We Interrupt This Life Of Leisure For A Foray Back Into The Real World!

Here is the next chapter in the saga of the company I've been doing some consulting work for since August '08.

I knew my former co-worker and pal wasn't terribly happy in his HR position. You might recall "management" was bringing in an outside consultant to evaluate the department. I declined to attend and was later contacted by the consultant (interestingly enough, someone who I'd reviewed an offer package on for THE top HR job there but that never came to pass) so he could tell me he didn't need to talk to me. Uh, ok; didn't INTEND to talk to you, matey!

Anyway, life went on, bringing dribs and drabs of offers and various questions from that neck of the woods.

Then, this past Monday, I received an email from the 2nd in command HR person informing me that my pal had moved on to sales and marketing and she needed quite a bit of help putting together generic job descriptions and perhaps some other generalist work, such as writing policies.

Ok, in all honesty, these are probably two HR tasks that I loathe more than anything else (although easy enough for me to perform as I do seem to have the gift of the pen); the only worse thing, IMO, would be if she'd told me she wanted me to write an AAP; ugh (or, perhaps, lay people off. Never fun for anyone involved).

She sent me a grid of JDs to write; generic JDs (not geriatric); meaning, very, very general; nothing specific to a particular job. In addition to rank and file, there are a lot of executive JDs they need (which will be even MORE generic, since, last I looked, most companies don't have job descriptions per se for their executives). And, man, talk about the levels. Japanese companies are supposed to be lean? Not this puppy. In one management grade alone, here are the positions: Division Director. Director. Senior Director. Assistant Vice President. Vice President. Senior Vice President. Crikey!

But, hey, yours truly is not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If they are willing to pay me my hourly rate to perform tasks that a very junior level HR person in another company (like the one I used to work for) could easily do, that's their business.

Gotta get the old thesaurus out, of course, to find ump-teen other ways to say "responsible for" or "proactively" or "is required".

What all this means, of course, is I'm not living the life of Riley right now. I'm actually WORKING quite a few hours every day. This means little time for blogging, Facebook, chipping away at my projects, etc.

So, there you have it. This is what's been keeping me from y'all.

Until this particular gravy train leaves the station, that is.

BTW, The idiom "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" never made much sense to me, or at least I didn't try overly hard to figure it out. Since I keep saying it, I figured I'd ponder it.

Before I look it up, this is what I THINK it means:

"If someone, for absolutely no reason, gives you a gift of a horse, don't open its mouth to check how old it is, how healthy, or if it has rotten teeth, just be thankful you now have a horse. In other words, don't either make too much or too little about it".

...from Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms (left-over resource from my brief foray into teaching English)

"To criticize or refuse to take something that has been offered to you".

Origin: "Based on the idea that you can discover a lot about a horse's condition by looking at its teeth".

I guess I picked up something from that foray, as well!

Mrs. B

Things That Go By The Wayside (As Life "Happens")

I got to thinking about this while I was at the day-spa today getting a facial, etc. What I am referring to are, "things" (usually something you meant to do) that don't happen (or happen as quickly as they should have) because other things, the things of life, get in the way.

Case in point, my having this facial. Mr. B gave me a gift certificate for a treatment at this spa for Christmas last year. I tucked it away in my calendar for safe-keeping. A few weeks before we left for California, I was digging around in my calendar for our trip itinerary, and, lo and behold, out fell the certificate. No, I did not forget I had it, rather, in the back of my mind I figured I'd wait for some special event so I'd look extra special good for it. Frankly, there have been a few of those already this year, so, yeah, "life got in the way". Luckily, I looked closely at the certificate. Oops! It expired at the end of November! Better make an appointment, thought I. So, I did, for the day before we left for California. But, "life" had other plans as, two days before THAT, I used a hair removal cream on my skin and ended up with a minor chemical burn (how the hell that happened I have no clue as I've been doing this for...uh...well, let's just say "awhile" now!)

Being that the end of the month is next week, I figured I'd best get busy on this. Hence why I was there today and why this topic popped into my brain.

I don't know about you, but, I have several varieties of "To Do" lists. The primary (and messy) one is the day to day "To Do" list (which I usually take out over a two week period of time). I also keep several other "To Do" lists which are stuff I need to do or want to do (or should do) but they are not time-sensitive (although maybe I'd better re-think these given the near-miss with the day spa gift certificate). What I usually do is, from time to time, go over those lists and then factor them into the two week out list. Then, there are the "special" lists (like for the Holidays or a project (e.g., DSO Holiday Pops)) and the lists I keep when I'm somewhere not supposed to be keeping a list but I keep one to ease my mind (these I call my "Things To Do When I Return" lists). Finally, there are the multitude of "Honey Do To Do Lists" that I keep for Mr. B. If I think of something that shouldn't take him long to do but it's somewhat urgent (and I cannot do it), I write it down on a piece of paper and leave it with his mail for him to see when he gets home. If they are longer term things (that will take time, money, thought and perhaps a discussion or two), we write on his "board" (that hangs in the utility room); the idea here (his) was that he'd see it every day and be able to think about when/how he'd get around to them.

The things that "get in the way" of accomplishing some of the actions on the "special" lists (and sometimes even the two week one) is just life happening. I get sick. We go on vacation. There is an impromptu get together at a family member's house that sounds a hell of a lot more fun than "working". Money might be tight or maybe I'm working a lot for my consulting gig in a particular week. Or, we get two kittens that require "a bit" of effort and involvement. Or the dog scrapes her face on the fence and we have to take her to the vet and then apply medicine to her face twice per day. Or, we can't yet leave the dog and the kittens alone together, etc. Or, frankly, I'd just assume blog or read or get on the elliptical machine or walk the dog or figure out what we're going to have for dinner that week.

So, here are a few (not all, mind) items, as an example, that are on each of these types of "To Do" lists. Unlike the list in the picture at the top of this entry, mine are NEVER blank (I do like the format of the one in the picture, though!) Also, mine are kept in a variety of places; in a document on the computer, in my little note book, on the back of a piece of paper (if I don't have anything else to write on), etc.

Mrs. B's Two Week To Do List

-Call the eyeglass repair place to get my frames repaired (they broke Friday)

-Send out a reminder email to the DSO Board (who have not answered me yet) to find out what day in January they can attend a retreat

-Switch closet (this means move my spring/summer clothes into the guest bedroom closet and bring my fall/winter clothes into the master bedroom closet

-Talk to Mr. B about Xmas

-Go to the store for Thanksgiving dinner items/pre-cook for Thursday

Special Project List (Holiday Pops)

-Bake and freeze what I can

-Beanies (this means wrap up the 3 baskets of Beanie Babies I am donating)

-Painted Violin raffle tickets (try to sell 10; anyone want one? $5/ticket. The violins are REALLY cool this year!)

After I Return (Vacation)

-Update stocks (I think this was from the Mexico trip...in June. Obviously, it's been too depressing/pointless to do yet)

-Update CD (as in music) list (yeah...on a list to update another list...)

-Other To Do list (ok, this is really anal, isn't it?)

Long Term Lists (I am sorry to say some of these "actions" have been on SO long I should drop them off!)

To Buy

-Extra towel ring for Master Bath (ok...we've been in the house two years now, I guess we can live without this!)

-Stationary/ink (I REALLY WILL DO THIS FATHER :-) )

-Storm door (this is also on Mr. B's list so it must be important, right?)

To Do

-Get bracelet fixed (means put a security chain on it)

-Watch battery for Mr. B (this is really his action!)

-Leave "instructions" (this is a morbid one but I keep meaning to write out a few pages of who gets what when I croak, where important documents are, account numbers, funeral arrangements, etc. Yeah, you can probably see why this one has been on the list for ages). I DO have a will/living will, though!

-Hard copy Italy album (uh, it's been 5 years since I went to Italy the last time!)

Mr. B's Short Term

-Change light bulb in light over stairs (he's not looking forward to doing this, it may end up on the long term list eventually)

-Help with Lily's butt (ok, do not get the wrong idea here; this means I decided I need to trim the hair in "that region" until she learns better bathroom/cleaning habits. Mr. B is going to have to help on this one!)

Mr. B's Long Term

-Stretch carpet (not that he has to do it but we probably need to get our carpet stretched at some point)

-Clean wood floor (you all should be fully aware of what this one is)

-Urns (Nigel and Clyde's)

-Grout (some of our grout needs to be re-done and we're past home warranty so he has to do it)

-Lucy's class (this is my action too; we signed her up for a class this past January, she got Heartworm (that "life happening thing") so we postponed it. It's now November. We really need to do this (especially as we've paid for it!))

Ok, so, am I completely anal? I also keep a list of potential Blog topics, what books I want to read, who to send a holiday card to (and who is banished off the list for not ever sending us one); etc.

Does anyone else out there do anything remotely similar to all of this?

I am interested in thoughts here, folks; any better ideas?

Mrs. B