La la laaa

I wish you could all join me in La la land. My back has been having these weird spasms lately, so I decided to take some muscle relaxants I had lying around from a car accident months ago. They didn't seem to really do anything this morning, but I took another a little while ago, and let's just say it's working!

Ummm. So I'm sitting at work, listening to Coblie Calliat (thanks for the introduction ages ago Mare!) and trying to make the last 45 minutes of work go by faster. Here's a little insight to the current "Amy state of mind"...

* "This Dancing Waters scent from Bath & Body Works is amazing. Must get more"
* "My address is too long. Why am I always cursed with long addresses"
* "Elephants are adorable'
* "I hope I can find my penguin plate"
* "This painting is ugly, but I can't tell anyone because it belongs to my boss"
* "My insurance company sucks"
* "So does my employer"
* "All my favorite TV shows are over :( "
* "It's hot in Texas"
* "How did I get so freakin' OLD!"
* "I wonder if it was a spider or a mosquito or one of those gross centipedey things that bit me"
* "I should use mousse more often"
* "Oh yeah-I have a $25 gift certificate to B&BW"
* "And $20 to Blockbuster, and $25 to Outback Steakhouse, and $5.99 to Dress Barn. I should really use those up"
* "I wonder if my family will get mad that I'm not going to be able to visit them at least another year."
* "Walking on tile hurts my feet. I'm glad I bought those slippers at Target"
* "Who put this dry erase marker in my pen basket?"
* "Idol sucked this year, but Grey's was awesome"
* "I miss Rose. And all my Utah friends. I need to get me some Texas friends"
* "Two-faced people really suck. Let it go, forgive and forget, and stop being such haters."
* "I wish I had some Junior Mints"

Feelin' the Love

You all probably know that I have a love/hate relationship with my job. I love building relationships with customers and helping them better themselves financially. I hate the busy work, micro-managing, telemarketing, and constant pressure to hit numbers.

I think the main reason I've stayed in banking for this long (nearly 9 years now, wow!) is for the love part. Banks in general are less customer centric and more profit driven than ever, but every now and then I'm able to have that "wow" moment.

My manager came into my office today and shared a thank you letter that one of my customers had written and sent it. She totally made my day and gave me that pick-me-up I really needed :)

Dear Jay,

I wanted to take a moment to commend you on the superior level of service your bank provides. Recently I had the privilege of working with Amy on a crucial matter involving the purchase of a home.

I met with Amy on two different occasions and she was knowledgeable, helpful, and above all extremely pleasant. Because of her willingness to go above and beyond, she saved the day.

In today's times, it seems quality service provides are becoming much more rare. As a society we tend to focus on the negatives. We voice our concerns and file our complains. I wanted to bring to light the positives and acknowledge really good people giving it their best. I am proud to share with you that Miss Blackham is a tremendous asset to your bank.

Regards,

E. Fulton

Stuff

When I work Saturdays, I get a half day off during the week. It's ideal because it gives me a chance to get some things done that I've been procrastinating. Last week, after much nagging from my OBGYN, I finally went in for blood work for my post-op followup that I was supposed to do in December. Whoops?...

Before surgery, my blood platelet counts were at 133. They consider normal levels between 130-401. They said I was most likely low because of anemia because of the issues I was currently having. This time I registered at 301! Woohoo, take that body!

I also went to the dermatologist to have a few skin tags removed, and some moles checked out. They removed one on my shoulder that looked weird, and the biopsy came back as irregular so we'll just keep an eye on it.

In a few weeks I'm going to donate blood for the first time ever. I've never done it before because of my dislike/fear of needles. I have "rolly" veins and usually end up with a few poke marks before they hit the sweet spot. I decided to conquer my fear and give it a try. If I try it once and just can't handle it, at least I'll know I had something to legitimately be scared of. I like to believe I'll be superwoman though, and that I'll be able to share my awesome blood with mankind going forward. :o)

That's all for now! It's beautiful and spring-like here in Austin. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

You read my mind...

SuperChickAimee

I'm kinda over blogging. I mean how many posts can I write about dieting and my cats?

Ahhh Aimee you hold insight to my soul. It's been basically a month since my last blog update and that's probably because I feel like I blog about the same stuff over and over again. (just so we're clear-I'd read about dieting and cats all day everyday)

Life's been busy but great. Work has been nuts because we've been converting Guaranty Bank to Compass. We acquired them last fall. We took a fairly technologically advanced bank and stuck them back on teller sharp machines and introduced them to Navigator and CNET-our ancient systems. It took three weeks to do this :) So far so good, and only a few handful of customers have come in unhappy to close their accounts.

Shawn is selling his house (or attempting to in the current market). I've been helping a lot with cleaning, organizing, and decorating to make it look less "lived-in" and more model home-esque. Hopefully it sells soon. With the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, it's in the price range for a lot of new homebuyers.

Now this picture is just here because I think it's funny. Shawn's doing The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo with Bailey.

The original "piece of art"

And that's all I have to share! Wait-one last thing. Frosting NOT made from scratch sucks. Nothing beats the real stuff!

Later Gator!

Tornainbow-my silver lining

What, you may ask, is a "Tornainbow". It's clearly a mix between a tornado and a rainbow, and that describes my life pretty well as of late :)

TORNADO I've been crazy busy at work lately. We had an entire week where our systems and printers weren't working. Instead of having 4 printers to share between 12 of us, we were all frantically trying to print off the same printer. UGH! Then on top of that I posted some furniture on Craigslist in an attempt to sell them and that turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated. So many people were interested, but no one seemed to grasp that I wasn't going to "hold it" for them, and that I didn't want them to just come by and look at it. I wanted them to TAKE IT AWAY!! I finally ended up with a really nice lady who came and got a sofa, and a really cool guy and his college age son that came and got a bed. I'm $350 closer to my car fund, and much less stressed.

RAINBOW A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet two Regional Execs for my bank. My branch made it to the Pinnacle Club for 2009, and we were visited by our District Retail Exec Cheryl, and two Regional Execs-Scott and Jeff. They wanted to sit down with each of us and get to know us, see our methods, get our feedback, and congratulate us on a job well done. After they sat down with us, they went to my managers and told them they were going to submit me (and other employees) for promotions and raises. It got approved through back office and HR yesterday!!! My new title/position is Senior Financial Sales Advisor (from Financial Sales Associate-big change, lol), and I'll be getting an 8% raise :) I also got approved for and started the process to get my Group 1 license, which has been a goal of mine for over 2 years. It's a high-paced program and I'm nervous about studying and taking a test, but once I'm done it should mean another promotion/raise. Work still causes me a crazy amount of stress, but I feel very blessed to have a management team who was willing to go to bat for me. Money doesn't buy happiness, but Salary/Benefits sure make a difference in the workplace!

I haven't found time to blog about my recent trip to Utah, so I finally just uploaded all my pictures on facebook. THEN my laptop crashed. Shawn's coworker said he'd be willing to fix it and look at my pc too, so after about a week I finally had working computer access again. I like blogging with pictures better than just uploading them because my blog is my journal. So it's coming I promise!

Until next time-may you all be blessed with "Tornainbows" in life :)