You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello: B.a.D Goes Management

Last year near the end of December, I was trying to figure out how crappy my schedule for full-time school and full-time work would be (as it turns out, it was very crappy), how much longer I could pretend that I still wanted to be with the ex, (as it turns out, not long), wondering if I was going to hook up with the girl who eventually saved me from staying way longer than I should have (as it turns out, I did), and wondering what 2007 would bring.

This year, on December 22nd, I'll not only be saying goodbye to Aleta before I head out to Mexico with my family for Christmas, I'll also be saying goodbye to another kind of family.

Ladies and Gentleman, this is it. I'm trying to wrap my head that what I've been doing for the last 2 years with Peggy and Kathy and the Clubhouse is coming to an end in less than a month.

The one thing I HAVE been able to figure out is WHY this is so hard. Given that I've only ever worked for the one company, I realize now that I could never recall a time when I was leaving a place or department or store that I didn't ever WANT to leave, that I wasn't ever EXCITED to leave. Sure, there would have been people I would have missed, but I would never have missed EVERYBODY. Not like now. This is the first time I'm actually going to miss the place I'm leaving and EVERYONE in it.

Now, this doesn't go for everyone I work around... this goes for everyone in my department. Everyone in the clubhouse. I can honestly say I have NEVER enjoyed myself professionally like I have the past 2 years. And I have never found a group of people... anywhere... that I would take into any job I ever go to.

During that 2 years, I was able to bring 3 of my friends out of the mouth of hell department and into the heavens gate department so that they could enjoy everything I enjoyed. Britt, Rae, and Ash. Words cannot describe how proud I am of you guys. I put myself on the line bringing you in, against a lot of people's advice. But you stepped up, and you made me proud.

FPH and JVB? Ah, what can i even say about you two... I think you're both crazy, but in very different ways. But I love you both, and you better know it.

And Peggy and Kathy... not only are they responsible for bringing me in, for creating the environment that I enjoyed myself in, for allowing me to be creative, for allowing me to make the innovations I wanted to make to our office... but we single-handedly fought off someone who tried everything she could for over a year to get us gone. (Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but yes, it's true.)

And it was touch-and-go for a while. And all any of us had to do was turn the others in to save ourselves. But we never did. And when you go through something like that with two other people, they BECOME family.

I made computer programs and changes to our office that the entire rest of the system adopted as their own. My fingerprints are now all over every Ops Office in the system.

SUCCESS. That would be the only way I could describe my experience in the Clubhouse. But there is NO way I will be able to describe how much I will miss it. But I will still see all of these people from time to time, so I try not to dwell as much on that as much as I do the challenge ahead...

Management.

The most popular question I get asked since the news came down is "why". The only answer that I can give you to that is that it's what I feel like it's time to do. There came a time for me, when I applied, when complaining about how bad management is just doesn't cut it anymore. Not that we weren't right. It was bad. It still is.

I never had any desire to go into management with THIS company. So how bad it was/is, it never bothered me beyond annoyance. I never minded that much, but things change.

There comes that time when you want to BE the change that you want to see. That's the best way I can describe it. I am going to do everything I can to make it better. If I can, I can. If I can't, I can't, and that means it's time to move on to something else.

That's all that's in my head right now... maybe I'll have something more to say at a later date, but for now, that's all.

So thank you to everyone who enjoyed the last video I put up... I agree, it's awesome. It's going to be followed up by part 2 of 3 today... and this truly is the best of the 3 parts, kids. This is TV at it's finest. And for those of you who don't bother to watch the videos and then complain that I don't put anything good up... well, if you don't watch what I put up, you can't say much, can you?

You-Tube For Today:
The Shield: Shane's Moment Of Truth

So this is the second of three in the series of Shield videos I'm putting up. If you haven't watched the last one, GO CHECK IT OUT. YOU DON'T NEED TO WATCH THE SHIELD TO ENJOY THESE SCENES, especially this one. I'm not going to spoil this one... but just to set it up, this is a day or so after the last one, when Lem plans to meet the Strike Team one last time so they can smuggle him into Mexico. 2 members of the Strike Team (Vic and Ronnie) are trying to lose tails and are running late, but Shane gets to the meet first...

ARG. My heart just about stopped when that car exploded. Shane will burn.

Seriously though, what fantastic acting. Lem's last scene went off like a firecracker and when Shane breaks down and begs for forgiveness after killing his best friend, and OPENLY weeps... now Shield fan or not, who can't feel that?

B.a.D