Administrative Professionals' Day

I started my trek into the working world by working at my grandfather's truck rental business at the age of 14. I didn't want to babysit and at 14 there's only a few options you have to make money, the family business being the top of the heap. So I sat in the office putting together rental contracts (and screwing off, let's be honest) with one of my cousins during the summer for 2 years. This was the best job and the worst all rolled into one, but I learned many lessons there. Like these:

• When you work, you may end up with the worst boss EVER. I love my grandfather, but he is horrible to work for. And the fact he paid me 85% of minimum wage because that's all he was required to still irks me to this day.

• You will have to work with some seriously strange people - and put up with all their quirks. One of his employees was schizophrenic, one was nice w/a cute butt and all couldn't aim when using the bathroom.

Throw in a couple other things like learning how to make a decent cup of drip coffee & how to deal with problematic customers and it started me on my way for real jobs. I later left this business to work as a receptionist in a hair salon (what a fun job despite not paying well at all) and a few other interesting places.

Now what I've learned is there are some people who have never heard of Administrative Professionals Day. There are some people who have only heard of this day as Secretary's Day (did you see The Office last week?). There are some people who may have heard of this day but don't think it's a real holiday or that there's no need to celebrate. This is not a story of those that don't, this is a story of those that do.

Up until now I have not had a single company celebrate this holiday. I've worked in various positions that somehow fall under the umbrella of admin professionals and quite frankly I've always written it off as yet another day where people undervalue the position. You get to that point where if you don't expect anything, you will not be disappointed when nothing happens.

Then something does...and you're pretty much blown away.

I came into work on Wednesday to see the most beautiful flowers on my desk and a card that simply said "Thanks for all of your help." The woman who started a few weeks earlier had put them there and my eyes almost welled up in tears. Then later a meeting request came through stating "We are toasting Cass w/a wine and cheese party. Attendance mandatory." This meeting request came through as post dated for the previous Monday because most the people in my office have a little problem with Outlook. ;-) And during this meeting there was a card signed by everyone and a $100 gift card to Nordstrom.

Maybe blown away was an understatement. To know I'm valued where I am now finally makes everything click. I stayed at my last job for far too long and w/o getting laid off I know I'd probably still be there, still miserable.

If you've seen Up In the Air w/George Clooney this is his key phrase:

"Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it."

Cheesy? Yes. Probably going to get you punched in the face if you say it to someone you let go? Yes. But something about that sat with me when I was watching it. Because for some people it really is true. I was lost when I first got laid off, but a few months later I found a company that I like, that does great work and values me as an employee. How many people can say that?

Viva!....Las Vegas!

I keep hearing about people in Vegas, or people in San Francisco and it boggles my mind because I'm going to be in both THIS WEEK/END and how on Earth does that happen? Right now I'm sitting on the bed in a San Francisco hotel cursing this ethernet cable that should be WAY longer than the little cord provided so that you can only use your laptop while sitting at the desk. Tell me, who in this world who owns a laptop actually sits at a desk to use it? Laptops are all about the couch or the bed.

But like I said, I am here in San Francisco for the first time ever for a business function. I've wandered the streets a little and found out that there are some great shops around this area (Anthropologie, French Connection, CB2) that I'll have to hit tomorrow. I have a meeting in the evening to go to and that's about it, so shopping might be on the horizon.

Even better, I head out Saturday...early AM to fly to Vegas. I've never tried Virgin Air before but it's a hop skip & a jump over to Vegas. The BF has been holed up in a hotel there since Monday so I'm trying to visit him (which btw is another first..Vegas that is) but in the meantime I feel a little Up in the Air with him in one hotel and me in the other. We have oodles of plans while we're there, most importantly seeing O on Sunday. I hear so many great things about that show.

But the surprise tonight is First Crush. If you're in the SF area we had some seriously amazing food there tonight. They were able to accomodate our large party and some of this food was the best I've ever tasted.

Happy Friday (tomorrow) to everyone, I hope your weekend is as fantastic as I hope mine will be.

"Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet"

Although the whole point of a blog is to post, I'll admit that the fact this blog had 23 posts before this one had me not wanting to post ever again. Crazy? Probably. But 23 is one of my favorite numbers (the only one beating it out is 9 for reasons that will make you think I actually AM crazy) and I was a little superstitious.

But let's just go with it, shall we? Thanks to all of you who commented on the office supplies post, I had no clue that there were so many of you who feel the same way about them. :-) I think we all need crocodile staple removers in our possession.

Last weekend wasn't nearly as exciting as some of yours out there. I mostly did laundry and made to-do lists for packing...throwing in a little Mother's Day celebration at my mom's place. BTW - she is awesome, even though she stresses out like crazy (hmm, that might be where I get it from!) but she puts on a great spread. We had a brunch fit for champions - strada, homemade hashbrowns, blueberry muffins (from scratch), bacon, sausage, fruit x3, mimosas etc. I ate entirely too much and suffered for it the rest of the night.


But here I am today at work, finishing up the last of everything I can before I head to vacation in Puerto Vallerta! I'm stressed out over the packing and the excitement of it all. Anyone else do that? The first time I was to see Phantom of the Opera I made myself so sick from the stress I couldn't go. My mom didn't tell me we were heading to Disneyland until the night before for that very reason. But here I am trying to pack early so I don't freak out and it's having the opposite effect on me.

I'm still surprised work is letting me go on said trip. I've only been with them about 2 months but they're letting it happen since I mentioned it when I was interviewing. We've had this vacation on the books for about 9 months and I'm going to make it the best ever. A week with sunshine, great friends, a wedding and all kinds of food & drink. I don't think it could be better than that. Well, unless I stopped stressing out. But I have my books for the trip/plane ride (Jen Lancaster's "Pretty In Plaid" and Dooce's "It Sucked and Then I Cried") and an awesome boyfriend to calm me down.

I doubt I'll be posting in the meantime so everyone have a fantastic week!

Good news!

In my last post I mentioned how I did something to my tailbone/had a cyst. Thankfully after taking enough antibiotics my butt has stopped hurting and it's ok to sit down. Yes, this means I no longer have to use the donut cushion. :-)

What's even better though??? I GOT A JOB!! In the same day I managed to score and interview with a company I sent an emailed app the previous week AND get a job through one of the staffing agencies I went through. I'll be making a little bit more than before and have all kinds of random duties, but I'm excited about the whole experience. I managed to get a job on Monday and start on Tuesday and the rest of this week has been me trying to get back into the swing of things.

Although I'd love to talk all about the job there's all kinds of confidentiality required in this company, I hope you understand. I will say that the people are pretty great, the woman training me as a lot of confidence in my abilities and the position is not too far away from home. Actually it's about a mile from my last job so I can still do lunch with some of my favorite people.

But here we are back in the working world. I can also say that this office job (complete with cubicles - but there's a window!!) has me walking around the office WAY more than the last one. I can't wear any of my cute heels without being in extreme pain so I need to find some adorable flats ASAP. If you have suggestions of cute shoes (that are halfway comfy) or a great website to recommend please do.

**Shoes by Adidas via Zappos. I may want them badly.

Blast From the Past

There are only a few things more awkward or weird than running into an old boss, especially when the partnership didn't end on the best terms.

Let's flash back approx. 6 years ago. I was working at a small company not far from my house in a temp capacity. I got along really well with my boss (I was in reception, she in office mgmt.) and we were the same age. We ended up taking classes together at the community college and even spent time together outside of work. Her boss however, was not as pleasant. He was a little too friendly, pretty much the poster boy for sexual harrassment.

I spent approx. 1 year at this company in the temp capacity, the only real explanation for that is that I was apprehensive about going through the job search again. I think they kept me on as a temp as a precautionary way to make sure I couldn't sue the company due to this particular guy. But one day his post-partum suffering wife got the idea that I was having an affair with him (who knew what he said at home - no freakin' way on my part) and within the next week there was a phone call from my temp agency telling me not to come into work that day. Nice.

Running into this woman was definitely a surprise but it was nice to see her. I was updated on a few old employees and found out that the company folded about a year after I left. My spiteful nature says "serves them right" but I know everyone who worked there is better off now.