I can’t believe I’ve almost let another month go by without posting. I used to be so diligent about updating my blog … but then, that’s probably because I was so miserable at my old job. Ha.

My trip to Toronto went well. M came along, thanks to a generous donation from her father, and wandered around the city while I was in my class. The class was really interesting; it covered more or less the basics plus one of a marketing application that we use at The Office called Eloqua. Well, I say ‘we,’ but really it’s just me who uses it and runs reports about our campaigns and so on, hence the reason I was the only one sent to Toronto for this class. Anyway. That doesn’t matter. The class was great, though, and I learned tons about the product. The only bad part about the trip was the fact that I seemed to be on call perpetually after the class got out at five or so, which meant I was up until midnight every night doing projects for people back in Jersey. I guess that’s the curse of being a minion, but let’s be honest: it would have been nice to have had some time to explore the city, and it would have been nice to have gotten a decent night’s sleep each day I was there.

Last week I picked up what the doctor eventually told me was a sinus infection, and I have yet to be rid of it. It’s been plaguing me for eight days already, with very few signs of abetting even with antibiotics. I blame the spastic weather, honestly. The past twenty-four hours are good proof of that: 75 degrees and sunny yesterday morning, getting gradually colder as the day wore on, rain showers turning to hail which turned to sleet this morning, and now, freezing rain causing two inches of slippery muck on the roads (hence the reason I’m working from home today - always a treat). And it’s not as though I’m in pain or anything; I just can’t hear or breathe because my ears and nose are completely blocked. It’s annoying as all hell, I’ll tell you that.

My little sister, Britt, and her new boyfriend Thad are up for the weekend. I’m hoping the weather doesn’t mess up their plans. Britt is going to be meeting up with one of her (absolutely insane) friends in the City tomorrow night, so God only knows what they’ll get up to, especially because it’s St Patty’s Day weekend. Craziness. How is it the middle of March already?

Per the last post, I did in fact get a ’snow day,’ although perhaps it would be better categorized as a ‘ice and hail day,’ since that was pretty much what we got. My area of Jersey ended up with about three or four inches of this sludge, which quickly froze and generally prohibited leaving one’s house, much less driving. Apparently everyone else at The Office felt the same way, because only two or three people made it in.

So even though I was required to work from home - which I did, to my surprise - it was a really nice mid-week break from the daily grind. I have to admit, though, that if I were to work from home permanently, I would no doubt become a workaholic. Meg actually had to yell at me to stop checking my work email at 10:30 that night.

Speaking of which, work has been busy, busy, busy since we’ve finally organized ourselves within the marketing department and signed up for the 3803242 trade shows that we’re planning to attend this year. I’ve found myself in charge of the weekly marketing dashboard, tracking web site visitor interactions, new leads, the revenue pipeline, and so forth. It’s a lot of numbers, but, funnily enough, I’m not put off by that. If nothing else, I get to make lots of colorful graphs, and I sound important when I’m rattling off the numbers to the SVP.

Last weekend was okay, though not nearly as crazy as the one before that. Friday night was a typical quiet night, take-out Chinese food and a video from Blockbuster. Saturday, of course, we went out to The L Bar in central Jersey; very few people we knew were there, but the place was mobbed and the music was pumping, so no complaints there. Sunday night was Jen’s L Word gathering, but I was so knackered for some reason and had such a bad headache that Meg and I ended up leaving practically right after the show.

Meg’s dad came up from Philly from Sunday until Monday (Monday being a holiday, of course), and we ended his visit by playing poker for about four or five hours on Monday evening, after having gone to see Ghost Rider at the cinema. I’m not a Nicolas Cage fan by any stretch of the imagination - he ranks closely with Keanu Reeves with regard to acting talents, of which both have very little - but it was a pretty entertaining flick. It’s no X-Men, but I’d say it’s probably good for a rental, anyway.

On Friday a bunch of us are planning to go see Gray Matters, that new film with Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh, and - wicked - Rachel Shelley, otherwise known as Helena, from The L Word. I’m excited.

Back to work, methinks.

I’ve not been a fan of snow ever since I left school - because, let’s be honest, offices get ’snow days’ a lot less frequently than schools do - but the impending snow storm that is expected to hit Jersey tonight is making me hopeful, as is our HR department’s helpful email about inclement weather closings. Fingers crossed.

I suppose my enthusiasm may be short-lived, however, as Motherly Figure, one of my (many, many) bosses, shot down my joke about hanging out on the couch all day watching Lifetime tomorrow by saying, “Ha, you wish! You’re going to be working all day. I’m going to call you nonstop.” However, even if I do have to work tomorrow from home, at least I’ll be able to wear pajamas and drink coffee and listen to loud music and sit in a comfortable chair.

Don’t let me down, snow.

Speaking of The Office, they’re sending me to Toronto in a couple of weeks for training with a company that we use for e-mail marketing campaigns and tracking the web site. I’m not sure about the content of the course - I guess it all depends on the instructors - but I am excited to be going to Canada for the first time, especially Toronto, which I’ve heard is a pretty nifty city.

A paycheck right now would be much appreciated. Hmm.

I spent my first couple of months here at The Office asking everybody for more work, because the CTO for whom I was working directly really didn’t have all that much for me to do except arrange travel, do his expense reports, and manage his fundraiser. As I said before, I was doing loads of work for HR and various projects for other people.

I started assisting the marketing department right before the new year, and now my title has officially changed from executive assistant to that of marketing coordinator, which makes me feel important even if I’m not really. The major bonus of this is that I finally get to utilize some of the skills that I haven’t used in forever, namely web design, and I love that. Basically, then, I am absolutely swamped with stuff to do, but I’m enjoying most of it and the days just fly by, something that never happened at The Firm when I worked there.

This also means my hours have extended somewhat, as I feel guilty leaving before six or six thirty. I’m hoping all this work will pay off when bonus time comes around … we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m having a blast and that’s what counts.

Apart from work, what’s been going on? Meg and I had our one-year anniversary on Saturday night, which we spent by going out to dinner and spending a night at the Hilton, which was just wonderful. I always forget how much I like room service.

Also, Jen and I went to the L Word premier party in the City last Sunday at the Copacabana. Awesome. Apart from me getting absolutely tanked, which is always a good time until the next morning, we spent the evening dancing, watching the first episode of the new season of the L Word, and listening to live music. Plus, we got to see Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame), Marlee Matlin, and series creator Ilene Chaiken.

Well, hey there!

I just put in the paperwork to rollover my 401(k) from The Firm (which, by the way, had almost double the amount of money I remember being in it - yet another reason why 401(k)’s are so great), which means I am now officially a part of the new job, which henceforth shall be known as TechCo.

I guess it’s not really a new development now, because I’ve been there a month exactly. It still feels new to me, though. And I’m already looking at (potentially) moving into a different sector of the company. That’s definitely a benefit of working for a relatively new corporation: the flexibility of moving between departments while they look for perfect fits for all positions. Currently I’m the executive assistant to the CTO, which means I do all the dirty work for the Big Boss Man in order to leave him with plenty of free time to come up with creative ideas for the development department.

I’m also unofficially working in HR, as my current project includes putting together a consolidated collection of new hire, transfer, promotion, and termination forms. As it is now, it’s a complete mess, and each of the offices (there are four around the world so far) has a different policy. As quickly as TechCo is growing, this is proving to be unacceptable. Here’s where my thus far dormant organizational skills will come into play.

Tomorrow I’m to get a call from the senior VP of marketing to discuss potential job duties. The HR guy told me the position would be called “Marketing Coordinator.” And I’ve always been interested in marketing, so I’m psyched. (Yes, I totally used that word. Deal with it.)

Thank god I ended up with an income in time for Christmas!