It's finally happened!
For anyone who's been keeping track, I had an opportunity in New York that I ended up turning down. Not a good fit from a variety of angles, and no matter how we looked at it, just wouldn't work. Now we've focused our efforts closer to home, and it's paid off!
Today I officially accepted a position with ShopNBC in their Programming Division, supporting analysis on competitors, products, items, and some forecasting analysis. I'll get an opportunity to work directly with their merchant teams as well as other teams, including marketing and promotions. Best of all, not strictly retail! And while the move is definitely lateral instead of any movement upward, I think getting to wear casual dress all week long will be worth it. ;)
All that being said, Blake has graduated from training and been awaiting placement. He'll most likely transition into the Cards/Party role pretty soon, and from there all of the other recent changes will need to be sorted out. Let's just say that the Luggage dept. is where good BAs go to die. No, but seriously. It's pretty rough.
I think I'll only have to put in one more week, but I need to confirm this. I've been putting together lists and final to-dos, as well as strategy action plans for what Cards/Party should look like going into 2012 negotiations. Yeah, I know. We're already talking about Christmas. That's retail for ya.
Better fit overall, and I'm hoping that less focus on networking/politics will be a welcome change for me. I'm truly excited, but definitely nervous.
For starters, it's in Eden Prairie. This has also been a driver of Chris and I scouting next apartment locations a little further out from downtown, potentially into St. Louis Park or Hopkins. Still more research, but we're checking websites fairly frequently, since we need to be out of our current apt. by September 1st.
Furthermore, I'll have to commute until we move. I'm not worried about the time at all. Just the traffic. Mostly, Minnesota drivers are painful to deal with, and I was just recently in an accident (I was not the driver, but it still stands) that arose purely out of drivers not paying attention when cutting into lanes (and directly into another car...go figure).
Finally, new setup and another new position to get used to. I feel like I was used to Sporting Goods. I never really grew accustomed to Cards/Party, but I assume I would have felt better after a few more months. I'm hoping the transition to this new job is going to be smooth and not a whole lot will fall off the table, but we'll see.
Every one of our friends seem to be moving to Minnesota, though, so that's cool. Now if only my parents could move a little closer to the border, too....
Busy summer ahead, and adding a new job to the mix will be another thing to think about. We've got family trips to Michigan and potentially Indiana, Rachel & Scott's wedding, as well as a few random week/weekend events. Should be fun! And since we're already getting 90-degree weather and severe humidity (as well as plenty of tornadoes and accompanying hail, don't you know), we should be about set! Now to get an apartment with a covered porch, so our petunia doesn't die of pounding by ice balls.
I'm looking forward to sending out e-mails to everyone and maybe hearing from some people who haven't been around for awhile. I'll definitely miss getting a chance to work with our overseas team every day and practice my Chinese. Although, really, I think this new position will ultimately afford me more time to really study and continue practicing, so it will be great in the long run.
On another note - my Sims are ridiculous, and the new Generations expansion pack is crazy, especially with its extreme focus on relationships and PDA. My Sims (a new Legacy family I've started) had two children and got married, divorced and re-married in the span of like 4 Sim days. WTF. It's kinda awesome, but you have to be careful now. Also, just released today that Sims 3 Pets is on the way, woo!!! That's going to be the official end of my life.
Also, I'm going to be going back to school apparently and getting my MBA - that is, for Lego. Master Builder Academy! If you haven't already seen this, seriously check it out. I'm sure there will be plenty of disclaimers and all since it's geared toward children, but either way I'm ecstatic. It's like a revival of the Lego Club! Woo!! Should be getting my order for the 1st kit (as well as some minifigs) pretty soon - super excited!
And finally (to complete the nerd-dom), although I haven't been on most of the week, the WoW guild is moving along nicely. They seem to be a fairly competent bunch, and help out when people need it. A few bad eggs were politely asked to leave recently, since the only things they found necessary to talk about were their excessive drug habits. But, whatevs. It's only a game, after all. :)
I'll try to update this more often as we move into new apt, new job, check in with Chris on his potential job (interview is TBD, but a likely possibility!), etc. Fun times ahead!
