Jill

I am refusing to answer my mother's calls today. And she's already called.

I don't know if I was less gullible or if Mom was just easier on me than my brother growing up, but she never got a good April Fool's Day joke on me until last year.

I was out of my element. It was my first corporate trip anywhere ever. And it was for the job I had started only seven months previous. It was a work trip to our corporate headquarters in Dallas with my co-worker Mark, my boss Mike, another co-worker Mike who flew in from Arkansas, and the president of our company, Steve. So add the nervousness of my first corporate trip and add the company I was in and I had completely forgotten what day it was.

First thing in the morning after breakfast with the crew and before we headed out to the offices, Mom calls and tells me that she had a business trip to Dallas and so she'd be in town that evening and wanted to go to dinner with me. Mom is always on business trips anyways and it just didn't occur to me to think otherwise. Somehow I had to work up the guts to make a request of my boss and the whole crew for this meeting to be able to eat with my mom for dinner instead of with everybody else. Remember, I'm new to everything in this company and I didn't want to be the new girl that shuns the team for other plans, but it was also my mom.

So, at the offices we quietly walk into a small conference room where Steve is on a conference call. I whisper to my boss Mike asking what the proposed schedule would be that evening and if I could go to dinner with my mom. He looks at me a little funny but says that it would be ok.

It was later that day that it suddenly occurred to me. I think it was even late afternoon - I was that out of my element! So, on top of being the new girl who wants to skip out on plans with the team, I'm also the new girl who gets punked by her mom on a business trip with her boss.

So, this morning I received an email:

From: Mike [the boss]
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 9:39 AM
To: 'Jill'
Subject: Urgent Message

Your Mom is in town and wants to meet you for lunch!! ;-)

Welcome to April,

Mike

Being that it IS her favorite holiday of the year, I did forward this on to her with an additional "This is YOUR FAULT!" so hopefully she'll forgive my lack of willingness to answer her calls today.

The worst part, however, is that I really should have known better. She pulls this trick on Parr almost every year. The same trick, even. "Hi Parr. This is your mom. I just landed in Chicago and should be to Madison by lunch time. Where do you want to eat?" And he falls for it every year and I laugh at him for it every year. *facepalm*

So, Mom visited this weekend from Florida and was lucky enough to experience our first dusting of snow yesterday morning. hee hee

Good news and sad news.

Good news: my brother was in Chicago last weekend interviewing for an accounting position at a big firm and will be in NYC in two weeks for another interview. The place he interned at this summer has already offered him a position after he graduates in December, and my dad's friend has offered him a tax season position in January, but he wants to check all of his options first. It's pretty awesome that he has these opportunities waiting for him before he even graduates. That smart-ass kid is going to probably make more in his first job out of college than I am now. And I'm ok with that. :)

Sad news: my parents are going to be putting Sandy to sleep soon. She'd be 18 in February. She's a sweet cat - not nearly as ornery as History - but has been getting lost and worried in the house and has a real tough time if a daily schedule is not strictly followed (Mom has been traveling a lot this month and so Dad has been cleaning up messes).

We got Sandy in 1991 when we lived in International Falls. She was free from a farm. A couple of months later, we got Mickey the dog. Both were in kitten/puppy stages so they didn't know the difference between each other even after Mickey grew to be 40 pounds and Sandy stayed at her petite 8. Mickey would roll over on her side and Sandy would lunge at her neck, kicking and biting and clawing. Sandy would have a permanent dog-spit mohawk on her neck. Then they'd curl up together and take naps. In International Falls, we lived on the lake and had neighbors with two big black labs. Once she decided to run to the end of the dock and jump into the lake, rather than become dog food. She'd come for boat rides with us up to the cabin, and if it got too hot, my dad would set her into the lake to cool her off. She'd swim back to shore to lick herself dry. I'd always giggle because her butt seemed to be so much more bouyant than the rest of her when she swam.

She survived the move to Wakesha, WI, Germantown, WI, Rogers, MN, St. Cloud, MN (for a couple of weeks while my parents were moving), and then down to Dunedin and Palm Harbor, FL. She outlived Mickey, who got hit by a car in Rogers. She survived History - who kicked her out of my bed, my lap, and her favorite chair at the dining room table. And Sandy still greets me with rubs and purrs when I see her every other year at my parents' house. She survived my dad who makes it a point to be as pest-like as possible when it comes to pets (I inherited it from him). He'd always be such a bother to her, but you'd find them later taking naps together on the couch.

And right now I'm thinking of her face and I'm trying not to cry. I realize that almost 18 years is a very long time for a cat, but I'll miss her.

I am very disappointed with iTunes at the moment.

As you may or may not know, a couple weeks ago my fiance gave me an MP3 player for our anniversary. Yay!

As you may or may not know, my 25th birthday is next Wednesday. My brother asked me what I wanted. Thinking "Oooh, new mp3 player! Must get more songs to play on it!" I told him I would like an iTunes gift card. He, very generously gave me a $50 gift card. !!! The kid's in college, for goodness sakes!

That arrived yesterday. There is now less than $20 on it. (I was getting sleepy and decided to wait to use the rest of it)

I went to the gym today and used my mp3 player and noticed the battery was low and I should plug it in and maybe add some of my new songs on it.

Who all knew that iTunes uses an AAC protected M4U file type? A file type that pretty much nothing other than the iPod and iTunes supports. A file type that, since it is protected, cannot be converted to any other format.

Jillith be pissed.

iTunes, however, has the ability to burn CDs. I'm hoping that somehow I can burn my new songs onto CDs, then copy those CDs in a somewhat supportable format to the computer. If that doesn't work, I may have to use my CD burner component of my stereo. And if that doesn't work, I will put it in my older stereo in the "input" line into the CD burner componenet, burn that to a CD and then rip that onto the computer.

In other words, I don't think I'll be asking for any more iTunes gift cards.

Wish me luck!