What is this blog suppose to be?

I've been trying to figure out how to start blogging again.  Every time I finished a post, I decided it wasn't all that exciting or worth posting.  How did I get so boring, readers???  I don't know if it's that I've gotten so boring or that I noticed that my life's activities of the typical mundane are just that...typical....which in turn makes me feel self-absorbed to think you'd be interested in reading about it.  Hmmmm.....

In my former blog, I went through some very entertaining phases.  Phase 1: The young partyer frequenting gay clubs with her gay friends and straight bars with her straight friends.  This phase put me in great situations that proved hilarity and sometimes humility.  Phase 2: I entered the realm of dating and eventually living with someone.  This phase of my life encouraged an entertaining look into my transition from single girl to commitment girl...not an easy venture for someone who loved the single life as much as I did.  In the end, this evolution ran it's course into Phase 3.  Phase 3: Included moving from Houston to Tampa with the guy I committed to.  After that, I wasn't really sure where to go.  You would think Phase 4: Would be talking about marriage...which happened on February 20, 2010.  Married life is married life, readers... In short, marriage is like everyone says - never easy but worth it when it works.  There are days I want to throw my husband down a flight of stairs, and there are days I can't seem to hug and kiss him enough.  In the end, I can't imagine my life without him. 

So there you have it.  So???  Is there really much more to write on a day-to-day basis?  Not sure.  I think I put pressure on myself to write daily, but maybe if I don't then I'll actually visit posting more than not at all.

Well... I have some clients to meet today for work, so I need to get my off ass and finish this post.  Otherwise, I will be cutting into my shower time and the clients will not be happy with Stinky Rice Spice.

I hope I can get more frequent about some posts, but again...no promises.

Day 1 of the new job

Wish me luck!

Decisions, Decisions

Yesterday's second interview went really well.  So well that about an hour after I got home, I received a call offering me the position with "The Bobs".  I thanked them for the offer, but told them that I would let them know whether I accepted the offer by today just so that I could think over everything - plus, you NEVER accept an offer on the spot if you know you definitely have it in the bag and could possibly negotiate more in your favor.  Little trick that's always worked for me when I know I nailed an interview.

I suppose there is some truth to the statement "when it rains, it pours."  With the corporate travel company offer, the management consulting firm's offer, I also got a third show of interest from another opportunity.  On my way home from the interview with "The Bobs", I got a phone call in regards to another position I sent a resume about two weeks ago.  It was for a Travel Executive Assistant position for a gentleman who owns 6 companies and is pursuing a career in politics.  I don't think I was really uber interested in the position, but the salary was impressionable.  Essentially, I am to be this CEO's go-to mobile slave...haha.  The pay was extremely nice, but I don't know if I have it in me to be someone's assistant 24/7 traveling with him and being his right hand throughout the business trip that could go on for 1 day or 2 weeks and many times at the last minute.  I think it would be something I would not have minded 5-10 years ago, but I'm not sure if I'm up for the uncertainty of that schedule anymore.  Does that mean I'm getting old that I want some routine in my life? 

After some great thought, I've decided to stick with taking the job with the corporate travel company to start on Monday.  In the end, the travel industry is my love where I will most likely always flourish career-wise.  Seriously...if you know me, you know how much I love, love, love planning trips (even if they're not mine), learning about far off places, and knowing where others are traveling so that I get ideas for mine and Husband's next adventure.  I feel that everything I will learn at this company just adds to the expertise I will be able to offer my own clients once I go live with my own company.  I'm pretty excited!  Husband is excited, too, because he knows that I'm going crazy not working and that it would be nice to have more income than my unemployment check.  We're celebrating the formal end of my unemployment tonight at my favorite sushi restaurant Samurai Blue Sushi & Sake Bar.  YUM!

Has anyone seen my career? I left it around here somewhere...

Since my decision to start looking for work, I have already had one confirmed job offer with a corporate travel company that many of you may have heard of. The start date is on Monday. I know... MONDAY! What's strange is it's as if they don't have their shit together because no one returns my calls about what time I'm suppose to be there...8am? 9am? Full moon of the summer solstice?  You would think they would want me to know what time I need to have my butt in their office, right? Oh, well. I guess I have a couple of more days before I really start wondering WTF. Anyway, the position is for an international travel counselor for corporate clients. It's a couple years of a step back in my professional career in my opinion, but the experience will be priceless. This company teaches and certifies all their agents in a particular system that is widely used in the travel industry. A system I never learned because all my travel-related jobs had their own internal systems. Learning this system was something I was going to pay about $300-400 out-of-pocket to learn to have more experience for my upcoming business idea. Taking this job makes it nicer to be paid to learn it rather than paying my own money to learn it. Plus, I will actually have experience applying it to real travel itineraries by working for this company.  So I think it's a win-win situation.

However, I got a call last Friday to come in for an interview at a management consulting firm for a Manager position they have available. I went yesterday morning. Their main focus is to financially optimize companies - study their day-to-day operations, review employees' roles and responsibilities, audit all invoices and expenditures per month, etc. then develop a plan to reduce operational and fixed costs in the short- and long-term. I've determined that they are kind of like "The Bobs" on the movie Office Space...haha.

The present economic dismay has this business booming. Of course, companies like this have always had a use but now people are looking for even more ways to save money on their business operations or run the risk of going bankrupt. I actually used a company similar to them that specialized in getting call centers into Best Practices operationally. I hired a consultant for what I considered a low fee of less than $3K to help me professionalize and make my call center more efficient. All in all, the consulting company's over 20 years of expertise in call center industry management helped me establish better roles and responsibilities for staff members, how to schedule agents more effectively, how to organize paid-time-off requests, and how to develop reporting to monitor activity and success ratios. In whole, the consulting company probably saved us several thousand per month just by getting us the right tools to do our jobs that we didn't even realize we could use or that we already had but were not using to their full potential.

The position with the consulting firm sounds interesting and the pay is comparable if not better than my former job.  When I told Husband about the salary, his eyes lit up.  Actually, I think he zoned out to a daydream sequence of him fishing on the brand new Century 2600 WalkAround boat he's been eyeing for the last two weeks.  The only reason he hasn't pulled the trigger is that he's been worried that if he did purchase the boat, we would have to eat hot dogs and ramen noodles for the rest of the year if I continued to be unemployed (and not the delicious kind of ramen noodles that Weenie gets to eat in Japan).  Needless to say, my interest is piqued with this company.  Even though it is not in the travel industry, I can definitely learn from their company on how to run any future business that I have to its full financial potential.  So there is still some career benefit for me.  I have a second interview tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime...

Happy Hump Day!  I hope the rest of your week is splendid :)

Dear Tampa, Please Have More Mornings Like Today!

We are only in May and the weather in Tampa has already started getting pretty intense with the heat. We've hit the low 90's (farenheit) a few times already which means that it feels like we're closer to the 100's with the humidity. Ugh! However, the weather was GORGEOUS this morning! It was in the low 70's and breezy. It was so pretty outside, that I grabbed my camera after Otis' morning walk and went right back outside to walk the entire community in addition to our typical around the block routine.

Husband and I live in a beautifully landscaped gated community in South Tampa right on the bay. There is a country club of sorts on the property that all the residents are required to be a member. We think it's a bit overpriced (actually a lot overpriced), but we can't beat the convenience of all the amenities it provides such as two heated pools overlooking the marina, an onsite restaurant and bar, a spa, and a full-service gym that also provides classes. It's also kind of nice having a place for neighbors to congregate and get to know each other. Doesn't hurt that any guests who visit us have resort-like things to do while they are here if we're too lazy to drive anywhere for the day. Having all of this just footsteps from our front door is definitely not something to complain about. It's nice knowing that I have a safe place to live especially since Matt travels for business leaving me with only Otis to protect me...and you've seen my "guard dog". There are a few multi-million dollar homes right on the water and some high-end single family homes in the community, but we have one of the three-story townhomes. So, we are definitely not rolling in the dough like some of our professional athlete neighbors. I wish! Our place suites us perfect though.

Anyway, here are some photos of our walk through the community and the marina.

The front of our little townhome. Surprisingly, we NEVER hear either of our neighbors even though we're smooshed side by side.

Here is a view of our street. We are the other white townhome just left of the parked car. Can't really see us with the big trees in the way, but you get the idea.

Here's Otis in front of the Club down the street from us. The other side of the club is facing the bay.

Here is a view of the Club's adult pool. Yes, there is a pool ONLY for adults - could be because there is a full-service bar right next to it. The big lap pool for kids is further down.

This is our favorite spot to take when we hang out at the pool. Right through the arches on the right side is the bar. Far left in the back is where the kids pool is. The gym's windows look out to the kids pool side of the property. Upstairs, there is an indoor bar and a restaurant. I wish we used the facilities more than we do since we pay for the damn thing.

Yes, we do see manatees on occasion when we walk through the marina. Poor sea cows are always looking for fresh water coming off the boats.

Looking over the rail while standing over the marina's pier I see hundreds of mullet fish. No, they do not have mullets, but they are visible during low tide.

Nothing like seeing a boat called BIG TEXAS! I don't know who owns it, but I should definitely introduce myself...haha!

Here are just some of the boats docked in the marina at the club. Having a marina on property has been giving Husband the itch to buy a boat. We'll never own one of these huge yacht-like things you see in the picture, but he's been shopping... It's not my thing since I get car sick let alone horrendous sea sickness, but it makes him happy... so I guess we'll buy stock in Dramamine.

Here's Otis looking out at the water on the far end of the marina's pier. He loves staring at the fish jumping out of the water. You would think he was part cat.

Weekend Update

First thing's first... Happy belated Mother's Day to all the hot mommas I know out there. As I edge closer to my mid-30's, just about everyone I grew up with has children nowadays. Sometimes 2, 3, 4, and so on. Hope everyone had a great day yesterday with your chil'uns.

I tried reaching my mother to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, but it seems all we did was play phone tag. She's in the Philippines right now, so the time difference makes it even more difficult to reach each other. I plan to try again today.

Husband and I spent the weekend in Husband's hometown where his parents still reside - about one hour north of where we live. For those who grew up with me, it's a tiny town reminiscint of where I grew up in Texas. I say reminiscint when I should say "almost exactly" right down to the Confederate flag presence on almost every other residential street and license plate, the sunburned guy with his button-down shirt completely unbuttoned crossing a major street in the town showing off his beer gut (and no, he's not homeless...that's just how he feels like walking around in public), dually trucks galore...you get the drift... dueling banjos can sometimes be heard playing softly in the distance kind of thing.

Regardless of any of that, we enjoyed visiting with his family. Every time we visit, Husband and I gain at least 10 pounds simply because his Mississippi-raised mother does some serious southern comfort food home cooking. I definitely love it, but an extra mile added to my runs for the week is always a given. We had a great lunch honoring his mother, aunt, and grandmother. Very sweet.

We gave his mother a beautifully framed photo of her and Husband doing their Mother-Son dance at our wedding. Nice pic, huh?

Other than that, the rest of the weekend was uneventful. Just relaxing and eating. What a nice weekend!

I love it when it I hear great news!

Well readers, as I told you before, I am currently working on starting my own business somewhat travel-related geared towards people getting married - destination weddings and honeymoons. I can't get into too much detail just yet, but I promise you'll be the first to know when I go live :).

The biggest downer about my future company was when I got a less than appeasing estimate from a web developer about what I wanted to do with my website. Unfortunately, my idea does not allow me to have a simple "point and click" type website where a customer can pick an item, it goes into a shopping cart, and then they enter their credit card information. My idea is a service at which the website allows people to create logins, have their own ability to make changes, and even have their own website in my website. Obviously, I couldn't pick something easy. I had a sneaking suspicion this web developer thought I was trying to do some massive web interface stuff like Expedia, Travelocity, etc. which I am definitely NOT. So when he quoted me some figure of "no less than $100K", I choked. Actually, I almost swallowed my tongue. This is what had me throwing out my resume because I decided that I needed income again...especially if I were looking at taking a small business loan.

After a couple of weeks of letting the entrepreneurial setback sink in, I was hit with an epiphany yesterday. I had hired an E-Commerce web developer guy to do a project with me while back at my previous job. Why did I not think of him??? So I shot him an email last night to set up a conference call. After a lovely two-hour discussion of what my business idea was, how I wanted to set up my website, and how I would separate myself from all the other small travel companies, he was impressed. Impressed, I said! He told me that he can set up my website based on my budget. He works with three specific budget brackets: $1-3K, $3-6K, and $6-10K. Of course I wanted to lean closer to the first bracket, but in all honesty of what I want, he believed I wouldn't go any higher than the bracket between $3-6K. Now that is more like it! He was shocked that the other guy quoted me such a ridiculous amount of money. He agreed that the first guy must have completely misunderstood what I was trying to do...that's what I get for going to a guy who does web development "on the side".

This bit of news had me jumping for joy! $3-6K sounds sooooo much better than "no less than $100K"!!! So my web developer is going to do some research, build it for me, and walk me through it next week to see what I like and don't like. He's also putting me in touch with some graphics guys to help with my logo. I have the idea for the logo but am not artistically inclined to do it myself. Effing YAY! Anyway, I know this is all cryptic to you readers since you're still not sure what I plan to do, but keep in mind that it means I'm a HUGE step closer to getting my own company off the ground.