How do people manage?

I am so stressed. I have so much work to do to the point that even though I am supremely organized I can't stay on top of things, nor can I figure out where to start on some things.

It just all becomes a big ball of overwhelming. And working from home isn't going to cut it. I tend to get distracted, and lately because I'm so tired all I want to do is sleep. At least in the office I push past the tiredness and keep on working.

Any advice on how to juggle things?

My absence

My blog has been sorely neglected lately. I apologize. Work has been crazy. Add on top of that a wicked head cold that has had me laid up in bed for the last 4 days and well it hasn't left a lot of time for blogging. Nor has my life been particularly interesting of late.

I DID go back to Winnipeg last weekend though. I can't believe it was only a week ago. It was fantastic to see my family. I didn't realize how much I had missed them.

I will try to keep you more up to date. I promise.

Stressing out

AHHH!!!! My projects are due in like 2 weeks. Actually I had one due on Friday. I have one to do this week. And then I have to buckle down and get on the others. I might even put in some weekend time. We'll see what happens.

Oh and then there are all the little one-off things that they've asked me to do. I'm going to have to put my time management skills to good use. Oh right AND I have to work on my Psych course which I haven't touched in over a month.

What a week

Honestly this has been a crazy week. Work has been busy, so busy that I've barely felt like I had time to breathe. So busy that even though it's Sunday I have to get some work done. I'm not really sure about my job. Am I doing a goo enough job? I'm working hard for the 7 1/2 hrs I'm there per day, but maybe I'm not working on the right stuff or maybe there is a better way of doing things. Either way I'm feeling overwhelmed but the amount of work that's being thrown at me and how much I'm not managing to get done during the work week.

On Tuesday I found out that my friend --- okay more than friend, let's say almost boyfriend, who was set to visit in 2 weeks won't be coming. There are some family things that he needs to take care of. So we're in a period of postponement. I just hope that it doesn't turn into cancellation.  So that's been very stressful and disappointing. I kind of feel like I've just barely been keeping it together because I knew that he was coming and things would start to get better after that. Now I'm not so sure.

Yesterday I went shopping for the last of my furniture. I needed a chair and a kitchen table. Well I found them, at Walmart, but since we didn't have a truck I need to go back another day and pick them up. I also found a bedroom suite. I had originally intended to only pick up a dresser and maybe a night stand but this was a good deal and it was really nice. So it's being delivered next Saturday.

And my couch and bed should be arriving today. Which is good because I accidentally left my laptop on my blowup mattress yesterday while I was out and came back to find the whole thing deflated. I guess the heat melted it or something. So I'll have to buy a new blow up bed before my parents arrive in 3 weeks.

Living on coffee and carbs

Since I've moved I've not been eating healthy at all. Part of this is that I'm lazy and I don't want to pack a proper lunch for myself in the morning and part of it is that I'm not living in my own place so I don't feel comfortable making a mess of the kitchen. I'm not one for particularly healthy eating to begin with. I LOVE fast food. These factors taken together present a bit of a challenge for my overall nutritional health.

Lets start with lunch. I like to sleep for as long as I can in the mornings. Particularly when I've stayed up late making phone calls to people 2 times zones away (you know who you are!).Not that I'm complaining about the phone schedule. I manage to survive that but it does mean that I don't want to have to deal with making something for lunch everyday. So usually I just grab something out of the cupboard, which usually means I'm eating a cup of noodles for lunch. Today I went with Uncle Ben's Bistro Express rice.

And supper is usually a matter of trying to eat something quickly so that the lady I'm living with doesn't try to tell me her life story. She's about 75 so she's had a long time to come up with these stories. So usually that doesn't leave a lot of time for proper balanced meal making. Usually it's whatever I pull out of the freezer and heat up.

And then there's the coffee.  My work place offers free coffee, so I've gone from my usual pre-work double tall caramel machiatto to about 4 cups of regular joe throughout the day. Some days I feel like it's the only things that gets me through the day.

First week review

Well I've been in my new city, at my new job for a week now and I thought I'd better let all of you know how I'm doing.

First of all I'll talk about the place I'm staying. For an apartment it's HUGE. Very nice and only a 15 minute walk from work. It's also right behind the mall, which has the only Starbucks in the entire city. Yes I have already been thrice! There is also another Cafe not far away that I went to study in today.

I've looked at a few apartments. I plan to look at a few more early this week and then put in a few applications. The only thing is I'm not sure how long I'll be staying, since I've got 3 months probation.

Things at work aren't going that well to be honest. The people are really nice. One of them even invited me to have dinner with her and her family next week. But I'm just not sure that I'm the right person for the job. I guess I have high expectations of myself and thought I could just fit right in, but I guess there is a bit of a learning curve as I get used to what they're looking for from me.

So that's the first week! I'll try to update more frequently now that I'm a little more settled.

I'm here

Well I made it to my new temporary home. Tomorrow I start work at 9. I've very nervous. But it will be a good change for me. I'm excited to be going back to work. It's been a very long hiatus and a whole lot of stuff has happened since then. Hopefully this is the beginning of a whole new chapter for me.

Also a plus, the apartment building where I'm staying for December is right beside/behind the mall, which has a Chapters and a Starbucks.

A case of nerves

This moving thing is making me crazy. It's less than a week away and I feel like I still have so much to do. I don't REALLY have that much to do, it just feels like it. But yeah by this time next week I should be in my new (temporary) home. I'm staying with a friend of some people that I know. I don't expect to be there too long as I'm hoping to find my own place for January, but this gives me a little breathing space on the apartment hunting.

As for the nerves, well the week before last I was on the phone with my parents telling them that I just didn't think I could go. Now that I've booked my flight and made my pick up arrangements I feel a little better. I also get a week off at Christmas so I've booked my flights for that too. So if things don't work out in those first 3 weeks then I just won't go back after Christmas. But I'm really hoping everything works out fine.

It's fast approaching

Alright it's been 6 days since I had my wisdom teeth out and while I'm still in a little bit of pain it's much better today.

Now I have to go about all of my business to get ready for the big move and my new job. I know I haven't talked about this much yet so here's the whole story.

As you know I've been off work for quite some time with illness. While I was away apparently there were some scary times at my workplace and there was a whole departmental restructuring. In some ways I'm glad that I missed all of that, but at the same time I got lost in the shuffle. I was terminated. End of story there. They say it wasn't due to performance but come on I hadn't been there in over a year so while I was a good employee they just decided they didn't need me.

Anyways I started to feel better my doctor and I discussed going back to work somewhere else, so I started looking for something. I found a position that I really wanted and I applied. I had no idea that I would even get an interview since I wasn't the ideal candidate but I guess I was good enough. I had a phone interview the day before I found out I had lost my job. And then within an hour of my meeting with my former employer I got a call asking if I would come out for an interview.

So I flew out 3 days later, they offered me the job and here I am packing and preparing for a new career. I start in 3 weeks! Which means I have to say goodbye to all of my Winnipeg friends before I go. I've already started the process a little bit, had a few farewell lunches and what not. But over the next 2 weeks I'm going to have a bunch of them. I'll try to see as many as I can when I'm back for holidays and to see my folks. But there won't be much time for that for a while.

Wish me luck!

That's What Friends Are For

I'm starting to do my goodbye lunches since I will be moving soon to start my new job. Oh I neglected to mention that I have a new job? Oopps. Well actually that was kind of intentional since I didn't want to say anything until things were all settled with my old job. But it looks like that's been done now so now I can talk about it a little bit. But that's not the point of this post.

This post is about having wonderful friends. See I went for lunch today with a former classmate and the co-worker. We talked about the job situation but mostly we talked about the boy situation. The thing is she reacted exactly the way I had expected her to, very happy for me but also warning me to be a little cautious. She also said I had a perma-grin on my face as I was talking about him.

So many big changes in my life. I can't wait to have goodbye lunches/dinners with all of my friends so that they can see how happy I am now because it's been a long time since I've felt like this.

It's been a while

Yeah, I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. There has just been a lot going on with me lately and I haven't been able to put it into words.

First of all I lost my job. It was kind of a big shock and I felt like a horrible failure. But now I've been able to see a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. I've done my grieving and now it's time to move on to bigger and better things right?

I'd like to thank a very special person in my life for helping me through all of this. I can't even describe how much I appreciate all of the support he's given me over the last couple of weeks. It's really shown me how much he cares about me, and well I feel the same about him. So that's kind of the other big news. And while I'm not quite ready to call him my boyfriend I think I'm getting pretty close.

So that's the current update. I'll try to stay more current, I promise.

Budgeting

For the first time pretty much ever I'm going to have to learn to stay within a budget.

Here's the deal, I'm still off work so I'm living on insurance money. This generally covers my basic costs of living - rent, hydro, heat, ect. My work place actually has pretty good benefits so it also leaves me with a little extra once all the bills are paid. But in the time that I've been off work I haven't really changed my lifestyle all that much, I still go to Starbucks, I still eat out regularly and I've still added to my already large wardrobe.

So now comes the budgeting part. Chiropractic school is going to set me back about $80,000 for tuition alone. Now I can manage to live on the cheap while I'm going to school. I did it when I was an undergrad I can do it again, but I do need to save up so that I don't have such massive loans when I'm done. The things about Chiropractic school is that my parents aren't 100% supportive. Yes they love me unconditionally, but they aren't convinced that this is what's going to make me happy. So I'm on my own financially if this is something I want to pursue.

More Education Planning

Alright so I've officially given up on grad school. At least as far as agricultural economics goes. In fact I've kind of given up on agriculture all together. My new plan is to become a chiropractor. I could write a whole essay about why I want to become a chiropractor and I will have to do that for some admissions (or interviews), but for right now I'm just going to focus on getting all of the pre reqs out of the way. Starting with Psychology. I'll be starting a course called Psychology as a Natural Science by distance ed in November. if that goes well I'll take another course and then if that goes well maybe I'll look at summer courses.

Although it all depends what happens with work. I'm also hoping to be well enough to go back to work and then hopefully move to a different department or perhaps a new company altogether. We'll see what happens.

Well at least I'm looking well these days

Over the last couple of weeks I've run into several people who I would have called co-workers if not for the fact that I've been on an extended sick leave. I don't even quite know what to call them.

Anyway I guess it's not a big mystery that I'm not working there at the moment but most of them have asked where I'm working now, which concerns me because I don't know if they just assume that I've left the company or if they've been told that I'm not going to be returning. But that's not something to worry about at the moment. For now I'm just going to focus on the fact that they've said I'm looking well.

There may be several reasons for my looking better (probably more relaxed than anything else) these days. First of all I've been off work for over a year. When you don't have the stress of having to deal with work everyday. You know that look that people have when they come back from 2 weeks vacation? Well multiply that by 26. The second thing is the drugs, once you're on the right combination of things to help deal with your illness you start to feel a lot better and that probably comes out in your actions and mannerisms. The third contributing factor is probably the new man in my life. You know how people in love just have this glow about them, well I don't think we're at that point but there is some definite like going on. Things aren't exactly perfect in this respect, we're still trying to work some things out, but as he reminds me all the time we'll figure it out. But if someone were to make a movie about my life he'd definitely be the love interest.

So yeah there are probably some good reasons I'm looking better these days, even if I don't feel it all the time. Now I just need to gradually add some very mild stressors to my life to try and get things back on track.

I miss the old Facebook

It's hard to believe that I've been on Facebook for over 4 years. I've seen it go through numerous makeovers and "enhancements". But I have to say that I'm longing for the old days, where Facebook was just between you and other college kids.

Granted under that definition I would no longer qualify to have a profile and I get that as people who had profiles graduated the site was going to have to be expanded so that those people could continue to enjoy the site. But opening it up to everyone and apparently everything has just made it kind of a joke.

First of all having prospective employers scan the site to check up on your hijinx. The thing that gets me about it though is that you can't always control what other people do or say or write on your wall. I've personally asked all my friends not to tag me in pictures. Not because I do anything that I'm embarrassed about but just because well I'm a person and yes I do like to have the occasional drink. But no future employer needs to see this. Especially since it may seem that I drink a lot more than I do if the only time I'm tagged in photos is when I've been drinking. It's none of their business and I certainly don't go around posting these pictures myself but I also don't think that I should have to worry about what my acquaintances decide to post. Yes, you can untag yourself from photos, but who wants to spend all their time fixing other people's mistakes? Now I'm pretty good about being appropriate. If you google my name you get about 3 entries about me. None of which are embarrassing or inappropriate. But I don't trust Facebook to be the same.

And then there is the issue of who to friend. I personally try not to friend anyone that I don't know in the flesh. I think I've got about 4 people who I don't actually physically know. Most of these are people who share my surname and because I'm all about history and knowing where you came from I didn't think it could hurt to add them for genealogical reasons. Who knows they might be a not so distant relative. But then you have my real relatives, you know the ones you only see on Christmas and special family occasions like weddings. Under old Facebook rules this would not even be a discussion since my cousins chose the pregnant and married route (and sometimes just the pregnant part). But they are technically family and I would feel bad if I had rejected their friend request. But really the more they post random status messages and choose to "like" different groups or phrases the more I want to just tear into them for being utterly ridiculous. And yet I hold my tongue for the aforementioned potential employer problem.

Which brings me to the next thing on my list of reasons Facebook is no longer the social networking site that I had grown to love. The stupid groups. Doesn't it just seem like there is a group for absolutely everything? I mean, really "I bet this steak can get more friends than PETA"? Really?!? This needs a group? Sure I've gone ahead and marked some things as "like". Starbucks for example, Moss from "The IT Crowd" (which if you work in an office and haven't watched I highly recommend), but I mean these are things that people are going to learn about me pretty quickly in regular conversation.

Okay I think that's enough of this for now. All I'm saying is that I miss old Facebook and there is a pretty good chance that I'll be disappearing from the Facebook scene in the very near future.

What are your thoughts on Facebook? Greatest invention ever or the potential downfall of civilization?

In search of a success story

All through my illness doctors and other medical professionals have been telling me about how recovery is possible and how many people go on to live long, healthy and successful lives afterwards. I need to find these people and figure out how they do it.

I had this fear when I went on sick leave that it was going to ruin my career. Don't worry the doctor's said they can't fire you for being sick. This is true but they can make it awfully difficult to come back, or to find another job. It really makes me think that it's about time to take that leap and move in a completely different direction, since the path that I'm on doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

I just need to find some uplifting stories of people who have been able to get their lives back on track. Just to prove that it can be done.

Week 2 is in the bag

It was pointed out to me recently that it's been a while since I posted and well it has. I just haven't had anything exciting to say. I really do try to leave a lot of my personal drama out of my blog simply because I don't want to bring people down.

So my only new is that I got through my second week of return to work. Tuesday was a little wavery but I powered through. Hopefully I can get back to full time soon.

That didn't go as well as planned

Today was a big day for me. It was the first day that I was back at work after an extended leave of absence. It was really weird walking in there after all of this time. Everyone seemed happy to see me and when people asked about my health I gave them the stock answer "getting better".

Which got me thinking why do people even ask "how are you?" the expected answer is either good or fine. Anything else and you become something of a Debbie Downer.

Anyway I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I saw them again. I guess if nothing else I can enjoy the social atmosphere at work.

Paralyzed with Fear

Maybe it's fate or kismet or the universe trying to tell me something, I just wish I could figure out exactly what that is. Just as I'm planning returning to work after my sick leave the job of my dreams opens up. In fact this job is the one that I said I wanted in my high school yearbook.

But I'm not sure what to do. In the past when I've applied for jobs and not gotten interviews I got upset. But when I have gotten interviews and don't get the job I'm even more upset. I wish there was some way for me to only apply for jobs that I'm going to get. I also don't quite know what to do about references. It's always a bit of an issue when you're in a position and applying elsewhere, do you ask the boss and risk pissing him (or her) off or do you try to find an older reference hoping that they will at least give you a glowing recommendation.

Anyway the details of the job go like this:

• Small-ish town, which is totally perfect for me since I hate living in the city
• perfect fit for my education and training, even if the advertisement says Master's preferred
• 2 year term, so I'm not going to feel like I'm stuck if I don't like it and it ends with just the right amount of time off before I'd head off to grad school
• Much better salary range than I currently make, but then again I'm over qualified for the job that I have.

That's a scary thought

You know how I was talking about my job here and some of the crap that happened while I was away? Well I had a little chat with my boss and they've already filled the position that I was in and he said that the person that they hired is over qualified for the job and probably won't stay long which got me thinking.

If people in my industry are applying for jobs for which they are over qualified doesn't that mean that there aren't many jobs out there. And perhaps rather than complaining about my job all the time I need to realize that at least I have a job. It also puts into rather sharp focus the importance of going to get my Master's degree before it's too late and I do actually have to compete for jobs with the over qualified.