recognition

Anyone who’s been there will agree with me when I say this. Customer Service is HARD. As much as I love my job, this week has been particularly trying and it’s started to wear on me. Today instead of another low I got to experience one of the highs you can only get in Customer Service. Today my co-workers and I received the Heart of Nicco Award for the 4th Quarter.
This is cool-for a few reasons.
One: Andrea and I have only been a team here for five months. That’s right. FIVE.
Two: It’s based entirely on peer nomination and selection.
Three: We were brought in to clean up a mess. The expectations were VERY high, and this shows we have delivered.

Aside from those reasons I’m just so ecstatic because I’m not used to this. I have never worked for a company that recognizes good things like Nicholas. I’m used to having all my hard work go unnoticed while my short comings and failures were magnified and nit-picked. It’s weird to not dread coming to work every day. Aside from the occasional hard day or two I really do love my job. It’s cool.

The bottom line is this: it’s nice to be recognized for a job well done-from the Executive level all the way to my peers.

Figures I looked like crap today-in front of the whole company.

christmas trees and leg lamps

Last week I bought my Christmas tree—before you judge me for doing it so far in advance--I’ve gotta tell you it’s fake, it will NOT be put up until after Thanksgiving, this being my first Christmas in my new place I needed one, AND it was originally $200 but I got it for $50, so there.
Because it will be going up in a little over a week I haven’t bothered to make room for it in my storage space. Instead I have opted to leave the box where it will be put up to get me used to the idea. Last night Mr. Wonderful and I were watching our new favorite show when I saw the glimmer in his eye. Those of you who have seen “A Christmas Story” know the glimmer I am referring to. Those who don’t it’s the glimmer the old man gets in his eye about a week before Christmas thinking about the turkey he would soon be partaking. This man loves Christmas more than he loves me I’m sure. He’s the type who starts listening to Christmas music November 1, would keep the lights up year round if he could, looks for any reason to celebrate Christmas early, and calls me a Grinch because I believe there’s a time and place for Christmas. Because of this I had been waiting for him to make up a reason for me to put my tree up a whole week and a half early. I braced myself for the inevitable.

He then looked at me and sweetly said, “We should take that out of the box so we can see what it looks like.” Being as I know my sweetheart all too well I saw right through his tactic and replied: “once it comes out of the box it’s staying out until January 2.” Upon hearing this he got a twinkle in his eye and a sneaky grin on his face. In my attempt to dissuade him I had clearly given him the answer he was looking for. Once I saw the glimmer and his advance toward the box-the man is worse than my little brother was with presents growing up, I quickly added; “and if the tree comes out my leg lamp is right behind it.” You heard me right. A leg lamp. Cue the Hallelujah Chorus and heavenly beams.
That stopped him cold. Mr. Wonderful hates my little beauty almost as much as he hates the movie from which it originated. (Blasphemy-I KNOW!) He has had fantasies of having “accidents” with it since he learned of its existence-luckily for me it was a hand made gift from my parents and is protected from such a fate by sentimental value. During the course of our relationship many an argument has been had regarding this beauty-if we get married it will just get worse, I'm sure. He seems to think it’s an eyesore and has no place in the front window next to the tree. I say that’s what makes it funny-the fact it’s in the front room window next to the tree. Like Mom and The Old Man, we’re very much divided on what’s appropriate Christmas décor in the Newman-Fox households.

What say ye?

halloween, symphony, and zombies, oh my!

Of course what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t update you on the weekend’s festivities? Friday was the traditional “dress up for work” day. My co-worker Andrea and I decided to go as Mario and Luigi. We didn’t have a costume contest, but I’m pretty sure we would have won if there had been one:

Along with the costumes each department entered a“haunted” gingerbread house into the competition. Although ours looked great on paper, it didn’t turn out so great in reality. I learned that Royal Icing is NOT a medium I prefer or excel in:

Scott and I were given tickets to the symphony on Saturday night, so rather than spend it waiting for the non-existent trick-or-treaters (P.S- I had THREE) we spent the evening with Haydn's Symphony No. 1, Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter playing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6. Although it was enjoyable we learned we are NOT Symphony goers. Our favorite piece of the evening was definitely Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6. Throw in the spectacle of parking in Downtown Salt Lake and the Freak Show that was Halloween made for a pretty interesting evening.

Our Halloween weekend wrapped up with Scott coercing me into watching ‘Walking Dead’ on AMC. It's definitely an adult show, not everyone's cup o'tea, and should be viewed with discrection. It's based on the graphic novel of the same name, and I’m not going to lie; it was good. So good it’s probably a series I’ll watch from now on. I love that it's not full of the cheap scream tricks most horror movies rely on now, in large part because it’s on basic cable so they actually have to write a smart script that isn't reliant on blood, guts, gore, and nudity to cause fear or tell the story. Most of you know how I feel about horror movies so you probably also know I’m LOVING the fact that I can watch this and not be completely disgusted. I wasn't even creeped out-well until it was time for bed, anyway. I totally had zombie dreams.

Aside from the pros there were a few HUGE cons for me, and they are problems I have with all zombie shows/movies:

1. There's always someone who misses the zombie apocalypse--how do you MISS the zombie apocalypse, let alone SLEEP through it ala our hero in 'Walking Dead', Rick? I would like to think I would NOTICE when my dearly departed started eating my brains.

2. There's always someone who is a late comer to the game-usually the one who SLEPT through everything-and they act as if they don’t know what a zombie is when they start playing said game. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW!? If I woke up to nothingness, saw a door chained shut that read “DO NOT OPEN DEAD INSIDE”, and something was trying to get through those doors; wouldn’t you put two and two together? I sure would. I would be looking for a weapon-blunt object, knife, gun-ANYTHING that I could kill zombies with. ESPECIALLY when I see half of a zombie trying to pull it self towards me when I come across it heading home.

3. Why do they always head to the large, populated cities (here it's Atlanta) under the guise that there is some sort of Mecca waiting there for them? Wouldn't logic lead one to believe that you are safest where there WEREN'T large concentrations of people? Because my logic leads me to believe that NATURALLY those people have most likely become what you're trying to avoid.

I would love nothing more than to see a smart protagonist in a zombie movie-to see the signs, immediately put two and two together, commence being a bad-ass, instead of playing the clueless, confused, and bumbling characters this genre is full of. The moral of the story is this: I will live through the zombie apocalypse-will you?