Back in Business!

Hey folks! I got a new job! YAY! It's technically a temp-to-perm position. That means I had to interview for the position against other people, but once I was selected I was taken on as a "temp", with the intention to hire me eventually if all goes well. It's a nice arrangement for the employer and myself -- if I don't feel it's the right fit, I'm allowed to leave before it goes permanent and there's no hard feelings. At the same time, if they don't think I'm working out, they can tell my agency and I'll be out of a job. :-/ But it's really my job to lose. As long as I can show my boss that I'm good at what I do, eventually they will make me an offer. I'm told this takes an average of 3 months to happen.

So far it's going well. I'm working for an electronics distribution company, based in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago. IT'S ONLY A 5-MINUTE DRIVE FROM MY HOUSE!!! And the parking is FREE and PLENTIFUL! AND if I move to the suburbs, the Metra train stops RIGHT OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR!!! Can you tell I'm excited about this? :-) I am the Executive Assistant to the Global Supply Chain Director, Tom. Tom is a nice guy, as far as I can tell. I've only spoken to him for 1/2 hour, when I met him for my interview 2 weeks ago. I started working here a week ago, but he's been in Singapore the whole time so I haven't even seen him yet! He's supposed to be back late tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to sitting down and asking him some questions. I was trained all last week by the woman I replaced. Not sure what her situation was --- it was pretty shady if leaving was her choice, or if she was asked to resign. Hmmm... Oh well! Tom is traveling at least 50% of the time, so I will be alone a lot. There's a lot of people in this office, but it's hard making friends because all the departments are pretty separate. I have become friendly with 2 or 3 people that have their desks near mine. Hopefully, if I get hired on permanently, I'll start making some friends to go to lunch with. That's always the hard part for me about starting a new job --- finding people I can enjoy spending my breaks with. My job consists mostly of arranging Tom's travel and managing his busy calendar. It's not rocket science, and I have lots of experience doing this from my job at the beauty school. Unlike my position at the hotel, I am very familiar with the tasks I'll be doing, so it's not a "fish-out-of-water" situation like it was at the hotel. I feel a lot more at ease in this position because I'm doing what I know. And that feels SO good. :-)

I also am getting back on track with my eating and exercise habits. Since my commute has been shortened now by 45 minutes, I am trying to use this extra time in the morning to work out. I've been finding success in the FitnessTV section of the Comcast OnDemand. There's a slew of aerobic and strength training shows on there that you can start and stop whenever you want. And it's FREE! I like trying new ones as often as I can --- I don't want to get stagnant doing the same routine too many times. Jillian Michaels (the super intense trainer from the Biggest Loser) has her workout videos on there and they KICK MY ASS. They are only up for a limited time though, because they are really just trying to promote her DVDs, so they give us free usage for now, and then they direct us to go online and buy her program. It's a great program that I'd totally buy -- if I wasn't getting tons of workout videos for free on this OnDemand thing!

I've been somewhat successfully getting back to my original eating plan. I found that sticking to the Nutrisystem way of eating (without actually buying the Nutrisystem products) was really working for me. (check out links on the sidebar to read archives of my plan) I've been a pretty devoted Lean Cuisine fan for a while, but a few days ago I perused the Weight Watchers SmartOnes just next door, and they had a lot of yummy options that piqued my interest. I stopped buying the SmartOnes a while ago because I was really bored with their offerings, but it looks like they've jazzed them up a little and I'm giving them another go. Especially since I notices that their WW Points values are generally lower than the Lean Cuisines. So I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm going to try to post more often on here. I'll definitely have more time to do so, now that I'm working a job where there are full weeks at a time where my boss is out of the office and I will have not a lot to do. He's pretty cool though --- he even said I should feel free to browse the internet if I was bored, so I'm definitely taking him up on that. I've been auditioning again, but nothing is panning out, so I think this Fall I will probably not have a show to do. But that's ok. I am hoping that more auditions in the coming months will lead to a Spring show. Then I'll have time to really settle in to my job and enjoy the holidays before adding another layer of craziness.

If you've been following my blog lately, or in the past, and you stop by, please leave a comment! I'm curious as to who's still out there. I feel like I've dropped off the face of the blogosphere for a while! Sorry about that, but, yeah, what can you do. Toodles!