Kingfisher Cove

Working Wouldn't Be a Bad Thing if it Wasn't for PEOPLE

The truth's beginning to emerge.

Not that it comes even close to the Other Place (with Micrmngr Boss Bitch), but I've noticed some issues lately, now that I've been there for almost four weeks. 

As much as I really do like and respect my immediate supervisor, she's not in the office very often.   She has two very young kids, so there are many late mornings or early afternoons to tend to them for various reasons.  She doesn't come in on Mondays (works from home), and then goes to a branch office on Tuesdays.  I have absolutely no problem with any of that, except that she isn't very available to ask questions or pick her brain about things.  Even when she is in the office, she's not the greatest communicator about work matters.  She talks very fast, tends to be very busy, and provides only partial information, as I will discover after the fact.  I've had to pretty much figure things out on my own, or with the help of others in different offices (or the other marketing coordinator in our office, but she hasn't been around much, either -- more on that in a bit). 

There is one particular thing I'm about to pull my hair out about.  It's something that has been a thorn in my side for the last three jobs I've had -- which has been since email has become an everyday tool.   I personally love email.  I make a point to keep them short and to the point and I will itemize or outline questions or information I'm trying to relay so it's easy for the recipient.  You can theoretically communicate the exact same thing to several pertinent people at the same time, you have written documentation of what you've written for PYA (protecting your ass!), and I tend to keep a file of emails relating to each particular project (proposal) so the communications that have taken place are right at my fingertips, which I find necessary because the information can flow at warp speed, and change in a blink of an eye.   What I find so incredibly frustrating is that PEOPLE DON'T READ.   I have to assume that they do -- that when we later discuss proposal elements that they are in the know based on what I sent them via email!   But I swear that nine times out of ten, they haven't read my email, or they skimmed it and didn't pay much attention. 

"This is what I need from you:  1), 2), 3)."  Or "I've placed these completed files called ACME RESUMES on the F drive for you to print."   

And so what do I get?  "Uhm, Tonya, I printed those ACME files and they weren't the right ones -- they were for an older project."  Of course I immediately think I'm the one who screwed up and suffer a panic attack.  But no -- turns out she didn't check the F drive because she hadn't read that far!   Or the phone call, "Tonya?  Where are you at with this proposal?"  "I'm moving forward, but I really do need that information I requested from you before I can wrap up this section."  "What information?"  "Didn't you receive my email?"  (Thinking I'd screwed up and sent it to the wrong person!  Panic attack again!)  But no.  "Oh, I missed that one.  Let's see..."  And then skims it out loud over the phone on my time that I could be productive instead, and even then skips over Item #2.  I mean JEEZ.  Most of these folks are college graduates.  Have they not learned how to read along the way?  Or comprehend?  Or pay attention?   I think about what a time-waster it is.  Read the damned email, comprehend it, and respond to it!  All of it!  (And like I mentioned, I do not make novels out of my emails.  I want/need them to be read and I make it absolutely as simple as I possibly can!)  How many mistakes and miscommunications and how much wasted time occurs on a regular basis -- throughout the world because of this?  I don't believe these past three companies I've worked for are unique.  Of course they're engineering firms, a common denominator.  But even some of the marketing and admin people fall short on this.  Yes, we're busy.  But I make a point to read my emails -- thoroughly!  (Even if they're novels...)  It's information that I know I'll need to know.

OK.  Breathe, Tonya.

The other marketing coordinator in our office has a lot of personal problems.  She's also a talker.  She'll come to my cube and park for an hour or so and talk about her personal problems.  Me being me...I'm an empathetic listener.  If I'm truly under the gun, I have no problem saying so, but if I'm not, well.  I listen.  I'll call her "Jan".  She has a special-needs 4-1/2 year-old adopted son who apparently has some very severe behavioral (among other) issues.  She took all of last week off in order to tend to some psychological testing, special diet arrangements, medical appointments, and orientation for yet another childcare provider (the 10th in 8 months!)   I can totally imagine how stressful and frustrating this is, and she's no spring chicken to be dealing with this kind of angst.  But apparently our boss (Ms. Tongue Stud) really gave her a hard time about taking the week off to tend to these matters, and told her that she'd had a talk with HR and that the consensus was that "you need to make sure that these issues get completely resolved during the week you're off."  Well, that about sent "Jan" over the edge.  Or else....what?  She loses her job?  The issues with her son aren't a "light-switch-tidily-wrap-it-up" type of thing.  And Ms. Tongue Stud takes plenty of time off to take her young daughters to Circ Du Soleil and music lessons and what-have-you.  And no, we don't earn overtime in our jobs, but we work it, and the philosophy is that it balances out because you can take time off when need be.  Jan has over 30 hours of OT, in addition to plenty of sick leave and vacation.  And what about that Family Leave law?  And yet she's given a hard time?  Well, she had to vent today, and I certainly heard about it.  It was disheartening to hear about.  She made statements such as, "It's hard to sit in these job interviews [like mine...] and hear all this bullshit spouted about family values and work-life balance and to know the truth -- that it applies to some people, but not all." 

Sigh.

I'm keeping an open mind, though.  Some folks tend to have a dark cloud over their heads at all times, and I suspect Jan is one of those folks.  It may be as a result of truly unfortunate circumstances, bad choices along the way, who knows?  But I also know that it's human nature for others to grow weary of it, regardless what the reasons are.  And business is cold-hearted, regardless what kind of propaganda they spout.  The bottom line requires cold-heartedness. 

I really need to make a point to buy a lottery ticket every week. 

An Amazing Find

On the beach, right in front of our Harstine property, I heard JDub gasp under his breath: “Oh, wow!” We’d just returned from an agate-hunting walk and I figured he’d found himself a gem.

“Find a good one?” I asked. I had it pictured in my mind as very round and pure. It’s always fun to find a “gem”. However, I’ve never thought they made good jewelry because they need the sunlight to shine through them, and that can’t happen up against your skin.

He peered at me wide-eyed and handed it over to me.

At first I saw it as one of those somewhat unique beach agates that look to have been sliced. Instead of rounding like the typical beach pea gravel of the locale, they’re flat and “chiseled” appearing. They’re not especially uncommon, but they’re different from what you typically find. Some aspect of glacier flow or something that causes it. And then my eyes widened. This wasn’t that.

It was an agate arrowhead.

“Is it….?”

He nodded. We studied it and it was apparent that the “chiseled” appearance was hand-carved. The worn but pointed end, the notched bottom to strap to a spear or “knife”, the whorls created from a sharp tool instead of nature which tends to be more symmetrical. An agate! Normally arrowheads are crafted from flint, and JDub had found one shortly after we’d bought the place. The Squaxin tribe is local, and their uninhabited island is located directly across from us. Aside from the beauty of such a thing, what is striking is the wonder at how old it might be. Naturally agates themselves are geologically ancient, but how long ago did a primitive hand sculpt it into such a pristine tool? (Did it kill anything?) [JDub said we should test it with Luminol]. Tee hee.

I think it should be hung from his rear-view mirror so it sparkles in the sun. (On those days when there is sun…)

Memorial Day Play-by-Play (sort of)

It rained all last week, every single day. Oh, there would be a brief sun break now and then, enough to ratchet up the hope levels, which were dashed in moments. So Friday night’s arrival at Harstine was (you guessed it) wet. No fire on the deck. We huddled in the trailer and I played my computer game and JDub read his book.

Saturday, it again rained most of the day – if it wasn’t, it was cloudy and windy and cold with rain constantly threatening. I did venture out to refill the empty birdfeeder and take a look at the flower beds (the sage is all a’bloom in red blossoms and we’ve seen humming birds checking them out!) But the rest of the day we continued to hunker down in the trailer and JDub read his book and I started one and finished it because my computer game is giving me fits. (I’m in this huge dark labyrinth dungeon area with beasties that keep killing me so I have to start over from my last save. Over and over and over again. I’m getting absolutely nowhere).

It’s Sunday as I’m writing this and guess what? It’s raining! At this point it’s just drizzling, but the clouds look threatening and there’s still a chilly breeze out there.

What a depressing holiday weekend! So much for the unofficial kickoff for summer. I know, they tend to say around here that summer doesn’t actually begin until July 5th. (Get it? The day AFTER the 4th of July). However, we are thanking our lucky stars that we aren’t tenting it like we did exactly two years ago. At least we have the basic creature-comforts in the trailer, including a bathroom and shower and electricity and windows to peer out of (into the dreariness…) Sigh.

Well, I had my first “day from hell” at my new job – Friday. It was a 90+-mile-per-hour day. It was one of those days when the spinning clock was a bad thing. Too much to do in too little time, and frustrating in such a horribly familiar way. First thing in the morning I hopped on the proposal that had been dumped in my lap and continued with the multitude of directions that had been left for me the afternoon before. Then, on Friday mid-afternoon, I received a call from the PM (project manager) in the Denver office who had made some major changes and I had to UNDO much of what I’d spent most of the morning DOING. Plus, he wanted it done by end of the day Denver time! Well, that didn’t happen. There was no way. It was pretty much wrapped up by the end of the day MY time, but there were things I couldn’t do because people I needed to talk with had already left for the long weekend. I could feel the blood pounding in my ears all day – it was so not fun. I definitely earned the paycheck I received that day, as well as this three-day weekend. (Just wish the weather was cooperating…)

We have cabin fever and so after my shower (which I desperately need) we’re driving into town to get a bird book! I have one at home somewhere, but who knows where? We’ve been seeing such interesting birds at the feeder and we want to know what they are! (If I had internet connection here I could climb online and check them out, but we don’t, so we need a book). We may also look for a squirrel feeder. We had one that JDub stuck up in a tree, but it doesn’t keep the rain out well enough (and so the feed rots), plus it’s difficult to get to for refilling. We may get a wooden post or something to mount it on – the trees are just not easily accessible. We’ve been seeing a cute little chipmunk eating kicked-out sunflower seeds beneath the birdfeeder. I’m so delighted to see a chipmunk! We used to have them in our back woods when I was a kid, but then development happened and the neighborhood was overrun with cats and the chipmunks basically disappeared. I hadn’t seen one for years! Just need to keep Bailey The Hunter Dog away from it.

Later – Returned from Wally World. (God I hate that store! It was a frickin’ zoo). Their book selection is pathetic, unless you like romance novels and Christian books. (Neither are my cup of tea. Go figure: Walmart has a Christian book section PLUS a gun department). We did find big bags of doggy treats, though, and JDub picked up the KT Tunstall CD for only $9.50. (Wow.  That's the price at Amazon, too!  All CDs should be $9.50!  The whole album is excellent, by the way).  We also bought another birdfeeder! (Not a squirrel feeder, though – we couldn’t find what we wanted). The other birdfeeder is pretty small and the seed disappears very quickly and this one is bigger and the seed will last longer among two feeders. Plus, it’ll double the fun of watching the birdies! We had to go to a hardware store to find another shepherd’s hook for the feeder (Wally World had none and the guy I asked about them acted like I was asking for something you’d normally find on Neptune). And we stopped at a bookstore to pick up the bird book. It should be great – it’s “Birds of the Puget Sound Region” which should cover it! I’ll also need to have the binoculars handy so I can get a good view of these birds I’m trying to identify. The weather’s so crappy, though, that the birds are pretty much in hiding. I swear there are gale-force winds out there. Well. A strong constant breeze at least.

For the third or fourth time now, we picked up a little squeaky toy for Bailey (she adores her toys – Peanut not so much) – and while we were at the bookstore, she apparently nosed through the Wally World bags and dug it out. When I brought the bags into the trailer, I couldn’t find it, and we checked the Durango and sho’nuff! She knows it’s worthwhile to snoop out the bags. It’s the only thing she removes from them, because she knows the toy is for her. Cracks me up. She is always so tickled to get a new fluffy squeaky toy. Almost four years old and she’s still a puppy in many ways.

I see patches of blue sky and sunshine poking through (but still very windy). Hope levels are ratcheting again.

It’s Monday afternoon now. Today, the weather has tried to be decent. Sort of. At least we’ve had the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time outside. We spent hours on the deck this morning with a fire in the fire thingy while we were absolutely totally entertained by the wildlife! Oh. My. God. It was truly amazing. We saw hummingbirds. We saw all kinds of birds at the feeders (no gold finches this time, though). We heard the owl. We saw Chipper. AND… we watched three chipmunks enjoying the birdfeeder, sometimes all three at once. For the most part, they’d eat the kicked-out seeds below. But now and then one would actually climb up the shepherd’s hook and leap onto the feeder and eat from it! The birds didn’t seem to mind. It was like watching a three-ring circus! To your right (quick!) – there runs Chipper to the wood pile. Behind you!  The Star Wars light saber buzz of a hummingbird zipping past to feast at the red sage blossoms! Straight ahead! Black-headed grosbeaks at the feeder. Chipmunks having a grand ol’ time climbing the shepherd’s hook! Junkos, sparrows, house finches! More chipmunks! And then….a PIGEON! Yes, a pigeon at the birdfeeder. That was kind of weird.

It was delightful watching all this from the deck, sipping coffee, and keeping warm by the fire (and sometimes being sprinkled on, but we chose to ignore that). And the dogs were totally oblivious, which was a good thing. We really didn’t want them scaring the critters away.

We also (finally) took a walk on the beach. First time down there all weekend. There wasn’t much (if any) sun, but we managed to find a few agates anyway. 

And now I’ll have to tell you about the agate that JDub found last weekend when we were here….

Good God!

What a day.   Part of it was really good and enlightening.   We had our monthly companywide marketing meeting at the corporate office today, and that was the part that was enlightening.  I got to meet many of the other coordinators from the different offices.  And then we had a presentation from a fellow affiliated with the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) that was absolutely excellent.  It was very relevant to what we do, and addressed so many familiar issues that we encounter constantly in our jobs.  (For instance, the technical people/project managers not being timely with their responses to us in the face of a critical deadline).  It was nuts & bolts of the philosophy of putting together a proposal and what to look for, what to think about (what the client wants and needs, not patting our own-selves on the back) -- and what to avoid.  The technical people/project managers really ought to sit in on this type of presentation.  Ultimately, they must buy into these philosophies, and they tend to not because they are too busy, they don't like to write (but think they are good writers even though they aren't), they hate the idea of marketing (they went into engineering to engineer, not market), and they have an affinity for catch-phrases that in our industry are nothing but cliches.  Every place I've ever worked, it's been a major butting of heads between marketing and engineers (or architects, who seem to "get it" better than engineers, but their egos get in the way).    My boss (Ms. Tongue Stud) seems to have a lot of these guys in our office wrapped around her lil' finger.  She has no trouble whatsoever telling them what's what and they listen to her.  I will be paying close attention to figure out what her magical method is.  But, the vast majority of us have trouble with that.  I think the reason is because to be perceived as professional, we feel the need to come across as flexible, agreeable, pleasing.  Which stems from the "clerical" perception of marketing, which is changing.  Many of the people in our company (and from my previous company, except for Micrmngr Boss Bitch) have degrees in Communications or Journalism.   Taking on the marketing hat and wanting it to be my niche in order to get away from the clerical perception has been very difficult for me, partly because I don't have that degree, and also because it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks (meaning the engineers who have a black and white view of things).  I always hated "Secretary's Day" because I'd get a flower or lunch out with the office staff or whatever.  I resisted (and resented) that for a long time, until I just decided to go with the flow and call it good because it was a free lunch.  (Because my resistance  wasn't well-received -- "she's not very flexible.").  Some people get away with being a bitch and still being respected.  That's just never worked for me.

How did I get off on this tangent?  Well, I guess today's presentation made an impact on me and got the juices flowing.  I love learning things, and being enlightened. 

We also had lunch -- it was so good!  We had fajitas and margaritas!  (Alcohol-free -- but you know, from those frozen slushy mixes -- and served in cute and keepable margarita "glasses" with an umbrella).  This is the monthly meeting that I have been tasked to arrange NEXT MONTH (with the help of a marketing guy from one of our other offices).   I'm pretty aghast, because following in today's footsteps is a tall order.  Gulp.

OK, the rest of my day was the "Good God!" part.  A huge proposal has been dumped on me from a coordinator that left this afternoon on vacation.  It's a very fast turn-around, and I'm completely in the dark and will need to coordinate with the Denver office.  There's just a ton of stuff I need to have done by Tuesday, which gives me only one work day (with Monday a holiday).  And I can't work on it over the weekend -- no internet connection at Harstine where I could hook up to the office.   I've got nerve endings doing the "I wanna fleeeee" dance. 

Double gulp.

It's Outa Here!

Whew, deadline met.  That's always such a good feeling.  Actually, I tend to feel like a balloon that's suddenly lost all it's air when a proposal goes out.  Kind of droopy and spent.  (Hmmm, I suppose another analogy would be fitting, too....)  (Mind's in the gutter I s'pose).

My boss (Ms. Tongue Stud) and I drove down to one of our branch offices about 30 miles away, and we had the opportunity to chat and get to know each other.  She's so easy to talk to.  I tend to hate/dread riding somewhere with worky people that I don't know well because I hate small talk.   But that sure wasn't an issue.   She's fun and quirky and I get a kick out of her.   I was glad to have her help finalizing everything this morning -- it would have been difficult to do it all on my own.  I was a little bit disappointed in the ultimate quality of the proposal, mostly because with all the effort and tedium that goes into these things, it was then printed on shitty paper!   Just flimsy white photocNater paper, nothing special at all, inbetween nice covers and divider sheets.   When I am more seasoned, I will bring that up.  I've seen and done enough of these to know that when they are all being compared by selection committees, that would make a definite initial impression. 

I have American Idol on and it appears that they will drag this episode out ad infinitum.   What a bunch of drivel.  I may just cheat and check the internet to see who won.  (It's already known, since we're on the west coast).  Who do I want?  I'm not sure.  I like both the finalists, for different reasons.  I'm sort of thinking the winner will be Taylor Hicks because 1) they're due for a guy and 2) Katherine is a bit too Kelly Clarkston.  Which means she's really good, but Hicks would be a breath of fresh air, I think.  (But, I'd be fine if Katherine won, too).  Just call me wishy-washy!

Met JDub for his "lunch" break (actually dinner) at a restaurant near where he works.   He signed his acceptance for his official manager's position.  Woohoo! 

While I've got laundry going, I'm gonna play my adventure game.  I'm pretty lousy at these things, but I get so caught up in the "story"!   It's kind of like an interactive novel.  If you decide to get this game, be sure to either play it on Xbox (which I believe it was originally designed for), or get yourself a gamepad if you play it on your PC/laptop (which is what I'm doing).   The game is just not designed for use with the mouse, even though it says it is.   What a pain in the butt!  Even the gamepad is awfully sensitive.  The poor girl keeps banging into walls everywhere she goes.

Busy!

Here I am again, back in the saddle.  Yup, and facing yet another deadline.  I've come to the conclusion that even if I hadn't landed in this architectural/engineering marketing line of work that I've been doing for the past 25+ years, I'd still be dealing with deadlines because otherwise I probably would have gone into journalism.  And that's Deadline City.   But boy.  It's a wonder that I don't have high blood pressure (I don't at all -- in fact, I've been told that my blood pressure is quite low).  Do I thrive on the stress?  I don't really think so.  It's certainly not a pleasant place to be, sweating/worrying/stewing/thrashing to meet these deadlines.   I'd sure rather be at Harstine sitting in my LaFuma and watching birds at the feeder.

But at least at this new company, I feel supported.  I'm not being constantly hung out to dry, like I used to be.   Oh, there are the similar issues, such as technical people being too busy to respond timely, which adds to my stress as I watch the clock spinning toward the bewitching hour.   But the attitude here is, "If the technical people don't do their part, the submittal won't go out and it's on their shoulders."  At my previous company, the attitude was "If the technical people don't do their part, you need to find a way to make them do their part but not piss them off in the process, because the submittal must go out and it's entirely on your shoulders.  But if you piss them off in the process you'll be hearing about it."

So, tomorrow's the deadline.  Tomorrow morning will be very, very busy.  Sigh.  It'll be good to get my first paycheck, which will be Thursday!  (Yay, no more being paid once a month!  I hated that!)  And, the check should be relatively fat in comparison to what I was paid at that awful previous company. 

I keep feeling the urge to email my mom.  That, and I keep thinking she's reading my blog (which she did daily, as long as she could.  I don't think she could sit at the computer since her fall, so the past month or so she hadn't been reading it much).  But I always felt that she was in the "know", even if we didn't talk very often on the phone.  (I'm just not a phone person).  It clutches my heart to know that she's no longer in the "know".  I'm not a religous person at all, but I do cling to some hope that maybe in some possible way, she does know.

Notes From Harstine Island

Saturday, May 20 -- Next time I go outside, I’ll be sure to take the camera because JDub’s changing our property’s terrain with the nifty Bobcat thingy. Not that it’s making the steep slopes not-so-steep, but he’s doing a lot of widening and flattening where he can. There’s a bank alongside the entrance to the property (overrun with godawful scotch broom, which is everywhere on the island and the surrounding environs and makes the countryside look like somebody dropped tons of squashed baby chicks…everywhere), and he’s taken a huge chunk out of that bank. That’ll open up a lot more space for parking, and then storing the boat, etc. His primary goal is to continue widening/flattening that bank which extends the length behind our camping trailer. He’s planning on (get this) cutting a big hole in the back of the trailer (where our “bedroom” is) and building a framed-in push-out so that we don’t have to make and unmake the bed every night/morning. It’ll actually be a bedroom, and so the path to the bathroom won’t be blocked anymore (which is why we make/unmake the bed every day). I can’t quite imagine this, but JDub is pretty much McGyver.

It’s been cool and cloudy but right this minute the sun is trying to peek through, and it’s stayed dry so far. Even last night when we arrived, after areas of heavy rain on the drive (especially at home), we were able to sit out on the deck and have a fire. What a feeling that was after these last weeks. To kick back in our LaFumas and sip wine/Baileys with the wiener dogs roasting in their bed in front of the fire thingy. I felt giant ripples of tension drain out of my body, leaving big puddles on the deck beneath my big toes.

~~~~~~~

Wow. I napped (since power to the trailer was curtailed and my laptop battery is wussy, and the book I’m reading isn’t all that great), and even though I didn’t feel like I slept much at all with the dogs log-rolling on me and I was the log, I must have. Because upon wakening when JDub finally clunked and banged came back inside the trailer and I peered outside to see his progress, I realized he was DONE. Well, at least with his primary goal. Wow. And now that he’s back inside napping, the dogs have no reason to log-roll anyone. They are finally content to have Alpha back in their midst.

It’s also beautiful outside, but really windy. Like annoying windy. I do need to go fill the birdfeeder. There was no point in filling it earlier with all the bobcat noise.

I can’t get over how much our plants have grown in our little landscaped area! Just in the month since we’ve been here, it’s absolutely amazing, to the point where I already feel that things have overgrown their space! (Can you prune sage?) Everything survived the winter just fine, and the clematis is blooming! I really didn’t expect that until a couple of years or so down the road. Really need to stake that puppy. I thought it would naturally climb the anti- white trash screen, but apparently it needs some assistance. I’m delighted at the happiness and healthiness of all these plants, but also rather alarmed. We may need to create another little rockery area and transplant some of them.  The photos to the right were taken last year after we planted and then a couple of months later.  Wow.

I was glad to see that all the Round-upping I did last time we were here really did the trick. It killed a big swath of baby scotch broom that I’d soaked the hell out of (yay!), as well as other weeds. I can also see swaths that I missed! Oooops.

So, here's the blooming clamatis, and then a blurry picture of two gold finches at the bird feeder!  What a treat!

[I know the layout of these pictures suck -- I messed with them a bit, but I've given up with making better use of white space here!  WYSIWYG my butt.]

 

HOT

Oh. My. God.  This house is an oven hella hot miserable 85 deg. inside.   Yeah, well, it's 100.9 degrees outside.  (Heh heh, that's because the sun is baking directly on the digital sensor -- it's really about the same temperature outside as it is inside).  So our A/C is apparently kaput. 

There is irony here.  JDub may not appreciate this, but I'm going to bring it up anyhoo.  You've heard about the "shoe salesman's kids who don't have shoes?"  OK, so this is Da Airplane Company's facilities manager guru (in charge of HVAC and various humungous building systems), and our A/C is kaput.  In fact, it's never worked properly.  I really don't blame him -- it's really not his fault at all.  But...I just think it's rather ironic.  And so, I was mean and had to bring it up.   

So looking forward to heading to Harstine tomorrow night.  JDub's arranged for the rental (from our neighbor down there who owns an equipment rental place) for a bobcat once again to do some work around the property.  Make room behind our camping trailer to store the boat and thereby make more parking space available.  Flatten areas that need flattening (as much as possible).  The problem is, it's supposed to rain all weekend.  Here we've had an uber-warm and sunny work-week, and the weekend is due to be ca-ca.  Crap.  So he may be mud-moving instead of earth-moving.  On the relaxation front, I have my adventure game, he has several new books to read, and we have the Empire Falls DVD to watch.   Just need to stock up on food.

Some Good Things, Plus a Meme

With all the craziness of the past couple of weeks, I forgot to mention that JDub did, in fact, get the permanent manager's job.  (It's the same job as he's been doing, but he's no longer considered "temporary").   I think it was pretty much a done deal, but it's never a good idea to count on that!  And he certainly didn't -- he took the interview process very seriously, and he was commended for doing so.   This does put him into a different category for compensation, and he hasn't yet learned what that is.  It really ought to be substantial, since he'll no longer be eligible for overtime, which has been plentiful.  It also means that second shift will continue on for the time being.  He really doesn't mind it, but it sure can be a drag throughout the week not seeing each other.  But I'm proud of him.  He's come a long way in a short period of time.  Four years ago he was an electronics technician at another site at Da Airplane Company doing computer and printer maintenance.  And now he's in charge of several buildings and has a crew of nearly 30 people that he oversees.   What a guy!  Plus, he celebrates his 25th anniversary with the company next month.

The other good thing is that I'm really liking my job.  I was fairly busy today and I felt that I had a "purpose", which did me good.  With all the experience I've had, things are coming naturally to me.  And I sure do like my boss.  The more I get to know her, the more I get such a kick out of her.  (Ms. Tongue-Stud with a couple of tattoos!)  She's just a character!  A smart character -- she definitely knows her stuff.  I just can't get over how different she is from Micrmngr Boss Bitch.  It's like the difference between Mercury and Pluto.  She's warm and open and self-deprecating, and people like that (who are also bright) are so easy to respect.  MBB was none of those things.  (Cold, secretive, and self-important, plus stupid).  What a breath of fresh air this is!   The company had a basket of beautiful flowers delivered to the office for me today.  I was so touched!   

Two of Mom's obituaries have been published -- thankfully no typos or anything.  They pretty much go by what you provide these days, instead of having some journalism newbie sitting in the corner handling that fun task day after day.   I appreciate that, because it's amazing in the past how many errors I've been aware of.

~~~~~

OK, so here's a a meme I grabbed from Lisset:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
Bimbo First

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your dad's side, your favorite candy)
Sybil Reeses

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, last two or three letters of your last name)
TWAT (bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, favorite color)
Wiener Dog Blue

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Gail Tacoma

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (last 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name)
Watngspea (ok....trying pronouncing THAT)

7. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards)
Liag

8. PORN STAR NAME: (middle name, street you grew up on)
Gail Clover (most all my streets were numbered – so I picked the only one that wasn’t)

9. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile you drive)
The Blue Bug

A Strange Day

Young Chirpy Curves Attendant:  So how are you today?
Me (panting):  I’m fine.
YCCA:  Good! And did you have a wonderful Mother’s Day?
Me:  Uhm….sure…
YCCA:  It was a gorgeous day, wasn’t it? Did you do anything special?
Me (in my head):  Well, my mother died.
Me (in reality):  Uhm, just spent the day with family.
YCCA:  Well, I’m glad you had a great day!

I can think of some people who would have taken a degree of perverse pleasure in actually saying what was in my head, but I just can’t be that mean. It would have devastated her! She was young and naïve and innocent and totally unprepared for that possibility. I just can’t take pleasure in somebody’s discomfort. (But it was a little bit tempting, since she was also rather annoying with her chirpiness).

My day at work was actually quite boring – I should have just stayed home another day, but I would have felt guilty doing that. Turns out I didn’t need to feel guilty. The first thing my boss said to me this morning was, “You shouldn’t even be here! You should just go home!” Well, I really figured that being busy and absorbed in work would be good for me, but then she took off for one of our other offices for the day, plus the other marketing coordinator was off doing a field trip with her (troubled) son. So I was it! And I really had nothing to do! That will change tomorrow once we’re all together again and I start working on my proposal, but today was pretty much a waste. I did leave a couple of hours early (with my boss’s blessing) and went to Curves. (It felt good to sweat, strange as that sounds).

However, when I got home, the cleaning lady was still here and so I got to sit at my laptop with Mexican Polka music blasting on her radio. Mein Gott. I mean, I enjoy some of the sultry salsa music, but Mexican Polka? (I swear, that’s what it sounds like, accordion and all).

But it is SO VERY NICE to have a clean house!