Video of Daisy

Introducing... my wonderful dog Daisy!



Isn't she just the cutest???

Blogging 2 Days In A Row!

I'm blogging again! What whaaaaat! I really don't have anything to say except that I did fan-friggin tastic at work today :) And that's pretty much it!

Big plans for Clemson this weekend... Swift Robinson plays at TDs and Jonathan is coming to visit! I'm pretty pumped. I seriously have nothing to say... sooo back to dancing with the stars!

I'm a slacker...

So clearly I have not been blogging as much as I should... for all those avid readers of my blog out there (haha funny joke) I promise that I will be better from now on. I would like to take this time to use the excuse "I just started a new job and in order to ball outrageous I must devote all of my free time to being incredibly successful... which has taken all of my energy and left none for blogging." That's my story and I'm stickin to it!

But seriously... I have been so insanely busy at work lately. I have already put one woman to work and I have FOUR MORE pending background who will start ASAP. I found a bilingual collections specialist today which I would liken to finding your own turd in a neighborhood septic tank - nearly impossible and pretty shitty. I just ran that last hysterical joke by my mother who gave me the "haaaaaan" courtesy neigh that she always does. For those of you that know her, you know what I mean. (Jen)

Shout out to Jen by the way - her blog is far superior than mine.

It's only 8:24 and I'm already yearning for bed... is that bad? I wish I had the energy and motivation to come home from work and go work out but I just don't. I am seriously worried that I'm going to get burnt out because I work such long hours. I just want to get all of my work done... you know it's bad when people are telling you that you HAVE TO leave... I was the last recruiter at work today. Kind of a wake up call.

Speaking of wake up calls - I rented my first hotel room all by myself last weekend! I went to my friends' wedding (James and Leslie) in Charleston and it was freakin awesome! The wedding was much smaller than Jen and John's, which I was not prepared for. Other than the Swift Robinson guys and their girlfriends, my friend Natasha (my date) and I were the only non-relatives that had been invited. I felt super special. The wedding was held at the Circular Church in Charleston and it was beautiful. Very simple - small bouquets, buffet style dinner, open bar with beer and wine (hurray) and lots of adults with children. Our table was clearly the most immature and drunk - which I have no problem with... The really nice thing about this being a small wedding was that i was actually able to spend some time with both Leslie and James - which is sometimes pretty difficult in large weddings. I haven't uploaded the pictures from the weekend yet so we will have to wait for those to appear on the blog. After the wedding we made an attempt to go to a gay bar across the street but everyone was clearly too drunk.... so I called us a taxi and Tasha, Ben, and I went back to our hotel room for a few more coctails. I just went to bed. Somehow I always end up making sure that everyone gets home alright... call it a blessing and a curse. The next morning I drove Ben back to his hotel where he had reserved a room with Sonny and Brittney, Eddie and Emily... and their room smelled like death so I didn't stay. All in all a great weekend :)

Daisy has recovered quite well from her surgery. I called the vet 2 weeks after she had her surgery to make an appt to have her stitches removed and those a-holes told me that they were closing early. So I took them out myself! Daisy just laid on her back as I pulled out the stitches as if it were some kind of treat. It reminded me of when she was a puppy how she had happily lapped up the hydrogen peroxide (as if it were a treat) when I had to make her vomit after eating a bunch of my medicine. My dog is so awesome. Right now she's sleeping and looks quite like Falcor the Luck Dragon from The Neverending Story. Again - my dog is awesome.

Ok.... this has become a novel. Signing off now! :) Hey Jen and John... I miss you!

Week 5 and going strong...

I have successfully made it through 4 weeks at work! Now that I'm in week 5 I'm off to the races as far as recruiting goes. I have put one woman to work (Shannon Morrow) at a company in Greenville called RBC and she starts on Monday - which she and I are both super super pumped about! I also submitted a guy named Dean Nix to RBC (in a different department) and he interviews tomorrow at 1:00! Cross your fingers that he gets the job :o) I feel really confident that he will get the job. Yesterday I went out to lunch with the DBO (Director of Business Operations) who is the big kahuna of the office. I have gone out to lunch with him once before but it was part of the interview process and incredibly nerve-racking. This lunch was much more laid back. I felt like he really valued what I was saying and was considering any suggestions that I might have made.

This week has been especially hectic already, and it's only Tuesday. My recruiting partner Jill got promoted into a sales role on Monday; I have probably made about 80 phone calls between yesterday and today; went out to lunch with the DBO yesterday and one of my recruiting partners and their contractors today; have already set 5 in-house interviews for tomorrow morning; and should probably be making a proactive list of contacts instead of blogging. I don't want to become a work-a-holic... but it seems as though I may be headed in that general direction.

On a personal note... I'm slightly upset with my cousin at this moment. Jennifer or Jonathan you can call me later and we can talk about this in detail. Long story short: She had committed to being my date for a wedding and backed out when something better came along... and it really hurt my feelings. When I confronted her about it she said that she might still be able to come with me to Charleston but would need to invite her boyfriend. Last time I checked... inviting a date to a wedding that you yourself are a date to is pretty inappropriate. It's mind boggling. But luckily I invited my great friend Natasha to come instead. She and I were fellow bartenders at Ruby Tuesday so it should be a great time.

Daisy got spayed!!! I'm not sure if I have written about that yet, but she was spayed Friday before last and is having her stitches removed this Friday. I thought there was going to be some sort of recovery period but my dog is built like a tank and within 2 days was running around the yard like normal. This past weekend Daisy and I went to Clemson as we do most weekends. This weekend was a blast like usual and on Saturday morning she BOLTED after a cat and chased it about 25 feet up a tree. It was friggin amazing. And all this from a dog that had her uterus removed a week before... craziness.

Well I am going to wrap this up because American Idol is on :o) Jen you better start commenting!

Good night xoxo

So accomplished!!!

I have been working at Aerotek for 3 weeks now and I'm finally really getting into the swing of things! I submitted my first 2 candidates for jobs last week... one backed out because she wanted $1/hour more than we could offer her (stupid hoe)... and the other candidate interviews on Monday! I have gotten such great feedback from my coworkers and account manager so I feel like I'm beginning to walk around with my chest stuck out :o)

With my first paycheck I gave my mom $150 towards bills and for letting me live with her rent-free. Then I bought myself a SUPER CUTE lime green, blue, and sky blue paisley cooler that's going to be perfect for picnics in the park and tailgating! I also got the top of the cooler monogrammed with my initials. (The top of the cooler is lime green and the letters are sky blue) I may or may not have also gone downtown a few beers once or twice...

With my second paycheck I got a new comforter for my bed which matches my curtains PERFECTLY. The colors are perfect and omygosh they just look like they were made for each other. I also got Daisy spayed... She's a year old now so maybe it was a little delayed - but better late than never. I have been nursing my poor baby back to health all day today. The incision is much smaller that I thought it would be and she is walking and running around just fine. I am trying to control how much running up and down stairs she does but there's only so much you can do to control a 1yr old 50lb excited pit bull pup that has been cooped up at the vet for 3 days.

Mom and I went to Lense Crafters today to order her new glasses. When we got there we found out that they had sold out of the frames that she picked out 2 weeks ago so we had to pick out another pair. I was so worried that it was going to take hours like the last 2 times we went to look at glasses. Luckily we were able to find another REALLY cute pair in only about an hour.

Now we're watching "Cake Boss" and I'm getting super distracted so I'll wrap this up. I hope that everyone out there is having a wonderful day :o)

Business Trip!

So I'm officially on my first business trip! I am currently sitting in my hotel room right now... on my L-shaped sofa, staring at my big flat screen TV, getting ready to go to sleep in my King sized bed :o) I won't be going on another business trip for a while so I'm really milking this for all it's worth. This trip marks the end of my second week at Aerotek. I have made a lot of the progress in these first two weeks. The first week I was was doing modules and all the boring and simple learning crap. This week I have really been on the phones, assigned to a req., and trying to fill a position. I still feel a little bit lost like I don't exactly know what's going on, but I'm sure that that will change soon.

When I got to Charlotte today around 9:30 I met with my recruiter lead, Brad Anderson. I introduced myself to the APS people in the office (APS stands for Aerotek Professional Services) and then Brad and I got down to business. We must have sat in that back office for about 4 hours just going over the recruiting process and the inns and outs of what makes Aerotek different. "Aerotek is financially the number one recruiting firm in the nation. We recruit everything from the $100K a year engineering positions to the $8 an hour data entry positions." - That was part of my "elavator speech." There is so much business jargon it's crazy... and I really learned that on this trip.

So after a really nice lunch and another few hours of training Brad and I went out for a couple of cocktails at a bar and grill down the road from my hotel. He and I chatted for a bit and finally talked about stuff other than Aerotek. After our couple of drinks he brought me to check in at my hotel... hence this blog post. I feel like a real live young professional :o)

American Idol just came on so I'm going to go watch it in HD on my big screen TV! Good night all!

The end of my first week as a young professional :o)

This is a long-distance blog post because I'm blogging from Clemson. I came down here for the weekend to celebrate the end of my first week at work! Yesterday we tailgated for the USC vs Clemson baseball game and I used my old school ID to get tickets! Going to the game was more important to me than getting drunk... however I can't say the same for some of my country-boy neighbors. After about the 6th inning my friend Dylan and I came back to the tailgate where I began crowd and drunk person control. After the game we came back to Dylan's house and hung out a bit more before I went to bed super early. I just can't run with the youngins' anymore :o) Today we went to the rifle range and shot some guns. I shot a pistol for the first time... it didn't make me feel as gangster as I thought it would.

My first week at work went really well! I feel like I have really learned a lot for only having been on the job for a week. It took me 3 and a half days to finish all of the modules and for the last day and a half I dabbled on the phones and internet to practice making recruiting. I feel really comfortable calling people and I picked up our computer programs really quickly. My account manager, the CSA, and the lead recruiter on my team have all said how impressed they are with my progress so far. Jill, my recruiter lead, said that she didn't start making calls until at least a week and a half into the job. Next week I anticipate it being a little more difficult because I will actually have goals set for me such as how many calls I make or how many people I speak with. I hear that these goals will seem almost unreachable... but I have confidence in myself. I really want to continue to impress my coworkers.

One thing that I was not prepared for was all the friggin meetings. We have a "pre-redzone" meeting at 7:45, a redzone meeting at 8:00am, meetings with our fellow recruiters or account manager throughout the day, and another redzone meeting at 2:00pm... the other day we also had a recruiter meeting at 4:45. It's crazy.

Well I'm being pretty anti-social right now... I'm sitting watching Pirates of the Caribbean with a bunch of people so the typing might be getting annoying.

Haha side note - Dylan just told Andy that "if you're ever going to shoot someone with a pistol... I think you might want to just throw it at him" because Andy sucks... it was pretty funny :o)

And to Jennifer - I saw Reid Cole at the baseball game yesterday! I told him that I was following his and Meredith's blog... so Reid or Meredith if you read this... Hello!

Alrighty well I hope that everyone is doing well! Goodnight all!

First Day in the Real World!

I had my first day at Aerotek today! It's weird but even though I was gone for 9 hours it felt like it went by so quickly! When I first got there at 7:30 they had my computer all set up on my desk with a big blue Aerotek mug, 2 Aerotek coozies, and a square letter opener/business card holder. I have my very own computer that I can bring home if I want and a desk! My first desk! I might bring some pictures tomorrow to spruce it up a bit... Oh! And I got a key to the office!

The people were so warm and welcoming as soon as I arrived. The day, however, wasn't as exciting. All I really did today was about 7 or 8 "modules" or computer tutorials to teach me about the company, job, recruiting industry, etc. I learned about my position in the Professional Services division where I will be recruiting financial analysts, mortgage brokers, and administrative personnel etc. I set up my computer and had a meeting with my account manager then a "red zone" meeting with the rest of the office. Then I began doing my modules or tutorials or whatever. At 11:30 I went to lunch with one of my team members named Nick because he was the only one I hadn't really sat down and talked with. We went to the Olive Garden and it was friggin delicious. After lunch I came back to the office and did some more modules until our 2:00 red zone meeting... then more modules. They are trying to keep me below 40 hours (because I'm making hourly training pay for the first 13 weeks) so they let me leave around 4:30 today. All-in-all a pretty great first day!

When I got home it was awesome to see that Daisy hadn't pooped in my room! She stole my blueberry muffin (wrapper and all) off my bed today while I was downstairs making coffee, so I was pretty scared that it was going to mess with her stomach. But nope! I have a wonder dog!

Mom and I had a delicious chicken dinner and are now watching the Bachelor. Jake's family hates Vienna! Why is she still around?!? I'm going to wrap this up now, because I'm getting seriously distracted. I'm excited about my second day tomorrow - I hope it's as great as today!

Only 2 days left!

2 Days until I'm OFFICIALLY a member of the "real world." And I definitely don't mean the MTV show, although that might be kind of cool... I wonder which character I would be? I'm not gay, I don't get into physical altercations, I'm not a raging alcoholic... but I do love hearing gossip... so maybe that would be my role. Or I could be the girl who is way too easily sidetracked.

SO ANYWAY. On Monday I'll be starting my new job! I'm starting to get really nervous about it, not about the training or the long hours or anything like that... oddly enough, I'm nervous about getting up early and being away from Daisy and Carlie. Daisy is practically my child and Carlie is sick so I feel like I should be spending quality time with both of them. This brings me to another point - I'm excited to make new friends at my new job :o) I made a few friends at the Ruby's here in Simpsonville, but only one or two of them I think I'll actually stay in touch with. JJ or Rachel if you read this - lets get together!

Last night I went out to a local bar around here called "The House" and had a few drinks after my last shift at Rubys. A few of my Ruby crew buddies came with me and we had a few beers, a few shots of tequila and then I decided it was time for me to be on my way before driving was no longer an option. Today I woke up with a slight hangover, but after a large glass of water and 3 Advil I felt much better. Mom called me around noon and asked if I would come help her decorate her bulletin board at school and I gladly accepted. Her students were doing a lab about acceleration and it looked really fun... made me kind of jealous. After school ended mom and I went up to take a tour of the local gym because we're planning on joining. I seriously need to get in shape so I'm excited!

After our tour mom and I came home and made some delicious burgers and watched the last few episodes of American Idol. I can't believe that the black dude who mouthed off to the band during Hollywood week made it through. Ugh. He and Vienna should find the nearest tall building and jump off. After American Idol I helped mom cut out about a million pictures of organs (bodily organs, not church organs) for some unit she's about to do. Reading this back to myself makes me feel pretty lame. But of well, it's my life!

I'm gonna head to bed now so I can get up and be lame again tomorrow. Maybe I'll go to Clemson? Who knows. Goodnight all!

P.S. I LoVe the Olympics...

I forgot to say why I love the Olympics!

I watch for the wipe-outs... but who doesn't?

I LoVe the Olympics

Still can't figure the whole title capitalization thing out... I'll get it eventually.

Today was my 2nd-to-last day as a bartender... hopefully forever. These last 2 days I've decided to just go in with a positive attitude, regardless of how crappy the customers are. The hostess who doesn't like me (we have never really spoken, so it's pretty strange) sat me with some real characters, so today was quite a test. My night began with the engaged couple straight out of the boondocks The man came dressed in his finest camo and his lovely future bride/bodyguard was sporting a fat fake engagement ring. So needless to say, I wasn't shocked when they stiffed me on the tip. My night ended with these 3 construction workers (I've served 2 of them before, the second brought his brother this time) who made one inappropriate comment after another in an attempt to woo me with their "charm." This truly is a test... only one more shift.

I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off this week so I'm thinking I might take a trip down to Clemson on Friday and just hang around the house on Saturday and Sunday to get rested before I start my new job :o) I'm excited to finally be in the "real world!"

Daisy keeps licking her lady parts which most likely means she's going into heat again... I probably should have gotten her fixed by now... darnit - her nipples are going to be huge.

Well on THAT note, I'll wrap this up :o) Goodnight world!

A Productive Day

First of all, I'm not sure exactly how to capitalize the titles to my blog posts. Do I capitalize every word? Or only the first word? I'm not quite sure yet...

Anyway... I had a very productive day today! I got up sort of late, but I'm still feeling a really crappy so I'm okay with the early rise. Then I let the doggies out because the sun was shining and made some coffee. Then - sans bra - I decided that I was going to go run a few errands that did not require me to get dressed, like get gas and drive through the bank teller. As it would turn out, both of those outings turned into serious adventures due to other peoples' and my own stupidity, so I decided to go home and get cleaned up before running my other errands. After a shower and the first use of my new make-up brushes I had a cup of coffee (that I had forgotten about) and some leftover Chinese food from last night. I fed Daisy and got myself together so I could go to Spinx to vacuum my car out and then go grocery shopping for dinner tonight.

Once I got home it was around 4 o'clock and I decided to do all of my laundry. So I stripped the sheets off of my bed and began doing laundry. By the time I had gone to bed tonight I had done ALL of my laundry, including comforter, sheets, clothes, towels - you name it. After I began the laundry I started making dinner. I bought ground sirloin at Bi Lo and made burgers for me and mom. I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, and Mrs. Dash "garlic and herb" before putting it into patties. Then I made some french fries and heated up some baked beans as the sides. We topped the burgers with Colby jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, spicy brown mustard, all on a wheat burger bun. All in all I thought the dinner was pretty delicious.

After we had finished dinner I changed over some laundry and folded what had dried. Then I tackled vacuuming (pretty much the whole house) and some residual unpacking that had to be done in the office. Mom and I then watched American Idol as we do every Tuesday, I voted for the girl with the little blonde baby and the dread locks :o)

I just got off a skype call with my friend Josh Thorneycroft from Australia! He's in Disney world right now working as a life guard and apparently having a grand old time. He's always traveling the world and working at crazy places to make ends meet. I think he takes classes as well but I'm not sure exactly how he got to the USA this time. He's a great person though, so skyping was fun - it's always nice to catch up with old friends. Well Daisy has assumed the position next to me and her deep breathing is starting to make me very tired so I'm going to wrap this up.

Goodnight everyone! I hope you enjoyed the domestication that was my day today :o)

Poor Carlie Doo

We got some bad news today - Carlie, our 12 year old Border Collie may have cancer in her bladder. Unfortunately, we can't know for sure if she has cancer unless they do an invasive biopsy and try to remove some of the tumor that showed up in her x-ray, which is all very expensive. The other alternative is to give her a sort of anti-inflammatory steroid that will ease her pain and slow the growth of her tumors. This however, would be like sticking your finger in the dam because the tumors will continue to grow and eventually plug up her bladder, making it impossible to pee, at which point she will have to be put down.

So what to do?? Painful and expensive surgery to give her maybe another year or two? Or ease the pain for as long as possible (probably around 9 months to a year) until she shows symptoms again and needs to be put to sleep. Both alternatives suck - Carlie has been a wonderful dog and the thought of losing her makes me really sad.

On the bright side, I feel like I'm on the mend, so hopefully I won't be sick by the time my first day of work rolls around on March 1st. I don't feel much like blogging today... and the bachelor is on so I'm gonna go. Everybody say a little prayer for Carlie.

My first blog post as a college graduate!

Well what a few months it has been since I graduated! I graduated on December 17th and in less than 2 months I have moved to Greenville, found a job bar-tending at the local Ruby Tuesday, found a REAL job at a company called Aerotek, and put in my 2 weeks notice as a bartender :o) I have kind of come full circle I guess...

I should probably take this time to give Jen a shout-out, since she helped me start my blog! So... Hey Jen and John! I miss you guys!

So anyway... I'm sitting here feeling pretty sickly at the moment while my dog Daisy chases cats in her sleep - which only reminds me of how discontented I feel in comparison to her right now. I had work today which was grueling (spelling?) as all Sundays are. The old people love to come in and order regular coffee (so they don't pass out) as well as a small meal (which they never finish) only to be followed by more coffee and a $5 tip - no matter the bill total. I had a lady order a STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE today and I honestly thought our bartender was going to kill me. Seriously? A strawberry milkshake?! Does this look like Dairy Queen? Strawberry-milkshake-lady should join small-cup-of-manderine-oranges-man and do-you-make-lattes-here-dude and all go out together sometime and harrass someone else. (In case you couldn't keep up, those were actual requests I've gotten lately!)

I feel like that last paragraph was pretty negative... soooo... I'm excited about my new job at Aerotek! Mom reminded me today that these last few shifts as a bartender are a test, and will only encourage me to do well in my next job - which is going to be awesome! I'll be a recruiter in the professional services division and will deal with people who need my HELP rather than just a strawberry lemonade refill or a ruby relaxer "with more alcohol please". I'll get to dress up every day and learn a new skill which is very exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to pay off some of these loans too... :o)

This blogging thing is pretty neat and way easier than writing in my diary... so I imagine I'll be able to stick with it! I'm going to head out now to add some pictures and spruce it up a bit. Ta ta for now!