Go Me!

Today at work was the dreaded "annual performance review".

I was scheduled second out of five.

Last year wasn't that great, as most of us know. Business was down, but then started to pick up again in the second half of the year.

I went in to meet with my boss and his boss, just glad I still had a job, and not really expecting anything for 2010.

We breezed through all the rankings, all the areas I excel, what I need to work on, all the new accounts I handled last year, blah blah blah.

Just get to the good stuff will ya??????

"Because of all your hard work this year, with the extra account you took on in May, we're giving you a 3% raise." OMG, 3%? I honestly wasn't expecting any raise, I'm just happy to still have a job. Truly!

"And even though we only made 94% of our budget for last year, we are keeping the bonus program, so you will get a bonus of 6% of last year's salary." Holy crap! I wasn't expecting this!

And.............................................................................................................................

"You are getting a special President's award of $1500 in addition, for all your hard work on XYZ company from May of last year. He personally suggested this additional bonus." My jaw about hit the floor!

At this point, I had to work really, really hard to keep a straight face and not jump up and down hootin' and hollerin'. It just wouldn't be fair to disrupt the rest of the office. I thanked them profusely and quickly as I could, went back to my desk to hope that work would take my mind off the shock I experience this morning.

I think I'm still in shock.

I'm not posting this because I want to brag to everyone. Well, ok just a bit. But I also want to let everyone know that not everything is bad out there. The economy sucks, people are still losing their jobs, many jobs are still in trouble, lots are struggling to pay essential bills, but there are some good things going on out there, and to just be patient, because eventually things will get better. They always do.

The Great Snow Battle of 2010

You know those dreams that you can't quite believe you just had, and it's so fantastic you have to write it down and tell everyone? Well, I had one of those dreams last week. I'm convinced I was taken by OCHA's and implanted with a chip that forces me to think about them, even when I'm sleeping.

I was walking through a park, looking for someone (or something)...

When all of a sudden, on my left...

Hey! What are you doing here? You aren't in this dream! Go away!

As I was saying, I looked to my left and saw a big mound of snow, and hiding behind it were HUNDREDS of OCHA's, waiting to bombard me with snowballs.

I rushed to take cover as the snowballs flew over my head. I quickly grabbed some snow, formed it into a ball, turned to my left and POW! I knocked three of them over. Once they were knocked over, they couldn't throw snowballs at me anymore. I grabbed more snow, made another snowball, turned to my right, and POW! Knocked a few more over.

And then I woke up. I'll never know who won the great snow battle of 2010.

How you doin'?

I haven't been intentionally ignoring the blog, and I'm working hard to stay caught up on reading everyone elses blogs, but I just haven't had the time to do any type of proper post. I'm still trying to get a picture of my car, when it's clean, but the weather has not cooperated. And I hear snow is due again, tomorrow I think?

Sunday I was helping my aunt in her basement AGAIN (it's a never ending project), and naturally I did what all stupid people do who don't follow directions, I hurt my back. I lifted something I knew was too heavy, and I didn't do it correctly, so of course, Tuesday morning it started bothering me. By Wednesday night it was worse, and I figured out what I did to hurt it, so I started taking the Ibuprofen I have left from last year. It's better today, but was very uncomfortable in bed last night. Ended up moving to the couch, which was better. At least enough for me to get to sleep about 2am.

My main reason for not posting to my blog is my addiction to CrackFacebook. I play Mafia Wars, as some of you also do, and the Mafia Family that I am in has been at war with some monkeys for almost a month now. It can be very time consuming, looking for ones that are alive to attack, and also trying to make sure your own health is low enough so they can't attack you back when you log off. I've been working to get better weapons/vehicles/armor so I am stronger and can survive hits from the monkeys, but I am still a lot weaker than I would like to be.

As I write this, Ladystyx is doing me a huge, and I mean HUGE, favor. I have something to share with everyone, but to do it right, I need just the right imagery. With her killer photoshop skills, it will be the perfect post, and will put a smile on everyone's faces. Just you wait and see. Until then...