Punkin and I danced to this one before work today

This one has been stuck in my head all day. The second verse is NOT the same as the first.

Happy Late Birthday, Professor!!
I hope it was a good one!
I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Early Birthday, Bonnie!
Thank you again for my award!
I put it on my index page!

So, this evening I'm trying to convince Hubby that I could really use a TV/VCR combo from Sears (which happens to be on sale now) in the kitchen for my birthday. My reasoning is that, this way, no matter what Hubby was watching or taping on the TV downstairs, Punkin could still watch Cinderella (the only video that she ever wants to watch out of about a dozen that she has) upstairs.

He says he'll think about it. It is at that moment that our adorably sweet-faced child, seated next to him, leans over to rest her head against his arm and looks up into his face with those big baby blues of hers and bats her eyelashes.

That's my girl.

One day you're sitting at work, whittling down your task list and someone comes to you and says "We'd like you to work on a intranet page for our department." If you're me, (and just for the sake of this little entry, pretend you are), you get pretty nervous and stammer "b-b-but I don't know anything about web pages... I-I-I don't think I can do that." Then an echo of a conversation with a high school business teacher (with serious chronic halitosis) comes back to you...

Teach: We think you'd be perfect for the work co-op program. You'd come to school for half a day and work in an office for half a day.
Me: What? Me? In an office? In the real world? No. No. NO. I can't do that. No... I couldn't do that. I'm not...no.
Teach: (smiling) Tell you what, you try it over the summer and if you still don't think you can do it, we'll pull you out of the program. Ok?
Me: Um... well, ok. I guess. Sure.

Not only did I do it, I worked there for seven years (learning business and some professionalism, and attending a community college at night) before I left there to take another job for six months (which taught me to really have confidence in what I can do) before I left there to work for the company I'm with now. I'm now the Executive Assistant to the President. A position I've wanted to achieve since that first job.

So, I struggle (unsuccessfully) with Front Page for a while, building the first page or two and I begin talking to a co-worker about what I'm doing and how to go about it. He steers me to HomeSite and teaches me the finer points of the copying, pasting, and hacking technique from existing company intranet pages.

This new project triggers excitement and creativity, and I begin looking for similar projects that I can involve myself in. I find new projects in pages for our executive management group, company-wide fundraising campaigns, and articles for the main pages of our intranet.

Encouragement from the same co-worker keeps me going down this path, showing me the sights along the way, including the power (and picture tubes!) of Paint Shop Pro. New things that I can do with a little more "copy, paste, and hack." New and different ways of doing things. Soon I'm one of three people who edit our intranet on a regular basis.

I enjoy "playing" with HTML and a little, tiny bit of ColdFusion so much, I begin my own personal web pages. Now I have my own "thing." Something that's entirely mine, but easily shared with so many people.

I make a decision to go back to school, (something I thought I would never do), to learn more about HTML. I have three classes in mind initially, but end up working towards a Webmaster Certificate.

Then one Sunday, I find out my co-worker, who has become a good friend over the seven plus years I've known him, has found another job. He'll be leaving in two weeks to move on to bigger challenges.

We've said a lot to each other over all that time, and encouraged each other when things looked less than stellar. He has suffered through hundreds, nay, thousands of Little Clown pictures. (golly, maybe I brag about her too much, huh Andy?) I was honored to be present at his wedding to a truly lovely lady. We've shared countless laughs and a lot of gripes. He is part of my support system.

It is unclear how his leaving our workplace will effect my job, but one thing is sure. He will be missed. Not just by me, either.

Thank you, Andy. I wish you the very best. New Punkin pictures will be arriving in your email inbox very soon. Count on it.

current entry
previous
next