First day on the job

I went in today for my first day at my new job. I didn't get to touch anyone else's money though. It was all computer stuff, learning what programs they use, getting logged on and setting up my accounts. I also filled out tax forms, and employee profile stuff.

I get business cards Y'ALL!!

Everyone was so nice, from the janitor (Doreen) to the president of the branch (Bill). I work tomorrow at 10 am until closing, which will be 5:45 at the latest. I'm also going in on Saturday for about 4 or 5 hours.

Then Tuesday morning I will head to Grand Forks for a week of training. FULL TIME HOURS kids! I'm really looking forward to that first paycheck, which, by the way, will be direct deposited right there.

I just like to say this: "I work at a bank"
Hear that?
I work at a bank.

And when I got home tonight, JP was in the kitchen just putting dinner in the oven. I cannot begin to tell y'all how that made me feel. Like everything will work out.
Of course, I got right to work, changed out of my "work" clothes and got Emma to help me get laundry moving.
Now I am sitting here enjoying the premiere of SURVIVOR: China

Two things

One, I have to vent (notice I didn't say bitch? I'm trying not to do that as much, so I'll "vent" from now on!)

AM I THE ONLY GODDAMN PERSON IN THIS HOUSE WHO KNOWS HOW TO PUT A ROLL OF TOILET PAPER ON? MOREOVER, APPARENTLY I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO IT RIGHT! ahem, ok... now, allow me to explain AS IF IT NEEDS ANY FURTHER EXPLANATION! sorry, as I was saying... there must be someone who does KNOW how to put on a roll of TP, and I am trying to appreciate that... but when they put it on and the end of the roll comes out the bottom, THAT IS WRONG. I'd actually rather it be left on the counter where it normally sits until I come along than have it put in the holder BACKWARDS.

ALSO, it has come to my attention that my children are capable of doing things, they just CHOOSE not to, in order to either try to kill me with an aneurysm brought on by fits of anger or perhaps it is because they are just too friggin' lazy. Simple things, really... like putting a garbage bag INSIDE the can before they put more garbage into it.

(relax, breathe, this will PROBABLY not kill you, Nik...)

OK, now, that's done with. I feel better having vented, and now I can get on with my day.

Second point of the day: I just got a message from my son that my father called while I was in the shower a few minutes ago. The message?
"Tell Nikky that I'll call her later tonight, I have to go out and bale as much hay as I can before it gets dark"
I love my father so much. One could wonder why. All of my wonderful childhood memories include my mother and my brother... not him. He was always busy. That message is the story of my childhood. He couldn't come to the basketball game when I was cheering for the first time because there was wood to be split. He couldn't come to see me at the State Speech competition (mom did) because the fence in the pasture was down and it wasn't going to fix itself. So many things my dad missed out on, so many opportunities and so many times he dropped the ball.
But the chores got done, so he's got that going for him.
With all that history, it amazes me how hurt I was yesterday. My birthday was yesterday, dad, but I'll remind you of that when you're done baling hay, I know how important that is to you.

What a great guy, what a great day!

My husband is so cool.
He listened to me. Even when I wasn't hinting about birthday presents. I was just mentioning that I'd like to buy myself a new digital camera. I don't have to now, I got one for my birthday. And Emma mentioned to her Daddy that I was complaining about my cell phone. So I got a new one for my birthday.

I got a Motorola RAZR phone, it is SO nice...

and I got a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera. I cannot wait to get it up and running, I'm sure it is a vast improvement over my old camera.


Happy Happy birthday I had!!
I'm not even cranky and bitter about turning 35.
Must be a sign of maturity...
Either that or frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn!

I am who I want to be

So why am I so bitchy all the time?

(I don't have time to roll out all my thoughts now, so I just threw this up for now, to remind me later... I'll finish it when I have time)

How sad is that? I don't even have time to finish a thought...

ADDITION:
Ok, now I have a few minutes. I'm pretty bitchy, I swear alot and I crank about stuff that really doesn't matter... the dick cutting me off in traffic, the computer geeks going M.I.A. at school for hours at a time when I need them for 2 minutes, just silly stuff that is certainly not a matter of life and death, barely worth getting worked up over, and I go balls-out pissed. Why?

I have it pretty good. I was looking at my life yesterday and I realized that I'm one of those people that I always wanted to be. You know "those people" right? Happily married to the point of being nauseatingly in love after years and years together, decent house, kids who aren't pregnant or on the police blotter or making meth in the basement. My husband has a job which raises eyebrows when the eyebrow owners ask me where he works. "Nice" they say. Now I have a great job, too. Seems like that was the last piece of the puzzle, the missing link.
Hell, throw a white picket fence around us, and were practically the Cleavers of this century.

I really have nothing to bitch about. So why am I such a sarcastic nasty bitch?
Just lucky, I guess.
Happy birthday Nik, Queen of the Bitches!
(Steven gave me that title... now THAT is irony, cuz if anyone would know a queen, it would be Steven...)

Nothing but homework left

We got the house cleaned... sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, washing, drying, folding...
crap.
The only thing left to do now is my Intermediate Accounting homework. I did my Managerial Accounting test yesterday, with my friend Jacqui's help. She should be a teacher, not my actual teacher. I learned more sitting on Jacqui's living room floor yesterday than I have from Michele all month.

Now we are sitting here watching the Vikings doing 'not so hot' against Detroit. It's still early, no score, but it doesn't seem to be going our way so far.

Alex has homework, I should go out to the dining room where he is sitting, working on his, and do mine, too.

Some random thoughts I've had recently:

Why do people say they don't like something if they've never tried it? Specifically, guacamole.

Why are socks white? Why bother? They should be a gray color... or in my house, in my case, a light orangey color, to match the dog hair.

What is the point of the flat sheet on a bed? It just gets tangled up and pulled to one side or the other... dumb, really.

Why is it that I can have a raging headache, annoying me constantly, but suddenly "forget" about it when I'm in the bathroom just inches away from the Excedrin, only to "remember" it 2 minutes later as I am trying to get comfortable cuddling up in bed? It's like a peekaboo headache. Annoying.
Enough procrastinating... time to do my homework... or wrestle with JP... I'm debating... ha.

Background checked out

I finally got a call back from the bank (THE JOB) this morning. Of course there was nothing to worry about with my background check, they just needed to have it done and signed off on before they could bring me in to actually start working.

And, being as good as I am (or rather, as good as I once was) there are no black marks on my record. Ha. I never got caught, that's all! (I am kidding, of course) (No, I'm not) Really, I was kidding. Nothing back there to worry about, not now, not ever.

So, I will start next Thursday, the 20th. The last week of this month, though, they want me to do a training week. Full days. I'd have to miss classes. And here's the kicker... it's out of town. It would require an expense account and a multiple night hotel stay in a city several hours away. I'm excited. Now, she (My boss) said that I don't have to go, she wants my schooling to come first, and doesn't want it to suffer.
That's sweet.
I'm going.
It would be a Tuesday through Friday thing. I don't have classes on Friday at all, and Thursday are wussy classes, just 2 hours. So it would only affect 2 days of classes, really.

And of course, I would be paid for those training days. Hell yes, I'm doing this!

Wednesday morning's events

With my joy over sleeping yesterday, I forgot to mention how Alex and I (and Eric, really) goofed yesterday and made it all better!

I got up Wednesday morning around 6:30, just before JP left for work. I was tired, and I was still suffering a bit from this cold. I decided to skip the first hour of my Computerized Accounting class. It runs from 8 til 10, it's all lab time, work at our own pace, and I am chugging along nicely, well in line with everyone else in the class. So I went around the house and woke up the kids and when I was darn near sure they were all alert, I told them that I was going to go back to bed for awhile. As I shut my door, I heard Alex ask Eric to holler at him when it was time to go to the bus stop. I poked my head back out to see Alex curling up on the couch. He was starting to feel the effects of the same cold that was kicking my ass.

I went into bed, and reset the alarm for 8:40. I snoozed lightly for awhile, and got up when the alarm went off. I was considering not going to classes at all. I was having an inner conversation with myself, going back and forth between "Yes, I can just email Michele, she will give me any assignments I might miss, I'll be fine, I can go back to bed" and the next minute it was "Suck it up, get your ass out of your jammies and go to class"

I was finally giving in, I was dressed, I was putting my laptop into my bag, slamming it in, really. It was that thud that woke Alex up. He was still on the couch. Emma and Eric had left for the bus stop at 7:20, and left him there, snoring.

He startled me, and I jumped and hollered "What are you doing here?" at the same time he jumped up off the couch and hollered "What time is it?" Well, shit. He's late for school.
Referring back to my felonious high school days, I quickly sat down at the dining room table and dashed off a quick note:
Please excuse Alex's tardiness this morning, I needed his help. Our dog got loose. Thank You, Nicole Parent.
Admittedly, not my best work, but I was under pressure, I was tired and sick, and it was the first thing that came to me.

Best part was Wednesday night after my nap, I asked Alex if he got in trouble or anything.

"Nope, they bought it... geez, it was almost as bad as 'my dog ate my homework' and they still bought it"
And he grinned as he walked away.

To Sleep, perchance NOT to dream

My allergies are finally letting up, just in time for me to be getting sick.
And suddenly my body has decided to reject the notion of sleep. Sweet wonderful uninterrupted sleep. Nope, not for me. If I finally get to sleep, I wake up after every funky dream, sit there for half an hour to an hour before I can fall back to sleep, and do it all over again a few hours later.
So, yeah, things are not going well lately.
Mom suggested (and supplied me with!) some Melatonin. I took some this afternoon when I got home from class, and slept for 3 hours. Didn't have any funky dreams, didn't wake up constantly.
Nice thing is that I don't have class tomorrow until 10am. I am just about to head to bed again, actually. I have some catching up to do.

Bowling is back; and "the bedtime song"

Tonight was the first night of league bowling. This year, I am on a different team. Our team from last year kind of dissolved. I was picked up by another team that lost a few members. I was pretty nervous, bowling is NOT like riding a bike for me. I cannot stop doing it for months and suddenly pick up where I left off. I pick up where I SUCK...

My first game though, was nothing short of AMAZING! I bowled a 146!! My second game was incredibly sucky, just to make up for it...89. And my final game was close to my average at the end of last season...120. I ended up with a starting average of 118. I can live with that, for now.

I drank 4 of my Mike's Hard Berry while I bowled, and was feeling pretty darn nice. I came home and did some homework, took about 25 minutes... that, too was nice.

The one thing that sucks about bowling on Monday nights and having Macroeconomics on Tuesday nights is that I miss two nights of torturing my kids with the bedtime song.
They hate it. It makes me giggle like an evil midget trying to take over the world. Wanna hear it? Well, you can't HEAR it, but I'll give you the words.

(this part is hollered throughout the house, and shortly followed by my kids screaming "NO!")
"Does everybody know what TIME it is???"

"B-E-D-T-I-M-E (spelled out) bedtime, bedtime, yeaaaah for ME!"
And it helps during the last part to do a little dance, shake what yo mamma gave ya, that sort of thing. The kids really hate it... I don't know why, it's such a FUN song...

My weekend project

This is a before and a during of my chairs project. I haven't picked a fabric for the seats yet, but holy crap, can we just talk about the FUGLY shit that was on there!

The "harvest gold" paint color is pretty bad, but it was actually an improvement over what I found underneath. These chairs were, at one time, a soft baby PINK!! Someone should be shot, not only for painting these beautiful chairs, but for painting them PINK and Harvest Gold.

I got the one almost done today, well, stripped anyway. I did all I could with the Zip Strip, then took the sanders to it. The grooves on the front legs are not fun, but I've dealt with worse. I am hoping that I can give a good Sunday afternoon to this out in the garage until the weather gets too cold. If I keep it up, maybe I will accomplish something yet this year.

Nice thing about there being four chairs is that I can have a before a during and an after all at once!

Went Out

JP and I went out last night with Dan and Stacy, just hit the bar for a few hours. I love my mom, she's the best. Before we left she said that if we needed a ride, no matter what the time, she would come get us, all we have to do is call. So when the bar closed at 2 am, I did just that. JP getting a DUI would mean losing his job, so it's more than just a ticket, it is absolutely not an option for either of us to drive after even having one drink. And we had "a few" more than one!

She came out in JP's truck (we left the Kia at the bar) in her pajamas and we took her to Perkins for breakfast. We gave Dan and Stacy a ride home, too. It was 4 am before we got into bed.

It's a rainy crappy day, but I think I am going to run out to the garage to get something done. On Thursday I mentioned maybe having another post, and then never got around to it. The thing I wanted to show you was the 4 chairs that I got from JP's mom when we were down there last weekend. They are butt-ugly, painted and upholstered. And the cool thing is, with 4 of them, I can do a side by side before and after picture...

Have I mentioned how much I love ZIP STRIP? If I mention them, maybe they will send me a free case of their stuff. If so, I prefer the aerosol cans, not the brush on goop...

So it's a cold and rainy day, so if I can talk myself into getting out of bed, I might just work on those chairs, and if I do, I will post a picture of a before and a during.

First things first

I was just commenting to Jennie that I had nothing to say today, thanked her for tagging me, then I realized that I DO have something, so it just may end up being a 2-post day! WoooHoooo!

So first will be the meme thingy from Jennie. I am supposed to give out 8 random things about me... tidbits of info I guess. And then I'm supposed to tag other people... we'll see about that.

1. I am playing hooky today. I didn't wake up til 10 (after getting up at 6:15 to get the kids up, I went back to bed) because my husband turned the alarm OFF. Yes, I am blaming him. I only have 2 classes today anyway, Business Income Tax at 10 and Managerial Accounting at 11.

2. I had a funky dream last night, that's why I went back to bed, didn't sleep well. I dreamt that the world was being overrun by zombies, and my dad and I (although in my dream, Peter O'Toole was my dad) went out in a monster truck to try to find any survivors. We found some (2 of them were Subway employees, uniforms, plastic gloves and all!) and took them back to our big farm house, where we all hunkered down to wait out the zombies...

3. I wear my watch on my right wrist. I am left handed and cannot make my stupid right hand/fingers work to put it on my left wrist, which, I guess is where most people wear theirs.

4. I have Spring and Fall allergies, that are currently kicking my ass. All sorts of meds, nothing is really helping all that much. I'm snotty.

5. I weigh myself ALMOST every morning. I'm rarely happy with the result.

6. I tell my husband that his snoring is horrible and annoying. Well, it is, sort of, but not as bad as I let on. Actually, it's comforting to fall asleep to the sound of his breathing next to me.

7. I love to refinish and reupholster old chairs. I have something like 7 of them waiting in stages of half done, almost done, and not even touched. I have no idea what I will do with them if I ever finish them... I love them too much to sell them... but I do love money....

8. I love The Young and the Restless. I have since I was a kid, my grandmother used to watch it when she lived with us, and I can remember sitting with her eating 'Nilla Wafers with vanilla frosting watching it. It was during that time before I entered school, but my older brother was already in, so it was just me and Grandma. Just thinking about it feels like a hug.

"Conditional Offer of Employment"

That means I PROBABLY have a job.

The conditions are my background check and my reference checks. Since I know that all of my references will say nice things about me (cuz they're scared of me! LOL) and my background contains nothing shady or illegal or bad, then I think I can ALMOST say that

I GOT THE JOB!!

Referrals and Google

I am so grossed out.
I was checking my site meter tonight, and I clicked on the "referrals" to see how people found my site... sometimes it's from one of my "friends" who read me, sometimes it's from people clicking on my name in some other blog's comments, and getting there from my profile page.

And sometimes people type words or phrases into Google and it suggests my site among many others.
And sometimes I am repulsed at the things people look up, and then a little worried because Goggle sent them to ME, which means that whatever they were looking for, that sickened ME, was mentioned in some capacity BY ME!

But this latest one... damn. I did not technically mention it... at least not in the context in which it was searched for.

Go ahead, Google these words" maggots in my ass"

Yeah, you read that right. Freakin' sickos.
I did a post about Emma running over a dead rabbit with the lawnmower, hence the "maggot" part. In the same post I was bitching about JP telling me about this "easy out" tool. It was not easy, so I used the phrase "my ass" like one would do in the instance of incredulous non-belief.

And that, sad but true, is how I can be found by Googling "Maggots in my ass"

I need a shower, I feel so dirty.

Interview, First day of school and weekend with the In-Laws

Lots of catching up to do, it's been a busy few days.

First off, the interview on Friday went really well. I found out that they are interviewing a total of 5 people, I was the middle one. The last two they are going to talk to will happen this week, so it'll be at least a week before I either get a job offer or a "fuck you very much, Loser" letter. But I thought it went pretty good. They REALLY liked the fact that I am available Thursday afternoons and ALL DAY on Fridays. So if one of the other tellers wants the day off (and Friday is the most requested day off) then I can fill in... and it stays the same way for my Spring Semester, too. I will have different classes, but I will still have Fridays off. They also said that whomever they choose, they would definitely want to offer a full time position to after the 1 year commitment to the student position is over. They asked if I would be interested in that..

UM, YEAH!
That would ease my mind so much, just to have this job, and not have to worry about what I'll do after graduation. Plus, it's close, literally 6 blocks from my house, on the same street. I REALLY want this job!!

Next, my weekend with the in-laws. It wasn't too bad, mostly because of my two nieces, Karen and Nikki, and my other niece having a new baby. Nikki is the newlywed, Karen is just a loud girl (and lots of fun) and Amber's new baby took up SO much attention, they didn't really give me much notice...nice. On the way home on Sunday, we stopped in Burnsville and got Alex and Emma their school shoes (Etnies... $60 per kid... holy crap... FOR SHOES??)

Today is the first day of school for the kids... how nice. I got them up this morning and sent them off. Then I went back to bed, since I don't have class on Tuesdays until 10 am. Alex was groggy, Emma was up and dressed before I even had a chance to wake her, and Eric was chipper and perky, too. So I didn't even get to holler and bark like a drill sergeant, darn it!

Now I'm sitting in Business Income Tax class, trying not to fall asleep. It's an ITV class, meaning that the instructor is not on this site, he's in a town about 45 miles away with his own class, and we are just watching him on TV. So I either nap, listen to my iPod, or dink around on my computer. His tests in here are take-home, right out of the book, and we get a week to do them, so his daily lectures are just silly and boring.

Time for breakfast, Diet Pepsi and Pop Tarts...

Off for the weekend

We are up before the ass-crack of dawn to drive for 5 hours in a Southerly direction. We are going to the In-Laws' town.

Pray for me, see you when I get back.

I'm kidding (no I'm not) it should be fine (no, it won't)
I have my iPod all charged up, so, ya know, at least I've got that going for me...

Be good, be safe, and have fun... See you Monday

More fun news

That I forgot to mention earlier.

1. Eric hunted me down today (He's the Senate advisor, remember) and asked me if I had reconsidered doing the Treasurer job. I thanked him again for thinking of me, but said that I could not possibly do it. Thanks, but no thanks!

2. I got a phone call when I got home tonight FROM THE BANK! I go in on Friday morning to sit and have a chat with Barb. This is definitely working out nicely. I don't want to jinx it, and say that I think I can pretty much count on the job, because I know I can't (yet) but I will say that I am feeling fairly confident.

Cool thing is, if I get this job, then I guess I MUST go shopping for the right wardrobe to wear to work, because I just don't think jeans, t-shirts and flip-flops will do. Twist my arm and make me shop, ya know?

hehe, it's been a good day.

FINALLY! I made some progress

First off, I got Jennie's print framed, and took a picture of it. No, it's not hung on the wall yet, so the pic is just it sitting right about where it's going to be, in my bedroom above the dresser.

Now, let's see if I can figure out how to do a link to her site... Jennie is wonderful!!

The other thing I got done today was to get my Spring Semester classes figured out, so I will be all set for graduation.

THEN! I got a phone call from Barb... the woman who is in charge of doing the hiring at the bank! She basically did an interview over the phone (and she called me Nikky, not Nicole, like my resume says... she knows me well enough to call me Nikky, I think that bodes well...) I found out more about the job, what it pays (!!! happy!!!) and that in the summer, it would move to 40 hours per week, it's a 1 year "student" job, with the opportunity to apply for a permanent position after the year... damn, that is perfect for me! It's afternoons Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings, so I'd get about 20 hours per week while in school. I REALLY want this now that I know even more about it.

JP and I have an open house at the elementary school tonight, and dinner is in the oven... I've been busy today, I'm hoping that I will be so exhausted at bedtime that I will actually sleep well tonight, I haven't been sleeping nicely lately, and it's starting to get to me. I actually fell asleep in my Business Income Tax class today... bad, bad Nikky.

Nik's "To Do" list

1. Get a frame for the FABULOUS print I got from Jennie
2. Finish writing the note to include in the envelope I have to mail out to Jennie.
3. Mail it to Jennie.
4. Take a picture of the FABULOUS print I got from Jennie.
5. Hang the FABULOUS framed print I got from Jennie.
6. Read Chapter 1 of Intermediate Accounting.
7. Do problems 1.1 through 1.14 of Chapter 1 for Intermediate Accounting.
8. Make supper.
9. Do a load of laundry.
10. Go to Macroeconomics at 6:30 tonight.
11. Clean out my pigpen of a KIA.
12. Clean my room.
13. Go to the store, buy Diet Pepsi in small bottles.

Ok, so you're thinking "If she's got time to write up a dumbass list, why didn't she just use the time THAT took to do a few of the things on her list?"

Good question...

Oh, and I got asked (read:begged) to take over the position of Student Senate Treasurer today. Remember in the Spring, I "lost" the election, and wasn't too broken up over it? Yeah, the twit Lori who got it, she resigned. Now the faculty advisor wants me to do it. I have a real hard time saying NO! in situations like this...

but I did it today. I have my husband home, and my priorities have changed, and I no longer need something to do every second of every minute of every day in order to keep my mind off the horrible thoughts and "what if's" that go along with having a loved one in a war zone. He's home, and I want to be able to enjoy him every minute of every day (nudge nudge wink wink)

I'm so proud of myself for not allowing someone to flatter and beg me into doing something that I would, yes, LIKE to do, but I know that I would end up resenting it and not doing the job well as a result. I am certain that they can find someone else who will do that job (not as good as I could, but still) just fine. My family is more important than the financial status of the Student Senate, that's all.

Guess what I got??

I got a painting in the mail today!
From Jennie (I will post a link with a picture ASAP)

But for now

I LOVE IT!!