Daily Roundup - Life Just Gets in the Way
It's strange how much things can change over a very small period of time. Where should I start? Firefighters in my house at 1am? An unplanned Scotland trip? How my job search is going? Oh I know - let's start with an author attack!
(1) I had my first author attack a review of mine because I did not like her book (if you could call it that)! I didn't think my review was horrible. I explained that it wasn't written in a style I like so it just wasn't for me, but also I felt that the stories needed more details. How awful of me to want MORE from an author rather than shouting to STAY FAR AWAY FROM ME. She left me quite a lengthy reply on Goodreads that indicated that she had not read my review, and that it was a canned response that was summed up with "Jenny McCarthy LOVED my book!" Jenny McCarthy also scared many moms with her idiotic autism claims which she has since recanted, so pardon me if I don't take your glowing review of that to heart.
I've always heard of this happening, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, but I have never experienced it myself. In looking at others on Goodreads who rated it low, I saw that they were also given the same canned response. Some were apologetic and said they would try her book again. Me? I was just starting to craft my response (that was NOT apologetic. Why would I apologize when I was given the book to give my HONEST review) when POOF. Her editor/publicist/someone must have told her to delete them all. Gone were the responses to all. But she is now forever marked as an author I will never recommend, nor read again.
(2) My HTB received a call a couple of weeks ago that his grandfather, who BTW was 99 years old, was hospitalized and it wasn't looking good. We got the call on the morning of July 4th that he had passed away. My HTB was distraught - this was the man who helped raise him after his mother died when he was 7 years old. This was his connection to his mother's family and the sole reason we were having a second wedding celebration in Scotland, given that he could not travel to the States to watch us get married. My one piece of comfort in this all was that he got to meet our daughter, and we have pictures of them together where they both were so enthralled with the other.
This meant a quick turnaround on getting out to Scotland for the funeral. This was why I became so quiet on here. So much to pack. So much to plan. Reading was set aside, and writing about it was pushed even further away. This also pushed our wedding planning up a notch, as we had to cram what was supposed to happen the week we were gone into 2 days. And then life kept happening right before we left (see the next two bullets on fire fighters and interviews!)
The trip went as well as it can. Our daughter got to meet more of her extended family, we got to see a few friends, and we got to say goodbye to a man with an incredible life story, an incredible heart, and an even more incredible grandson. I'm so thankful to have met him! The BBC is doing a documentary on the home he was living in, and he was heavily featured. We were told they are going to dedicate the documentary to him. Life I said - just incredible.
(3) The day before our flight, my HTB, in a fit of trying to keep his mind off of things, decided to clean our kitchen. I was overjoyed - his days of cleaning are few and far between and our whole downstairs is in desperate need of a massive cleaning. I should have known better. He got some soapy water in the stove where the gas line was and somehow sparked a fire! He tried blowing it out. He tried pouring more water in there. In a scary panic moment we called 911 and thankfully the firemen were at our house in 3 minutes at 1 am. I grabbed my daughter and ran outside worried the kitchen would explode. No explosions. Just a very smelly kitchen. Literally as I type this, I have an electrician working on fixing this as he shorted something out in his water spraying, cleaning way. Only my HTB. I ask him to clean one thing and he makes it explode and sends some hunky men my way. Always thinking of me!
I guess this means I will be the one to always clean the kitchen now?
(4) Interviews - when I last left off, I had done a panel interview with my old boss and 2 girls and we all discovered just how overqualified I was for the job. I assumed I was never going to hear from them again, so imagine my surprise when I got a call from my old boss asking me to arrange the next level interview. I explained about our trip to Scotland, as we were 2 days away from flying out of the country, so she rushed me in for the interview the next day. That same afternoon, I received a call from a recruiter about a new job that is a work from home opportunity for a lot more money than what I was making. OK! On the day we were flying out (red eye flight) I received an email from ANOTHER recruiter, who wanted to phone interview me that day for a different job altogether, but this one would involve a long commute. Errrr...well let's see what you are offering. I sat there shaking my head - three job possibilities after months of endless drought, all when I am leaving the country?
Job 1 - old boss. I went in the day before our flight for the next panel interview with her, her boss (the Sr. VP), another data entry girl and a recruiter. Again, we sussed out that I was overqualified for the job and had a lengthy discussion on what I knew and didn't know. Then the Sr. VP began saying that she was planning on restructuring the department to consolidate duties so she would need to think over how the job I was applying for would work. This may have been news to the other 2 girls sitting in there as the shocked looks on their faces spoke volumes. I was told they were interviewing other folks and would get back to me when I returned from Scotland. I received 1 email while I was in Scotland thanking me for coming in and that they had not yet made a decision. I still have not heard from them, but no big loss because I first want to hear from job 2.
Job 2 - This job I applied for about 3 months ago before they called me. I spoke to the recruiter and she wanted to move me to the second round of interviews. I explained about our trip, and she was more than willing to work with me on my schedule. We communicated through emails while I was in Scotland, and the hiring manager arranged a time for the day after we flew home. I stood in my backyard (the only place I get guaranteed reception) and did a phone interview with him, and also a girl who would be my counterpart, for about 45 minutes. Went well - yesterday I received an email that they wanted me to do a phone interview with the local Director that I will also be working with. That is scheduled for later today. I am pretty excited about this opportunity, but you know how it goes. What sounds great up front has its pitfalls in the end. It is a job after all. From what I gather, the girl who would be my counterpart could not maintain the workload all on her own, so they are dividing the job into 2. West coast vs. east coast battles it seems. When speaking to the manager and coworker he said that they are re-evaluating the job duties and they may change later on. All these jobs that are changing after they speak with me! Weird! Keeping my fingers crossed for this one, as it would be great to be back in the game after being home for so long.
Job 3 - Ohhhh job 3. I should have known better. I applied to job 3 around the same time as job 2. Three months later and they are calling me. In between my applying and them calling, a girl I used to work with that I keep in touch with actually got the job, worked it for a couple of weeks, hated it and they ended up doing a mutual agreement for her to leave. With this in mind I took the call with the recruiter the day we were flying out. After he read my resume to me, muttering to himself "how can I sell you," I tried to interject with my work experience. He interrupted me, told me I was wrong (WHAT?!?!) and that he would sell my old jobs to the hiring manager. Ummmm I'm not liking where this is going. Turns out the pay is less than what I was making. I told him to forget it as I was not going to do a longer commute for less pay for a job that he couldn't tell me what the job duties were as the company didn't know. This was one of the problems my friend had told me about. One day they wanted her to do things this way the next day she was wrong, and it was all her fault. Red flags were flying all over the place, and I told the recruiter to forget it. They wanted to interview the next week, and I wasn't even going to be in the country. He got mad at this! Then he told me that I needed to stick by my email as he was going to present me as a candidate and I needed to respond the second he emailed me about the next interview. I told him to forget it again. He said that they could raise the salary if they fell in love with me. No thanks.
HE STILL PUT MY RESUME THROUGH. I got an email from him while I was in Scotland with times for the interview! What the what?!?! I emailed him back saying after we spoke I decided on accepting another offer. His reply: "Oh really? You got an offer while you are supposed to be in Scotland?" SERIOUSLY?!?! Just even more of a reason not to work for this company if this is the welcome I would be receiving. PASS PASS PASS. None of the online reviews are good for this place, both as an employee and as a customer, so I was fine in passing on it. Life is too short to be so rude.
**************************************************************************
Read: Currently reading so many books. Let me count the ways! Physical books I can hold in my hand - I have been going back and forth between "Diary of a Haunting" by M. Verano, and "The Singles Game" by Lauren Weisberger. Just depends if I am upstairs or downstairs, and which book is where that determines which one I pick up. For NetGalley, now that I have finished the Devlin family books by Sinead Moriarty, I am having a tough time deciding on what next to try. I read a quick children's book, tried another but had to turn it down, and now am trying "The Art of Unpacking Your Life." So far, it's a bit hard to get into, but it has so many great reviews I want to stick with it to see if it perks up. Just might need to finish my physical books before diving back into the virtual ones.
I made the mistake of reading Goodreads message boards and found the app called Scribd. Spoke about it with HTB and we now have a subscription. Like I didn't have enough to read? Over 100 physical books on our shelves I haven't read and about 37 books on NetGalley I've been approved for! Now I'm adding this. I must be crazy!
Started the sequel to The Bump in the Road called "Not Ready For Mom Jeans" by Maureen Lipinski. I am already LOVING it. Only about 15 pages in and I've already laughed out loud A LOT!
Write: Writing has taken a bit of a backseat as the unplanned trip and the wedding planning has come to the forefront. I haven't even kept up to date on baby girl's daily memory book. I think I stopped at June 22nd, so I have a month's worth of entries to try and remember and catch up on. Yeesh. Maybe I will work on that later this afternoon. When we got back from the trip, one of our dogs became very ill. He's been hospitalized today, so I have a bit of time on my hands while I wait to hear when I can pick him up. The life of a parent, given either 2 legs or 4!
Shoes: My wedding shoes work! I can't show them here until my wedding day just in case HTB catches wind of this site. No new Scotland shoes, except for a pair of flats not worth mentioning. In a move that hurts, I threw out 2 pairs for being old and falling apart (I loved them so!). I donated a couple of other pairs to Goodwill that no longer fit my post-pregnancy feet. This led to me ransacking my closet and giving away about 3 bags full of clothes that no longer fit. I must come to terms with my new mom bod. Shopping trip! After I find a job of course. That's my prize!
Happy reading everyone!
(1) I had my first author attack a review of mine because I did not like her book (if you could call it that)! I didn't think my review was horrible. I explained that it wasn't written in a style I like so it just wasn't for me, but also I felt that the stories needed more details. How awful of me to want MORE from an author rather than shouting to STAY FAR AWAY FROM ME. She left me quite a lengthy reply on Goodreads that indicated that she had not read my review, and that it was a canned response that was summed up with "Jenny McCarthy LOVED my book!" Jenny McCarthy also scared many moms with her idiotic autism claims which she has since recanted, so pardon me if I don't take your glowing review of that to heart.
I've always heard of this happening, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, but I have never experienced it myself. In looking at others on Goodreads who rated it low, I saw that they were also given the same canned response. Some were apologetic and said they would try her book again. Me? I was just starting to craft my response (that was NOT apologetic. Why would I apologize when I was given the book to give my HONEST review) when POOF. Her editor/publicist/someone must have told her to delete them all. Gone were the responses to all. But she is now forever marked as an author I will never recommend, nor read again.
(2) My HTB received a call a couple of weeks ago that his grandfather, who BTW was 99 years old, was hospitalized and it wasn't looking good. We got the call on the morning of July 4th that he had passed away. My HTB was distraught - this was the man who helped raise him after his mother died when he was 7 years old. This was his connection to his mother's family and the sole reason we were having a second wedding celebration in Scotland, given that he could not travel to the States to watch us get married. My one piece of comfort in this all was that he got to meet our daughter, and we have pictures of them together where they both were so enthralled with the other.
This meant a quick turnaround on getting out to Scotland for the funeral. This was why I became so quiet on here. So much to pack. So much to plan. Reading was set aside, and writing about it was pushed even further away. This also pushed our wedding planning up a notch, as we had to cram what was supposed to happen the week we were gone into 2 days. And then life kept happening right before we left (see the next two bullets on fire fighters and interviews!)
The trip went as well as it can. Our daughter got to meet more of her extended family, we got to see a few friends, and we got to say goodbye to a man with an incredible life story, an incredible heart, and an even more incredible grandson. I'm so thankful to have met him! The BBC is doing a documentary on the home he was living in, and he was heavily featured. We were told they are going to dedicate the documentary to him. Life I said - just incredible.
(3) The day before our flight, my HTB, in a fit of trying to keep his mind off of things, decided to clean our kitchen. I was overjoyed - his days of cleaning are few and far between and our whole downstairs is in desperate need of a massive cleaning. I should have known better. He got some soapy water in the stove where the gas line was and somehow sparked a fire! He tried blowing it out. He tried pouring more water in there. In a scary panic moment we called 911 and thankfully the firemen were at our house in 3 minutes at 1 am. I grabbed my daughter and ran outside worried the kitchen would explode. No explosions. Just a very smelly kitchen. Literally as I type this, I have an electrician working on fixing this as he shorted something out in his water spraying, cleaning way. Only my HTB. I ask him to clean one thing and he makes it explode and sends some hunky men my way. Always thinking of me!
I guess this means I will be the one to always clean the kitchen now?
(4) Interviews - when I last left off, I had done a panel interview with my old boss and 2 girls and we all discovered just how overqualified I was for the job. I assumed I was never going to hear from them again, so imagine my surprise when I got a call from my old boss asking me to arrange the next level interview. I explained about our trip to Scotland, as we were 2 days away from flying out of the country, so she rushed me in for the interview the next day. That same afternoon, I received a call from a recruiter about a new job that is a work from home opportunity for a lot more money than what I was making. OK! On the day we were flying out (red eye flight) I received an email from ANOTHER recruiter, who wanted to phone interview me that day for a different job altogether, but this one would involve a long commute. Errrr...well let's see what you are offering. I sat there shaking my head - three job possibilities after months of endless drought, all when I am leaving the country?
Job 1 - old boss. I went in the day before our flight for the next panel interview with her, her boss (the Sr. VP), another data entry girl and a recruiter. Again, we sussed out that I was overqualified for the job and had a lengthy discussion on what I knew and didn't know. Then the Sr. VP began saying that she was planning on restructuring the department to consolidate duties so she would need to think over how the job I was applying for would work. This may have been news to the other 2 girls sitting in there as the shocked looks on their faces spoke volumes. I was told they were interviewing other folks and would get back to me when I returned from Scotland. I received 1 email while I was in Scotland thanking me for coming in and that they had not yet made a decision. I still have not heard from them, but no big loss because I first want to hear from job 2.
Job 2 - This job I applied for about 3 months ago before they called me. I spoke to the recruiter and she wanted to move me to the second round of interviews. I explained about our trip, and she was more than willing to work with me on my schedule. We communicated through emails while I was in Scotland, and the hiring manager arranged a time for the day after we flew home. I stood in my backyard (the only place I get guaranteed reception) and did a phone interview with him, and also a girl who would be my counterpart, for about 45 minutes. Went well - yesterday I received an email that they wanted me to do a phone interview with the local Director that I will also be working with. That is scheduled for later today. I am pretty excited about this opportunity, but you know how it goes. What sounds great up front has its pitfalls in the end. It is a job after all. From what I gather, the girl who would be my counterpart could not maintain the workload all on her own, so they are dividing the job into 2. West coast vs. east coast battles it seems. When speaking to the manager and coworker he said that they are re-evaluating the job duties and they may change later on. All these jobs that are changing after they speak with me! Weird! Keeping my fingers crossed for this one, as it would be great to be back in the game after being home for so long.
Job 3 - Ohhhh job 3. I should have known better. I applied to job 3 around the same time as job 2. Three months later and they are calling me. In between my applying and them calling, a girl I used to work with that I keep in touch with actually got the job, worked it for a couple of weeks, hated it and they ended up doing a mutual agreement for her to leave. With this in mind I took the call with the recruiter the day we were flying out. After he read my resume to me, muttering to himself "how can I sell you," I tried to interject with my work experience. He interrupted me, told me I was wrong (WHAT?!?!) and that he would sell my old jobs to the hiring manager. Ummmm I'm not liking where this is going. Turns out the pay is less than what I was making. I told him to forget it as I was not going to do a longer commute for less pay for a job that he couldn't tell me what the job duties were as the company didn't know. This was one of the problems my friend had told me about. One day they wanted her to do things this way the next day she was wrong, and it was all her fault. Red flags were flying all over the place, and I told the recruiter to forget it. They wanted to interview the next week, and I wasn't even going to be in the country. He got mad at this! Then he told me that I needed to stick by my email as he was going to present me as a candidate and I needed to respond the second he emailed me about the next interview. I told him to forget it again. He said that they could raise the salary if they fell in love with me. No thanks.
HE STILL PUT MY RESUME THROUGH. I got an email from him while I was in Scotland with times for the interview! What the what?!?! I emailed him back saying after we spoke I decided on accepting another offer. His reply: "Oh really? You got an offer while you are supposed to be in Scotland?" SERIOUSLY?!?! Just even more of a reason not to work for this company if this is the welcome I would be receiving. PASS PASS PASS. None of the online reviews are good for this place, both as an employee and as a customer, so I was fine in passing on it. Life is too short to be so rude.
**************************************************************************
Read: Currently reading so many books. Let me count the ways! Physical books I can hold in my hand - I have been going back and forth between "Diary of a Haunting" by M. Verano, and "The Singles Game" by Lauren Weisberger. Just depends if I am upstairs or downstairs, and which book is where that determines which one I pick up. For NetGalley, now that I have finished the Devlin family books by Sinead Moriarty, I am having a tough time deciding on what next to try. I read a quick children's book, tried another but had to turn it down, and now am trying "The Art of Unpacking Your Life." So far, it's a bit hard to get into, but it has so many great reviews I want to stick with it to see if it perks up. Just might need to finish my physical books before diving back into the virtual ones.
I made the mistake of reading Goodreads message boards and found the app called Scribd. Spoke about it with HTB and we now have a subscription. Like I didn't have enough to read? Over 100 physical books on our shelves I haven't read and about 37 books on NetGalley I've been approved for! Now I'm adding this. I must be crazy!
Started the sequel to The Bump in the Road called "Not Ready For Mom Jeans" by Maureen Lipinski. I am already LOVING it. Only about 15 pages in and I've already laughed out loud A LOT!
Write: Writing has taken a bit of a backseat as the unplanned trip and the wedding planning has come to the forefront. I haven't even kept up to date on baby girl's daily memory book. I think I stopped at June 22nd, so I have a month's worth of entries to try and remember and catch up on. Yeesh. Maybe I will work on that later this afternoon. When we got back from the trip, one of our dogs became very ill. He's been hospitalized today, so I have a bit of time on my hands while I wait to hear when I can pick him up. The life of a parent, given either 2 legs or 4!
Shoes: My wedding shoes work! I can't show them here until my wedding day just in case HTB catches wind of this site. No new Scotland shoes, except for a pair of flats not worth mentioning. In a move that hurts, I threw out 2 pairs for being old and falling apart (I loved them so!). I donated a couple of other pairs to Goodwill that no longer fit my post-pregnancy feet. This led to me ransacking my closet and giving away about 3 bags full of clothes that no longer fit. I must come to terms with my new mom bod. Shopping trip! After I find a job of course. That's my prize!
Happy reading everyone!
Comments
Post a Comment