Sorry 'bout that

Hi guys. Long time no post. Sorry about that.

Life has been busy! In the midst of finishing school, my internship and my assistantship, I was offered a temporary position at a company that does Background Checks on people, mostly for employment purposes. It was brought on by a going away party for my old boss Sally. Andrea and I were offered the job as long as we could start the following morning, which we took.

The project was only supposed to be a couple weeks, but last Friday my boss decided to keep me on another week to help wrap everything up. Now he's keeping me on an extra few weeks to help some more. Now there's a potential that this may turn into a real job. It's been a crazy couple of days, really.

I like the idea of having income. I like the idea of not having to job search for another year with no avail. I like the idea that this all came about because I went to a going away party.

However, I've been toying with the idea of going back to school. I like school. I like studying, learning, and being around the college atmosphere. Maybe I'll become a professor? What's another few years of school when I like it? Either way, I'm going to give myself a year or so to think about it. I want to take some time for learning without having to pay for tuition.

Speaking of school. I'm done. And I'm a little sad about it. Not so much about not having to go to UDM anymore, and not so much about not having to work for Kathleen, but sooo much about not being forced to see my classmates anymore. I know we'll see each other anyway, but it's much harder to keep in touch when you really have to try.

I'll try to update more for those who actually read this!

PostSecret

Found this new hip thang while stalking on Facebook. I thought it was stupid at first. Now I don't think it's all that bad. http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Busy Busy

I forgot what being busy felt like! It's a little exhausting and makes time go by way to fast. But it's nice at the same time.

For those that don't know, I got offered a temp job at a company that does background checks and drug testing for employment purposes. It's pretty much exactly what I was doing last summer at RECON. Never did I ever think my background investigation experience was going to land me a job, but it did. And it pays pretty well, so it's very nice.

I'm hoping it will maybe turn in to a summer job! We'll see!

So now, for the next two weeks, I have to:

• Finish my finals, including my ever so daunting comprehensive exam that proves I've learned something over the past two years.
• Finish my internship.
  
• Finish my assistantship.
• Finish my classes and final presentations.
• Work for this company for as many hours as I possibly can!

After April 21st though, I'm going to have nothing besides my new job. Life is going to be so easy!

Except I'm sure my assistantship duties will continue all the way up to graduation because that's exactly how Kathleen rolls.

24

My birthday weekend is over. I knew that once it was it meant that I was destined to spend the following two weeks locked in my room finishing up school work, finishing up my internship, finishing up my assistantship, and finishing up my life as a student.

Actually, since the economy has knocked me off my feet and ruined my moral, I'm almost tempted to go back for my doctorate. So maybe I will be a student again some day? It sounds better than not having a job.

My birthday weekend was GREAT! Actually I should probably call it my birthday week since I partied from Thursday all the way to Tuesday morning.

During my birthday week I:

• Received many birthday wishes that left me feeling super special and lucky.
• Was surprised with the best birthday ice cream cake ever from Laura.
  
• Had a movie night with Dan and Melissa, drinking wine and eating the ice cream cake.
• Went rollerblading with Tonka because the weather was so nice.
• Had my first grill out of the season, and made about 10lbs of mashed potatoes to go with it.
• Drank my first Oberon of the season. Grilling and Oberon? I like this season a lot.
  
• Got slapped in the face with reality. A couple of times. Naivety can only last so long.
  
• Played Apples to Apples, Battle of the Sexes and Cranium with some of my favorites.
• Went to this really cool bar in underground Royal Oak that Brian knew about, where apparently the men dancing around us were "together" and we didn't even notice it. Well, at least I didn't notice it.
  
• Got sucked into watching Little Big League on ABCFamily and left for Paw Paw a few hours late.
• Had a bonfire in Paw Paw with most of my favorite Paw Paw people! Thanks so much to all those who came back from Chicago to celebrate with me!
• Reconciled with Dave after over two years of us both being stupid and petty.
• Started putting words into practice by trying to get over myself in a lot of other situations that I may be being petty in. I'm lucky I have friendship and I shouldn't think that I'm entitled to people's attention. As a friend I should learn to be open minded and graciously accept things that I cannot, and probably should not, change.
  
• Got my groove back.
• Spent the night at my house with Katie who was a funny mess and I loved it.
• Had an awesome breakfast at Ryan's.
• Cleaned up the beer cans and toilet paper left on the field from the night before.
• Drove home and did nothing productive. Actually, I did nothing productive alllll weekend.
• Worked with Kim on Monday but left an hour early like usual.
• Took Katie's demo to Brian so he could listen to the songs we would like him to try out on drums.
• Hopped on board a fun bus and went to Harsens Island with Melissa, Raimie and Andy to watch the Final Four and hang out with their friends.
• Picked up someone from jail in New Baltimore.
• Was sad MSU lost because now I have to drive to North Carolina and buy my friend Brandon a pint. And because I hate losing bets.
  
• Got pretty hammered and stayed up too late; only slept 3 hours but it was well worth it in fun-ness.
• Spent the night at a house over looking the Saint Clair River channel watching ginormous freighters drive by.
• Was in a strange no sleep world for most of Tuesday, hardly able to survive class.

And now it's Wednesday and I'm writing this blog and listening to Bon Iver instead of doing my work. I'm such a mess.

So far 24 has been a really fun age. I hope it continues this way!

LiveJournal

I always wanted to write a book about London. Part of me would want to write it exactly like it happened because it would be fun to look back on in the future. The other part of me would like to change a few things to make it more interesting and fun to read. Either way, I think it would make a good story.

During my study abroad in London I was always updating my LiveJournal with the current events. So if I did decide to write a story, London would be fairly easy to recollect with all the updates and all the pictures I took while I was there. Tonight I thought it would be fun to read about it all over again.

So I started reading the life of Merry, August 2005. I didn't even make it to the London entries because I kept repeating something in my journal that I couldn't remember where it came from. Being the average, jaded, vain and naive 20-year-old that I was, I was very cryptic in my LiveJournal entries. Just like every other LJer was doing at that time, I wanted to tell everyone what was going on in my life, but not tell them anything at all.

This is disappointing, because now, 4 years later, I'm reading these stories and going, "Who am I referring to?" "Who did I have a crush on then" "What happened that night?" and "Who are all these people I swore I would 'never forget'?"

This has happened to me before. A couple years ago, Ramsey and I looked over our notebooks we used to have in middle school that we used for passing notes. There was one entry from after New Years Fest that talked about how much fun we had meeting so and so (cute boys) and how we would never forget so and so's names for the rest of our lives. (right)

We always thought we were above middle school, not as naive and silly as all the others... which we were. We always thought we were so above high school too, so grown up and so smart... which we weren't. Life is funny like that.

Anyway, in my posts from August 2005 I kept talking about some revelation I had in the Spring, only to find out that I never posted my revelation when it occurred.


Things I learned about Merry, pre-London:

• It took me 9 months to move on from Brian Reidenbach, maybe more. When I look back at that break-up now, I think of it like it hardly affected me. I guess I'm just good at voiding pain from my memories.
• Merry 2005 knew how to be single. Merry 2009 does not.
  
• That was one of the last summers my Paw Paw group was together. Most people came home from college for the summer and many fun Paw Paw nights were had.
• I had a really good college experience. Hope (and Holland) was a great place to live and learn for three years.

No body does it like you

For my 24th birthday I asked for a new vacuum. I don't know whether to be embarrassed about this or proud. Am I being practical, or am I getting old? After I ripped it open and tested it out, I decided on proud because it handled Tonka's hair like a champ.

I'm in love with a Hoover.

Time Thief

I'm in the process of developing trainings for one of CARE's clients on the power of self-management. In the book I'm working from I found this neat section on attitude, so I thought I would share it with you. Yes, the training is written towards work settings, but I think we can all agree that it applies to life as well.

It's long. Sorry.


Our attitude is a very important choice as it relates to career success and satisfaction. The truth is that anyone, no matter how good the working conditions, can find a reason to have a negative attitude. And anyone, no matter how bad the circumstances, can find a way to maintain a positive attitude. Our attitude is of our own making and largely depends on these influences:

What we focus on: Our attitude will likely suffer if we concentrate on everything that is frustrating or unfair and if we take for granted the positive aspects of the working conditions. When we dwell on the negative, we feed it with energy. What we pay attention to only grows stronger.

The key to happiness is gratitude. All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. And nothing undermines gratitude more than unwarranted or unmet expectations. The Buddhist teachings are relevant here. If we expect that something desirable will or should definitely happen, then we feel entitled to this thing. This leads to dissatisfaction, because it undermines the most important source of happiness, which is gratitude.

It is assumed that being unhappy lead us to complain. Actually the opposite is true: Complaining helps us become unhappy. Therefore, to improve our overall satisfaction, we should take an inventory of both our personal and work life and express gratitude for all that is good in it. Focus on the positive and our attitude will improve.

What we think when things go bad: Many of the dissatisfiers at work are irritating, but they are not catastrophes. A catastrophe is the AIDS epidemic in Africa or a hurricane that wipes out a city. What most of us experience when things go wrong at work is frustrating, inconvenient and disappointing, but it is not disastrous. We must place things in proper perspective. Don’t become a drama queen or king. Don’t make mountains out of molehills or worry about things that have not yet happened (and may not ever happen). This only prevents us from living in the moment, recognizing and taking full advantage of what is positive in the work environment.

Whom we associate with: If we spend all of our time with someone who is negative and angry, it is very possible that the person’s unhappiness will begin to affect our own attitude. Misery like company, and negativity is very contagious. The disgruntled co-worker expects that we join him in his griping and dumping. And if we are too satisfied with our job, there is something wrong with us: We are naïve. We are in denial. We are apple polishers if we get along too well with management. All of us are judged by the company we keep. Our associations are a reflection of our values. Choose wisely.

Our expectations: One definition of conflict is “expectation not met.” Therefore, when we are experiencing job-related frustrations, we must examine our expectations. Are they reasonable?


-Michael Henry Cohen. (2008). The Power of Self Management. pp54-56.