My intern and training a new colleague

My intern's work term ends in 1.5 weeks. She has been great helping me with recording training videos as I update my training slides. I let her know that I appreciated her help. I'm glad that I did.

In a few hours, I am training a new member of our team. I am ready. It will be different, but everything I seem to do is different!

Snow tires and annoying people

On Wednesday, I got my winter tires installed on my car. It was an odd day.

I didn't get my usual service advisor. He was there. There were tons of customers, likely all getting winter tires installed.

I got a new advisor. I didn't like how he insisted that I was wrong. Well, I had to ask him to look up my records. If you don't believe me, check the facts that you have in your database.

This theme carried on to my incompetent colleague, who accused me of telling another colleague something incorrect. She wasn't even in my conversation. I had a text conversation with her other team lead. I copied and pasted it. I had proof.

I then told her to have facts before making ridiculous, nonsensical statements. She said that she was "merely asking a question." A question doesn't go into false accusations.

She's an idiot. Sadly, I have to put up with her.

Grateful to dig myself out and have folks take a chance on me financially

I feel grateful. I got a leased car.

My credit rating took a dive roughly two years ago. My rating was stellar before I ended up being late on a few payments for nearly three months. I have been mending my credit rating for the last year.

The combination of my being with the same car dealership for nine years and having a track record of always making my payments on time helped. I like that I am trusted even though I have made mistakes with my credit in the past.

I have had one financial bank fail to renew my credit card. The credit limit was $1,000. I was never late with my payments with this card. Yet, due to my credit rating, I couldn't be trusted by this bank. I have since paid it off.

I am down to two credit cards. One of them expires in a few months. Part of me has a feeling that this credit card company will do the same thing and not renew my card. The other part of me is hopeful that it will keep me on. However, if it does let me go as a customer, I won't be hurt by it. I would be okay with a single credit card and will reconsider having a backup card down the road.

The toughest part right now is getting my downpayment on my new car paid. I was expecting to do this exercise in January. The fact that it has been moved up by half a year took me by surprise. The good news is that I was able to negotiate a lower downpayment and still have lower lease payments.

Again, I am grateful. It's amazing how you are treated when your credit rating plunges. Your payment history or track record doesn't matter to most places. Your credit rating labels you. Occasionally, there is a glimmer of hope and I got it.

New record player and old cell phone

I bought a record player the other day. It was on sale. It's a gift to myself.

I bought one last year in purple, my favourite colour. It was on sale, too. The problem with it is that it doesn't spin a record fast enough and maintain its speed. It's such a shame.

This new record player can do more than just play records. It has a cassette deck, AM/FM radio, bluetooth, and an aux line to connect an iPod or other music player to it.  It plays CDs, too. I can record anything to MP3. It's quite the powerhouse.

I had to make room for it. It's not a tiny thing. It's not monstrous, either.

I liked that it forced me to clean the top of my stereo system. I found a box with an old cell phone from my days in Minnesota. I didn't think that I still had the phone. It's so tiny in comparison to the phones these days.

I felt like I had opened a time capsule of sorts. It was cool to see a snapshot of my life a while back.

T is for talk and tease

I am a fairly chatty person. I am not sure how that came about.

Ever since I can remember, I was often dubbed as being shy. I disliked this label, because I like being with people. People don't frighten me. I simply happen to be a quiet person by nature.

Being quiet does have its perks. I tend to be a better listener than those who enjoy talking all the time.

My role has changed this year at work. Instead of actually doing the grunt work of writing information from scratch, I am reviewing those pieces that other writers produce on the team. It is a lot of work, but I do enjoy it.

The role that I have also involves talking to each writer briefly when I am in the office. There is one writer who is an only child. I am, too. Yet, we are so different.

She is both shy and quiet. I have to ask probing questions and pry information from her. As for me, I am more of a free communicator. I share information and what I am doing. People don't have to guess what I am thinking or working on.

My guy is equally as chatty as I am. He has told me a number of times that I am a great conversationalist and that everything I talk about is interesting to him. I have never seen his eyes glaze over when I talk about a topic, so he isn't buttering me up!

It's one of many reason why we are compatible. We can talk for hours and never get bored of each other.

We both like to tease each other. When he was trying to cheer me up the other week, I teased him that he could record each positive phrase one some recorder and just press a button to play back an encouraging phrase.

"You can tell me that everything will work out fine, record that sentence, and save it as button 1. You can then press it when you think that I need cheering up," I teased.
"Do you think that I don't mean it?" he asked, knowing that I was pulling his leg.
"I know that you like to optimize your time. So, you could record a speech on how things will always improve over time, press the button, walk away, and fix yourself lunch," I joked.
"Oh, really?" he asked, with a tone to his voice that hinted that he was smiling.
"Sure. You just play it and I listen to it. I continue to feel better as I listen to what you have to say. You then walk over to the couch and take a nap. You wake up from your nap and your recording is still going," I giggled.
"I can't wait to see you soon. You are so going to get it."

It's fun teasing him. Of course, there's a price for doing it. I will have a sore backside the next time we're together. I don't mind it one bit.