Thursday, October 20, 2011

Dealing with disappointment

I know that children will eventually do things that disappoint their parents. What I didn't expect was a time when EVERY single action would throw me into an anxiety attack. I pray that someone can tell me a short bout of aggressiveness is normal for all teen boys & that it'll end quickly. Unfortunately, I doubt anyone will be able to give me any assurance that we'll both make it through this unscathed.

The timing couldn't have been much worse. 1 month into my new job & Josh has already been suspended from school twice, for a total of 9 days. Today was his first day back & I get a call that he's no longer allowed to ride the bus because of his behavior. How am I supposed to leave in the middle of the afternoon to pick him up?

Tomorrow I'm taking him to Crosspointe for counseling. I hope with all my being that we are able to find something that gets through to him. He doesn't even understand how many other people are impacted by his obnoxious behavior.

I'm at my wits end with him. I feel bad because I frequently feel like I wouldn't be upset if he were to move away & live with his dad or if he were to go away to boarding school. I don't like feeling that way but more and more often I wonder what would have happened if I'd never gone to Colorado, never gotten married, never had a child. How horrible that I have those thoughts...but I just can't help it!

I hope counseling will help us both.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Screaming at the rear view mirror will not make that guy tailgating you a better driver

On rare occasions, I turn over control to another person and ride in the passenger seat. I don't do it often because I get motion sickness easily and, frankly, I can't stand not being in control.

Lately, I've noticed that one particular driver I've ridden with has a terrible habit of yelling at her rear view mirror when another driver gets, what she thinks is, too close to her bumper. Granted, I've been known to "talk" to other drivers as we pass on the road but I've never actually looked at the mirror as if looking into their eyes when I do it.

Not to mention that this person often stops in the middle of a conversation inside the car to freak out on a driver who, not only can't hear her but, probably isn't as close to her bumper as she thinks.

At any rate, it makes me very uncomfortable and makes me want to reach over and smack her until she realizes how stupid she sounds. Yes, I have passenger road rage...I can't help it. Stupid drivers is one of my biggest pet peeves and it's so prevelent these days that I can barely function on the road without wanting to take a ball bat to a windshield.

I'm just kidding, I don't really have that much road rage...not all the time, anyway!

BBQ Pulled Pork...for dummies!

I'm not a good cook. I wish I was. I can follow a recipe if it's not too complicated but I'm not good at creating recipes or altering those that are already available. Today, I want to share my BBQ Pork recipe with all of you that are in the same boat.

Place the pork butt in the crockpot. I use boneless, rolled and try to buy them when they are on sale.

Dump in enough rotel tomatoes (with the juice) to almost cover the pork.

Add a regular sized bottle of BBQ sauce to the mix. I love Sweet Baby Rays!

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours depending on the size of your butt. :)
     *You'll be able to tell it's done when the meat falls apart when you poke it with a fork

Take it out, shred it with 2 forks (or cut it in small pieces if you prefer)
Toss it with a little more BBQ sauce and serve

Totally quick, easy and pretty much foolproof...unless you turn the crockpot on high & leave all day. That will ruin your dinner plans!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

New job weight gain?!?!

On 9/19/11 I started a new job. The layout of the facility means I have to walk a decent distance to the entrance and up 3 flights of stairs to get to my desk. If I leave for lunch or go outside on break, I get the stair workout again. I was hopeful that this daily routine would help me get back on track with my weight loss.

Unfortunately, that is not happening. I have actually gained about 5 pounds since I went back to work and it's getting frustrating. I confess that I haven't been 100% faithful with food tracking & that is probably the biggest issue. But I have to wonder if the repetitive walking & stairs is causing my joints to retain more fluid than usual. The arthritis pain has been more noticeable than before and my left ankle is really feeling the strain.

Of course, it could also be the fact that, other than the "commute" from the car, I sit on my butt all day. I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to get up and walk around more. Maybe get out at lunch and walk a couple laps around the block. It would sure help the circulation if nothing else.

Not sure what else to try right now but I know I must keep better track of my food intake. First plan is to cut out regular soda. I've been drinking those a lot while in training and I need to cut back. Think I'll start at diet soda first & then slowly omit them entirely. I've been drinking tons of water at work, so I just need to continue that.

I think I might wear my heart rate monitor to work one day and see how many calories the walk & stairs really makes. May not be as much as I think. Here goes nothing!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Snide or Clueless

Things that have been said to or around me lately that make me wonder if this person is just totally clueless or if they are being purposely snide & obnoxious.

"The muffins have whey protein in them. I would bring some in but they're for people that work out."

"I saw a picture of Heidi Klum the other day. She was looking BIG."

"I love to shop at ___ but their clothes aren't small enough."

"You don't go to the mall? But where do you buy clothes?"

"They brought donuts in for you guys." (Said as she was eating her yogurt & apple)

New Job Self-Service Training

Is this a new trend where companies sit new employees in front of a computer and tell them to train themselves via computer based training? I can see where using this for part of the training information can be helpful; however, I do not suggest this be the majority of the training program.

On September 19th, I started a new job and, what is scheduled to be, 6 weeks of training. So far, about 80% of it has been self taught. Don't get me wrong, I don't need constant supervision and I like to have some time to review and learn on my own but we spent 6+ days working on the same set of curriculum. It took me less than 1/2 a day to get through the computer based training so the rest of the time I was left to "practice" in the system and find my own way to learn other things about the system we will  be using. A couple of us actually started making copies of live purchase orders from the other reps so we could practice what we will be doing once we get out of training.

I don't know about anyone else but we need more training intervention to keep the entire group on track and at the same pace. Because we weren't all progressing at the same level some of us had more "free time" than others. Basically, we covered entering a sales order and the various steps and processes involved in a new order. It really wasn't something that I think needed a weeks worth of practice.

Do we need to practice to learn? Yes!
Will we benefit from practicing the same 3-4 steps for a week? No!
Will we make mistakes when we go live? Probably.

We need more real life examples of what we should expect when we get out on the floor and start dealing with customers. We had to beg for examples of what would be on the first test and our training refuses to even give us a clue about what is going to be on the 2nd test on Tuesday.

Monday (1 day) will be spent going over a step that we've been practicing on our own all week. As if we've never seen or done it before. I'm just a little confused about the goals here and what is expected. I think if I could sit with someone that has live customers and experience I would learn more about what happens in a real day for them.

Unfortunately, the other reps are new as well, just here a few months, so there aren't any real stable folks to fall  back on and observe. I really hope things calm down and start to make more sense soon. I can do CBT's all day long but until I can actually see what a real request or customer interaction is like I am blind to my new job.

Hoping for patience because we've still got 4 more weeks to go!