A few things

I've been such a bad blogger lately. No posts forever, when I do post it was just someone else's commentary on something that I liked. Really, I would say I need a time-out but that's part of what makes me a bad blogger in the first place. I guess that means I need a time-in?

Corpus Christi at Last

Well, we're all moved to Corpus Christi. It was fantastically nerve-wracking there toward the end and I was really stressed out at some points. Beyond the stress of managing two centers that are 170 miles apart and living out of a hotel 4 days a week before I moved, there were some other factors.

The person who's job I have taken at Corpus was fighting the fact that they were no longer with the company. This would be fine if I hadn't been foolish enough to make a deposit on a new apartment in Corpus Christi, set up all of my utilities to be turned off in Harlingen and turned on in Corpus, put in my notice to move out in Harlingen, etc. So, for a few days I didn't know if I would have a home or not on May 1. Eventually, it all worked itself out. I've signed the paperwork and will officially be the manager of Corpus Christi on June 1.

That still leaves me traveling back and forth every week between Corpus and Brownsville. In a way, it's actually a good thing. I mean, I'm tired as hell and it's a lot of miles on my car, but good things come of it too. When I'm in the store in Corpus, I'm working lots of hours and really hard just to keep my head above water.

I'm not really making progress very quickly when I'm there, but we're doing better than we were. It's just freakishly busy and I'm always doing task-oriented things instead of managing and creating any real change. I can't really get any of the administrative things done that I need to like payroll corrections, HR changes, setting up interviews for new hires, filing paperwork for new hires, developing training plans and agendas, writing schedules, etc. Just when I think a day is going to go well and that I'll be staffed up enough to get something done, someone calls in sick or something. It's a real pain, but we'll make it through.

In Brownsville, it is a different story. Things run very well and very smoothly. The team is extremely well trained and knows how to take care of any problems that arise and they don't really involve me in them unless someone is hurt, it involves something which requires my approval by policy or a customer specifically wants to speak with me. Because of that, I'm able to get a LOT more done on the back end of things. In fact, on my Thursday and Friday trip to Brownsville this week I was able to get most of the things I needed to get done for Corpus AND Brownsville done in my two day time-span. It was an incredible feeling.

Things will get worse before they get better and I understand that. I'm also in the process of closing down our on-site facility at Texas A&M University - Kingsville, which is quite involved in and of itself. There is SO much more involved in that than I first imagined. And by that, I mean that I have to do way more than I thought I would. To me, that should be an all corporate operation, but whatever. LOL

Beyond that, I'm also our district's Subject Matter Expert on a new product offering called Direct Mail. That means I'll be going to Dallas for three days at the end of this month to take a training class that I will then come back and teach for our district. That will mean two days in Houston and a day in Brownsville the first week of June. I guess I wasn't traveling enough. ;)


Life In General

I've been really tired lately. But, all things considered, a lot happier. I went out to run errands yesterday and was done within an hour. That freaked me out a little because in Harlingen, most errands involved going to Brownsville or McAllen, which means at least an hour of drive time alone. I am gonna like that lack of commute time!

Buddy has started back to work, which is a good thing for many reasons. I know he's going to enjoy making lots of new friends at his new Starbucks. Plus, the money he makes helps too. I think it really gives us more to talk about when he's not calling me 2,347,589 times a day because he's bored at home.

Unfortunately, we missed the party for the 50th wedding anniversary of my maternal grandparents because we were moving. I heard lots of great things about it though and my mother has a bunch of pictures she's going to send me. Oh, funny thing. When I called my grandmother to wish her a happy anniversary, we ended up talking for about an hour (which is very typical with her). In the course of the conversation I told her about the gun shop in the mall in Corpus Christi. Her response was awesome; "Well, it's gotta be somewhere." LOL I laughed so hard at that.

Well, hopefully it won't be so long before my next post. Sorry about the lag, but now that I'm at lease MOVED, things should be easier.

:)