Performance review with nice comments

On Friday, I had my performance review with my manager. It was held online for the second year in a row.

It went well. My manager said a number of nice things. Some of them were the following:

• I am reliable and trustworthy. If he gives me a task to do, he can sleep well, knowing that it'll be completed.
• He misses our talks about food!

It was a nice way to kick off my weekend.

Thai restaurant suggestion - success!

Yesterday, I recommended a bunch of eateries to the couple who have named a shake after me at their business. One of the suggestions was a Thai restaurant.

They actually went there for lunch and loved it. It was nice seeing a video of what they had to eat. It was cool that they trusted me.

Supporting two local businesses

On Saturday, a couple of cool things happened to me. Both deal with small local businesses.

For one business, it had a campaign that invited folks to suggest new flavours for teas and shakes that have no to low sugar. I suggested German chocolate cake. The business tested out the flavour suggestions, and names one tea and one shake after the person who suggested it. I now have a German chocolate cake shake named after me. It's on the place's permanent menu starting on Monday.

I am thrilled to bits to have a menu item named after me. 

The second business is closing its store and strictly operating online to save costs. Its last day is today before the store closes down for good. I went there to visit it one last time.

I am a loyal customer. It's to the point where the owner recognizes me when I walk in and knows my name. 

We had a good chat today. I bought a sugar cookie in the past and she asked me whether I enjoyed it. She also showed me a secret project that she's working on. It was lovely to get that inside scoop from her. I am excited for what she will be offering down the road.

Although I'll miss dropping by this store, I am happy that it's still in business and I can continue supporting it.

A manager to can't control his team working from home and great colleagues who care

As expected, my manager, a control freak, cannot handle his entire team working from home. He feels the need to write long-winded e-mails to everyone on everything. He can't keep an eye on anyone, so this method of madness is his way of coping. Odd.

He ended up sending me a multitude of e-mails. I know that I have tasks to do. Micromanaging me by copying and pasting what he had already written to me last week isn't going to make me work faster. I need responses from others around the world. Give me a break! Maybe trust me.

Anyway, I decided to say thanks to three colleagues on Monday by recognizing them in our internal tool. Two of them took my belongings off my desk and stowed them safely away so that staff could sanitize my desk. It was thoughtful of them. I also recognized my project manager, thanking her for supporting me when my manager interrogated me last week before abruptly banning me from the office. Her compassion and support were most appreciated.

It's nice that I have support when I need it the most.

Phone chats should not be a part of an agenda!

The new guy in my life had an "agenda" request yesterday. He wants to talk on the phone with me every morning. I gently let him know that conversations should be natural and spontaneous. They shouldn't be scheduled and treated like business meetings!

I appreciate that he wants to talk with me and enjoys our chats, but it becomes overkill doing it daily. Besides, who wants to talk to me first thing in the morning when I am barely functioning and trying to get out the door in one piece?!

He's funny in his own way. Getting to know each other is going well. He listens and trusts me. It's good.

New love - pacing it

I have been chatting with a guy online for three weeks. It has been great getting to know each other.

He told me that he is falling in love with me. That's sweet. It's nice to feel loved again. The feeling is mutual.

We are taking things slow. We are similar in that we got our hearts broken. It's a question of trusting that we can love and find love again. So far, we are doing great.

Credit update, including a credit card renewal

I have lots of good news about building up my credit rating. For a good year, I have been working hard to rebuild it. I am slowly seeing results as I continue to pay off my debt and make more than the minimum payment each month.

I got a free account through TransUnion to check my credit rating at my convenience. Since I have been monitoring my credit rating, it has improved from being very poor to poor. Although it's still not great having a poor rating, I am out of the very poor rating level, which is a huge step. I am so pleased with my progress. I hope that a year or so from now, my credit rating will be considered fair. I'll then work my way to making it have a good rating again.

Baby steps. So far, so great.

A while back, I posted about whether a credit card company will renew my card. It expires next month. I got my replacement card on Friday. I am thrilled!

When one bank decided that I was a risk and didn't renew my credit card with a low limit ($1,000), it was quite a blow to my credit-rebuilding confidence. Even though I never missed a payment with this card, this bank decided to shut down my account because my credit rating wasn't great. My track record meant nothin at all.

With the other credit card company that decided to renew my card, I am thankful. I was hoping that it would because I do like what this card does for me. As a customer, this bank has made me feel good that it's trusts me. I can only think of a couple of times where I was late with payments, but only by a couple of days. It has given me some slack, which I appreciate.

I am pleased that I have two credit cards. They serve my needs well. I won't repeat my mistake by getting multiple credit cards when my credit rating improves. It was a trap that I won't fall for again.

Anyway, I wanted to share my good news about my financial situation. Things are looking up and I am happy.

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.

Colleague, friend, and more

I have a colleague at work whom I interviewed, trained, and ended up befriending. She has recently been promoted to a team lead. I am also a team lead. There isn't exactly a cash incentive for this title. It's just a title given to us by our manager.

Anyway, she has never been a team lead and asked if I could give her pointers. She told me that she likes my work ethic and thinks that I'm the best one to help her out. She is sweet.

She is currently on vacation in the United States. I asked the other day whether she needed a drive to the airport. She did. She thanked me for offering, both when we spoke and while I drove her to the airport.

Just before we left work on Friday to head to the airport, she asked me whether I could keep her jewellery safe for her. She lives with a roommate and doesn't have a safe. She felt a bit awkward asking me, but I am comfortable keeping everything safe for her. I promised not to pawn anything!

It's nice that we trust each other. Our friendship is fairly new. She is like the sibling that I never had.

Honesty about anxiety and depression at work

I had a decent talk with my newest addition to my team. One of my students and I were training her on Monday. At the end of the session, what I didn't expect was this woman sharing that she has been depressed and anxious for two years.

It hit home for me. I have been there. So has my guy.

The good news is that she is on medication, which has put her back on track. She feels good. It shows. She is funnier during our team meetings.

I was impressed that she trusted us to share what she has been going through. Add to that mix the fact that her past two team leads have said negative things about her with little justification and my manager asking her to submit weekly reports (she is the only person on our entire team doing this task) can add to that depression and anxiety.

I thanked her for sharing all this information. I told her that I'm happy that she is on my team. She seemed to be absorbing the information well. She also asked thoughtful, intelligent questions today. She has potential. It probably hasn't been noticed by others.

I'm optimistic. I let her know to leave the baggage and negative past work experiences behind her. We are working with a clean slate now. She appreciated it.

Being vulnerable... he's here!

When my guy and I started dating, it took him a while to open up to me. He wasn't great at expressing how he felt. He would tell me that he felt vulnerable and a bit uncomfortable.

These days, he embraces his vulnerability. We both trust each other. He comes to me when he needs to talk. The feeling is mutual.

After sex, we both are in a lethargic, relaxed state. We say the most fun things afterwards. The other day, my guy ended up singing. That's nothing unusual.

"I'm here! I'm here!" he sang to me.
"I know. You're next to me," I said, sweetly kissing him.
"I'm here! You're here!" he said, in a dopey voice.
"You're here. Me, too," I said.

He's sweet when he is in this state. I just want to hug him even more.