Diet Coke Break(down)

First World Problem, White Girl Problem, White Whine, etc. 

Call it what you want, but I have a serious workplace grievance.  It's about our vending machine and I'm pretty upset about it.

We have the absolute worst vending machine ever. It pretty much fits in with the rest of the technology, furniture, decor and practices at my office. Outdated at best. Half the time broken, always old and sad. the woman who owns the vending company used to date someone here and that's how she got the gig. (yay nepotism) that person hasn't worked here in 5 years, but whatev she's horrible.


see how everything is a lovely shade of old & putty?

i hate it

Even though employees here want chocolate in the machine, she refuses to stock it because it gets hot outside. Every other time you try and buy something, it gets stuck. When the item does come down, it's expired.

But the real reason for this ridiculous post is this, dear readers:

I mean, come on.

What kind of crap-ass selection is this?  Who drinks regular coke?  No one.  Mountain Dew? Even less people.  And don't even get me started on the Gatorade.  At first there was one Gatorade and I was like, well that's odd, who would buy Gatorade?  Then they took out Dr Pepper and replaced it with another Gatorade and my mind was blown. Blown I tell you.  Who the shit drinks gatorade besides high school boys or someone with the stomach flu?  No one I tell you.

Initially, there was Coke, Diet Coke, Dr Pepper, Purple Gatorade, Diet Pepsi, and water (random...vending machine is literally directly next to the water cooler thingy). Pretty good assortment I think. What went wrong you ask?  Dear reader, I have no idea.  Bit by bit the good stuff was replaced with this crap and now this is the final result. 

I don't think i want to live in a world that doesn't consider Diet Coke a workday staple. It's zero calorie fizzy goodness is just enough to keep me coming here everyday. Clearly, now I have no reason to come into the office.

Why did I just devote 30 precious minutes to publicaly ranting about the vending machine options? I have no idea. 

End of the Road...

So I’ve kind of been avoiding posting anything regarding this on my blog, facebook, etc. just because it’s scary to put some stuff out there online when anyone can read it. So I’ll limit what I write just to be safe. It’s kinda a long post though so there’s the warning!

Last week was a really rough week at the office. I have extreme, ongoing issues with my boss and they have snowballed out of control. Everyone in my office has issues with her, but that’s way, way too long of a story to even try to talk about. Anyway, I’ve sucked it up for nearly two years working with this horrible, negative, miserable person. I reached a point where it was making me physically ill and I started to have crazy daydreams about the ways I’d quit in a huge, grand gesture. No bueno.

One of my bffs, Patricia left this quote on my desk that is an absolute perfect representation of my current situation with my boss:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small prople always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great!” –Mark Twain

I love her and she really nailed it with the quote. It’s so nice having someone to talk to, cry to, etc. who knows the entire story. Sometimes it’s tough to tell a long story to someone who doesn’t know all the key players and it’s almost just too much effort to have to retell the story and get all the deets right.

After one large blowout I happened to receive a couple of out of the blue opportunities over the next two days. One was a job for much more money, much closer to home (2 miles!) and much more opportunity for advancement. The other was a referral from a close friend who is leaving her job when her daughter arrives. It’s not more money but it is still closer to home being only about 7 miles from home. There is some room for growth, but there is no retirement plan. That part is a big deal to me…I’ve been contributing to my 401k for nearly 8 years. Roth here I come I guess. Anyway, very long story short the first job didn’t happen which was heartbreaking. I received some crummy advice from the recruiter/headhunter that really screwed me in the interview process. Still pretty pissed about it so I’ll leave it at that rather than get all nasty.

So, I ended up taking the job that made a bit less money and had no retirement plan. To be honest, it took me a couple days to be excited about the offer-but only because I feel like I was screwed out of the other position. I spent a couple days feeling like a whiny brat. How dare I be upset over this offer when there are others out there who have been seriously job hunting for months to no avail. I am still looking forward to it, but mostly because it gets me out of my current situation. and I need out-fast! My last day was originally May 15th but my boss asked me yesterday if I’d be interested in only working this week (but still getting my 2 weeks of pay). I said of course and now I’m realizing it was probably the single nicest thing she’s done for me thus far-what a miserable beast. Now I can spend a week at home with connor before starting the new gig! I’m thinking we’ll do the zoo, the park and all kinds of other stuff while I’m home. If anyone is going to be around next week let me know and we’ll schedule something.

Now, about the actual job. My position is the Resale/Disclosure Manager. I'm responsible for quite a few things, but mostly handling the Resale requests from the title companies. When a house goes into escrow, the title company will request the buyer's info. I provide them with any outstanding fees due, order a lien release if necessary, let them know the transfer and disclosure fees, if there are any outstanding violations, etc. I also send the new buyer all of the community documents. The company oversees many different Homeowner’s Associations in the valley…one of them being mine. Because of this, I had to step down as Pres yesterday. Luckily, I’m ok to be on the board…just not as President so I’m VP now. I’m a nerd. Anyway, the company is at Rural and Guadalupe so it’s about a third of the drive that I’m making now which is amazing. I’ll be able to work 7-4 which is important to me. Since I currently work 6:30-3:30 I’ll be getting to Connor at the same time and getting to wake up at least 30 minutes later in the morning which sounds like a dream to me! Oh, and I’ve always wanted to squeeze in a workout at lunch. Well, the closest Pure Fitness to my current office is 10 miles away so that would never work. My new job…there is a gym just a mile away so I hope to do that 2-3 times/week. Does anyone do this with the lunchtime workouts? Do you change at the office or the gym? And how’s the shower situation work out for you? Anyway, I digress…everyone I’ve met at the company is very friendly and it seems to be a very busy, yet casual and relaxed environment. Now that I’m writing this all out I’m feeling good about it, so thanks for that.

Well, that’s my current situation in a nutshell-a lengthy, very wordy nutshell full of unnecessary punctuation.

What I’m thankful for today…

Even though the economy is extremely painful and turbulent and I very well may work in the most volatile industry for these times, I am thankful for my company for making the rest of this year Jeans Days!! No one here finds this nearly as exciting as I do, but my old company allowed jeans never, so to work for a company that follows the mainstream Casual Friday concept is a thing of beauty. Also, my company wins an award from FORTUNE mag every year, being named one of the top 100 companies to work for so every month we get an entire Jeans Week. But starting today, we can wear jeans the rest of the year. I think they are trying to make up for the paralyzing fear that we're all going to lose our jobs. So, today I sit here-in jeans-on a Monday…Merry Christmas Everyone!