Nuthin’ but an H thang, Baybay…

I’m starting to get the impression that I’m destined to catch one of the rampant office bugs flying around. Everyone is sick…or their kids are sick…or their pets are sick! Three out of 5 people I normally have lunch with have been or are sick, including my BFF.

I worked from home yesterday just to get away from the office, which was great. This morning I returned to work on a joint project with another sales rep only to find he was sick too – Ugh! I made him sit at the other end of the conference table from me, ‘cuz I’m mean.

As for preventative measures, I’ve been washing and sanitizing my hands like crazy. No Echinacea, Airborne, Zicam or any of that yet, but the writing’s on the wall. Really, I just want to avoid getting sick for Kauai, which is coming up soon. After that, go ahead – sneeze on me, cough on me, I’ll deal with it. Just not nooooooooow *whine*

This is my favorite part of Gremlins.

On a weekly basis, I have to complete a report for my boss called a “DealTracker”. Every time someone mentions “DealTracker,” I am reminded of the Gremlins torturing mean ole Mrs. Deagle. Oh, I’m sure it has something to do with “deal” and “Deagle”…and the fact that I simply don’t enjoy filling out reports.

My brand of humor is SO not appreciated.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been travel-happy.

It started with a quick trip to Salt Lake City, where I visited a client and then a prospective client with the help of one of our major account dudes (support-side!). Salt Lake was gorgeous! I couldn’t keep my eyes off the snow-capped mountains on both sides of me. We drove to Park City for a delicious Mexican dinner and toured the deserted lodges, which seemed to anxiously wait for hoards of skiers/snowboarders. My client was a wonderful host, taking us to 2 fantastic lunch spots during our stay. I can very easily see myself taking a Utah vacation, which is something that would’ve never crossed my mind before this trip.

I returned home from Salt Lake late one Thursday night, only to head to the airport early the next morning to board a plane for DC. Adam was in DC for what seemed like forever and he was happy to have me interrupt his work schedule for a bit of weekend fun. He reserved a nice suite for us at the Marriott and a fantastic steak dinner at Fleming’s.

On Saturday, we started our day at Dunkin’ Donuts. I insisted we eat there because we haven’t had them in Minnesota for like 15 years. After I scarfed down a couple donuts, we headed off to the National Mall and prepared to do a lot of walking. Most people I know toured the National Mall as a kid. I guess my school(s) missed that part, because it was never an option for us. In a way, I’m glad to have seen the monuments/memorials as an adult. The Vietnam Memorial was the one I was most interested in…it was profoundly sad to see all of the names in that mirrored granite. We also saw Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, the new WWII memorial, the White House and many others. In total, I think we walked nearly 6 hours. Upon returning to the hotel, we devoured a cheese, olive and bread tray and promptly napped in our room. Eventually, we ventured out for some crab cakes and dessert at J. Gilbert’s. I’d hoped to get back down to the National Mall to take some night shots after, but it was raining. I sadly got on another plane the next morning and left my Sweet Thang in DC.

Just a couple days later, I once again headed to the airport: this time, for LA. I’d crunched on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for this business trip and I think it was time well spent. My boss joined me on Wednesday for meetings but headed to northern California that evening. I didn’t get home until after midnight on Friday. As you could guess, I slept like crazy. The jet lag was finally setting in and I combatted it all weekend.

I’m planning more biz trips for June, but for now, it’s good to be home.

Oofda! Another few weeks have escaped since my last entry. I have TOTALLY LEGITIMATE excuses, as usual:

1. EOQ1: my sales quarter ended with March, so I was consumed by the attempt to drag contracts in during the final days/hours. Ick.
2. Vacation! On Easter Sunday, Adam and I boarded a plane for Scottsdale, AZ. It was a fantastic trip and I promise to post photos very soon.
3. Pre-Vacation! Of course, going on vacation means that I have the pre-vacation wigging out at work to make sure everything is as settled as possible before my absence. Ahh, the best laid plans…

Heading back to the office was a complete madness today (in good ways and in bad). To cope, I’m about to get some well-deserved sleep after a well-deserved haircut and a well-deserved Amstel. Major kudos to Chrissy: because of you, today was tolerable.

As I enter my comatose state, please enjoy the below video by one of my fave bands of all time. In celebration of their new CD’s US release tomorrow (allegedly and hopefully), I give you the Pet Shop Boys:

All through January, I was doing pretty well with the cold and snow. The search for the Medallion energized me and got me outdoors, which certainly helped. Breathing fresh air, even when it’s 2 degrees, makes a difference.

For a short month, February has dragged. It was nice to see the grass in my yard for a few days…but then it was disheartening to see it covered up by a fresh blanket of snow. And another, and another. The temps have been below average, so honestly, the cold has been making me irritable. Work has been very busy, but somehow, I feel like my contracts aren’t progressing as I would like them to. That’s really been bugging me. I should have booked our vacation in March, not April. But I convinced myself that I should be here every day in March to meet the end of the business quarter successfully. Now I regret it…I really need to vacation in February or March to keep my sanity. I keep asking myself: “Is it still February? Really?”

I’m struggling with motivating myself to get things done: cleaning the house, going to the gym, eating right, getting my car fixed, finishing the bathroom project, etc. The stress has been building over these things and others. Does it sound crazy that the weather is making me lazier and more stress-prone than usual?

Can’t help it, I hate this time of year.

What I dig about January is that most of my clients have new budget to play with. This usually plays in my favor, and proved to do so again this week when a couple of contracts made their way to my desk. What freaks me out about January is that it is a time to make changes, and change hit with a boom at my job. I’m no longer reporting to The Silver Fox, as he’ll be reprising a former role he carried with great success in the company. Instead, I’ll be reporting to an EVP, which is both exhilarating and scary as hell. A lot of other changes went down but most of them don’t affect my job. Still, I think it kept a few of us on our toes all week.

Then, the world stopped one cold morning when I couldn’t get my cell phone to function. I contacted T-Mobile and tried a little troubleshooting but didn’t get far. At lunch, I stopped in their IDS store, where they stuck me on the phone with support again to no avail. The main concern I had was data loss, since I had been too stupid to back up my contacts. When I got back to my desk, I tried to plug my phone into my laptop to pull the data into Outlook. I didn’t see anything happening and feared the worst. Upon checking later, I realized that it had worked, only the data was organized funny so I didn’t see it (duh, I know…this is my first Windows phone, so I’m on a learning curve here). That evening, I called T-Mobile back, we tried more troubleshooting and they determined that my phone is bah-roken. I’ve only had this phone since April, so it’s under warranty and they agreed to replace it for the cost of shipping. However, I’d have to wait 7 business days to get the new phone from the manufacturer…if I was lucky, they might have a loaner phone at a T-Mobile store.

I’d actually had problems with this phone for about the last 4 months. The battery petered out far too quickly, so I had to turn off all of my notification alerts to get it through the day. Then, just for fun, the phone would lock up on a weekly basis and not function until I removed the battery and forced a reboot. On top of that, I found the phone wouldn’t sync wirelessly 50% of the time because it couldn’t establish a connection. *sigh* Adam’s had great luck with his Blackberry, so I decided I’d get one of those instead of replacing the Shadow. I called T-Mobile back and they quoted me $369.99 for the Blackberry Sunset. Cell phone providers charge an arm and a leg for phones UNLESS you’re a brand new customer. Just because they can. Just because brand new customers are more valuable to them as new revenue. Believe me, I understand it as a salesperson, but I don’t have to like it.

At Adam’s behest, I called the Cancellation Department. I complained that I’ve only been a customer since April, my phone was already outta commission and I was about to pay $20 for shipping a replacement that could give me the same problems (since they no longer carry it in their store, I was a bit wary). In the meantime, my options are to have no cell phone for up to a week and a half or track down a loaner at one of their stores myself. Not great options. I further explained that I could cancel my account with T-Mobile, pay a $200 cancellation fee, sign up with Verizon, pay $99 for the Blackberry Sunset, have a working phone immediately and still only have spent $300…as opposed to the $369.99 they wanted to charge me for the Sunset, which they could send to my house in 3-4 days. It made no sense. One thing I’ll say about T-Mobile is that they have great service – everyone I dealt with was extra friendly and apologetic. I was equally cordial because I’m a big believer in the “You catch more bees with honey” notion. Here’s how it panned out: I’m getting the Blackberry Sunset for $70, shipped to my house in 2 days for free. I’m expecting it to arrive today.

During all this mess with the phone, my sister Audra was trying to call me from United Hospital. She’d taken the wrong type of insulin by accident (long-acting instead of short-acting) and created major havoc in her digestive system. I worked late that day, and she didn’t have my work number. She eventually reached me at home to tell me what was going on. I felt awful that I’d not been there for her right away. Gotta be honest, I hate United. I was treated horribly there once in 2001 and will never go back. Audra’s been there many times for diabetes-related issues and they’ve proven time and again that they are inattentive to patients. Case in point this week: they were treating Audra for the digestive stuff but ignored measuring her blood sugar. Her count went below 20, which is dangerously low! They couldn’t wake her up and had to pump glucose into her IV. Idiots. She came home yesterday afternoon and she’s doing okay, poor thing. I’m trying to get her and the boys to come over for supper on Sunday.

It’s been a crazy week and I’m grateful not to have much going on this weekend.

It always amazes me how crazy things get at work when I return from vacation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for this stream of business. Even with a declining economy and a volatile stock market, the company I work for is still growing. Our offerings are still very valid and we even have new products and strategy. A lot of my old car business buddies aren’t faring well and I could have been in the same boat, had I stayed.

Enough about work, though. Sorry, I’ve been wrapped up in it lately.

I have two upcoming weddings in November! I’m excited for Chrissy & Justin’s wedding and it’s almost surreal to think the countdown puts us at 5-6 weeks away. Chrissy just picked up my bridesmaid’s dress (the color turned out really well!). I’m also looking forward to Holtzy’s wedding – the music will be spectacular, for one thing.

Aside from weddings, we just had a bunch of work done to the yard. I have photos, I just haven’t posted them yet (I haven’t even finished posting Kauai photos…). Anyway, we had new trees planted in the front and sod laid in both the front and back yard. Next spring should be fun to see everything green and growing again.

As you would expect from me, I’m not happy about our impending date with winter. When I came home from Kauai, it was 70 degrees here! I basked in every second of the warmth. But now the nights are getting progressively colder. It’s electric blanket time again. *sigh*

By the way, Adam and I just celebrated our 3 year anniversary! It was shortly after we got home from vacation, so we kept it low-key. Adam sent a large bouquet of flowers to my office and had another one waiting at home. He also made us a fabulous dinner, which sounds cliché, I know. The man can cook! He’s on yet another biz trip and I’m anxiously awaiting his return.

On both our minds has been Linda, who is about to go through chemo. We’re praying that the cancer stays away and that she has some comfort during this scary time. It was so good to see her at the Art Crawl last weekend. George had paintings on display again this year, so we went to see his new stuff. Sure enough, we got there and found Linda, Jan, CC and Ann (and of course George too!). They were about to leave, so it was lucky that we caught them. Again, I have photos, but they’re not posted yet.

And I know I owe an update on Kauai. I’ll tell you this: it was one of the most FUN vacations I’ve ever had. Adam’s already plotting to go again…

I worked 12 hours today, which means I’m sporting deep fried brains on a stick. But I have so much to tell you about Kauai…

*thud*

The fact that we’re leaving for Kauai soon really hit me while at Dick’s Sporting Goods last night in the Snorkeling Gear Aisle. It was a moment of excitement, relief and fear.

Over the past few days, I would swear that clients know I’m planning a Heather Outage. For the most part, I haven’t even made the announcement of my upcoming absence and yet, they know. My phone has been ringing off the hook and my Inbox is barely manageable. I’ve been so stressed out that my face is now pepperoni pizza-ish. Hopefully all of this activity translates into commission dolla-dolla-bills ya’ll.

The other thing worrying me is the possibility of catching a cold right now. There are several sick peeps around the office and I always have symptoms this time of year due to allergies. So, I’ve been pounding the echinacea Chrissy gave me, plus the zinc Adam gave me…AND I’ve been washing my hands 20 times a day. My immune system should be made of steel by now!

Though I have a feeling of unpreparedness, I think we have most of the major things covered:
-catsitters/housesitters, check
-ride to the airport, check
-new vacation clothes, check
-laundry done, check
-new toiletries, check
-itinerary, check
-camera, check
-snorkeling gear, check

Yeah, we’re ready.

I hate this part. Yesterday afternoon, I drove over to their office and went over the changes to the contract. Everyone was in agreement. They didn’t ask for anything else.

SO WHY COULDN’T THEY JUST SIGN IT?!

They said something about “talking about the two options a little more because one guy wants a cost savings and the other wants budget predictability.” We all want something! I want my contract!!

I asked my contact if I could have the contract tomorrow, being that it’s end-of-month and all. He thought it wouldn’t be a problem and taunted, “Oh, I see, Heather – this is all about YOU.” This guy is full of awesome in my book, so he can get away with that.

Of course, now I’m up at 3am wondering/worried about it. I should call The Silver Fox – he’s probably been up since 1am.