I don't get it ...

I work for a publicly traded company ... a big one. Part of that is accountability and standards thereof. The way we choose to measure our own accountability toward goals that our investors and shareholders like to see is by means of internal audits. We audit our own stores twice a quarter, and my boss comes in and audits us once a quarter. We have an internal audit committee who audits entire districts randomly each year.

Today my boss performed the audit on my store. The minimum passing standard this month is 85%, with the new goal of next month being 90%. We did well enough to get a 90.7% today, which is a real relief for me. I missed stupid shit, which bothers me. By stupid stuff I mean a signature on a piece of paper, the original receipt in a refund ... stupid shit. I'll have it corrected before next time.

What I DON'T get is people who don't even TRY for things like that. After my audit I went to assist with another one nearby. Now, these were not surprise audits. My boss told us much earlier in the month WHEN he would be here, and we know he comes the 3rd quarter of every month anyway. So why then would someone not even CLEAN for an audit. It's the first question on the damn thing. I just don't get it. To me, that is disrespectful AND self destructive.

I look at my boss' visits, whether he is performing an audit or not, as a guest coming over. When I have guests at my apartment, I clean. Whether it is my mother or friends or neighbors, we clean. I mean, that's common courtesy. That is ESPECIALLY true when you KNOW the person who is coming has a higher level of expectation than that to which you hold yourself. How is that not just giving your guest the finger?


My mother doesn't expect me to clean for her, but I know she appreciates cleanliness, so I do a lot of it. Ok, so maybe I'm a clean person and I do it just as much for me, but that doesn't matter. I'd do it even if I wasn't. It's about respecting the person who is visiting.

I don't know why it bothers me so much. Maybe it's because I have higher expectations for cleanliness than my boss and I had to wallow in that filth today. But to me, if an audit is happening I think you should do what it takes to be the very best. Yes, I made stupid mistakes, but I'm going to correct them. Is the cleanliness portion of the next audit going to be taken care of? Probably not. That bothers me.

In a recent interview, I was asked what my motivation was to succeed in business and what it would be to succeed in that new position. I kinda stumbled on that. I really don't know what my motivation to succeed is because I can't imagine not trying to succeed. I mean, what else would someone want to do other than succeed? I don't get it. I guess my motivation to succeed is the sheer thought of NOT succeeding.

That isn't to say that I'm successful in everything I do in my job, but I think the question is based on overall success. I think I can claim I am a success thus far. Did I score a 100 on my audit? No. But, when many people set their goal at passing, I set mine at perfect. I think that attributes to my success.

If one is going to do something, they should want to do it well or better than anyone else. That is the kind of drive that pushes societies higher, careers farther, elevates quality of life and just helps add meaning to life. Or at least that's what I think.

Ummm, yeah.

I have been so boring and blah and just overall uninspired lately, it's frustrating. I haven't felt like writing or talking or doing anything.

I've not been reading and studying. I've not been social. Okay, well I am not social down here very often, so that's not much of a change, but it still bothers me.

I've gone to work, the gym and home. I've gone to Starbucks and the bank and the grocery store. That is is life right now.

I've organized some pictures, I've got new pictures for the wall, I've talked on the phone. But how interesting is it all?

I've had things that I have thought "oh, I should blog about that" but then my boredom with my own daily life sucks the enthusiasm from whatever piqued my interest.

I'm in a rut and I need to get out.

*Yawn*

Finally, I woke up this morning with the urge to write something. Granted, it's not anything profound or interesting, but it sure beats not feeling motivated to write anything at all. I may very well be the only person reading what I write, but I'm not really concerned with that.

I'm usually emotionally provoked into blogging. Be the motivation good or bad, I usually don't write out of boredom. I think that's been my problem over the last week or so, actually. I'm just bored. I don't derive a lot of pleasure out of work lately with the exception of the leadership training I'm providing my team. I go to the gym and come home and study my Russian. I mean, it's interesting and all but I can only blog about losing weight and Russian words so many times before I start to crave other things to discuss.

Today will be a bit different. I have to fly to Houston tonight for a meeting tomorrow. I'll get to stay with Granny & Paw-Paw, which is always good. I like getting to see them once every month or so. I also got a call from the senior recruiter in Austin in reference to the application I put in almost two weeks ago. There is a position there for which I've applied and I'm going to have an interview next week. I'm actually a little worried about that position. It's not so much about whether or not I will get it as it is what I will do if I DO get it. I'll get into that on another post.

Anyway, I need to take a shower and pack my overnight stuff and all that jazz. I had a dream that I forgot my luggage and had to buy all new clothes when I got to Houston. Maybe that was a fantasy. ;)

Englussiarenchgermitallianish

My Russian studies are taking me slightly longer than I was originally intending, but with good reason. I really want to be able to understand the language. Now, I'm neither wanting to be able to write professionally in Russian, nor do I wish to carry on technical conversations that involve detailed vocabulary particular to a specific trade. However, I would like to have a true understanding of the words I learn.

If someone were to approach me on the street and say "excuse me young man, what is your name?" I would know exactly what they meant. Most people who learn a second language have to translate in their head. The same query in Russian would be "Извините молодой человек, чем Вас называют?" I don't want to be going in my mind "ok, 'Извините' is excuse me. 'молодой человек' is young man. 'Excuse me young man.' Ok, got it. 'чем' ..." If I were to do that it would take forever and the Russian asking my identity might think I rode the short bus to Москва (Moscow).

So, that's what I'm doing in the evening. I will say that with the increased speed at which I can read Cyrillic, my progress is moving faster and faster. I've been neglecting my cultural reading and studies though because I find myself hungry for more language study. It's nice to have found something to capture my interest and keep me from thinking about work. To take this to it's logical conclusion, if I accomplish my goal of fluently understanding basic conversation in 6-7 languages I might end up combining all of them to speak Englussiarenchgermitallianish.

Happy Birthday to Me!

We had a good time this weekend. Like most of her visits, Mom's trip seemed too short-lived. I always try to mix up her visit with two distinct days. Friday night is typically used for catching up. Saturday is used to go out and about, usually to Brownsville, McAllen or South Padre Island. Sunday we try to do nothing. Mom's schedule is more hectic than mine, so her ability to sit and do nothing is rare. I like to offer her the chance to do that on her visits. I know she appreciates it.

Saturday was my birthday. As my sister reminded me when she called (a day late), I'm only one year from thirty! That's okay, I'll get over it. The last year of my twenties will hopefully be eventful.

I liked the fact that I got to spend my birthday with my mother. We haven't been able to do that in YEARS. It was a great present. Buddy made me a fantastic breakfast! He made avocado scrambled eggs and French Toast. He was trying different ways of making the two common dishes. He did VERY well. We then went to McAllen to mill about for the day.

I got a couple of books at Barnes & Noble. He got another Toronto travel guide for our trip. With Paw-Paw's extension of the vacation to 10 days, we should be quite armed with things to do. We might even teach Anthony and Kim some things about their city. Mom also got an arm-full of books that she bought. Maybe that's where I get my late-bloomed love of reading.

We then took a turn to Bed, Bath & Beyond. Mom gave me a choice of either a check or buying the check's dollar amount worth of gifts all day. I chose the latter, but didn't use the money on the books! Everything was spent at BB&B. I got a wicker basket for Buddy and I to put our things (laptops, cases, etc.) in when we're home so they don't sit out on the floor. I got those nifty Dream Drawer organizing tools, some Hercules Hooks, two photo albums for keeping some of our photos out on the coffee table, two frames for pictures of my trip to Europe and four different boxes for organizing the rest of our photos that don't end up on walls or in albums. I was truly happy with that trip.

Finally, we ended up going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The wait was forty five minutes, which was fine since we had thirteen fist-fulls of peanuts each. We all had a great dinner, and despite my warning not to, Buddy told them it was my birthday. I had to get on a saddle. A saddle. Me, on a saddle. My mother took a picture on her camera phone. I'm going to find THE most embarrassing place to have a birthday for Buddy next year and go there ... and for good measure, I might do that sometime next month too.


Anywho, after we got home I went crazy hanging up picture frames, moving picture frames, measuring for a new 18x24 of Big Ben, etc. Actually, I have to decide which picture I want to enlarge. It will either be a photo of Big Ben or an AWESOME picture I took in Belgium of the sun setting over the English Channel. The Big Ben pic would be unmistakably Europe, but the sunset picture is so cool. I'll figure it out, I guess. But, I had a lot of fun doing all of that yesterday.

It was a great weekend. :) Now I'm SUPER ready for Toronto!

I'm a big dummy ...

"Shut up, 'ya big dummy." I'm having flashbacks to Sanford & Son. Awwww, good 'ole paternal verbal abuse. :)

But really, I am a big dummy. We've done this beautiful collage of pictures on our wall from vacations we took this year. I've been wanting to have more pictures on the walls of various types. For example, we're going to put up quite a few pics from our trip to Toronto this March.

I've been thinking about some other things to put up. I have so many pictures from my past, but I've been a bit bewildered about what to frame for display. On a recent customer visit, I recalled seeing a TexMex cafe when I was in Belgium. The customer and I had a fantastic laugh and then it hit me! Pictures from Europe do me NO good in a box in my closet, I should have them on display! So, I've got two half walls in my apartment in need of some memories.

Of course, the hard part is going to be picking which ones!