New Job!

It's been a seriously strange couple of months...my big news: I snagged a new position in my company, GTS Services (now called just "GTS"). GTS is a software company located in Tigard, OR. I used to manage the Customer Care team. Borrrrring! The company started a new department called SEM/SEO, which is Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization, and I'm employee #2! What is SEM/SEO? Why, I'm so glad you asked! SEM is marketing a company's website so that they get more traffic. This is usually via Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, which are those "sponsored ads" you see when you search for something on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. I manage our PPC campaigns at the moment. The SEO part is more challenging. This involves changes to a website so that it comes up on a Google/Yahoo!/MSN Live search naturally (what they call "organic"), based on the users search terms. For instance, one of our customers, ProStars Auto Care, does windshield replacements. We would 'optimize' their website so that when someone who needs their car's windshield replaced types "windshield replacement" into Google, ProStars comes up on page 1 of the search engine results pages (SERPs). It's pretty cool stuff. I love to learn new things and this has presented quite the learning opportunity. I had no idea there was so much behind getting your website to show up on a search engine! I'm now looking forward to going to work every day, instead of dreading it. Well, at least after I wake up some.

October = Bad Month!

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: October sucked! My maternal grandmother passed away in mid-October. She was 98, and hadn't had the best time over the last couple years. That really wasn't too bad. Everyone felt she was better off, and no longer in pain, etc. However. The following Thursday, I get a call from my mother. I'm at Henry's Happy Hour with co-workers. Mom tells me that my little sister J. is in the hospital undergoing emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy (which is doctor-speak for a tubal pregnancy). Seems, even though she was ON THE PILL (she's married with a beautiful 2 year-old girl, BTW), she got pregnant and it implanted in one of her fallopian tubes. She did not know about the pregnancy. The tube eventually burst, and she lost over 3 pints of blood into her abdominal cavity. Had to have an ambulance rush her to the hospital. They operated, and had to put 5 units of blood back into her.

She almost didn't make it.

I've never been so freaked out in my life! I was ready to run home, pack a bag and make the drive over to Bend, work and dog sitting for a friend be damned. But everyone in the family told me not to go. She made it through okay, and called me from home that Saturday. She's still not 100%, thanks to the grievous blood loss, but she's getting around, and is able to take care of my niece okay. I'm headed over there this weekend, as my brother-in-law is out of town. Figured I could help out and keep them both company. And besides, my niece Lanie is so cute...