Things I Would Hoard If I Were A Hoarder

Blame the twitter for this.

  1. Empty pill bottles
  2. Empty honey nut cheerio boxes: sorted according to size
  3. Empty pop cans.  But only Sunkist and A&W
  4. Lists
  5. Empty Easter eggs
  6. Bottles of lotion, empty and otherwise
  7. Never used make-up and nail polish
  8. Used up sharpie markers
  9. Right shoes, with the left ones nowhere in sight
  10. Broken children’s toys

Pages and Pages and Pages Oh My!

I am no longer linking from here to my personal profiles, with the exception of twitter.  If you want the personal snippets of my life, connect with me there.  Otherwise I have set up pages for the blog on both FB and Google Plus.  You are welcome to join me there!  Facebook is a simple like on the right.  Google Plus is here.

Helping Each Other

Triberr is a new social media tool for bloggers on twitter. Basically, up to 7 people join a tribe, and when 1 person writes a blog post, the other 6 automatically tweet links to it. The benefit is that it broadens your reach. If person A is followed by 200 people, and person B 300, and person C 400, that’s 900 people being tweeted the link to the new post. It’s a I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine sort of system.

It is, however, also invite only. But once you’re invited into someone’s tribe, you can form up to 3 of your own. So if all 4 tribes are maxed at 7 tribe members, that’s 24 people tweeting a link to your new post. Every post.

That’s the basics of it, anyways.

Here is where you come in:

I am looking for Tribe mates for my new mental health tribe! I am looking for bloggers who don’t just blog about mental health but are real advocates in the community providing resources and help for those who need it! I’m looking for those who really want to make a difference! It is less about how many are following you and more about your affect on those who do! If those sounds like something you want in on, give me your contact information, link your blog, and if I agree you are a fit, you’re in!

Job Hunt 2011 Reaches It’s Conclusion

I’ve been thinking to myself here and there, almost daily, over the past month that I should update you guys on my job hunt.  But I never did.  I blogged a lot about the school thing, which is not forgotten just on hold until we see what’s going on with the economy and Wallstreet.  I blogged about a few other random things.  But not the job hunt.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe in part, I was just so busy not stressing about it, because I just didn’t want to stress, that when I wasn’t actively hunting, applying, and interviewing, I tried to keep it off my mind.

Yeah, well… I go back to work Monday so I’m going to have to go ahead and fill you guys in!

I applied to many places.

  • 2 retail companies where I wouldn’t mind working and would LOVE the discount
  • 1 photography company.  You know those people that show up in hospital rooms to photographer the newborns?  Yep!
  • Many banks
  • 2 credit unions

One of the retail stores called me for an interview and I went.  And it would have been a decent job. But during the interview, I realized it just wouldn’t be enough money.  Really seriously not enough money and I was honest about that.  I didn’t see any need to waste her or my time.  So no biggie.  Some holiday season should I want some extra cash I might see about picking up some hours with them.  But in the end, it just wasn’t meant to be.  Which is fine because retail wasn’t my real goal.  It was just a realistic one should the banking goal not happen.  I really would have loved that discount though!  *sigh*

The photography people never contacted me.  This does make me kind of sad but whatever.  Not losing sleep over it.

Credit unions were something I stumbled upon idea wise while searching career builder and monster.  I even interviewed at one.  However, they chose someone with more experience.  *shrug*

For the banks, I made a list of all the main banks in the area and started searching their sites for job listings.  I applied for like 20 jobs between 5 banks.  3 main banks called me back.  We’ll call them A, B and C.

A was 20 hours a week at 10$ an hour.
B was 20 hours a week at 9-11$ an hour
C was 23-28 hours a week for 8.70$ an hour

So clearly my first choice was A or B, right?  All of them I passed the phone interview stage so it was about getting me into branches and hired by a manager there.

My first interview was with B.  They went with someone with more experience but told me to keep applying at other branches.  I did.

Next, I interviewed with C.  That was a week ago today.  I was told I’d have an answer by the middle of this week.

After that interview A called me wanting to interview me 2 days ago.  So I’d be interviewing with A the day I got an answer with C.  Awesome.

Yeah well C didn’t wait for the middle of the week.  I had an offer before noon on Monday.  At the time I was upfront about Wednesday’s interview and asked for a couple of days to see what exactly my options are.  I was upfront that I was making a choice of where I wanted to spend the next few years and needed to be sure I was making the best choice.

Then I had a conversation with my mom and spelled out everything I knew about C and A.  And it was becoming more and more clear that with what I did know, while C was more hours for basically the same amount of money, it really was the better choice.  For that matter, I didn’t even know if I was going to be offered anything by A, and with C I had a guaranteed job!

One thing I really liked about C was that I had a set schedule that I was told during the interview.  And it’s a schedule that I really really like!  I mean best schedule ever!  Mon and Tues I’m 12:30-5:30.  Wed off (which I need). Thurs 12:30-5:30.  Fri 12:30-6:30.  Sat 8:30-12:30.  Sun they are closed.  So basically the only day I have to be at work before noon is Sat and that’s because they close at noon!  I’m home for lunch every day.  I’m home for dinner every day.  I’m never not there to tuck my kids in.  I’m gone just long enough to say thank god I’m out of the house but by the time I’m starting to really miss my kids, I’m back home.  Perfectest.  Schedule.  EVER!  Ok, the Saturday hours aren’t my favorite.  But that’s purely based on it being so early and not me working Saturday.  I’ve always worked Saturdays.  And really, with me out of work by lunchtime, it’s almost like I’m not even working Saturdays at all!

I’ll have benefits which is nice.  I’ll have paid holidays if it’s a day I’d normally be working.  I’ll be able to have vacation days.  I work to earn them which is legit and normal.

The branch is less than 2 miles from my house.  Which is fantastically awesome.  I can get there in 5 minutes if I don’t hit every light as it turns red.  I could walk to work should my car blow-up.(Don’t put it past my car.  Also, don’t give it any ideas!)  It also means if Pat needs/wants the car for the day, him taking me to and picking me up from work isn’t a huge amount of gas.  This is a must!

Well then!  See you guys Monday for training!  *grumble*

(No really, I’m excited!  Thursday just sucked.  lol)

Also, someone is going to have to break it to Sammy.  She is at this time Momma’s girl.  As in, if I leave the house for any length without her, I hear about it for a couple of hours when I get back.  Breaks my heart but I have to work  And someday she’ll understand that.  She’ll also grow to learn that things don’t stop existing when out of her sight and I ALWAYS come back.  But, she’s only not quite 2 months.  Her sadness is allowed.  And it makes me feel loved. (Not that my boys don’t make me feel loved.  Sammy is just more limited in how she can show it.)

Luke also won’t be too thrilled with me going back.  But he at least knows what’s going on.

Thomas, except during the summer, will hardly even realize I’m missing because he’ll be in school for most of my work day.

Walking the Dalekline

I did this one as a slideshow. You’re welcome.  This was about 3+ hours of my Thursday night. Best night ever!  I could have done more, but I met the daily tweet cap set by twitter…