Blogging from work

This is a test.  It is only a test. 

I'm trying this new Blogger gadget that will hopefully allow me to blog via email from work (or anywhere else, for that matter) by sending an email.  Yes, I know, "Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Banks."  This technology's been available, but I don't have smart phone, and blogging sites are blocked at work.  I could accomplish a whole lot more on my lunch hour if they'd unblock those sites... I'd also probably waste a lot more time at work.

So here goes my test... aaaannnnd, SEND!

  

Best day of work ever

I challenge anyone to have had a better work day on Thursday than me.  It's impossible.  Whatever you did that day, my day was better.  Why was its so awesome?  Because the NCAA tournament began.  I clocked out for a late lunch hour at 3pm, and never went back to work.  Instead, I walked across the street to a sports bar and got to watch the second half of the UK game, which we won by a buzzer beater, and then watched all of the Vandy game while having deep fried bar food and beer with a few friends.  The weather was perfect too.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if UK had won by 30.  The close games are too stressful for me.

Side-Splittingly Funny

How do these things always happen to me?  I think that Jesus must know how much I love to write, and so he throws me some funny curve balls along the way for blog fodder.  Here's today's latest epic event:

I'm sure everyone has felt the horror at one time or another of looking down and realizing your barn door's open aka your pants are unzipped.  Well this morning at work, I looked down at my lap and noticed my inner thigh peeking up at me.  You're not supposed to look down at your pants and see skin!  I quickly realized that the inseam of my (new) pants had at least a 3 inch gaping hole in them!  As I continued to examine them, all the while glancing over my shoulder praying that no one else would notice my pious pants (they were holey... get it?), I had to laugh when I saw a 1 inch hole on the left leg inseam as well.  


Crap.  Who all have I come in contact with this morning that might have noticed my seams flapping in the wind, and what am I going to do to repair this?

Quickly, I went through my options in my head.  My inner monologue went something like this:

1.  There are no clothing stores close to where I work.
2.  I live too far away to run home and change.
3.  It is ten o'clock in the morning... this is going to be one long, awkward day!
4.  Should I send out an office-wide email asking if anyone has safety pins?
5.  No, because then I will have to explain myself, and even on the off chance that someone would have one safety pin, I would need multiple pins.
6.  Maybe I could run to Walgreens and buy a sewing kit and repair them myself in the bathroom.
7.  Ha ha- good one, Amanda, you don't sew!

In the meantime I texted mom.  These were new, old Express pants that I bought several years ago, and meant to return because they were too big, but never did.  Well desperate times call for desperate measure, so even though the Express pants were still a little baggy, I had mom hem them so I could at least gain a new pair of work pants.

Via text message, mom swore she hadn't touched the inseams, and suggested tape or staples to keep the holes in check.

Staples- brilliant!  I think that would work, but I can't just take my stapler and walk into the bathroom.  People are going to think I'm crazy.  I'm sure they already do anyways, but let's not add fuel to the fire.

Once again, I checked my surroundings, waited til the coast was clear, and grabbed my purse and flung the stapler in there.  Off to the ladies room I went.  I turned the pants inside out in the stall and started to staple away when I realized there was someone else in the bathroom.  I felt like the sound of a stapler in a neighboring bathroom stall might have roused some suspicion, so I waited until she was gone, stapling once more for good measure during the loud flush, then setting to work once it was just me.

As horrific as the situation was, I had to laugh at myself.  Who staples their pants in a bathroom?  I was afraid the staples were going to cut up my legs, but they were surprisingly unobtrusive.  There was enough seam material to tack together that my row of staples held pretty well on both pants legs.

Later on in the afternoon, I did notice the right leg hole getting bigger, so back to the bathroom I went, purse and stapler in tow, to repair the now 6 inch gap, but all in all, I'd say things could have been much worse.  I changed pants the minute I hit the door tonight, though.

Fire Drilled

This has been one tough week at work.  No matter how hard I work, the assignments continue to flood my inbox as fast as I can crank them out, so you can imagine how dismayed I was yesterday afternoon when the fire alarm went off in our building.  A booming voice came over the loudspeakers and assured everyone that this was only a drill.  Immediately people started to get up from their desks and confer with one another.  Does this mean we have to exit the building?  Normally they warn us the morning of fire drills via email.  They also threaten to fine us if we don't comply with the drill procedure and meet outside on a particular street corner so everyone could be accounted for. 

Today there was no warning, and I hesitated to leave my desk, knowing how much work was looming over me.  Would I really get fined?  Or fired?  Not likely, but the rule follower in me felt compelled to grab my jacket and down the 19 flights of stairs I went.  They close the elevators down for these stupid drills.  Ugh.  As soon as I started down the staircase I realized I had to pee.  Why oh why hadn't I gone a half an hour an ago when I needed to?  Now here I was being herded like cattle down the stairwell, getting dizzy from circling round and round 38 times (2 flights of stairs per floor) and it would be who-knows-how-long before we'd be able to return.  Once we finally reached the great outdoors, down to our specified corner we marched.  I am thankful I wore my jacket.  Others were not so insightful to think to put theirs on as it was chilly and windy.

Once we got the all-clear, hundreds of employees all started hovering around the two sets of doors into the building, and then once inside, we made our way towards the elevators.  Have you ever seen so many people eager to get back to work? I remarked aloud.  It really was quite humorous.  You'd think we'd all be grateful for a paid break in our daily activities, but instead it seemed people couldn't get back inside fast enough.  Maybe it was because like me, they'd been too busy to pee and were now paying the price.  I pushed my way to the front and got on one of the first elevators, making a pit-stop at the bathroom before getting back to work.

I'd say this was a learning experience for me, and that now it's been (fire) drilled into my brain:  when you gotta go, you gotta go.  The work can wait.  Other things can't.

Work, Hail!

For anyone keeping up with the blog (and I have talked to several of you Silent Lurkers out there) the 2nd and 3rd days of work were much better than the first!  No more parking garage puking.  So I've decided to list a few of the positives about the current job situation:

• I have a doorman who greets me every morning as I walk into the building!  How swank is that?  I haven't asked him his name yet, but I intend to find out tomorrow.  
• I get to walk a block to work from the parking garage and get a little exercise and enjoy the weather- I'm choosing to view this as a positive for now, but ask me again later when it's pouring rain or sub-zero temperatures.
• Uninterrupted phone time with friends during the commute
• A Starbucks is located right at the foot of my building- again, this could be viewed as a negative temptation down the road, but so far I think I have the will power to use it as a well-deserved treat occasionally.
• We are located on the entire19th floor in our building in downtown Nashville, which means we have a fantastic 360 degree view of the city.  I get to see this view constantly throughout my day- it makes me smile... so much so, that I caught myself grinning today after stealing a glance at the view, then passed another person, and immediately wondered if they thought the new girl was crazy for grinning like a Cheshire cat walking down the hallway.
• The OCD in me loves that I get to complete small tasks throughout my day and check them off as finished.
• MA works close by so I imagine we'll have many more lunches similar to our one on Tuesday.  

These are the little things that I am appreciative of when my head is spinning trying to learn this new job, and I am missing my little boy like crazy during the day.  The next obstacle for us will be day care for Bradley.  I know he will adjust fine, but I'm dreading it all the same.  However, to end this post on a positive note, the other great thing about this job is that I have a reason to wear my many pairs of high heeled shoes that have pretty much been sitting in my closet for the past 2 years.  I am a sucker for a great stiletto.

Work FAIL!

Well dear readers, I have discovered the real reason I have gone back to work:  It's to provide entertaining blog fodder for you.  After day one, here's what I endured:

• Despite waking up an hour and a half before I needed to leave the house this morning, I still managed to leave 15 minutes later than I needed to.  Time sure does fly when you're having fun dreading the first day on the job.
• I had a severe reaction to some medicine, and proceeded to get on the elevator in the parking garage, and then promptly get out of the elevator, and hurried to the nearest abandoned corner and upchucked my smoothie into a drain near some other person's car.  This takes the cake as the worst event of the day, and made for a memorable first morning.
• I pointed out a HUGE roach scampering down the hall in the office, and was nonchalantly told that Terminex comes once a month but that it doesn't help much.  Apparently one girl found a roach in her bag.  Greeeeaaaaat. (Note to self:  bring snacks to keep at work in an airtight tupperware container)
• I got lost IN the office.  It's a circular maze.  Can't a girl just make it to the break room without having to stop and ask directions?  No.  No, she can't.
• I found out by trial and error that one set of elevators takes you to floors 1-11.  And one set takes you to floors 12-21.
• While we're on the theme of elevators, the same is true with the parking garage (you know, the one I puked in...) one set of elevators takes you to the red floors, and one set takes you to the blue floors.  Having been warned about the convoluted parking garage layout, guess which elevator yours truly got on at the end of the day?  That's right... the WRONG one!!!

I hope you have laughed at my misfortunes.  I in turn will hopefully look back on this in the future and be able to join you.

Anticipating Christmas

Glory hallelujah, it's the last day of work before Christmas break! This DIVA will be off work through New Year's, returning to work reluctantly on January the 2nd. And speaking of DIVAS, I am so excited that DIVA convention 2007 is about to commence! Ari & I pick up Conley from the airport tonight and are celebrating our Christmas tomorrow with a swanky brunch at J. Christopher's. (Isn't it just so grown-up to say you're having brunch with your friends?) I absolutely cannot wait to see Conley- it's been since June since we've seen her.

BUT, to get me through the work day, and the rest of you out there, workin hard for the money, take a few minutes of your day and go HERE to listen to my favorite Christmas song that I had not gotten to hear until this morning, so now I share it with all of you!

And if the inevitable boredom or otherwise work apathy that plagues many of us before a holiday weekend sets in, click HERE to learn new vocabulary and fight world hunger! It's totally addictive and for a great cause.

Finally, even though today may feel like the longest work day ever, today is actually is the second shortest day of the year, with tomorrow being the Winter Solstice and the official start of Winter!!

Dad Gum It's Christmas

Everyone's favorite work eat-o-rama is going strong this week. Co-workers are bringing food in the a.m and p.m for all of us to enjoy so we can rationalize not making phone calls by eating the latest tasty treats put out on the table instead. I brought a hashbrown casserole last week and it was very well received, however, nothing could prepare me for the praise and accolades I got today for the famous Oreo Truffles! Here's what some of my co-workers have said:

"Those are outstanding"

"Let me just say that the Oreo truffles WIN!!! That is the best thang that has been on the table. Don't everybody get your feelins hurt but let me put it this way...my insides shivered when I ate that truffle. sheeeeewwwwieeee!! That is DadGum GOOOOD!!"

"As Adam so perfectly said, the Oreo truffles are causing teams Adam and Steve to have spiritual experiences on this side of the room. Praise Ye the Lord, Halleluiah!"

"Does anyone know a sure fire crash diet that I could try so that I can eat on Christmas Day without busting out of my fat jeans?"

Needless to say, my co-workers were appreciative, but now I feel like Monica on Friends where she makes the Christmas candy for her neighbors and they are all clammoring for more from the "Candy Lady."

Pink is the new red

Like the Charlie Brown kids sing, Christmastime is here. I celebrated by getting all festive in my cubicle yesterday, much to the delight to all my coworkers. The gauntlet has been thrown. I dare them to find cuter Christmas decorations and be more festive than me (of course you will understand that this is the office alternative to the traditional trying-to-
outdo- the- Jones' with ones neighborhood Christmas lights).

I am loving that pink Christmas decorations are in abundance now- a few years ago when I was on the hunt for such things as a pink stocking, they were nowhere to be found, so Momma B sewed this little creation for me, c omplete with my name in sparkles like I requested! Now you can go to Target and buy a fushia stocking already assembled. Oh well- once again, I was ahead of my time in the fashion world.


Finally, here's my favorite pink decoration- my very own sparkley pink Christmas tree! Don't be jealous.

Bored beyond belief

I think I'd be more entertained watching paint dry today. Nothing about my job today is engaging me, and all I can do is count the hours down till I can hit the road, jack. We're just under 2 hours! Woo hoo!

Anyways- we all have those days where we would rather do anything BUT work, so I thought I'd share my favorite ways to waste time, and make this an interactive game by asking you readers, and perhaps even you silent lurkers, to join in the fun and list your own favorite ways to waste time during the work day! You might know of some things I hadn't thought of, and could desperately use on a day like today!

Ok, I'll go first:

1. check myspace/facebook
2. check my email
3. get up and talk to co-workers and distract them from working
4. rinse out my dirty dishes from breakfast and refill my water bottle
5. check my email again
6. read the headlines on my yahoo homepage
7. check my other friends' blogs
8. my guilty pleasures- pinkisthenewblog and thebeautyaddict
9. take a bathroom break
10. check my email... again

Now your turn! What are your best vices to cure boredom?

donut laugh... or do

Here is an amusing anecdote about work and breakfast pastries, and the witty comments that accompany them:

This morning there was a test of my willpower, and I passed the test. I was a good girl and refused the Dunkin Donuts that were placed before me, even though they are my favorite. My coworker Todd however, reached for a cream filled donut but grimaced when he took the first bite.
What is it? I asked him.
It's lemon, he said.
Do you not like lemon? I asked.
No, he said.

I looked at another co-worker, laughed and said, he picked a lemon- literally!

Hey- if I can't eat the donuts, at least I can laugh at those who do!

Blogging Blahs

One hour and $143 later, I am back at work. For my lunch break today I treated myself to some much needed Retail Therapy, aka Target, and I have 2 measely bags to show for it. How the heck does that stuff add up so quickly?!

I also allowed myself to run for the Border for a quick bite (the shopping wore me out) since Miss Borders mentioned Taco Bell yesterday. I felt guilty mid-burrito but finished it all anyways, and now I am back for what is hopefulyl to be a stress-free afternoon.

Recently work has got me stressed. The Man has got me down. But I came to the stark realization this morning that stress is not a necessity or a bi-product of my job or life- stress is brought on by how I react to my environment, and it is a choice I can make. I am not a victim of stress, and for crying out loud, I'm 26 years old and my life is pretty darn good right now. I have no room for complaining, and no room for stress. So I came up with a new mantra for work this morning. Say it with me:

It's not life or death, it's just choral music.

Whenever I start to get overwhelmed I am reminding myself that all I can do is to do my job to the best of my ability. I can't control what comes out of my customers mouths. I can't control UPS's shipping errors. I will not worry that my voicemail light has been on for an hour without me checking. the Soprano rehearsal track cd can wait. It's not life or death, it's just choral music.

Does the Man have you down? Are you feeling overwhelmed with life? Do yourself a favor and remember that all you can do, is all you can do (thanks Jeffrey Steele for that great song!). Stress is a choice, and you can refuse not to partake. It's freeing.

Big Brother is Watching

I've been at work an hour and 23 minutes this morning, and the phones have been down, and are still down. For a company who makes its livelihood taking and making calls this gives us very little to do. We were sent an email this morning to handle whatever work-related stuff we could find to do that didn't require use of the phone till the issue was resolved. I think I can find plenty to keep me busy, I thought to myself.

Things at work have been off-kilter recently. My boss was asked politely to leave, the Big Boss (the one I am scared of, ever since that dreaded Solitaire episode a few years ago) has stepped in and decided to implement some changes and try and whip us into shape, and all during our busiest part of the year. Yesterday the bomb they dropped on us was to hand us work sheets to fill out daily with information detailing exactly how we spent our work day, what products we sold, and how much. Besides being micro-managed, which I hate, the information they are requesting I fill out manually is duplicated on our electronic log sheet we fill out after every call. These sheets were passed out to us without any explanation as to why they are necessary, and how they are beneficial. To a person like me, who knows they are good at what they do, and doesn't appreciate feeling like someone is watching my every move over my shoulder, it angered me to no end. So I emailed the powers that be, and in no uncertain terms, politely asked that there be explanation given before I would be filling out a single sheet.

Sure she may look sweet and innocent, and Compliant, but that could not be further from the truth. Nothing gets me fired up like unjust action from an authority figure, and so I make it my personal cause for me and everyone around me to stand up for our rights. I could get in trouble for this ordeal. I could even lose my job over this worksheet business, judging by how many people have been fired in the past year, but I can't sit idly by and be a company yes woman.

Aftermath of the Fourth

Yesterday was pretty much the perfect day- I was out at the pool re-reading Harry Potter Book 5 by 9:30 am. I transferred myself over to MA & Lana's pool around 11am, and including me, there were 11 of us gals taking up residency at the Aspen Bungalow pool. We amused ourselves by watching the water aerobics class in the pool and filled our tummies with the potluck lunch stuff that everyone brought. After taking in as much sun as possible I showered and met up with Katie Greer, Katie Signaigo, Emily, & Jen at Panera to grab some dinner to go and headed downtown to River Front for the fireworks.

Arriving at 6:30, we found a spot on a concrete wall right on the river with 100,000 of our closest friends and settled in for the 3 hour wait before the fireworks began. Apparently due to some rain on the east coast, Nashville had the nation's largest crowd for a fireworks display, so that was exciting to know that Music City beat out several cities with larger populations to come out and celebrate America's birthday. I still maintain that it's worth the time, traffic, and throngs of people to be able to not only see the fireworks, but hear the music as well. This year's show did not disappoint- although I will say it seemed a bit shorter this year- perhaps due to the live televise cast? The fireworks that came out of the water were original, and though I missed it, Katie S. says she did spot the new firework shaped like a musical note.

Today however, I am paying the price for my negligence in sleep. We had an 8am meeting this morning, the morning after a holiday, where they crammed me into a room at a table for an hour and a half, and bored me with a ton of technological details, and expected me to be alert and awake. I thought I was doing pretty well, paying attention or at least acting like I was. I would feel my eyelids get heavy and so I would force them open wide, at the same time wondering if anyone else could tell that my eyes were open wider than normal. I didn't have to wait long to get my answer.

Directly after the meeting Adam approached me laughing and said he caught me nodding off several times during the meeting. I was horrified! I didn't even realize that I had even fallen asleep. Adam laughed and said that he would sit his coffee cup down on the table abruptly to wake me up, and that I would open my eyes really wide to compensate for the fact that they had just been closed. Oopsie. He had a good laugh at my expense; I can only hope that no one else spotted my sleepiness!

Selling for Schrutes

Do any of you ever feel like you are living your life trapped in "Office Space" or an episode of NBC's "The Office?" We kicked off our month yesterday morning with a meeting presenting our new sales contest- Brentwood Benson Bingo. Every time we earn a Bingo on our card, we get a ticket, which are redeemable for prizes at the end of every work week.

Suddenly I blink and I am looking at Dwight Schrute asking me to work extra hard to earn useless Schrute Bucks. Worth one one-hundreth of a cent. I snap back into reality and I almost laughed out loud in our meeting but instead saved the snide comments for an email to fellow "Office" watchers after we returned to our desks. So now here I sit, filling up my days earning Bingo tickets and feeling completely ridiculous doing so.

Sidenote: Brad promised me one thousand Schrute Bucks this past Sunday if I got a hit at my last at bat. I did, and now I'm waiting for him to pay-up! It certainly had me laughing at the plate, even if I never get my money.

Tied to our jobs

So I know most of us don't exactly LOVE our jobs... and probably many times we feel like we are chained to our desks for 40 hours a week. But what if you were literally chained to your desk? As in, physically restrained so that you were not able to leave your desk? This is no hypothetical question. The story you are about to read is both sad and true. The names have not been changed because the author enjoys making fun of herself and the antics of her day to day life in hopes that by reading her anecdotes the reader would get a smile on his or her face.

It was a normal Wednesday morning. I woke up late. I showered and sprayed some scrunchy stuff in my hair to avoid having to blow dry it. I arrived to work frazzled and started to go through voice mails and emails. Eventually I started to make some phone calls and noticed that it was rather chilly in my office on this particular morning, so as the phone rang and rang and rang I reached under my desk to turn on my space heater like I had done so many times before.

It was a simple maneuver I had mastered, the squat and reach, my headset on, ready to say "hello" in a flash should the person on the other end of the line answer, and in one deft move turning on the bringer of warmth to oscillate and make my cube nice and cozy. But this morning was not like every other morning. On this morning the scrunchiness of my hair made it highly susceptible to snags. Snags on metal thingies that I had no idea were underneath my desk. Snags that would prevent me from being able to return to a normal sitting position. Snags that would impair my ability to even reach the phone base to hang up. So there I was, my head bowed and parallel to the desk, headset on, phone ringing, the answering machine finally picking up, and I was unable to free myself from whatever I had tangled my hair on. This was quite the predicament.

I started to panic when I realized I couldn't reach buttons on the phone to hang up, and panicked further when I couldn't free myself from the uncomfortable position. I don't know all the details of what happened next- everything is just a blur, but I know I asked timidly for help from Jody, the girl who sits next to me. Surely as a fellow female she would understand the trials and tribulations of hair entanglement and be able to free me safely. But after I called her name with no response I realized in horror that she was on the phone with a customer and unable to hear my pathetic pleas. I turned my head as much as I could to try and get the attention of Todd who sits behind me, but I was unable to contort my body so much without yanking out handfuls of hair.

Suddenly, my friend John came valiantly to my rescue, noticing that I was in pain and hearing my whiney statement of "I'm stuck" to anyone who was listening. I was literally chained to my desk! John quickly pulled the headset from my head and discovered the source of my snag- a metal thingie on the bottom of my desk. His capable hands worked quickly to free my hair without resulting to cutting it out with scissors and I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat upright once again. I thanked him profusely as he pointed out to me the source of my angst so that I could avoid it in the future.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Because now I was free to sit at my desk once again, safely removed from harm's way, but now I was also expected to get back to work.

Punked

Back in the day when Heather and I spent our summers working at Lifeway together, one of our favorite pastimes was calling coworkers at the store while we were off or on break, and ask for items that didn’t exist. The one we used for each other was to call and ask for The Living Bible, a translation that was no longer in print. Sometimes we would call and ask other unsuspecting employees for the book, “How to beat your child into submission” by Dr. James Dobson. This was an especially fun trick to play when the sales associate actually went to look for the book!

Once I got to Brentwood Benson, the joke was to call a new sales rep and place a mock order for 300 or so hymnals, in which case the rep would get really excited that they had made such a big order, and then the rep on the other end of the phone would laugh and tell them they were only kidding, and that the order wasn’t for real. If the seasoned rep was particularly tricky, they wouldn't tell the newbie until well after the conversation had ended, and the rep had plenty of time to share with everyone else on the sales floor what had taken place before they went and broke the news to the new employee.

Today however, the joke was on me. I had just gotten back from a very productive lunch break in which I had run several errands and picked up a sandwich to bring back to work. I had just cleared my email inbox, and was going through my voicemails when I got a particularly annoying/curious voicemail. A 615 area code phone call, however the woman said she was calling from Connecticut... interesting because I have Just taken over CT and hardly anyone from that state knows to call my extension... I continue to listen. She tells me her name, Katherine McDoogal, and proceeds to say she is looking for the sheet music to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and that she is doing this as a solo and her children's choir is backing her up. (You would think I would have caught on that this wasn't for real, but you'd be surprised what people will ask for.) So below is the actual verbatim message I typed out while I listened to this strange request: (phone numbers scrambled to protect the not-so-innocent)

615-648-2067 katherine mcdoogal in CT place order twinkle little star 615-265-6196 ext 120

As this woman droned on in her message I found it odd that she was in CT, had a nasally, northern accent, but had a local phone number... I know, Amanda, how dumb can you be? But it had been a crazy day, the phone ringing nonstop, so I proceeded to call Miss McDoogal back, only to be greeted with the direct line to one Miss Mary Anna Brown. I was so flustered that I had fallen hook, line, and sinker, that I could barely put two and two together at what had just transpired. Mary Anna was obviously elated that her little trick had worked.

And I had been beaten at my own game!

The Procrastinator's Mantra

As I was cleaning out an expandable file folder recently I came across an article I had saved about procrastinating. I don't remember how long I've had it, or who gave it to me. I couldn't even remember if I had read it before. So I did what any good procrastinator would do. I pulled it out of the old filing folder and put it in a new folder, saving it to read another day.

Anita Returns

Can I rant and vent for a moment? It is a Friday. Our slowest work day of the week. Lots of our customers work for churches and Fridays are their days off. So I expect it to be slow- but this is just ridiculous. I have Zero orders for the day. Meaning that my daily sales goal of a few thousand dollars? Yeah, I have None of it. No orders. And while yes, my mind has wandered and I don't have as many calls out as it might be possible to have, I do have as many as I have had in an entire before, and I still have 2 hours to go. What gives?!

And on top of that, a bookstore called me "Anita." After Beth and I were Just joking about being called Steph and Anita- and it hasn't happened to me in a long time. But do they order any music? No of course not. But they did call me Anita. My day is now complete.

PS, I realize the total irony of venting on here when I could be calling out, trying to drum up some sales. but in my defense I am typing very quickly and this post took about the total of 3 minutes to write.

Amanda "the Hurricane" Bradley

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am obsessed with following hurricanes. From June to November, you can often find me surfing weather.com, following the massive storms, and even crushing on the storm chasers (Jeff Beddis, where have you been during Katrina??). On Saturday I received no less than 3 phone calls from in-the-know friends who were making sure I was keeping up with the ginormous Hurricane Katrina who was spiraling towards New Orleans. The funniest part was that while listening to one of those voicemails, I was standing in front of my tv, watching the weather channel.

And so yesterday I came into work and everyone was all abuzz keeping up with the hurricane. My boss Joel knows how much I'm into following these storms, and he told me that since I've been working here, I have brought 2 hurricanes our way up to TN. "I bring the hurricanes with me," I said. "That's your new nickname," he exclaimed. "What? Hurricane Bradley?" I asked. "No," he replied. "Just The Hurricane. And you have to refer to yourself in 3rd person- ie. The Hurricane is not happy with you. The hurricane would appreciate it if you would get out of her way."

So from now on, you may all refer to me as the Hurricane if you wish.
(Yeah... we'll do anything for entertainment around the office!)