Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Clapton - 'nuf said!

Thursday night our family went to see Eric Clapton in concert.

Talk about an awesome concert. Robert Cray opened up for him, playing about 40 minutes. We waited about 20 minutes for them to re-work the stage and then Clapton came on. He played for 2 hours. He did a lot of songs from his Cream days and ended with some of his bigger hits. Layla, my favorite Clapton song, was awesome! He even did an "unplugged" segment in the middle of the concert. He ended with "Cocaine" and everyone was yelling it out with him.

The guys in his band were awesome too and I thought it was really neat how he allowed each of them to get some front time and some recognition. Real talent on that stage.

Besides having a wonderful time with the concert, we had a great "anti-drinking" learning experience for our girls. The beer was flowing that night. The guy behind us was drunk before the concert even started. At one point in the concert he wanted to start stomping his feet, so he went out to the stairs (we were aisle seats) folded his hands out in front of himself and started doing that Russian sort of kicking dance. His poor girlfriend was so embarrassed the whole night.

There was a girl the next section over and a couple of rows down basically having her own little rave. During "Wonderful Tonight" she looked like she was going for the "big-O".

Since beer was flowing, it was being spilled a little, and being drunk all around us. My girls, who aren't used to it, were getting a little nauseous from the overabundance of beer aroma. I happened to have a purse sized Shalimar and spritzed a little on them to smell. After I spritzed them I said "remember this when someone tries to get you to drink!"

The people sitting next to us on the row, two couples in their 40's and 50's were having a grand old time too. They went for beer refills several times during the concert. During the last two songs one of the guys was up, just dancin' and swingin' his arms. He turned and looked at those of us who happened to be sitting and yelled "What's wrong with you people!" My family all thought "We aren't drunk!"

Anyway, a good time was had by all (some a little more than others) and we were able to expose our girls to some great music, some different experiences and had a fun family outing.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Some things I've learned

As you know, I recently started a new job, hence, my lack of posting. Things have been going well and I really like my job. I have great people to work with and I have learned a ton of things. I would like to share a little of the wisdom I have gained so far.

  1. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
  2. Take good notes.
  3. Thank God for back ups!
  4. The IT Guy is your friend!
  5. iPods are great when the country station gets turned on at work.
  6. Good friends are priceless!

Now to elaborate just a tad on these things.

1 & 2. I was hired to do something I have never done before. A/P and Payroll. I had 3 weeks, with the person who was going to train me, to learn everything I needed to know to do my job successfully. Thank heavens she was patient with me. I definitely asked for help, asked a ton of questions, and took a ton of notes. I still refer to them. - I even bought a cute notebook to put them in. May as well have fun while you are doing it!

3. Someone wanted to know how much personal time they had. They happened to call while I was in the middle of working on a report and finishing payroll. Since I am so good at multitasking I decided to pull up the spreadsheet and tell her quickly. Best to get it done now. Well, when I clicked ok to open the spreadsheet, up came a blank page. Huh? I closed Excel and reopened the file. Blank spreadsheet. Then it started to dawn on me and panic set in. I thought "Don't tell me I just did what I think I just did!" Instead of clicking on the "open" icon I had clicked on the "save" icon and saved a blank spreadsheet over the personal time spreadsheet. OOPS!!

4. My friend the IT Guy, having nightly back ups, saved me from my own stupid self.

5. I love the people I work with. Really great people. Generally we have on a generic radio station that doesn't offend any one and plays pretty lame music that you can listen to in an office. Occasionally though, the country music station gets turned on. Other than rap (ugh) about the only type of music I can't stand is Country (in all it's varied forms). So, when that station comes on, I get out the iPod. My coworkers check on me to see if I am doing ok. "Yep," I say, "I have my iPod earphone in. I am doing alright!"

5. Now that I am working full time, I rely heavily on my good friends. They take my girls to and from school. One does it full time, but when she can't, I call on other good friends to fill in. I tell them how much I appreciate them doing this for me, but they probably can't fathom how important it is to me. They are taking precious cargo (what a way to talk about my kids, eh!). It is such a stress relief to know that my girls are safe and taken care of on their way to and from school.

All in all, my new job has been a huge learning experience, a lot of fun, a huge lifestyle change, but fairly uneventful (except for #3).
I am really enjoying going back to work. Now if I can just justify the cost of a maid, life would be bliss!