Baby, it's cold outside*

Dear Snow,

My excitement at seeing what you've been up to all night was quickly squashed as I called the inclement weather hot line and heard the same aggravating message, "There are no changes at this time." I have a piece of advice, try harder. It's not that I don't appreciate the snow, it is like Christmas morning to me. However, try harder. You may have convinced the school systems to shut down and I feel certain even the mail won't be coming today but my boss is from Pennsylvania and no doubt drives an SUV. The fact that it is still snowing and shows no signs of stopping seems to have no affect.

My little snowflakes, you must learn to strike fear in the hearts of corporate America. You have to snow like you've rarely ever snowed here. You have to convince the Yankees that it's a lot of snow. It's the only way to get the office to close. In the meantime, I will venture out to work, unsure of if I will ever be able to safely return home.

Sincerely,

Certain to die in the snow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Boss(Big boss, not my direct boss),

My morale has taken quite a hit, you could at least say we could wear jeans.

Sincerely,

Someone who doesn't much like you right now.

You think you're too cool for school, well I've got a newsflash for you Walter Cronkite...you aren't.*

I started my class last night, the Human Resource class to help me pass the PHR exam. It reminded me a lot of a class I took in college my first semester, Intro to German. Just a head's up, I dropped it in the first week. The class may have said "intro" but everyone in there had taken it all through high school, I had never taken it.
I say this because last night I took my seat in the classroom, talked to a few people, and then class started. As we went around the room people stood, said their name, what they do, and what designation they were going for (PHR or SPHR). As people were talking about their ten plus years experience (okay, really, that was one person, everyone else was in the 20+ years) I grew more nervous. I was the baby. It wasn't just that I only have two and half years experience (not counting my year as a trainer even though I was in the HR department) but I was beginning to wonder if I was doing this all prematurely. Would the instructor get to me, let me ramble and then say, "Are you sure you're supposed to be in this class?" My kidneys began to ache, my heart beat rapidly, my palms were sweaty - and then it was my turn, "Hi, I'm Jessica, um, I'm actually an HR assistant and um, I am here for the PHR." I refused to tell them my amount of experience. I spent the next ten minutes waiting for my kidneys to stop hurting.
After we wasted the first hour we got into the meat of the course...except it was just the instructor reading quickly through the manual. I hate when teachers do that, they do it at church all the time. You read it before, let's talk about the important stuff and if you are talking and I look down at the book and see that you are just reading random sentences that pop out to you I'm going to stop listening. I can't even really follow because you jump all over the page. I know I need to work on that, but why waste the time? My homework is to read the whole first book before Monday (186 pages), why focus in class only to have to read the same thing later? But I did try to focus, I want to do well, I want to get it over in one shot. The exam itself is about $300...I don't want to have to take that thing twice.
The instructor of course, put me at ease when she let me know that the PHR and SPHR seem to take great pride in their failure rating. Phew, I was worried the test would be easy. We wouldn't want me stressing out about it or anything. It certainly didn't help that she told us at the beginning of class that she has never taught before.
A positive thing about having no experience is that many of the 20+ people have tried to take it once or twice already and they miss by a few points and they kept saying how the exam is not real world, there is a difference between real world and what the book says. Hallelujah, I don't know much about real world HR yet, so I should be able to learn this stuff without the distraction of how it's done in the real world.
Wish me luck folks, I have a 41% chance of failing.

You son of a motherless goat!*

15 more days until closing...an counting. I have decided that I want to stay with the red paint that is found on the bottom half of the wall in the kitchen. So I will be outfitting the place with random red things.

As I don't have a decorating eye like my sister Joanna, I am keeping my choices safe for now. I had received two gift cards for my birthday so I used them towards the purchase of a few items for the house.

I wanted something to hold the mail. One of my pet peeves since...forever, is not having a way to sort the mail for different people. So in the end you might miss an important piece of mail because it got lost in an ever growing pile on the kitchen table. I picked out the one I wanted and then found out that it was only available online. So I added it to my cart and then found out it was eligible for free shipping. These kind of deals always get me because the only thing I hate about shopping on the intranet is having to pay for shipping.

So I went on the search for other items I wanted that were also eligible for free shipping. Let me just say that most items I want are not. There is a piece of furniture I am interested in that qualified, but I am holding off on big things until I am in the house and have a better idea how everything will fit. I finally found two things that were on my list. The mixing bowls and the spatulas. My current roommate, Anne, has gotten me hooked on the rubber spatulas. I used to rarely use one and now I can easily use one or two while cooking. She has quite the plethora of them.

No matter how bad things are they can always get worse.*

BLOG BUCKS NOW OPEN FOR A FREE FOR ALL! ANSWER AS MANY AS YOU CAN.

Dear house,

You are only 19 days away. I pray every night that something doesn't go terribly wrong and I worry about you with all of this snow. I hope you are doing well without occupants and I promise we'll be together soon.

Warm wishes,

Anyway, I haven't done this in a while, mostly because I've been a chatty Cathy and haven't run out of stupid things to say. I still haven't but I wanted to give you guys the chance. Here is a Mega Blog Bucks Post

Rules as always, you may answer only two (and that includes choosing to answer the title). Once I feel adequate time has passed I will open up any left over as a free for all, fight it out like fat kids over cake (since I'm a chubby one I can make jokes like that). May the Schwartz be with you.* (Martha)

10 points
1. Don't stand too close to them you'll go into sugar shock. (Joanna)

2. Sometimes we don't do things we want to do so that others won't know we want to do them.

3. What kind of devil bird chirps at night! (Amber)

20 points

1. I'm losing my mind! It's time for an a-whupping. I cursed. (Amber)

2. 'Kiss my butt.'
'yeah, you and what army?'
'that doesn't even make sense.'

3. I think it's safe to say that you know the least about anything then anyone in this room. (Sarie Lou)

Blog Titles Never Claimed
1. You make me feel, what's the phrase, like a fool, kind of sick, special needs, anyway.

2. It's a technical term for a lot of water where it shouldn't be.

You make me feel, what's the phrase, like a fool, kind of sick, special needs, anyway.*

Let's talk about Ukrop's. Many of you who know me, know that much of my youth was spent there. I started working for Ukrop's in April 1999, thought I broke free for a while, went back near the end of college (for holidays and summers) and then right after graduation I was working there again. In the summer of '06 I began my transition into their human resources department as a trainer. In January '07 I was promoted to a full time trainer and received my very own store(s). I trained for seven locations and I really did like the work (mostly I liked my work with Ben, former love of my life who didn't know it, but let's not dwell here).

I left the company in October '07 to come and work where I presently am. By Christmas I was working Saturdays back at my old store...to help them out for the holidays, which turned into a year and I finally stopped working there January '09. Just a few months shy of a decade (just in time too, when I was younger I said, "kill me if I hit 10 years" phew).

I tell you this mostly for those of you who didn't know. Now, for more news that you only know if you live in Virginia, Ukrop's has sold. So those of you who know me and my history with them have probably been wondering my thoughts on this. To be honest I didn't really know until today when one of my coworkers was asking me about it. You see, I am the Ukrop's expert (she says with bitter sarcasm). People just assume I will know all the answers to their Ukrop's-related questions. So today, my coworker asked me if I knew when the transition for Ukrop's to whatever store they sold out to, would be. I couldn't say. I think until that moment I was in denial. Ukrops would never sell, and if they did, I wouldn't care anymore.

But I do care, and I knew more then I thought I did. It was because I recently sent Ben a message on Facebook. I like to reminisce from time to time and happened to do it the other day, in a non "hey I heard Ukrop's is selling" kind of way. Something happened that reminded me of him so I sent him a message. He told me about what was going on, because he is still there in the corporate office. So suddenly I had plenty of information for my coworker and for the first time I got this funny feeling in my stomach. It's akin to anxiety...something I'm used to, I feel certain I suffer from some anxiety disorder or another. I think it has finally hit that Ukrops will be gone. When I'm fifty and driving my kids around town I won't be able to point and say, "That's where I had my first job." rather I'll have to say, "Before that store was this name, it used to be Ukrop's and that's where I had my first job." I imagine my sister, Kathryn, went through something similar when her first job was torn down and turned into a Kroger.

What I fear most is that they really might not keep the cake. Silly, I know, but there are a lot of things this company could come in and change and the cake is one of them. That cake is really good. Something I have learned from people coming in to companies is that they think what they know is best. That includes cakes, catering, pizza, etc....all things that Ukrop's does well. Then of course there is that whole aniexty tied with the fact that a large part of my adolesence is being pulled into some black hole in the universe that is my life. First the ward (church) I grew up in dissolves, now my first place of employment is disappearing. It's bad enough I can barely remember my high school friends, before you know it I'll drive by the old high school and mother nature will have swallowed it up in a sink hole.

Okay...okay, not panicking. Natural order of things. I'm okay.

It's a technical term for a lot of water where it shouldn't be.*

The other day a dear friend, who shall remain nameless, randomly said to me that I was smarter then I let on - or something to that affect. It got me to thinking about what I "let on" about myself. I will admit that I play dumb from time to time, it comes in handy with boys you don't want to date and confrontational conversations that you don't want to face. I am hoping that at least one reader knows what I am talking about and that they do the same. Otherwise, I'm different and well, so be it. Regardless of all of that I immediately took it as an insult. I mean, "let on" implies that I am intentionally coming across as unintelligent. I don't think that I intentionally do it, which makes me wonder how the world perceives me. A quote that I like is, "What other people think of you is none of your business." I have no clue who said this. Since I like this quote I feel I am not really allowed to wonder what other people think of me.

Anyway, seeing as hypocrisy is something I just can't avoid, I e-mailed this friend yesterday to discuss what she had said to me, because I know she didn't mean it to hurt my feelings or to be taken the wrong way. She was just the first person to ever say something like that to me. She wrote back that what she meant was that I was more intelligent then I portray. She also said that in large groups I like to make lots of jokes, but in smaller groups I have deeper conversations. That got me thinking, how many comedians do you think are intelligent? I'm sure that they all are, but if you were asked to think of intelligent people, how many would come to mind right away?

In the end I think I have come to cope with the fact that my "intelligence" has surprised her and probably has surprised many of my friends in the past who just never said anything. I guess that is just something I will have to deal with, as I would prefer to be considered funny over being considered intelligent (and let's throw in rational because let's be honest, playing irrational is so much fun). Suddenly I feel like an ogre and an onion with my many smelly layers that make you cry. You know, not everybody likes onions.*

I wish the real world, would just stop hassling me.*

The only thing worse then having to come to work on a Monday is having to come to work on a Monday with tons of snow on the ground. My roommates all have the day off. Schools are closed, K-12 as well as colleges in the area. My one roommate didn't have to go to work today. I knew I would have to come to work, but I thought maybe we'd get a delay, let the snow melt a little or something. I called the inclement weather hot line more than anyone else this whole year. I called before I went to bed and and twice after I woke up (at 8 o'clock). Nothing, no delay, no, 'wear your casual clothes and keep warm!', nothing. Jerks.

So I had the whole weekend where I didn't have to do anything (maybe that's why this Monday is going to be so hard). I gave Chubbs a bath, I cleaned the bathroom, did some laundry, put away the other laundry (most of it), laid in bed, took a nap at 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening (weird). Mostly I worked on my story. I made cookies and watched the first part of the BBC 'Emma' (amongst other movies this weekend). Amber was snowed in at my house all day Saturday and most of Sunday. She had spent the night Friday because we were going to go to the D.C. Temple Saturday, but when we woke up there was a little bit of snow and was supposed to snow all day. I think in all we got a foot, but I'm not good with measurements.

I am still unsure as to whether or not I'll have class tonight. I'm hoping not because there are a lot of things I would like to do this afternoon (go buy dog food and body wash, go see my mom because yesterday was her birthday, etc.) But part of me thinks I should just get to it...it's been four years since I have taken any kind of class - I'm scared, but I just need to get it started.

This weekend was nice and relaxing, today sucks.