Taxes Done

It is amazing what you will do in order to put off looking for a job. Tonight I finished my Illinois and Federal Tax Forms. The one nice thing about making close to nothing is that you get all the taxes that you paid back. :)

Hey I'm trying to be positive here.

I've got one more night in my own bed and then tomorrow I'll be taking over the night shift at my friend, D's place. My mom spend the day and night there on Saturday and said she slept through the night. So, I'm hoping she will do the same when I'm there.

I also got the February issue of Elle with Madonna on the cover today. Can I just say that that woman looks amazing for her age and any age really. She is my inspiration when I'm on the treadmill or really any machines at the gym. When I'm trying to finish my sets, I just think of how many she probably does in a day and getting 4 sets out of the way seems like nothing.

Tomorrow I am adding their Butt Blaster machine to my regimen. Yes, that is really the name of the machine. We'll see if I can walk after that. :)

Have You Ever

Have You Ever ...

• Been in the shower and forgot whether or not you have already shampooed your hair
• Put conditioner in your hair before shampooing
• Watched TV and during the commercial break forget what program you've been watching
• Read a couple pages of a book/magazine and realize that you have been daydreaming the entire time and don't have the foggiest idea what you just read
• Woken up in the middle of the night, misread your clock, jump out of bed and get dressed thinking you are late just to take another look at the clock and realize its 1am and not 10am
• Started driving in your car and have to stop and think of where you wanted to go and how you get there

Just wondering if this is just me? Granted none of these things happen very often, but whenever they do, I wonder if I'm the only one.

Photo Sunday

My First Picture

Here are the stats according to my baby book:
Arrival time: 2:28am
on August 21, 1978
Weight: 5lbs 11oz
Length: 19 inches

I'll be the first to admit it, some babies are born and are just gorgeous, I was not one of those babies. I think my brother's first picture is alot better. However, I like to think that like a fine wine, I've gotten better with age. :)

Takin It Easy

Well I have tonight and tomorrow night off and I'm looking forward to sleeping in my bed once again and getting uninterrupted sleep. Unfortunately I went to take a short nap this afternoon and ended up sleeping 4 or 5 hours and didn't wake up until 8:30pm. So hopefully I will be able to get to sleep at a decent time.

Otherwise there really isn't any new news to speak of. I received the last tax forms that I needed to complete my taxes so I will probably start on that tonight or tomorrow. I usually get a refund so I like to send it in ASAP and then I get my refund before everyone else has even filed.

I hope everyone has safe and happy weekend!

TGIF

Well I didn't get much sleep last night either. If you listened to my audio blog from last night, you'll know that this is now 2 days in a row.

Yesterday was hard because I didn't get much sleep and I made plans to meet up with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while for lunch. We ended up chatting at Applebee's from 1pm - 3:30pm. Needless to say I didn't have enough time to sleep before or after so I was exhausted when I had to go back to D's house at 7pm.

Last night she fell asleep quickly, but then had an angina attack and woke up a couple more times. Of course I can't sleep very soundly there anyway and when I hear her up and moving around with her walker, it scares the crap out of me and I jump up to see if she is alright. She doesn't want to call out to wake me, but I wake up anyway. Luckily she was still asleep at 9am when her niece came to take over so hopefully she got a decent amount of sleep today.

I fortunately came home and slept until around 2:30pm. That was interrupted as well because my dad's pastor came at 1pm and I could hear them talking on and off, but I really needed to catch up just a little bit.

The only problem is that when you sleep away the afternoon, most of my day is now shot and I have to leave in another couple of minutes to go back to D's. Luckily my mom said that she would spend Saturday with her and spend the night and one of her neighbor's is going to spend the night on Sunday. Thank god because I was afraid that I was going to have to miss Desperate Housewives and The L Word.

In other news, our replacement DirectTV receiver came today and it's a miracle because the damn thing works. So we have all 3 TV's working properly once again and I was able to cancel our appointment for Monday.

I also finally got an information packet in the mail yesterday from the Red Cross regarding my interest in volunteering as a CPR instructor. It really is about time. I can't remember when I first when there, but I want to say that it has been a couple of months. Now I have to see if I can work out a schedule of the classes that I need to take. I need to schedule it so I could get to them if between now and then I actually get a job.

Well I leave that for tomorrow since I will have tomorrow and Sunday off. All I have to say is T.G.I.F.

Have a good weekened everybody. I was only able to watch 1 of my Netflix movies last night so if D goes to bed early, I should be set with my entertainment.

Sleepover

My friend D, you know the 97-year-old, is coming home from the hospital today. She has nieces who are staying with her during the day, but they need someone to stay with her overnight just in case she needs something until she gets stronger. So they called last night and asked if I would do it and I said sure. D is a nice lady so it shouldn't be a problem, plus I could really use the extra money.

So I am waiting for them to call to say that they got home and when they want me to come over. I have a feeling that she will only need someone there until this weekend and then afterwards she will be fine.

I'm going to bring my laptop with and I just hope that someone has an unsecure wireless network in the building so I can play online.

When all else fails, call customer service

I've been having issues with my DirectTV since Saturday the 14th. It is only affecting the box in our living room so it isn't a big deal for me, but since my dad is down there most of the time, it really affects him. He told me last Saturday that when you hit guide on DirectTV the color is off and you can hardly read it. So I played with it for a little while, looked on their website, and reset the receiver and nothing helped. When I called up DirectTV, they said that they have never heard of this and they will just send me a new receiver. I thought that was reasonable since really not seeing the guide is just annoying and at least you can watch TV.

So last Wednesday our replacement box came via FedEx. I hooked it up and put the old card in the new box and called DirectTV to activate. To make a looooooooong story (on the phone for about an hour) short, the new box doesn't work and they are going to send me another one.

Before hanging up the phone, I told them that I now needed to hook up the old box and they needed to activate the old card so we could still watch TV until the new box came. They did that and the old box worked for another 5 minutes and then it went out. So now I can't even turn the box on again. I called DirectTV again to see if maybe they didn't activate the card properly and they said that it sounds like the box was dying (starting with the guide) and now it is dead. I told them that we already had a box on the way so we would just have to wait for it to arrive. They told me I would have the new box by Friday or Saturday, Monday at the latest.

Of course today is Tuesday and the box finally arrived. I plugged it in and same problem, can't be activated. When I was on the phone with DirectTV she wanted me to go find different cables again and I told her that I did that last week and I didn't want to do it again. I explained to her that this was the second replacement box and I had been charged for shipping/handling for the first 2 and I wanted that credited and I wanted this fixed ASAP. She said she could send out a technician, but the soonest they could get here was the 30th so she would just send out another box instead. She told me that the new box should be here by Friday. I asked when my credits would show up on my account and she by Friday as well. That is absolute BS because when I ordered Showtime online, it was activated within seconds and it showed up on my bill at the same time. I also told her that I was unhappy with the fact that I was without the use of my TV for over a week and she said we would get a credit for that. When I looked on the website after I hung up, I noticed a 3rd shipping/handling charge and a credit for that one. Of course no credit for the other 2.

So now I'm pissed. My mom has already clipped out a coupon for Dish Network and is ready to change so I spent the afternoon doing a little research. I called up Dish Network to find out exactly what it would cost, what I would get, if they could hook up the new dish even if the old dish was still there. They said it wouldn't be a problem. They were advertising $19.99 for 3 months including free Showtime, Cinemax, and HBO for the 3 months. After doing a little research, it turns out it will cost a little more than $19.99 for the first 3 months and after that I'll end up paying a $1 more than DirectTV and won't even have Oxygen so I can watch Oprah After the Show on Fridays.

But now at least I was armed with some ammunition when I called DirectTV. I decided to avoid the tech support since the lady today had a bit of an attitude and didn't seem like she really cared about the problems that I was having. I don't recall an I'm sorry. All I got was that these are electronics and we can't guarantee how long they will last when I asked why I was getting another refurbished box instead of a new one. Apparently you have to buy a new box.

So I called Customer Service and the guy was verrrry nice. I explained everything to him and he apologized like 5 times. I told him about the shipping charges and he put me on hold while he credited them RIGHT THEN. When he came back, he said that now all 3 shipping/handling charges have credits and he credited me a 4th one for my trouble. So now I have around a $16 credit on my account. I thought that was reasonable and said thank you very much. Now it looks like I got Showtime free for the month along with the box downstairs. Customer satisfied!

I also told him that I would like to schedule an appointment with a technician so just in case this THIRD box doesn't work, I don't have to wait another week to get someone out here. So hopefully my new replacement box should arrive on Friday. If it doesn't work, I have an appointment with a technician for Monday. So if miracles happen and three times the charm, then I can just call up and cancel the appointment.

Moral of the story, when tech support pisses you off, call customer service.

Busy Week

I feel like I've had such a busy week because I've actually been out and about. It started on Sunday when I went over to some friend's house for the Bears game. Well all the husbands watched the Bears game and us girls talked, ate, and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I guess the Bears made it really far this year, but then they lost so no Super Bowl for them. Here we were looking forward to another Super Bowl Shuffle, but I guess we'll have to wait until next year. At any rate, they are having a Super Bowl party, so I'll go to that as well. I have watched the Super Bowl for years because they always air the best commercials. I used to tape the game and fast forward to the commercials. I remember in college when I had my advertising class, we used the entire Monday after the Super Bowl to discuss all the commercials and which ones were effective and which ones weren't. If you haven't gotten the idea, I'm not a big football fan. I think basketball is more my style. But now that Jordan and Rodman aren't here anymore, what's the point really?

Then on Wednesday I went downtown to meet up with the group of volunteers/interns from Journey to Peace. I have been volunteering there now for about a year, but I usually just work one-on-one with the producer so it is nice to get together with everyone else and hear what they are working on and how they got involved in the project. We went to a French Restaurant downtown called La Creperie. Guess what? The majority of their menu is crepes. So I decided against the healthy choice and went for their banana cera or something like that. It was delish. If I recall correctly is was banana, brown sugar, caramel, rum, and topped with about a pint of vanilla ice cream and whip cream. Good thing I went to the gym beforehand.

Then on Thursday I met up with the same super bowl group and had a nice evening. We try to meet up around once a week for a girl's night out. It is interesting because I'm the only single one there so when everybody complains or talks about their husbands, I just sit back and enjoy the single life. Although I know it is just a matter of time before they try and fix me up with someone. Whenever a single guy comes up, they are like OHHHHHHHHH AKH there is one for you.

Then today I went downtown again to meet up with the Producer from Journey to Peace so we could update her blog. She tells me little stories and I type them up and after her approval of course, post them on her blog. I finally added comments and a counter to the blog so we can see how many people actually visit the site. If you have a few minutes, please check it out. A link to the Producer's Journal is listed in my blogroll. From there you can check out their site and read about the project. We are still in the fundraising phase so if anyone wants to make a tax-deductible donation, it would be greatly appreciated. (Shameless plug, I know.)

Anyway, I decided to drive downtown because I figured it would be cheaper than taking the train into the loop and then catching a bus up to the north side. Going there was a breeze and it only took me 45 minutes, but coming home was a different story. Remind me to never again plan these meetings for a Friday. When does rush hour start in this town? I left a little after 3pm when I saw that it was starting to snow. By the time I got down to my car, the snow had turned to rain/hail anyway so there wasn't much accumulation, but Lake Shore Drive was already bumper to bumper. It took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home. Now I ask you, what is worse that sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and 40 minutes? Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and 40 minutes and HAVING TO PEE! That's right, I woke up a little later than planned (I know big shocker there) so I just had some raisin bread and headed out the door. Since I didn't eat any lunch, I was trying to fill myself up with water. BIG mistake. I don't think the rain helped the situation any either.

Tomorrow I have a dry tasting at the Sam's Club up the street from my house. What the hell is a dry tasting anyway? Apparently I'm not allowed to open the product, but I'm just suppose to talk to everyone that walks by me and get them to buy some Carlsberg Beer. That should be fun. Luckily it is only for 3 hours. I'll read up on the product tomorrow before I go.

Then when I get home, we are having some friends over for dinner. They are the same people that we always spend Christmas Day with so it should be fun. It was Mamma C's birthday today so that is what we are going to be celebrating.

I swear that I need a rest and I'm gonna take Sunday off, but first thing Monday morning, I'm sending out those resumes.

2006 Madonna Calendar

I just got my 2006 Madonna Calendar from Amazon.com today. I know I'm a little late into the new year, but I was hoping to save a couple bucks by getting it after the 1st of the year.

I just put some pictures up on Flickr of it. I'm so happy it came because I wasn't used to see the bare wall in between my mirrors.

OHHHHHH I'm Gonna Feel It Tomorrow

I just started a new workout regime and I know I'm gonna feel it tomorrow.

For almost 3 months now, I've attempted to workout regularly. Some weeks are better than others, but my goal was to get 60 minutes of cardio a week. When I felt like it, I would also work on my lower body.

However, today I decided to workout all the major muscle groups and chart my progress.

Since I haven't worked my upper body in quite some time, it really was a disappointment and my arms were shaking my entire drive home. I can't wait till I wake up in the morning. They say feel the burn, and I have a feeling I will tomorrow.

My new goal is to do the this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Only time will tell ...

No Latex in Hospitals .. Who Knew?

As you all know, every once in a while I take my 98-year-old friend to the doctor or on errands. My mom takes her shopping every Saturday, but if she needs something else during the week, she usually gives me a call. I took her to the bank last Wednesday and then we had a nice lunch. Apparently this Saturday after my mom dropped her off, she fell and broke her hip. We just found out on Monday what had happened so I went to the hospital today to pay her a visit. My mom went yesterday and said she was talking about how her niece only brought her a plant with no card, etc. So I figured I would go all out, get a card, and some balloons. They were offering a special at the Party City so I got 1 mylar get well with 4 pink latex balloons. My mom said her favorite color was pink so I figured that would brighten her day.

Then I got to the hospital (same hospital, floor, and doctor that my dad just had) and at the "Welcome" desk they tell me that I can't bring latex balloons into the hospital and if I could take it out to my car. What the hell? When I walked out the lady who was smoking and saw me walk in said she was going to tell me that they wouldn't let me bring it in, but I guess that would have interfered with her smoking. So I went back to my car cut the mylar balloon with my car keys and brought that one back. When I was re-entering the hospital, there was another guy with his child with balloons. Since they were already inside, I figured I would let the people at the welcoming desk let them know.

So when I got up to see my friend, I apologized for my sorry bouquet of 1 lonely mylar balloon, but if she gets out of the hospital soon, I'll have some balloons for her at home.

My mom made the suggestion to take a picture and showing it to her so here's my picture. I guess I'll have to print it out for her and bring it to the hospital the next time we go up to visit.
I know they say it's the thought that counts, but damn it, it really pisses me off that she couldn't see them in person. Although she really did love the card and the 1 mylar balloon. Who knew that you couldn't bring latex balloons into a hospital? What's wrong with latex? Don't they all run around in there with latex gloves on?

Physical Therapy

A physical therapist came to the house this evening for my dad's first session. She is a friend of a friend and came to the house to show my dad a few exercises at a fraction of the usual cost.

• She showed my dad what 25% of his body weight was by having him use a scale. (Why didn't I think of that?)
• She adjusted his crutches and showed him how to move around with them including up and down the stairs.
• And she showed him a few exercises.
• I told her we had a Body by Jake Machine in the basement so we brought it up and she picked out a few exercises that she wants my dad to do.

So it looks like we are on our way to recovery.

In other news, I called up my former boss today and officially told him that I didn't think the job in Louisville was the best move for me right now. He was actually quite graceous and said he would be in Chicago again in February so we'll have to get together. That really is a load off my mind. First making the decision was tough, but then telling him was even tougher. It was nice to know that his Friday deadline wasn't really in stone since I called today. :)

The L Word - Season 3 Premiere

In honor of the 3rd Season premiere of The L Word tonight, I've changed my song of the day.

CNN has an interesting article about The L Word with comparison to Desperate Housewives. Of course I will be watching them both tonight.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Photo Sunday

OK, I am trying to post a picture in my blog and I keep on getting an error so I will post it on Flickr.

This is a picture of me at my first job out of college in Atlanta. I was so happy in my cubicle, working on my spreadsheets, and eating my breakfast (banana). At the time I didn't think much of it, but after the picture was developed I was asking myself why I let them take a picture of me while I was eating a banana. :)

I Dare You!

Is it just me, or don't these construction signs seem like a dare?

It's like, go ahead, hit me. It will just cost you $10,000 or 14 yrs Jail. I dare you!

Not that I would ever think of hitting a construction worker, but when your stuck in traffic due to construction lane closures with the 45MPH sign and not a construction worker in sight, these are just the kinds of things that go through my head.

Not that I have road rage or anything. :)

I Got Showtime

I forgot to share the news, but on January 2nd (when my DirectTV billing month begins) I ordered Showtime. I got it more for there original programming (a.k.a. tv shows) than for its movie selection since it appears that they are still playing the same movies that they were this summer when they gave me 3 months for free.

But when it comes to original programming, I think Showtime is the new HBO. I used to subscribe to HBO when Sex & the City was on the air, but with the end of that series, came the end of my subscription.

With Showtime I get:
* The L Word
* Master of Horrors
* Sleeper Cell
* Weeds

What more could you ask for, for only $12 a month?

I've Decided

I've decided against the position in Louisville. I've weighed the positives and negatives of the job and I've decided to say thanks, but no thanks.

They say doubt means don't. So I'm going with my gut here. Here's to my instincts still being on target.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy, here we come! They wrote my dad a prescription for it today. Now we just have to find a place.

No other new news on the Midwestern Front.

Trying Not to Waste Time

I tried to call the guy who is currently in the position that I need to make "The Decision" about, but he was "unavailable" and I left a voicemail. I'm going to give him another call tomorrow when we get back from my dad's doctor's appointment.

On a side note, my dad is doing alot better. He actually made it out of the house on New Year's Day. January 1st is my aunt's birthday and we all went to her house to surprise her. Me and my family along with my dad's brother and his family all met at the house to with her a happy birthday. At first, I don't think she was too thrilled to see us all, but I know it meant alot to her that we got my dad out of the house and all dressed up for her birthday. :) It was the first time that any of my cousin's have seen my dad since his accident on Halloween so they were all happy to see him as well. His incision is also looking great and we are hoping that tomorrow when we see the doctor, they will take an x-ray and give us the okay to start physical therapy.

As for the job decision, I'm pretty much up in the air on it. Although I did clean my room today instead of think about it. So at least I will have nice clean sheets to sleep in tonight. I started making a pro/con list for reason to take the job and reasons not to. Right now my reasons not to is a little longer, but I haven't talked to the guy yet so I won't make up my mind until then.

In the mean time, I decided to do an Internet search for all company's whose corporate headquarters is located in Chicago. The only place that would give me the list that I wanted was Hoovers.com and they only gave you the first 10 company names for free and you have to become a member for the rest. Luckily, I have a friend who has a membership and I sent her an email and she sent me back the list of 1,929 companies whose headquarters are in Chicago. I'm going to start to weed through the list tomorrow. Even if only half are places I've heard of, I would have to be a real loser not to get 1 interview out of over 900.

So it is a new year and I'm going to start it off right by not procrastinating. My new full-time job (if not the one in Louisville) is going to be looking for a full-time job. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally buying my winning $47 Million Powerball Ticket tomorrow.

The Decision

Before Christmas, I met up with the guy who hired me out of college. He has always thought very highly of me and has tried to offer me jobs wherever he has been. When I left Atlanta for Chicago, he left Atlanta for the corporate headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. Just shortly after they relocated me to Chicago, he called me and tried to get me to move down to Louisville. I said thanks, but no thanks. I was happy to be back home again. Then after our re-org and a marketing position opened up in the Chicago office, he also moved to Chicago and wanted me to take the position under him working in Business Development. I decided that I wanted to further my career in marketing. Now that they closed down the field office in Chicago and everyone moved back to Louisville, he is back in Louisville again and now he is trying to get me to take that business development job again. The guy that he has working for him now is getting promoted and he thinks I would be great for the job.

I JUST DON'T KNOW!

He called again tonight and told me to call the guy that is in the position now and get the scoop on the position and also on Louisville. This guy is from Milwaukee originally and went to school in Kentucky so he isn't a native and I guess I won't insult him if I ask about Louisville.

I have no doubt that I would learn alot from this guy because he taught me alot when I was working for him and basically doing financial analysis for the Southern Division. Now with his Business Development position, he seems to be doing more market analysis and more things that relate to marketing. He knows that my goal is get a job in marketing and he assured me tonight that after about 2 years or so, he is sure that I could move into a marketing job at the corporate headquarters, but that still leaves me in Lousiville. He also said that it wouldn't be an assistant or administrative job, but a real marketing job. That sounds appealing, but do I really want to spend the rest of my 20's in Louisville?

Really it is the location that is bumming me out. I have until the end of this week because he wants to hear from me by Friday. Once he finds out if I'm interested or not, then he will talk to the head of the Midwest Division and proceed from there.

One side of me knows that this will be easiest way to work my way up to a marketing position and gain some experience, but I'm just not sure if it is the most efficient. Then another goal of mine was to get a masters in marketing and it would be optimal if I could do that here by going to the University of Chicago or Northwestern (if I could get in). I really don't think there are any schools near Louisville that have the standing of those 2 schools.

Then again, my former boss, did tell me that it would only be about a 4 hour drive from Louisville to my house since I'm practically on the Indiana border. That and Southwest Airlines flies from Louisville to Midway and when I checked out their website, they have fairs as low as $59 one-way.

I'm also told that rent is really cheap in the area and I can get a nice apartment for around $500 in an area with people my own age. BUT IT'S LOUISVILLE! Not that I've found someone by laying in bed and watching TV all day, but will I find my future husband in Louisville?

What about my ideas of going to Massage School here in Chicago?

One part of me thinks of all these plans that I have for a life in Chicago, but then again I haven't done anything to achieve those goals yet so will moving to Louisville for a couple years really throw me that far off track?

Plus, a regular decent paycheck with benefits is sounding pretty good right now.

If I take this job, am I just taking the easy way out and I'll regret it later or will this be the job that puts me back on track? Am I just letting fear of change hold me back now?

I've done it before. I first went to school in Madison, WI where I didn't know a soul. Then after graduation moved to Atlanta, GA where I didn't know a soul. Then moved to Germany where at least I had tons of family. Am I ready to move to Louisville where I know some people, but I wouldn't consider any of them friends really. Not at least anyone who I would really share anything about myself with. Then again I will always have my blogger friends? Right? Would you still read, if I moved south?

I guess I have alot of decisions to make and unfortunately not too much time.

Make Up For Lost Time - Photo Sunday

I feel bad because for the past 2 Sundays, I've totally forgotten about Photo Sunday. So to make up for it. I've posted a slew of pictures on Flickr.

When I was in Germany in May of 2004, my cousin decided to enter a makeover contest and he wanted to give me a makeover. So there are the before pictures, the during pictures (while he was doing my hair and makeup), and the after pictures. For some reason, when I upload a bunch of pictures on Flickr, they don't show up in the right order. So it view it in chronological order, go to flickr, click on the uncensored AKH folder, and you can see all the pictures of me in chronological order.

Then I also posted some pictures of me during my vacation in June of 2004 in Arizona. Literally just a few days after coming home from Germany, I needed to use up my free Southwest ticket and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona to visit our former next door neighbors.