I haven't written in several months. I'm well aware. Life has been busy which shouldn't be an excuse but I'm going to stick with it. Here's the deal: since my last blog post I got engaged, changed jobs, studied full time since job change, was the maid of honor in a wedding, took three financial tests, and became a hermit to avoid the heat. I am out of the loop with the top songs on the radio and what is going on with the government. These seem insignificant until you go months at a time without being in the know. I have avoided blogging because I did not know exactly what life update and advice I could pass along. I did not want to face the reality of providing a life update at a time I was in chaos and uncertainty.
In short, wedding planning and new work have taken over my life to a level I could not have dreamed. The short synopsis of wedding planning thus far is that a lot is done. We have picked a date, location, bridal party, dress, colors, food (kinda), and other things I'm not sharing before the guests see it for themselves. It is fun but stressful. I don't even begin to know how much is still left to do. I bought a wedding planning binder but I haven't looked at it much. You begin to realize how much you do and do not care about certain things and do not need a list telling you what to do. I don't care about table runners but my mom does so we are having table runners. My fiance is a good sport and is letting me make most decisions. He knows that wedding day logistics matter more to me than to him. I ask for feedback and he provides it accordingly. It is a lot of odd compromises that come together to form a full day in the end.
But the new job. I was at my old job from July 2016 to May 2017. It was boring cubicle job where I wasn't making myself any better and I wasn't helping enough people directly. I wanted to leave it sooner but I struggled to find something I liked and something I had a few qualifications for. HR departments did not want to gamble on a psychology major with health and religion minors who listed architecture photography, park and recreation, and cubicle experience under skills and activities. I was a hodge podge of talents without a directed focus and plan. Eventually I applied for a financial services company and was hired on as a full time studier for the summer. Industry regulations require some standardized testing before becoming an official representative. Part of my hermit summer could be chalked up to studying for tests full time. I was at the Urbandale library often enough the workers noticed my haircut and when I sat at a table other than my usual one. Studying went ok. It was difficult and not fun.
The sense of impending failure was imminent as I studied. I had a hard time telling people what I was doing for a living because I didn't want to tell them about my job, only to turn around in a few months and say I was unemployed. What would I put on resume? "Unsuccessfully studied for securities exam and failed with flying colors?" I kept to myself because I didn't want to admit failure ahead. If no one knew the job was even on the table it would be easier to tell them about the next one and leave out the failure part. The good news is I passed the necessary exams and can do my job. I still struggle with admitting my work to people because the sense of potential embarrassment from failure. It sounds funny to say out loud how worried I was about failing. I was not one to fail things (minus a college biology test once, but that is another story) and this would be my biggest failure to date. I can't tell you how many times I was told in school to have no fear of failure but it was impossible this summer. Anything could happen and I had no back up plan.
I had two tests to take and was extremely uneasy about the first one. My practice test scores were low and my mentor monitoring my progress through the study program was encouraging but not optimistic. We spoke to the reality of not passing. I was so convinced I wasn't going to pass I was job searching the night before the test. I passed; not with flying colors, but that final computer screen said "pass" and that is really all that matters. I took my second test and failed. I could tell as I took it I was going to fail. It was a very factual feeling. It wasn't a matter of being under prepared but rather what I had studied based on the program was not what showed up on the test. Oh well. I was a mess. I cried the 20 minute drive home from the test center and was so distraught I started to head west on the interstate instead of east toward home (having been to the testing center several times before).
Cole and I headed to the Twin Cities after my test and I was still quite upset but ready to not think about securities regulation for four straight days. I happened to meet another representative from my company that night and we talked through the tests and how miserable they were. I didn't quite have the heart to tell him I failed one that morning. He disclosed he had also failed the same test I had and it provided more comfort than I could have gotten anywhere else. I was able to take a different test the following week that would satisfy industry requirements for now. I have another one to take at a later date but I will be prepared for that level of difficulty this time around.
The reality is career changes are terrifying in a lot of ways. Nobody wants to admit they failed anything. I can hope that I become successful and it will make my uneasiness about this potential career failure seem like small potatoes. I have a postcard hanging in my office that says, "90% of life is about hanging on." It has become my new career motto. Sometimes just a little belief in yourself can go a long way. If I just keep moving forward I will be ok. If you need me, I'll be just hanging on.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Sunday, March 26, 2017
DSM: The Smallest City
I joined a church recently. Nothing fancy but I didn't know which one to choose. Like any good millennial I Googled "Lutheran churches near me" and went the following Sunday to the closest one. It worked out well. I happened to sit by the pastor's wife and she went to Luther. One of her best friends in college was my high school calculus teacher. The world already felt small. A quick glance around the church I realized I recognized another Luther grad that I had met at a random bar in Des Moines almost a month ago. Saw another Luther family in the church parking lot who's daughter ran track with me in college. Of all the churches, Lutheran or otherwise, I had managed to pick one where I had small string of connections. It was cute. It was fun. I liked finding Luther people outside the Twin Cities, since it seemed like most of them went there after graduation.
Like any good Lutheran in a small church, a woman came up to me at the end of the service last week and said, "You must be new here because I've never seen you before." A part of me giggled because the moment was "so Lutheran" but I continued on because everyone I had met at the church was nice so far. I explained that I was relatively new to Des Moines and had been looking around for a church when I came across this one. I had been meaning to start coming to church for awhile but a series of plumbing issues on Sundays that lasted a month and half had prevented me up to that point. She asked if I was from the neighborhood because she lived nearby years ago. I said I did live quite close. She told me when she lived nearby she had had plumbing trouble as well. She proceeded to tell me the street name. I said I lived on that same street. She asked me the number so I told her. March 19, 2017, will go down as the strangest day in the history of my life because at church I met one of the previous owners of my house. She had lived in that very house in the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I threw out an invitation to have her over and see the place now. She was delighted. The conversation came naturally and neither one of knew when it started that we would have so much in common.
What are the odds a woman approaches me and asked where I live? And then proceeds to tell me she used to live there? I can't even fathom how that is possible. The Des Moines metro population is 622,899. It does not seem possible for our paths to cross let alone discover we share an address in history.
Like any good Lutheran in a small church, a woman came up to me at the end of the service last week and said, "You must be new here because I've never seen you before." A part of me giggled because the moment was "so Lutheran" but I continued on because everyone I had met at the church was nice so far. I explained that I was relatively new to Des Moines and had been looking around for a church when I came across this one. I had been meaning to start coming to church for awhile but a series of plumbing issues on Sundays that lasted a month and half had prevented me up to that point. She asked if I was from the neighborhood because she lived nearby years ago. I said I did live quite close. She told me when she lived nearby she had had plumbing trouble as well. She proceeded to tell me the street name. I said I lived on that same street. She asked me the number so I told her. March 19, 2017, will go down as the strangest day in the history of my life because at church I met one of the previous owners of my house. She had lived in that very house in the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I threw out an invitation to have her over and see the place now. She was delighted. The conversation came naturally and neither one of knew when it started that we would have so much in common.
What are the odds a woman approaches me and asked where I live? And then proceeds to tell me she used to live there? I can't even fathom how that is possible. The Des Moines metro population is 622,899. It does not seem possible for our paths to cross let alone discover we share an address in history.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Homeownership Owns Us Pt. 1
Back in December Cole (and me kinda, but not in the legal or financial sense) bought a house. We had some done some math and figured out a price point where our house payment each month would be about the same cost as rent; we would actually be able to build something with our lives instead of throwing money aimlessly at rent each month. It only made sense.
Our house hunting adventure began in October. We saw some great houses in bad neighborhoods and horrific houses in great neighborhoods. We finally found the house we bought: it was a decent house that needed some manageable TLC in a nice neighborhood. We jumped at it. Fast forward through packing up an apartment with a puppy reopening every box we packed, and moving across town in a sleet/snow/ice storm: we made it. We had a new house; we had new furniture; we had a backyard for our dog. We thought we were on the fast track to living the dream.
During our clean up and small fixer upper projects my dad repeatedly mentioned that, "You don't own the house; the house owns you." Two weeks after we moved in we did laundry for the first time (because we didn't have a working dryer up until that point) and the carpet was wet in our basement. We had never done laundry and showered and run our dishwasher all in a short window of time. We figured that was probably it and a relatively simple fix: only do one of those at a time. Well it kept happening even if we only did laundry. Or took a long shower. We called a plumber and he replaced part of a pipe he thought might be leaking. Thought the problem was solved and we could go back to our lives. Well it kept happening. Our carpet was wet for unexplained reasons.
We had a sewer guy come over and he ran a snake down the sewer line. He couldn't find any trouble and thought he might have broken up a clot or wiped away some build up. Little did we know he would show up 6 more times in our lives. Every Sunday or Monday we were calling him to snake our sewer line so that we could function. This went on for several weeks. Between Cole and I we missed a fair amount of work, sitting at home waiting for plumbers to show up. We met some very nice plumbers along the way who offered us way more discounts on their services than were necessary but were greatly appreciated.
One night our pipe got so full of water from our sump pump emptying into it, we had to bale water out of the basement from noon to 5AM the next day. It was horrible. The sump pump was going off every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes we rushed into our laundry room and filled a few buckets with water. We walked them up and out of the basement into the backyard. Cole and I took shifts so that we each got some sleep out of the deal. The phrase "sump pump" still gives me a bit of anxiety now. For the days following the sump pump incident I would panic at work at the sound of a toilet flushing. It will go down as one of the weirdest nights of my life.
The only reason we waited so long to fix the sewer line was because we were advised to purchase insurance that would pay for the cost of replacing the sewer line. Well, we got the wrong insurance (thought we had the right one) and just had to go for it. Come February 13th our entire yard was dug up only to determine that 5 feet of pipe in the boulevard had collapsed and needed to be replaced. We now have a very large mound of dirt in our front yard that is ever so slowly going down. But we have working sewer line and that's all that matters.
So right now, the house owns us. A lot. Eventually we will own enough of it to outweigh the early struggles. It is still really fun. We can put a hole in the wall to hang a picture if we want and we won't get fined. A couple weeks ago we decided spur of the moment to paint a navy blue room light green–simply because we could and no one said we couldn't. It's great. We have a dog, a house, a bunch of freedom...And it's pretty cool.
Our house hunting adventure began in October. We saw some great houses in bad neighborhoods and horrific houses in great neighborhoods. We finally found the house we bought: it was a decent house that needed some manageable TLC in a nice neighborhood. We jumped at it. Fast forward through packing up an apartment with a puppy reopening every box we packed, and moving across town in a sleet/snow/ice storm: we made it. We had a new house; we had new furniture; we had a backyard for our dog. We thought we were on the fast track to living the dream.
During our clean up and small fixer upper projects my dad repeatedly mentioned that, "You don't own the house; the house owns you." Two weeks after we moved in we did laundry for the first time (because we didn't have a working dryer up until that point) and the carpet was wet in our basement. We had never done laundry and showered and run our dishwasher all in a short window of time. We figured that was probably it and a relatively simple fix: only do one of those at a time. Well it kept happening even if we only did laundry. Or took a long shower. We called a plumber and he replaced part of a pipe he thought might be leaking. Thought the problem was solved and we could go back to our lives. Well it kept happening. Our carpet was wet for unexplained reasons.
We had a sewer guy come over and he ran a snake down the sewer line. He couldn't find any trouble and thought he might have broken up a clot or wiped away some build up. Little did we know he would show up 6 more times in our lives. Every Sunday or Monday we were calling him to snake our sewer line so that we could function. This went on for several weeks. Between Cole and I we missed a fair amount of work, sitting at home waiting for plumbers to show up. We met some very nice plumbers along the way who offered us way more discounts on their services than were necessary but were greatly appreciated.
One night our pipe got so full of water from our sump pump emptying into it, we had to bale water out of the basement from noon to 5AM the next day. It was horrible. The sump pump was going off every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes we rushed into our laundry room and filled a few buckets with water. We walked them up and out of the basement into the backyard. Cole and I took shifts so that we each got some sleep out of the deal. The phrase "sump pump" still gives me a bit of anxiety now. For the days following the sump pump incident I would panic at work at the sound of a toilet flushing. It will go down as one of the weirdest nights of my life.
The only reason we waited so long to fix the sewer line was because we were advised to purchase insurance that would pay for the cost of replacing the sewer line. Well, we got the wrong insurance (thought we had the right one) and just had to go for it. Come February 13th our entire yard was dug up only to determine that 5 feet of pipe in the boulevard had collapsed and needed to be replaced. We now have a very large mound of dirt in our front yard that is ever so slowly going down. But we have working sewer line and that's all that matters.
So right now, the house owns us. A lot. Eventually we will own enough of it to outweigh the early struggles. It is still really fun. We can put a hole in the wall to hang a picture if we want and we won't get fined. A couple weeks ago we decided spur of the moment to paint a navy blue room light green–simply because we could and no one said we couldn't. It's great. We have a dog, a house, a bunch of freedom...And it's pretty cool.
2-13-2017
3-19-2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Phipps Phamily
Last Saturday my grandma Linda passed away; she was 92 years old and her death was not sudden. That does not make it any less sad but 7 hours alone in the car gave me ample time for reflection. I got to see most of my cousins this weekend. This is the first time in over a decade I have seen a few of them. Others I saw a couple years ago for my grandma's 90th birthday party. They are a hilarious bunch and I wish we got together more often.
Here's the kicker: we are spread out in age and geography. My oldest cousin is closing in on 50 and my brother (the youngest cousin) just turned 21. We're spread out over almost 30 years. To say we don't have a lot in common is an understatement. We are scattered all around the United States. Many are in Iowa, there's the Montana contingent, then a Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. I think that's everybody. Sorry if I missed someone's state. We only get together for funerals, weddings, and major milestone birthday parties. It's tough to coordinate schedules, flights, and days off but we do the best we can.
Keeping all this in mind, we do share one thing in common regardless of age and geography. We share the same set of grandparents. Our grandparents were wonderful people and while they are neither one are here on earth, they are finally back together. Even if their grandchildren are spread out in age, there are certain characteristics about our grandparents that I imagine have not changed throughout our lives.
1. Crazy Bee Rummy: this is a card game very similar to Phase 10. I don't know when they got the game but I plan to track down my own copy of the game because it was fun and easy to play. We played it every holiday and it had to be played in marathon form. It never went quickly because we usually played with a lot of people. We all have our own favorite memory of playing the game with Grandma and Grandpa.
2. Birthday cakes are extra special when your grandma was a cake decorator for a living: We each had our fair share of fancy birthday cakes, decorated to honor of our favorite hobbies, sports teams, and games. I spent most of my life thinking my first birthday cake was special. Turns out we all the same one. Grandma went so far as to mail birthday cakes if she couldn't be there to deliver it herself. Not that that method worked out really well, but it's the thought that counts.
3. Quilts: Grandma was a very accomplished quilter and made one for each of her grandkids. Her sewing room was always overtaken with family at holidays but Grandma made sure her quilting supplies were in a nice stopping place. I have a quilt made of my mom's childhood clothes. I also took one from her apartment that she was going to give away. It looks straight from the 70s and everyone that uses it smirks at the coloring. It is special nonetheless.
4. Black raspberries: I was personally never old enough to go out into the woods and pick black raspberries with Grandpa but I definitely ate my fair share of berries when he came back. Even now my mom puts them on ice cream because she's eaten them that way for years. There was always homemade black raspberry jam at Grandma and Grandpa's house too. Every time I see black raspberries in the grocery store I smile.
5. Family picture shelf: Grandma and Grandpa were always proud of their family. Always. And when you have 6 kids and 15 grandkids you have to put all their pictures on display. They had shelves at their house where they kept all their family pictures. The grandchildren were divided into 2 shelves: school pictures and wedding photos. Your senior photo stayed on the grandchild shelf until you got married and then you moved to the other side of the TV to the married children shelf. It was big deal.
Our grandparents were special. We meant the world to them and they meant the world to us. As sad as it is they are both gone, they are together again–which has been Grandma's wish for the last decade and I'm happy she finally got her wish.
Here's the kicker: we are spread out in age and geography. My oldest cousin is closing in on 50 and my brother (the youngest cousin) just turned 21. We're spread out over almost 30 years. To say we don't have a lot in common is an understatement. We are scattered all around the United States. Many are in Iowa, there's the Montana contingent, then a Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. I think that's everybody. Sorry if I missed someone's state. We only get together for funerals, weddings, and major milestone birthday parties. It's tough to coordinate schedules, flights, and days off but we do the best we can.
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| Cousins (most of us anyway) |
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| A good portion of the Phipps family |
1. Crazy Bee Rummy: this is a card game very similar to Phase 10. I don't know when they got the game but I plan to track down my own copy of the game because it was fun and easy to play. We played it every holiday and it had to be played in marathon form. It never went quickly because we usually played with a lot of people. We all have our own favorite memory of playing the game with Grandma and Grandpa.
2. Birthday cakes are extra special when your grandma was a cake decorator for a living: We each had our fair share of fancy birthday cakes, decorated to honor of our favorite hobbies, sports teams, and games. I spent most of my life thinking my first birthday cake was special. Turns out we all the same one. Grandma went so far as to mail birthday cakes if she couldn't be there to deliver it herself. Not that that method worked out really well, but it's the thought that counts.
3. Quilts: Grandma was a very accomplished quilter and made one for each of her grandkids. Her sewing room was always overtaken with family at holidays but Grandma made sure her quilting supplies were in a nice stopping place. I have a quilt made of my mom's childhood clothes. I also took one from her apartment that she was going to give away. It looks straight from the 70s and everyone that uses it smirks at the coloring. It is special nonetheless.
4. Black raspberries: I was personally never old enough to go out into the woods and pick black raspberries with Grandpa but I definitely ate my fair share of berries when he came back. Even now my mom puts them on ice cream because she's eaten them that way for years. There was always homemade black raspberry jam at Grandma and Grandpa's house too. Every time I see black raspberries in the grocery store I smile.
5. Family picture shelf: Grandma and Grandpa were always proud of their family. Always. And when you have 6 kids and 15 grandkids you have to put all their pictures on display. They had shelves at their house where they kept all their family pictures. The grandchildren were divided into 2 shelves: school pictures and wedding photos. Your senior photo stayed on the grandchild shelf until you got married and then you moved to the other side of the TV to the married children shelf. It was big deal.
~~~~~
I can still smell Grandma's Estee Lauder perfume. I giggle every time I picture the bull slippers Grandpa owned. I thank them both for inspiring my cow themed kitchen. Once a year I try to eat grapefruit because we always had it for breakfast at Christmas (I'll eat one and then bail on my plan). Out of habit I always have 3 cans of tuna, just like Grandma. Sometimes I forget how fresh Honey Nut Cheerios can be because they were always stale at the house. I cannot believe we used to play hide and seek in a single level house. They had the coolest bin of plastic figurines and toys and Grandma always made sure to have it out before we got there. We all played with the duck pull behind toy at kids. Every time I see an elderly woman wearing pantyhose in the summer I picture Grandma too.Our grandparents were special. We meant the world to them and they meant the world to us. As sad as it is they are both gone, they are together again–which has been Grandma's wish for the last decade and I'm happy she finally got her wish.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Pierce/Hocker Christmas Blog 2016
Cole
Cole continues to work for the State of Iowa Auditor. He travels considerably less than last year but still spends too much time in northwest Iowa. His phone continues to send him updates about who is retiring in O'Brien County, Iowa. He befriends lots of little old ladies in county government across the state. He even got a promotion in October! He is gradually gaining a little more responsibility, and a bit of a pay raise too!
Bre
I graduated from Luther in May with a degree in psychology. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with the degree when I graduated and I still don't entirely know. I currently work as a loan servicing specialist 3 (titles are important!) at Wells Fargo. This is not a long term job but it helps to pay the bills for now. Perhaps I will be pursuing a new job or grad school in the future. My options are wide open right now which is both good and bad. I have a job right now and I can't complain.
Pretzel
For those who don't know, we got a German shorthair pointer puppy in June. She is a bundle of energy and cuteness. She takes up most of our free time, between walks and trips to the Raccoon River Dog Park. We make lots of friends every time we visit, usually befriending the largest dogs there first. We go on lots of walks after work and have enjoyed exploring different neighborhoods. Pretzel even passed puppy kindergarten in October–flying colors for responding to her own name! All too often people comment, "I've never seen a dog do [fill-in-the-blank] before!" She's a strange little dog that acts part dog, cat, monkey, and human at any given moment. We love her dearly anyway.
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The biggest news on the year is also the most recent. Cole bought a house in October and we moved in the week before Christmas (I am his favorite renter). It is a cute 3 bedroom house in Des Moines and it has a nice sized backyard for Pretzel to run to her little heart's content. I will be taking up gardening come spring, as there is already one in place. Cole will be able to put all his Luther grounds experience to good use as well, as we clear out some overgrowth. It has proven to have no shortage of projects and will likely be a work in progress for while. We are having a painting party this weekend with my family. Slowly but surely it will start to feel like "home." We enjoy the challenges of home ownership and it sure beats paying rent each month.
If you are ever in the Des Moines area, give us a ring! We have plenty of space for air mattresses, sleeping bags, and have extra pillows and blankets galore. We would love company! Give us a 2 minutes heads up and we can have an air mattress ready for you!
Sunday, December 11, 2016
PetSmart/LifeSmart
Last week I spent a good amount of time in PetSmart. My boyfriend Cole and I are preparing to move across town and we will be slightly neglecting our dog for about 3 days. Don't worry, she will be left in good hands each day but she won't be getting the full attention from her parents that she normally gets on a weekend. Anyway, I was at PetSmart and bought her some long lasting (hypothetically, anyway) a couple of nifty new toys of moderate price ($7-9) and refrained from buying her the cheap Christmas toys at the front of the store, even though they were really cute and their squeaker features weren't the most annoying I had ever heard.
Well, I came home and told Cole about these cute, cheap, Christmas toys at PetSmart. So like any hip and fun couple we planned a date the following night and took our dog to PetSmart to buy her some festive stuff. Each toy was $1.47 and I bought 3 of them: a moose, a candy, and a reindeer. At this very moment, the candy is in the trash and I haven't seen the reindeer since yesterday morning. The moose and the candy were plushie/fleece and my dog has a knack for tearing the stuffing out of literally every toy she can (and her old dog bed). This wouldn't be a big problem but she likes to eat the stuffing and she has had enough trouble lately with her GI tract that she really doesn't need any more chaos going on there.
Every cheap toy I have ever bought her gets destroyed within in 2 days. Sure they are cute and fun for 48 hours but then they end up in the trash. A couple weeks ago she ate the fin off of a little red shark I bought for $1. Just today I threw away a tiger rope guy where she tore the stuff out of his face within 24 hours of owning him. We get him because he had a rope for a body but it turns out that was made of stuffing inside the rope. He was $3. Blue squeaker bone with rope ends? Shredded ropes in a week. It was only $5. Raccoon with ropes for feet? Rope torn out in 2 weeks. The raccoon is still intact but significantly less fun because it is hard to play tug of war with something a little bigger than a softball. He was also $5.
So here's the moral of the story: buy the $7 toys before you buy the $1.47 toys. Yes, they do cost more money. But they also last several months (they might last longer but I've only had the dog 6 months so I can't speak to the long term lasting effect here) longer than the cheap toys. You put a little more effort into buying quality toys and consequently they last a little longer. This also holds true in life.
I work in a division of Wells Fargo that handles loan servicing. I have worked there almost 6 months and I am working in my third process there. For one thing, we have hired close to 75 people in the last 2 months so I had to get moved to leave room for new people to do the starting process, but I also worked really hard at what I was doing in order to move up the ladder. Sure, my first process was ridiculously easy (borderline boring) but I did it with speed and did it right and was rewarded with more responsibilities. I got moved in 2 weeks. I got really good at the second process I worked in and was also moved on to the next process. With every bump step up on the ladder I get closer to the end of the process. There are several processes that make a up a single progression that makes sure people weren't overcharged for 2 lines on a closing disclosure (recording fees: yay government regulations!). In my current process I review the work of people who currently do my old jobs. I check for accuracy and then call settlements who are usually pleasant but occasionally annoyed about getting the customer money back. It's not fun to call and ask for a refund and it's certainly not fun to tell them if they don't do it we will do it for them and mark their noncompliance (I've only done that twice. Got refunds within the hour).
I guess this post is about investing in yourself. When I started writing this I wasn't sure where I was going with it. College students are coming up on finals and adults are closing in on the end of another year at work. It's too easy to cheap yourself out of hard work. Go the extra mile. Stay in the library or at your cubicle until the very end of the day. Hold yourself accountable to all the things you say you will do. Buy your dog the $7 toys. (Side note: beyond $15, the toys don't get exponentially better. You're paying for name brand at that point. I had a lot of free time in dog aisle once to notice this...) Sure the cheap toys in life are thrilling but they also disappear the fastest. Getting out of work early will seem like you are free but you end up leaving yourself more to do the following day(s). Sometimes my dog tries to dig her old toys out of the garbage can. You can't get back what you self sabotage-humans understand that but puppies don't.
Good luck on finals. Everyone makes it out alive. Just keep breathing and focusing on what you can control: your preparation. And best of luck to recent college grads who are not fully prepared to work so much over what has always been an extended break. Bring it on. Invest in yourself and be great.
Well, I came home and told Cole about these cute, cheap, Christmas toys at PetSmart. So like any hip and fun couple we planned a date the following night and took our dog to PetSmart to buy her some festive stuff. Each toy was $1.47 and I bought 3 of them: a moose, a candy, and a reindeer. At this very moment, the candy is in the trash and I haven't seen the reindeer since yesterday morning. The moose and the candy were plushie/fleece and my dog has a knack for tearing the stuffing out of literally every toy she can (and her old dog bed). This wouldn't be a big problem but she likes to eat the stuffing and she has had enough trouble lately with her GI tract that she really doesn't need any more chaos going on there.
Every cheap toy I have ever bought her gets destroyed within in 2 days. Sure they are cute and fun for 48 hours but then they end up in the trash. A couple weeks ago she ate the fin off of a little red shark I bought for $1. Just today I threw away a tiger rope guy where she tore the stuff out of his face within 24 hours of owning him. We get him because he had a rope for a body but it turns out that was made of stuffing inside the rope. He was $3. Blue squeaker bone with rope ends? Shredded ropes in a week. It was only $5. Raccoon with ropes for feet? Rope torn out in 2 weeks. The raccoon is still intact but significantly less fun because it is hard to play tug of war with something a little bigger than a softball. He was also $5.
So here's the moral of the story: buy the $7 toys before you buy the $1.47 toys. Yes, they do cost more money. But they also last several months (they might last longer but I've only had the dog 6 months so I can't speak to the long term lasting effect here) longer than the cheap toys. You put a little more effort into buying quality toys and consequently they last a little longer. This also holds true in life.
I work in a division of Wells Fargo that handles loan servicing. I have worked there almost 6 months and I am working in my third process there. For one thing, we have hired close to 75 people in the last 2 months so I had to get moved to leave room for new people to do the starting process, but I also worked really hard at what I was doing in order to move up the ladder. Sure, my first process was ridiculously easy (borderline boring) but I did it with speed and did it right and was rewarded with more responsibilities. I got moved in 2 weeks. I got really good at the second process I worked in and was also moved on to the next process. With every bump step up on the ladder I get closer to the end of the process. There are several processes that make a up a single progression that makes sure people weren't overcharged for 2 lines on a closing disclosure (recording fees: yay government regulations!). In my current process I review the work of people who currently do my old jobs. I check for accuracy and then call settlements who are usually pleasant but occasionally annoyed about getting the customer money back. It's not fun to call and ask for a refund and it's certainly not fun to tell them if they don't do it we will do it for them and mark their noncompliance (I've only done that twice. Got refunds within the hour).
I guess this post is about investing in yourself. When I started writing this I wasn't sure where I was going with it. College students are coming up on finals and adults are closing in on the end of another year at work. It's too easy to cheap yourself out of hard work. Go the extra mile. Stay in the library or at your cubicle until the very end of the day. Hold yourself accountable to all the things you say you will do. Buy your dog the $7 toys. (Side note: beyond $15, the toys don't get exponentially better. You're paying for name brand at that point. I had a lot of free time in dog aisle once to notice this...) Sure the cheap toys in life are thrilling but they also disappear the fastest. Getting out of work early will seem like you are free but you end up leaving yourself more to do the following day(s). Sometimes my dog tries to dig her old toys out of the garbage can. You can't get back what you self sabotage-humans understand that but puppies don't.
Good luck on finals. Everyone makes it out alive. Just keep breathing and focusing on what you can control: your preparation. And best of luck to recent college grads who are not fully prepared to work so much over what has always been an extended break. Bring it on. Invest in yourself and be great.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Big Ugly #5
Many many many many apologies for dragging out the Big Uglies and for taking this long between posts. I've been living a big of chaos lately; on top of that, 11 of the last 16 days the internet has been out at my apartment. I finally got a night I could scoot up the street to Panera and I'm enjoying a smoothie as I type this. Some of you may know I'm lactose intolerant and will likely regret the smoothie choice later. YOLO (<--- is that still a thing?) I figured it would be rude to come mooch their wi-fi and not buy something. It does taste pretty good so it's not totally regrettable. Yet.
Any way..... The last Ugly Truth of adulthood I'm talking about is sleep. Just last week I was FaceTiming my brother. We had tried to do it a few nights before but I was getting in bed at 9 and he was working on homework still. The night we finally did FaceTime he was just getting back from meeting for a project and said he was going to be up until midnight or 1am and back up at 5am to go lift for football. I don't miss that part of college. I love leaving work each day and knowing I don't have to bring any work with me. I realize this is not the case with a lot of jobs but I am at work more than 10 hours a day and don't know that I could really handle spending a few more hours at home each night doing more work. Props to the people that do that. I don't miss the homework. Sidenote: last week (while on a stretch of home internet for a few days) I was researching how to start a garden. I was taking notes because gardens are a lot of work. I was copying and pasting notes left and right and didn't note what website any of it came from because I wasn't about to cite them. I just wanted the notes all in the same place.
The part of college I do miss is the ability to take a nap after class and not feel the slightest bit bad about it. Adulthood kinda sucks. You can't take a nap at your desk when the afternoon gets slow and no one is answering your calls. I have seen a few people do it and look very alarmed when they realized they fell asleep at their desk for an unknown amount of time. In college I always liked getting up early and going to the library to when no one else was there. I could claim a table and work distraction free for quite awhile. I could go to class and come back and take a nap undisturbed before my roommates got back. It was great. But citations weren't. You win some, you lose some.
I'm boring and go to bed around 9:30pm every night. Sorry to anyone that texts me after that point (aka Sarah Ea last night) because I read your message between 5 and 5:30am and then usually forget to respond because I decide I don't want to disturb normal people sleep schedules and respond at ungodly hours of the day. Or I respond and hope people don't get mad about me texting back while I eat breakfast at 6:15. Also my idea of sleeping in includes waking up after 7 on a weekend. I feel like I've gained 10 extra hours of sleep when I get to sleep in. It's really not that much extra but it sure feels like it. And I love it.
Sleep is precious in college; you get it where you can. In adulthood, you hope you never fall asleep at your desk or during a semi-important meeting. Sure, in college you can stay up late one night and sleep in the next day or take a heck of a midday nap to make up for lost sleep. But that doesn't happen in the adult world. I come from a family of serious nappers (aka my grandma takes the phone off the hook when she naps because she does not want to be awakened) and I really miss a good, midafternoon snooze to power through the evening. College students, cherish your afternoon naps because they don't exist in the real world (except on weekends and they are GLORIOUS then).
Any way..... The last Ugly Truth of adulthood I'm talking about is sleep. Just last week I was FaceTiming my brother. We had tried to do it a few nights before but I was getting in bed at 9 and he was working on homework still. The night we finally did FaceTime he was just getting back from meeting for a project and said he was going to be up until midnight or 1am and back up at 5am to go lift for football. I don't miss that part of college. I love leaving work each day and knowing I don't have to bring any work with me. I realize this is not the case with a lot of jobs but I am at work more than 10 hours a day and don't know that I could really handle spending a few more hours at home each night doing more work. Props to the people that do that. I don't miss the homework. Sidenote: last week (while on a stretch of home internet for a few days) I was researching how to start a garden. I was taking notes because gardens are a lot of work. I was copying and pasting notes left and right and didn't note what website any of it came from because I wasn't about to cite them. I just wanted the notes all in the same place.
The part of college I do miss is the ability to take a nap after class and not feel the slightest bit bad about it. Adulthood kinda sucks. You can't take a nap at your desk when the afternoon gets slow and no one is answering your calls. I have seen a few people do it and look very alarmed when they realized they fell asleep at their desk for an unknown amount of time. In college I always liked getting up early and going to the library to when no one else was there. I could claim a table and work distraction free for quite awhile. I could go to class and come back and take a nap undisturbed before my roommates got back. It was great. But citations weren't. You win some, you lose some.
I'm boring and go to bed around 9:30pm every night. Sorry to anyone that texts me after that point (aka Sarah Ea last night) because I read your message between 5 and 5:30am and then usually forget to respond because I decide I don't want to disturb normal people sleep schedules and respond at ungodly hours of the day. Or I respond and hope people don't get mad about me texting back while I eat breakfast at 6:15. Also my idea of sleeping in includes waking up after 7 on a weekend. I feel like I've gained 10 extra hours of sleep when I get to sleep in. It's really not that much extra but it sure feels like it. And I love it.
Sleep is precious in college; you get it where you can. In adulthood, you hope you never fall asleep at your desk or during a semi-important meeting. Sure, in college you can stay up late one night and sleep in the next day or take a heck of a midday nap to make up for lost sleep. But that doesn't happen in the adult world. I come from a family of serious nappers (aka my grandma takes the phone off the hook when she naps because she does not want to be awakened) and I really miss a good, midafternoon snooze to power through the evening. College students, cherish your afternoon naps because they don't exist in the real world (except on weekends and they are GLORIOUS then).
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