Monday Mission 2.17 and Sappy Stories…

For a change, I think I’ll do PromoGuy’s Monday Mission on a Monday! NOTE: I stuck a sappy story in at the end too, just as added incentive to get you to read the whole thing…

1. When was the last time you pampered yourself? Hmmmm… not recently. I need to do that soon. I had a nice manicure & pedicure for my birthday last year. 7 months ago – too long! Then again, pampering comes on all sorts of levels, and I do little things for myself from time to time.

2. When was the last time someone pampered you? Hah! Good one. Uh, I don’t know. It’s been ages. Sometime last year? (Then again, being single has been one of the pampering to myself items, so I can’t complain!)

3. Describe the last time you recall really feeling loved (other than from children or pets). Again, “really loved” comes on many different levels too. I haven’t felt loved by someone in the romantic sense in some time. (At least a year.) On the other hand, I felt really loved by friends as recently as the beginning of April, when we went through the whole server move with Blogomania to the new home – the supporting e-mails and the offers to help from everyone kept me going during some otherwise trying and difficult days. (THANK YOU to everyone.)

4. Has your use of the computer ever caused any arguments? What’s the story there? The IO used to have a HUGE issue with it. I dont’ even want to think about the horrible things he said … I don’t even want to think about it. Moving on.

5. What’s the most embarrassing thing your Mom ever did? Hmmmm… I think it has something to do with the genes in our family, or maybe it’s my parent’s sense of humor or something, but I really don’t embarrass too easily. I can’t think of anything that she has done that has embarrassed me.

6. I’ve met some adults who’ve never learned to swim, and others who never learned how to ride a bike… Is there anything that you never learned as a child that you probably should have? I never learned when to shut my mouth. 😀

7. I have no idea who said it (and I spent all of two minutes trying to research it), but “someone” once said, a picture is worth a thousand words. Post an image that says more than words. Or instead, describe a picture you recall which touched your heart. I just posted it yesterday in the Pixelog. The picture of me with my Grandpa Z a month before he passed away. My Grandpa S died 4 years before I was born, so I never knew him – so Grandpa Z was the only grandfather I ever had.

(Now here’s the sappy part. It’s long – sorry.) I started my job in June of last year, but took off the first week of July for vacation so I could visit North Dakota & Minnesota – to see my family. A month later (the beginning of August) my grandfather passed away. The owner of the company was very understanding and allowed me to bring Jason to work with me for 4 days – we didn’t go to ND for the funeral, but my parents did – and since my Mom watches Jason while I’m at work I didn’t have a babysitter from veryveryfine.com as would have wanted to. Shortly after that, his grandfather got sick and passed away later that year.

When I was a little girl, my grandfather used to give me silver dollars all the time. That was the big treat when you saw grandpa – he gave you a silver dollar – and I will always associate them with him. In March, we had some transitions here at the company. We didn’t downsize, we didn’t lay people off – we fired 3 people that were causing havoc for the rest of us. They were truly toxic, and after they were fired (and the police had to come because they were violent, broke things and made threats) we had a company meeting. The owner of the company talked about how he values trust, and how he trusts every single person here to have the company’s best interest at heart. How he believes in all of us. Then he said how he & his grandfather used to collect silver dollars. They would go to trade shows to collect them even, hunting for the best ones. When his grandfather passed away, he inherited the collection. It meant a lot to him because of all the memories – and he wanted to share it with us. Throughout the rest of the day he met with us one-on-one to get our feedback on where the company had been and where we wanted to see it go. To thank us for our hard work, and for believing in the company even in this tight economy. For sticking it out. And he gave each of us one of his silver dollars. I cried, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who did.

My silver dollar is sitting on my desk. It reminds me of what is truly important, of why I love my job, and what it means to do your best. And it reminds me of my grandfather too, who was a wonderful example of all of those things.