I'm Still Alive, Despite Rumors Of My Demise!

Long time, no post. So much time and so little to post about. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

Let’s start with work, i.e the bad and ugly! So… my company grand opened a new, bigger, prettier store about 5 miles away from me, draining my business… a competitor grand opens a new store also about 7 miles away, thus reducing my customer traffic even more. How does my company respond to this to help my store out??? They increase my sales budget/target by over 20%!!! WTF!!! That is sooooo not what I needed!!! Needless to say, work sucks… and not in the good way!

Then, I was out of town last week in Dallas for a company regional “rally.” Now while I admit there was great information given at this “rally,” I still don’t understand why it was called a “rally.” Doesn’t rally imply something fun and exciting??? Dictionary says… A gathering, especially one intended to inspire enthusiasm for a cause. This being the case, this “rally” was certainly a gathering, but nothing more than that. To make matters even more interesting, I got a terrible migraine the first day I was there because we didn’t eat for such a long period of time.

After the meeting that lasted a couple days, someone decided that a trip up to the Ardmore distribution center (located in Oklahoma) would be a great idea since we were not really all that close by. The manager of the distribution center looks like Rowan Atkinson, and the inventory control manager looks like Laura Bush… so that was quite amusing! It was only supposed to be a three hour tour, but just like the Gilligan's Island debacle, the trip lasted forever!!!

Other than that, there’s really not a lot going on with work right now… I’m currently on vacation til Saturday, so things are slightly laid back. I say “slightly” because I can’t completely relax as I constantly worry about how things are going at work in my absence. After returning from Dallas, I stopped by the store to take a look at how things were proceeding only to be shocked at how it looked as if particular parts of the store were falling apart. The store standards looked like poop! I was quite disappointed… but even more than that, that is a major factor in my not being able to relax now while on vacation. I’m worried that things may be worse by the time I get back.

Josh is leaving the company, and I couldn’t be happier for him! Another company made him a nice offer, and he accepted. Good for him! I have to say that his departure from the company that we both have served at for over five years now has certainly got me thinking about what I want to do. As much as I love my job and the people there, I feel as if there is something else I should be doing. Not sure what though. All I know is that I definitely don’t want to be doing this for the rest of my life… perhaps not even for another year. I just don’t know. This will be something I need to carefully consider over the next few months.

That’s all I got on the work front… now onto the good. Back on May 18th, there was something I desperately needed to get done that day as it was pretty much the last day I could finish it on time… my online defensive driving course. For people unfamiliar with this (i.e. Edward), the completion of a defensive driving course allows a traffic violation to be removed from one’s driving record. In my case, the traffic violation was speeding. Yes, I speed. I have a lead foot; I have a need for speed. I’m particularly fast when certain songs play on the radio (i.e. Top Gun’s "Danger Zone").

Anyway, for those who have ever taken a defensive driving course, they’re boring as hell! I, being the expert procrastinator that I am, decided to do absolutely anything else that day other than complete the course. I even went in to work that day, despite it being my day off… that’s how badly I did not want to take that course. Hell, Troy even sent me the answers to the test (as he has taken the course countless times), and I was still too damn lazy to just get the damn thing taken care of.

So, I continued to put the course off by browsing myspace profiles. I came across one profile in particular of a graduate student, Jimmy, attending Texas State (about 25 minutes south of where I live). He had posted some awesome lyrics to some songs he had written on his myspace blog. I was thoroughly impressed with what he had created… so I emailed him expressing how much I enjoyed his song lyrics. He also happened to be procrastinating that day on myspace too (with editing his thesis). We emailed each other back and forth for awhile. He asked if I wanted to meet him that evening and watch some dvd’s with him… YES!!! Another great excuse for me not to complete (or rather, begin) my defensive driving course.

We met that evening at his place, went out to eat with one of his friends, and watched Rent. There was a mutual and natural connection/attraction between the two of us, so we started dating. Every time we were with each other was just great. I honestly can’t remember a time that I’ve been happier.

On June 5th (the night before I had to leave for the Dallas “rally”), Jimmy asked me to be his boyfriend. As exceedingly guarded as my heart has been for awhile do to extremely painful, past relationships, I went ahead and took the risk and haven’t looked back since. I just sometimes wonder what he sees in me. I certainly don't feel deserving of the love he constantly gives me. I'm just not used to someone caring about me the way he does.

Right after I got back from the “rally” and Ardmore tour of duty, Jimmy and I went to Laredo to see his family for the weekend. It was his mother’s birthday, and he wanted to surprise her by showing up. That was my first trip to Laredo… it reminds me a lot of McAllen, just prettier and cleaner! Haha! His family was absolutely great! So open and so caring!

Anyway, I’m gonna to head to bed now. I’m physically exhausted. Today, about half an hour before my workout with my trainer, my energy just disappeared. It felt like I took some prescription drug that nearly knocked me out cold. No good. My workout was lousy, at least as far as I was concerned. On the drive home, I constantly felt like I was going to fall asleep at the wheel. Dunno what’s wrong. Hopefully I feel better and more energetic tomorrow.

Btw: I have to say I'm quite surprised that I didn't get abuse from the blog nazi, Jennifer, for not posting anything in such a long period of time... apparently Edward is now picking up her slack! Haha!!! Thanks Edward for the abrupt friendly push to continue my postings! I greatly appreciate it!