Life after Alabama

Geneva,

So after working all day at the corporate office in Houston I flew to Detroit where I arrived at 12:30 am. Went home, showered, repacked, watched two hours of the death of Michael Jackson and went back to the airport for a 5:40 am flight to Tallahassee.

Jim picked me up there where we drove to Geneva (couple of hours). I worked at the office in Geneva half the day then went and signed papers at the bank. That was the gist of the visit. Now the house there is in good financial shape and looks great, which is awesome cause we want to sell it.

But it was really a roller coaster of emotions visit.

First of all, every time now that I go to Houston or Geneva it reminds me of being so painfully homesick. I spent about two years in each place and I’m still waiting for the time that I’ll look back on it fondly. I mean both places had their great attributes but being back home in Michigan is no comparison to any of their attributes.

Geneva was a cool experience in a small rural southern town. But true to form we stayed at the 12 unit motel in town cause of course everything is gone from the house. I needed to work so we asked about high speed internet and they assured me that they had it. Great. I wasn’t dressed to go into the office and preferred working comfortably from the hotel room. But I couldn’t connect. After about 40 minutes of trying I finally went to the front desk and asked. She said ‘yes, we have high speed wireless, but it’s not working’. Arrggh. So I had to go to a “Peebles” clothes store in town to get dress pants to go into the office and work.

But work was cool. When I left Geneva I thought it was possibly on flimsy terms with senior management. I had felt at that time that the company was not doing well, which it wasn’t by a long shot. Still isn’t either. So I told them what I believe (and still believe) they were doing wrong and I guess they didn’t want to hear it.

But…..time passes and now that I work for the corporate office my job is to go to our companies and deploy and support a new software program designed to help them out.

So, when I was in Houston I ran into my old bosses from Geneva. We sat outside of the hotel on a picnic table and drank beers and talked all evening and it was like old times with good friends. It was great to see the character development and starting fresh. It was also cool for me to be in a position to be able to help them out. Cooler yet to end every work week back home in the Detroit area.

Woman of Steel

Well my alter ego has been discovered.

I'm in Houston this week training a team of about ten people. Last night they were all going out to a restaurant so I figured they'd be gone a couple of hours at least. I had too much work to do so I just went to my room, got comfy in my jammies and started working.

About 45 minutes later someone from the front desk called to let me know that I had dropped my work badge in the parking lot. So my PJs are just the popular T-Shirt variety with flannel pants so I thought I'd just run down, get my badge and be on my way.

Of course as soon as I get to the front counter my whole team is just walking in the door and there I am, RED FACED in my Superman jammies.

At least now they know that they will be well protected when in my presence.

A Real Success Story!

This is Miss Beverly from the East Texas OPCO. When I first started training their new customer service department last September, Beverly was new to this kind of work. She is a really nice person who has taken in her kids and grandkids and is helping raise them all. She had never had a job that paid as well, or had as many benefits as this job and she really wanted it badly!

But, because it was such a dream for her to get and keep this job she was a nervous wreck. I think that the fact that she was so nervous about not getting it, or worrying about making a mistake that she was having trouble focusing and was so jittery that she was having trouble with even the most basic things.

Fortunately the other three people in the department felt like me-here is a really nice deserving person that needs this job and none of us were going to let her fail. Beverly came in early every day and asked for extra practice and everyone teamed up to support her.

It took the village there to get her to this level-but I just did a six month followup visit to East Texas last week and Miss Beverly is doing fine and is so happy to have this job. It might make her feel good that she made it but I think the rest of us feel even better in seeing her succeed.

Role Models

Role models: Everyone’s got ‘em. Whether you’re conscious of them or not-you’ve got them. The trick is to make them good ones! If your role model is a rap star going to prison for illegal gun trade then maybe you should rethink that one.

Fortunately I think I lucked out. I have my brother Jim for a role model. Jim, (who Janet is a lot like) has always been success driven, with minimal excitement levels, but smart and funny with the famous Turner dry wit. Growing up it was always easy to look up to him, he did great in school and I always loved school. He learned a lot of neat things and continues to learn-which might be why I’m just starting to plug away in the piano world while working on learning German.

When we were little he entered a Bike Parade and there was contest for the best decorated bike, and Jim, always looking to be the best at what he does of course had the best decorated bike and won a nice new bike-even got his picture in the paper. How cool is that.

He was the Life Guard and Red Cross certified. He was a Life Guard at our Church Camp and once gave mouth to mouth to a guy having a heart attack at a Bowling Alley! On a lesser scale, but still more ingrained in my memory is when I stepped on a colored toothpick and I was hysterical (Imagine that) but he calmed me down and took care of it.

He even did fun things with his schooling-I remember his ‘log cabin’ made out of Pretzel Sticks that I think he made in college.

Me and Doris used to go visit him in his office in Ann Arbor and I always thought that was so cool that he had his own office and a good job.

Now that he’s retired he got a very cool article in a U of M magazine for the Architecture Department.

Best of all is how he has always helped me out when I call him with stupid things-like every time I had to figure out a percentage, I could never remember how to do that. It’s nice to have that person that you can call like that.

So all of you are looking up to rapper TI-you might want to spend the next 365 days before he gets out of jail, readjusting your goals.

That's What It's All About!

All the traveling, all the moving back up north. All the cooking, (Which I didn’t really do but it sounds good). But it’s all worth every minute of it if it leads to a good party and lots of company.

Yep I couldn’t be happier than a house full of company! Well yeah, then there’s those down times reading and vegging on the couch watching TRU TV that are pretty sweet too but parties are nice.

It was a great Memorial Day/Birthday party for Eland, Kimmie (25) (I mean Kim) and Julia(7). Julia lucked out and not only had a #7 candle on the cake but seven candles to blow out also.

Quite an athletic show in the backyard too with Frisbee all the way in the back and some baseball with ‘loose’ rules near the back porch.

Pretty soon I’m going to have to get all of the bees out of the play house and have the kids come paint it up. Although Jenna was sure happy-she found a Teen Beat magazine with….YES!!!!! The Jonas Brothers (Ah be still my heart)

So it was a fun day although a diet buster with all the cake and Ice Cream but hey, it would be rude not to partake on their special days……

So back to work, but that’s OK if it’ll lead to more parties-and I promise.

Sysco Chicks

My work started a 'Biggest Loser' contest. Well, I'm game since I certainly need something to motivate me. I managed to get a team of four co-workers although that's a pretty sensitive and touchy thing to do. I had to send emails to my friends at work and ask them if they'd like to join a weight loss program. I managed to get some positive responses but I'm still not sure how many I ticked off.

The contest lasts for twelve weeks. The team name we voted on is 'Sysco Chicks'. Friday was our first weigh in since the contest started and our group lost a total of 20 lbs. (5 each on an average) Not exactly the dazzling 'Size 8 here I come' result I was looking for.

Somehow they made me the team captain. I know they wouldn't have done that if they knew that awhile back I joined Weight Watchers for awhile with Nancy and I gained 12 pounds.

I did make motivational work out T-Shirts for our team so maybe that will help. (No, not with my smiling, waving face on them).

Hopefully in the near future people will be coming up and asking me if I'm Jean's little sister. In the meantime though I think I'll go have a delicious rice cake. Mmmmmm

Sick Sucks and Great Inventions

First of all, I've been sick about a week now and it sucks. Right now I'm sitting here just kind of staring off blankly at my computer although I'm supposed to be driving to Pittsburgh for work. But I'm just sitting here blowing my nose with a vacuous look, much like I've had all week.

Even used up three sick days at work and didn't do anything overly exciting for all of that time off. Nope, just spent all week filling up Kleenex.

Which brings me to the exciting part of being sick-the discovery of yet another world class creation by some total genius whose birthday I would celebrate if I knew when it was.

Before I share the new highlight of modern technology may I remind you all of the past triumphs....first of all, Immodium AD. And to anyone who has appreciated the success of this little white pill than I need say no more about its virtues.

And how about the person who invented stretchy waist bands on pants. Another unsung hero. Someone who has made dressing up for work a much more pleasant experience for me.

And now this weeks winner is the person at the Puffs Invention Laboratory that took a regular old tissue and not only added lotion, but God Love Ya buddy, you added Vicks Vapo Rub too! Yep, with every soft blow there's a little shot of fresh air in the ol' nostrils. If the inventor of this product reads this blog please send me your picture-there is surely room in a frame on my desk.