tidbits for your reading pleasure...or whatever.

On the job...
Mike has decided to continue with his degree online after we move. It will take him a bit longer, but he will eventually have it.
We are currently negotiating moving expenses with the company. We will hopefully still be able to afford to move over there to take this job. Keep your fingers crossed.
We are going over on the 18th to look at apartments...I SO hope we can find something we love.

On family...
My sister in law, Ariel, is visiting us for a week. She's almost 15, and I just can't help smiling while talking to her, hearing her teenage way of speaking, and remembering when I sounded like that. She's an awesome person, extremely motivated, and is already planning her career in sports law. She is also on an award-winning basketball team, is first-chair clarinet, and has never received less than a "B" in her entire life. I am in awe just hearing it all.

On friends...
Life can be surprising. I have a friend...well, now he's a friend, that I didn't really like for the first 3 or 4 years I knew him. There were times I wanted to like him, but he really wasn't always a nice person. I won't go into it all. Anyway, I haven't talked to him, except for a few brief conversations for about two years. He got a divorce, and went to Kuwait. I happened to talk with him online a few times recently, and he's completely turned his life and attitude around! It's awesome, because I've discovered that underneath the asshole exterior (that is no longer there), he's a really interesting person. I'm really looking forward to having him as a friend now. If you'd told me that would happen two years ago, I would have laughed in your face!

On work....
It's so odd to be leaving a job that on one hand has been my favorite one so far, and on the other, has been one of the most aggravating. I am just not a sales person. Working for John has allowed me to be a good one, but I think, and yes, this will sound very silly, I think I am too sensitive. It seems to me that in this business, you have to have a very tough mind set. Yes, it's important to try to solve issues, and to give the best customer service I can, but there comes many a time where the situation requires me to let it go, and I sometimes have a hard time with that. I take things very personally, whether I am fighting FOR a customer, or WITH them. And I hate not being able to solve every problem. and I really don't like dealing with the more dense people. What I DO like is working for John. I love the atmosphere here, I love the people I work with. I love it when I can solve a problem for a customer, and they leave happy. I love working a job so long that I know quite a bit about how to solve those problems, though I know far less than is knowable in this industry. It's also bitter sweet, (though admittedly more sweet) knowing I won't be doing this type of work again. While I will still work with the public, I won't be doing customer service, which I have been doing for the entire 14 years I've been working. ooo! Will post a work history at some point...
anyway. It's just daunting, in both good and bad ways, to think of all the changes that will occur in the next few months, and years.