| I've been meaning to update the world on my new job... I've typed a few blogs, but it seems I'm just never home long enough to remember to crack open my computer and post them. |
We'll see if I can get today's out.
Work is great. I've graduated from the first part of my training and am pretty independent.
I'm trained to work a very specific case type from a specific company. If I never had to learn a new type of case, I'd be fine with that. But, that's me worrying over the complications of someone else's retirement funds and my chance at potentially ruining their lives.
But! No matter, I'm enjoying my time on eSPIAs while I have them. For the time being, I show up at my cubical and try to pull up cases as online and check the paper work. If the paper work is all there and in good order I'll send it to my supervisor to do a quality check, if I pass that and the funds are in our account, than I issue the contract.
That part makes me the most nervous.. I'm always afraid I'm going to mess something up. But, I'm getting more and more comfortable every day.
Our floor is divided into teams. I'm on the complex services team, which means I'll handle a mixture of what other teams on this floor. My team huddles every morning at 9:15 and we go over the complications of different insurance paperworks and companies, brokers that are giving us trouble and other things like that. Usually all of this goes over my head, but I stand there and look like I know what they're talking about.
They also make jokes where the punch lines don't make any sense to me. It'll be like, "Insurance blah blah blah paperwork blah blah blah...... California!" And they think it's funny.. and maybe someday I'll understand why insurance paperwork in California is funny.. but right now...I got nothing. But my team is great. I doubt there are any believers on my team.. but maybe I'll be surprised.
The most obvious God-thing about this job is where they placed me, cubicle wise.
There were two or three empty cubicles amongst my team's cluster. However, because they wanted me close to the people who work most often with the kind of contracts on which I'm trained, they put me in a cubicle that is part of a different team's cluster. I'm close to the people I need to be, but the super fun fact about that "coincidence" is that I share a cubicle wall with a lady who is a believer.
It was my third or fourth day here that I was sitting at my computer and over the cubicle wall I could here the lady next to me talking to the lady on the other side of our cubicle wall and I heard her say "I met them at church." I immediately perked up.
It was another day, that I heard her say, "I'm making them for small group tonight." After that I kept waiting for the perfect opportunity to introduce myself... but since she wasn't on my team there wasn't much excuse to pop my head over to her cube.
On Monday last week, however, one of my teammates who is usually very chatty throughout the day was out of the office, and so she popped her head over to mine to comment on how quiet it was without him around. I agreed. She then said, "I usually just keep my ear buds in and listen to my music" which is when I asked her, "What kind of music is that" and she hesitated a little before she said, "Oh, I just listen to Christian music." and so I asked her where she went to church and stuff like that, and she told me all about how much she likes Michael W. Smith music (She's in her 50s I think). After a little chat on different Christian music we like she said, "Well! Nice to meet you. I'm glad we have that in common." And ever since then she's popped her head over my wall to ask after my day or share with me something about a song she was listening too.
It's been rewarding too, because she has given me a Michael W. Smith's classical symphony CD and has, just today, promised me his latest Christmas Album. :D
MWS Christmas Albums have been the mark of my Christmas for years! So, I'm pretty stoked about that. Having a car with a working CD player and a lot of drives that are more than 2 hours long, CDs are the things that make my drives sweet.
Thinking about how he Lord sent his followers out in teams of two and when I first got here I wondered how on earth I was going to do this by myself, I cannot deny that the Lord went before me on this one. For now, it's just me and Kim talking over our cubicle walls about our church events or Bible study lessons, but seeing as how you can hear everyone's conversations over cubicle walls, I'm sure it's making people think somewhere.
But! No matter, I'm enjoying my time on eSPIAs while I have them. For the time being, I show up at my cubical and try to pull up cases as online and check the paper work. If the paper work is all there and in good order I'll send it to my supervisor to do a quality check, if I pass that and the funds are in our account, than I issue the contract.
That part makes me the most nervous.. I'm always afraid I'm going to mess something up. But, I'm getting more and more comfortable every day.
Our floor is divided into teams. I'm on the complex services team, which means I'll handle a mixture of what other teams on this floor. My team huddles every morning at 9:15 and we go over the complications of different insurance paperworks and companies, brokers that are giving us trouble and other things like that. Usually all of this goes over my head, but I stand there and look like I know what they're talking about.
They also make jokes where the punch lines don't make any sense to me. It'll be like, "Insurance blah blah blah paperwork blah blah blah...... California!" And they think it's funny.. and maybe someday I'll understand why insurance paperwork in California is funny.. but right now...I got nothing. But my team is great. I doubt there are any believers on my team.. but maybe I'll be surprised.
The most obvious God-thing about this job is where they placed me, cubicle wise.
There were two or three empty cubicles amongst my team's cluster. However, because they wanted me close to the people who work most often with the kind of contracts on which I'm trained, they put me in a cubicle that is part of a different team's cluster. I'm close to the people I need to be, but the super fun fact about that "coincidence" is that I share a cubicle wall with a lady who is a believer.
It was my third or fourth day here that I was sitting at my computer and over the cubicle wall I could here the lady next to me talking to the lady on the other side of our cubicle wall and I heard her say "I met them at church." I immediately perked up.
It was another day, that I heard her say, "I'm making them for small group tonight." After that I kept waiting for the perfect opportunity to introduce myself... but since she wasn't on my team there wasn't much excuse to pop my head over to her cube.
On Monday last week, however, one of my teammates who is usually very chatty throughout the day was out of the office, and so she popped her head over to mine to comment on how quiet it was without him around. I agreed. She then said, "I usually just keep my ear buds in and listen to my music" which is when I asked her, "What kind of music is that" and she hesitated a little before she said, "Oh, I just listen to Christian music." and so I asked her where she went to church and stuff like that, and she told me all about how much she likes Michael W. Smith music (She's in her 50s I think). After a little chat on different Christian music we like she said, "Well! Nice to meet you. I'm glad we have that in common." And ever since then she's popped her head over my wall to ask after my day or share with me something about a song she was listening too.
It's been rewarding too, because she has given me a Michael W. Smith's classical symphony CD and has, just today, promised me his latest Christmas Album. :D
MWS Christmas Albums have been the mark of my Christmas for years! So, I'm pretty stoked about that. Having a car with a working CD player and a lot of drives that are more than 2 hours long, CDs are the things that make my drives sweet.
Thinking about how he Lord sent his followers out in teams of two and when I first got here I wondered how on earth I was going to do this by myself, I cannot deny that the Lord went before me on this one. For now, it's just me and Kim talking over our cubicle walls about our church events or Bible study lessons, but seeing as how you can hear everyone's conversations over cubicle walls, I'm sure it's making people think somewhere.
Another blessing about this job, is that since there's only so much I can do if there isn't any paperwork available for my cases, I've been able to utilize my down time to study for my GRE.
I discovered sometime last week that my GRE study site is not blocked by the company firewalls, so I've been able to put in a lot of study time. In fact, I learned 51 new vocabulary words last week.
In other news, I've been loving all the things I've been doing with my church. We're going through Exodus in a Set Free series and it's been really great. Our small group meets Monday nights and we've had really great discussion and the whole group dynamic is pretty stellar.
On Tuesday nights I help with AWANA. I love this because AWANA brings me back to my childhood. I LOVED attending AWANA when I was a kid. Now I'm the female leader for the 3rd-6th grade. We only have about 12 kids, and a good deal of them a kinda naughty.. but I like them a lot. A couple of them like me a lot and sometimes I forget that I'm the adult in charge because we're having so much fun.
On Wednesday nights (sometimes) I have Dr. Who night with some of my friends from Bible study. We have people from study who come just for the social outing, but Dr. Who makes no sense to them and they usually look a little shell shocked after one episode.
Friday and Saturday night are both church nights for me... usually there's a hangout for our Bible study on Fridays and then after church Saturday night.
I've also been volunteering in the nursery Sunday mornings. I like this a lot too, because I've missed being around very small children and I like to be in the heart of where needs are the greatest. And let me tell you, at my young church, there are TONS of babies and tons of need for nursery help. Good gracious. It usually looks something like world war III in our nursery room. That's mostly because I build giant lego towers and Neil and Xander fly their trucks into them and send the giant legos flying across the room. Only one kid's face has been hit by the flying legos so far, so it seems to be on OK distraction.
In other news, I've been loving all the things I've been doing with my church. We're going through Exodus in a Set Free series and it's been really great. Our small group meets Monday nights and we've had really great discussion and the whole group dynamic is pretty stellar.
On Tuesday nights I help with AWANA. I love this because AWANA brings me back to my childhood. I LOVED attending AWANA when I was a kid. Now I'm the female leader for the 3rd-6th grade. We only have about 12 kids, and a good deal of them a kinda naughty.. but I like them a lot. A couple of them like me a lot and sometimes I forget that I'm the adult in charge because we're having so much fun.
On Wednesday nights (sometimes) I have Dr. Who night with some of my friends from Bible study. We have people from study who come just for the social outing, but Dr. Who makes no sense to them and they usually look a little shell shocked after one episode.
Friday and Saturday night are both church nights for me... usually there's a hangout for our Bible study on Fridays and then after church Saturday night.
I've also been volunteering in the nursery Sunday mornings. I like this a lot too, because I've missed being around very small children and I like to be in the heart of where needs are the greatest. And let me tell you, at my young church, there are TONS of babies and tons of need for nursery help. Good gracious. It usually looks something like world war III in our nursery room. That's mostly because I build giant lego towers and Neil and Xander fly their trucks into them and send the giant legos flying across the room. Only one kid's face has been hit by the flying legos so far, so it seems to be on OK distraction.
Those are the main things going on in my life at the moment. Besides all that I have a few painting projects to finish. One of which is a milk can that is *ALMOST* done. I hope to have it returned to the comissioner before the end of the month.. or by Thanksgiving, which ever one brings me back to Northwest Iowa first.
Thanks for all the prayers, friends! God is hearing you and I am blessed.
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