Wednesday, November 30, 2005

A Slogan For My State

Did anyone see The Daily Show last night? I love me some Jon Stewart and that show is among my favorites even though it keeps me up past my bedtime. Well, last night they were talking about Jersey and how the state is looking for a slogan. They interviewed our interim governor Richard Codey (our last governor resigned amidst a gay scandal which was the least of his worries, really), which was pretty funny. They showed a map of my fine state and showed how perfect it is as a route to get to other places, but not a place to actually visit. They showed streets in what I assume to be Irvington or Newark and how scary and crime-ridden they are, and then roads in what I assume to be Hudson County (sorry Patsy Darling) and how congested and smelly they are. It was a pretty accurate piece on what people perceive Jersey to be. And it was really funny (yes, I can laugh at my own state's shortcomings).

But my real question is, why aren't they coming to the one and only True Jersey Girl for a slogan? "Bon Jovi, Big Hair, and Bruce - What More Could You Want?" I mean, if that (plus my charming personality) does not make you want to visit the Garden State, I don't know what will.

Monday, November 28, 2005

The Giants Suck

Have you ever notived how hard it is to concentrate on work when your boss is out? Well, not only is my boss out, but most of the company is out. Until Thursday. The big question is, will I get ANYTHING done this week???
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"Jay Feely will be kicking himself all week. But if Sunday was any indication, he'll probably miss." This is the best quote I have seen about last night's fiasco of a game between the Giants and the Seahawks. This one isn't bad either: The more the Seahawks tried to hand the game to the Giants, the more Jay Feely kept kicking it back.

Mr. Feely. You have one job to do - kick the ball through the posts. And you miss - not once, but three times, in game winning situations. He should be FINED for each of those misses (ok, maybe not the 54-yarder, but the others, yes). This is why it is so hard to be a Giants fan. Even when we are vaguely decent and having a semi-competitive year, we still find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot every time. As my dad has been telling me since I was a kid, THE GIANTS SUCK. But somehow, we are still fans. Maddening.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Its My Birthday! My B-b-b-Birthday!


(You'll just have to imagine Cartman singing his birthday song there. I am a complete moron and can't figure out how to get the link up.)
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Well, today isn't my birthday - Friday is. But knowing me and my completely ridiulous absence from the blogging world lately, I will probably not get on here to post for my b-day itself. But perhaps, as a gift to me, Hub will give me about 10 hours of interruption-free time online to catch up on all your blogs.

Here is the funniest thing about my birthday. I do not know how old I am. Yes, I could do the math but the answer will depress me. Plus, I am not so good at the math so I might end up adding wrong and thinking I am older than I am. Luckily, since I do not know my real age, I can just go on pretending I am 22. Works for me; that was a damn fine year.
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Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow American readers! I am thankful for each and every one of you (especially you non-lurkers). Have a great day!

Monday, November 21, 2005

Randomness

Go read this about what us Jersey broads are like, over at my sister's place.
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I thought the housing bubble had burst? The people across the street from me, who have a much smaller house and an even smaller lot than I have, had their house listed for $450k. It just sold for $495k. Insanity.
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Does anyone else think that Grey's Anatomy is the best friggin show on tv? I don't even watch Desperate Housewives anymore, its gotten so lame, but Grey's Anatomy is phenomenal. And I love me some Prison Break, except I am getting sick of them trying to break, I wish they would just do it already. Though it sure was nice seeing Michael in his skivvies tonight.
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Remember I told you how my boss was always taking credit but in an odd way? This proves how odd it is. I coordinated an employee event for the company, the first one ever at this company. It got RAVE reviews, from the top management down. Everyone loved it. I was standing a few feet from my boss when our CEO came over and told her how great the event was and thanked her for coming up with the idea and carrying it through. Without knowing I was standing there, she told him, "Go tell True, this was all her doing, I had nothing to do with it. Isn't it wonderful?!" She gave me full credit to the CEO, yet she steals the credit for creating a silly little form? This is why I think there is some mental deficiency there.
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My cousin, the one who just got married, is so awesome. He is on his honeymoon and he called me from the Dominican Republic because he thought we were all in Key West this week and wanted to wish us a happy vacation. How cool is that? What 26 year old guy thinks of calling his old lady cousin at all, much less on his honeymoon?
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I will be spending my four-day weekend cleaning and decorating for Christmas. We have our outrageously amazing Christmas Party in a few weeks, and Princess's second birthday party is the weekend before that...so no rest for the weary.
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Have I mentioned lately how very much I love my ipod?

Thursday, November 17, 2005

An Update On My Life

On Sunday night, Hub's other eardrum burst. So we had quite an exciting weekend, and not the kind of excitement I am used to. He saw a doctor on Monday and got some medication, and he goes back to see him next Friday. He still can't hear so well, but he is getting better. And the bleeding has stopped, which is always a good thing. Thanks for all of your concern; its much appreciated!
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So I have not told you too much about work, have I? I think I have told you how well Princess is doing in daycare - she is doing AMAZING. She loves it. It was most definitely the right thing for her at this time. She is learning so much, its amazing. She talks about her friends and her teachers all the time. I am SO pelased with how she is doing there. In fact, yesterday when Hub dropped her off, she didn't even want to kiss him goodbye, she just wanted to go play with the kids. No crying, no drama. Beautiful.

My job? Its going well. My boss is a very accommodating woman who keeps me in the loop about everything, shares all the info I need (this is something I so didn't have at my previous job), and is a nice person as well. People here are so positive and happy, and are much less cynical and sarcastic than at my previous job (not necessarily a plus for a gal like me being quite the cynic myself, but don't you worry: I have befriended the only other cynical girl here). But I have been here for about 2 months now, and already the shine of working has worn off. Because already my boss is annoying me. And to be honest, I am sure part of it is me (because I am a very easily-annoyable person. I know this.). But I know its not all me. And since its more fun to tell about the negatives than the positives - here we go.

A perfect example is what happened yesterday and today. Yesterday, we were terminating some employees in the HR/Payroll system who had left the company. There is no method to how all this is done and no way of knowing if someone else in the office has already done it. I suggested that a good way to track the changes we were making would be to create a form that would go into each employees' personnel folder when they start with us. We can have a checklist of items that need to be done for each employee from the time they start with us till the time they leave us (such as starting them on benefits, taking them off benefits, etc). Great idea! she says, You are brilliant! So I start working on it last night and I am finishing it up this morning. She walks into the office this morning and says, "I had a great idea I thought of last night. We could create a checklist of items that need to be done for each employee from the time they start with us till the time they leave us." Ummm, why does that sound familiar to me? Because it was my idea, beeyotch! And she has done this type of thing before, where I will make a suggestion and then soon afterwards she claims it as her own. And not even to upper management or anything, like she is trying to steal credit - she does it right to my face. It is bizarre and annoying.

And, she really has no sense of humor. She is a nice person, but she doesn't really find anything except her own self to be funny. Like I said before - no sarcasm or cynicism in this bunch. So I find myself laughing fakely at the unfunny things she says, and when I say something funny she doesn't even smile. And trust me, I am one funny broad.

The other thing that is annoying me is this. I have never run payroll before, but I am learning how to do it here. Great, no problem, I want to learn, its one reason I took this job. So she is going sooooo sllllooowwww with me going over the most basic things - like entering a newhire, hello, I have been in HR for 10 years, I know how to enter a newhire, duh, its simple data entry that a $6 an hour clerk could do - but then when it comes to things like archiving data and running tax reports and things like that - she expects me to know that and gives me no guidance on it. I think it is because she doesn't really know how to do it herself so she isn't capable of teaching me. But that doesn't make it less annoying when she says in one breath "OK, use the drop down menu to select the newhire tab...ok, now enter the person's last name, just type it in, ok, now type in the first name, ok, now use your mouse and go to the next area where you can enter their address..." and in the next breath she says "now archive the hourly punches from the last two weeks, and run a batch for employee 4411 in the grid." Bah.

I don't know if any of that made any sense, but I just needed to vent. I do like my job and I do like my boss. Its a great company and HR is well-respected here (very rare). I am learning a ton and will be able to take that to my next company and make boku bucks. So I don't mean to make it sound terrible or anything. But like I said, I am easily annoyed and who else will I tell if not you?

Saturday, November 12, 2005

I Am Freaking Out Right About Now

Hub just went to the emergency room. Its almost 11 pm here and he was fine to drive, and someone had to stay with Princess so here I am. He has had an earache since Key West, probably from the horrendous waves while we were snorkeling. I got mad water in my ear but it all came out that day. I think his was trapped. Its been bothering him, and today it got really bad. So he holds one ear closed and pushes really hard, like trying to push the water out of his ear. Some liquid comes out followed by gobs of blood. The blood didn't stop. I asked if he wanted to go to the emegency room, expecting a manly "No Dear, I Am Fine" out of him. But no. He said he wasn't sure. So then I start worrying. I came onto the computer to check WebMD to see what I could find out (useless, btw) when he comes into the office all dressed with his keys, saying he's going to the hospital. Now all I can do is sit here and wait and hope there aren't too many gunshot wounds ahead of him on line at the hospital.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Now you all know I am a Jersey Girl from head to toe, right? So don't think I am dissing my state when I say this: it sucks to be back. I left sunny, gaw-jus Key West yesterday around lunchtime, after spending a lovely morning with Patsy by the pool, recovering from the night before. We had some airline issues (they changed all our flights due to rainy skies here in Jersey, including which city we flew into and what times both of our flights left, and we circled over Newark Airport for God knows how long), and as soon as we got off the plane the difference from Florida to NJ was painfully obvious. People were yelling and running around like crazy, horns were beeping and drivers were cursing at each other, it was cold and rainy, etc etc etc. Not a pleasant welcome home. Until of course I went to pick up Princess at my parents' house. She saw me and was freaking out, yelling unintelligible sounds and then "mmmmmmommmmmmmmyyyyyy!!!!" At that moment, I was glad to be back.
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How much fun did we have in Key West, you may ask? Well, I can tell you this much. We hit nearly every bar on Duval Street and a bunch on other streets and piers too. We closed down the bar two of our 4 nights there. We heard so much Jimmy Buffett that we wanted to find the man and kill him for writing so many songs that sound exactly alike. We were so grateful to hear a few Bon Jovi songs here and there that we screamed every word even though the bands sucked. We went snorkeling, which was so not fun (not much to see, VERY choppy water that you had to fight the entire time) but then we drank so much "free" beer that we got our moneys worth anyway. Our friend J and I did not argue at all until our last night there (shocking). Hub made all our feet hurt with his insane walking tours of cemeteries and everything else from one side of the island to the other, but we also relaxed by the pool and hung around and drank and had mellow fun too.

A toast to our first night in Key West:


Yes this guy was grabbing my ass:


Me and Diddy doing a shot at the famous Sloppy Joe's on Duval:


Me and Hub at the Southernmost Point (only 90 miles from Cuba):


All of us on our final drunken night in Key West, having drinks at the Southernmost Tiki Bar:

(Top row: Hub and J; Bottom row: Me, Patsy and Diddy)
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Yes, there was damage to the island. There were palms down all over the place, along with tons of peoples' belongings that they had to throw out due to the flooding. It looked like it had been years since anyone picked up garbage there - but it was all debris from Wilma. This church was seriously messed up:


But overall, the island was in decent condition. Everything was open, at least in the tourist areas (on our way back to the airport, our taxi driver told us that the Sears and the KMart were totally demolished - in fact, he said there were barracuda swimming in the KMart). People were in good moods, there was food and clean water, our hotel was in pristine shape (I loooved the hotel - somehow me and Hub got a suite for the price of a regular room), and there were lots of tourists there who weren't deterred from their trips. We contemplated going elsewhere after hearing of the hurricane, but I am so glad we went there. Anyplace that has no open beverage container laws is a winner in my book, no matter what.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

So Whaddaya Think?

I thought it was time for a new look. Ms. Bathing Beauty whom I have had for a while was feeling a little chilly in her swimsuit, so I decided to go with an uptown, chic chick for my new look. Don't worry, I am still the same True, no matter how classy my blog is looking. And perhaps we will go back to the "hot chick," as Hub has come to call her, when the weather gets a little warmer. Thanks to Mia at Ciao My Bella! (or are they now just Bella? I am not sure) for my awesome new design. I love it. Notice my sidebar titles are all Bon Jovi song titles (except for "on my ipod"). Nifty, eh?
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I wanted to post some pics, but I am having issues with blogger's picture hosting (bah, what else is new?). I will try again tomorrow.
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On the Saturday we come back from Key West, we are going to take Princess to her first hockey game (Patsy, do you and diddy want to go?). Its youth jersey day, so yippee, she will have her first Devils jersey before she even turns two.
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Is it bad that I have only been back to work for a month but I already feel like I sooooooo need a vacation?

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Yep, I am a Slacker

I know, I know, I have been seriously slacking in the blogging arena. Life in Jerseyworld has been completely insane lately, even moreso than usual.

The wedding I have mentioned a few times was last weekend. The bride was so not Bridezilla-like, as she had been during the planning stages of the wedding. It was a whole weekend shindig down in Virginia. Friday night we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, which was at a cool little Italian place in DC, and then we went back to the hotel bar. There were probably 40 of us hanging out there, and that was fun. At like 2 am they shut it down, so we head up to this kid Derek's room (a friend of the groom). Then at about 4, security came and told him they were calling the cops if we did not disband immediately. So the party broke up, but I hung out with Patsy and Diddy and J for a bit in their room. I got to bed at about 5 am.

Saturday we got makeup done for the wedding; ya ya, I looked so friggin glamorous. I never wear that much makeup but I got rave reviews. Then came hair, and I felt like an 80's Jersey Girl all over again with my hair all teased up and piled high on my head. Princess was supposed to walk down the aisle with me since she was the flowergirl, but she was in a MOOD. So Hub had to carry her down the aisle. Whatever. The wedding was nice. My cousin (the groom) was so cute, when I walked down the aisle and looked at him, he was crying already, before he even saw his bride. He was so emotional, it was really beautiful. Then came the reception, which was alot of fun. My family really knows how to party, and we crowded the dance floor and did our thang. The only bad thing was the alcohol situation. Before the cocktail hour was over they had run out of two brands of beer, and they didn't have anything to make shots (we always do a "cousins' shot at weddings). That sucked. But it was good times.

After that, we head for the hotel bar again. We stayed till about 3 am, and then we all just crashed from exhaustion. Sunday, it was breakfast with the bride and groom and some family, and then the long drive home. I am honestly just getting tireder and tireder by the moment (yes, thank you, I know tireder is not a word, so what). I feel like I could die I am so tired. And on top of that, someone did not get the message to Princess that its daylight savings time, because she is still getting up an hour early. Yeah, that sucks big time.

I will have pictures up of the wedding and of Halloween hopefully tomorrow. And then I leave for Key West on Saturday. My plan? To lie in a chair by the pool with a drink in my hand, listen to my ipod, and maybe read a book. Maybe not. I may just sleep in the sun.