pro tip: never wear heels on the first day of a new job

‘Cause inevitably, you’re running around like a chicken without a head for the entirely of your first day. This was true for myself, and I had the added extra “fun” of doing it on a university campus, among the uneven ground, throngs of people, and through the first heavy snow of the year.

SCORE.

I may cut my feet off now and just call it in. Needless to say, it’ll be flats for the rest of the week (month? year? life?).

My first day at the new job went really, really well though! I got to have a meeting with my communications team, get my work computer set up (and I should be upgrading to OS Lion soon, I hope!), get all my programs in order, and navigate the campus to get my ID card and Office Suite as well. All in all, very productive, and it should set me up to dive into those projects head first when I return.

I’m looking forward to this role. It seems that the person I’m replacing didn’t do the job very well at all, so I’m happy (maybe wrongfully so) that I don’t have to live up to some superstar. I know I’m good at what I do, but no one wants to follow “the best,” you know?

My team members all seem really nice, and I’m really looking forward to the Christmas party in Calgary on December 1.

I also get to take transit to work now, which is really nice in weather like this (ie, snow for most of the afternoon). Even if I almost biffed it three times just getting to the train, it’s still a great exchange, in my opinion.

My old boss emailed me today, asking me for the password to my system at my old job. I gave it to him and in a separate email (after no response) asked how everything was going and if there were any other passwords he may need. Just a “No, that should be it…” in response. Meh. More and more proof that I just was not in the right place with that position. I wish the new person all the best of luck, though!

Tomorrow will be even better, ’cause I get to dig into the meat of my new role, and it’s the Matthew Good show. I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before, but I’ve seen MG three times now, three years in a row. Before anyone goes calling for a restraining order, I have good reasons:

• Show 1: Vancouver tour, 2009
• Show 2: Grey Cup celebration, 2010
• Show 3: Lights of Endangered Species tour, 2011

So I’m less stalker, and more opportunist. He’s just always in the right place at the right time, and it’s such an amazing freaking show he puts on! It’s at the auditorium in the city as well, so the sound should be amazing. The fact that I’m sitting row six with my boyfriend and cousin is also pretty effing fantastic too.

So, for as much as you’re supposed to hate Mondays, mine was not bad! Here’s to a smooth ride the rest of this week.

a very nice sunday

So after feeling sick and gross all weekend, today was actually a really nice day.

I got to sleep in, then make some delicious breakfast (which was actually closer to lunch) when I woke up. Thomas went to work at 6:15am, so I had the house to myself all day.

I downloaded the fifth season of the Office (yay!) since I finished the fourth yesterday.

After I had enough of hanging around the house, I showered, got dressed and went to the mall. I was on a mission to find these shirts, but Bluenotes was a disaster area. The T-shirt section was ridiculously destroyed. I’m still kind of disappointed, ’cause it was 2 for $15 too. I might try again tomorrow.

Thwarted from my t-shirt acquisition, I decided I would try to find the blazer I’ve been coveting in my mind. I went to the store where I saw it this summer and found one in my size. I thought I would bite the bullet and finally just buy it, so it could jazz up my plain t-shirts and I could wear them to work.

Well, the one I picked up had ink stains on the size. Great. I found another one in a different colour (grey instead of black) and it was missing a button. And those were the only ones in my size, except for the navy one (which I don’t want). Crap!

Shopping was a total bust. But then I went to my yoga class (yes, the same yoga class I mentioned before) and relaxed all those bad feelings away. I really like that particular instructor, and now I know I’ll have to make it a point to go back to more of his classes. And I think the heat of the room helped to kick more of that cold out of my system! My nose ran like a faucet at first until I blew it, but afterward it was nice and clear. Ahhhhh.

Afterward, I picked up some household items from WalMart and came home to snuggle in and blog. Soon I’m going to head upstairs and tuck myself in with some more Nyquil (this cold is going to gtfo!) and read my employee handbook for my new job (that starts tomorrow, eek!)

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

sniffles ahoy

Oh goodness.

It was my last day at my job today, and it was…interesting.

When I started back in May, it was a pretty lackluster introduction to the company. Basically, show up, sit down, and work. There was no real “get to know your co-workers” events, no social introductions, just the cursory office tour and then starting a project. So I had to learn about everyone on my own. Not a big deal, just something I found a little odd.

When I left, after working there for six months…it was the exact same thing. My boss didn’t let everyone know that I had submitted my resignation (I put my notice in October 24), so I came back from Ottawa (was there the 25-29th) assuming that my co-workers knew what was up. Consequently, a lot of them found out I was leaving when I changed my LinkedIn account. Ugh. That shouldn’t be the case! I hate finding out news like that in such an impersonal way, so I’m ticked that my boss didn’t have any kind of messaging going out at all.

Also, no card, no lunch, no goodbyes…nothing, really. And I’m not saying that there should have been a huge to-do — I was only there for six months after all — but it was such an anti-climactic ending to my time there. It would have been nice if there was some kind of gesture; just a card to let me know that they appreciated the work I did there. Whatever.

Well, that’s that I suppose. Moving on and moving up to a new position on Monday, so I hope that goes smoothly!

Tomorrow is our housewarming party, and while I’m looking forward to that I’ve had a sniffle attack tonight. I better not be getting sick. I thought I was before I hopped on the plane to Ottawa, but that was a false alarm. My brother was recently super sick (for about three weeks!) with some kind of death cold, and I was at my parent’s house twice this week. So it’s a scary possibility that I may have the World’s Worst Cold brewing in my sinuses at this very second.