Wednesday, December 30, 2015

In The Tradition

There is a tradition that some people do each Christmas called The Christmas Letter.  It is a letter that is included in the Christmas cards sent out to friends and family.  It gives a brief update on the family and narrates some of the events of the past year.  While I do send the Christmas cards, I have never included a letter in it.  However, I used to have a blog on MySpace and as part of it, I wrote an annual Week After New Year’s Letter.  I would include a rundown of important issues and events for my past year, along with a list a goals for the upcoming year.  I wanted to start something similar in this new blog.  Instead of trying to cover everything, I picked five things from the past year that stand out in my mind and one thing for the upcoming year that I am excited to start.

Five 2015 Highlights

Graduation:  In May, I walked in the graduation ceremony for the MBA program at Longwood University.  I actually finished the program in the summer of 2014 and received my diploma that fall.  However, Longwood only does commencement once a year, so my class did not walk until May of 2015.  Six of the nine graduates in my cohort came back to participate in the ceremony.  I had the highest GPA in the program, so I was honored to carry the banner for the School of Business and Economics in the processional.  After the ceremony, there was a small reception on the university lawn where I was able visit with my friends and professors from the program one last time.  It was great to have one last get together before we all go our separate ways in life.  I have my doubts about whether I will see anyone again, but I enjoyed their company while I was in the program.

Blog:  Also in May, I started this blog.  I have already written blogs about my purpose for writing one (see Welcome to My Blog posted 5/6/2015) and a follow up on how it was coming along (see Six-Month Check-In posted 11/4/2015), so I do not want to spend too much focus on it here.  Writing is something that I want to make a bigger part of my life though, so I am really happy that I started the blog project and I have hopes that it will improve over the coming year.

Work:  This past year has been volatile when it comes to work.  We have reorganized the department, changing the overall structure of which director is over which tasks.  We have lost two managers and one senior accountant that have made the reorganization that much harder.  In addition, there has been a major software upgrade started and a year-end business acquisition that have been adding more confusion and work.  I have only been in my supervisor position for a little over a year, so I have had to take all the changes at the same time I have been trying to learn my new responsibilities.  Much of the year has been very uncomfortable for me.  It is a lot of new things to incorporate in my workday without much guidance from my boss who is also overwhelmed with new projects.  Despite the rather rocky year, I actually feel better about my job at the end of the year than I did at the beginning.  I have managed to delegate enough things to my staff that I do not feel quite so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks.  Also, I have received a confidence boost from a good performance review and some recent compliments I have received from the controller.

Trips:  This has not been my most exciting year for travel and entertainment, but I did manage to squeeze in a few things over the year.  The big vacation of the year was the trip to Seattle in August.  We were there a week, visiting with my husband’s cousins and seeing all the major tourist attractions.  I also took a couple smaller trips to see family and friends.  I went home to PA for my sister’s birthday in June and for Christmas.  I went to my friend’s house in late September for a picnic that I enjoy every year.  I visited with another friend in Maryland a couple of times, seeing her new house and exploring downtown Frederick.  The same friend and I also met once in Leesburg, VA where we enjoyed a small festival as well as sampled Pittsburgh Rick’s (an awesome restaurant that makes sandwiches like the Pittsburgh icon Primanti Brothers).  Finally, I made several trips into DC this year, almost all to see ballets at the Kennedy Center.

Kitties:  I finally adopted some kitty cats.  I have wanted to have cats for a while now, but kept putting it off.  I wanted to wait until we bought our own place, and then I wanted to wait until we were more settled into the new house.  Over the summer, we had a short visit from my in-laws’ cat while they were moving.  Drifter was not the friendliest cat, but it increased my desire to have one of my own.  In October, we took the plunge, and the cats have been with us now for almost three months.  They are perfect.  They mostly get along with each other, and everyone in the house.  They mostly stay out of trouble, only occasionally getting into food that they should not be eating.  They enjoy some cuddle time with me, but I do not find them too clingy.  And most importantly, they are perfectly litter-trained and rarely throw up.  I just hope they continue to be the perfect cats.

One Upcoming 2016 Event

Front Room:  This is part goal, part exciting project.  We have never put together the front room, despite moving here almost two years ago.  All our living room furniture went into the finished basement along with all the electronics.  The front room has just become a harbor for all the junk in the house.  There are boxes of stuff that need to be sorted and emptied.  My desk has been moved into a corner where I do use it, but it has never been properly organized and has also accumulated too much junk.  The front room just has never been my priority, as I wanted to get the kitchen organized (it mostly is) and the furnace replaced (it is) first.  Now, I am finally ready to focus on the front room.  It needs to be cleared, painted, furnished, and decorated.  Thus, my goal for this year is to make the front room a livable place in which I would be proud to entertain guests.

There you have it, my first Annual Letter.  I hope 2015 was a good year, and I hope 2016 is even better for all of you.


See you next week!

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Christmas Movies 2015

One of the things I do each December is watch Christmas movies to get into the holiday spirit.  I try to watch a variety of films, old and new, comedy and drama, blockbuster and made-for-TV.   This year I must have been busier than usual, because here we are almost at Christmas and I have only watched five movies.  Here are mini reviews on the ones I did watch, ranking them from lease favorite to favorite.  (Caution:  Although I tried not to give too many details, there may be some spoilers below.)

A Christmas Eve Miracle (2015)

     Synopsis:  Sharron, a stressed out mother, wishes that she had not had children young so she and her husband could have been more successful in their careers and could have traveled the world first.  On a family trip over Christmas break, Santa did his magic and the couple’s children suddenly belong to two other families in the resort.  The parents have become high powered professionals consumed with their careers, trips, and expensive gifts.  Sharron soon realizes that this is not all that she hoped and prefers to experience the Christmas season with her children again.

     Review:  This was an absolutely dreadful movie.  I am really easy to please when it comes to family entertainment.  I expected predictable and corny.  What I got was stupid and painful.  The movie could have been written by my seven year old stepson and had more intelligent dialog.  The characters mostly just announced random lines that did not flow very well as conversation.  Additionally, there were all these side plots that appeared and then disappeared at random.  The acting was wooden, but seriously I doubt anybody could have done well with this script.  I almost turned it off, and when it was over I wish I had.

Christmas Crush (2012)

     Synopsis:  Georgia goes home for Christmas disillusioned with her life.  She has no friends, no boyfriend, a rocky relationship with her father, and a career that is not what she intended.  When she arrives home, she finds out that her school is throwing a winter wonderland reunion over the holiday season.  She intends to go so she can win back her “perfect” high school boyfriend, wow everyone with a faked career in fashion design, and dazzle the town with her solo in the old glee club performance.  She is so busy trying to recreate her old life, she almost misses the fact that Ben, one of her best friends from school, has secretly been in love with her the whole time.

     Review:  This is very predictable and corny, but it was perfect for what I wanted to do the night I watched it.  If you just want to sit back, laugh, and not think too hard, then this movie is for you.  It is not a tight story and has a number of plot holes in the action.  The characters often act in peculiar and unrealistic ways.  However, there are many laugh-out-loud scenes and touching moments between friends.  Also, I can identify with the desire to look through rose-colored glasses at those old high school days when everything seemed so much simpler.  Finally, Ben as played by Jonathan Bennett is very cute and drool-worthy throughout.

Love Actually (2003)

     Synopsis:  This is a collection of nine love stories woven together in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  1) Sarah, burdened with the care of her mentally-challenged brother Michael, has been in love with Karl from work for years.  2) Mark’s friend Peter marries Juliet.  While he has always shown disdain for her, she discovers that he has been secretly in love with her the whole time.  3) Harry and Karen have been married for decades.  Harry is suddenly being tempted by the young Mia in his office who is making her desire for him obvious.  4) Jamie goes to France to write a novel.  He develops feelings for his Portuguese maid Aurelia despite the fact that neither speaks the other’s language.  5) Daniel’s wife has just died, leaving him the sole guardian for his young stepson Sam.  While they both grieve for their lost loved one, Sam develops his first love for Joanna, a girl in his class.  6) Colin desperately wants to get laid, and decides that going to America is the best way to do this.  7) David has taken on the position of Prime Minister.  Natalie has been assigned to be his assistant, but David finds her too distracting to do his job properly.  8) John and Judy develop a friendship while doing scene setups for a pornographic film.  9) Billy Mack is an aging rocker who has been forced into doing a Christmas cover of his old hit song by his manager Joe.

     Review:  This movie is not the easiest film to watch.  Some of the pieces seem very fragmented and hard to follow.  Plus, you have to have a good grasp on British humor to like the plotlines.  However, I found it pleasant and enjoyable.  The film has a very respectable cast (Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, among others) which shows in the quality of the performances.  The two things I like most about the film are that the situations are gritty and realistic, and that not every story is an actual love story.  Family and friendships are well represented throughout the film.  My personal favorite story lines are Daniel, Sam, and Joanna, and David and Natalie.  They have reasonably happy endings without being too syrupy sweet.

The Holiday (2006)

     Synopsis:  Iris and Amanda have had enough of love at Christmastime.  Amanda has called it quits with her boyfriend, and Iris has just found out her not-so-ex-boyfriend is marrying the other girl.  They decide to switch houses for the two weeks over Christmas.  Amanda heads to England, where she meets Iris’ brother Graham and falls in love.  The story is slightly complicated by his situation of widower with two small children.  Iris lands in LA to enjoy warm weather with some new friends.  She quickly meets Arthur, an aging movie writer who needs some cheering around the holiday season and a gentle push to accept his lifetime achievement award.  She also strikes up a friendship with Miles, who is going through a rough relationship patch of his own.  The feelings grow stronger as the two of them help each other overcome their hurts.

     Review:  I love this movie.  It has been one of my favorite Christmas movies since it came out, and I watch it almost every year.  The cast is fantastic with the five main characters played by Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, and Eli Wallach.  I love that one story line is a traditional love story, while the other focuses more on friendships during the bulk of the film.  I feel the characters are interesting and show genuine growth by the end of the film.  It offers hope to those of us who feel we are stuck in a rut (love, life, or otherwise).  Maybe everyone should take an unexpected, far away vacation at least once in their life to get a little perspective.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

     Synopsis:   The current Santa (Santa the 20th) uses a whole host of updated techniques to ensure that every child receives a present on Christmas.  Santa flies a sleek super-fast ship complete with sky-copying camouflage to keep it from being detected.  A contingent of elves help to put all the presents under the tree in every house in record time.  Steve, Santas’s eldest son and heir apparent, manages everything from the control center back in the North Pole, with tracking equipment and schedules arranged to cover the tiniest details.  But what happens when one bike does not get delivered to a little girl in England who desperately wants to believe that Santa Clause is real?  Santa’s younger son Arthur sets out with the help of Grandsanta, the old traditional sleigh, eight reindeer, and some magic Christmas dust on an adventure to make sure this little girl’s Christmas wish comes true.

     Review:  This is an animated feature perfect for the whole family that is edging into number one this year due to the sheer Christmas joy of watching it.  Although the story of saving Christmas is a repeat, I really enjoyed all the behind the scenes updates that answer that burning question of just how does Santa deliver all those presents to all those children in just one night.  I loved the fact that Arthur is basically a screw-up that everyone has written off, and yet with a little belief in himself he pulled off a Christmas miracle that everyone said could not be done.  This was loads of fun, beautiful animation, and of course plenty of happy endings to go around.  In fact, the ending montage gave an update on every character which ended “And they were happy”.


I hope you all were able to enjoy some wonderful Christmas movies this year.  Have a happy holiday season, however you may celebrate it.  See you next week!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Well Wishes for CP

It is never a good thing when a child becomes sick, really sick.  It is so much worse when it happens at the holidays.  Unfortunately, this has recently occurred in my family.  My cousin CP has been diagnosed with cancer.  This blog is dedicated to him as well as his parents and his brother.

CP is a few months shy of two years old.  He lives with his Dad (my uncle), his Mom, and his older brother.  From the moment he was born, he was sick.  At first, he was just not a very energetic boy, kept getting respiratory infections, and was not hitting the right developmental goals for his age.  Finally, they diagnosed him with Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).  This condition causes (usually) benign tumors to grow on the nervous system (if you want to learn more about it, here is a link to the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofibromatosis_type_I).   CP developed tumors on his optic nerves, which caused almost complete blindness.  They have treated him over the past year with a few different chemotherapy drugs, which has further inhibited his growth as well as put stress on his circulatory system.

Last week, CP went to Children’s Hospital to get a battery of tests run to see how his tumors were responding to the treatments.  At first, it was all good news.  His optic gliomas seemed to be stabilized.  His blood pressure was down and his EKG was good.  Then, the final MRI was done, and the bad news began.  He had too much fluid and swelling in the brain.  He also had a new tumor growing on his thalamus.  They performed surgery to insert a shunt to drain the fluid and to do a biopsy of the tumor tissue.  Then, the worst news yet came, the tumor was malignant.  He has a Fibrillary Astrocytoma, WHO Grade II (if you want to learn more about it, here is the link to the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrillary_astrocytoma).  Unfortunately, the treatment options are limited at this point.  His age and the location of the tumor mean surgery and radiation are not options.  The chemotherapy drugs that normally would be used are the same ones that he was already taking to treat the NF1.  The doctors are attempting to get him qualified for a clinical trial on a new chemotherapy drug that has some promise.  They are also working to reduce the fluid buildup and swelling to keep CP as stable as possible while they try to come up with alternative methods of treating the cancer.

Right now, there is not much that friends and family can do.  CP is already receiving the best care he can from the doctors as Children’s Hospital.  The Ronald McDonald House charity is helping the family with living arrangements as they stay there to get CP’s treatment started.  My aunt’s family is caring for CP’s older brother so his parents can focus their attention on CP.  My grandmother and another aunt just went out to offer what support they can as well.  The rest of the family remains very far away geographically, but we are trying to keep them close in our hearts.  I am not much of a praying woman, but my thoughts and hopes are with them this Christmas.  I so very much hope that the doctors can figure out a plan to treat the cancer and clear it from CP’s brain.  This holiday I hope my family can still find the energy to enjoy Christmas with their children and each other despite the circumstances.  Finally, I hope that someday I get the chance to once again hug CP, see his beautiful smile, and enjoy the energy of a little boy who is feeling better.

I encourage you all to hold your family close and treasure every precious moment with them.


See you next week!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

A Snapshot in Time

I am considering whether to continue our family portrait tradition next Christmas.  The holiday portrait is something my parents did with my sister and me throughout my childhood.  It was something I was excited to continue once I had my own family.  For the past four years, my husband, stepson, and I have gotten our portraits taken at JC Penney for Christmas.   None of the years has been a particularly good experience, and I am seriously considering discontinuing the practice next year.

Personally, I like having a family photo done every year.  Although I know that it easy to take and print personal photos now with digital cameras and photo-editing websites, I still like having the professional photos done.  I find it hard to get very many quality photos of our family throughout the year.  My stepson is only here part of the time, so we start with limited opportunities to capture the perfect moment.  We do not do many things together as a family (I wish we did, but we do not), so most of the photos I do take are just snapshots around the house.  I am not a very talented photographer, so I seldom take pictures that I actually like enough to share with other people.  Plus, I am almost never in the photos, so that would not work for a holiday family portrait to include in my Christmas cards.  The professional portrait session guarantees I have some quality photos with me actually in them.  I want these photos to keep as a reminder of our family growing throughout the years and to share with my family who we do not see very often.

However, the photo session has become a chore that no one likes to endure.  My stepson is not a very cooperative participant in the process.  Of the four years that we have been doing this, he has only behaved during the photo session once.  The first year he pouted and cried during it, leaving us with only one or two photos that were usable.  The second year he loved the attention and did a great job posing and smiling for us.  We had many cute options to pick for our family photo.  The third year he would not take it seriously, moving around and making funny faces during the photos.  Again, we had a limited selection of usable prints, but the shenanigans did actually produce a couple adorable pictures even if they were not perfectly posed.  This past year was worse than the first year.  He did not want to be there, and we did not end up with a single picture where he did not look angry.  We finally chose the one where my husband and I looked best despite his grumpy presence in it.

In addition to being really upset with his son, my husband was really annoyed with JC Penney over the process.  He was very impatient about the wait during our session.  Over the years, we average about an hour and half from check-in to leaving.  After letting the front desk know you are there, it is usually about a fifteen to twenty minute wait until you go back into the studio.  Then, the actual photo session takes another fifteen or so minutes.  You wait about a half hour until they are ready for you to look at the photos.  Then, we normally take around twenty minutes to look through the photos, make our selection, and order our prints.  I do not feel like the process is too cumbersome, especially considering it is only once a year.  I also recognize that we are there during the holiday season when they are booked full.  Plus, I think much of the delay comes from other customers taking their time with the photo selection and order process.  My husband however thinks it is badly organized and that they are wasting our time by making us wait for so long throughout.

My husband has suggested that we consider using a different studio to take the photos next year, but I am not sure I want to take them at all.  The reason I chose JC Penney in the first place was due to pricing.  We are only buying a couple of traditional portrait sheets each year (3 8x10, 2 5x7, 1 3.5x5, 1 wallets), and JC Penney’s has the cheapest sitting fee and least expensive single prints.  The deal becomes even better if you sign up for the two year membership, which gets you one free upgrade on a photo and essentially makes the sitting fee free for one of the two years.  Plus, we get coupons which makes the traditional photo sheets even less expensive.  We probably would get better quality photos and perhaps a less stressful wait if we went to a higher tier photographer, but we would definitely pay more.  When you add in the difficulties of getting my stepson to cooperate, I just do not think it would be worth the extra money.  Why do I want to pay more for pictures if my family is still going to look miserable in them?

What do you think?  Should I continue to get the cheap JC Penney photos?  Should I pay more for a private studio?  Should I just learn to take better pictures and do them myself through Shutterfly (or the equivalent)?  Should I just forget about getting photos of us each year completely?


At least I look great in this year’s photo.  See you next week!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

So Here Is How You Did – The Performance Review

So a few months ago, I wrote about completing my self-evaluation for work.  A couple of week ago, I received my completed performance review from my boss and went to the meeting to go over it all.  I know there was quite a space between that first post and this one.  I guess the company failed at the “within 90 days of anniversary” policy that they have.  My self-evaluation seemed to meet their approval.  The review of my past year went along the lines I was expecting.  The short-term goals that were given to me were mostly predictable.  The long-term career path they provided for me though took me by surprise, and not necessarily a pleasant one.

My self-evaluation seemed to satisfy my boss.  She had no comments to add to my list of tasks and responsibilities.  So apparently, I made no glaring omissions and I did not concern them with an over-extension of my authority in the company.  She had no real comments on my significant accomplishments, except to congratulate me on completing many of the goals that were set for me last year (both by myself and the company).  For the short-term and long-term goals, she just told me that I had set good ones for the company department.  Many of the things I included were very task-specific things that I want my team to complete over the next year or two.  I did not include much in the way of career-oriented/personal growth goals, and she included some of this in the set of objectives she gave me for the upcoming year.

The next section is a list of categories that help the supervisor evaluate the employee’s job performance according to the metrics that are important to the company.  I receive a “grade” in each category and some comments to justify the rating (good or bad).  Then all the categories are averaged together, and I receive an overall “grade” for my year.  This year I received a 2.08 (scale is 1 best to 5 worst), which means I frequently exceed expectations.  This is great considering that I have been in the position for less than a year, and I feel very unconfident in some of the aspects of my job.  My strongest categories according to my boss are corporate policies/procedures, initiative, quality improvement, and company identification (basically I follow the rules well).  My lowest scores were in internal controls, knowledge, problem-solving/judgement/decision-making, planning/organization, and communication skills, which mostly contained comments related back to me being new in the position and still learning.  She identified a strength in managing subordinates, and a weakness in communicating with superiors.

The final written section is a list of goals she would like me to focus on in the next performance period.  Nothing on here was unexpected, and only one thing concerned me.  I am to take over greater management responsibility for my staff.  Previously, I was managing their daily tasks, but not performing most of the official employee management tasks (on paper they all reported to my manager instead of me).  Now they all report to me officially, and I will be responsible for many of the supervisor tasks such as performance reviews.  She also gave me a list of tasks she would like me to transition from her to me, most of which I already had identified as something I should learn. There was one project in which I need to put some serious effort learning how to manage.  This is something that used to be done by our department but it was taken away due to a material weakness identified by the auditors.  It was not my fault it was taken away in the first place, but it is now my responsibility to spend time with the man who took it over and learn enough that this can be transferred back to our team.  Finally, she indicated I would probably gain some not-yet-identified tasks stemming from the accounting department reorganization which began a few months ago.  The final goal is to take some seminars to gain greater strength in communicating with my superiors.  This is the only goal that makes me really nervous, partly because I do not like communicating with my superiors and partly because it is part of the not-so-pleasant surprise I mentioned earlier.

It is not written anywhere in my official performance evaluation, but in the meeting my boss brought up my long-term career trajectory with the company.  My boss will probably retire in the next 5-10 years, and they are starting to plan for her successor.  They have apparently identified me as one of the potential candidates for her replacement.  I was actually surprised they would see me in that position, especially in that time frame.  I shocked her by not displaying great enthusiasm for the idea and by voicing hesitation in seeing myself in that position.  The idea bothers me for a few reasons.  One, her position does not seem very fun.  She goes to a lot of meetings, she does a lot of research, she acts as a go-between various departments, she makes organizational calls, etc.  I like burying myself in the details and playing with the spreadsheets, not really orchestrating the big picture.  Two, personality-wise I think I am a bad fit for upper-management.  I am rather passive and non-confrontational.  I think I would have a hard time being a voice for the accounting department up against the executive team and other departments.  Third, I do not think they actually want me in that position either, but are just trying to figure out what to do since the girl they were grooming to fill it left the company.  They need to prep somebody to fill that position (or at least do some of the work).  Plus, I think they want me to feel like I have somewhere to grow so that I do not leave too.  At least for now they want me to think I am a potential candidate.  It does not change the fact that I just do not think I want it.

Bonus:  My department participated in a 360 degree performance review for all the managers.  I received my feedback from that review in a separate meeting from my official performance review.  I had a really low response rate (3 out of a potential 63 respondents), but overall I got a 1.15 (again 1 best, 5 worst).  Apparently, my co-workers want me to recognize/reward performance more, consider employee point of view when making decisions, and be more aware of employee developmental needs.

That is it.  My review is done for the year.  I can breathe for a few months before the process starts again.  For now, I will work on my short-term goals, I will think about what my real long-term goals are, and I will resist the efforts to groom me for a position that I do not want.


See you next week!