work

The Sacred Train Rule…

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

Has once again been broken. There are five rules of riding the train:

1) Do not speak loudly (or at all) before 8am.

2) Take any cell phone conversations to the vestibule.

3) Do your best to avoid hitting other passengers in the head with your bag as you walk down the aisle

4) Do not speak loudly about personal problems because then I will want to ask you about them if they are particularly juicy, but I can’t because I’m not really supposed to “hear” what you are saying

5) Do not speak loudly (or at all) before 8am.

Rules #1 and #5 are particularly important and have been mentioned several times in previous blogs. I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with this rule.

This morning, there was a gaggle of teachers taking the train in from DeKalb. Now, I have to say that I’m not sure that they were really teachers per se. They were definitely student teachers, which explains the stories they were telling. One of their friend’s mothers went over to his apartment and cleaned it for 9 hours one day. First of all, what 20-something has their mom over to clean their apartment? And secondly, what MOM DOES THAT?!?! If your kid is a pig, but out of your house, I say, not your problem. Also, these girls were talking about how they like to go drinking at several bars and people they knew. What was particularly upsetting about this was that 1) they prevented me from getting a very important extra hour of sleep that I crave every morning and 2) the stories they were telling were so blah that it wasn’t worth staying awake for. But their voices were so high pitched and whiney, I couldn’t fall asleep. UGH!

So, enough of that. I’m done. Really.

Gotta finish work…

What's New…

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

This week Frank is training in Milwaukee. Yesterday he was measured for his uniform–yay! What a hottie! He is living with his parents, as I’ve mentioned, and it has been a little bit lonely at home, but I’m doing okay. I will be able to see him tomorrow & that’s not too far away!

I’ve been really busy with trying to find a new job and all that good stuff. We are going to go apartment hunting in Milwaukee on Sunday, so that will be good. I’m excited about the move, for sure.

Tonight I’m driving to Elgin (cuz I’m crazy) to say good-bye to my dearest friend Katy S who is moving to Arizona. From the Orange Hand to Zee Pink Lee-mon-ade, we go way back and I’m going to miss her so much!! I also get to meet her John M–the love interest 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m getting my hair cut and spending quality time with Da Husband. Yeehaw. Saturday, I have to try on my dress for Dor’s wedding and run a few errands before we go to see Dave Matthew’s Band up in Wisconsin. I can’t wait–I love Dave! And, as I mentioned before, apartment shopping on Sunday. Busy busy!

After this weekend, Frank might be using some weekends to do some mandatory flights around the country. He needs to observe the crew in action. The good news is that I might get to go on some of the trips with him, which would be awesome. Yay!

Just another thought…

When walking to work, I pass quite the cast of characters. On Dearborn and State, at about the same time every morning, there is a guy wearing some bizarrely colored (purple, orange, baby blue) suit made out of some interesting fabric (satin, cordouroy (sp?) or velvet). The suit seems to be well made–but for someone either much shorter or much taller. He walks with a slight limp, but is generally clean shaven, clean cut, well-groomed. Very bizarre.

If only there was another hour in the day…

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

Well, Frank starts work today–yay! But this means for the next 4 weeks he will be living at his parents’ house because it’s considerably closer to Milwaukee. I miss him, though. It’ll be hard to miss him too much, though, because I have so much to do. I have to find a new job, find a new apartment, and then move us. Fortunately, Mom and Dad have offered to help me, which is great!

I haven’t had to look for a job for a while, so this is going to be interesting… HAPPY MONDAY!

Happy Happy Day

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

Not really, it’s Wednesday. But, I think I have Friday off–hurrah! I am going to use that time to clean the apartment, go grocery shopping and make a yummy dinner for Frank and me and possibly two of our friends. Good stuff!

Saturday, we are having a belated celebration of Father’s Day for my dad and then I’m getting my hair trimmed and going to my cousin’s for his graduation party. After that I am probably going to go up to meet Frank up at the Lake. I think we’ll relax on Sunday, enjoy the sun (hopefully) and then head down to Andrea and Dave’s for dinner. YUM!

But until then… gotta get through today… 😀

How We Say, “I Love You.”

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

This week has been VERY busy. I have worked past 8 or 9 every night and Frank has come down just about every night to pick me up at work and drive me home. What’s amazing is that he offers to do this and is cheerful (for the most part–his back is hurting–another story for another time) when he gets me.

Well, today, he met me at the station at home and told me that he saw that I took out the garbage and folded the laundry. It was really sweet that he noticed that I did that. Anyway, tonight he was going out with the guys for a couple beers, cigars, etc. I came home and turned on the light–the apartment looked amazing!!

Frank put away laundry, started a new load, did the dishes, cleaned the bathtub, scrubbed the toilet, vacuumed hte house, made the bed, straightened up the family room, WENT GROCERY SHOPPING and there were a dozen red roses on the kitchen table, freshly cut and put in a vase.

On the way home from the train, I was thinking aboutall the things I needed to do at home, in addition to some work I brought home. Seeing everything so clean and perfect–he thought of everything–was phenomenal. Taking care of everything at home was the answer to a prayer!

It was the most extravagent, beautiful, meaningful way he could have possibly said he loved me. So, Frank, I LOVE YOU, TOO! 🙂

Train Rage

/ emmykay / 1 Comment

There are a few unspoken rules about riding the train. And there is one mighty rule that ruleth over all the land. The rule is: IF YOU MUST TALK BEFORE 8AM ON THE TRAIN, DO SO IN A HUSHED VOICE SO THAT PEOPLE AROUND YOU CAN READ, THINK, SLEEP AND SPACE OUT IN PEACE!!!

OH Good GRIEF. These women on the train, three of them, talked LOUDLY the whole train ride into the city about their kids dance recitals, day care, etc. They have no excuse–they also discussed how they take the train several times a week for their jobs. They should know better. UGH. Every time I would start to fall asleep one of them would talk even louder.

Hm. Maybe I can take a nap at work…

I have not forgotten…

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

I could start out this blog saying, “Oh, I’m such a bad, bad, terrible human being for not updating my blog–oh, my poor fans that read this blog loyally, I have disappointed you. I am not worthy, I am NOT worthy!”

But, eh, I’ve been busy. It’s a wonder that I have managed to change my clothes. 🙂

Well, as I have mentioned before, I was rotated to a new client, which has its ups and downs. I am not sure that I am too enamored with my new boss, but I think I can work past it.

I was struggling (and still am, a little bit) with God’s design for my life. I think that right now, this is what God has given me and I should do it with “gusto” as a friend put it, and use this time to figure out what I am good at and what I am not good at. It’s not exactly morale building to work so hard for so little monetary reward, but with any luck, a promotion is in my not-so-distant future. Hopefully I’ll be ready for one in less than a year, but I’m not holding my breath. My employer has been taking longer and longer to put through promotions 😦

Frank and I are doing exceptionally well. We laugh a lot, every day, in spite of our sometimes overwhelming schedules and stressful jobs. Frank inspires me to work hard and keep going… and I inspire Frank to clean. It’s a beautiful relationship. Actually, I was telling Jamie the other night that I am fairly impressed with Frank’s cleanliness. (although, if you saw the state of our apartment right now, you would NOT be impressed… oy)

I think that we have decided to renew our lease at our current apartment. The deal on the renewal is far better than what we could get anywhere else, so it makes sense to stick it out and avoid moving costs, etc. Plus, who has time to go apartment hunting right now??? We’ve got bigger fish to fry, I tell you.

What’s coming up…

Frank’s birthday is this weekend and we are going to see his all-time favorite cover band, Mike & Joe. Frank Fest 2004 should be lots of fun 🙂

Friday night is Erik P’s birthday, so we are swinging up to their new home to celebrate and part-ay–yay! Can’t wait!

OUtside of that, I plan on sleeping in on Sunday, taking a leisurely stroll to Starbucks and possibly making Frank some of my famous pancakes (hee hee–I just buy a bag of the pancake mix from Cracker Barrel–they’re yum, so who cares that they’re not from scratch? I make sure to include a slice of love in every batch… 😉 )

Moving On…

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

The difficult and challenging part of moving to a new position in our company is first leaving the people you love working with behind and second, trying to figure out the new people.

I loved working with my team–good, bad and ugly. It was my first position out of college and I learned so much with them. This new team is a little freaky because no one has good things to say about my new boss. UGH. But I will survive.

More on this later. And God’s design for my life. Yeah.

A Day that Made Me Love My Job

/ emmykay / Leave a comment

Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me of why I sometimes love my job. I worked for an hour, then went to a meeting where they had pastries, fruit, juice and a raffle for prizes. I worked for another hour, then went to lunch with a magazine at a fancy restaurant for 2 hours. I worked another hour and then went to the Peninsula Hotel for afternoon tea for the rest of the day and went home. I didn’t eat dinner, that’s for sure! How could you NOT love a job on a day like that?

Shout out to my peeps…

I gotta say “hey” to my cousin Meghan who reads my blog–What’s up girlfriend?? Ow ow!

Have a great weekend!