Frustration

January 3rd, 2003, 12:07 PM by Goddess

So I sent Frosty the HR Queen a note just now via e-mail. If IKEA Boy can rant and rave and be pissed off about his own situation, well, then I am going to fight for myself, ’cause I’m the only one with enough passion to do it. Here goes nothin’:

Hi (Frosty),

I wanted to ask a question re: reviews and the retro-pay process.

Jan. 1, as you know, was my six-month anniversary, and per verbal discussions prior to my starting here, my title and salary were to be bumped up, upon favorable review. This was the main reason I took the job, as both were (and will continue to be) a step down (but a desperately needed step for me, unfortunately) from my previous employment experience.

At the Nov. 21 manager’s meeting, you had broached the subject of evolving the review process into a focal point process, in lieu of anniversary-based reviews.You had mentioned that retro checks would come in July, retroactive to the date for which the review was scheduled. It was my understanding from that meeting to await further instruction and to not share this info with staff until it was time to roll it out, but I have heard nothing more about this since then, and I wanted to voice my concern.

I would like to know if I am an exception to this rule, as my duties are supposed to expand as part of my transition from (lackey) to (goddess in training) of (The Veggie Patch Gazette). I guess my question is, am I to take this promotion without an accompanying salary adjustment? It has been frustrating for me to go from making $(a shitload) plus awesome benefits (including more personal time, 21 hours of overtime each month, and a reduced-cost lease in the city) at my old job to $(poverty level) here where the standard of living is much higher than to which I was accustomed. Again, I know it was my own decision to do this, but I was prepared to struggle on $(poverty level) for six months, not for 12 months, and accordingly, if I am to remain at $(poverty level) for the coming half-year, I am going to need to make some hard decisions that will affect my life as well as (The Veggie Patch Gazette) in the very near future. Unfortunately, that better salary came with higher blood pressure, but still, some days I’d prefer to pay my rent on time (without a late fee), as now my blood pressure is high for financial instead of professional reasons.

I’ll spare the details of the fact that my car is about to be repossessed, but I implore you to take into consideration that unfortunately, when someone like me is nuts enough to take such a reduction in salary and responsibility, well, the bills don’t reduce themselves accordingly. 🙂 A retro check, while a lovely idea in theory, will not help me to keep my car or my rent paid in a timely manner.

I am sitting on skills that I am not even using. I was a *brilliant* (I think. haha) grantwriter in my “past life,” and money is still rolling in to my old agency from proposals I submitted last year. I loved working on (Club Med-icated)’s press conference and could do so much more public-relations-related items, given another opportunity. I am bursting with ideas for how to improve our publicity efforts as well as (The Veggie Patch Gazette)’s articles and website. In short, I am attempting to convey that I have a lot to offer that I am not even using, and that with added opportunities to shine, I would be well worth spending the extra salary money on. 🙂

Anyway, if I am completely off the mark and am truly entitled to my promotion/raise this month, I thank you for your time for listening to me rant about something that has been festering in my mind since that Nov. 21 meeting. If I am not entitled to my six-month review/promotion/raise that was originally promised to me, well, I suppose I will jump off that bridge when I come to it, but I really hope you can help me to help put (Club Med-icated) on the map. This place has the potential to be great, and I would like to stick around to be able to help make that happen.

Thank you for your consideration,

(The Goddess Dawn)



Office Space

January 3rd, 2003, 11:35 AM by Goddess

Shan and I are going to see her (our?) new office at lunch today, so she can sign the lease. Woo hoo! We have so many plans, so much to do. She’s so on-the-ball — already has the phone and insurance stuff worked out. Even if it starts out that I work there as a support to her existing business, so be it, although I do want to get my own business license this month, too. She has warned me that the space is small and kinda crappy, but that the owner has pretty much given her carte blanche to go nuts and spruce it up. IKEA Boy should be an interior designer, he’s so damn good at making spaces livable and lovable, so I plan to haul his ass up there and tell us what we need to do to make it a place to call home.

IKEA Boy is down in the dumps about no tuition reimbursement for him, but while I feel bad for him, I am for once going to indulge my own dismay. I wonder why we can’t take it out of our own budget to give me the $5K increase I was promised — god knows we keep tightly to our budget and don’t spend unnecessarily. That, and our expenses are predictable — printing, mailing, address quality, supplies, etc. I am certain we can squeeze my own $5K out, and maybe another $5K for his tuition. It’s very difficult for me to see him depressed and poopy and wallowing in his misery when I am sitting right in my own puddle of grief, with no one throwing the ho’ a tow to get me out of my personal abyss.

I am hoping that Shan’s office is the ticket she and I need to make things happen for us this year. Once I have a business license (and can earn a little bit of money), I can finally invest in an iBook and write it off as a business expense, and I can move on to building a website and a corporate image and all the other fun stuff that will accompany the venture. Stay tuned for the update on what the office looks like!!!

Oooh, Maddie’s kitty sofa just arrived! So much for it arriving in time for Xmas, but granted, our office has been closed for two weeks and it’s not the retailer’s fault. It seems small. I hope it supports that fat furry ass of hers! 🙂 Perhaps I can bring it (and her) to our new office to keep me company on the weekends that I anticipate working. 🙂



Friday Five!

January 3rd, 2003, 8:38 AM by Goddess

I missed the last one, and I’m wondering WTF Question 5 has to do with the theme, but oh, well. Here goes nothin’:

1. Do you wear any jewelry? What kind?

Oh, I am the Imelda Marcos of the sterling silver jewelry world. (I used to work in a jewelry store, so I stocked up.) While I’m a trendy gal and have tons of hemp anklets and fimo bead bracelets and the like, I always revert to good ol’ sterling silver. It lasts forever, it’s simple to clean, and it’s cheap to replace when you lose or break it (as I tend to do when I have stones in my jewelry).

I used to be big on stones (hematite, topaz, malachite, lapis lazuli, azulite, etc.), as well as their meanings (i.e., hematite promotes good blood circulation), but that has faded over the years. I swear, my memory only has so much capacity — either that, or I’ve done enough drinking and smoking to blow away some of my functioning cells). IKEA Boy gave me this great, heavy silver bracelet with stones, which might just be tanzanite (I’m still checking on this), and there are neat markings through the stone that are presumably made by sand (it creates gold swirls). But for the men reading this blog, y’all are probably asleep already, so I’ll quit. 🙂

In summary, though, I love shiny silver, not matte, and I while I am wildly attracted to jewelry with stones and crystals and other funky adornments, I know that I will wear each piece to death. And I’m really pissed, but I had this gorgeous ring with crushed opal that got lost in my last move. I’ll bet it’s on the moving truck, ’cause everything else was intact (broken, but intact). I miss that ring. 🙂 I didn’t wear it that often because I didn’t want to break it, and look where THAT got me!!!

2. How often do you wear it?

I am NEVER without my trusty silver earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, toe rings and anklets. Yes, I’m one of those hippie freaks who wears toe rings year-round. 🙂 I love my jewelry and have about a thousand pieces, at least. I just also painted my armoire black with silver panels, and I stenciled silver stars all over the black — just paying homage to all the silver contained within. 🙂

3. Do you have any piercings? If so, where?

You are going to have to turn me over to find out the answer to THIS one!!! 🙂

4. Do you have any tattoos? If so, where?

See Question 3. LOL. Actually, I’ll save you the trouble. No. My weight fluctuates way too friggin’ much, so I don’t want to have a butterfly turn into a catepillar and back to a butterfly again, just ’cause I changed my eating/exercise habits. 🙂

5. What are your plans for the weekend?

Being pissed off because my job doesn’t pay enough for me to even make the rent this month. Take that, Club Med(icated)! Fuckers. I guess I’ll be sitting my impoverished ass in my room and cleaning it, as well as making sure that the shared space stays clean. And if I’m feeling particularly ambitious, the tree’s coming down, although that’s a lotta crystal and lights I just DON’T feel like dealing with!



A Rose by Any Other Name. …

January 3rd, 2003, 8:16 AM by Goddess

Would still be a dumbass, no matter what it’s named.

So this dipshit legally changed his name to Jack Ass in 1997. I’ll spare my thought that a lot of men should change their names to that (lol. oops, too late!). But he says it was to raise awareness of the perils of drunk driving. Perhaps he should, instead, have gone with Dumb Ass? Or, as my gay friends would say, Poop Dick would be rather fitting — ’cause he’s still full of shit, no matter how you look at it.

At any rate, he thinks he’s going to get $10 mil from MTV’s “Jackass” show for tarnishing his sterling name. I can’t imagine how one who legally changed his name to Jack Ass actually would expect anybody to take it any less than literally. …



::Sniff::

January 2nd, 2003, 4:57 PM by Goddess

‘Tis the season to be loosening your belt ’cause your Mom fed you like it was going out of style. ‘Tis also the season to take down your Xmas tree. Oh well. Before she goes back into her box, I wanted y’all to see her. Props to Mom for spending her last dime (and then some) for the cool new digital camera!!!



Withdrawal

January 1st, 2003, 11:19 PM by Goddess

I need for my gal Dawn Olsen to get back into the swing of posting. I’m so damn glad the holiday is over, ’cause I miss her intelligent rants! Dawn, I hope you and Lily and your family had a wonderful holiday season!!! Now, blog, damn it!!! 😉



Pissed-off Irish Princesses

January 1st, 2003, 10:06 AM by Goddess

“You’re the first to know

That I’ve got a brilliant plan

I hope you understand

I want to meet in 2OO3

I want to see what the future can bring to me

And when I do

I’ll meet you here my darling, yeah

And when I’m free

I’ll be waiting where I said I would be

My love, will you wait for me?”

— Nina Gordon, “2003” —

Shan and I looked entirely too good to be stuck out at Bennigan’s for New Year’s Eve. She was gorgeous in a new, stylish black-velvet suit, and I was in a new light-blue number with beige lace that I couldn’t resist picking up whilst I was in Pittsburgh, and trust me when I say that we commanded the attention of most red-blooded males in Bennigan’s. Unfortunately, Renee and John weren’t working, which meant that the service SUCKED. I sat there for a half hour before Shan arrived, with no drink, and our glasses were continually empty the whole night. And don’t even get me started about the ranch dressing that was MIA. You can do a lot of things to piss us off, but forgetting the ranch, well, is simply unforgivable.

So we left early. The way I figured it, it was already New Year’s in Ireland, and therefore, these two pissed-off Irish princesses could feel good about going home and going to bed, as our home country had already celebrated the New Year. 🙂

I was kinda raring to go — I needed to be out, and I needed to see Shan, so those goals were accomplished way before midnight. I mean, I drove what turned into five-plus hours from Pgh, just to be here for New Year’s. Most of my friends who had promised to come out with us either couldn’t make it or were coming late, so I made sure that IKEA Boy and the gang didn’t bother wandering out for midnight, ’cause I wasn’t going to be there.

Shan also has my grandmother’s theory, that whatever you’re doing/feeling at midnight is what you’ll be doing all year, and like me, she’s spent each New Year’s (and each weekend of the year thereafter) crocked. So, this year, she decided that she wanted to be in a Nyquil-induced coma when the clock struck 12, to symbolize the end of a fucked-up year. I, on the other hand, bought into the idea of being at home for midnight, to allow me to wake up a bit early and to get my year on the right track immediately. I’d like to do some stuff around the house today (I nuked the shower last night, but there’s so much more to do).

So at midnight, I was on the phone with my family, which was what was what I really wanted. We have so many things to do this year — we (including Shan, ’cause she’s family too) don’t want this to be another year that we write-off next New Year’s. We want this year to count and to make up for all the sucky ones that preceeded it.

I don’t start my New Year’s resolutions till Jan. 2, because Jan. 1 always starts at midnight, when you’re intoxicated and chainsmoking anyway. So tomorrow, I begin my pared-down goals:

1. Self-preservation (emotionally, physically, financially);

2. Self-promotion (getting out of the ol’ career rut);

3. No more settling (I CAN have what I want, and I WILL have it, or have it again); and

3. No looking back (it’s all forward from here, baby!).

I think it’s going to work out that Shan gets an office in Old Town (on King Street — a prominent and impressive location) for her business, and damn it, I am going to be there every step of the way. By next NYE, we will be in business for a few months, and we will be in gorgeous ballgowns at an extravagant party somewhere. Mark our words. There’s a lot do do during the next 12 months, but one thing she and I realized when we saw each other is that the team is back together, and while we can accomplish a lot independently, we are amazing when we put our heads and our hearts together. And this year, starting this month, that is exactly what we are going to do. These Irish princesses are no longer going to be pissed off, so stick around and read about our evolution into royalty. ‘Cause it’s gonna happen. 🙂 Count on it!



January 1st, 2003, 7:53 AM by Goddess