Nearly Done!

So, I recently painted part of my hallway with stripes. I liked it so much that I decided to do the whole hallway. Needless to say, that is a large pain in the ass to do alone. Luckily the BF is in town this week. Last night we taped out all the lines and it took only a little over an hour to tape the whole hallway (it took me an hour to just do the short wall I did by myself). He doesn’t like to paint, but he is a champion taper. We also managed to get the bedroom picked up and ever vacuumed part of the living room. It is amazing how quickly these things happen when you actually have help. I like it! I will post pictures of my beautimous hallway when it is done so everyone can appropriately “Ooooh!” and “Ahhh!” over the work.

All I have left to do in the house now is reorganize the kitchen, take the stuff for donations, buy a coffee table, figure out what we're doing for a bar area and then I think we're done. Maybe.

Pretty!

Look at what my BF sent me earlier this week!

The guys in my office think the only reason he would have sent me flowers is because he is in trouble. I tried to explain to them (using short, simple words) that perhaps they should try sending their significant others flowers just because - it might turn out well for them.

Please, Do Not Abuse Your Recruiter...

Okay, so I realize that many recruiters are no better than used car salesmen, however, some of us are not quite that bad.

As a recruiter, I want people to know a couple of things:
1. I do not get paid unless a candidate is offered a job, takes it and keeps it.
2. My livelihood depends on my relationships with the companies/managers that I work with.
3. I do not want to waste a candidates’ time with managers/jobs that are not real or a managers’ time with candidates who are not real.

Candidates – Please do not screw over your recruiter by committing any of the following atrocities:
1. Do not cancel an interview, if you must, please allow minimally 24 hours notice or at least have the courtesy to call – emails in the middle of the night are not cool, especially when they are followed by a 24-48 hour disappearing act of which Houdini would be impressed. When you cancel an interview, we (meaning me) have to make explanations to managers. It doesn’t sound good for you or us when we say, “I don’ know, I read his e-mail when I got in this morning and haven’t been able to reach him since.” Can we reschedule, can we move it up or back at all? Who knows? You didn’t give us the basic respect of a phone call. When you are in the second or third interview phase, this means you have wasted your own time, my time, my managers’ time and now you and I both look like assholes. If a company has arranged for someone to fly in form another place, or to have someone stay outside of their normal working hours, DO NOT cancel for any reason short of extreme illness or death. (Please see items 1-3 above.)
2. Do not think that an e-mail replaces the need for a phone call, ever. If I urgently need to speak to you (or vice versa), the phone is the correct way to contact you. Would you send your mother an e-mail if you ended up in the hospital? (Actually, this goes for everyone and not just candidates – support more human interaction!)
3. If you have a job you are happy at, please do not play at looking for a new job. Decide to look or stay put, but please don’t waste my time or my managers’ time by going on interviews when you have no intention of leaving your current job.

Managers – Please be aware of the following:
1. The best candidates are those that already have jobs. As such, they cannot all interview in the middle of the day or even during the “normal” working hours. Please be prepared to come early, stay late, or otherwise accommodate these candidates if you are interested in them. We will do our best to make sure that time is worth it to you.
2. We are not god and we cannot control everything. I will make sure you are aware of a candidate’s schedule, other companies they have interviewed with and any other offers that have been made. What you do with that information is your own concern and I cannot necessarily convince someone who has an offer at $100k/yr to take your offer of $85k. When I can convince them to take it, I cannot always convince them to keep it (please see item 1 in the first section).
3. Yes, your job is the sexiest. No, I don’t know why anyone would want to work anywhere else. Yes, I understand that you have a budget to work with, but please believe me when I say that if I convince that candidate to take a $20k/yr pay cut to work for you (and I am that convincing – sometimes), you must treat them very well and resign yourself to the fact that if someone else offers them more $$ they will most likely leave (please see item 1 in the first section).

Okay, rant done. I think my head is going to explode.

Weekend in Review

So, I had one of those weekends where I know I was super productive, but I don’t feel like I got enough done. Ever had one of those? I thought I’d go ahead and post my accomplishments here and see if I feel more finished and less of a mess when I write it all down. So here is my weekend recap:

Friday night (left work at 5:30pm):
1. Went to Home Depot to buy paint, Kilz, and other painting accoutrements. (Lesson learned: Do not carry three gallons of paint and painting accoutrements home on the subway – people will run into you, it will hurt.
2. Primed the second bedroom and the hallway.

Saturday:
1. Ran to the big grocery store with ex-Roomie (she had her BF’s car).
2. Painted spare room a lovely blue called Storytime.
3. Picked up living room/vacuumed couches/created coffee table out of table top and bed stilts.
4. Mad bed in spare room, cleaned up floor.
5. Cleaned kitchen/did dishes/cleaned cat box
6. Ran to drug store to pick up stuff I forgot earlier and beer and Laundry.
7. Had two girl’s over for girl’s night.

Sunday:
1. Painted hallway.
2. Moved a bookshelf into small bedroom.
3. Took down drop cloths, moved dresser in and move bedside table into spare room.
4. Set up closet in spare room and took all hanging items out of living room.
5. Moved shoes from bedroom to spare room (my clothes and shoes can breath!)

It still doesn’t feel like I got enough done, but as my mother and my BF are quick to point out, patience is not my strong suit.

I went to get dressed this morning and I could see all my suits and shirts and shoes clearly and it was heaven. Once I finish the apartment overhaul, I’ll be able to sleep again!

Cue the Choir of Angels!

I officially have no roommate! The house is completely destroyed and no one came to help her move, but she’s out and it appears like we managed to save our friendship as well. In addition to that, I got a Wii (technically it was for my birthday, but it came last Friday, so I opened it and started playing) and tonight I am getting an iPhone (which I won from the office because we did over $200,000 in billing last month $160,000 of which was billed by my team). Given all that, things are going pretty well for me these days. I’ve picked out a color for the other bedroom and I think I might paint the hallway the same color. I cannot wait to get started on that project.

Even Bruce is excited. He said that he hesitated to do anything around the house before because he didn’t want to do anything for her or that would benefit her. Now that she’s gone, he says things are going to be different. We’ll see. Both he and Justin have said that I seem noticeably happier just in the day or so since she’s been gone.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of more wonderful things to come!