Friday, June 30, 2006

Laa Dee Dah

So, lunch at work.

Pondering.

Waiting.

This job gives me lots of time to think, but I feel a bit odd posting here.

1. Why does the bathroom smell so much? It is a girls washroom. I've never been in a bathroom so consistently awful.

2. Why is the coffee so consistently awful? I'm serious. It's terrible. Black as death, burnt to a crisp. I finally found a way to make it drinkable, and that is to mix one package of hot chocolate, fill the cup half full of water, and then add coffee and stir.

I went with Ardberg to go and see the Omen 666.

It was interesting. Definitely interesting.

I learned many things.

1) Dogs are evil. You especially know that they are evil because of the evil drool.

2) Mia Farrow is the only scary person in the movie. She's actually scary. And the most believable person in the movie. Sorry glowery kid. Sorry Julia Stiles.

3) Apparently astrology and astronomy are the same thing. No difference at all. Same with crosses and crucifixes are also the same.

4) The altar is not the table-y thing at the front. Its just that bit of the carpet in the chancel steps.

Lunch ends, back to the salt mines.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Work

Me and Not-me

It was your hands that stapled these papers together,
as quickly and thoughtlessly as I rip them apart.
I touch these things that you have touched.
You are a stranger,
I would not know you on the street
But here we are, almost touching.
I know that you
wear gloves (size large),
have a preference for chicken quesadillas (extra salsa),
and are carrying a Motorola T5000.
Your money is deposited into the proper account.

Approval Please

How good it is for invoices,
To be made of only thin paper and black numbers,
And not of sterner stuff, like heart and bone.

For invoices there is only a constant struggle,
the search for approval, and confirmation.
Upon the completion of their payment,
banishment to a quiet graveyard.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Time at Work

This is from a few days ago. Apparently the emailing posts to blogger does not quite work from gmail. Ick.


So today, I had the utterly unenviable job of sorting invoices again. Also happening again today was someone "forgetting" that they had a foot and a half stack of invoices on their desk. It was fantastic.

I had more interesting things to say.

Oh yes. On Saturday I went to my uncle Teacher Bear's retirement party. It was a little strange (but really cool too) because some of my favourite teachers from high school were there too. I got to talk to my old english teacher (who is still my favourite english teacher). It was pretty cool. Hanging around the firepit, almost but not quite setting yourself on fire, interacting with people I still respect on a more even level. I wish I'd given him my blog. I think he would like reading it. He seemed encouraged that I had managed to avoid the "I need to look perfectly teased and make-upped to have worth as a person" trap. We chatted about that and the pressure on girls to be pretty dolls. I like to think I have better things to do than look perfect, but I will admit that I have my days too.

Ever onward and upward, and I'll get there someday.

On excessively girly and frivolous news, my toes are missing a jewel again. After going back and getting the ones I lost in the first week replaced, and having the girl seal them into the pedicure, I am now missing a little jewel. I'm not very impressed. I'll need to either resign myself to losing jewels and toe-sparkles being ephemeral or I'll need to try out other pedicurists.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

And So Our Week Draws Slowly To An End

This week has been long. I've been a very busy girl lately.

Sunday - Went to talk to Meenie about wedding cakes, had a celebratory dinner at Prince Charming's parents house, and we played the Train Game. Ticket To Ride (Europe). It is the Charming family's favourite game currently. I tend to kick ass at it. However, this time I lost severely. Oh well. Next time I'll rule the world.

Monday - I convocated. It was long, drawn out and exceedingly dull. I was the girl with the knitting. Mama Bear and Grizzly Bear (my dad) and Prince Charming were my guests. It was so nice! Everyone got along. My stepdad, Polar Bear, wasn't able to come because he had to work. Apparently he actually wanted to come. I was pretty surprised, because I didn't want to go, and wasn't expecting anyone else to want to go.

Tuesday - Went into work, and talked to the managers. They want me to move into another department (AR) when I'm not working in Accounts Payable. It will probably work out very nicely. The 3 days a week ends two weeks before the wedding, and the 2 days a week ends one week before the wedding. Did more filing and invoice-y stuff. Went out for dinner with Purple. It was nice to connect with her. She's my married girlfriend. I tend to get to see her when her husband is out of town and we do the incredibly girly things together that our partners won't do with us. Like watch Matthew McConahey (I know its spelt wrong, but no one really cares but you.) movies and check out the discount makeup section at the drugstore. Its pretty awesome. We also watch Sandra Dee movies.

Wednesday - Worked. More invoices and checking statements. For lunch though, I met Palm Tree. She'd called me the night before, and it turns out that our two buildings touch. Yay! So we caught up. Apparently her parents are in Spain, and just got back from getting lost in Africa. She's been busy lately doing about 3 jobs. However, that is actually pretty normal for her.

Prince Charming and I had our marriage prep course. The topic was good sex. It was interesting mostly because of my psych background. I've dealt somewhat with similar topics and I thought that you could really tell that the target demographic for this course is the married with small children group. If there was a more severe sexual disfunction than basic exhaustion and maybe some poor communication ( like say, physical disability or a sexual philia) I would not really recommend the course. Or rather, I would make sure to make it clear that this course is the basic beginner level. There would have to be much more advanced work to be done. Prince Charming agreed with me.

Thursday - Today is my first day in Accounts Recievable. The manager is much more hands on than the other one. That is a nice way of saying she's got more control issues. My first job is to sort invoices and put them in numerical order. My second job is to partially empty out the old ones, and then put the new ones in. It took me all fricking day and I'm still not done.

I have never dealt with such an insane and counter-intuitive system. It didn't help that one of the two people supervising me had no idea how the system really worked. The other, I'll call Crazy Filing Cabinet Lady. She was extremely adamant on how the system worked. Extremely adamant.

The super good thing about this job is that they don't have room for me in with the other girls. So where do they put me? In the ex-Chief Financial Officer's old office. Oh yeah! It is so sweet. It is pretty big (not a corner office, but hey, I've only been there like 2 weeks so far) and I get a super huge desk (which I totally used for all the invoices) AND I get a super nice leather chair and my own printer.

The dynamics of this side of the office are very different than AP. In AP it's pretty quiet, and I stay in my corner and work. Lots of work getting done. In AR, there is still work going on (that's what I get to file) but there is also a ton of talking and stuff. As I'm not always in a corner, I also see more of everyone wandering around. I'm at the point where I'm beginning to recognize faces, but if you don't tell me what to do, I don't know your name.

I had a Pampered Chef shower, and that was super awesome. I've never been a huge Pampered Chef type, but I had a great time. The lady was really low pressure and only did a bit of demonstration. She already knew most of the other people there from previous parties. The people that came were from my old old job. At the dental office. They are Mama Bear's coworkers, but they are more than that, they are like extra aunts. I've known most of them my entire life. There were flowers and cakes. It was so special. I'm going to miss seeing them every 6 months for checkups and cleanings. I have no fear of the dentist, and in fact, I look forward to going. I always get the fun prizes too.

Friday - More work and invoices. Lots of invoices. I had the worst time trying to concentrate though. It was good that I got to leave early, because I was pretty useless. I did get some stuff done but it was hard. I went for dinner with Coffee (Prince Charming's mum) as a convocation present. Then I got a present!!!! YAY!!!! My present is a knitting needle set. But we ran into troubles. We were ordering from Knitpicks, and I couldnt decide between the Denise interchangeable set (which is what Knitter has) and the Knitpicks interchangeable set. Knitter is in England, so I don't really know what to do. Aiee!

Denise
  • airplane safe (plastic small tips)
  • semi-stupid carrying case
  • plastic tips (i do like metal better)
  • I think that you get tags and stuff with it, but I'm not quite sure

Knitpicks

  • perhaps airplane safe but maybe not, depends on how anal the person searching your bag is, even though the FTA says knitting needles are ok.
  • very nice carrying case
  • comes with lots of nice accessories, like tags telling you what gauge you are using on the project
  • can buy extra bits for it
  • metal tips (which i do like, but again, is it airplane safe?)

So, dilemmas abound.

Saturday - got up early to go to the salon so she could fix my toes. The jewels were coming off and I was sad. Very sad. They shouldn't come off now though, because she put more goo on top. They look nice.

Dropped off Stillettos runners that I've had forever so she can wear them golfing with her dad on Father's day. He's really nice, and apparently super excited. Stiletto does not golf.

Here. Library. Picking up a hold. My geekiness is showing, its Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly. YEAH!

Tonight my uncle is having is retirement party. It will be fun. It is my uncle the teacher. He taught me Social Studies.

Conclusion - I'm tired, and I've been getting cranky. Well, actually I am moody. I've not been getting enough sleep and/or alone time (am a definite introvert) and it is really showing. Most everything has been super fun, but it still takes a big bunch out of me. Prince Charming is stressed, I'm stressed, but things should get better soon. We've made a just-us date for Sunday. A desparately needed date. Plus I'm napping today. Next week I'm going to be in bed by 10:30. Getting up at 6:30 does not work when you get to bed at 1 am every night. And I should be more used to working steadily.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Good News

I have exciting news!

1) I now have gel toes, complete with little jewels. They are silly and perfect. I adore them, and now I want to do my fingernails. I really want to do my fingernails.

2) Apparently showing up to work, sitting in the corner and doing whatever is enough to wow them. I'm not sure if this is a sort of a small fish in an even smaller pond type of deal, or if it means that my work ethic is actually somewhat impressive. How do I know this? Apparently the office that I'm working for can't get enough of me. It's so sweet. Oh yes. So, this means they want me as long as I'm here. Or so it seems. I'll actually find out on Tuesday, after Convocation.

In other ways of being exciting, Stiletto has had the following happen to her:

1) Car broken into.
2) Got a ticket for expired plates, had to beg to not get car towed.
3)Car broken down in middle of rush hour.
4) Car broken by tow truck.
5) Car broken into again.
6) Car rearended today.

Needless to say, she's not having a good day or week.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Something New

I'm trying something new right now, to see if I can blog at work.

That's right. I said work.

Everyone can stop being all shocked at my now un-unemployed status.

I have begun my new life, and I am a temp.

All in all, this is not the worst job I've ever had, and the people here seem to be actually nice. Part of me wonders if the other shoe will drop, but the other part just tells me to shut up and be glad we're not stuck in some damn bear suit* or working for a crazy drugged up restaraunt manager**.



* Officially the worst job I've ever had. Oh yes. I was the Root Bear. It was hot, it was smelly, and it was the most boring job I've ever had. Well, it was boring until I got molested by some fratboy-types. Then I got angry and was counting the time until I was done. All in all, it was time that I'll never get back. Completely and utterly wasted.

** My worst boss ever. Even worse than "My life is in ruins. Again. Let's watch me cry" manager. I still want to go back to that job, just for a little bit, to tell her what I really think of her, and her management skills. Oh yes.