Today's Post Brought to You By the Letter T

Teri posted a meme not too long ago that she found from Barry. He gave her a letter of the alphabet and she had to come up with 10 things that started with the letter that described her. I asked to play along and she assigned me the letter "T." If you'd like to play, please ask and I'll assign you a letter.

Here goes tsomething:

1. Teacher - While I'm not a trainer, but a supervisor, I spend much of my time at work teaching new things to bankers over and over. I have always enjoyed learning (it doesn't really matter what the subject is) and I love sharing what I've learned.

2. Timely - I live by clocks. It's a curse and a blessing. I am rarely ever late for anything and while I can cram for a deadline like a pro, I usually make the deadline.

3. Trustworthy – I like to think so and my friends confirm it. I am fiercely loyal to my friends and they know they can call on me anytime to help out. I figure that friends are the most important thing, a lifeline if you must, and being able to share your thoughts and feelings is very important. It is also important to know that you won’t be judged for thinking on thing or another. Teasing, yes, judging, no. There is a vast difference.

4. Ticklish – extremely. This fact is known too well at work. The problem is that I’m ticklish to the point that I don’t even need to be touched to giggle. The thought of being tickled makes me laugh. There are quite a few in my social and work circles that know this fact and will torture me by moving their index finger in the tickle motion when I’m looking their way and I lose it. One thing to note though, if I’m in a bad mood, it will not make me laugh but put me in a worse mood. And if the person is creepy, it really doesn’t work in the slightest.

5. Technical – DM brought this one up and I agreed. One of the benefits of being a Gen Y’er is the fact that electronics, wires, and technology comes easily. My whole life was spent learning how to use something for it to be obsolete in two years. My television is ancient (my parents gave it to me when I was 12 I think) and it doesn’t have the outlets to plug in even a VCR. But I have overcome this dilemma and managed to hook up a surround sound system, a VCR (amazing that I still have one), DVD player, and two game systems to it. They all work. The odd part? I don’t ever turn any of them on. Whoops. DM thought technical because of the blog. When we started out, I had no clue how to even create a link in a post. I like Blogger because it allows me to learn as I go and I don’t have to know any HTML to create anything. On the flip side, Blogger also allows customization and the more you want to learn, the more you can experiment with. I’ve changed my template many times, created a custom border, figured out how to post multiple pictures (I adore Flickr. Seriously), created my own drop down menus, and picked up a few codes in HTML along the way. At work, I can usually fix fairly simple tech problems without the use of the tech department. This comes in handy working nights since our tech guy and gal are usually day walkers. Another thing DM mentioned about the technical side of my personality is the changes I’ve done to pictures using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I do really like some of the images I’ve created with this program.

6. Transporter – as in DM’s karaoke chauffer. I do make her take a cab on Thursdays because I work until close those nights, but otherwise I end up being the driver. I don’t have exclusive rights to this title and Keem definitely qualifies as the full-time chauffer, being DM’s roommate and co-worker. While I love being able to chat with DM in the car and the after karaoke continues until we reach her place (usually recaps of the evening (read as DM saying, “James this. James that. James, James, James, James… OMG, Did I? James, James, James…”)), I don’t relish the drive home during the hours where more drunks are on the road alone. I stay quite alert and aware, believe me you.

7. Teller – this has multiple meanings. My first position at NABABNA is the most obvious meaning. I started right out of high school in the teller position, cashing people’s checks, processing deposits, having a smile on my face at all times, and counting piles of money (which is utterly disgusting, BTW). The less obvious meaning, but the one I prefer, is a teller of stories. Fiction is not my bag and I’m not much of a writer, however; I like telling stories. It’s one of the driving forces behind having a blog and I do enjoy sharing funny events and stories. It goes back to my teenage dreams of being a reporter (ha!) and I just love to hear a good story from others.

8. Timid – yes, timid. There are a couple of examples of this in my personality. The first being when people I don’t want to talk with approach me and try to start a conversation. I tend to look to my friends and associates to help me find a tactful way out of the interaction. I tried to overcome this part of my personality last night at karaoke. A man approached me and told me (whispering it at me in fact) that he was trying to make his girlfriend jealous. I was assertive (proud of me!) and told him that he should talk to her, not me, because I just don’t care. He told me that he was going to give a girl his phone number and I stated, “Don’t give it to me. I don’t want it.” The other part of being timid comes from when I do like a guy, seriously interested – not just for fun, and I turn into a babbling idiot. Case in point – when I was interested in the boy (dear God, that was so bad), I managed to open my mouth and talk about enemas, rectals, and male lactation. Why? Why?!?

9. Team leader – Throughout my entire life, I've always been elected as a leader of a group. Report cards in elementary school would have comments of "Class Leader" and it was natural for me to be chosen as the captain of every bowling team I was on. At the branch, I was put in charge on weekends when our lead teller was not working. And now, I am in a position where I help lead people and try to motivate them to perform their best each and every day.

10. Thinker - I put this on the list to represent the logical part of my thought processes. There are times when I just find myself lost in thought, trying to figure out all the different angles of a problem.

And even more T phrases/words that work, especially today:
Temptress – As according to one of the men at karaoke. This seems like the oddest title I’ve been given yet. But to some, I guess I’m irresistible. Now, if I could only have that affect on the ones that are not young, immature, barely making minimum wage, and living with their parents. Yeah. But I’m a temptress. I need a shirt. Red with black glitter lettering. Can’t you just see it? I hope you can, because I can’t.

Two Years: Today is my two year anniversary of having a blog. It started simply enough; it was just a way to comment on DM’s posts. Now it seems to be a monster that has taken over a piece of my life but a happy monster, none-the-less. Since starting a blog, I’ve had the joy of meeting three different bloggers and two of those still seem to post. (One may have disappeared off the face of the planet.)

When I thought about the two year anniversary, I thought back to two years ago. My life was extremely different and I guess all the changes are really for the better. Two years ago, I was counting down the last month of my lease with Adam and his boyfriend, [aka roommate who I didn’t sign up for and who never paid rent – but then that wasn’t the agreement. Respect? You mean I live here too? What an effing concept!] It took quite a bit of time for me to acknowledge that the entire situation was unhealthy, denying to realize that being treated the way I was should never have happened. That’s a topic I don’t like to delve into here and probably won’t go into much detail today. What I can say with strength is that someone mentioned Adam to me the other day (one of the joys of working in the same call center and my staying after his leaving) and my reply was, “We no longer communicate with each other. And my life is much happier because of it.”

But now I live by myself, I don't talk to him any more, and there is a large community of friends that I can trust. I miss one of the friends of that time, someone who still spies on me reads my blog, however; I'm happy with my social circle now. DM and I go to karaoke twice a week and see those people who I've come to think of as an extended family. I know Char and her husband, Tom. I am a supervisor at NABABNA now and my team has become a passion of mine. Life is pretty good.

So, being an anniversary post, I have to do some highlights, right? I don't know if it is right, but here it goes. The last year has brought to me:

There's the infamus questions for an interview that I never did ask during the process of hiring a team lead. For some reason, this one still makes me smile: My team lead needs to have the skills to tell me stories, complete with hand gestures. Go.

I hired Steve, the amazing team lead whom I couldn't work without.

DM and I headed to Tomah, Wisconsin to meet a fellow blogger (whose blog has mysteriously disappeared. Bummer.)

In July, I had a camera stolen, bought a new one, and went to a fun party (that had children there!). There was more, but I'm not linking to all of it.

In August, Char left for Texas. DM and I ended up trapped in the Chalet twice because of the police and crime happening outside. Then September came and I took another class online. There was more again, but let's move on to October. I had a birthday and interviewed some candidates for banker positions that were less than qualified. In November, I had dinner with my family on my dad's side and that just wasn't fantastic. At least it is only once a year. I also fell and banged up my knee pretty badly. In December, the holiday spirit was strong and one of my favorite moments was walking into work and finding my cube filled with balloons and personal notes from the bankers on my team. It really was a lot of fun.

And that's all I'm doing of the trip down memory lane. I don't really feel like going further with it.

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I made the mistake of asking for a bit of help with the T words last night at karaoke. While DM did come up with some good ones, the others were little help. At least it was funny. One of the men at the table (the odd Craig who has been known to stare at my chest, stroking his moustache, and calling me “Elizabeth” after I told him that it wasn’t my name) kept coming up with any word that started with T, not understanding the concept in the slightest. I believe he said, “Testicular cancer.” To which Bryan replied, “No, this is about Beth. But I have a T word for you. Tourette Syndrome.”