Sunday Salon - 12/6/15

The Sunday Salon is now a Facebook group.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Life:

Hello all!

It's been a long few months being on blogging hiatus. Anyone who was following me before and happens to still be here - thank you for sticking around!! 

Long story short (or kinda long, actually)...

As of my last writing, if you recall, I had been forced (not happily, though not exactly kicking and screaming) into a new position at work. It wasn't quite the right fit. I knew that, but I needed the job and figured I'd stick it out. Overall, it was good. Ninety-eight percent of my new "clients" loved me. I heard every day how great I was and how glad people were that I was working with them. Every. Day. Then, there were a couple of A-holes [this is a fair assessment, one of them called me up screaming one day - professional, no?!]. Could I have given them better service? Perhaps. Was I doing my best given the first four months in the job I was literally doing BOTH my old and new full-time jobs!? Yes.

It sucked to find myself in that situation. I am a perfectionist and am admittedly used to excelling at work, since I began working at like sixteen. I was a freakin' KMART Employee of the Month in high school! I was promoted to assistant manager of a record store the day I was hired. Literally two hours after I started they pulled me in the back and asked if I would start training to manage another store the next day!  So this failure situation unnerved me greatly [...honestly I am still struggling to bounce back. I still wake up at night and lie for hours worrying about what I have forgotten].

It all sort of came to a head when my ex-supervisor [who I have to admit is a really nice person and *may* have had the best of intentions] starting putting me in situations where I couldn't trust her. For example, she offered to write an email to those two folks who were unhappy, taking blame for her lack of attention to my training and promising to provide better service. She asked if I wanted my name to be included at the bottom. I agreed. I truly wanted it to work out and was willing to put in even more overtime hours to fix things [I was already going in early and staying late!]. Then suddenly, said email was coming from me and I was the one aplogizing. WTF?! Then she asked me, "You're not worried about this going into your personnel file, are you?" [Actually, I hadn't worried about that until you mentioned it, but thanks.] I just knew it was time to go.

[It should be noted that I worked at that company for over six years and was very happy up until the last year or so when they brought in contractors to help cut costs - ie staff].

Thankfully, I am extremely blessed to be very...employable. And lucky! So here I am today...

I was able to find an amazing job that is not only a perfect fit for me, but also a challenge. I am still in higher education but am working at a Conservatory, which fits my music and theater background perfectly! A dream job. And though its taken me some time to settle in, I feel appreciated and welcomed every day. I love it here! Some changes are brewing within the company (a merger is pending) and everyone is hoping their jobs will survive, me especially! But we are being told that there is no intent to reduce staff, just to merge our different but similar worlds.  For now, we are just going with the flow and hoping for the best. I am chosing to believe that this amazing door that opened for me, at the right time, was meant to be!

So that's where I've been these past months...worrying, stressing, adjusting, growing.

Away from work, things are good. The kitties are doing very well and have become sweet, cuddly girls. They are growing up so fast! Hubby says they have "chosen"... A cuddles and loves on him and L is clearly my baby, with snuggles and face rubs. They have discovered the basement, which Hubby finally cleaned up!, and they love it. It's dark most the day and they can cuddle up together in a pappason chair and sleep. It's still freakin adorable how the snuggle and play.

 

We put up our Christmas tree today. I realized that the babies were living in a PetSmart for their first Christmas. This is their first "real" Christmas, first tree, etc. I can't wait for Santa to come!

Blog:

I'm just getting back into the swing of things and hope to get ahead on postings, perhaps over the holidays (Christmas Eve through New Years, which the new company gives us off - in addition to vacation time annually!). I am reading much more now that I am no longer driving but taking the commuter rail and T. I've got a bunch of reviews to catch up on! Perhaps an update of the blog will be I the cards this year... We'll see.

Overall, I'm just really glad to be back.

Have a great week everyone!!

Shannon