My stay-cation so far..

I am calling these 2 weeks off between jobs a stay-cation. This is really the first time I've had time off and have spent it at home! Aside from my 4 day trip to Chicago, I'll be in Minneapolis the whole time. Which is pretty fantastic - there are few things better than sleeping in your own bed! On Sunday I made a to-do list that included things like cleaning my fridge, touching up paint in my bedroom, cleaning out closets, and other chores of that nature. You know, the stuff you tell yourself you should be doing on the weekend, but never seems to get done?

I started on one little chore on Sunday. I have these plastic bins under my bed - it's kind of the equivalent of a person's junk drawer or Monica's closet for all you Friends fans out there! I just throw stuff in them when I don't know what to do with it. So I went through those bins yesterday and tossed a heck of alot of stuff. I really do not consider myself to be a pat rack or hoarder, but there was some stuff in there that really should have been thrown out ages ago!

I did come across my stack of journals. Most of them were from when I studied abroad in Australia, but some of them were from other periods of my life when I have journaled as a release. I don't really do that very often - especially since I started this blog. I started to page through them and read entries, but I had to stop, because I didn't want to 'go there' if you know what I mean. Those journals hold alot of painful thoughts/feelings, and even though I am in a really good place, I didn't feel like walking back down memory lanes and re-visiting those feelings. So I packed them away. I am sure I will read them some day. Just not anytime soon most likely.

Another thing I stumbled across were all the cards I got when I left my last job with my previous employer. I love to keep cards and sentimental things of that nature. It was awesome to read the kind words of my former management team - I'll be having lunch with them next week and can't wait to see them!

I'm not really going to get into it here, but I will say that the manager I've worked for the last 2.5 years was not as supportive as my other managers have been. He's really good at the task side of things, but he just doesn't really have great 'people skills' if you know what I mean.

Well, on Friday I came in for my last day of work, fully expecting to see him. Turns out he took the day off. And didn't say good bye. Or send me a good luck email. Or thank me. Nada. Honestly, it was kind of hurtful. He technically doesn't manage me anymore due to the re-org happening in our department, but we still work pretty closely together. I get that people skills aren't his thing, but I think he could have swung by my cube on Thursday to say good-bye. Nope. Just odd as some managers that I had worked with on a lesser scale made a point to come up and say good-bye.

Oh well. I didn't let that get me down. Or at least I tried not to. I emailed my mom and as usual, she knew the perfect thing to say and said to take this experience and learn from it. And I am going to. If I ever have the opportunity to manage people again, I will make sure I appreciate them! And I will CERTAINLY wish them well when they are embarking on a new opportunity.

Anyways, aside from that, my last day was great. Another guy was also leaving the department and he is also Gluten Free so my friend Yulia ordered a Gluten Free cake for us from a little GF Bakery in South Minneapolis. We had "Death by Chocolate."

It was DELICIOUS. Please excuse the ridiculously terrible picture. I forgot my camera on Friday, so had to take that pic with my Blackberry. It was such a yummy cake and it was so sweet of my friend to get a cake that I could enjoy. And seriously, I don't think anyone missed the gluten when eating this!!

What is one thing, either good or bad, that you've learned from a current or previous manager?