Last night, I couldn't shake this overwhelming feeling of worry. Everyone that knows me knows I worry about everything, practically all the time. I couldn't figure out what it was. The feeling went away for most of today, but just this afternoon, it hit me again... and I finally figured out what it is.
I am worried about my mother.
She's going to read this and probably roll her eyes, but I would like her to know that I get this trait from HER, so she shouldn't blame me. :-P She's going in for surgery tomorrow and I just wish I could be home to help out. It's going to be difficult for her to do things she normally does for awhile, and I know this will bother her. She doesn't like feeling like she has to rely on other people to help her out. Dad, I'm relying on you to do that since I can't be there... No Pressure!! :-D
I guess that's about it. I just had to write it out because it was bugging me.
In other news, the weekend went too fast. it was unseasonably warm on Friday and part of Saturday. Casey and I went with Melanie to the Daffodil Festival near Schaumburg, IL. A cold front came in while we were in the middle of the park, so we had to run a good distance in the rain before we made it back to the main building. We ended up going into the 'rain forest' part of the park, and needless to say, I ended up with an afro. Okay, not a full one, but my hair definitely poofed up and out. I can't wait until it's long enough to pull back again!!
Yesterday, Casey and I stayed at the house and spent most of the day cleaning and cooking. We grilled chicken and veggies and I made mashed potatoes and gravy. It was a good meal, and I'm looking forward to having more of it when I get home tonight! Only 7 more minutes until I can get out of here... it's dragging right now. The work day was pretty busy until around 5:00, and I've gotten all of my tasks on the To Do list checked off now. It's the first time in a long time that the phone hasn't been ringing off the hook. I know I'll miss my boredom at a later time (probably not too much later than now, though) when it's crazy here and I don't get to leave at 7:00. Until then, I'll sit here and think too much about life, and then force myself to blog so my brain doesn't explode. Idle time has never been a good thing for me.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling now. Time to get out of here and hang out with my boys.
Love,
Ash
Casey, Ashley, Keaton, Nikolaus, & Rowan take on Chicagoland...
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Pictures from class
Here are the latest pictures from my Photography class... I got my first 100% of the semester on this assignment! Hooray!!
These were all taken in downtown Naperville except for the last one, which I took in Chinatown near downtown Chicago. I'm working on this series as my final project for class... now I'm hunting for more metal! :)
-Ash
These were all taken in downtown Naperville except for the last one, which I took in Chinatown near downtown Chicago. I'm working on this series as my final project for class... now I'm hunting for more metal! :)
-Ash
Chris Cornell concert and such...
Last Sunday night, Casey and I traveled to the Riviera Theater in Chicago to see Chris Cornell. It was probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to, and that includes seeing Aerosmith and Dave Matthews live.
My favorite thing about the concert was the huge range of songs he sang. He had a great representation from the early 90s all the way to his newest solo album that came out this year. I listened to his new CD, which is quite a bit different than anything he's made before. It's got a bit of a dance feel to it where most everything else he's been a part of has been rock or alternative. I actually liked the songs better live than I do on the CD! His voice still sounds amazing... his vocal range has always been impressive, and even after 15 years in the business, he can still hit all the high notes! Casey and I had a blast, and I highly recommend this concert to anyone who may be able to catch it!
In other news, I had class again today, and got 100% on my last assignment! I'm really happy with the feedback I got from the previous pictures. He asked me to give him a copy of them so he can use them as examples in his other classes. That's a first for me so I'm pretty excited at the moment. I was able to show him some of my stuff from Flickr and he seemed to enjoy it, too. I think he was shocked when I pulled up my Flickr site (in front of the class, which was a little nerve-wracking at first) and realized that I had over 6000 pictures. I know it's a little ridiculous so I verbalized that as well. Luckily it didn't appear that I bored the class to tears or anything. I stayed a little bit after the others left and talked to him about Japan, and some of my experiences there and with photography in general. It was nice to get to know him a little better and to let him know where I'm coming from with all of this. I can't believe class is almost over. I'm excited to take the 1101 class this Fall and learn about Photoshop and all that fun stuff.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm ready for this apparent warm-up we're going to get this week; it's supposed to be 80 on Friday! They also said we were supposed to have snow showers the past day and a half but I haven't seen that, so who knows. Damn I am sick of the word Snow.
I should go now... I've got a pouty dog who needs attention. :-P
-Ash
My favorite thing about the concert was the huge range of songs he sang. He had a great representation from the early 90s all the way to his newest solo album that came out this year. I listened to his new CD, which is quite a bit different than anything he's made before. It's got a bit of a dance feel to it where most everything else he's been a part of has been rock or alternative. I actually liked the songs better live than I do on the CD! His voice still sounds amazing... his vocal range has always been impressive, and even after 15 years in the business, he can still hit all the high notes! Casey and I had a blast, and I highly recommend this concert to anyone who may be able to catch it!
In other news, I had class again today, and got 100% on my last assignment! I'm really happy with the feedback I got from the previous pictures. He asked me to give him a copy of them so he can use them as examples in his other classes. That's a first for me so I'm pretty excited at the moment. I was able to show him some of my stuff from Flickr and he seemed to enjoy it, too. I think he was shocked when I pulled up my Flickr site (in front of the class, which was a little nerve-wracking at first) and realized that I had over 6000 pictures. I know it's a little ridiculous so I verbalized that as well. Luckily it didn't appear that I bored the class to tears or anything. I stayed a little bit after the others left and talked to him about Japan, and some of my experiences there and with photography in general. It was nice to get to know him a little better and to let him know where I'm coming from with all of this. I can't believe class is almost over. I'm excited to take the 1101 class this Fall and learn about Photoshop and all that fun stuff.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm ready for this apparent warm-up we're going to get this week; it's supposed to be 80 on Friday! They also said we were supposed to have snow showers the past day and a half but I haven't seen that, so who knows. Damn I am sick of the word Snow.
I should go now... I've got a pouty dog who needs attention. :-P
-Ash
Friday, April 17, 2009
Arghhhh...
I feel the need to vent a bit. The past few days have been a string of weird and slightly annoying little things that are getting on my nerves, and I figured I'd better get it out before I lose my mind!! If that hasn't happened already...
Work has been going better lately. I want to start out on a positive note because I was in a rut for a bit and didn't know if I wanted to stick with it or not. I'm glad I have. I think I was having a hard time transitioning from when we weren't as busy and I was just learning the ropes to now, where the phones are ringing off the hook and I have a lot more responsibilities. There are a few people I work with that are starting to get to me; the ones that are super needy, or the ones that think they know everything and have attitude problems. I'm pretty sure at this point that it's their personality trait and not something they will grow out of over time. I am happy to say that there are not many people that fall into either of these categories, so for the most part, I really enjoy the people I work with.
It's a certain few that are making me have a quick fuse the last few days. I can hold it in most of the time (although the girl I work with at the front desk definitely knows how I feel, and I feel comfortable enough with her that I can make a face at her and she knows who I'm making it about and why). It seems like one person here is jealous, and has to act out to get attention. For some reason this person is always trying to step in and take over when I'm trying to help someone else. It feels like there's always tension for some reason, and it's definitely not on my part. Luckily I do not work for this person, I'm only really affected by their constant complaints in general, and for the past few days, the way they comment on things I do around the office. They say it loud enough for me to hear, but not directly to me. I just get kind of tired of hearing it. It's not bad enough yet to go to my supervisor or anything, but it just bugs me a bit. I'm just going to keep doing my job and hope that I'm doing things correctly, and if this person wants to make comments when I do something wrong, then I may pull her aside at some point and say something. Anyway, just needed to vent.
Something strange happened today that got my day started on a weird note. Our power went out around 11:30ish this morning, and didn't come right back on like it normally does. I went outside and saw that most of our neighbors were gone, so I went next door to Cathy & Ray's to see if they had power. No one was home. I put two and two together when I tried to ring their doorbell and didn't hear it make any noise. So I went back in and called the electric company, only to find out that apparently the power went out for the blocks between 103rd and 127th streets. They anticipated that it would not come back on until 1:15 pm. I realized that I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the garage, so I called Casey to troubleshoot opening the door without power. I don't know if it was because our garage door is a piece of crap, or I'm not very strong (why not both)... I could not lift the door even after pulling the 'emergency' rope. So I called work to let them know that I would be in whenever the power came back on. About 2 minutes later, the power came back on, but the garage door wouldn't open because I apparently knocked it off track. I saw Cathy drive up next door so I had her come over and try to help. In the end, she ended up stepping on a step ladder and holding the door open for me so I could get the car out. I made it in to work on time.
What a day. There's plenty more, but unfortunately I'm out of time. I'll try to update again later. Thanks for listening to my rant!!!
-Ashley
Work has been going better lately. I want to start out on a positive note because I was in a rut for a bit and didn't know if I wanted to stick with it or not. I'm glad I have. I think I was having a hard time transitioning from when we weren't as busy and I was just learning the ropes to now, where the phones are ringing off the hook and I have a lot more responsibilities. There are a few people I work with that are starting to get to me; the ones that are super needy, or the ones that think they know everything and have attitude problems. I'm pretty sure at this point that it's their personality trait and not something they will grow out of over time. I am happy to say that there are not many people that fall into either of these categories, so for the most part, I really enjoy the people I work with.
It's a certain few that are making me have a quick fuse the last few days. I can hold it in most of the time (although the girl I work with at the front desk definitely knows how I feel, and I feel comfortable enough with her that I can make a face at her and she knows who I'm making it about and why). It seems like one person here is jealous, and has to act out to get attention. For some reason this person is always trying to step in and take over when I'm trying to help someone else. It feels like there's always tension for some reason, and it's definitely not on my part. Luckily I do not work for this person, I'm only really affected by their constant complaints in general, and for the past few days, the way they comment on things I do around the office. They say it loud enough for me to hear, but not directly to me. I just get kind of tired of hearing it. It's not bad enough yet to go to my supervisor or anything, but it just bugs me a bit. I'm just going to keep doing my job and hope that I'm doing things correctly, and if this person wants to make comments when I do something wrong, then I may pull her aside at some point and say something. Anyway, just needed to vent.
Something strange happened today that got my day started on a weird note. Our power went out around 11:30ish this morning, and didn't come right back on like it normally does. I went outside and saw that most of our neighbors were gone, so I went next door to Cathy & Ray's to see if they had power. No one was home. I put two and two together when I tried to ring their doorbell and didn't hear it make any noise. So I went back in and called the electric company, only to find out that apparently the power went out for the blocks between 103rd and 127th streets. They anticipated that it would not come back on until 1:15 pm. I realized that I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the garage, so I called Casey to troubleshoot opening the door without power. I don't know if it was because our garage door is a piece of crap, or I'm not very strong (why not both)... I could not lift the door even after pulling the 'emergency' rope. So I called work to let them know that I would be in whenever the power came back on. About 2 minutes later, the power came back on, but the garage door wouldn't open because I apparently knocked it off track. I saw Cathy drive up next door so I had her come over and try to help. In the end, she ended up stepping on a step ladder and holding the door open for me so I could get the car out. I made it in to work on time.
What a day. There's plenty more, but unfortunately I'm out of time. I'll try to update again later. Thanks for listening to my rant!!!
-Ashley
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
I see a pattern forming...
So I have apparently been so busy that my blogging has suffered... I would rather tell you that than tell you that I haven't had much to write about! My day basically goes like this:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday: Set alarm for 8:30. Try to do something productive around the house, but get tired and go back to sleep for awhile. Hit snooze often. Wake up, rush around to get ready for work. Go to work, attempt to get everything done before I leave, which normally fails because the phone is ringing off the hook and I have a ton of paperwork to get through before leaving at 7. Come home, eat dinner with Casey. Watch recorded episodes of House. Casey plays a computer game or works while I do whatever around the house... normally hang out with Charley, watch TV or do chores. Go to bed.
Tuesday: Set alarm for 8:30. Try to do something productive around the house, but get tired and go back to sleep for awhile. Hit snooze often. Wake up, rush around to get ready for school. Our printer broke recently, so I have had to stop by Walgreen's to pick up any pictures I had printed for class. Go to school. Come home. Attempt to get food on the table or figure out what we're doing for dinner. Wait for Casey to come home, then we eat dinner. Watch recorded episodes of House. Casey plays a computer game or works while I do whatever around the house... normally hang out with Charley, watch TV or do chores. Go to bed.
That pretty much sums up what's been going on the last week or two. The weekends have been pretty busy with company recently. In the last month, we've had people stay over at our place 3/4 of the weekends. This weekend we are headed to Allentown to see the Waldrups, Stamps, and Deutschs, which should be a lot of fun. I will take pictures and post them sometime next week. Hopefully I'll get time with all of the babies and will get some decent pics of them. We'll see! :)
Many people have asked about my job, so I thought I would ellaborate a little bit about what I do. Saying I'm a "part-time receptionist" does not even begin to cover what actually goes on there.
Normally I get to work and try to help my co-worker Michelle get things done as she gets bombarded with paperwork during the morning. I honestly don't know how she does it all. Business is really starting to pick up now, so the phone rings off the hook. My main duty is to answer phones, but sometimes there are so many other things going on or the phone rings back to back that it's difficult to do, especially when everyone leaves at 5 and I'm alone for 2 hours. Sometimes I get crazy questions and don't know how to answer them. Sometimes people call and only speak Chinese so I get to try to figure out what they want. (That only happened once, but it was so strange that we still talk about it occasionally.)
During a typical day, I do a lot of data entry. Normally I enter new listings into MLS, or I change the listing price on different properties. I also make four different types of packets for the agents in our office. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have over 100 agents that work out of our office, so the place is pretty busy. Sometimes I try to make packets but the phone rings off the hook, so I don't get anything done. That gets frustrating because making packets is not difficult at all, but I can never seem to get enough made. I stock and order office supplies for our branch. I'm just now getting used to how much I need to order. I stock the bathrooms as well, but luckily I don't have to clean them. I am in charge of updating a large notebook each day with updates about the properties in them. The agents on floor duty (who answer any general questions about properties, etc) use the book to answer said questions. I make appointments for agents (not in our office) to view listings our agents have. Sometimes that requires making phone calls to the owners of the property to make sure the appointment is doable. I also give out codes for Sentrilock if agents need them. I stamp all mail, and put new mail in the agents' mailboxes. I send faxes and let the agents know whenever they receive a fax. I help walk-ins. I am also in charge of closing the office when I leave at 7, so I lock all the doors, turn off computers, turn off the coffee pot, tidy up rooms and turn off lights. I realize I'm going into a lot of detail, but the more I think about my typical work day, the more I remember. Michelle says that in less than a month, one of the ladies we work with is going on vacation, so Michelle is going to take her place and I'm going to take Michelle's place. I have a lot more information to cram in my brain very soon... I will attempt not to be too overwhelmed, but I can't promise anything.
I guess that's about it for now... maybe you're sorry you asked about my job now that I've told you just about every aspect of it! ;)
Sorry I've slacked on the blog... but hopefully I haven't permanently lost those of you who read this. Mom, Dad... I know you're still out there because we talk about the blog. To anyone else out there, thanks for reading!! I should have some more interesting things to write about in the near future. :)
Love,
Ash
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday: Set alarm for 8:30. Try to do something productive around the house, but get tired and go back to sleep for awhile. Hit snooze often. Wake up, rush around to get ready for work. Go to work, attempt to get everything done before I leave, which normally fails because the phone is ringing off the hook and I have a ton of paperwork to get through before leaving at 7. Come home, eat dinner with Casey. Watch recorded episodes of House. Casey plays a computer game or works while I do whatever around the house... normally hang out with Charley, watch TV or do chores. Go to bed.
Tuesday: Set alarm for 8:30. Try to do something productive around the house, but get tired and go back to sleep for awhile. Hit snooze often. Wake up, rush around to get ready for school. Our printer broke recently, so I have had to stop by Walgreen's to pick up any pictures I had printed for class. Go to school. Come home. Attempt to get food on the table or figure out what we're doing for dinner. Wait for Casey to come home, then we eat dinner. Watch recorded episodes of House. Casey plays a computer game or works while I do whatever around the house... normally hang out with Charley, watch TV or do chores. Go to bed.
That pretty much sums up what's been going on the last week or two. The weekends have been pretty busy with company recently. In the last month, we've had people stay over at our place 3/4 of the weekends. This weekend we are headed to Allentown to see the Waldrups, Stamps, and Deutschs, which should be a lot of fun. I will take pictures and post them sometime next week. Hopefully I'll get time with all of the babies and will get some decent pics of them. We'll see! :)
Many people have asked about my job, so I thought I would ellaborate a little bit about what I do. Saying I'm a "part-time receptionist" does not even begin to cover what actually goes on there.
Normally I get to work and try to help my co-worker Michelle get things done as she gets bombarded with paperwork during the morning. I honestly don't know how she does it all. Business is really starting to pick up now, so the phone rings off the hook. My main duty is to answer phones, but sometimes there are so many other things going on or the phone rings back to back that it's difficult to do, especially when everyone leaves at 5 and I'm alone for 2 hours. Sometimes I get crazy questions and don't know how to answer them. Sometimes people call and only speak Chinese so I get to try to figure out what they want. (That only happened once, but it was so strange that we still talk about it occasionally.)
During a typical day, I do a lot of data entry. Normally I enter new listings into MLS, or I change the listing price on different properties. I also make four different types of packets for the agents in our office. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have over 100 agents that work out of our office, so the place is pretty busy. Sometimes I try to make packets but the phone rings off the hook, so I don't get anything done. That gets frustrating because making packets is not difficult at all, but I can never seem to get enough made. I stock and order office supplies for our branch. I'm just now getting used to how much I need to order. I stock the bathrooms as well, but luckily I don't have to clean them. I am in charge of updating a large notebook each day with updates about the properties in them. The agents on floor duty (who answer any general questions about properties, etc) use the book to answer said questions. I make appointments for agents (not in our office) to view listings our agents have. Sometimes that requires making phone calls to the owners of the property to make sure the appointment is doable. I also give out codes for Sentrilock if agents need them. I stamp all mail, and put new mail in the agents' mailboxes. I send faxes and let the agents know whenever they receive a fax. I help walk-ins. I am also in charge of closing the office when I leave at 7, so I lock all the doors, turn off computers, turn off the coffee pot, tidy up rooms and turn off lights. I realize I'm going into a lot of detail, but the more I think about my typical work day, the more I remember. Michelle says that in less than a month, one of the ladies we work with is going on vacation, so Michelle is going to take her place and I'm going to take Michelle's place. I have a lot more information to cram in my brain very soon... I will attempt not to be too overwhelmed, but I can't promise anything.
I guess that's about it for now... maybe you're sorry you asked about my job now that I've told you just about every aspect of it! ;)
Sorry I've slacked on the blog... but hopefully I haven't permanently lost those of you who read this. Mom, Dad... I know you're still out there because we talk about the blog. To anyone else out there, thanks for reading!! I should have some more interesting things to write about in the near future. :)
Love,
Ash
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