work

Today, I accepted delivery of all my project "stuff." Two kinds of t-shirts and nail aprons, to be added to the items I already had and stuffed into a goody bag for each volunteer. We are still a bit shy of the number of volunteers we wanted, but we can do our work with the number we have, so I'm not too worried. Now if only half of the ones who signed up actually come, then I'll be worried! I don't anticipate that happening, though.

project preparations

Things are getting very, very busy at my office! It's great, though. I'm really enjoying the anticipation and the planning. This week is going by so quickly! It's a blur of activity and phone calls and following up on all the plans. Before I know it, the project will be here!

that was fast

I found out this week that the woman who replaced me at my previous job just resigned. That didn't take very long. I know the natural thing in this situation is to be smug and say "I told you so," but it really just makes me sad. Things are not going well at the organization and I hate that because their mission is very good. I hope they can work things out soon. The flip side of this whole thing is the fact that I'm insanely happy at my new job and I actually feel a little bad about that because my former coworkers, who I'm proud to call friends, are so unhappy. I'll send positive thoughts their way and hope things get better.

Work doesn't have to be horrible

Just dropping in to say something very quickly. I've come to the realization that work doesn't have to be horrible. It is entirely possible to really enjoy your job. I know I do now, and it makes all the difference in my outlook, my mood, and my ability to enjoy life in general. It's great to be in a good place again!

The View

No, I'm not talking about the TV show... the view from my desk in my office. Check it out, isn't it cool?? I love my office, I love my job and I love my view. I eat lunch at my desk every day just so I can spend lunchtime looking out the window at the cars that zoom by on the Interstate. It's nice. Most of the time I have the blinds only slightly open because of the intense amount of sunlight that comes in, and also because I don't want to be distracted by the view, but at lunchtime, I like to open the blinds and let the sunlight come in. It's a nice way to spend a lunch break.

happy at Habitat

Work is still great! I love Habitat and I love my position. We are interviewing people for a new position in my department, which is very exciting. I will have two people in my department when we hire this one. That's quite a change from being in charge of an intern or two, but I know I'll be able to handle it! I'm also looking into certifications in my field. There are two that I can get, but I still have to wait two more years to apply. I'm going to use those two years to study and become proficient in all areas of fundraising and public relations, so that when it's time to take the tests for APR and CFRE, I'll be ready!

back again

I forgot to write that I would be at a conference Monday and Tuesday of this week. I'm back now and I feel like I learned a lot at the conference. There is so much that I want to do in my position, so much I want to accomplish. I know some of the things I learned at the conference will help me with that. I also met some great people that I can't wait to get to know even more, especially our closest affiliate. They are actually located in the county where I live, and I'm going to meet up with their volunteer coordinator and talk with her about the various ways we both recruit volunteers. We sort of share a volunteer base, so it's nice to be able to talk about that and help each other.

So today it's all about catching up and getting things accomplished. I have an application to finish and a few packets to create.

Tonight I have to create and send the publicity for the next show's auditions and I need to schedule a photo session for the current show. It'll be a busy week of catching up, that's for sure!

here we go...

This week marks the beginning of the intense work on the upcoming work project. It's going to be great! I always love being busy at work. I can't stand having nothing to do. That's why I always hated all those retail jobs I had before finishing school. There were times every shift that would be so dead that all you could do was stare around the store looking for something to straighten or clean. But of course, there's only so much of that, so once you go over the entire store, if you still don't have any customers, you're back to staring around looking for something to do. Boring! Anyway, jobs like the one I have now are so much more interesting, because there's no such thing as being bored!

The search is over!

I got a new job! I'm not going into details because I'm not sure if it's okay to do that, but it is a great organization that everyone knows and I've never seen bad publicity about them. They do wonderful work for people in need and they have a mission that I can really get behind. The position is a step forward, as is the salary. It's exactly what I wanted!

I will still be looking into taking a class or two in the fall toward my graduate degree and am still seeking some grant funding for the children's theatre that I want to start.. and of course, I'm still writing!

Oh, on that note, I picked up a grant client this week. I'm doing primary research for them right now, to write a few grants for different projects they have planned. It looks like it could be a very good opportunity to get some funding for a great organization, and perhaps to pick up a few additional clients along the way!

Things are looking up!

job stuff

Still haven't heard from the university job. I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will. I applied for another position today with another company. It's something I'd really like to do, so now I'm hoping either one will work out. They would both be great for me in different ways. The one I applied for today is more local. It would cut my commute down from 1 hour to 5 minutes. Nothing wrong with that, especially considering gas prices!

fundraising success!

The Fundraiser is over. Like every year I've done this event, it kicked my butt. However, also like every year, it turned out to be a wonderful success. People enjoyed themselves and we raised some money. What else could a person want? (besides a week in Hawaii to recover, I mean?!) It was a beautiful event and I couldn't be happier about how everything turned out. Now to start planning for next year...

What an awesome day!

Today was fabulous. About six months ago, I wrote a grant to get a volunteer for the year for my organization. Today the volunteer arrived. Well actually, four of them arrived last night but today I picked them up and gave them a tour of the city and of the agencies where they will be working, including mine. Each of the ladies will be working for a different nonprofit agency in the city. They live in a house together and spend the year working for these different agencies.

Anyway, the tour was a lot of fun for me. It allowed me to see things through different eyes. It allowed me to be a tourist in my own city, which is always cool. We ate lunch with the residents of a homeless shelter, went to two other social service agencies, and then to my food bank. Then I took them to the bank and a local grocery store. One thing that struck me was the enthusiasm these young ladies had for what they were about to do. They are all committing a year of their lives to helping people, to volunteering. What an awesome way to spend a year. I don't think any of them will ever know just how much I admire them for what they are doing.

No word from the job or from the musical. I think I might have too many balls in the air... I'm beginning to forget what I'm waiting to hear about, lol!

The healthy lifestyle program (I've decided not to call it a diet) is still going well. I lost 5 pounds the first week! I'm sure it was the soda thing. Just laying off the soda cut over 700 calories a day from my diet. How in the world did I drink 700 calories a day??? Soda is EVIL! And diet soda is worse!

Anyway, so that's going well. Everything else is going well too. I have no reasons to complain. Except money. I could always use more of that, lol.

Quacked Up

This is a great example of keeping a sense of humor when under stress. A coworker claims the duck that normally sits on his shelf decided it had enough of this life and made a noose out of the rubber bands he found on the desk. He just couldn't take it anymore, according to his suicide note.We all had a laugh about it today, which was good. It sort of made everyone relax a little, which is something we all needed.

Finished, finally...

Yesterday, I finished the Web site for work. We had a little trouble switching from the old one to the new one, but we figured it out in the end. There are still some bugs to work out, and there are a lot of things I'd like to improve, but for my first Web site ever, I'd say it's not bad. And it's a thousand times better than what they had before. If you want to see what I've been working on for the past year and a half, here it is: Bay Area Food Bank. Of course, immediately after I finished this project, someone asked me why the newsletters hadn't been mailed out yet. So there goes any time for celebration. Monday is going to be so hectic. I have to mail newsletters, research locations for our annual fundraiser (because we have a meeting Monday night) choose some pictures to go on the side of our new truck, and have a meeting about our next newsletter. There are some other, smaller tasks in there too, but that's the bulk of it. And at some point I have to fix the things that are wrong with the new Web site. So this weekend I plan to do nothing. I plan to rest up for the extremely busy week ahead. I swear, sometimes it seems like my life is all about work.