proud of myself because I stopped drinking soda during the fast. So far I have been successful, except about 3 days. :) I haven't been taking a lunch at work because Juli said she's rather not watch the front desk if I don't mind not taking one and I told her that it doesn't matter if I take one because I'm not eating anyway. So it works out for everyone. I might want to take on next Thursday and Friday though. We'll see. I think I've lost weight. I had pants that used to kinda pop open at one of the buttons because I didn't fit in them too well, and now they stay closed all the time. :)

So, other than work and the fast, the only thing left is Aaron and My Cats. Aaron is doing well. His parents just moved back onto base, which is annoying, but their new house is gorgeous. It is brand new and no one has ever lived in it. As far as the Cats, they are annoying as ever, but I still love them. They are both over a year now. (they have been since I bought them though. although they told me they were 5 and 7 months.) The one weird thing they do is they will play in the kennel I use to take them to the vet. If I put them in it, and they know they are going to the vet, they tear me up (I already have about 6 DEEEP scratches to prove it, all from on incident!), but if I leave it on the floor, they will play in it and sit in it. I even started using it at night when snowpaws is scratching stuff. She still goes in without a fight. Silly Cats

Anyways, I've got to get to work. I want to be there before 9:00. I really enjoy being to work early recently. I get there at 7:15 and it gives me time to make the coffee and get everything started and open, without having to do it between customers. I hope everyone else is doing well!

Only in Alaska....

You know you are in Alaska when you go to a concert, and while the band is singing one of their biggest songs, a random guy in regular jeans and a t-shirt goes up on stage, bends over to fix something, and flashes butt crack to the entire crowd, and no one cares. So, to start from the beginning, I was at work and it was CRAZY because Leslee is leaving for a week and a half and she has a HUGE project she has to finish before she leaves the day after tomorrow. She went in the back room so no one would bother her. I had to man the front desk alone. It was pretty crazy. I really hope I can not only handle the week and a half without her, but that I can shine.

on a side note is that my boss talked to me before I left work at 7pm and when he talked to me it sounded like he wasn't disappointed in me. Something about I was doing good. I don't know how he put it that made me feel better. Oh well, whatever it was he said made it not as bad. Not HORRIBLE, but not as bad, I guess.

Anyways, Leslee was so busy with her project that she said she couldn't make it to the concert. She had free tickets from somewhere, and asked if I wanted them. She said she was sure she couldn't go, so I took them. Its funny because she left before me, but I have a feeling she is the kinda person that has to go home and get all ready before she goes out. I went in my work clothes and Aaron went in his Lithia clothes. (another thing you see in Alaska all the time). So, the concert started AT 8 almost exactly. It started with some we hadn't heard of. Apparently an opening act. He kinda sucked, and when he played Johnny Cash's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and the crowd was supposed to sing back "yipie Kai yay" and like 3 people did it hte first time. After that, everyone else did it, but everyone else consisted of about 1000 people at the most in a place that fits 5000. (probably partially because it is a TUESDAY NIGHT!)

After about a half an hour of crap, they took a half an hour break where they turned on the lights and changed the stage. Instead of going straight into the the main act, we all had to sit there for another half an hour. If I had known that, we would have gone home to change and showed up at the concert at 9pm. We only stayed until 9:45 because I have to work early tomorrow. It was kinda fun, but not all that great. I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

One thing that bugs both Aaron and I about concerts, is those people who get so into it that they invade everyone else's space. We were watching a person in about the 3rd or 4th row from the front who would stand up and clap, so no one else could see, and then would bounce back and forth running into people. Oh well, at least we were far away from them. Anyways, it was exciting getting to the concert because it was exciting expecting a lot. It was okay, in the end.

Stressing About Work

So, the most recent update of my life would have to be titled "Stressing about Work". Basically, I love my job. I love the environment for the most part, I love alot of the people I work with. one of the things I really like about it is that They are very understanding of emergancies. If some emergancy comes up and I have to miss work, everyone understands and it is okay that I"m not there, unlike other jobs I've had. I was loving work more than ever up until the other day. The production Manager that came from fairbanks to help out, who became production manager, became general manager on the 1st. I am not sure if he just doesn't like me, doesn't think I"m doing a good job, or it isn't anything, but I am not enjoying work since he took over. He has told me not to talk to insurance companies (which is half of our business) and then the next day not to talk to customers (which is the other half). Now, I am reduced to answering the phone and transferring or taking messages. I can do a few other simple tasks, such as a little bit of data entry or filing, but other than that, nothing. Because of that, I don't have nearly as much to do. I was busy today, but I not only finished my pile of things from Friday, but I also went through a book of people to call and schedule and left a message for evrey single one. So, tomorrow, if leslee leaves stuff for me to do, I will have enough to do before I go to lunch, and then after that, nothing. I hate doing nothing. The worst thing about all of this is that I hate that they don't think I'm going a good job. I figure the only reason they would not let me do things I had been doing for a while is because I"m not doing a good enough job. I hate feeling like that. Thats one of the worst things in a work environment for me, if feeling like they think I'm doing a bad job. So, I stress about that all the time. My "Supervisor" (or the other receptionist basically) keeps saying that I have to learn the basics, and not to take it personally, but I wasn't aware that I didn't have the basics down. I thought I was doing good. I was apparently mistaken. She also goes on and on about how it takes time and I haven't been there for very long. When I started there, she had been there for 8 or 9 months. She was already practically in charge of the whole place (and this is 8 or 9 months total between both the chaz's cause she mentioned she started at the other one. I have been there a little more than half the time she was when I started, and I"m nothing but a switchboard. So, yes, I'm stressing. I don't know if expectations are higher here, or if I'm different, but I used to be the favorite of every workplace. Everywhere I worked I exceeded expectations, and they gave me glowing references and they loved me. Ever since I moved to Anchorage, every job has had such high expectations for me that I was pushing myself to do my best harder than I ever had before, and it still wasn't good enough. Thats tough for me to accept, that my best isn't good enough. Aaron's really sweet saying he's sure i'm a great employee and he's sure that they like me. Other than him and his family, he's the only one. Everyone who seems me work doesn't seem to feel the same way. They just don't say anything one way or the other. Anyways, enough about that. My cats are the most annoying pets in the world. Too bad I love them so much. They scratch up everything, they run everywhere day and night and that make as much noise as two toddlers in the middle of the night when you are trying to sleep. Its insane! Thats pretty much all of my life. We'll see how its going down the road. :P

American Idol

I only have a few moments to post, so I am going to do a quick post and do a real post another time, eventually. So I don't know who all watches american idol that reads this. I usually don't, but this year, I was watching hte tryouts, which is what I usually watch, and there was this kid that I thought was awesome. Him and his sister were these little middle eastern kids and they both seemed like really good, moral kids. I liked them so much, i decided to watch until they got kicked off. I think the girl got kicked off right away. The boy, isn't really a very great singer. So, the funny part is, that he is still on. They are down to the top 12 right now, and america has voted off some awesome singers and kept this kid on who is an okay singer, but a great, positive kid. He seems more shocked than anyone every time they don't send him home. I wondering if this is a change in the way american's are thinking? Are they now more concerend with personality and morals than with a skill that a person has? I sure hope so. I would vote for him too if I voted for anyone. Anyone else have any thoughts?