Amie-ology

I know it's been 3 weeks since my last post...I've been busy! My new schedule at work is surprisingly (actually not surprisingly) leaving me very little time for much else. Including school! I can't seem to get nearly as much done during the day, yet I still have very little to do on Fridays. Probably because nobody is really here on Fridays, so my questions remain unanswered until Monday...like before...but I digress.

In other news, we got a new puppy! She is a really good, really sweet 6 month old Lab/Terrier mix. In her first week home, she learned her name, how to walk on a leash and sit. I didn't think she would learn how to sit as she didn't seem to pay much attention in my initial teaching efforts. But, somehow, on Sunday, she decided that she knew the command! Here she is...meet Babette (Babs for short)!

The title of this post is based off of another survey/quiz that I was emailed. :) You know me...so, here it is:

***********FOOD-OLOGY***************
What is your salad dressing of choice? Balsamic Vinaigrette...I put it on everything!

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? This is hard. Positano's? Update: Jonathan and I tried to go there this past weekend...it is closed now. I'm sad.
What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? Mexican.
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, pineapple...light on cheese, heavy on sauce.

What do you like to put on your toast? Peanut butter

***********TECHNOLOGY***************
How many televisions are in your house? 3
What color cell phone do you have? Black with a pink skin

***************BIOLOGY******************
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right, but I was born left-handed. Mom changed me at the urging of my left-handed aunt. Or so the story goes. :)
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Teeth...does that count? Splinters. A couple of nails...but not intentionally. :) Oh yeah! A big chunk of hair when I was 5.
What is the last heavy item you lifted? I try not to do this unless I am working out. But Jonathan wouldn't call that heavy.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Never been knocked unconscious, but I have fainted quite a few times.

************BULLCRAPOLOGY**************
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? I don't know. Part of me says yes so I can go and be irresponsible, but then what if I end up not dying on that day? Then I just blew through all of my money for no reason!
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I always wanted a less common name when I was a kid. But, I think it fits me. I used to have a different name every weekend when I was single at the bars. It ranged from Bridgette to Teagan. I stopped doing that, though, because it was hard to keep up with while drinking!
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? Yep. $1000 would more than pay for my new tires! And probably cover my second root canal as well!

************DUMBOLOGY******************
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 4 or 5...I only wear 1 pair the most.

Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Last year when I got my speeding ticket.

Last person you talked to? Does Twitter count? Because then, it would have been @JCBartlett.
Last person you hugged? Jonathan. Wait, did I hug him bye today? Maybe Babs, then. Does a dog count?

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************
Season? Spring
Holiday? Halloween!
Day of the week? Sunday because I get to be stinky and lazy. I would say Saturday, except that I have school on most Saturdays this year. So, in 2010, it will be Saturday again.

Month? March...it's my b-day and that should be a national holiday, now shouldn't it?

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************
Missing someone? My Gramma.
Mood? Tired. Is that a mood? Then, normal, I guess. Wait, is normal a mood?

What are you listening to? Old school Incubus.
Watching? Me type.
Worrying about? Paper, presentation, finances.

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************
First place you went this morning? Work.
What's the last movie you saw? Transamerica.
Do you smile often? Yes, I get made fun of because people often catching me smiling to myself for no apparent reason.

***************** QUESTIONS **************
1)Do you always answer your phone? Divulging a secret here...no, I don't. Sometimes I just don't feel like it and I ignore it.
2) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Probably Twitter. Which is why I now keep my phone on silent during the night. I keep meaning to turn off my mobile alerts but it makes me feel popular when it goes off so much.
3) If you could change your eye color what would it be? I really like my eye color. I get compliments all the time. I guess green would be my next choice if I had to.
5) Do you own a digital camera? Yes, 2 that I rarely use. But, that will change when Jonathan and I go to New York for 4th of July!
6) Have you ever had a pet fish? Several...the first were Tom and Jerry. My mom bought them for me when I was in pre-school to teach me about life and death and they lived forever in fish years. They finally died when I was at my grandparents for the weekend, I think. I know I was away and by then my mom didn't care about teaching me an important lesson anymore. It's a good thing I haven't experienced too much death in my life...I'm not good with it!

7) Favorite Christmas song? Greensleeves...is that a Christmas song? I hear it a lot at Christmas. I tend to really dislike Christmas songs because I swear they started in August this year!
8) What's on your wish list for your birthday? Video camera...but it will be too late by then. I want to take video in New York. So, Jonathan better get me a b-day present now.
9) Can you do pushups? Girly ones.
10) Can you do a chin up? No. I can do cheaty pull-ups.
11) Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited! I'm not one of those that wishes I was still in high school or college.

12) Do you have any saved texts? Not intentionally. I just keep them until my phone starts to slow down, then I delete them out.
13) Ever been in a car wreck? Several...my back is still screwed up from my first one 12 years ago.
14) Do you have an accent? I have a Texas accent that comes out when I am tired and/or drinking.
15) What is the last song to make you cry? Blindsided by Bon Iver. I love sad songs...not sure why...but I do.
16) Plans tonight? Figure out how to look at school budgets and then hopefully write 2 pages on it.
17) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? I would say yes, for me I have...I went through a rough time emotionally after college.

18) Name 3 things you bought yesterday? Nothing, nothing and nothing.
19) Have you ever been given roses? Yes, I wish I would get them more often! (Hint, hint)

21) Current hate right now? The class that I am in...among other things I probably shouldn't mention.
22) Met someone who changed your life? I would say so...doesn't everybody change the life of everyone they meet in some form or fashion?

23) How did you bring in the New Year? Went to Positano's and ate entirely too much...also drank a little too much.

24) What song represents you? I don't know. Maybe Favorite Things by Incubus.
25) Name three people who might complete this. Not applicable.

26) What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping. I usually don't even stay up until midnight on the weekends. Saturday night I was exceptionally pitiful...out by 8:30.
27) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Snooze...

And that, folks, is Amie-ology. :)

Blogging about the #1 no no in blogland...

...work. Of course, I'm not going to talk about anyone specific, just ethics in general. After all, I haven't said where I work...have I? Here's the deal...as a benefit of working for this company, we have the option of working a flex schedule. It was awesome for me since I have such a long drive and I certainly could use the day off to cool it on my mileage and gas. Plus, it was one of the top factors when I was considering grad school. It gave me a day away from work where I could study. I am one of three people that are considered "administrative" personnel. I am not an "admin," actually, I am in marketing. But, they lumped me in with them because we are the three people in the company that don't actually have anything to do with what the company does. The other two admin personnel are truly "admin" functions. One is the receptionist and one is the accounts, invoicing, etc. person. These two people have been out sick a lot. Our receptionist just started this past July and she already took 6 weeks of short term disability plus another two weeks for a side-effect of her disability. Plus, she has been out sick quite a bit. The other admin person has a myriad of diseases, all of which are very severe and work against each other. She took 3 months of short term disability before our receptionist started, but in the same year. She is also out an average of at least 40% of the year. Around Thanksgiving of 2007, I had a severe throat infection which caused me to be out on the day that the other admin had off. She didn't cover for me and at about noon that day, we received an email stating that if the front desk is left empty again, our flex time would be taken away. After that, I worked my ass off to be sure I was here as much as possible. I covered every time the two admin women were out...I even worked when I was sick! The four or five times that I had to take a day or two off for being sick, I felt completely guilty and tried to work as much as I could from home.

At about 8am this morning, I found out that flex time had been taken away from the other two admins. They were not happy about this, but they understood since they were both out a lot and I can only cover so much. At about 8:45 this morning, I received the same email. Since my position has been lumped into the same category as theirs (which is completely unfair for other reasons), my flex time was taken away. Now, my company has categorically excluded an entire department from what they claim is a benefit. There was no reason to exlude me and the other two admins say that they think it's completely unfair to me as I have done nothing wrong. I still have over 3 weeks of paid time off that I have earned. Which proves that I am here all the time.

So, now I am looking into HR laws and seeing if I have a leg to stand on so I can go into my boss' office and fight my case for keeping my flex schedule. In fact, they said they started the four 10-hour days so that people who live farther away could have the option of driving less. Which is one of the main reasons I chose to do this schedule. When I was interviewing for this position, they told me that they were moving their office to a location that was about 5 miles away from my home. They ended up choosing a location that is 25 miles from my home. Having Fridays off helped save me quite a bit of money on gas and mileage on my LEASED vehicle. Working 5 days a week puts 13,000 miles a year on a vehicle I am only supposed to drive 15,000 miles a year.

I don't know what to do. I think this is very unethical for them to do and I don't know how to approach the subject. I'll keep you updated...

Updated: I did actually talk to my boss the next day. He explained their reasoning behind it all. I understand now why they did what they did, but it's still not fair. He actually said that the reason why they changed my schedule, too, is because I am the one that shows up all the time. So, instead of calling me in on my day off, it's better that I am just here all the time whether or not it's warranted? Thanks. On a funny side note, one of the admins who had her flex time taken away has now been out for almost 6 weeks. Her last full week was the week our schedules changed. Nice. But, this doesn't really prove their point too much as the receptionist has been here the entire time so there wouldn't have been a problem with me having Fridays off. Except the two days she was out for bad indegestion. But that was mid-week. Ugh.