MTB

Sunday is my day for work and errands.  I just spent an hour an a half reading through some work material.  Ok, I really tried to spend all that time reading through this stuff but my short attention span of a fruitfly got the best of me.  Maybe I should shut down my computer while I read?  And maybe not listen to music because I tend to listen to the music instead of paying attention to what I’m reading.  I’ve always had that problem, which is why I always had to study in a completely quiet library.  And no, not the UGLi — that was the worst place to study during college.

Geraldine Ferraro passed away yesterday.  As a woman, I think she’s very inspirational, although admittedly I haven’t really followed her recently.  However, she’s got an incredible legacy and was a beautiful woman.  Media’s been going over her life and this legacy and how much of a pioneer she was.  That’s all fine and dandy, but I couldn’t help but notice her rad outfit when she was running for VP:

Love the dress, the string of pearls, and the hairstyle.  I’d like to find a dress like that to wear to work.

North Dakota, our neighboring state, has been deemed the best state to live in this country.  I had no idea ND had such great stats.  The only thing missing is the cultural diversity component, which is a big reason why I wouldn’t want to live there.  But, apparently that’s not a factor in this contest.

North Dakota:  Best State to Live In

It’s been nice and sunny lately in Minny.  But it’s deceiving.  From the inside, the outdoors looks bright and inviting:

Don’t let it fool you!  It’s only in the low 30s today and was yesterday, too.  Not good for a girl who doesn’t like to wear gloves and hats — the wind gets you!

Well, I finished my second full week of work.  Phew!

I was in training four of the five days and it was pretty intense.  I really liked it though.  I especially  liked all the food they gave us throughout each day.

Apparently this was the biggest training week that my company has had in a long time.  They tightened their belt quite a bit during the recession.  They tried really hard to not let people go and just trimmed the fat a bit through salary cuts and furlough days, from what I hear and see (on their financial statements, etc.), which is a big reason why I really like my company so much.

So, back to the free food.  Breakfast, lunch, and snack.  Every single day.  All the recent hires in my group (many women!) were in the training with me and they all love to eat like me, so we were constantly pigging out.  After every meal or snack, we were thinking about what we were going to eat next.  I got my fill of pastries, rice krispie treats, and coffee.  I could have just had an IV of coffee put in — I drank it all day long.  But the days were so long, you sort of needed to do that.  It’s sort of a double-edged sword though.  Eating a lot makes you really sleepy, too.  I was constantly between two states:  pig out —> sleepy —> pig out —> sleepy.

Sometimes there was so much information and detailed  and advanced technical things we were learning, some things flew over my head.  At times, I wasn’t sure what was worse, having to sit through a Korean language church sermon where I understand 70% of it or having to sit through eight hours of highly technical product training.  And I thought to myself, that I should have been an electrical or mechanical engineer.  Who in the world thought it would be a good idea to stick college freshmen in calculus during their first semester of school?!  Especially ones who were tasting freedom and the cultured world for the first time like a caged animal released into the wild?  Not like that was me.  Ok, it was.  My parents were sort of strict with me in high school.  So, what I’m trying to say is that I may have been misguided when I was younger.  Electrical and mechanical engineering is where it’s at.  Physics was my best science in college, anyway.  Not to mention my GSI was pretty cute, which then motivated me to go to lab and do well.  Man, that’s so silly!

There were some sales people in our training classes with us.  Ones that sell the product that I work on.  One important thing I learned this week is that people in sales are a different breed of human.  They will talk to anyone and anything with a pulse.  They would probably even chat it up with. . . well, with. . . ok, I’m not going to write what I was thinking.

Really, what is it?  Were they just really attention deprived when they were children?  I just wanted to take a piece of duct tape and slap it on over their mouths.  A million questions and a million stories.

I got my first paycheck on Thursday!  It was the 23rd.  Yeah, I know that weird and they have some kind of off-cycle pay schedule.  Regardless, I was really happy to finally have an income.  It should have been cause for more celebration, but I came home and cooked Raul and Aaron dinner.  Had some red wine, of course.

Yesterday was casual Friday.  I wasn’t sure what would be appropriate or not.  Last week, I went with some trouser jeans and a more conservative sweater.  This time around, I wore some tighter black jeans and I had to clear it my corporate fashion consultant, Raul.  He gave it a thumbs up.  He said as long as I don’t wear open toe shoes, it’s ok.  I have to admit, I’ve conservat-ized the way I dress a bit.  This ain’t no NYC.

It’s Saturday and I was up before 9am.  I love getting up early, especially when the sun is shining.  Today, I’m going shopping for some things I need for my new apartment.

It’s all coming together.

Wow, so. . . uh. . . working in the corporate world is really different from being a NYC public high school teacher.  Really different.

I feel like I should make a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two jobs.  My students used to love making those.  Hahaha.  If I ever figure out how to use that “paint” program, I will, and share it with you.  I don’t feel like doing it right now.  Oh, I suppose I could just put circular shapes into a Word document.  Again, I don’t feel like it right now.

Today, my co-worker asked me if I miss teaching.  When I get asked that, I always answer “yes” because I truly do.  I’ll have to write about that in another entry because I had other thoughts to express in this post.

In my first week of work (which was last week), I went to a training course on HVAC systems.  If you didn’t already know, HVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

I learned that “air conditioning” for cold air during warm weather is a misnomer.  All air that runs through an HVAC system is conditioned whether it’s warm or chilled.

Here’s a little schematic of an HVAC system:

I loved the training course.  It was like being back in school, but a little cooler.  (No pun intended!)  We took a tour of the building and climbed into one of the air handlers on the roof.  It was the size of a small trailer home and it was super cool. We also looked at the giant boiler and chiller generally tried to understand how the building’s HVAC system worked.    Awesome.

Aside from that training, I also learned that working in an office can be cushy.

You stroll in in the morning, sit at your desk with your own computer, check some emails, look over some things, go to a meeting or two and talk about some things with your coworkers, come back to your cubicle, do some work on the computer, check emails as you go along, then maybe look at a spreadsheet or two, then maybe another meeting or two, talk with your manager, and the day repeats itself.

Oh!  And on my first day, my manager made me sign up for a conference my company is hosting in Phoenix, AZ.  Exciting!  I’ll actually be traveling for something work related without having to pay for it out of my own pocket!  (Yep, that’s what we teachers had to do.  E.g., if you wanted to attend the National Science Teachers Association conference you paid for it your own goddam self!)

So, I signed up and they even gave you the option of getting a massage or a facial or a round of golf.  Omg.  I’m going for the facial.

Sometimes I feel like the analog of a country bumpkin in a big city.  Things are so new to me in the corporate world.

But, I don’t let my coworkers let on.

My first day of work was really awesome (it was last Monday the 14th, I’m behind in my posts).

I got a PC laptop + monitor and a Blackberry.  I have to admit, I was really excited because I’ve never had a job that’s provided me with my own laptop and Blackberry.  I had an orientation meeting and my new manager, TM, took me around the office, from cubicle to cubicle, and introduced me to everyone I needed to know, and then some.

As I mentioned before, I was secretly excited about getting a Blackberry but I kept my enthusiasm under wraps, waited til the end of the day to open the box, and just acted like I expected all of it since everyone gets things like that in the corporate world.  Mind you, I was excited specifically about getting the Blackberry, not the actual Blackberry, itself.  The principle of it.

How does Blackberry stay in business?  They gave me a Curve and it sucks. My first smart phone was the iPhone 3G and I got it right before I started business school in 2008.  I upgraded to a 4 last December.  Although there are things I dislike about it, it’s still super awesome in other ways and I can officially and rightfully say that the Blackberry certainly is crappy.  Everything about it.  The keys, the screen, the layout, the appearance.  I don’t like it, I don’t know how to use it and fumble with it all the time.  As of now, I only have the email set up — no numbers or anything else.  I think I got one mistake text last week and that’s all for the texts.  God, I can’t imagine having to text back and forth with someone on that stupid Blackberry and plastic keys.  And, I suppose I should eventually program my group’s names and numbers in it.  I can’t even remember my own phone number.

Also before business school, I starting using Macs again and got a Macbook Pro (it’s a little old now, though).  Switching back to a PC has been a little awkward — I’m getting familiar again with it all.  I’ve been getting reacquainted with Internet Explorer, too, because none of my company’s intranet sites work on any other browser.  ARGH.  It keeps closing unexpectedly.  Typical.

I guess I’ll be a switch hitter:  Mac at home, PC at work:

Ok, so I guess I’ve been bitten by the blog bug.

As you may or may not know, I abandoned my former blog, ajoblessexistence.com, because I no longer have a jobless existence.  Therefore, I continued with the tradition that was established by Kiki when she passed the blog down to me, which then, I passed on to my successor, Alex, to continue with the blog.

Since then, I’ve had a lot of separation anxiety and a strange kind of empty nest feeling so I decided to establish my own blog, which will probably not be passed down to anyone.  We’ll see how long I keep it.

Getting a corporate job in the business world has been a big move for me, from my former career as a NYC public high school teacher, and from my former-former career as a freelancing model in NYC.

Which is why I’ve decided to go with the domain name of motebu.com, MTB for short.   I’m going to write about my transition into the corporate world from the public sector and my new life in Minneapolis and basically use my blog as my very own therapy and digital counselor, if you will.  Can you guess what MoTeBu means?

Here I am, the model:

——-> the teacher:

——>  The businesswoman:

(ok, you caught me, that’s a modeling photo of me in a suit, but the only photo of me in a suit I have.  Please, just pretend it’s a photo of me drinking a cup of coffee on my balcony in the morning before I head to my office job.)

Well, it’ll be a week and a half, tomorrow, that I’ve been on the job and so far so good.  I have so many thoughts to share with you — stay tuned!