30 Days of Gratitude - Day 16

This is NOT a picture of me and I do NOT have manly feet!!

Today, I am grateful that I have a job that allows me to work from home a couple of days a week. I could probably work from home every day of the week, as long as I actually get my work done, but I know that if I don't go into the office and see other human beings that I will lose all ability to maintain my personal hygiene and will never put on pants that aren't stretchy again.

The benefits of working from home are too numerous to really go into, but the primary ones are that it gives me the chance to do things like laundry and dishes in between meetings and reports, thereby freeing up my weekends to do the stuff that I REALLY love to do like watching marathons of America's Next Top Model (Freudian slip that I first typed "marathongs"?). It also will alleviate some of the stress that my poor puppy has when I leave him (more on that in a separate posting).

Thank you technology gods who have created the ability to get my work done even when I'm not at the office....as long as I do not turn into Homer Simpson when he worked from home....

Busy Week

This has been a bit of a crazy week. My team lead has been in town this week so I've had a lot going on with her and my team....well, what is left of our team. About a year ago, we had 8 people on our team, we lost a couple as they moved to other teams and we came down to five folks on the team. We were able to keep things moving, however, last week one of our team members left to go to work at another company. We were all very happy for him and excited because it is a great opportunity. Last Thursday was his last day. On Friday, one of our other team members took a leave of absence. That left our team down to three....our team lead and then the two of us remaining to hold everything together. So far we are doing a pretty good job of keeping on top of things, the hardest part is that before we were only on call once a month...now it is every other week....

So, enough of the negative. With our team lead in town, we made the effort to get together in the evenings to keep her "entertained" and build our tiny team morale. We didn't do anything Monday night because she didn't get into town and into her hotel until around midnight on Sunday, so she was pretty worn out. 

Tuesday night I couldn't do anything because I had my ceramics class (which was great, yet challenging, because we started with working with the wheel and I suck at it...but I'll get better as I practice). 

Wednesday night we went bowling, which was a lot of fun. We went to a place called Splitsville, which is somewhere that if I ever have a date I'm definitely going there. The place is over 21 after 9 PM, which is a great idea to me. While, I didn't bowl particularly well, I did have a great time. 

Thursday night everybody came over to my house and had dinner. I put a pork loin in the crock pot with a bottle of Dr. Pepper and a bottle of bar-b-que sauce, turned it on low and left it for 10 hours. By the time I got home, there was a ton of YUMMY, tender pork that we put on Hawaiian sweet rolls with coleslaw and had scrumptious BBQ sliders.

I also made some cookies and my team member brought some different potato salads and we sat around and ate and visited. They all finally had the chance to meet Leo, since they have heard lots about his as he is my baby. 

So, what I learned this week:

• Splitsville is definitely a place that I will go back to on a date or just with friends because it is really a lot of fun and they have tasty eats. 
• I love my crock pot (thanks sister for giving it to me as a house warming present). I may even offer to make BBQ sliders for the family, if they ever want to come visit me again....Actually, that may become the standard food that ABBA serves to anybody that visits. 
• Hawaiian sweet rolls....that is the way to go. I'd never had them before and have learned that they are bueno.  

Six Degrees of....

There has been a recent conversation string going on within my little 4-pack of cubicles and the folks that I work with regarding....Top Gun. It started innocently enough:

ABBA: Hey, y'all. I just saw an article that women are no longer going to be required to wear bikinis as the Sand Volleyball uniform in the Olympics.
CoWorker #1: They never required men to wear speedos, did they?
CW #2: Have you all seen that one guy volleyball player who is really tall and blocks everything...
ABBA: I don't know much about sand volleyball, except for the scene in Top Gun.
CW#2: Oh Yeah!!
ABBA: {sarcastically} So realistic when Tom Cruise flexed his muscles to check his watch. And come on that has got to be gross putting on his t-shirt and boots with no socks all sweaty and sandy from the beach. If I were what's her name and he showed up at my house like that I'd be all "get out".
CW #2: Meg Ryan?
ABBA: No, Meg Ryan was married to Dr. Green.
CW#2: Oh right, "Hey Goose, take me to bed or lose me forever..." Great movie line.
ABBA: Yeah. No. Kelly McGillis was Tom's lady friend.
CW#1: I can't picture her. {Google's her picture} WOW, she looks different.
ABBA: Yeah. A little rough looking these days.

Next Day.....
CW#2: Did you all hear that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins broke up?
ABBA: No!! Really?!? You know, he was Tom Cruise's 3rd RIO in Top Gun.
CW#1: Really?!?
ABBA: Yep. Dr. Green was his first, Goose. Then the guy from Walker, Texas Ranger was his second after Goose died. Then Tim Robbins when they were out on the ship and saved Iceman's ass.
CW#2: You really know that movie, don't you?
ABBA: Yeah. It came out my freshman year in college and at A&M it was a big deal.

Later that same day....
ABBA: Isn't David Duke the KKK leader?
CW#1: Huh? Speaking of the Klan, I watched Steel Magnolias the other day. It was really good.
CW#3: You just lost your man card.
ABBA: Steel Magnolias and the Klan?!?
CW#1: No, wait. Fried Green Tomatos.... That has the Klan and is a really good movie.
CW#3: Who all was in Steel Magnolias?
CW#2: Shirley McClain, Julia Roberts, who was that other funny old lady....
ABBA: Olympia Dukakis?
CW#2: Yeah!!
CW#3: Wasn't Tom Skirrit in that too?
ABBA: Yes. AND he was in Top Gun...

Celebration!!

Okay, maybe not something I should be celebrating, but...

I was demoted yesterday. I've been in this team lead role for about six - seven months and as you all have probably been aware traveling to my customer location about once a month. Well, the powers that be have decided that this role really needs to be permanently at the customer site, so they are moving one of my team members into my role.

While it was initially a bit of a slap in the face, within about three minutes it hit me and I have to admit that I was happy. I then admitted to my manager that I have hated my job for probably the past six months. That gave him some relief, not that I had been hating my job but that I wasn't upset about the change in roles. How can I really be too upset? I am keeping my same salary and I'm giving up the extra 30+ hours a week that I've been working and the stress.

The really good thing about this is that, hopefully, I'll have more energy and drive to blog more (which I know will make all of you happy since I've been VERY hit or miss with the blogging), exercise more, quilt (which I haven't done in so long that I'm not certain I know where my quilting room is anymore), read more, spend time with friends more and have something to talk about rather than just kvetching about my job, and, when the stars align properly, be able to resume carpooling with Sara!!

Admittedly, there is some drawbacks to this whole thing. It is going to be tough to stay on the same team, even though the person stepping into the role and my manager both want me to stay and have offered any job that I want in the team. I have also had other people in the past say they want me to come join their teams. And, unfortunately, the change is not immediate; it won't actually take place until some time in January, but, I think I can hold tight in the interim...and just keep doing my happy dance in my mind.

Worst Trip Yet?!?

I think I have reached a new low of travel to DC. So far this trip has actually been worse than the Breast Feeding fiasco.
I will start with my flight into DC. I left on an earlier flight on Sunday so that I could get in town and do a little settling in. The expected ETA was 2:15ish. We were on approach when the pilot decided to do a little circling around. Then we are informed that we are going to have to be diverted to Richmond, VA so that we can refuel. Turns out there is a "small" storm in the DC area closing down all the airports.

• Fast-forward 2.5 hours we get "well folks, the fuel truck is on its way. You may have noticed the storm has passed by here and gone off to the east. As soon as we get the fuel, we'll be on our way." (At some point we were served a granola bar and a glass of water.)


• Fast-forward 45 minutes we get "well folks, this is a small airport and there were a lot of planes diverted here, if we can't get off the ground in 30 minutes then we'll have to go to the gate. You'll have the opportunity to get off the plane, but please stay in the gate area as we will take off as soon as we get the okay."


• Fast-forward 20 minutes "Please turn off all electronics and put away tray tables."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Well folks, we didn't make our window so we are going to be pulling into the gate...."


• Fast-forward 30 minutes "Please turn off all electronics..."


• Woo Hoo!! We are back in the air.


• Fast-forward 45 minutes "Welcome to Regan National Airport. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to get to our gate for a while. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts on..."


• Fast-forard 60 minutes later "Well folks, a gate have finally come availble...."


• 9:30 PM - I'm about to bitch-slap the guy in my row who has decided to be a gentleman and let the people in the row behind us get off the plane before us... Um, buddy, get the hell outta my way....


• 10:15 PM - Get to my hotel.... Low room. On the street. Get to hear traffic noise.. Woo and Hoo....

So, if that weren'it enough to represent a really bad trip, today I'm sitting in the office on a conference call and if feels like a big truck just drove by. Gee, that is a little odd we're on the 9th floor... Then, shakey-shakey-shake...5.9 earthquake. I didn't experience this big of an earthquake the entire time I lived in San Francisco!!

Some of the people completely freaked out in the building and then we were all evacuated. I went ahead and grabbed my stuff and my managers' stuff and headed down the 9 flights of stairs. We got yelled out because we weren't at the "designated meeting area". It was then decided to chuck in the towel and everybody, who could headed to their respective abodes. Luckily for me my hotel is a short 1.5 mile walk, so I headed out dodging the crowds from all the other evacuated buildings. Once I finally made it back to the hotel, it turns out that I can't get into my room, not because of the quake, but because of the maid. So, I headed down to the bar and decided to have a couple of nice glasses of Dr. L. Reisling....yum!! (The wine has been the highlight of the trip thus far.)

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next two days will be uneventful, although I'm NOT holding my breath. And I can only hope that Hurricane Irene holds off until after I take off Thursday evening.... I'll keep you all posted!!

I've Been a Bad Blogg

I so need to apologize to all my faithful readers out there as I have been MIA for a number of weeks now (aside from the short and sweet write-ups of a couple of books). I've had a number of blog-worthy moments over the past two weeks, while traveling to DC, and I'll try and capture the highlights here (and in the future, I'll try to be a better blogger).

Metro Experiences - When I'm in DC, I've actually become that city-girl I always thought I could be and I'm riding the Metro pretty much every day. Mind you, it isn't the most pleasant thing because there is a high percentage of homeless people in DC and they often use the Metro stations as their overnight abode and/or bathroom; so as the heat goes up in the city so does the funk. Luckily one day I had an elderly lady sit down next to me with so much perfume on that it not only covered up the urine smell and general funk smell, but she also managed to make my eyes water and singe my nose hairs.

Shuttle Experiences - When I would travel to one of the offices, I would take the Metro out there and then a shuttle bus would pick me up at the station and drop me at the office building (we around here really need to look at improving our mass transit system and expand the rail system and implement free shuttles to more offices...just saying). The shuttle driver is this older lady who is very, VERY chatty. I learned that her daughter and grandkids live with her because her daughter lost her job. I learned that she has a gun, but it is in multiple parts, but she is pretty certain that if a robber were to break into her house and he was slow, she could put the gun back together fairly quickly, as long as she could remember where all the parts were as well as the ammunition. Speaking of robbers, the only thing worth stealing from her is her old television set and even that isn't worth much, but it is worth more than her car. I also learned that she doesn't understand those of use that work in these offices and are working 10, 12, 15+ hours a day. Her little nugget of wisdom "You only get paid for 8 hours, why work more?"....Ah, if only I could drink THAT koolaid.

Tourist Experiences - I did manage to stay over the weekend this trip, so I did do a little touristing around. Not much mind you because for some reason the summer is a busy time in DC and there were just way too many annoying people around to have to deal with too many of the museums. I did get into the Holocaust Museum, which was a powerful place to go. I can't even begin to describe that experience. After the Holocaust Museum, I went to the Freer Museum where there is a lot of Asian Art, which I'm not a big fan of, but there is also quite a bit of James Abbot McNeil Whistler's work, which I actually do like. There is also what is called "The Peacock Room", which has a lot of vases and the like. It was in there that as I was trying to get a picture of the crackle on one of the vases and had my flash on... Yeah, I was yelled at by the guards about having my flash on... Oops.

Bathroom Experiences - Okay, so I'm not really going to share a whole bunch of bathroom experiences with you other than this one. I went into one of the stalls in the women's room in the office. I noticed that there was a slight crack in the seat, but didn't think anything of it. I put down my seat cover, dropped trou, and proceeded to sit. Mind you I was only doing #1, so there wasn't a lot of pressure needed. But, as soon as I sat down, the friggin' seat broke... Yes, my fat arse broke the toilet seat in a public bathroom. Of course, I couldn't do my business at that point, at least not in that stall, and luckily I was the only person in the restroom, so I quickly pulled up my pants and shuffled to the next stall and completed my mission. I came out of lady's room laughing so hard at myself that I could barely speak. It was literally the cherry topping to a crappy day (no pun intended).

Flight Experiences - Other than the normal delays and the fact that I almost gave myself whiplash when I fell asleep on the flight, nothing too exciting happened at the airport.

So, I think that wraps up the highlights of the last couple of weeks. I promise to try harder in getting my life documented and available for the world to read. Thank you for you patience with me.

What A Week

The week started off relatively normal, aside from it being Memorial Day.... I guess taking that day off jinxed the rest of the week.

Tuesday - Sitting in a meeting and learn that I have to change my upcoming travel plans so that I can be in DC for a specifc 2-day meeting. While this isn't that big of a deal, it did sorta throw off my schedule. the good thing out of changing my travel plans is that now I'll be in DC over a weekend and I'll take that extra time and do some additional exploring. Late afternoon a transformer blew in downtown DC, which caused a complete power outage in much of the metro DC area, including one of the buildings where my customer works, so we had to scramble to get our equipment powered down while the generator was still funcioning so that there wouldn't be damage to equipment or data. We were on conference calls until close to midnight getting things powered down and waiting with hopes that the DC power would come back on....it didn't.

Wednesday/ Thursday morning - We still didn't have power and got about 3 hours of sleep that night as we were doing lots of trouble shooting and remediation planning....Okay, so yeah, I wasn't doing a whole lot of either, but I was documenting everything and coordinating getting people here and there.

Thursday afternoon - I had a scheduled dentist appointment, which I thought was just going to be a cleaning and whitening treatment. I already felt guilty going away from my team, but I couldn't NOT take this appointment which had been set up for a month. So, I go to the dentist (stupid Tomtom got me a little lost, but whatever) and it turns out that it wasn't for a cleaning, it was for a sales pitch and exam and I'm not really certain what it was all for (yeah, I had a coupon). So, after having an exam and a gagillion xrays and pictures taken of my teeth (FYI, if there is ever the need to identify my body just contact this dentist - they have me covered), the dentist comes in and informs of the following: 1. I need to get crowns on two of my teeth that I've had fillings in since practically the womb. 2. I need to get my remaining wisdom teeth extracted. 3. I need to have a deep below the gum scraping something, something....I stopped listening at this point. We landed on getting just one crown on the one tooth that had a crack in it (no wonder that tooth always had pain when I bit down on it)....and it was decided that we would go ahead and do the crown right then.

Five hours later, I left with a face that looked like I had a stroke because of the local anesthesia, my jaw completely dis-located from the what I'm pretty certain was 20 people in my mouth at one time, and a lighter wallet.... Ah well, I guess we have to suffer sometimes for health purposes even though I'd really rather just let all my teeth fall out of my head before I return to the dentist (don't worry, that won't happen, but it is a thought).

When I got home from the dentist I ended up back on a conference call dealing with more work stuff, even though I couldn't actually talk...remember stroke victim...until close to midnight when we finally felt confident that all systems were back to their normal state.

Today, I was supposed to volunteer at a golf tournament, but either from my lack of sleep and the haze that I was driving in or the fact that Tomtom couldn't find where I was supposed to go, I ended up driving around this community for almost an hour and never able to find where I was supposed to be. I ended up just coming home and even though I felt really bad about not being there I also felt that the fact that I kept falling asleep whenever I stopped moving was a sign.....

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weekend is quiet. I've got 'wine and whine' scheduled with The Queen for tomorrow and going to hopefully do some sewing... One thing is for certain, I really do NOT want to relive this week.

Working the Drive-thru...

As I pulled away from the drive-thru window at Chic-fil-a grabbing dinner this evening, I started thinking about how pleasant the people working there were and then I started thinking about how nice my first job at McDonalds was when I was just a fresh high school graduate and sometimes wish I could go back to working the drive thru window....

• when the only things I had to worry about on the job were making sure to get the fries out of the grease and skim it regularly;


• having to tell a customer that the shake machine was on the fritz and I couldn't sell them one (or worse, actually having to clean the shake machine);


• or the time when we ran out of Happy Meal toys and tried to substitute plastic spoons (yeah, not one of the shining moments in my golden arches career).

It was such an easier life and somedays (especially days like this) I really think about throwing my hands up and going back to that easy life of asking "would you like fries with that?".... Heck, I'd even be willing to go back to the nasty brown, polyester uniform....

Ah well, I can dream, right?

Morning Routine

I'm sure we all have our morning routines and whenever they are thrown off, even slightly, it can throw the whole day off kilter....that whole Butterfly Effect (and I'm not talking the bad Ashton Kutcher movie...like there is a good Ashton Kutcher movie, but I digress). Here is a quick rundown of what my morning looks like:

5:30 - Wake Up
6:00 - Get out of Bed. Eat Breakfast
6:20 - Get in Shower
6:35 - Finish Shower
6:45 - Dry Hair
6:50 - Put on Makeup
6:55 - Get Dressed
7:00 - Join first conference call of the day while getting lunch together and finishing up stuff.
7:15 - Out the door (depending on carpool plans)

Here is how this morning went:
5:30 - Wake Up
6:00 - Get out of Bed. Eat Breakfast
6:20 - Get in Shower
6:35 - Finish Shower
6:40 - Watch the news to find out about weather. IM with The Queen.
6:50 - Lay out clothes
6:55 - Put on Makeup
7:00 - Join conference call.
7:05 - Change clothes
7:08 - Make lunch
7:15 - Grab keys and lunch and start to head out the door.
7:16 - Realize that my hair is still in a wet towel.....

Who sees a problem here?!?

Moving On

As mentioned in my previous post, I bought a new phone because I'm changing jobs and the phone that I currently have is a company asset and will have to be returned....not that I really mind because lately my Blackberry has been giving me some issues, like the roller ball doesn't always want to work and it will just randomly shut off...So far, though, I'm really enjoying my EVO (which going forward will be referred to as Eva the Diva and yes that is a reference to one of the winners from America's Top Model from seasons past).

So back to my new position....I actually start it on Monday, and am so looking forward to it. I can't really say much about what I'll be doing or who I'll be working with but let's just say that it is something that I like to think I have a little talent in (sadly, not quilting) and it will challenge me, which is what I need to be happy at work. This past week has been tough on me just focusing on wrapping things up here at the old job, but I need to finish at least 3 things today or The Queen will never speak to me again (aside from Midnight Yell tonight and the Cotton Bowl tomorrow). The things that I need to complete today are 1. Reviewing questions. 2. Answering questions. 3. Completing the List of National Holidays to be imported into her Google Calendar so that she can be sure and properly celebrate them all.

I'm going to miss working here and the people that I've worked with and really, really miss carpooling....but never fear, I may very well be back.

Work From Home = Lose My Mind

I've had the luxury of working from home for going on three weeks now and I have to admit that I do enjoy it. I enjoy rolling out of bed and getting right to work without the fuss of showering and getting all "did up" as I would if I were to go into the office. I also take advantage of the time at home and will throw in a load of clothes or wipe down the kitchen while taking a break from staring at the computer screen. I'm definitely saving gas since my car doesn't leave the garage. And I don't have the same qualms about running to the store mid-day to grab something as I would when I worked at the office (this is mostly because I know that I won't have to spend 30 minutes when I get back trying to find a parking spot since at home I'm pretty much guaranteed that my garage will still be empty).

There are, however, some down-sides from this self-imposed hermitting. I haven't put on makeup more than twice in this three week period. I dried my hair for the first time after my shower and that had more to do with the fact that I didn't want to sit around in the "cold" with a wet head. I will go days without speaking to another soul, so I've started talking to myself more than normal....and I'm talking out loud, not just in my head....and I'm speaking to myself in a British-My Fair Lady kinda of accent. Yesterday, I was singing "The Rain in Spain..." and rolling my R's like a mad woman (the rrrrrrrrain in Spain falls mainly on the pllllaaaaiinnn...). I also have started dancing a la the ballerina hippos from Fantasia (Disney movie, not wacky American Idol singer cum reality show star).

Luckily, The Queen and I have started making it a point to get together one night a week for dinner and television catching-up. And she has been given strict instructions to contact my family if she starts seeing any truly frightening behavior that could end me up on a Bravo show like Intervention or Hoarders - Buried Alive. We want to nip that in the bud....

6 Degrees of Queen B

We've all heard about the six degrees of separation... I had the dubious honor of realizing that today when I had the opportunity to meet face to face my boss's boss's boss (or I think that is some form of the org. chart).

First, though, let me say that I had lunch with the Queen's boss (a.k.a., Mr. Mean/Mr. Nice) today and while having lunch he says "When you meet The Boss, call him Barbie. He'll get a kick out of it." I'm thinking "Um, no, I don't want to get fired."

Fast forward about 2 hours and I get a phone call from The Boss asking me to come to a conference room to address some process questions with a couple of other people. I head down there not really thinking about much, other than the process that we need to hammer out. I walk in the room and The Boss says, "I don't think we've really been introduced." And I blurt out, "Nice to meet you. I was told that I should call you 'Barbie'." He immediately comes back with, "Explain why you go by ABBA."

We then have to explain our mutual connection to the Queen to the other two people in the room. He explains how when he first met her, she was just a babe out of college and he felt very protective of her, like his daughter. He thought she was all sweet and innocent, that is until he found out that she has a tattoo on a certain part of her body. And he then pops up her blog for all the world to see, as if it is one of his favorites...

Of course, my thought immediately goes to, "Oh crap, if he is looking at her blog, she references my blog, and just today I blogged about bad managers..."

Nothing more was said, of the cyber world outside of the office, except when I was introduced to one of the other people in the room and she and I both were like "wow, we've never been introduced but we're Facebook friends!"

As I drove home from work this afternoon, I did tell the Queen about the conversation and her concern is now there are complete strangers in the company that know she has a tattoo. And I told her to never fear, that I would be blogging about this... She expected that.

By the way, some of you loyal followers of this blog also know The Boss... according to the Queen, anyway.

All Managers Beware

I just read this article (Bad Bosses - What Kind Are You) and saw way too many of these traits in the managers that I've had in the past. My current managers (and I'm not quite ready to call them leaders because they haven't demonstrated that they can meet that expectation) don't fall into any of these categories...yet.

I wish that this article could be provided to all managers as part of their training (and again as refresher material at least quarterly) so that they can always be reminded of what not to do. I think if more managers avoided being any of these types, then we really would have more leaders.

Just my two cents this morning. Personally, I'm not looking to move into a manager role because I'm pretty certain that I would end up being one of these bad bosses. But for those of you out there in such a role or who aspire to such a role, give this some thought.

Worker Dead at Desk for Five Days

My Santa-Mom gave me a stocking stuffer at Christmas that is a spiral-bound book of funny desk signs that I display on the corner of my desk to make me smile. Many of them I don't display because I don't want people to know how I am REALLY feeling about them and their work or my office/company in general (e.g., "Tell me again how lucky I am to work here. I keep forgetting." or "I'll try being nicer, if you try being smarter.")

So, this morning in my general need for change and to avoid doing the work that needs to get done, I started flipping through the signs to find a new one to display. This is what I decided to go for: "I don't get even, I get odder." I felt that was pretty apropos for me.

On the backside of each of the signs is a story or something to think about. This is the story that was on today's:

Worker Dead At Desk For 5 Days
Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New
York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared
with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed
until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working
during the weekend.

His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: "George was always the first guy in each
morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was
in the same position all the time and didn't say anything. He was always
absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

A post-mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days
after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of
medical textbooks when he died...You may want to give your co-workers a nudge
occasionally.

Birmingham Sunday Mercury 07/01/2001

I used to just worry about dieing on the weekend and nobody realizing that I was dead until I didn't show up to work on Monday, which is why I've always tried to be very consistent with my work hours. Now I have to worry about dieing at the office and nobody even noticing....although I'm not really certain that it would be possible for nobody to notice that I was sitting at my desk dead for 5 days....I get interrupted often enough to shake me out of the zombie-like comma I fall into.

Annoyed ABBA

I know I go through this a lot, but here is my latest list of things that are annoying me:

• Everything in my closet. I hate my entire wardrobe and changed clothes three times this morning before I decided I didn't look like a complete goob. I still look all schlumpy but that doesn't really matter since nobody actually ever sees me.
• Hang nails and rough spots on my nails. What causes these?
• The jerk that sat there, in reverse, and didn't bother to pull out of the parking place until after I had passed, even though I was sitting at a stop sign waiting for him to pull out.
• The fact that my check engine light came on as I was driving in this morning, even though I just took my car in 2 weeks ago for a complete, factory authorized, 75K mile check up.
• 90% of the people that I work with.
• Letting my hair grow out. It is getting to one of those funky stages that I can't really do anything with. It is too short to pull into a barrette; just long enough to tuck behind my ears, except for the bangs; and HUGE. I have giant Texas, the bigger the hair the closer to God, hair going and it is going to be like this until it gets long enough to tame a little better.
• The lady that I work with who asked me, in front of my whole team, if I would make a quilt for her daughter's school art auction. Did she ask the other co-worker, who paints, for a picture? No. Does she think I can just pull a quilt out of my ear? I don't even like this person, so why would I make a quilt for her daughter to cut down on her private school tuition? I will make quilts for auction for charities that I believe in and I make quilts to give to kids in the Ronald McDonald House or in a homeless shelter, but not for something like a school auction.
• Wearing a name tag. Okay, actually a name badge, but I still hate it. The thing hangs from my neck and just seems to get in the way, so I take it off and then when I have to go to the restroom, I forget to grab it and then I get locked out of my office.

Between the hair, the clothes, the co-workers, and the badge....maybe I should just start staying home from work more.....

I Need a Vacation

Yes, I've only been back to work for a week now, but I already am completely drained and need a vacation. On Monday, after going weeks without having any headaches, I start having steel-rod-driving-through-my-skull headaches after being in the office for only 2 hours. On Tuesday, my work-at-home day, I couldn't get half of what I needed to do until about 8:00 that night because I kept getting interrupted. On Wednesday, I went from one meeting to another and had to go back and clean up messes that others had left behind. Thursday, well it is a known fact that Thursdays always such for me...I'm in meetings now starting at 7:00 AM that go through noon, where I have a break to grab a bite of lunch and prepare for my afternoon meetings. And sadly, these are not light, fluffy meetings where I can just sit in the back and stare off into space, no these are meetings that I'm having to drive and facilitate and call people on the carpet and beg for leniency from the customer and have to walk that fine line of politics and ethics and doing the right thing for both my customer and my company. By Friday, I'm exhausted, but now I have to report on everything that was addressed in the meetings from yesterday as well as run some other reports and basically try to finish up everything that I didn't get done all week just so I can start doing it all over again on Monday.

I know, I know...welcome to being an adult and everybody has a tough job, blah, blah, blah.... I just want another vacation... preferably if I could take a vacation every other week, that would be great!! Anybody know who I can talk to about getting this into the constitution?

Party Planning for the Office

My office is having a party next Tuesday and I somehow was elected to be the person who "gets" to organize the whole thing. Mind you, this isn't my responsibility and I don't have any control over budget nor do I have access to the list of attendees, but I get to plan the location, menu, and activities. 

So, this evening I got to stay late at the office putting the last touches on the menu. This is what is being served: 

• 2 drinks per person
  
• goat cheese and artichoke dip
  
• tomato & garlic bruschetta
  
• mango & chicken quesadillas
  
• vegetable spring rolls
  
• calamari
  
• chicken taquitos
  
• spinach & cheese stuffed mushrooms
  
• chicken tenders in spicy wing sauce
  
• BBQ baby back ribs
  
• mini sliders
  
• fresh fruit & cheese plate
  
• vegetable plate
  
• chips with salsa and fresh guacamole

We are also going to have two pool tables available for people to use. 

So, do you all think there will be enough food and all the various cultures and people that will be attending? My big worry now is that either a) people won't show up and I'll be stuck with ALL this food, or b) people WILL show up and not have fun and then I'll be the party planning laughing stock of the company. 

Why, Why, Why do I let myself get involved in coordinating these sorts of things? 

How Did I Make It Through The Day?

So, yesterday I left the office right after my last painful meeting because I had a fever, sore throat, and headache. I came home and found out the UPS hadn't delivered my books (see previous post). I did, however, go ahead and go into my "class" and complete the orientation and then headed off to bed. 

This morning I woke up, no more fever, although I did still have a little bit of a headache, but I opted to go ahead and go in to the office because I knew that my boss was going to be working from home and one of us needed to be there to represent some form of intelligent life form in our department. When I get in to the office I get an email from the boss lady asking me to do her daily dashboard. Anyway, blah, blah, blah... I got through a bunch of other stuff today and dealt face to face with a number of different people. 

I get home this afternoon and go to change out of my work clothes and reach up to take off my earrings. I realize at that time (12 hours after I put them on) that I had two different earrings on. 

So, my question, did nobody else even notice? Did I just not rate eye contact and therefore ear contact? Understand, I have short hair. Short hair cut above the ears short hair. I was wearing long dangly earrings. Were people just being nice and not wanting to point out such a mistake? Was it the fact that I only dealt with boys today? If you had noticed this, would you have told me, or just thought I was making some sort of wacky fashion statement (sorta punk thing to go along with my khaki pants and black cardigan)? 

Exercising at Work

I just read an article about treadmill desks and people who walk on the treadmill while working. I would love to do this, but there are a couple of hitches:

1. I end up in lots of meetings, how would one move the treadmill desk to the conference room
2. If I could make all of my meetings conference calls, would people wonder about all of my heavy breathing
3. Would if be considered an on the job injury and covered by workers comp insurance if I fell on the treadmill, which I would inevitably do, while "working"?

Thoughts, comments, anybody want to start a fund so that I can purchase one of these?

Preparing for the Week

Well, it is Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting here thinking about what all I need to do this week and what all is currently on my schedule. I'm trying really hard to take every body's advice and find that work/life balance and I'm doing better. I'm also trying really hard to live a healthier lifestyle. Last week I managed to get a walk in every day after work, except for Tuesday, when I worked from home and went and walked in the mid-morning up to Noe Valley, which was very pleasant. Saturday, I went to another session with Abby the Pilate's instructor and she had be stretched in ways that I didn't think my body could do.

So this week, this is the plan:

Monday - Wrap up the crap that I have to do for the quarterly Quality Initiatives. Review the Policies and Procedures and update those. Update and print off resume. Walk the 3.3 mile Dish walk with Sam.

Tuesday - 7:00 AM Pilate's session with Abby. Do some number crunching and analysis to present some good, hard data as to why and who is screwing up so terribly at work. Go meet a recruiter to see if she can help me find another job.

Wednesday - Meet with the PWC auditors to talk about our processes. Continue with the number crunching. Walk the Shoreline and stop at Target.

Thursday - Spend all day in tiring meetings with the customer. Get completely aggravated by the people that I work with. Walk the Dish with Sam.

Friday - Crossing my fingers that I can have the day off. If I have the day off, then I'm sewing and taking a walk to Grace Cathedral Labyrinth and have a whole zen thing.

Saturday - This is still very open, but I'm going to shoot for getting a walk of some sort in and probably some REALLY fun things like grocery shopping, dusting, and vacuuming.

And that takes us back to Sunday. Who thinks I'll actually manage to accomplish all of these things?