Today 12/16/2010

Today I had lunch with my former boss and two of her friends and an agent of hers. My boss is leaving permanently on Sunday and moving to Florida. Lucky Bitch. I will still have email access to her and cell access, but she is no longer 20 minutes down 84 where I can show up with Sushi and have her be my sounding board.

My boss has been a constant in my life since I came to the Hartford. She was the one that I interviewed with for  CCSS in Southignton, and she didnt want to hire me. Why, I'll never know, but she didnt. Her boss hired me. Regardless, once he put me on her team, I have been one of her biggest champions and she mine. She has taken me from being a totally immature workaholic to only a semi-immature workaholic. I kid. I'm still immature, but I can now portray a totally professional demeanor.

Of course, it was not without its trials and errors. I more than once, in her boss' hearing told her to go F herself, and I more than once cried in her office after she told me how it was. I more than once told her that I hated her for her being so demanding and loud, and I more than once told her how much her faith has meant to me.

But, I can honestly say now, 5 years later, that she has created a work monster. I am a workaholic, always have been, but now I'm one that can be hired anywhere. Once she told me I didnt get a position because her boss didnt think that i would be able to keep my mouth shut in a meeting, and that I was a loose cannon. I still am to a certain extent, but as I proved today, i can sit quietly, without any ADD moments, and totally kick ass.
As I sit at my desk, since i"m leaving momentarily, I'm reading some of the things that she has given me and written for me...

"jenn, parting with you is not sweet sorrow. We have been together through so much. I mwill miss your support and dedication to me. I am extremely proud of you. I know that you will be very successful."

"Jenn, i wanted to remind you that I value everything that you bring,,even your ADHD. I look forward to continously kicking you in the behind to be as successful as possible"

I'm not successful by any means, but I consider myself valuable, and without her, I wouldnt be, and I certainly would not be looking down the barrel of a ginormous interview that I might actually stand a chance. And I certainly would not bewho I am today.

Even after not working for Katrina for almost 2 years, she still supports me, still listens, yells at me, and coaches me. I will be eternally grateful to her for that....and words cannot express how much I will miss her.

Favorite TV Shows

When it comes to television and music, my taste tends to run at the extremes, with a lot of variation in the middle. My favorite TV shows (past and present) are listed below. Doth not judge me by my taste....there are a few that I miss desperately from my youth, and many that are food based and home based.

NCIS
NCIS LA
CSI (Miami and NY. Not a big fan of the original)(And,I can do the Horatio glare with perfection)
Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives
Anything with Bobby Flay or Michael Symon
Chefs vs City
Hells Kitchen
Kitchen Nightmares
MasterChef
House
Yogi Bear
Keeping up with the Kardashians (i'm a sucker for these guys.)
House Hunters
Property Virgins
Property Ladder
Flip this House
TRL (the original)
Next (hilarity....only wish real life was like that)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (love LOGO for having repeats)
Gilmore Girls
Beverly Hills 90210
Its me or the Dog
Mcgyver
walker texas Ranger
Days of our lives(10 years ago, anyway. no time to watch now)
Jersey Couture
...More to follow if i can remember.....

Something I'm afraid of....

I am a "fraidy cat. There are many things that I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of not having money, and not having a nice place to live. I'm afraid of being alone, and having no friends or family. I'm afraid of not having life the way its supposed to be. I'm afraid of not being a good mother. But, the tangible thing that I'm afraid of most is things that lurk in the dark.

Dont get me wrong. I'm not afraid of the dark. I like the dark. I like the moonlight, and I like sleeping in the dark. I do not like being outside in the dark. It scares the hell out of me. For this reason, i do not walk the dogs at night, and I do not go outside unless someone is with me. I do not take walks at night, nor do I like to go places without someone. I am even paranoid enough to check the trunk and backseat in my car when getting into it at night, for fear that someone has snuck in, and is preparing to kill me.

Laugh if you wish. I'm ok with that.

I love the dark, and all the mystery it holds. Just not when it applies to mystery attacking me. I love ghost stories, and want to go on one of those ghost hunting trips, and I probably should. It would cure me of being afraid of what goes BUMP in the night.

~Jenn :-)

Pictures of my friends.....

So this is going to be a mishmosh of pictures of my friends. I have friends all over the place, so getting one picture of them all together is kind of unrealistic. But, here we go....

Two of them. Scott and Crissy. My two partners in crime. One at work, one outside of work. They just recently moved to Houston, so unfortunetly, I do not get to see them often. I'll be down there soon though....

wdaly. One Billy Daly. He counts as more than a friend, but he is my best friend too...

These two are the beautiful people in my life. Danielle and Katrina...Unfortunetly, I dont get to see them as much as I would like. Weemers--you and me...FENG!!!

Marie "No Filter" Kilian Begin.

And finally, for now anyway......

I found a friend in Jenn when I really thought that she hated me. She is becoming one of my biggest champions, and I hope that our friendship continues to grow. Sorry, Jennyfer. there were no other pictures of you I could zoink without Michael in them.

I have a ton of friends...431 of them on Facebook (people i actually do know and talk to via facebook occasionally). I have tons of friends who arent even on facebook. But these people...they are in my thoughts and and I have some kind of contact with them every couple of days or so. thank you everyone for being my friend. :-)

~Jenn

Day 8--A place you've travelled to

I have not travelled much, really. I travelled as a kid, and I have fond memories of flying back to CT with my mom from Florida visiting my grandparents, and having a layover in Cleveland and Cincinatti...BRRR. I have memories of going to visit my mom in FL when I was a kid and flying back into Hartford. I have wonderful memories of my more recent trip to Charlotte with my bff in crime, one Mrs Christina Litchfield. That was a phenomenal trip, and one that was incredibly valuable and very spontaneous....This picture is the Charlotte skyline on our flight out. *sigh*

But, the trip that i'm going to talk about is my trip to San Deigo. Talk about on a whim, and really a defining moment in my life. I jumped on a plane, to work in San Deigo, and inspect the area out there to see if I wanted to live there. I got myself to the airport, and on a flight. I changed flights in DC, and got to experience travelling firsthand as an adult. The best part of that trip....My mom (AKA mission control) monitoring my trip, and as I landed in San Deigo, getting a text that she knew I landed, and that she was so proud of me for flying 3000 miles by myself.

It was an interesting trip, and I learned a lot about travelling. I learned that pictures on the internet mean nothing for hotels. The first hotel I stayed at was gross, and I only spent one overpriced night there. I learned that if you are paying with your debit card for a rental car, there is a 500 hold for incidentals. I learned that when landing in San Deigo, you are flying over the I-5 and that you can literally see the faces of the people in their cars stuck in traffic. I discovered that having someone in Mission Control (thanks mom) pays off, as the night that I was supposed to leave and fly back to the East coast on the red eye, my mom called me and told me my flight was delayed leaving CA and that I was going to miss my connecting in Denver. My mom did battle for me that night with the airline, as the airline kind of tried to screw me over. My mom had my back, and even now, if my dad or I are travelling, she is monitoring our flights, etc, from home, and keeping us abreast of the situation.

I learned that fish tacos are the bombdiggity. and, that the ocean on the west coast is NOTHING like the ocean on the east coast. I learned that CA is expensive as hell. I learned how to travel, and how to not overpack. I learned that I have some great friends in San Deigo/La Jolla who showed me not only the area, but the best CHOW in the area. I learned that sometimes the best food and the best lodging comes from the most unlikely places.

That trip was an awesome trip. I spent a good amount of time in our offices there, and I spent a fair amount of time on the beach. But, the biggest thing that I learned on that trip was that I can do anything I want to, and I'll be fine. I'm strong and smart, and with a little help from mission control, I can do anything. :-)

Here are some photos from that trip......

sign on a restaurant ON A PIER....crazy cool

Favorite Movies Day 7

This one might have to be a work in progress. I have very diverse tastes in music and movies and I'm not sure that at 1130 at night I can remember all my faves for movies. But, here we go....Check back for more!

Rudy
Day after Tomorrow
Love and Basketball
Julie and Julia
Fast and Furious (1,2,4)
Transformers (1,2)
Twilight Series
Princess Diaries (1,2)
Seabiscuit
Wild Hearts Cant be Broken
The Devil Wears Prada
Letters To Juliet
The Proposal
The Blind Side
Twister
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
Spanglish
Simply Irrestistable
Avatar


To be edited at future dates......or just random titles at the end of future posts.

Forgot one....

I forgot something else that makes me happy that i have a picture of. Horses.

Hopefully, I'll be able to ride again soon, which will make me happy too. This was Oliver. God, i miss him. :-(

Day 6-Photos of your favorite things

This is tough, because there is not just one photo that makes me happy. This is of course, excluding people in my life, because there are a lot of people in my life that make me happy. SO, There are several. But, here we go....

Spring flowers. There is nothing like tulips, daffodils, crocus, and the general beginnings of spring. Spring makes me happy...its the end of a long winter, and the reminder that the sun does exist, and so does warmth.

Travelling and sunrise. I love sunset too, but this picture incorporates both aspects. This particular picture was one of the few times I was impulsive, and Crissy and I went to Charlotte. I love flying.

my car! I love my car. Every time I get in, and I take a deep breath, I remember that its mine, and I grin. :-)

Puppykins. 'Nuff Said.

Luigi.


..I have two cats too, but I do not have good pictures of them, but they make me smile too......

Day 4 and 5: Parents and Siblings

This was removec due to techinical difficulties. Stay tuned for Day 6.

My First Love

I would like to say that my first love was Timmy Smith, and in a way he was. We were both 6 or 7 when we met (maybe a little younger) and I would go to my grandparents and he was with his dad in Wolfeboro, NH. I went on my first date that summer, and his dad and brother took Tim and I miniature golfing. Then we chased each other around the wrap around porch of his dads lake house. i wonder to this day what happened to him. But, that was a child love, and I'm not sure that counts as my first real love.

my first real(older than 10) crush's name was jeff, and I met him in my 7th grade class. He was brilliant, and I wrote his name more times than I care to count over and over in a notebook. he was very tall and lanky, with the most gorgeous blue eyes. We were in all the same honors classes, and we both loved basketball. I remember being at a dance in the 7th grade and dedicating a song to him, in hopes that he woudl dance with me. what was the song you may ask? Creep by TLC. Granted, in retrospect, not the best song to dedicate to a guy that you want to dance with, but hey, I was 12. He didnt dance with me, by the way. I think he hid. 
He taught me a lot about what to be and what not to be when it came to a guy. Of course, I didnt really learn the lessons until I got older. I did learn, at that dance, not to dedicate a song to a guy, and in general, avoid dances at all costs. That lesson I still keep with me to this day.

But, the best lesson learned? That there are other guys out there and if its not meant to be, its not.

First real adult love? Keith. At 18, I thought I knew everything and I thought that I needed to be married and have a house and a family. what I didnt realize was that at 19, you dont know yourself well enough to be with someone like that, and at 20, you are not ready to have a family. I'm sure that there are people out there who are, but I was not one of them. Keith and I met through my best friend at the time who was dating him. I was home for the weekend from college,and she wanted to show him off at dinner. They broke up a few weeks later, she and I had a falling out, and he and I started dating. He came to visit me at college, and when I was headed back to NH for the winter break, I decided that we should live together.
I will spare you the gory details, but out of that love, i got Allie...who has made my life what it is. I dont talk to him, and we have no contact. But I have her.....and she is the best love ever.

Day 2 Topic: Meaning behind my blog name

This is a relatively easy one, actually. I have come to the realization that everyones life is different and that life is only what you know of it! So, "life as I know it" just seemed to make sense.

As far as jvozzo1, my dad, as long as I can remember, has been jvozzo online. Well, as we share a first initial and a last name, I figured that adding a 1 would differentiate me from Dad.

Day One:Introduction

Hi, I'm Jennifer Linsey Vozzo. Aging troll with chiclets for front teeth. At least that is what I think when I look at the picture below. Hm. I'll have to figure out how to post that. I'm new to blogging, for the most part, but not new to writing. I'm 27 years old, and I'll be 28 in January. I'm a career woman more than a domestic goddess, although I love to cook and I love a clean home. I live with my fiance who I love very much and who most times gets me. I also live with my seven year old daughter Allie, who is incredibly independent little girl. She is tough and can be difficult, but well behaved women rarely make history. Allie is no exception, and I have nothing but high hopes for her.
We also have two dogs. I have a miniature dachshund named Baxter (aka Puppykins) and an italian greyhound named Luigi (Aka Wubbles). We have two cats as well: KittyPawz and Angel. I also have a frog named Frogbert that was a Christmas present from Billy last year. We live in Branford, CT near the water, and we each travel over 45 minutes to work.
I work for a large insurance company, currently as a business analyst. Someone told me today that I should keep my eye on the ball, just swing differently. thats extremely sound advice for someone in my position who is looking to move on in the company. I'm bored in my job and really need to make strides in my career. Anyway, its life...my life.

here are 15 interesting facts about me.

1. Due to a condition, I can rarely smell or taste anything.

2. I am not coordinated to play anytihng on the Xbox except for Blur, which is one of my favorite games

3. I started horseback riding at 4.

4. I had a terrible relationship with my mother, and now I cannot survive without talking to her at least     once a   day.

5.  I love to cook and hope to eventually own my own restaurant (50 year plan)

6. I have a 4.0 GPA as a Communications major at Ashford University

7. There is a huge part of me that wants to go to culinary school as well as college.

8. I make an awesome lasagna.

9. I snore. Yup, I admit it. I snore because of my asthma and sinus issues. I can't help it. At least I can admit it.

10.  One day I WILL own a Jeep wrangler as a spare car.

11. One of my favorite things to do is to snuggle under a heavy blanket in bed when the window is open in the winter.

12. I was a varsity cheerleader for 4 years of high school.

13. I have an obsession with craigslist and slickdeals. I have gotten some great deals though...best deal ever is my 55" Samsung LCD HDTV for $500 bucks.

14. I have to have a glass of milk at least once a day and a cup of coffee in the morning, or I dont function (per Billy. I think I do. )

15. I am addicted to my cell phone and now that I have a droid, I absolutely CANNOT live without it.

Thirty days of blogging

I have decided that I should blog again as a way to vent, a way to talk without actually speaking, and a way to spit everything out! I have zoinked, as a way to get started, thirty days of blog topics from one of my closest friends and my former work husband's wife, Crissy. Hopefully, this will get me going and started...Wish me luck. This is life as I know it!

~Jenn

TOPICS

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your siblings

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-Favorite city

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture