Need Humor

I was going to spend my moment, writing on my blog about how great Grille 36 is. Yes, the restaurant that “The Bus” built, is fabulous – especially if you like portions that could serve 4 people. I call them all “Bus-portions”.  I was actually enjoying time with co-workers and finding it a good day. It is always nice to be appreciated with a meal at a New and Special restaurant.

 

Then, I had to come back to work and actually work. No problem doing that. I answered some emails and addressed some issues about one of our offices and the connection at that location. The internet and network has always been slower there. It isn’t our building and the lines aren’t even really ours. It’s all been kind of ad-hoc’ed together. I’ve troubleshooted problems for months and months… with my boss always saying “Don’t worry about it” and stuff like that.

 

Well, I didn’t worry about it – and what happens? This issue blows up in my face, people believe that I “have done all that I know how to do” – which makes it sounds like I don’t know what I’m doing, and it has gone to the CEO now for “addressing”. It’s crazy… but I have the facts. I have emails. I know what I have done. I know that the only way to fix this problem is to spend thousands and thousands of dollars that none of the departments in that location has the budget to pay for.

So, I’m going to go find humor right now. I’m not going to worry about this issue tonight until the boss response. However, if he does not response or if he does not support me fully on this mess, I will fight back.

 

To prepare, I see a round or two of wii boxing.

You know it is bad......

When the person you need to copy program books that are only 8 pages long… can’t figure it out.

Levity

This describes the week for me thus far. Enough said!

It's That Time Again

I think the time happens about once or twice a week. Sometimes it isn’t as serious while other times, I start actually keeping track of things. The time is when I swear I cannot take this job any more and it is time to move on. I actually start looking for a new job and then realized how truly and thoroughly screwed I am when it comes to looking for a different job. Oh, there is a job at RAND. Oh, the Woodlands Foundation is looking for a Senior Fundraising Director. Oh, that place I never heard of wants an eMarketing Director. Oh – can I actually apply for any of these without lying about my qualifications?

 

I have no certification or stamp of approval that says “Yes, I know how to do this computer stuff!”. I have no proven track record with doing fundraising, because it all goes thru Marci and credit is never divided out. Then, I get worried that I think that I have more skills than I truly do have. I do rely upon help desk to do a lot of the troubleshooting. Half the time, I think I act like a goose with a chopped off head. I never truly know what the answer is. I guess at a lot of things. What kind of place would hire that?

 

There are benefits to what is going on here. I get 17 days vacation. My boss virtually doesn’t do any supervising until he is 4 to 5 months late with the reviews and then he gives the obligatory – your attitude sucks speech. I can create my own hours. I have cool guys at help desk that make me laugh when things are bad. I can talk to Board Members and not have to worry about the stuck-up attitude and entitlement that most Board Members have.

 

But days like this, when my wireless connection might as well be called wireless-less, and when I get ambiguous reports of ‘the state says there is something wrong with our connection’ while there are no hints of any problems – I almost want to high tail it Florida, to work at Disney, where things have got to be easier to understand, where there probably is a boss that would supervise and not let me just hang in this vast wonderland of nothingness.

 

Yep, it’s that time again.

 

 

Bad situation

You know what is awful is when you bring someone into the workplace that you think is going to be a great person for the position – but then they are the worse person. Then, you don’t know what to do to end the situation. You are sort of responsible for bringing in this awful person, who is just throwing off the entire environment of the workplace.

 

Now, she is getting worse. She is going out and being mean out in public while representing my work. If you really didn’t want to do this, say NO. Don’t stomp around, being mad at people who are DONATING money to my agency, and coming back to work and being proud about what she did.

 

It reflects bad on me. I thought she would learn how to behave herself after a year. Especially after being here a year. It isn’t my responsibility to make her behave. She should know what common sense it. She should know how to act while working with a board member. There are things you do in public and things you say in public when having a challenging time. You don’t freak out on people and don’t be mean to them when they are trying to have a fun time.

 

So now, I am going to try to find her a new job. It will do everyone well if she just leaves the agency. I think this would be good for me too. I’m miserable with her around, trying to mother people while stabbing them in the back. But who do I push off my problem onto?

Reasons why not to bowl

It was a fun concept – bowling for your birthday – to avoid the “girly-day” plans my sister had. In fact, I had fun while doing it, but now a couple days later, there are some reasons never to do this again:

 

1. My knees are now 30 years old… and they crack like they are fifty.
2. Pain, pain, pain – and pain everywhere – hips, forearms, thumbs, lower back…. Most of these don’t matter, but the forearm pain in my right hand is bad – it impacts typing.
3. Watching my sister try to bowl left-handed – it was a comedy show really. And it showed up in my dreams.
4. Seeing what my sister was wearing and the fact that it was not bowling appropriate. Let’s just say, it was too damn tight and she spent more time pulling down than actually bowling. She has always been the perfect candidate for What Not To Wear. If I dress her, she looks fine, but right now, she looks like someone who is denying their size while also being a Wal-Mart junkie.
5. No open bar.
6. Smoking was permitted there – doesn’t impact me right away… but that night, the little bit of smoke was felt in my lungs
7. I have a wii at home. Wii bowling – much easier.
8. No homemade salsa at the bowling alley.
9. It was damn cold in there. I think I could have worn a sweater and still been cold.
10. Competition – even though my sister acted like there was no competition going on, she was watching that scoreboard like a hawk. It has always been like that.
11. Talk – talk – talk – talk – ok, so this was for my birthday… but my sister barely talked to me during bowling. Instead it was to mom about her weight, her money, her car, her job, her need for more money… Oh, in the end… the day that was my sister’s plan – turned out to be paid for by my MOM!
12. And although it has nothing to do with bowling, I must have one last bitch about my sister and her involvement with this day. After bowling we went to a cookout at my house. That’s fine. I paid for the food. I prepared the salads. Mom grilled. My sister – she never even asked if she could bring something. NEVER! Ugh!

 

Ok, now that I’m going to have to find a nice place to put my Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow poster – my sister wants it in the exercise room, which for all purposes has photographs of places around the world that I would love to see – not cheesy movie posters – even though Johnny Depp is hot and I like all of the pirates movies – I still wouldn’t have gotten this poster, EVER!

 

It is now time to go back to work. Don’t feel like that either. All of those pains leftover from bowling……..

I Got A Wii!

That’s all that I can say right now. I got a Wii. I looked and looked and when I was least expecting it, I came across one at Wal-Mart. It’s amazing! I want to play Wii all the time.

 

What to do first?

It has been one of those ‘Manic Mondays’ where things are just not right and there are two many things going on. I guess it is part of my fault since I have been taking Fridays off, but that isn’t really my decision. If I could take another vacation, I would. But it is impossible. And then, I may have to come in on Friday just for an hour or two to make sure some techs are comfortable in my building. So much for a vacation day.

It is also one of those days, were everyone is pointing out all of my flaws. It is a Monday, where I got to the Post Gazette and start looking at the job postings and wondering if any of these jobs are worth even applying for. It is a Monday where one of the jobs looks interesting, pays more than what I currently make, but the qualifications are muddy and unclear. I wonder if I have the skills to do that job or would I just be expanding myself to sound good to be only put in a worse situation than I am now.

Its not that I hate my job - I dislike many aspects of my job right now. I dislike the fact that I have to get every little thing approved that I do, but it is seen as being annoying. I dislike the fact that when I try to be more proactive and assertive in making decisions, it is seen as being overaggressive and ill-advised and that my boss needs to approve these things. I dislike the fact that I have to recall things I learned 6 months ago, but I haven’t had to recall them until now and I don’t remember. It’s my fault that I don’t remember any of it. I should have written it down, but I was so busy at the time. I dislike that I’m near tears every time I have to try to bribe people for work because I’m all by myself and Board Members have dropped off the face of the earth after they promised help. I dislike the fact that everyone needs me but yet I’m not supposed to need any of them. I dislike the fact that no one every says thank you any longer. Even for the simple things like changing a password – it would be nice to just hear a ‘thank you’. I dislike that coworkers can say *I’m not doing that, you can do that.* and then they go and place my name on a letter, effectively making me in charge of something that I wasn’t aware that I was going to be in charge of.

I do cool things every once in a while. But those cool things are coming few and far between. I want to do more of those things, but instead I get stuck trying to bribe or sweet-talk, or make nice with people. I spend a lot of time tip-toeing around people because they are so more emotional than me. I spend a lot of time doing more work for others because they are the real drama queens. Real drama queens can make others look like drama queens so they can look like they are perfect princesses.

Ok, I’m off to do more bribery. That’s what I do best!