30 posts tagged “work”

I KNOW I KNOW.

..did you notice?

In an all-hands meeting this morning, the question was raised about work-from-home and alternative work-schedules (9x9, 4x10, etc), doubtless because gas is so expensive.  Our exec director hedged a bit, but it was clear that he wasn't a big fan.  I'm not especially timid.  i raised my hand and explained that few groups at our company have ever really tried it.  Those who have haven't kept good records of impacts to productivity, efficiency, sick or personal time, morale, not to mention the reduced commute and its affect on air pollution.  I explained that my goal is to get cars off the road, and anything, any little bit, helps.  I explained that work-from-home is not the only possible option, in fact it's the one most likely to be rejected outright... that a shortened work-week is another more employer-friendly option. 

Our ED said he'd think about it. 

Realizing that this was a Level 2 Brush-off, I went right back to my desk and put together a quick email, thanking him for taking this under consideration, offering any help I could provide toward his research, and expressing how much I look forward to our company's contributions to environmental health.

Later in the day I had an opportunity to chat with my managers and my director;  I was reassured that not only was the ED in fact taking this consideration seriously, he thought I was well-reasoned and articulate when I spoke in the meeting.  YAY!  that's the best compliment ever!

I'm shooting the moon here;  our company is huge, and changing the way it works isn't something I can do in a 45 minute meeting.  But maybe they'll throw me a bone and get me some real recycling bins!

OH MY FUCKING GOD.  the easiest (and only obvious) use of this tool is to drive me completely OUT OF MY MIND. It's some ridiculous windows client for managing Blah blah blah blah blah that everyone in my company is so concerned about BUT NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO FUCKING USE IT*. the ease of 'drag and drop' is totally undermined when you have to search thru fifteen billion goddamn panels and highlight and search and supply wildcards and cant copy and paste and there's always some fucking 'modify' button seven panels back you forgot to click- so you can't change anything even when you've got your umpteen thousand windows lined up....

I hate.. HATE.. hate this tool.  I dread it, every day.  i'm dreading it NOW and i'm NOT EVEN FUCKING FINISHED WITH TODAY YET!

Whoever invented it, i'm going to find you and DESTROY YOU.  seriously.

*and thus, no one DOES use it and the blah blah blah that everyone's so uptight about is wrong and no one finds out until it's just us and them and the work has to be done by 5am and all these people have screwdrivers and no idea where to put them.  Jesus.  H.   CHRIST.

i love the command line.  sweet, sweet command line.

Hi! As you may know, i finally begged hard enough to get recycling bins placed in the lunchroom at our place of employment. Wow!  Unfortunately, good things take time and until we can find a company to pick up and properly dispose of our recyclables, we've got to manage this ourselves. 

So far, the offers to help drop this stuff off have been slow coming in.  real slow.  as in, none at all.  But it's cool, I know not everyone has the kind of time I have, and maybe they don't know where to find a recycling center, or how to sort things, and they're probably not already headed that way once or twice a week.  I'm not gonna be a martyr about this whole thing because it's really not that much trouble for me to collect the stuff at work and carry it off to be recycled with the stuff I'm already toting from home.

In fact, I'm really thrilled at your enthusiasm!  Man! those bins fill up TWICE a week!  at least! and gosh, who brought in the phone books, and all those old Good Housekeeping magazines??  That's amazing... that you would.. bring your stuff in from home, just so that it makes its way out to the recycling bin.. via me!  I'm not sure if you realize you probably drove by a couple recycling centers in the course of bringing those into work.. but.. you know.  you probably did.  (in case you think you might want to stop and drop those things off on your own next time...  benefitting the world AND snatching your own warm-fuzzy-world-saving-feeling the process)

Now, i realize you're all very enthusiastic.. Recycling seems very cosmopolitan and hip, and all, and you just want to recycle ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! But the sad truth is, not everything can be recycled.  Paper towels.. can't be recycled...not even if they're clean... not even if they're shoved really hard into the bottom of a paper cup.   nor plastic bags, coffee stirrers, zinger wrappers, bubble wrap, ziplocs, cling wrap, and the clingy plastic thing from your lean cuisine.. these things cannot be recycled.  If you're not sure, you may want to consult the sign next to the recycling bins, indicating what may and may not be recycled.  Maybe you didn't see it when I posted it three weeks ago.. but look again! i assure you it's there.

In fact, there is an easy way to tell if many plastics are recyclable or not (besides reading the sign).  The recycling authorities have developed a cute little triangle icon, to indicate if something can be recycled.  in the middle is a number.. 1-thru-7.   if your plastic thing has such a triangle, it's recyclable! and if it doesn't.. it's not. and you should consider buying an alternative brand of whatever that product is, to support earth friendly packaging.

I really appreciate how gung-ho you are about all this.  we're all going to make a difference........! 

i don't feel like blogging.

i'm in day two? three? of the miscellaneous and unexplained $ailment that $prescribedDrug recently has stopped curing.  I have an appointment with a $physician on monday.  My $otherPrescribedDrug has been doubled at the advice of my $otherPhysician.  I expect to see the results of this in a couple of weeks.  I'm really looking forward to the thin feeling, and the burst of energy that makes me want to vacuum and file important documents. because i've got some stuff to file.

Night work is tough.

Night resets a person, makes one day distinct from the other.  Not participating in night makes everything feel like one really long day, with some naps and shift changes.  by last night.. or was it this morning? I was ready for it to be over.

Gosh it would be nice to lay in bed without my heart pounding and a 80-hour day replaying itself in my head in all its glorious minutae. Gosh it would be nice to go to sleep all at once like a soft kitty or a well-fed infant.

I painted my nails an outrageous and shiny pink that makes me think of T-honey.  She know who she is.

I'm not going to the i-can't-believe-it's-not-a-masters-class.  Why? i have no partner and what's the point of being critiqued while dancing with an intermediate?  I'd rather spend the hour or whatever laying on the floor hearing my heartbeat in my ears and making small talk with my adorable cat and a strand of pink beads.

Bead_bead_leroy_brown

they match my nails.

Well it's been a while.  I have no excuses, really... as usual i'm just lazy and uninspired.

thing 1)   I'm taking vitamins.  I sought help from a nutritionist, to help me lose the XX lbs i've gained since moving south of the mason-dixon, AND (lest i forget) to help me find a peaceful happy space in my body chemistry to come off of the assorted drugs keeping me standing upright and looking and feeling mostly human.  the jury is still way out, but i'm liking the probiotic and adrenal supplements best, so far.  If anyone has thoughts on nutritional supplementation, I'm all ears.

thing 2) I start the night shift, tonight at 9pm.  for two months I'll be a certified member of the undead.  I have no idea what my sleep schedule will be, when I'm going to take the (see thing 1) fistfills of pills that keep me in motion, when I'm going to dance, run, drink gin, take private lessons, hit the gym, kiss my boyfriend, etc.  Normally this would throw me into a tailspin, my schedule a shambles and all, but i'm actually looking forward to it.  I've never done it before, should be interesting.

thing 3) I was in atlanta this weekend dancing in a fast-dance/aerials workshop. It was lots of fun.. I had some great dances, as expected.  The car rides to and from atlanta were probably my favorite.. there are some hysterically funny people in Nashville that I just genuinely like a lot. 

The workshop was ok... I could have done with a faster paced aerials class.  It would be nice to be 25 and in perfect shape and throwing perfect aerials with the perfect partner, but then while I'm at it, it would also be nice to have a great president and lots of alternative fuels and peace in the middle east.  Life's a bitch.

I cannot shake the feelings that the dancers in atlanta just hate me.  I really can't.  I'm sure there's another different colored pill I can take for this sudden obsessive paranoia.. but it really doesn't bug me enough to do more than just whine about it.  The little still-sane pieces of my brain remind me that they probably just don't care either way about me.. (which is still irritating.. i'm used to being a lot more popular than that).  It's disappointing that no one down south in any way anticipates my presence at events, the way for instance people in Sac or LA or whatever did whenever i was making a trip, back in what by comparison would be considered my 'heyday'.

I guess this is the consequence of totally investing myself in a hobby so completely entrenched in youth, vigor, skill, athleticism.. all things that necessarily pass away with age, and gravity (...death and taxes...)  There's always someone younger and better, and there's a lot more of them now than there used to be.

thank god for scrabulous.

i'm so freaking thrilled about my new job.  my brain is, like, on fire with awesome.  I'm learning again..!  it's like college again! I spent my first week taking notes, then I went on vacation for 10 days, and expected to lose all of it with some help from gin and jinkies.  haha.

but no, i didn't lose a step.. I was super motivated all week, learned a ton, and I'm actually comfortable on one or two very-low-level tasks.  After spending so much time in a job where i didn't actually DO anything, it's a joy to actually deal with something from start-to-finish, and call it done.

When i was expressing all this to one of my coworkers, he was actually laughing to see so much enthusiasm... I am not sure he remembers the last time someone that enthusiastic worked in the vicinity.  I just can't help it, i'm positively GIDDY.

PLUS and PS and BY THE WAY.. we have recycling bins in the office now (i bugged my boss repeatedly).  Oh Yeahhhhh!  I stayed an hour later than our early-release time (i love my company) in order to make 'Mixed Paper', 'Cardboard', and 'Plastic/Metal & Aluminum' labels for the new bins. 

AND i just played a bunch of really awesome scrabulous words on facebook.

Now for the completely off-the-wall... My mom sent me a build-a-bear.  No shit.  with sparkly sunglasses and ponytail holders on its little bear wrist.  anyone else think what-the-fuck??

happy father's day to everyone's daddy.  Most especially, happy fathers day to MY daddy, i love love love you and i miss you hella. I'll call you in a bit so you can open your gifts before whatever is inside dies because there are no air holes in the box.

So

a) tomorrow morning at 7am I start a new job.  I will have my fingers on many important buttons.  No longer will I be bored, sitting at my desk at 5:45 pm counting the seconds until 6pm releases me to a world of crappy classes at the gym.  No-- I'll be off at 4ish, and I've got my whole gym-agenda set.  And important buttons? Reponsibility?  Fuck yes.

b) Yesterday was fab.  I did the 'Ellie's run for Africa' 5k.. Cool and a bit rainy, the weather was GREAT.  My time wasn't terrific, but there were some challenging hills, and I was running with a newbie.. a dance friend, Antsy. (she held back the whole race and then sprinted at the end and beat me by 1 second, how's that for awesome?? [paybacks are a bitch])

c) after the race Antsy and I went for breakfast at Fido. Yum.  Vegetarians, ho!  We had the village burrito with portobella mushrooms, eggs, feta cheese, etc.  and the Spuds McCheesy, and a big fake sausage patty.  It was all divine.  Sorry I didn't think to take a picture until my plate was empty!

Audacity

d) after breakfast we sat on Antsy's tailgate talking about random stuff and watching the rain.  Then we drove to Borders and fondled the books. In particular I fondled me some Barack Obama. (don't we look sweet together?)  Sorry ladies, it doesn't come with centerfold, a la Teen Beat, to stick on your wall.

But a girl can dream.

e) I did a little shopping.  Bought some new socks (socks! FTW!) and two new CD's (Dresden Dolls 'No Virginia' and Panic at the Disco's Pretty. Odd)  New headphones to match the super music phone I'm playing with, and when it's out in the market I will be telling you how much I LUV it.  Really, very impressed.  (and i'm never impressed by cellphones)  

f) just spent some time napping.  It's really too hot to be doing anything. Ew Ew.  My kingdom for an apartment with good insulation and a rockin AC.

g) this week is going to be insane.  In addition to all the juicy new classes I can take at the gym, I've got at least one private dance lesson. Topic:  Aerials.  for the uninitiated that means my feet leave the floor, ass over teakettle.  Yes, in this heat.  Tuesday is a hip-hop dance class, and I'd really love to get out to the honky tonks at least one night this week, to work on my fast dance. Then, friday morning I fly to Cali, and Pebbles's wedding is that night.  I'll be reunited with some of my very best Bay Area buds. 

h) I'm not even going to begin talking about where and what i'm doing in Cali.  I'll just say, for those who are keeping up:

Swing Central
Tin Cup at Le Colonial
TBA.

Brian [1:03 PM]:
 by the way, i've crossed my personal line. I now am absolutely sure IMHO that all the candidates SUCK, and all are playing politics and NONE are worth my vote so I don't know what I will do now
Kat [1:05 PM]:
 give you a dollar to vote for obama
Brian [1:05 PM]:
 screw that, a buck cant even buy my attention
Kat [1:06 PM]:
 how much would it take?
Brian [1:06 PM]:
 hellla much lotta more
Kat [1:06 PM]:
 *whine*
Brian [1:06 PM]:
 oh, yeahhhh, definitely whining works. I dont get enough of that in my life.
Brian [1:07 PM]:
 Don't forget I am a lowely male in the presence of xtreme hormones
Kat [1:07 PM]:
 i am totally nonhormonal
 i deserve at least a 10% price break for your vote
Brian [1:07 PM]:
 well thank god for you
 lol
 ok, u got me there
Kat [1:08 PM]:
 thanks.
Brian [1:08 PM]:
 yw
 the latest is this joke of a farm bill and the "farmers" bandwagon they are all trying to pander too.
Kat [1:09 PM]:
 i hate farmers.  can i have your vote?
Brian [1:10 PM]:
 if you write 50 times "I hate corporate farmers" than you may, yes
Kat [1:10 PM]:
 do you PROMISE
 b/c i will make you cast it for Whoa!bama
Brian [1:11 PM]:
 for now, I promise. Subject to change upon contest rules.
Kat [1:11 PM]:
 WHOABAMA!
 yeahhh!
 ok i'll get moving
Brian [1:11 PM]:
 yeah, before I change my mind
Kat [1:11 PM]:
 50x
Brian [1:11 PM]:
 yeah, 50
Kat [1:13 PM]:
 only 38 more to go
Brian [1:13 PM]:
 hurry
Kat [1:15 PM]:
 25
Brian [1:15 PM]:
 good work, and fast too
Kat [1:19 PM]:
 done!
Brian [1:19 PM]:
 alright, prove it
Kat [1:20 PM]:
 ok sent

Ihatecorporatefarmers

Brian [1:21 PM]:
 ROFL
 omg, you really ARE the BEST
Kat [1:21 PM]:
 i really, really are.
Brian [1:22 PM]:
 really really are
 haha, i cant erase this!!!
Kat [1:22 PM]:
 so don't
Brian [1:22 PM]:
 i wont
Kat [1:22 PM]:
 save! save it!
 you can frame it with your pic of obama taking office
Brian [1:23 PM]:
 youve really gone above and beyond on behalf of your beliefs and I,as your friend, admire your firtitude on behalf of your belief and also, your integrity and therefore you have won my support
Kat [1:23 PM]:
 OMG SRS?
 OMG THIS ROCKS
Brian [1:23 PM]:
 of course im serious
Kat [1:24 PM]:
 that is so rad
Brian [1:24 PM]:
 i knoew you'd do it, and even sans picture if you SAID u did it I would have believed you
Kat [1:25 PM]:
 hahah all obama supporters are to be believed and trusted absolutley
Brian [1:25 PM]:
 well, i'll take THAT statement with a bit of salt
Kat [1:26 PM]:
 hehe

I hate dry oranges.  What the crap.  It looked so perfect and felt heavy and juicy.  It had a sticker.  I bought it in a clean, fancy grocery store in a first-world country.  It peeled perfectly.  Yet, inside, it was dry, cruel, and evil. 

There is a message here.

In other news:

Brian [11:21 AM]:
what should i have for lunch

Kat [11:21 AM]:
money
and cars.

Brian [11:21 AM]:
lol
gee thanks

Kat [11:22 AM]:
haha
i'm in a mood
my script is so freakin good
i want to snuggle it

Brian [11:24 AM]:
lol
rly
wow

Kat [11:24 AM]:
i know
it's THAT good

Brian [11:24 AM]:
look at you. what an employee you are

Kat [11:24 AM]:
i keep tailing its output

Brian [11:24 AM]:
lol
boy you are really into your script

Kat [11:25 AM]:
i get the same feeling as when i pick up my cat and he's purring

Brian [11:25 AM]:
my god
you might be ill

Kat [11:25 AM]:
i KNOW