I wish I may, I wish I might

I have my interview today at work for a promotion. I’m not really nervous, which actually makes me a little nervous. I’m silly that way.

Anyway, I’d really like to get the promotion, but I’ve heard that no one ever gets it on their first try, and this is my first post (as they call the application/interview process). And in today’s economy, I’m glad to have a job at all, so if I don’t get the promotion, I’m still employed, so things are really still good.

But it would be kinda groovy.

Anyway, the interview is today & I’ll find out if I got it or not by Friday.

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Tagged with: promotion • Work

Thankful Thursday - tired but thankful

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week since last Thankful Thursday! It’s been one wonderful week! And I am sooo grateful and thankful for so much of it.

I’m thankful for…

• Mandy, Josh, and Olivia - none of whom are related to us by blood and all of whom are related to us by love. These are the family of our heart, of our choice. Spending days upon days with them was bliss.
• Sunny skies and pleasant weather.
• Mike, who indulges me.
• Love. Hope. This time last year, I didn’t much believe in hope any more, and I’m surprised and delighted to find that it’s back in my realm of vision.
• Deals made between friends. I didn’t much follow the spirit of the deal in my head - sorry, Josh - but I did out loud, and sometimes that’s enough.
• Books.
• Jobs. Mike’s and mine. Mike’s because it allows him to follow his passion. Mine because it allows us good health insurance.
• Compliments and positive reinforcement at work. I honestly thought they changed my job description because I was nurturing and nice. Turns out, my numbers aren’t as bad as I’d originally thought. When I got back from vacation on Tuesday, I discovered that my numbers are pretty good in the rankings. Out of 80 or 90 individuals in my division, I’m ranked #11. I was stunned. And very pleased.
• Four and a half hours of enjoyment at work. A rarity for me. But I really enjoyed my time this afternoon helping with the training class. Who knew?
• For old friends and new connections… through Facebook, I found an old college friend & we went to dinner with her and her husband last night. It was a super time.

And lastly, I’m thankful for a soft bed. In NO way did we mind our alternate sleeping arrangements in order to have dear friends here, but it was so nice to sink back into our bed this week.

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Tagged with: Facebook • Family • love • Thankful Thursday • Work

Sit down…

You’re not gonna believe this. I know I didn’t.

I got good news today. And a compliment. AT WORK.

Glad you sat down, aren’t you?

At the unnamed company for which I work, an employee spends a certain amount of time in training for each different job, and after the classroom training, there is another period of time in something called transition. It’s a time that allows you to learn the job but with lots of help and coaching. There are people who assist with the coaching, and I was asked to be one of those four folks.

I was stunned. I assumed you had to have a number far better than mine in order to be selected for that position, and, in typical chel fashion, I mentioned this to my manager and the two supervisors in the meeting with me. They assured me that numbers weren’t the only consideration for this position, that it calls for someone who can be patient with the new folks, professional and kind.

Look, for the first time ever, nice got me somewhere. How groovy is that?!

Now, it’s only a three month position, but I plan to enjoy every one of those months. And I am going to be very grateful for the people who believed in me enough to trust me with this responsibility.

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Numbers, numbers everywhere

I was going to write this post that’s been in my head a week or so now, but “Numbers” is on. Come on, now. Way more important. But a few quick things…

* Griff’s doing fine now. No residual affects.

* Chuck, Stacy and the kids are driving over tomorrow for a family birthday party for Eliza. Typing that reminds me I need to wrap some presents in a minute.

* A sweet friend at work gave me THE BEST compliment today. As several of them were discussing my age (again, with the compliments), she said that I have really good skin. Can you see the goosebumps from here? I’ve always been way too obsessed with having good skin. I couldn’t imagine a nicer thing for someone to say to me!

* In my never-ending quest to not suck at my job, I was delighted this week to get my numbers for September and to find that I scored a 4.9 out of 5. I was thrilled… right up until I realized that I hadn’t yet managed to bring up my overall number very much. But I’m working on it.

*Griff’s about half-way through the fifth Harry Potter book, and he’s not convinced that Delores Umbridge is evil. I love that kid.

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Tagged with: good skin • Harry Potter • numbers • Work

Did I get ditched in a sad way or used in a nice way?

This time last year, I was so excited to have a friend at work. Now, we didn’t have anything (seriously… not much of anything) in common, but we clicked well, and I was grateful. Now, we’re friendly, but we’re not close. And because I like to be honest here (likely more so than any of my handful of readers would like), I have to admit that hurts my feelings. I’ve tried really hard to figure out a way for her ditching me (see, a little bitterness) to make sense. But I haven’t been able to do that.

And then last week, I was thinking about how this particular girl wasn’t the only one to move on. If I think about it, I’ve had numerous encounters with various girls (women, whatever) at work in the two years that I’ve been there. And as I was thinking a week or so ago about my two years at this job, I was reminded again of how secure I am in the belief that this is where God would have me.

So, then, maybe, it isn’t that this girl ditched me. Maybe, instead, it’s that God put the two of us together at a time when each of us needed something that the other could provide. If I think about some of the other women who have crossed my path - asked me very personal advice despite me not thinking we were nearly close enough for them to ask me such things - then I think that it’s possible that God caused each to approach me for a reason.

This month’s “Today’s Christian Woman” magazine has a series of articles about spiritual gifts. I’ve never been real sure what my gifts are. You know… the list in the Bible is pretty slim pickins.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

Seriously, now. Could He not have given out gifts of sending cards when someone’s sad? Or how about the gift of taking someone a nice baked good? The gift of listening? Really. Throw me something possible. Prophecy? Not so much.

One nice thing about this series of articles is that it does touch on other spiritual gifts, and I appreciate that. Just for kicks, I took a spiritual gifts test at ChristiaNet, and these are my scores.

• 100% Hospitality (Acts 16:14-15)
• 78% Exhortation (Acts 11:23-24) (I don’t even know what this is.)
• 67% Wisdom (James 3:13-17) (I’m thinking not so much.)

Ok, I looked up exhortation, and it means … this gift enables certain Christians to stand beside fellow Christians in need and bring comfort, counsel and encouragement. I can see that.

I’ve always wanted my house to be a place of comfort, where people felt welcomed and safe and content. One thing I don’t like about our Florida lives yet is that we don’t have people in and out of our home like we did before. I enjoy that. So hospitality feels like a good gift to me, one that I can easily and comfortably use. I have to assume that the ability to make people feel comfortable extends beyond my house and into my work life and might contribute to the myriad of confessions I’ve heard in these two years.

And exhortation seems like a big word for just being kind to people. But I’m good with it.

A few weeks ago, a girl at work asked over the wall (cubicles, remember) and asked if I had ever read Gary Chapman’s “The Five Love Languages.” I admitted that I had actually recently gotten it from BookMooch and had, well, not read it so much as took the quiz and then made Mike do the same. Took the quiz, got our love languages and sent the book on to someone else.

Mike and I both had our primary language as time spent together (or whatever the official term is), which I’m pretty sure is a result of our years together. Our second languages were not nearly the same. My second language is gifts. It’s a pretty petty language, you know. Gimme, gimme. But if I do unto others, so to speak, it matches pretty well with the above descriptions.

But anyway, several days later, another girl at work was telling me that the first girl had been telling her (confused yet?) about the book and that she thought my love language was service, which I would Never have thought. But how sweet that she thought that by watching my actions.

I’m not real sure where I’m going with this, other than to say that I’m grateful that there are different interpretations of the gifts God gives us. And I’m humbled to think that maybe God is using me where I am in ways I hadn’t imagined. And maybe I should look at the people passing through my life as gifts for the moment and not be unhappy when they move on. Instead, maybe I should eagerly anticipate the next person’s arrival.

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Tagged with: Friends • spiritual gifts • Work