Feel like I've been repeatedly kicked in the face.... for the past week and half my life has revolved around getting our webpage up and running for this big industry conference that my boss and I are hosting. Conference is a big deal for our company and has the potential to generate a lot of revenue in multiple parts of the firm.... My boss is located in a different office and not a big "detail-person", so it has landed on me and our junior to get this running smoothly.... I'm fortunate that our newbie (I guess after 6 months I can't really call him that anymore) and I get along so well.
It's been a trying experience coordinating with the other departments at our firm that have zero sense of urgency - namely marketing (for the logo) and IT (web designers to upload the webpage). This thing was supposed to be done early last week. Today, finally, it's done. I'm too frazzled to go into details other to say - IT geeks have ZERO communication skills.
Yesterday, we were sitting on our hands waiting to hear that it was completed. While we were waiting, a competing industry conference email (for an event two weeks after ours) went out. Damn - not good. We had sent out "Save the Dates" previously, but the last one was back in early December.... our conference has a better lineup of speakers, but the lack of visibility is still not good.
Today, we learn that the webpage had been ready all day yesterday, they just never told us. This is AFTER we learn of a big bulge bracket competitor (investment bank) is hosting a similar conference 1.5 WEEKS before ours and INVITING THE SAME COMPANIES. Since then, life has been nothing but a blur. We've sent probably 10 different emails versions (catering to the different groups we've invited) out to over 1,000 people.... and are working on recognesance to figure out what this competing conference entails....
Brace yourself - I'll be complaining about this event until its over.....
I think I'm largely understanding/supportive of the friends I have that have kids. I get it that their priorities have completely shifted and their life isn't what it used to be. I think first brithday parties are cute - when the parents admit that its just an excuse for the party and not "an experience" for their tot. I enjoy getting cute photos of babies and even like the 30sec videos of babies rolling over and/or gurggling first words (which are much cuter for the parents than anyone else to watch).
Here's what I don't get: 57 photos of a baby that are all the exact same. The baby is wearing the exact same outfit, sitting in the same place with the same bad lighting & boring background. They didn't even delete out the fuzzy ones!
I don't get it.
How do you feel about your birthday? Do you look forward to it and remind all your friends, or do you dread it and try to keep it a secret?
Hmmm.... normally, something in between. Celebrating birthdays when I was younger was tough because my birthday was in the dead of summer, so it was always hard to gather friends for a party... that and I didn't have a lot of friends in middle school.
My former boss/mentor's birthday was the day after mine and the two of us would go out for a birthday lunch each year, which was a nice tradition. Last year, we used my birthday as an excuse to go bar-hopping with some college friends and then we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with my mom.
Adam used to be very protective of sharing his birthday with anyone. A strange habit he picked up from his older brother that I can't explain or rationalize. Since we've been together that's largely subsided.
This year I plan on going all out. Adam's bday is less than two weeks before mine and I plan on throwing ourselves a bash at a bar in Philly. I think 3-0 is a big deal.... and, if we throw a party, we won't have to visit each of the four families for a birthday celebration.
We have a lot of friends turning 30 this year, and I know of at least three friends from college that also have bdays in the summer. Looks like 30th birthday parties this year will be similar to the wedding insanity that happened in 2005.
In our office, the head of our department can read certain emails that are specifically screened for that purpose. This includes emails that mention his name or things that somehow have his email address in it (forwards, replies, etc). Seems I forgot that this morning when I sent the following email to a work-friend forwarding our bosses email.
DUH!
-----Original Message-----
He's freakin' illiterate -- can't put 3 simple sentences together.
-----Original Message-----
They sent me an updated log in. I will send it out a few days after the first one. I will try to find it for you
I've been on facebook for a few months now and like it much better than MySpace, which I rarely use. Since then I've received some random friend requests including people I knew in highschool but was never really friends with and bizarre friends-of-acquaitences looking to increase the amount of people that are facebook-friends. For the pseudo-high school friends I have taken to just accepting the request and continuing to go on pretending they don't exist. For the random wackos looking to add to their friend roster I've quickly chosen to "ignore" them, never thinking twice about it.
Today, I got a friend request from one of the two girls that tormented me in middle school and made my life a living hell. This girl was one of the reasons I had such a hard time adjusting to my new school and she was constantly picking on me. Luckily, our middle school combined with three others when you reached highschool. She was in a lower-track of classes, so I only saw her in homeroom (which was done alphabetically - No way to avoid someone whose last name starts with the same initial.). I found my niche and ended up with a great set of friends. Thankfully, my highschool experience was nothing like middleschool -- hormonal pre-teens are mean!
Why on earth would this person think I would have any interest in "friending" her now???? Not sure if I should just "Friend" her and let bygones be bygones (I think the emotional scars have healed) or ignore her (would she think I was being bitter???). Honestly, i just don't want to let this person into my life at all, even if it is remotely from facebook....
Why the heck do I care? The whole thing is very strange.
Had a great hour long conversation tonight with a college friend! We were on the topic of a suspected closet-gay friend (that's not very politically correct, huh?) My friend mentioned that where he lived there were an unusually high amount of gay people (its a large southern city). In particular he talked about one friend that was an interesting mix between sourthern sophistication (think: Gone with the Wind) and Monster-truck lovin' rednecks.
I called it "Old Money Nascar Gay" -- I'm thoroughly amused with myself.....
This is going to sound beyond bizarre, but lately I've been (somewhat secretly) hoping that I failed Level 1 of this exam. I'd decided that I would sit for Level 2 if I passed and as we get closer to the time when I would need to ramp up studying, I'm not enthused. Also, Adam seems anxious to buy a house in South Jersey - Adam, who doesn't do any pre-work (like looking at Grad schools) until he knows what the plan is, is snooping around for housing options.... sounds to me like he really wants to buy a house this spring.
It's sad, but the only perk to me passing that I can see right now is it means we would live in the city another year..... January 23rd can't come soon enough. I WANT TO KNOW MY RESULTS!!!!
We FINALLY have renters insurance! It's been a chore on my to-do list for ages. I got very far along in the process last year, but then we thought we were buying the townhouse so I didn't sign the paperwork. After the house purchase fell through I tried to re-activate my renters insurance but our car insurance company said they wouldn't insure our building. Finally called Statefarm (because I know other people in our building use them) and made the switch.
Thank goodness that's finally done!
What are five words you really like?
Submitted by purplesque.
YOU ARE GETTING A RAISE!!!
Can you tell that year-end reviews are on my mind? Unfortunately, I don't think a raise in my future this time around.
Spent over an hour this morning on the phone with this London-based analyst that is relocating to Radnor. He started the interview with three analytical/math questions.... and I only got the fraction-question correct. 5 min in to the interview and I'm already looking to get off the phone.
He asked me what my interest-level is on a scale of 1 to 10 and I said 7.5, although, I think its more around 5, if I were to be completely honest.... I couldn't have been too awful, since he wants me to chat with a bunch salespeople/traders on Tuesday (less than a week away). IF I got through that round, they would fly me to London next - which should be interesting trying to navigate since I have AN EXPIRED PASSPORT......
On the fence about this whole thing. I was wondering to myself this morning why I was even bothering to talk to this guy for a position that I'm just lukewarm about. I'm slightly more interested after talking to him, but still not jump-up-and-down excited. Guess Adam and I have something to talk about on the trip up to CT this weekend.
