Zoe’s Journal

The fun pictures have arrived! (thanks, ambeez) So, here’s how it went.

After lounging around at the hotel bar for a while, we decided to walk through downtown to a Chicago-style pizza place.

More downtown at night…

Once there, hilarity ensued. The very first thing that happened? AM knocked her water glass all over the table and floor, and JD ordered a pitcher of beer. Those who know me know I don’t particularly like beer - so when JD challenged me to a chug, I figured ‘what the heck, why not?’

Then we walked home as, I like how A put it, ‘faded ladies’.

Aside from jumping in a pool/fountain to win a bet, the rest of night passed uneventfully! (I think)

For those you who know what this is…

We Call Them ‘Rotational Assignments’ and You Would Get a Special Chair

Interviewer #1: You have had many jobs at that same company. Can you describe your work environment?
Forty-six-year-old proper woman: My company liked to move us around a lot so we got experience in different departments.
Interviewer #1: Was this a standard practice?
Woman: Oh, yes. They did that for everyone working at the restaurant’s HQ. Every six months we would move from department to department. We liked to call it “tossing the salad.”
Interviewer #1: Excuse me?
Interviewer #2: [Spits out his water.]
Interviewers #3,4, and 5: [Look away and laugh uncontrollably]
Woman: I got my salad tossed every six months, but in the past year moved it up to every three months. It’s all part of the manager training program.
Interviewer #6: Did you like getting your salad tossed?
Woman: Yes, I did.
Interviewer #6: It must take some getting used to. We have never tossed salads here, but that is not to say we won’t someday.
Woman: I would highly recommend it.

Church Street
Orlando, Florida

Overheard by: PS

This site is awesome. Overheard In The Office

The Chicago trip was oh-my-god fun. Except for Tuesday morning before I had a coffee and a Midril.

We arrived around 3 or so, and got to our hotel at 5.

(view from my hotel room - what’s up with that weird house thingy?)

At 6, we all met downstairs for dinner at Lawry’s.

Then we walked back to the hotel bar.

Although I don’t have pictures from that night yet, we all got a little doused with liquor, beer, and shots, and I ended up spalshing around in a fountain off of Michigan Ave at 1am. And oh, the Chicago Style deep-dish pizza was SO GOOD. These pictures will be in the next post. Suffice it to say that I had to drink literally 7 or 8 glasses of water and a Midril when I woke up.

This morning, we walked downtown…

View from our consultant’s office:

Then we rode the limo back to the airport and, well, flew home.

It’s almost time for me to go get some sleep before getting up early to fly off to Chicago. I’ll be there for 2 days - don’t worry, I’ll take lots of pictures. But anyway, that’s not the point of this entry! I didn’t want to leave on a ‘crazy’ note.

Today I got a LOT of stuff done! My Spanish homework is done, next week’s lessons in both Spanish & English are both printed out and placed in my handy dandy new bookbag along with my novel for English, I finished the reports that I brought home from work, and I also worked on my ZoesFantasy website today.

The LotR has been listening to lots and lots of Robert Heinlein adiobooks, so I thought it would be cool if ZoesFantasy got into an affiliate program with the publisher of those mp3’s. I found their website, and voila! They do have an affiliate program, and I am now officially signed up for 5-10% of all sales originating from my website. Here is a sample book review of my site now. It’s really coming along nicely. Instead of just listing those books that I have read, I am researching each author and making lists of every book they have published and listing it on my website. Each author has a separate page with a list of every book - well, they WILL, once I get done with it. I knocked out a couple of big ones this weekend - RA Salvatore, Robert Heinlein, and Ed Greenwood. Orson Scott Card is somewhere high up in the list, too.

I still can’t decide which dvd to take to Chicago - I probably won’t even watch one… but if I did… I don’t know which one to take. Maybe Lord of the Rings. Ah well. Maybe I won’t even take the dvd player. Books should be enough entertainment, and I certainly have enough of those to last the trip.

Apparently last night I got a little hysterical. I vaguely remember alternating between tears and weird laughter, berating myself for being so stupid, head bashing, clawing at sheets and finally falling asleep in a strange position on the bed.

All I could think of was how stressed I was, how I tired I was, and how I couldn’t sleep because I had too much to do.

Maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew? In which case, I would have to drop some things, but I don’t want to drop anything! I want to show the world and myself that I can do it all, and do it well…

I slept 11 hours last night… and then took a couple of naps during the day.

It’s now almost 2am, and I think I had better go back to bed. Poor LotR.