by jltitus on March 11, 2007
Isn’t it funny how you can go a week or more and not journal but have a ton to say? I mean, I enjoy journaling and posting here and getting comments and everything but I’ve not been journaling/blogging for about a week. Hummm…. I guess it could be because I’ve been busy with things. I know that’s an excuse for everyone. I have been working, which I’m loving. I love my job and the people I work with. it’s so nice to work with people that have a common goal and interest. It’s great too that I’m working on the projects I’m working on. I mean I’m helping make some decisions for the future of the training organization. How cool is that! I’m doing the typical, create training courses for online delivery but I’m also in charge of determining and giving recommendations for authoring tools we’ll use for now and in the future. I’m working on moving some of our content, like manuals to wiki’s, which is super cool. I could give you the link and password but then I’d have to kill ya… HAHA… I’m working on developing some Instructional Design Standards and templates for us to use which is cool too. It’ s just so nice to have such growth opportunities. it’s the stuff I’ve always wanted to be doing but haven’t had the opportunity in my last job for a variety of reasons.
This weekend Eric’s parents were here which was so nice. I love it when they come, or my mother comes because we always have a great time and it’s not a high maintenance, gotta make sure they have something to do, sort of thing. Of course we had great food and exceptional company while they were here but I think the best part was playing Pinochle for a couple of hours. Of course this time the guys beat us but usually Juile and I are the winners. Oh I also need to say THANKS a TON to BOB for getting the cable up in the garage with the curtains. If not for Bob and Eric, I don’t know when it would have gotten done..
Tagged as:
bob_titus,
family,
job,
julie_titus
by jltitus on February 21, 2007
I can’t believe today is the end of day three of my new job. I really wanted to post about my first day but honestly didn’t get a chance to post about anything until tonight. Let me just say…. I LOVE MY JOB!!!! I love the fact that I get to work from home doing the things I love. I love designing online training and the creative process of it all and I’ve finally found a job where I can do that. It’s so nice to have a few hours of meetings every day and then spend the day designing and organizing an online course.
I think the most interesting part of this week so far was the concept of reporting for my first day of work. I do have to admit that it was a little different calling in to talk to my manager rather than meeting someone in person. I really, really like my manager and I’m VERY excited about the projects I’m working on. One of the first projects I’m working on is overhauling a few courses that are part of the New Hire course work for new employees. I’m really excited because I’ve basically been given no limits on the project, meaning I don’t have a lot of rules to conform to regarding a template or anything. I’m excited about having the ability to really create a wonderful product that WOWs my manager but more importantly gets the right content across to the user. I’m excited too because the company I work for uses Captivate and I’ll get the opportunity to really build my skills with Captivate and use Captivate 2.0. I can’t wait.
So things are going well, very VERY excited about things and my manager. Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about one of the other perks I get besides the fact that I have a job with good pay. I also get an IATAN card. What’s that? Well, it’s a special card given to travel agents and those that work for travel agents. It’s pretty cool because it means SAVINGS galore. I’ll get things like; 50-75% on Hotel Stays, Up to 55% Discounts on Airfare, Free First Class Upgrades, Deeply Discounted Rental Cars, Half-Priced Theme Park Admission, Cruises for $35/Day, Free Show Tickets, Free Meals and Much, Much More! Another thing that I get is two free round trip airline tickets each year anywhere in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. I guess there are more perks too but I’ll find out about them on Monday when I attend the HR conference.
Tomorrow and Friday I get to head down to our offices in Portland and learn more about what the travel agents do behind the scenes when people book a flight or trip. I’ll also meet with the fulfillment group too to see how they do their job. I think it will be an interesting and educational time and fun too. I have not a clue about the travel business but I think after this week, I’ll know a little more.
More later…..
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job,
working
by jltitus on February 12, 2007
I realized today that I haven’t posted in a while so what the heck.. here goes.
I don’t know how many of you know but I did get a job offer last week and took it. I start next Monday the 19th of February. I’m pretty excited about it and look forward to the challenges ahead. That said, I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about life and things like that too. I think I’m realizing that the vacation is over, which is FINE with me because I was just about to go bonkers. It sort of reminded me of the times when I was teaching in Connell and and I were roomies. I remember those summers and at times lived for them but by the time August rolled around, I was ready to get back at it. I mean I had taken the summer to have a little fun, work on my curriculum and classes for the next year but gosh, after a few months I wanted to go back to teach, where were the kids, I was ready. That’s sort of how I feel right now. It’s a rush to know what’s coming, to know I’m going to have good days and bad days and be stretched in many ways but I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited, I’m ready for the challenge. WOO HOO!
I’m really excited that I get to work from home but I’m also nervous about that too. I’m NOT an introvert, we all know this. I like people, I’m a social being so working from home could present some challenges but I’m also sort of looking forward to it. I realized recently that most, if not all my friend work at Intel or are spouses or SOs of people that work at Intel. Intel is bad… 
So I think I’m going to challenge myself to get out more. I’m thinking of joining a book club and I’m hoping to get out and scrapbook once or twice a month at the local scrapbook store and we’re definitely going to entertain more. So maybe with those plans things won’t be so bad, again it’s a growth opportunity.
I realized something today that I hadn’t thought about since I was in graduate school. I realized that when you don’t have a lot of time, you’re more efficient with the time you have. What am I trying to say? Well today I had about 6 things on my list of things to do because I need to get them all done now that I’ve got a week until I go back to work. Well I think I got them all done by two this afternoon and had the rest of the afternoon to catch up on emails and things. In the past I would have dinked around the house and maybe done one or two things. I guess it just goes to show you that it’s good to have a purpose, in my case a job, meaning, to get you motivated.
I don’t think I’ve posted about the health and exercise front lately. Things are going well, I’ve lost about 7 pounds in the last 3-4 weeks which is my goal, just a little at a time because then I’m more likely to keep it off. I’m hitting the gym and taking Baylee for walks in the morning and evening too. I do well on the eating front but fall off every couple of days but ya gotta live. Really, I’m just really happy where I’m at and how I’m doing. I hope to hit my goal by the 4th of July and by the looks of things I’m on my way. I need to find a 5K race here in April or something so I have a running goal but first, I need to get rid of this annoying cough I’ve had since the first of November. Ya ya, I know gotta go back to the Dr. 
Tagged as:
job,
work_from_home
by jltitus on February 5, 2007
Well I’ve got a job. Actually I have two companies fighting for me. The first company, XYZ Travel, called this morning and offered me a full time job that’s also a work from home position. Score! I had interviewed with the company the last couple of weeks and was hoping I would get the job. Well, they offered me a job so I took it. I’ve been hoping for the job and was excited when I got the offer. After that I contacted another company, ABC, that was going to hire me on a contract basis, again work from home, to see if we could work out something where I could work some nights and weekends for them to catch up with everything. Well, the ABC manager called me about an hour after I sent her the email and told me she’d just talked to the COO about me and was prepared to offer me $10,500 than the offer XYZ had made me. We talked about benefits and things but I told her I’d need to get back to her. I contacted the manager at XYZ to let her know I had a better offer that I’d have to consider. She asked me what was the amount I was looking for because she really wanted me. I told her and she let me know she’s calling me back in the morning to see let me know if she can meet my base salary. So tonight Eric and I need to sit down, weigh the options and decide. Too exciting to have people fighting over me.
In other news, my new laptop is in which means ANOTHER trip to the Apple store to swap computers and hope the new one doesn’t have any issues.
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job
by jltitus on February 5, 2007
After long last I got a job! WOO HOO and it’s 100% from home with is too awesome for words. As of February 19th I will be employed with BCD Travel devloping online training for them. I am so excited and can’t wait to get my hands dirty again. Thanks to everyone for their support and help.
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job
by jltitus on January 16, 2007
Well, it’s snowing down here, or rather it was snowing earlier down here. A lot of the schools are closed but they waited until forever before they closed, some until 8:30am. We’ve gotten about 3-4 inches since it started at 4 am this morning. The crazy thing is that they’re requiring chains on Sylvan hill. I have never hear of such a thing. So today it’s just a little slow around here. Eric boss even called and told him to just stay home because they didn’t anticipate anyone coming.
Looking for a job continues. I’ve had some interviews lately and they’ve been gong pretty well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping something pans out soon since I’m really ready to get back in “the swing of things”
I found this today. Ecto It’s a blogging tool. I really like that you can put in iPhoto, iTunes and Amazon into it but I don’t see a place where you can allocate a posting just to your LJ friends which is a problem so you can’t post to private, I guess. I think I’ll mess with it a little more and see if I can find anything on it. I like to format though, just seems easier.
Oh here’s the books I’m reading right now. (this is a feature from Ecto) Pretty cool!!!
“The Pact: A Love Story” (Jodi Picoult)
Tagged as:
job,
snow
by jltitus on November 14, 2006
Well, It’s official, no dice for the job I had applied to at Yahoo. What a bummer, I was really looking forward to it.
Tagged as:
job,
yahoo
by jltitus on November 2, 2006
I can’t believe it’s been a month since I got laid off from Intel. OK well not officially a month as I just signed the papers on the 26th of October but it’s been a while. I’ve been looking for jobs and interviewing a lot. It’s nice to know that I’ve got the skills to get a good job. I really think it’s going to come down to timing. I have a few things in the hopper and hopefully one of them will come through. Having this time off has been nice but I’m starting to get restless. I mean I do have projects around the house to do from home improvement things to quilting, sewing or scrapbooking stuff but I’m loosing interest in getting them all done. I’m starting to get cagey.
I realize that I love working. I love being busy and feeling the sense of getting things done for people. I’m sort of missing the job satisfaction right now and the thought of being unemployed until possible the end of the year drives me nuts. I can’t even imagine. I mean I’ve been running errands and been out of the house but being in a state of suspended animation is hard to deal with.
The good thing is that this weekend we’re heading north to Ellensburg. Julie and I are going to the scrapbook convention this year. I love going there every year, we’ve been doing it for several years. It’s nice to have our special event every year. After that, it’s back to applying for jobs, interviews and getting Christmas gifts done. Maybe I’ll come back with a renewed sense and just “knock things out”.
Tagged as:
job,
layoff
by jltitus on October 16, 2006
The last few days have been super awesome!
LeAnne
Yesterday I met my very best friend LeAnne down town for dinner and just to catch up. LeAnne was my maid of honor in my wedding over two years ago. Both LeAnne and I have been so busy that we haven’t had the opportunity to catch up and see each other since the wedding. It’s sort of funny that we haven’t actually seen each other for two years. I guess for some people that’s a big deal but for us when we call or see each other it’s like the time just flies by and it’s like we were just at WSU going to graduate school. Last night we had a blast and ate at Fernando’s, had some drinks and talked about all sorts of things. it’s so awesome when we get together. We always have so many things to talk about and share. It’s sort of funny how alike we are an how different we are. What was cool last night too was that LeAnne did a reading which, I’d never had done before. I really liked it because it really reaffirmed the things I’ve been thinking and doing lately. I appreciate LeAnne so much. I probably don’t tell her enough. After the reading LeAnne did some reflexology too and my feet and back started to really feel good. I’m going to have to really plan a trip soon to Bellingham and have her do the whole reflexology steps.
Yoga
I’ve been thinking about going to yoga classes at the gym but haven’t done it until today. I did it because I’ve been thinking about it and also because of things LeAnne and I talked about last night. It’s funny. I thought yoga would be easy, I mean it’s all about just stretching right? Wrong! Our teacher this morning was great. She knew I hadn’t been there before so she did a good job of explaining which I totally appreciated. I had always thought yoga would be fun and really easy. Well after an hour today I still think it’s good but it’s not easy. I realized just how old and stiff I am. I think yoga is a good thing for me because it makes me slow down and really get in-tune with myself. It makes me be reflective and I really think it gives me the opportunity to really take care of myself. I think too often I’m so busy trying to get things done, whether for work or home or someone else that I don’t take the time for myself. I’m hoping I’ll get in the habit of going three mornings a week, at least until I get a job and have to work, then I might have to just go twice a week in the evening. Who knows.
Jobs
So I’ve been applying for job for only about the last week and a half and wow, I can’t believe how many phone interviews I’ve had and now I’m on to in person interviews too. It’s very reaffirming to know I have skills or as my mom told me, “that’s great that Intel gave you the skills so you can find a better job, isn’t that nice of them.” Well, it is nice of them. I’m excited that places like Nike, Yahoo, Google and more are calling me and wanting interviews. How cool would it be to have several options to choose from.
I’m also finally going to get my business license and do web sites and things. I’m finally doing it because I’ve got a couple irons in the fire and could do some of that work and want to be legal. I don’t really intend to make it full time but it will be a nice little bit of money and the opportunity to be creative. The winery that Eric works at wants me to update their site in a few months and then Josh called and emailed me and the paper he works at wants their site redone and better response time. SO I’ll have some pretty cool projects to work on in my spare time. I’m pretty excited about it.
Outlook on Life
People keep wondering and some are worrying about me. I think it’s because different people handle being laid off differently and those that are friends and family aren’t sure how or what to say. Well let me tell you. Being laid off was a little upsetting, like the first 24 hours, but after about a day I felt so much better about it. I feel really, really good about it all. I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that there are better things out there for me yet to come. I almost feel like a little bit of an awakening occurring. What do I mean by that? Well, I’m feeling more healthy and have a lot more energy. I feel a lot more in touch with myself. I’m getting fun projects done that I’ve been wanting to do and don’t have the pressure that I HAVE to do them. I feel a huge weight has been lifted and it feels really nice. I suppose I should be a little “freaked out” and worried but for some reason I’m not. SO for those of you worried or wondering, know I’m doing great, feeling great and looking forward to a new adventure.
Tagged as:
daily_life,
job,
leann_robinson,
yoga
by jltitus on October 13, 2006
Well, it’s been ten days since I got the notice that I’m getting laid off. It’s been an interesting ten days some good, a few bad but over all good. In the last ten days I’ve gotten a lot of projects done at home which feel really really great! I finally got the garage done mostly the way I wanted so it’s all clean and neat and I can really use it to quilt and do other projects. I’ve been cleaning the house a bit too, keeping the laundry done and I think the most fun, making dinners for Eric. It’s been really nice to take this time, take a break from everything and get some distance on the environment at work.
You know I’ve been thinking a lot about my work in the last 6 years and being shown the door, so to speak for a company that I’ve given a lot to. On some level I am upset, I mean who wants to loose their job because of “efficiency efforts”. Honestly though, I’m fine with it. I really feel like I got the better end of the deal. I have a great opportunity to expand my opportunities and work for another company and do the things I like and learn new things too. I’m not too worried about finding a job at the moment because I’ve been getting calls every day from companies wanting to interview and talk to me. A few are contracted jobs but most are permanent jobs. It’s actually exciting to look at the different options out there. I’ll keep you updated on things when I know more but right now it’s the phone interview stage and a few face-to-face interviews.
The support, kindness and offers for help have been AMAZING! I think it’s times like this that you really know who your friends are and who your support system is. I so appreciate the phone calls, emails and IM’s to see how we’re doing. Honestly, I really think we should be fine. I’ve got opportunities here in Portland and Eric’s working for a great company so things couldn’t be better. OK a full time job for me would be good but I’m sure that will come with time.
Tagged as:
intel,
job,
layoff,
support
