Author Archives: Heather

colene came over to my hood and we went out for sushi, watched swingers at my place and then went on a mission to find a starbucks still open at 10:30 on a friday night. in the rain. we’re so wild and crazy.

and fun was had by all.

every day, i learn something new. every day, i get a little more efficient. every day, i get a little more comfortable. every day, my list of long term tasks needing doing to catch me up gets a little longer and i’m really glad she still hasn’t returned to work for if i see her face, i may have to shove an optical test unit up her ass.
grr.

my C++ final was tonight. cross your fingers that i passed, please.

instead of sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself any longer, i went to the casino last night and won $103.75.

i’m so fucking lonely it feels like dying.

oh. my. god. did i have such the good time last night in celebration of my bestest meghan’s birthday. we drank many martinis (her many more than i), talked to many people, made many different kinds of fools out of ourselves, and even managed to phone a boy i know and make him join us in the fun.
i really do love the martinis. cheers!

have i mentioned that TAIP doesn’t seem to have done any work in the last year? every time i turn around i’m finding something that’s piled up or been left to atrophy. things i’ll have to fix. today, both my supervisor and manager had little chats with me to check in and make sure i know that they are remorseful for the situation i’ve inherited.
honestly, it’s not bugging me so much. what is bugging me is that she spent so much time telling me how organized, efficient and skilled she was (translated: “you can never replace me.”) and how she wanted to leave me with a “clean slate” (translated: “HAH! my desk may be clean, but just you wait until you actually look in the drawers!”) when she was such an utter and complete dog-fucker. i’m so busy learning new things and trying to deal with each thing as it comes across my desk, through my email or in my voicemail that i don’t have any real time to dwell on the enormity of the things i need to do to fix it all. i even managed to solve a couple problems today and it has boosted my confidence a bit.
oh, yeah, TAIP called in sick today. i’m sure her new bosses are going to just love her.

i just thought i’d let you know that thanks to dj ariz0na, three cans of diet pepsi and a healthy dose of my father’s tenacity, i got my homework done. too bad it took until almost midnight to do it.
holy fuck i’m tired.

day one without my TAIP: halleluyah! i learned more about the overall scope and the why’s and how’s of the things we do in an hour and a half with Debbie than i did in all of last week.
of course, i also discovered that she doesn’t seem to have done anything in the last five years as there is at least a week’s worth of overtime (that’s 40 hours, people) just to get things up to an even starting point. heh. and i thought i was tired already.
and i haven’t even mentioned the paperclips. no, you really don’t want me to tell you about the paperclips. i’m not kidding.
my manager has started to apologize to me for all the work i’m going to have to do to clean up TAIP’s mess. good. maybe i’ll get my whiteboard out of the deal. i really want a whiteboard.
in other news, i have homework to do. tomorrow is my last class and the week after that is the final. yippee! no more C++! good thing, seeing as i’ll be working all those extra hours. ;)
too much caffeine, sorry. short, blurty sentences. oh, did i tell you i had sushi and edamame for dinner? damn, that shit is good. hm. i think i should stop drinking the Diet Pepsi. i’m a tad hyper. time to put on the ariz0na and get to work.

while i wait for my hair to dry and my rotini to cook, i guess i should work on that weekly update i promised you on Thursday.
strangely, and completely out of character, my super-busy week has carried over into a super-busy weekend. friday night was probably the only downtime the entire two days. just a short list of the things i’ve accomplished this weekend:
– laundry
– grocery shopping
– xmas shopping
– xmas decorating
– cleaning floors
– washing many dishes
– making candles
– taking many pictures
– dusting
– finally putting last three boxes away
– organizing storage closet
– present wrapping
– fried rice cooking
there’s more, but i did say a short list. honestly, i haven’t felt very comfortable just sitting around at all. it’s like i’m someone else. someone who shakes their rugs out and puts up xmas lights and has a bubble bath. i don’t know this person. who is she and what is she doing in my apartment?

that’s enough about my other, June Cleaver-esque personality. my first week on the new job. well, it was definitely something different than what i’m used to. i’ve already moaned about the increase in working. seriously, i didn’t actually realize just how little i was doing, or rather just how efficient i’d gotten, in my previous position. this job is going to seriously challenge me on many levels.
firstly, it’s much more physical. instead of having my ass parked in the chair all day i’m up and down stairs all the time. this is not a negative. this will give me QUADS OF STEEL which is a good thing. then there’s the lifting, shifting and general carrying of tools, parts, uniforms, files, etc. there could be quite a bit of that.
secondly, i have to deal with many, many people. PEOPLE. other human beings who won’t just drop things off and pick things up, but people who will come to me and demand ANSWERS and SOLUTIONS and STUFF. part of this dealing with people involves the having of one of the fancy phones and voice mail. voice mail. i have voice mail at work. i can’t avoid the people by hiding in the file room. they can leave me messages. this… i’m not sure how i feel about this yet. ask me after this week. the person i’m replacing (henceforth known as The Annnoying Incompetent Psycho, or TAIP) did most of the phone answering last week. it was her way to control the situation just a little longer, you see.
thirdly, there is just SO MUCH WORK. oh my god, the work. it’s unfathomable. piles of it everywhere. you think i’m exaggerating. i’m not! when i got there on Monday, there were literally PILES of it on the desk. thankfull, thanks to TAIP’s inability to properly train me, i managed to get most of it filed away (because that’s all i’m good for to TAIP: doing crap filing so she didn’t have to). not only is there a lot of work, it’s a lot of different work. paperwork, tool work, more tool work, uniform work, safety documentation work, filing work.
i’m making it sound like it’s all overwhelming and horrible. well, it’s not horrible, but it was certainly overwhelming. i attribute most of that to the complete and utter frustrating ineptitude of TAIP to answer my questions or properly convey the why’s, how’s and where’s of the job. as told to me by my new officemate, Sean, TAIP has never once fully trained anyone to do her job. he surmises that is her means to maintain control. by the end of the week i had to agree with him. it’s a way to make herself look better: “hey, no one can replace me. this job is so complicated and complex that only *i* can do it!”.
additionally, i think she’s just incapable of letting go of her unbearable negativity about EVERY FUCKING THING. seriously, i can handle being bombarded by buckets of new information, emergencies disrupting the training time and all those stairs. what was going to get to me by the end of the week was her passively agressive attitude. luckily, i had Debbie to vent to and both she and Sean were so understanding and supportive of the experience. they just kept telling me that i’d be deprogrammed next week. indeed, that’s what’s going to happen. they’re going to re-train me to do most of the things TAIP either glossed over or showed me once or didn’t show me at all.

i make it sound so doomy and gloomy. i don’t mean to, but there were a lot of big, new, scary, annoying things about the week. of course, they were tempered by the cool, fun, interesting, challenging things. filed under cool things were my new safety shoes! ohmygod. these are the most comfy shoes i have ever owned right out of the box. who knew that steel toed shoes came in sneaker styles? i certainly didn’t. i also never expected them to be comfortable as all get out. i would love to get a non-steel-toed pair just for the rest of my life, they’re so great.
other neat things included meeting a bunch of people whose names i’ve known for the last seven years but hadn’t yet seen their faces, getting to go up to my old desk to work on the website one last time, going out for lunch with my new departmental co-workers, and discovering my new supervisor is pretty damn cool.
i was so nervous at the beginning of the week. i was convinced i had chosen incorrectly. that i should have stayed where i was comfortable and safe. where i didn’t have any stress or worry. where i knew everything and everything was manageable. i was wrong. this job, once i get over the learning hump, is going to be great. i needed this challenge. i can already feel a difference. i may be exhausted and need a lot more recharging in my off hours, but i’m happy. i’m practically giddy, even. i can actually see potential now. not only in my work life, but in my personal life, too.
it’s new and it’s good. i don’t know what i was so worried about. ;)

you get two photos tonight because i feel guilty for doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, washing dishes and watching before sunset instead of actually communicating with anyone.
i have worked harder this week, both physically and mentally, than i have in years. i’ve barely had the energy to climb the stairs home, let alone try to document or relay the experience. i hope that a re-settled home environment and a good night’s sleep friday will restore some energy for non-work-related human interaction.
teasers: safety shoes, passive-aggressive bullshit, supervisors, uniform follies.

one day i won’t be so boring. i hope. i’ll have an overview of the first week of the new job this weekend, i think.
good thing for the D70, so y’all have pictures to look at, huh?

home from work. off to school. dear god, is it really only tuesday?

i didn’t die, but i just might kill the woman training me.

i’m scared shitless about going to work tomorrow, but i’m even more scared to talk about being scared shitless about going to work tomorrow.

this morning, i’m going to the cenotaph with my dad to honour the veterans who fought and died for my freedom. the weather is looking lovely, so i expect to take many photos of the vets in their poppies.
this afternoon, i’m going to do some running around and a little bit of housework.
tonight, i’m going to the island to visit my mom.
that’s all. have a good weekend, you.