Make a freaking decision

I don't know what this post was supposed to be about. So really it's probably a very appropriate title for a blog entry.

I think I intended to write about moving to a new city. That isn't the only decision I was trying to make when I left the title, but it's the only one I would have probably blogged about and it's the only decision I still haven't made.

If I ask for a transfer it's a 3 year commitment before I'm allowed to ask to move again. This makes it a fairly big decision and at this point it's come down to two leading choices. Minnesota and Seattle. Let's break it down.

Minnesota:
a) I know people currently living there... Yay Colin!
b) I've visited the city numerous times and know I would probably like living there.
c) Kinsey and Greg are considering moving there.
d) Amy might move there.
e) We will definitely be opening more stores there. So there's room for me to grow and get promoted.
f) It's safe... meaning it's familiar... and not to far from places and people I know.

Seattle:
a) Mountains and the ocean.
b) It rains a lot. And I love rain.
c) I've only ever been to the airport.
d) There are lots of store there already.
e) The only person I know there is Matt. And Marta's in Oregon about and hour and a half away.
f) Matt's buying a house there which would make rent cheaper if I help him fix it up.
g) It's west coast. (well, duh, you're thinking) But in terms of work this is a factor. West Coast has limited growth opportunities. That's why so many people who work here are originally from California. They all moved out here where you can get promoted faster. I know we're starting to grow out there again, but it's a bit of a risk. I could likely get promoted faster if I stay here or move to the south.

Both cities have some important things in common:
Both have baseball teams (YAY! BASEBALL!)
Both offer a greater sense of freedom (aka get me out of my parents house)
Both are fairly major cities and all that goes along with that.

For the moment it's a moot discussion. There's no way I can transfer before January or February 2007. Supposedly our store is set to move and be open in the new location by Halloween. Construciton is underway, but I know we're still waiting for permits to come through. Right now it's looking like that will get pushed back a few weeks. Too long though, and it's the holiday season. That will put everything on hold until January.

So best case scenario we move, it's the holidays and then I'm free. Worst case we move in January and I don't get to leave until spring. Basically my store Captain has told me he won't ok a transfer until after we've moved. He can't afford to lose people he can count on to run the store. (more on this in a later post)

Work on my day off

So my phone rings at 1 am this morning and I check it and the ID says Shannon. Why is she calling? She knows it's my day off. Of course I'm sleeping right now. Grrr. If it's important she'll leave a message.

As it turns out, she's puking and is supposed to be at work at 3 am. What is she supposed to do? I have no idea. The problem here is that only 2 people work at that time. And you're not supposed to go into the store alone. So there's no good way of calling that person and letting them know you're sick. I don't know what to do, but now that I know about the situation I feel like I'm responsible for doing something about it.

So 2:30 rolls around and she's still sick so I volunteer to go in and cover that first hour or whatever until the next employee shows up. Yay light scheduling! means no one else will be in until 530. Great. And I get to work with one of my least favorite coworkers. Oh well. The other opener is one of those people that I just don't get along with. We can work together fine and I have no problem being civil, but I just don't have a lot of respect for her in the work place... for various reasons I don't want to get into here on the off chance that some day someone might read it and it gets me in trouble.

I go in, I work, I leave, I go back to bed. All of a sudden it's 120p and there went most of my day. Not that this is the end of the world or anything. I just had planned on running errands and getting other things done today. Now I'm spending the day lying in bed blogging and watching DVDs. Tragic, I know :D


This gets me thinking... What would you have done? Would you have gone in? I guess I didn't feel like I even had a choice, but I suppose I could have just rolled over and pretended I never got the message until morning. If the call had come from someone I wasn't friends with, would I have still felt obligated to cover?

Go Dancing

I have a dirty little secret to admit. Well it's not so dirty and not really a secret... but I am becoming a Friday night regular at a country line dance bar. Yes that's right. I hear the first step towards getting help is admiting that I have a problem. I blame my new friends. Shannon goes there with Rob and they know all sorts of people there. They actually are regulars.

There's this bar (and if me saying country line dance bar made you think of Swisher you couldn't be more wrong). This place is huge, like a warehouse. There are two giant projection screens showing ESPN behind each bar and in the center is a dance floor fenced off like a roller rink. And the people here can dance. Like really line dance and they look the part. Like a song comes on and everyone just knows what dance to do. It's great. :D

I don't really dance, only the one or two I know. Or if I've had enough to drink, then I'm more willing to make a fool of myself trying to learn a new one. Basically I look forward to going out every friday night because it's always a ton of fun.

If you ever visit and you're here over a friday night, we'll go. You'll see what all the fuss is about.

I'm completely, openly swiping this from Tim. Because it's far too cool not to:

Pandora

It's changed the way I listen to music. I leave it on for hours at a time.

You NEED to check it out.

Play ball!

As the summer begins to wind down I realized I hadn't gone to nearly enough baseball games. I even started off so well. There was the first Cubs game back in April. And then I went to another one in June. And then we dragged Mike and his son to country night in July.



But I had only made it to Miller Park once with my dad. So to remedy that I called up all my friends here in Illinois. (Yes all 4 of them, and yes they all at some point worked at TJ's with me) We went to see the Cubs play the Brewers in Milwaukee.


Me, Stefan, David, Rob


Rob and Shannon


David and I. I stole his broke down Braves hat to mock him and his Thug Look


He then pulled out a stylish 80's sweatband.


Stefan remembered why he'll miss us so much now that he's living in Boston. We're just more fun than anyone else :D


It was quite the outing and well worth the fact that I think only Stefan paid me for his ticket.... By the end my voice was completely hoarse and I was ready to pass out.

Say goodbye

This is Shadow:



When we first got her she was 4 months old and as you can see had huge ears and paws, but was pretty skinny. Everyone kept telling my mom that she looked adorable, but wow was she going to get big. This didn't really help me out any, seeing as I had told her that she probably was as big as she'd get already.





She loved Christmas because of the tree and the wrapping paper. Every year we'd get her a new toy, but she was always far more interested in the paper and ribbon that went everywhere as gifts were unwrapped.



Shadow was an obedience school drop out. She barked too much. She only learned two or three tricks. Sit, Wait and Don't just run out the door first. The last she learned at school when she was the "example dog" and the trainer squashed her head in the doorway. It wasn't as horrible as it sounds. It was actually pretty funny. She learned Wait as the first step in me trying to teach her to balance food on her nose. She never actually made it to step two. But she got pretty good at step one.



The first time I went away for more than a few days she didn't know what to do and camped out in the doorway of my bed room. When I went to college she didn't really understand that either and I think it confused her all the more when I'd come home for a day or two.



The last couple weeks she had been deteriorating fast. Her back right leg started to give out and she'd sway every few steps. She also couldn't really do stair anymore. Up or Down. I'm glad we didn't drag it out. The decision was made. The next day it was over. She was 12 and a half. Big dogs usually only live to be 9 or 10. Doesn't make it hurt less.



Now it just hurts when I forget that she's gone. Like I wake up and go to take her outside. Or I get home at 2 am and expect to see her at the top of the stairs. Her food and water dishes are gone. The toys too. At least I got the chance to say good bye.

Take a mini-vacation

Since I had already taken a few days off work for the wedding, I figured it was a good time to go back to Iowa City. It's still nice to go and see everyone I miss so much and the city that was home for so long. It was pretty low key and relaxing. I had been hoping to play some sand volleyball but the weather didn't cooperate. Instead I did get to see some pretty amazing clouds when the storm passed through. So I guess it's an ok trade off.

Get Married!

Jess and Eli got married! and the wedding was pretty great. I would post pictures, but I didn't take any so instead I'll just post links to Angie's blog. She took lots of pictures and gives a pretty great summary.



Pre-Wedding



Those bouquets were crazy, and heavy, and amazing. It was my job to arrange them so that the bead sphere looked as nice and uniform as possible. It was ridiculous and tedious, but bizarrely enough Jess's dad ended up taking over for me. I think he just felt like Finally! something he could help with.



Those bug sprayer things Tim's got worked surprisingly well. I didn't feel any mosquito bites until about 10:30... 6 hours after he sprayed... just like the cans said.



After the bouquets were done Marissa and I played with the left over art supplies (aka wire, beads and hot glue). This is the awesome hot air balloon I made. I was pretty impressed that I could hot glue the balloon without it popping.


The Wedding

The Wedding itself was short, due to a bit of rain. I think it worked though. It was raining lightly so Jess and Eli didn't get wet, just the rest of us. And unfortunately I think I'm on the wedding video running up the aisle with an umbrella for Jess's parents. oh well. The best part about rain at a wedding is the rainbow afterward.






I really like the way the lights turned out. And Angie was definitely wrong about Tim just doing what he was told because it was his idea to drape them that way at the front. Which I think looks pretty cool. And the lights probably wouldn't have gotten done without his help. At the very least I may have killed Eli's uncle and that would have put a damper on the whole day.
When Tim got there I was happy to have someone else around who was useful and creative in a non-artsy sort of way. If that makes sense. Because that's what I am. And I don't mean to imply everyone else there wasn't useful or creative. It's just the difference between having to explain what your doing step by step to someone and being able to tell them the general plan and have them not only get it, but be able to make suggestions.
Hopefully I didn't just put my foot too deeply into my mouth.



And while we're on the subject, when did I become the useful friend? Not that I have a problem with it, I just realized lately that I'm the go to for anything practical. Like, algebra quesitons, lighting, furniture assembly.... just curious.

Like I said before, Angie's got lot's of great pictures, so you should really go look at the rest of them there. After the wedding we had to take everything down and return it to the Laug's in Carol Stream. While Angie and I did this, Tim was in charge of going out to buy beer. He didn't succeed, but he got points for picking up some grape soda instead. The three of us went back to the hotel and flipped channels before fianlly settling on the leaving the spanish channel up and watching YouTube videos on Angie's laptop.



Nice and relaxing after lots of wedding craziness.



The next day we went to Arby's for lunch and then caravanned back to Iowa. We had to stop at the Dekalb Oasis so I could get new velcro strips for my IPASS and Tim could get gas and Angie could get coffee. Right before we hit I-80 Angie took some random exit... and I never did find out why or where she went..... Angie?