Monday, July 21, 2008

Power outages and an escaped cat

Today started HORRIBLY! (It's gets better, so please don't let that discourage you from reading!)

Late last night we had a terrible storm and 40,000 people were without power all night - me being one of them. I didn't think much of it, just kept sleeping. I didn't have to be into work until 10am so got to sleep in. When I woke up around 7am it was sweltering in my apartment so I got up opened the windows and the sliding glass door (assuming the screen door was locked) and went back to bed for an hour. At around 9am I rolled myself out of bed (I know... little more than hour snooze... haha) I walked into the living room and the screen door was open about two feet and Libby was gone.

I panicked. A lot.

I flew out of the apartment down the stairs (I live on the second level) and frantically looked for her. After a few minutes I found her, she had made her way back to the stairs up to my apartment and was meowing and looking right at me. She let me pick her up immediately and looked really scared. I'm so thankful she didn't try to play games with me and run away, which is what my cats always did when I was a kid.

I have never been so scared! My worst fear is that she will get out of the house and get hit by a car and I will find her body. I know, very gruesome, but I can't help it. It's my fear!

Thank god I found her and she was okay. As soon as I picked her up I said, "Never, EVER do that again!" I'm sure I sounded like a mother that just had a child wonder off, but it just came out of my mouth before I even thought about it!

The rest of my day has gone fine, rather quickly actually! I have 2 1/2 more hours to go at work, then I get to go home and head to the gym.

I've been pretty unprodcutive today (current job-wise), although I have been researching schools to go to and I believe I have it narrowed down. I'm actually trying to get a job at the school because they offer FREE tuition to employees! Isn't that awesome! It's a really, really good university here in Des Moines too, so keep your fingers crossed for me that everything works out. I have applied for three positions so far, mostly administrative assistant work (which I think looks really fun!), what office can't function with their administrative assistant??! They're like the most important person in the entire office!!!

I'll keep you all posted! Hope you have a great week!!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

It's happened again...

Remember when I was interviewing for that job for 2 months back at the beginning of the year and didn't get it? Well it's happened again. I have been interviewing for this certain job since APRIL and I just found out today I didn't get it.

I have to get more aggressive about this job hunt. When my computer crashed it just made it that much harder to hunt for a new job. That is just an excuse though. I cannot make excuses!

My question is... what profession should I go for? I have been in retail management and now I am working in higher education (in administration). My bachelors is in Fashion Merchandising, which is now seeming like a huge waste of time.

Any advice on a career field I should break in to?

I have been contemplating going back to school for a degree in elementary education, I have always loved kids and I think I would be good at teaching. I'm just nervous about having to take out more student loans and worried about teachers salaries when I'm done. I've grown accustomed to a certain salary range...

Tips? Advice? Words of wisdom? ANYTHING!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Scary drill . . .

At my office we do fire drills and tornado drills periodically so everyone knows what to do during a disaster and do it quickly. Today we had a Violence Drill.

As I heard the siren go off, which was several intermittent blasts, I shut the door to my office and shut the light off. Then I was to hide somewhere so that I could not be seen through the door. At first I wasn't taking it seriously, I thought, "I will just continue to sit at my desk and work." Then I thought about how real that is. I work in a school, a college to be exact.

The scenario that we are practicing for could very well happen at my place of employment. I have come across several students that I would call capable of violent acts towards others.

This, to me, was just so scary and made me stop and think about what a vicious world we live in.