Big stuff..

Ok so... I've been working like a dog for the past 2 weeks on this HUGE project at work. We went to a client a few months back with an idea to go national... and staff all of their locations from our home office. Piece of cake since we already staff 9 of the states now and barely break a sweat doing it. Unbeknownst to us, they took our idea and ran with it... except they invited everyone else to bid on the contract (OUR IDEA) and left us out of the loop since we're just a tiny little staffing agency in Tulsa, OK. We found out 2 weeks ago what was going on because the head of the company in our region found out we weren't included on the bid and insisted we be included since we're the ones he wants to have the contract. THANK GOD FOR HIM!

We were in the top 16 since it was our idea and all, but this company - let's call them OS, who was heading up the project for our company - WB, took us out of the running when they cut down to the top 8 because they thought we were too small to handle a project of this size. They went ahead and sent us the RFP (request for proposal) and gave us 5 days to get it back to them since it was already a month past due for everyone else who bid. Everyone else had like 3 weeks to do their RFP!! OOOHHH MY!! That was a huge RFP and it took all of us on the project the entire 5 days to complete it. We worked all through the night and even worked through the weekend. We got it submitted in the nick of time and were invited to give a presentation on our model yesterday in KC.

We had 1 week to get our presentation together after they accepted our RFP and again, worked every night and all through the weekend making it perfect. Once we were confident on the material we held mock presentations Mon and Tues and had our other staff members attend and try to shoot holes in our presentation. That was so helpful!! The cool thing is - the more they tried to shoot holes in it, the more confident we became. We always had an answer. And it was always a perfect answer. I admit I was nervous going into it because I knew a large percentage of the questions would be directed at me since I would be managing the majority of the project if we get the bid. AS would manage about 20%... I get the other 80%. eeeekkkk!!! lol

Anywho... we were told that appearance was highly important to these people so I instantly panicked. What the hell do you wear to a presentation like this?? I didn't want to look stuffy in a suit, but couldn't go all cutesy-girly either. So.... the coolest thing happened!!!!! The big cheeses' wife, CR, took AS and I to Dillard's to get us outfits!! We felt just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman!! We were in the large dressing rooms while CR and the ladies in the department went out and found us all sorts of outfits to try on. They were throwing things at us left and right. What didn't look good on AS was thrown at me to try on and vice versa. Once we found the perfect looks, she took us down to shoes and repeated the same process. And of course you have to have accessories so she took us there and picked out the perfect things... and WOOHOO! We looked fabulous. Of course I would have rather had AS's dress, but she tried it on first. HA! That was probably the most fun I have ever had shopping for clothes. Of course it helped that we didn't have to buy anything. Makes things so much easier :) And CR is a total fashionista!!!! We told her from the beginning that we would be no help - she would have to pick everything out. And she did great!

So... back to the RFP. Boss man rented a private jet for us to take to KC. We couldn't take the chance of being delayed on a regular flight (which would have taken us down to Dallas before heading up to KC - so stupid how that works)... and didn't want to feel rushed. The meeting was too important to risk any kind of mishap. Turns out, the plane was cheaper to rent than if he had purchased 4 normal plane tickets. Who would have thought?

All 4 of us, me, AS, boss man #1 and boss man #2 all pulled our cars up next to the plane on the runway!! Left our keys inside and the workers moved our vehicles into the hanger when we took off. I took a zillion pictures while on the plane. It was so cool! :) I've never been in a private plane before. It was a 4 seater with a spare 5th seat in back and behind that was the bathroom. HA! Our little pilot man was great! Smooth take-off and smooth landing. There was every kind of drink you could think of and lots of snacks at our disposal. We didn't even have to fasten a seat-belt. I of course did because I was flying backwards and didn't want to end up in my boss's lap when we took off.

When we arrived in KC we stepped off the plane and had 2 ladies from the executive travel agency standing there to greet us with our rental car just a few yards away. We followed them back to their hub where they had drinks waiting and let us use their conference room to relax. They got a map for us with exact directions to our meeting place for the proposal so we took off a little early to make sure we knew exactly where the place was.

The proposal started off a little rocky. Boss man had the slide show on his MAC and it wasn't compatible with the projector they had. He did bring his projector just in case... but it still wouldn't work!! UGH!! It was the coolest slide show ever! So we had to use the handouts instead. Thank goodness they were just as awesome :) Kinko's is the bomb!! We went through our proposal and it went perfectly!! They asked the exact questions we wanted them to ask and we had the perfect answers every time. When the meeting was finished the Executive VP told us how great our proposal was and how thankful he was that we were there. YAY!! That was HUGE. The funny things is we had no idea he was the VP until we got back on the plane and looked at his business card while rehashing the entire presentation. HA! They told us they would narrow their choice from the 5 that presented down to the top 2... WHICH WE ARE!!!!!!!!! :) YAY!!!!!!

The plane ride back was great... so much more relaxed since we knew it was out of our hands at that point. The men drank their little bottles of nastiness while AS and I had wine :) YUM! When we got back to Tulsa all 4 cars were lined up... and the plane pulled up right next to them!! How flippin cool is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anywho...

We should find out in a week or two if we got it or not. The scary thing is... if we don't win this I don't know what's going to happen to our company. Losing the business we have now to someone else would be devastating!! So... keep your fingers crossed! :)

Been a while...

I've been such a bad blogger :( Work has been crazy and I have had absolutely no motivation to post anything... or read any one's blogs for that matter.

Thanks to the lovely economy our business has plummeted!!! Everyone received a 10% pay cut a couple months back with the promise that it would return to normal in June. Hum... not foreseeing that to happen now. A few weeks ago we (the three recruiters) were put the part time every 3rd week. Next week is my part time week. I don't mind the 20 hours... that part is kind of nice. It's the 1/2 paycheck that follows that sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!! No clue how long this will last. Maybe until the fall or the first of next year. Keep your fingers crossed that business will pick up soon.

Punky and I disassembled our deck and moved it up against the house!! OMG that was a huge undertaking. I've been in pain for a week... and yesterday was the worst of it. The muscle relaxer I took last night seems to help a bit today. We have it all level and just need to screw down the deck boards on top. That will have to wait thanks to the rain that's supposed to come in. Fucking rain... I'm so sick of it. We actually broke records here for the most consecutive days with rain... and I heard we beat out Seattle. WTF! Crazy stuff. It's been so nice this past week but I knew better than to get used to it.

The pool has been a huge thorn. The covers we got when we tried to close the pool last year would never stay on... so it's been exposed all winter long. UGH! Punky tried to get as much green gunk out as she could, but I ended up borrowing AS's wet/dry shop vac yesterday and sucked the rest of the nastiness out. Then I filled it up with a bit of water to let the caked on shit soak and loosen up before I scrubbed the hell out of it with our shop broom. That about killed me. Then I had to go back and suck all the water out of it again. I spent 4 hours on that damn thing... hence the back issues. I swear I feel like an old lady anymore. I had every intention of going to the grandparents house today to help Dad with the yard, but I'm not sure if I will screw up my back even more or not... I'll have to ponder that one.

I'm just about finished reading the Twilight Saga for the 4th time.... or is it the 5th time? Hell I can't even remember. All I know is I'm completely addicted!! Total Twihard here :) The filming of the sequel New Moon is about to wrap up and then they will start filming the third installation, Eclipse in the fall. They still haven't decided if they will make the 4th book, Breaking Dawn, into a movie yet. I can understand their delima though... there are some things that would be hard to portray correctly... but geeze-o-petes.... they can't leave us hangin.

I made a new page today on Shutterfly. Another site that I'm sure I will have trouble keeping up with. I had no clue it could double as a blog. I like it so far - but we'll see how long this lasts. I'm not sure if I will use the blog part of it though... I just like how you can layout the albums and create an actual web-page looking thing.

YAY YAY YAY... 2 more weeks until my niece is here. It's been like 4 years since we've seen her. Well, everyone except bro. The visit is long overdue. I'll be on part time that week she's here so it works out. Punky wanted to get the deck moved and the pool up and running for when she's here... maybe it will be warm enough to swim? If not we can use the fabulous fire-pit Punky got us last year and make smores. Yum... I might have to have one :)

Just me

was here

WTF!?!?

So yeah... it's 4:20am and my ass is awake!! Actually, I've been up since just after 2am. No clue why... this is crazy. I fought with it for a while and thought piss-it! Get up and clean. WTF!?!? I've done all the laundry, dusted (with Pledge thankyouverymuch), cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen, gathered all trash... ugh. There's got to be something else to clean that I'm missing. Can't vacuum damnit... that would wake up Punky. She should be up in about an hour so I'll have someone to talk to for a few... then she's off to work. So - guess I'll be getting to work early today. Nothing else better to do really. Ooooh... I can vacuum when she leaves :)

I've been working my ever loving ass off these past couple weeks at work. AS has been gone for a couple days so now I'm covering for her which makes it even crazier. My days fly by though so I can't complain :) In the midst of all this we're trying to land a HUGE national account (we have a small portion of the account now) and I'm working hand and hand with our president to get the plan together... pretty exciting. I'll be going to Nebraska next week with him to pitch it so cross your fingers and toes! There are 9 regions for this one company across the US and we'll eventually pitch them all, but we're starting with the hardest for now and working our way forward. Screwball part is... when we land this account I won't have anything to do with it except for maybe help train the people who will manage it. lol. Crazy. It's good for our company though so that's what counts. Team playa!

Me thinks me needs a smoke... then I'll probably take a quick shower before Punky wakes up. Yay... I'll be going to work soon. :) This not sleeping shit is for the birds.

The Best Feel Good Video!!

Blogger

I'm totally lovin my new digs! :)

The End

I know everyone lives for my updates and has been on pins and needles wondering what the latest is. Well - you may pull the needles out of your ass now. I reached my goal!! Shaaaawing!!!!!!! Wait... does anyone say that anymore?

I'm down 65 pounds and holding. I was able to increase my carbs a bit and I'm exercising more. He still has me on the pills and I kept losing weight after I increased my carbs so now I'm only taking the pills every other day. 65 is plenty! Let's hope I only have to go see him a couple more times before he cuts me loose. I'm thinking as long as I can maintain he'll feel confident that I won't have to see him every month.

I'm so proud of where I came from and where I am now. It's just crazy looking at pictures of me before. I remember thinking at the time that I didn't look too bad in the pictures. Good lordy I had no clue!!! I have every bit of confidence that I will stay this way. If not just to look better in the mirror, but to be healthier and at a lower risk for diabetes. That's the important thing.

Now that I'm done, I will finally share my stats. (Note - I am working on the body fat% now that I'm able to exercise. And... the Doc said I was at the top of the leader board for percent of weight change. Cool!)

Weight change - 34%
Inches lost in waist: 11.5 in
Inches lost in hips: 9. in
*No clue how many inches in bust - they don't measure that. Strange huh!?
Percent Body fat: 21.8%
Starting BMI: 33.34 kg/m2 : Current BMI: 23.10 kg/m2


Whoot!!!!!!

Ok - so now that's over I can blog about other things and not be so damn consumed. Somebody slap me!

I've started to get into Facebook more and more these days. I can't believe how many people I've found on there that aren't on Myspace. Yes - Myspace is more for the younger generation, but I thought Facebook was too? Guess Facebook is just more hip than Myspace. Regardless - I keep both of them up daily. Well, unless it's movie night then the entire world ceases to exist.

Punky and I watched 'Saw V' last night. I'm glad it wasn't as gory as the previous 4. It was just ok. Nothing too special. Now 'Ghost Town' was flippin hilarious!!!! If you haven't seen it, rent it. I don't know if I could relate to the main character because Punky is so weird, or if it was just some seriously good writing/acting. But we'll end up buying it before too long.

Work... oh work. Since the economy has hit Tulsa like a raging bull our business has slowed down tremendously. Not just a bit, but holy shit bit. I am still busy mind you. No clue how exactly, but I stay crazy busy all day long... and sometimes still don't get to leave until 6pm. But the powers that be decided that we get to add another title to belt (less the extra pay of course). We are now outside sales bitches at your service. Oh yes - cold calling and everything. Can I get a WTF!!!!?? I have always had a crazy fear of selling - cold calling - anything that has to do with talking to people that I don't know and trying to get them to do what I want. Sounds stupid, but that's just the way it is. Public speaking - forgetaboutit! I have gotten better since working at my company, but there's always going to be that little freak out moment when I have to perform. The selling part wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for out quota. YES - a fucking quota!! We have to go out and physically sit down and talk to 4 different companies each day. If I get unlucky and a company I chose to go to wouldn't see me, it doesn't count. I got lucky today and got to see 4 out of 5. The extra bad part is - I was gone for 3 1/2 hours to do this. That's 3 1/2 hours that I could have used to staff my open orders. Let's just hope that our current clients don't suffer with us having to do this. If only our sales person was competent we wouldn't be in this situation. This better not last forever. I'll give it a month or two and then somethings gotta give!

Peace out dogs!

Not much has changed...

I ran across an old pic of me and Dad... looks a lot like the one we took in October. I have no clue when the older one was taken - middle school I'm thinkin. :) Oh memories..

Well it's about damn time!!!!!

Check this out..... Obama may end military's ban on gays!!!!!

Yay For Christmas Parties!!!

We had our company Christmas party last night and had such a good time!! Even got a little sloshed :) But what would a party be without alcohol? Boring!! That's what. Here are some pics. Unfortunately we didn't take that many, but there's always next year. BTW - I'm at 58 pounds lost now and I'm going to start my 'maintain' stage tomorrow when I go for my 5 month check up. WOOHOO!!!! I did it!!!!!!! Huge pat on the back to me.