The Big 2-4, blisters from pistachios, and other sundry items

Well, happy birthday to me!

As of yesterday at 6:34 p.m., I am officially a 24-year-old. It feels so…adult-y. I’m basically just trying it on for size right now. If I don’t like it, I’ll revert to the good ol’ 21-plus-3 thing.

What a whirlwind of a couple weeks that have gone by…

1)      Clover gave me less than two weeks’ notice to find a new roommate, because of some pact she had made with a girl that she didn’t expect to actually do (I don’t think Clover’s certain of the meaning of a ‘pact’) that’s too annoying and complicated to explain. So…

2)      Craigslist ad! Spent a good…two days interviewing a million people before complete exhaustion set in and I gave up, decided on my favorite girl, and prayed for the best.

3)      I got my wish! My top choice, a lovely girl named Whitney, is moving in on July 20^th. She was also in the Honors College at GMU, so we have all kinds of kindred spiritedness going on. She’s a complete sweetheart, and I’m ridiculously excited. We have so much in common (except for the fact that she actually exercises and a couple other miscellaneous type things).

4)      I found out HUGE news from one of my close friends. It was shocking. I shouldn’t be talking about it. But I’ll just say that I’m SO EXCITED for her (she knows who she is) and I can’t wait to celebrate with her.

5)      Two of my favorite sorority sisters moved in literally a few doors down from me in my apartment building in June. Welcome home, Kristen and Lauren!

6)      I got a rather…extreme (in my opinion)…haircut. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a new woman. Who’s bald as far as I’m concerned. (It goes a little past my shoulders, but really…really?! What part of “just a little trim” did you NOT understand?!)

7)      Two former colleagues of mine were kind enough to let me know how much I was missed at A____. On the same day. Pretty awesome. I miss them, too…

8)      I got to meet all but one of the Associate Editors I assist at the Associate Editors’ Retreat at ASH headquarters on Wednesday. Each of them was unfailingly gracious and wonderful to talk to. Apparently, they were all extremely effusive in praising me and my hard work at the dinner the night before the retreat, which was shared in the editorial meeting on Thursday. Needless to say, I blushed. A lot.

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9)      I’ve developed blisters on my finger pads from cracking open pistachios.

10)  So far for my birthday, I’ve gotten: $50 and a very sweet card from ASH, a bunch of fancy makeup, an adorable decoration for the door to my room (FINALLY!), a pimp cup (ladies’ style: a gargantuan wine glass labeled “Queen of Everything” with tons of sparkle all over), a complete Holly Golightly sleep wardrobe from Janeen (eye mask, ear plug tassels, and an adorable white cotton slip), a wonderful dinner (tasting menu with wine pairings at Fiola) and an outing to my favorite nightclub (at the W Hotel) with Kevin, and there’s more to come! I am seriously the luckiest girl in the world.

11)  Did I mention I’m the luckiest girl in the world? I realize the past couple of months have been unusually up and down, going from one extreme to the other, but at the end of the day, I can’t help but be thankful for everything I have and all the incredible people in my life. If I even tried to list them all, I’d need to make a separate blog.

Anyway, there’s probably lots more I could say. But I think it’s time to rustle Kevin awake. I’ve been up since 9:00, and it’s already past 1:00. I finished most of his birthday present shopping, grocery delivery shopping, sent a surprise present to Janeen, and transferred funds from one bank account to another. That’s pretty damn productive for me on a Saturday morning, let alone an entire weekend. Oh, AND I wrote a blog post.

Which I obviously never do.

xoxo,

Elizabeth Alida

The Joy of Escaping Indentured Servitude

Well, the day has arrived. I can finally share with you the news I’ve been alluding to for about two weeks:

I began a job that, for me, is nothing short of miraculous, given how quickly I was able to transition to this new job and the prestige of the organization I am now a part of.

I am now a peer review assistant in the editorial office at the American Society of Hematology, which publishes the journal, Blood.

I could count on one hand the number of places I applied to, and ASH was the only place I even had time to go through the interviewing process, due to the fact I spent most of March traveling and recovering from my last job. It was also the only job I really, really wanted.

I had no idea what to expect as I walked into the office building my first day. Almost instantly, I felt like I was part of the family. Everyone there is incredibly friendly and supportive. All of the supervisors, including the one I report to, are kind, caring, fair (!), and understanding. They are quick to offer praise. For example, the person responsible for training me was effusive in her praise of my ability to master the skills necessary for the specific tasks she was training me on.

I feel like I truly play an important role in my position, and I love the work that I do. I am not bogged down with busywork, nor am I the victim of onerous and menial tasks being blasted directly at me at light speed just to get them off the plate of my supervisor who didn’t want to do them herself. I feel like a member of the team, rather than a target cleaning up after somebody else. I can happily report that I no longer have a job that’s exhausting and demoralizing. I look forward to every single day.

The workplace environment itself is a welcome change, as well. ASH is much smaller than the last company I worked for, and each of the departments make a point of interacting with one another in order to foster a close-knit environment. While my last company preached endlessly about how it allowed its employees a true work/life balance, it is already apparent that ASH actually follows through with and keeps this promise. I now work 35 hours per week with one-hour lunch breaks each day (“one hour” is a flexible term here), as opposed to the 37.5 hours I was scheduled to work each week at my previous job (I routinely had to work overtime without getting paid for it). I actually voluntarily stay at work late now because I don’t want to leave – my colleagues and I are usually wrapped up in an interesting conversation and we all want to spend time hanging out with one another, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.

Of course, one can’t ignore the benefits, in addition to everything else. They are exceptionally generous, including all the small touches, like office-sponsored lunches and a Staff Appreciation Week that astronomically trumps the version my old company has. Plus, after that week ends, we switch to casual wear for the rest of the summer and begin taking half-days every other Friday.

And I know I already mentioned this, but I cannot stress enough the difference it makes to have a fair and equitable supervisor. I know that she truly appreciates me. Her supervisor even revealed to me a great deal of the decision-making process that occurred when they chose to hire me. Sitting down to a two-hour lunch at Vidalia’s, she told me of how the HR manager wanted to squeeze in one more candidate to evaluate before making a decision. She tells me of how impressed she was with me and that, “unless this guy could walk on water,” the job was mine.

Because my workplace is so supportive and appreciative of the consistent quality of my work, I’m finally beginning to feel like myself again. I don’t remember the last time I felt this strong, secure, and motivated. I still find myself surprised when my roommate comes home every night and asks me how my day was, and I enthusiastically respond, “Amazing!”

There’s a scene in the movie, “Up in the Air,” which is about a company whose employees’ sole purpose is to fly around the country and fire people. In the scene, George Clooney’s character is speaking to someone he’s firing and he says, “Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it.”

I know the line sometimes sounds trite and that it was only used to comfort people, but in my case, there is a glimmer of truth in it, and I could not be where I am today if I had I not endured that anxiety-ridden, tear-inducing rollercoaster (see here: http://makingitto30.blogspot.com/2011/03/onward-and-upward-drink-in-hand.html) of being fired.