hello everyone. what a lovely flurry of posts we're having.
yesterday one of my mum's friends asked me to take a look at an issue she was having with her online business. i've been recruited as some sort of freelance web consultant now. it's weird and random, but she paid me $40 yesterday and i'll get a bit more for this weekend. it's pretty crazy... breaking me head over html like this totally takes me back to kelli's class when we had that monster of a department website on our hands. those were the days, weren't they?
other than that i've been hanging around, tying up the loose ends of my web design class. i have a lot to prepare for this summer. we're still trying to figure out how i'm going to get down to the mtc in july.
you all are going to write to me, right? i really hope so.
I am a very bad friend and correspondent... I feel like it's been years since I've spoken to any of you! and for that I am VERY sorry!
Elsie - Be strong, great opportunities come around every day and life's too short to be stuck at a job you hate! (You should find a job in SLC and move there so we can play!)
JeriLynn - I'm so sad I've missed seeing Liesel, she sounds adorable, so you'll have to post pictures somewhere or just email me...
Hollie - Congratulations on being firmly entrenched in your own home :D I'm so excited for you! And every night before I go to bed, I remember that I never called you back, but by then it's much to late to call you. I really don't hate you and I do want to talk to you!
Amelia - I think you will have an amazing time in Canada and reap all sorts of rewards, both spiritual and professional - Canada is one step closer to England :)
I have some news but nothing life changing... and a funny/strange story.
News first:
Lisa and I moved into our very own office about 3 weeks ago! It's very nice, with a wall of eastern-facing windows and two desks, and room for a couch! We're super happy to be out of the cubicles in the hallway and the best part is that we have a place to sit that isn't the floor or a desk chair! I took pictures so I could post them, but my computer seems to have hidden them from me at the moment and it's very late, so they'll have to wait until next time.
Now the funny/strange story:
Our documentation manager (the one in charge of customer facing documents, not technical stuff, so not in charge of me and Lisa) needed to hire a new person, so she did the whole interview thing and found a girl who seemed like a good fit and was well-versed in InDesign, so she offered her the position. I met her when she came in last Monday for her first day in the office.
By noon on Monday she was gone! They had to fire her, because it turns out that she lied on her resume about receiving a degree and faked a letter of recommendation from a professor (on BYU letterhead she forged)! She worked a grand total of 4 hours and my boss said they're even going to pay her for them. :(
To be hired, you need to provide three references, but company policy only requires that they check two in a time crunch, which this was. The two references that were checked both loved her, but apparently super late in the game - the first morning she was there - HR started turning up things that raised some red flags, so her manager called the third reference, the professor who had written such a glowing letter of recommendation. Basically this professor said "Don't hire her! She plagiarized and cheated her way through her classes (even though she didn't need to and has excellent InDesign and writing skills) so the university kicked her out one class shy of receiving her degree." When they asked about why this information was so different from the letter of recommendation from the same prof, they found out that he never wrote a letter and she had forged both the university letterhead and the prof's signature!
Then, HR discovered some things in her employment past that made them decide she might be "dangerous" so they've had our office locked up super tight the last 4 days! Lisa and I couldn't decide if dangerous meant they thought she would steal company secrets or charge into the office with guns blazing, so it's been a little tense. When I got to work on Thursday, there was a police car parked in the parking lot and I was super afraid of what I was going to find when I got to the sixth floor, but it turned out to just be overreacting on my part, because they weren't there for our office.
Today they unlocked our office so you can go in and out of the front door without using your key card, so apparently the danger from deranged former employees has passed.
I hope you enjoyed this tale of drama and intrigue in the office place, and I'll try to write more often in the future!
Love and miss you all,
Mandy
I don't have internet at my house yet.
But I do have a 27" HD Flatscreen TV, and a red sofa and matching love seat, and a garden, and a cat.
Yes, he is a male cat (he's not broken anymore, he's been fixed) and yes, his name is Segue. I got him from the humane society, he is a brown tabby, with green eyes, white paws and underside and very handsome ... for a cat.
He was de clawed today. Which my friend at work says is cruel, but they do it with lasers, and I'm tired of being a scratching post and living in fear of coming home to a shredded sofa and love seat.
My neighbors are great, and most of them are old enough to be my grand parents.
Hey, Elsie, it makes you feel any better, I am no longer "affiliated" with Parent Help. It's a long story. . . most of which involves me putting family & home (and other things) way, way, way ahead of work; not meeting deadlines; and basically becoming replacable. By Chelsi. (Don't worry, babe- no hard feelings!) By the way, I talked to Shae about that after three months of trying to get a hold of her. She said I wasn't fired but that they won't pay me for my last project. So I respectfully broke off affiliation with them permanantly. The reason I gave Shae was that I had a very difficult time getting anyone over there to let me know what was going on. The one I didn't tell her was that I hated working for friends. Not that I hated working for Shae, because she's wonderful, but that I both felt too pressured by and I took advantage of the personal relationship. For example, I started working again only two weeks after having Liesl. This led me to feeling overwhelmed and contributed to my minor bout of postpartum depression. So I let off a lot. Unfortunately, by the time I felt completely adjusted, it was too late: I had already gotten the call that my services were not required anymore. That was late December, and at that time I was told I was not fired. Anyway, I spent a few hours over the next three months trying to get a hold of Shae to get approval to finish a previous project. This is when I couldn't get a hold of anyone. When I finally did get through to her, I asked to turn in what I had finished and was rejected. That's when I broke it off. Anyone needing clarification of this story can ask. I did tell Shae I wanted to still keep in touch, but she has not emailed me back. It sounds like a harsh story, but I feel okay about it. I honestly don't hold anything against her or anyone else for that matter.
But I have various other jobs/projects. I hate outside work, to be honest. I am completely content being a mother. Contrary to what many professors may say, I get much satisfaction out of making sure my family and home is taken care of.
Please forgive the grammar mistakes and the rambling. I have jet lag. Jay and I just got back last night from a ten-day stay in Baltimore. We left Liesl with my brother & his wife. That was hard on me. We spent two days in DC, and one each in Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City. It was an exhausting trip. (But dirt cheap-- we spent around $800 for both of us, for everything.). We came back and now Liesl can take about three steps on her own. It's pretty crazy. I missed her terribly and felt like a bad mom for leaving, but how often do trips like that present themselves? It wasn't like a honeymoon, though, because we went for a history seminar class through USU and stayed in barracks. With shared bathrooms. That we had to clean ourselves. Yeah.
So Liesl is growing up so fast. At nine months, she's now considered a toddler, not a baby, though in many ways she still acts like a baby. I adore her. She loves books. She will sit and turn the pages and babble to herself. Anybody who has not met her is missing out. She's about the best baby anyone's met. At least that's what people who meet her say. I'm not even being an egotistical mother here: we have an excellent, easy baby. How else could I leave her for 10 days and not have any problems with her?
Well, my eyesight and mind-finger coordination is leaving me. I'm so tired. I love you all and wish you luck. I really missed Vanessa while I was in New York. Anyone know how she is? Oh Hollie-- me and Jay will need a place to lay over on our trip to Richland, WA in August. Would you be up for that? Amelia, Canada rocks, but I already told you that. Elsie, it's okay to be fired once in a while. Just don't make it a habit. Or include it on your resume. Chelsi, still no hard feelings. I will cook you Indian food any time you want. If you know a different side to this story, I would be interested in hearing it. I'm afraid Shae hates me now. Mandie, I hope all is well with you. You haven't been stuck in an elevator lately have you? Eek. Eek? What a stupid word.
Good night. XO-JLF
This is not a belated April Fool's joke. I was fired on Tuesday....and I'm kinda okay with it. I hated working there so much....and I already have a interview for another job in like an hour.
Anyway, I don't have a lot of time. I'll have put another post in here giving all the details. If you want you girls can call me. I haven't heard from some of you for so long!
And if you hear of any sweet positions lemme know....I'm looking :)
i go to Calgary, Canada.
this seems very cool. it'll be good. i've never been to canada.
randomly, i also got another job yesterday. i'm now a hostess at a little italian restaurant down the street. that'll be exciting. i have missed the hectic life of a caterer a little bit, so it'll be fun.
i report to the MTC on july 11th.
i have two months to sew as many skirts as i can... ready set go. :p
So,
Tomorrow, I close on my house. I'm spendng this weekend moving in. I still have almost no furniture. I'm borrowing a bed, I have a coffee table, I have a vanity, I have an ugly end table and .... oh wait, that's it.
I was thinking of throwing a house warming party *after* it was more furnished. When works for everybody? Maybe not everybody wants to come, but let me know when is a good time so I can schedule it.