Kevin's Watch

I feel everyone on the job front. There has got to be something better than what I'm doing now. It's not the worst job by a long shot. I genuinely make a difference in people's lives, and I can work overnight shifts so I can stay home with my son during the day. Seems like a great gig, but I crave mental stimulation. Unfortunately, I am stuck for a long time with this job. The medical assistant thing didn't pan out as I had hoped. Which is too bad; I really liked sticking people with needles.

I've been thinking of becoming a hair stylist. Creativity in the job, I'd be able to wear my hair whatever color I wanted, I wouldn't have to hide any tattoos. But I'd eventually get tired of that, too.

Work sucks. We should get paid for being on the Watch.

JazFusion wrote:We should get paid for being on the Watch.

Oy. I can think of a few people who would be MUCH more well to do. Interestingly, many of the ones I know personally tend to have liberal political views, so one has to wonder if the sudden influx of wealth from their Watch ominpresence would shift their economic policy leanings rightward.

Hey, I'll take whatever you're offering if you're going to pay for being on the Watch...hourly or per post?

Good vibes to the unhappy workers. I'm constantly reminded to be glad about how much I enjoy my job and the place I work at. (Of course, it took me over a year to find a job where I thought I'd be happy. I was just lucky that I could afford to be picky about it.)

--A

Maybe we could exchange our WGD for dollars like in a casino. Cue the rise of Avatar, Sgt Null and others to playboy status...

Cambo wrote:Maybe we could exchange our WGD for dollars like in a casino.

My understanding is that the Watch did have a casino at one point, but I heard it had something to do with either the site crashing or the disappearance of the original WGDs. I think it was before I joined the Watch, or I never paid attention to it while it was there.

Cambo wrote:Maybe we could exchange our WGD for dollars like in a casino. Cue the rise of Avatar, Sgt Null and others to playboy status...

hell if i could get paid for tokes (mallorys) julie and i could move back to new hampshire.

good news on the job - i am working three days overtime next week. i will be at work 11 straight days but should gross 9 bills for it. one of my coworkers has been cashing in on the ot, but has burned out on it. i just want that sweet $$$. bout damn time something worked for me at work.

and though i likely have no shot whatsoever - i am going to inquire about the law library job. supposed to have a degree, but i was told today you can substitute work experience for it. i will be turned down quickly, but i want them to know i am looking for another job there. if a friend of mine were to get it i would talk her into letting me be the law library c/o.

the problem with all of this? i love being a supervisor (sergeant) - i have worked hard for my bars and would hate to lose them. if the captain leaves and a certain sergeant takes her slot - i would love to be the commissary sergeant. i would need to learn the computer work, but i have done the job before. i still have the plaque they made me at ramsey when i was the commissary manager.

at times i miss my old unit, but i am so much closer to home and it has been a year and half since i left. i am hoping to at least visit when i am inservice. (school) i am conceited enough to believe some people must miss me there.

we always wish for what we have lost though.

Ain't it the truth, Sarge. Ain't it the truth. Some days I think about how much fun my old career was. Ah well, I'm not sure I could keep up any more -- too many years of sitting on my lazy butt in front of a computer since then.

Can't remember whether I shared this at the time or not (if I did, just chalk it up to early Alzheimer's ): one morning, a few weeks ago, I was walking to my desk and thinking about the mind-numbingly boring day ahead, and I actually said aloud to myself, "I can't keep doing this." (Luckily there weren't any co-workers nearby to overhear! ) That was when I more or less decided to make a push for the writing career to take off. I'm eligible for early retirement in eight years; the sooner I replace my income, the sooner I can quit. It's worth a shot, anyhow.

Go Sarge! Go Ali!

You rock! (and everyone else, of course)

sgt.null wrote:we always wish for what we have lost though.

So true.

I'm tired. We ripped apart a good portion of the copy center today and revamped it. My main partner in this venture has been this girl Caitlin that works the copy center most of the week and today I must say she was great. I am loving the way it looks and how we are organizing it. Of course there is still crap everywhere because it's all stuff we pulled out of places it didn't belong and we need to go through it and figure out what it is and if we can't figure that out we will end up just throwing it away. I am rapidly becoming ruthless. Tomorrow's big project will be to round up all the open specialty packages of things like business cards, labels, postcards etc and organizing them all. That's pretty much going to take up my whole day. And yes, Sorus, I know there is still a long way to go but look at the colored paper display when you get in tomorrow. I think it looks gorgeous. I organized it all in rainbow fashion and made new labels printed on the matching colored paper for each type with the weight, color description, item number and price and then laminated them and cut them so they all look uniform and totally professional. I'm also pleased with the enthusiasm that people seem to be having towards the organization process and results.

I did have to school one guy today. He was helping a customer and after he was done he left the paper he had been printing her stuff on in the printer bypass tray. I called him back to the copy center and said, "You haven't finished with your customer's job completely yet." He looked confused and asked if she was still there. I told him that she wasn't but his portion of the job wasn't finished yet and to please look around and see if he could see what remained to be done. He was still confused and so I said, "Check the source tray you used for her printing." He saw that he had left excess paper in there and immediately put it away and was overly apologetic. I told him that leaving paper lying around in piles was one of my worst pet peeves and that the job wasn't finished until he was done putting everything away or cleaning up the cutting scraps etc. He promised to make a point of "finishing" the job properly and because this particular employee is a bit OCD from my initial observation I think he might follow up in the future. I was nice about it and was smiling as the conversation happened and I used my best coaching manner which seemed to go over well and at the end I said, "AWESOME, here's a high five for the perfect job I know you will do next time."

On other notes, Russell was laughing at me when I was showing off some of the new stuff to Gilbert. I asked him what was so funny and he told me it was weird to see someone so excited about the copy center and so proud of the stuff they were doing. He followed it up by telling me he thought it was really cool, but still "weird." I find that inspiring to myself on one level but sad on another. I want to motivate and have my enthusiasm catch and inspire my peeps but I find it sad that it's so "weird" that they haven't had that sort of experience before. And on that note I realize how much I have changed since my first stint at this store. I am suddenly aware of how much Ashlee motivates her people for excellence and how much I took away from that experience and how much it affected my attitude towards my job. Interesting. Hmmm... must think more on this. Not that I think I haven't always had somewhat of a positive attitude in general, I know I get frustrated and pissed and angry but I think for the most part I generally snap back and go positive again and I don't think I am wrong on this because I remember something Lucimay said to me a long time ago and this is NOT her words just my take on her meaning, she called me a faerie princess because I keep finding a way to light up my own world no matter what even when I am the one dragging myself down.

Ok, more than enough for now. Thanks for listening. I love you guys.

that is pretty much the gist of it faerie princess!

note to self: say more profoundly affecting things to jenn. she's the only one who ever listens!!

She also said something else that I remember about being a faerie princess and it was that she loved that I could live in the moment, as I showed her with unadulterated joy over the silliest thing which was how I had wound my orchid looking faerie light string up through my massive banana tree and how it made my apartment look ethereal. Ok, Lucimay, when is our next "date?"

Thank god it's friday.

Still, on the plus side, Spring has definitely sprung. It's t-shirt weather again finally. This has been the coldest winter we've had in years.

--A

Avatar wrote:

Still, on the plus side, Spring has definitely sprung. It's t-shirt weather again finally. This has been the coldest winter we've had in years.

--A

here.......

Spring sprang
Summer sprung
Autumn now appears
and
Winter looms.
(with no furnace)

we have no heat for the winter - too much to fix teh system. so for the second year, space heaters and sweaters.

I am telling you guys: look for an apartment with all utilities included.

We're into our first cold snap. It was so nice to put on yoga pants and a jacket this morning and not die of suffocation.

Had a physical this morning -- everything seems fine, but I'll know for sure when the bloodwork comes back, I guess. Anyhow, I decided to take the whole day off -- what the hell, it's Friday, right? I discovered the main library for the county is right behind my doctor's office, so I stopped there and got a couple of books. Then I took the bus back to my neighborhood, stopped at our library branch for another book. Then I had lunch. Then I came home and read and knitted a little bit, and took a nap. Now we're waiting for pizza.

This is all soooo much better than last night, when I was sitting here at my desk, thinking about getting ready for bed, and Magickmaker called on her way home from work: "Soooo, there are absolutely no parking spaces left in the lot and nothing on the street and I don't know how to parallel park anyway. Could you maybe come down and move your car...?" And I did it, because I am a) of the belief that mothers sometimes sacrifice for their kids and b) a sucker. Took me probably 20 minutes to find sort of a spot on the street. Then I had to hurry up this morning and move the car. I'd better get some karma points out of that...

What you need to do is teach that kid how to parallel park.... sucker!

We kicked some more ass in the copy center today. I gathered up all of Ryan's stashes of open packs of labels, cards etc. and ended up having Sorus scan them and see what could still be sold and took the rest and chucked it out. It felt good. In fact I shredded a bunch of it. When I made the decision to do that, Caitlin was like, "Oh Hell yes!" Caitlin kicked some butt on getting the correct papers put in the right spots and sorted and she also went and made spots for and filled papers that we are supposed to have but didn't. Yes, it's still a work in progress but the progress has been awesome. I walked a couple of people through the end of day ups shipping process and so we have that back in place. Now I have two days off and tomorrow it's chores in the morning then hanging with Julie, Heatherly and Terry in the evening. We haven't had a girl night with the four of us in almost two years. I am seriously looking forward to that. I wants it. I needs it... precioussss... girl time. Then on Sunday it will hopefully be nice so BGB and I can take the mooseman to the beach as usual and then I was thinking of making a big batch of something to snack on for lunches next week. I'm going to make my infamous beef stroganoff at Julie's tomorrow and I'm thinking of making some cherry trifle as well. I'll see how inspired I am by the time I head over.

I did have a moment of annoyance this morning. I tagged my card on the subway and I had purchased a monthly pass that included "in city" BART. My card red flagged with see attendant and so I went to the window and he told me my card was out of funds. I said, "I paid the money for the unlimited use monthly pass including in city BART" and he argued with me, kept telling me "not according to his scantool." He cleared the red flag and I said, "fine, I'm going to try it again before I pay more money." He kinda gave me a look like, "stupid girl, go ahead, make an ass of yourself." and low and behold the card started working again. So it's good that the card is working but I wasted almost ten minutes at the attendant window. Ugh.

julie is sick has to take lasix. excess water build up causing pain in her legs. also on an antibiotic.

a/c went out - repairman got it running (needed cleaning and freon) but we are looking at 8 grand to replace.

plumber came by - all our plumbing will be around 3 grand when done. - that is good news.

now have to find a cheap contractor to do the work the plumber doesn't.

we are headed in the right direction.

Get better soon, Julie!

Ali, tell Magicmaker that parallel parking is a basic skill she should have learned in drivers ed.

Mani wasn't feeling himself for a couple of days. The house had messes here and there from him. So much so that I took yesterday afternoon off to pick up a bit after him. Then, I glance at the basement well window and see a nice round hole in it where it looks like the mower threw a stick through it. So this morning will be involved in replacing it.

I was thinking about going up to Wisconsin for the day as a scouting trip for a larger expedition next month, but I mislaid my main key ring. That is the one which has the key to my grandmother's old place on it. That I haven't found the keyring after a day and a half is starting to irritate me. In the time window that I lost it I wasn't doing anything other than cleaning up after Mani and fiddling around with the a new ham radio I had bought with the intention of using in the car, so it can't have gone far. But as a result of its loss, the run up north is off until next weekend.

YAHOOOOO

I'M GETTING A FURNACE !!! (minus the 1000 deductible.) Thank you FEMA! One thing off my mind.