I need a week off.

I don’t really take vacations. I visit Eddie in Lansing for a weekend or two a year. I have Convergence in July but as fun as that is I wouldn’t call it a completely relaxing experience. The shore isn’t as relaxing and stress free as it was when I was younger. I need one of those don’t go anywhere and putter around the house kind of vacations. Me, the cats, awful TV and no where to be. I have hit my stress limit. Everything is stressing me out and I think a week of sleeping in might just help.


I don’t get that much vacation time and it is tied to my sick time. I can’t afford to take a week off but my tax returns might be just what I need to take the time. I am also moving in March and neeeeed to get my apartment together. I have to decide what I can live without for short-term, long-term and what will go away forever. Taking a week to sort things on my terms will also reduce stress.

Just talked to the boss… It’s just a matter of getting my shifts covered.

updates and my chance to see Eddie

I know I have been absent for a long while my life has been torn upside-down. In the last 2+ months I have filed for divorce, moved out, graduated, took 2 certification tests and taken some much needed time for myself as well as started working at the clinic I did my internship at. These are all good things.

Rob and I are going to be fine… as friends. We talk everyday and txt often. I think he is ready for all of my stuff to be gone from the house but that will happen soon enough. We had a hearing on August 6^th to get the divorce stuff figured out. The Judge signed off and we will be getting the paper work sometime here.

I graduated on June 25^th. On the 26^th I went on the annual vacation with friends and family to the north shore. I have mentioned it here before. We went up on Friday and came home on Tuesday. It was amazing. I got to chill with as my mom puts it “My family of choice”. The Cross-etts (all 8 of them), the Tennessen clan, Roger Doger and last but not least… Lois J. We played Todd ball and sat around the fire. I had the best and most well needed sleep.

We got back on Tuesday and on that Wednesday I checked in to the hotel where Convergence was going to be held. I spent the next 5 days/nights at the hotel getting my geek on. I realized just how much I missed my geeks. I hung out with the gang but also got to hang with my mom my real brother and my little brothers (My mom’s best friends kids) Pack and Andrew. It was great! I can’t wait for next year.

A few week later I went to Nebraska to visit my Grands. It was good to see them I haven’t been down to see them in a while. Mom and I managed to not argue/try to kill each other.. always a bonus.

Last week I spent time in Lansing MI with one of my oldest and closest friends, Eddie. Eddie moved away between 7^th and 8^th grade, after that we wrote each other letters (yes in the days before email). I would write him 10-15 pages at a time. There were times when I would start writing him letters but I never would get around to sending them and those letters turned into my love for free writing and how I have managed to keep journals. Every “journal” entry is started with “Hey You” and always written as if I was writing to Eddie to tell him all the ups and downs of my life and help talk myself through whatever it is that I am dealing with. Eddie and I lost touch but reconnected again and I went to visit him in 2001, it was the first time I had seen him since he moved away in Jr. High. It was a great time and then it was another 8+ years before once of us got it together to visit the other. It’s easy to see that my life has been a rollercoaster this year and I really needed time to spend with one of my best friends. It was great! I got to meet his friends and it was really great to get some faces to match the names.

Our friendship is a very unique one. Our entire relationship is based on communication. Through letters and phone calls. We have always been 100% honest with each other because we don’t know any of the other people, just names. The only concern we have is for each other. There also is no judgment. The good the bad and the ugly, it doesn’t matter. Ours is an unconditional love and I am not talking romantically. I have someone who I can talk freely with without fear of judgment... who knows every ugly secret and it doesn't change how he interacts with me... someone who will not tell me what I want to hear but the truth no matter how much it hurts... That is what is rare and the true meaning of unconditional love. I have been lucky to find that and be able to hold on to it for 20 years.

Finding that oasis in Lansing last week, was an amazing thing. I was able to step back from the worries and stresses that are a part of everyday. The stress of starting a new life and trying to keep my sanity. I didn’t know coming home would hit me as hard as it did. It is tempting to just run away, but that is not the answer to anything.

Oh and by the way I PASSED MY NATIONAL CERT TEST!!! I AM A CVT!

Really? You're How Old?

When did being rude, completely disrespectful and demanding become the normal way to treat other people? I just don’t understand. I work and go to school with people ranging in age from 18-60 and I cannot believe the nerve of some people. They barge in the office, run in to people and don’t even bother to say “excuse me”. Yes it is a maturity thing, not an age thing. I have people barking at me with no regard for what I am doing at the time. I see students falling asleep in class, giving teacher attitude because they aren’t being spoon fed answers and they have to think and look things up on their own. I don’t understand. I understand that the only one affecting my grades is me. My attitude and my willingness to put effort in to my classes are what get me the grades I get. The teachers treat the students like employees in a clinic and students, they should be shown the respect you would give not only a teacher but also a coworker and I don’t see that nearly enough. It’s a failure to see the bigger picture. I get so angry when I see my teachers get attitude from people not willing to put in the effort. Like somehow it’s the teacher’s responsibility to hold the hands of ADULTS who should know by now how to do things on their own. The self-centeredness you see in 3 year olds I see in grown adults.



Ridiculous

Grades are in

I no longer have the revulsion for farm animals and innocent horses that I did a few weeks ago. This came to be only because I am done with those classes. I got my grades today and am beyond happy.

Production Animals - B
Equine - A
Basic Hematology - A
Lab Animals Exotics & Pocket pets - B

This last quarter I learned that I have absolutely no interest in the large animal side of my chosen career. I learned that I might even been ok working in a lab setting. I also feel bad for all those little rodent animals that end up in homes with no understanding of what nocturnal means and for birds that outlive their owners and have nowhere to go or end up in homes where they spend most of their day under a sheet to keep them quiet.

So I may have hated the animals… but I learned a large amount about what I do and do not want to work with.

Fired

I have quit many jobs, I have moved away from jobs, I have been harassed out of jobs and I have even been layed off… but I had never been fired… until today. The kicker is I LOVED that job. This is the first job in my lifetime that I actully question my abilities but I was so eager to learn and be good at it. I guess I wasn’t. I had my 90 days and they told me that I wasn’t up to par so they were taking the option to not keep me on. THAT SUCKS!!!! I called my mom, dad and rob and cried to them as I was driving home. Then mom talked me into going in to school and talk to my teachers (most of whom had worked at one point at this clinic) and they reasured me that my lack of success at being an assistant should not make me rethink my abilities about being a Vet Tech, and in fact one of my favorite techs from the clinic just left to become a teacher at the school and gave me a hug and told me in the long run this is a good thing. That made me feel better and then I found my girls and they all gave me hugs and told me to go get drunk, I love my girls!!!

So here is the plan, I am going to eat guacamole, drink margarits, eat chocolate cheesecake and take the next week off!

Cheers!

Long Term Re-cap part 1

Rob and I are coming up on our second wedding anniversary and in September we will have been together for 4 years. This is best and healthiest relationship I have ever been in. That got me thinking about my past long term relationships and thought it would be fun to hash over.

Here is part one

My first LTR was in high school, his name was Chris he was a year ahead of me and went to a different HS. We were together for 2 years. The last 4 months of our relationship he was away at school. He came home for winter break, we hung out every day did all the things teenagers do when they haven't seen each other in a long time. He went back to school and in the first week of January he calls me up to tell me he thinks we should break up and soon after that I found out he was hooking up with some chick. It was horrible... for me... and for the people who had to be around me (sorry Kate). He even sent Christmas cards to my out of state grandparents that year. He never really gave me a concrete reason why he broke things off that is until 2000. He had tried to contact me before that but I just didn’t have it in me to deal with it. At that point I felt it had been long enough we had both grown up and had been in the real world long enough that maybe we could be friends. We started talking while he was stationed in California somewhere. Things were going fine. I had forgiven him for breaking up with me and then hooking up with Rain. He started asking me about my relationship and giving me unwanted advice (I was with Dan at the time but I will get to him later). Then for whatever reason I will NEVER understand he informed that the reason he broke up with me in HS was for MY OWN GOOD. He felt that I was "too attached", that I "relied" on him for emotional needs Hello??? I loved the guy... in theory he loved me too... we were in a RELATIONSHIP!!!! Yes I know... it was HS but still. He then followed that lovely statement with he had his friend Dylan (who I really was never a fan of) “check up” on me, like drive by my parents house for him. I was being stalked by proxy. I flew off the handle... I had come to terms with the fact that he was just a horny guy states away from his girlfriend why did he have to purge his soul of that? I told him to go to hell and never try to be a part of my life. Chris tried to contact me again year or two after that, he called me from Japan but the answering machine picked up, he was talking so low that it cut him off. I never did find out what he called me about. He is a few years overdue for the “pop in” maybe he got the message that he isn’t meant to be in my life, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did try again.

Finals

All my tests are done. As of right now I have a B in Veterinary Lab Techniques and I got a C in my Interpersonal Relations class. I am kinda disappointed in that C. It is less than 2% away from a B. We get straight grades so the person who got 70.1% in the class got the same C I did at 78.72% . I could have done better on the final so that is my fault.

I am waiting for my Anatomy and Physiology teacher to put her grades in I am crossing my fingers for B’s but I truly have no idea what or when I am going to get in those

The end

I figured it was about time to finish the story. So as the spaghetti sauce is bubbling (thank you Greg!!!) I’ll knock it out.

I finish my night out. I think I talked to Rob and my parents a couple dozen times by the time I finally went to bed. At this point the plan was to wait until Sunday when the four of us got together for pizza to figure out the financials and how long I should give them if I give them any time.

Friday September 14th
On my way in I talked to mom and dad again and Dad and I decided that if I was going to do it I should do it today. I mean why stress myself out over the weekend if we knew I was going to quit. I pulled myself together and convinced myself I was going to give The Boss my notice during the first of our newly implemented “Daily operations meetings”. He comes in we talk over all the things that were going to do to get the paid spots back on track and how great things will be when we all start working together… yeah I chickened out. COMPLETELY. I don’t know why but I couldn’t do it. Well that meeting was at 130 and Rob was still sleeping so I waited to call him at 4 and after talking with him for a bit I decided, fuck it. I was going to find The Boss tell him I would work through September 29th and then I was done. I find him in the mail room and told him that I just couldn’t work here any more. He asked me how long I would give him I told him the time frame and he gets that look and says “you know heather it’s professional to give two weeks.” To that I respond “Yesterday it wasn’t going to be any and the people who’s opinion has the most influence on me still don’t want me to give you that much.”. He mentioned something about me working part for the first week of October because Manger would still be gone and I told him I would think about it but with school it might be tough. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I made my round of calls announcing my reversal of chicken-ness. Then I made the hardest call of the whole ordeal. I called Manager. I knew he wasn’t leaving town until the next morning and I wanted to talk to him before I was gone and before he could hear it from anyone else. That sucked. I like Manager. He wasn’t meant to be a manger he was meant to be a master control op. We were TV people. He had a long time in broadcast TV before public access. We had a great time talking about “real TV” and the fun that only live TV brings out. We both miss it, and we both wanted out. I just got there first. I almost started crying.

That was the worst of it. The next week was smoother then I thought it would be. I made manuals for their next victim with as much information as I could. All the things that they failed to tell me as I started working there. Coworker gave me the best going away gift… he went home sick on Thursday. So my last 2 days were Coworker free.

So that is the end of my life at that job. I am looking for a new job. Hopefully something at a vet clinic. Right now I am enjoying the struggles of being a full time student.

Ahhh… it’s so good to be done.

Downfall Part 3

Thursday September 13th (Happy Birthday Andrew)

I come in to work expecting The Boss to be as angry as I am because we have all these spots to make up. I mean finally something tangible I can point to and say you were told 3 times that things had to be done and you refused and now you have cost us money. But no. When I came and asked if The Boss had talked to Coworker he said no and didn’t understand why he needed to. So I explained again with a timeline of all the added work I have had to do and he agreed to have a sit down. We had our staff meeting first, and Coworker failed to go like he always did. For some reason Coworker gets away with not going to the mandatory weekly staff meetings, I guess if I am there from our department why should he go. Anyway we had the staff meeting and then The Boss agrees to go get Coworker for a meeting about the spots. I finally get to my email and there is a response to the one detailing the issues and he says “thank you for doing that for me I’ll use the software from now on” that flipped me out. I didn’t DO anything FOR him. No sorry for making more work for you, or an explanation as to WHY he didn’t do what he was told to do. I show this to The Boss and he asks me if I am calm enough to have this meeting but I know that if we don’t do it now it will never happen. I did my best to pull myself together and into the meeting we went.

The Boss starts in with the simple questions. How are things with The Manager on vacation. Coworker – great, great we are getting things done. Things are great.
The Boss – and the trade spots they are all airing as scheduled?
Coworker – yep. They are starting tomorrow, so it’s all good. (cheesy double thumbs up)
Me – Um no.
Coworker – what do you mean? They are starting tomorrow.
Me – they started last week but because you didn’t do your schedules like you were told to the spots that were scheduled haven’t aired.
The Boss – and how did that happen.
Coworker went in to some reason about how he didn’t know that they were running. I interrupted and said that he did he was told before he left, and if he had forgotten, if he had read my many emails when he got back he would have also known that. Coworker then said that he was confused on how do things and that it “wasn’t high on his list of priorities” That is when I started shaking. I stood up to get a cup of water in hopes of calming down, yeah that didn’t work. So as I am standing there drinking my water and shaking Coworker asks The Boss why am I so mad, why am I acting like he just slapped me in the face. I asked him if he was so confused why didn’t ask on Monday. His answer? Why didn’t I talk to him about it on Tuesday. Why? Because I mistakenly thought he was doing his job and I didn’t have to check. I was shaking even harder at this point and that is when he said it…
Coworker – you’re crazy, you know that you are fucking crazy.
I turned to The Boss and said I am not going to sit here and listen to this I will be in your office. And I left, I wigged out in The Boss’s office and called Rob crying. I’d had it. I just couldn’t deal. I was literally hiding under The Boss’s desk so that people couldn’t see me from the window in his office. I could hear Coworker yelling about how I fuck up too and that all I am doing is trying to get him fired. After I got Rob all worked up, I called mom and got her all worked up then I called dad. It was after talking to dad that I was given the means and opportunity to quit. So I called Rob back told him what dad said, then there was the conversation, do I walk out? do I give some sort of notice? Should I not quit? The one thing we all wanted me to do was walk in say fuck you and go home. We also knew as great as that would feel it wouldn’t be the smartest thing. So Rob and I agreed we would wait and talk things over, go over to mom and dad’s talk things over with them and then decide. That whole process of phone calls took about 45 minutes all the while Coworker and The Boss were still in the conference room but the raised voices had gone away. I went downstairs to move my car and talk to the girls. A little while later The Boss comes and finds me and asks me to go back upstairs and finish the conversation. But first he has to lecture me about how unprofessional walking out of the meeting was and that all I did was interrupt him. When I asked if things were going to change he said that he was going to do daily meeting with us. As if that was going to help anything. Were there going to be any direct consequences for people not doing there jobs?? “it’s not about who does the job, as long as it gets done” that is when I gave up. It doesn’t matter then Coworker has twice failed to show up for work because things got done. So I just agreed with every thing he said, I would go up and let Coworker apologize bite my tongue. It went just as I thought I’m sorry, lets work together, it’s us against them blah blah blah BLAH!

He went home.. I went back to work and contemplated quitting…

Downfall Part 2

Saturday September 8th
I come in to work. The spots have been edited and I now have to make sure that they get scheduled. I update the programming software and now I need to check the schedules to make sure they landed in the right places. The ones on my channels line up fine, then I check his. Not only do the spots not match up right, but the programs that are scheduled to air this next week don’t match. I had to completely rebuild his stuff not once… but twice because the first time around was just fixing the spots because once again he didn’t use the programming software it wasn’t until I was done with the spots that I noticed the programming wasn’t right. I spent all day Saturday and a good portion of Sunday fixing his “everything is done, through the new software, everything is perfect, you wont even have to look at it while I am gone. It’s great we are all on the same page” shit. Really, why lie? I just don’t understand. I understand being lazy. I don’t understand lying

The rest of the week goes by with out issues, because Manager and I know how to balance out all the work.

Jackass came back on Sunday the 16th. Manager and I did everything up to the 16th but not beyond. Figuring he read the 4+ emails I sent detailing every step of my days spent covering his crap.

Monday, I didn’t work I was taking the first half of my Medical Terminology final.

Tuesday I had class then came in to work. The first day I worked with Coworker and everything seemed to be in order. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk so I stayed in my cube until 4 when coworker leaves for the day.

Wednesday I had the second half of my Medical Terminology final. We got done at 1030 and my friend and I were waiting around until 11 so we could go get Chinese for lunch before I had to head for work. Normally I have class until 11, my cell rings at 1045. I see it’s work and I figure only Manager would be calling and he would only call if it was REALLY urgent. So I answer.

Me - hello?
Coworker – Did I wake you?
Me – no, I’m in class
Coworker – oh I am sorry
Me – what is going on?
Coworker – I can’t find this tape, it airs on Saturday is the Somali Show the same as Mount Olive?
Me – are you kidding me? No they don’t even air on the same channel (one is a Somali news type show and the other is a church service and look nothing alike)
Coworker – Oh
Me – I am hanging up now.

It was WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!! And I was going to kick some major ass if he had called the house, Rob was sleeping because he was on night shift that week and to wake him up for a tape that airs in 3 days. Lucky for him he didn’t. When I got in I pitched a bitch. I learned that manager was even in the building at the time, there was no reason on earth he should have called me. Manager informed Coworker to raise the bar about what it takes to call someone at home. GRRRRRRR

At 7 I was cleaning our computer of old files because I was going to export new ones and I hate having files I don’t need in my on air folders. I open the folders for Coworker’s channels, and they are empty. Now there should have been files for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that would have been exported had he done them through the new software. Nope. So I had to call Manager at home, I figured this warranted a call to someone at home. NONE of the paid trade spots that were scheduled to air aired. Over 30!!!! That I now had to figure out how to make them good with out screwing up my reports. Manager had me delete all the work he had done and write an email detailing what I had found and what Coworker was going to do to fix the situation coping The Boss. You see… Manager was officially on vacation he is scheduled to be gone until October 8th…. Next the day it all went down.

The Start of the Downfall

Wednesday September 5th
I come into work and Manager had called in sick. No big deal. Coworker leaves a note detailing all the work he has done to set things up for the next few days. I think it’s odd, because it sounds like he is setting things up for his vacation but that doesn’t start until Sunday. I know that because it is written on the calendar we keep right in front of us.

Thursday September 6th (Happy Birthday Patrick)
I walk into our area at work and see that things haven’t changed from where I had left them the night before. I ask Manager “where the fuck is Coworker?”. Now mind you I come in to work at 2, coworker is scheduled from 8-4. Manager says, it’s his first day of vacation. Um… no it’s not it starts on Sunday. Manager pull up his vacation request form and hey.. look at that it starts on Sunday. 5 minutes before our weekly staff meeting Manager calls dumbass and informs him he should have been at work. During the staff meeting we come to find out that there 4 trade spots that should have been edited together by now and ready for me to start scheduling. That was the first I had heard of it. Guess who was to do the editing??/ yuppers, dumbass. The Boss says Coworker has had all the pieces to put them together for over a month, when is he going to be in because we need these on the air literally last week as some of the contracts are up at the end of the month. Answer… Sunday the 16th. The boss wigs out and assigns them to someone else so they can on the air by Sunday the 9th. This makes me smile because that might mean Coworker might maybe get in trouble. We get back to MC and there is a message on Manager’s voice mail. “hi, someone called me. I am not sure what’s up… call me back” he either failed to listen to the message or we has playing innocent. Manager calls him back and they have a discussion about the fact that he isn’t on vacation yet and that he has to come in to work on Friday to make up for the fact that he failed to show up and BTW all hell broke loose in the staff meeting because the spots aren’t done. Coworker claims and I quote “I wasn’t sure what days I was to work this week or not and I thought my vacation started today” even though it was written on 3 calendars that we walk past countless times a day. I got EXTREMELY giddy and went in to The Boss’s office and informed him that Coworker will be in tomorrow because he wasn’t supposed to gone today. That made The Boss mad and I truly thought that something was going to happen. He hadn’t shown up, called or informed anyone that it was his intent to be gone. Any NORMAL work place would have thrown the book at an employee if they failed to show up for work. I had a glimmer of hope when The Boss kicked me out of MC so that he and Manager could have a conversation about “how this happened”. An hour later I was allowed back in to MC and Manager. Manager told me that The Boss was going to talk to Coworker about his behavior. Sad thing was I knew that wasn’t going to happen. The Boss had meetings on Friday and if he didn’t talk to him then he never would. Talk about deflating. Not only was there going to be no repercussions I was now going to have to look at Coworker on my one of two days without him. I hate that!

Friday September 7th
I checked my email before I left for work and there was an email from Coworker listing all the things I did wrong or left out the night before. The sad part is it was all the normal things I leave for myself to do. I am the last one out on Thursday night and the only one on Friday and Saturday, so anything I set out or leave out is meant for me and no one else. Just because he had to come in on his day off is not my problem. I called Manager I told him I had refrained from sending a smartass reply, I figured it would only cause me trouble. I came in to work and guess what??? No one talked to Coworker GRRRRR.
Side story… a year a go we bought new programming software that is meant to schedule programming, track paid spots and it publishes our program schedules to our website. In that time Coworker has all but refused to learn it. (We have 5 channels that we air and Coworker is in charge of 2 of them.) We started with 3 trade spots in March and Coworker was told then that he HAD to use the new software… period. He did for about a week and then considered that one week as a template. The software randomly schedules the spots for separation so they don’t air at the same time every day. So from March until September what the tracking software said was not what actually aired on his channels and the web looked as if we had no programming on his channel.
The 4 trade spots that Coworker was supposed to edit were scheduled to start airing that Sunday. Coworker was once again told again that everything is to be done through the new software period. That was his one and only priority for that day. I stayed at my cube until 5 minutes before Coworker was leaving. I walk in and he tells me “everything is done, through the new software, everything is perfect, you wont even have to look at it while I am gone. It’s great we are all on the same page” off he goes and I am just thankful I am not going to have to see him for over a week. Then I came in to work on Saturday…..

I did it

I did it!!!! I quit my job!!!!!!!!!!!

So... I gave notice. I said I would work through next week. The Boss then asked if I could work through the first week of October as Manager will not be back from vacation until the 8th. I am changing my school schedule around because I AM NOT GOING TO BE WORKING HERE ANYMORE!!!! and said that it wouldn't work around what they would need me to work. The Boss said there might be a way to work out a part time schedule and we'll talk about it next week.

::::dancing:::::

Yikes

all of my test/classes are over until 10/1. I got 1 A and 2 B's. and then I have the worst day in the history of my employment at my current job.

Big changes are about to take place. keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. I promise next week I will have more details.

for now I am going to finish this beer, watch one more Judge Judy then I am going to crawl in to bed and try to get a good night sleep.

ACK!

Ok... I am not dead. My head has not expoleded. I do have a new instalation of the coworker saga but I have finals next week so things will have to wait.

So keep your fingers crossed for me for my tests!

I'm around and I will try to get a real post up soon :)

ugh

Blah!

I am having a bad fucking day. I thought yesterday was going to be my shit day of the week. I guess not. Fists of all the talker is DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!!!!!!! All week she has been telling us that her grandfather is dying, and that her grandmother is in denial and to add to the denial her grandmother is crazy… really? In your family I never would have guessed. That was then followed by all the prescriptions the talker is on. The same statement was made in every single one of my classes. Twice she “told” me but I never looked up and I had my headphones on. When I didn’t and she started telling the girl who sits next to me.. on would go the headphones and all I wanted to do was bang my head on the table. This girl even talks through tests, I have no idea who the hell she is talking to. So today I guess her boyfriend drove her to school… gag and during breaks she would walk over to him as he was reading and like pick at his head. She would cover the bald spot then uncover it then part it in the middle and he just sat there turning beat red.

Then I went to work today and tried to turn in to a parking spot in the ramp and did this to my car. I hoping it is mostly paint transfer that we will be able to fix. I just wanted to cry.

Now I just want go home, go to bed and maybe even get a good night sleep. Please?

Monday...

My First day of school.......

On Sunday (well actually all week) I was stressing out. I was still trying to figure out if I had it in me to really take on full time classes and work.. I couldn’t find my class schedule (see previous post for the the irony), I had typed it into my online calendar but I didn’t put what the room number was. So as far as I knew I had biology at 8:25 on Monday and Wednesday. All I could tell myself to try and ease the freak-out was that at 1pm after school I was meeting Bret for lunch and beers. I tried to go to bed at like 8:30 because I had to get up at 6am for the first time in ages, so I wanted to get a full night sleep. I took my sleeping pills at 8:45, I should have been dead to the world by 9:30 at the latest. I think I finally passed out at 12:30 and it was CRAP sleep.

I got my stuff together, had my coffee , got dressed and at 730 I was out the door. I get to school and stop in the office to get them to print me a schedule so I would know where to go. He hands it to me and I realize that they don’t put your schedule together in the order of the days they fall on, but in alphabetical. So Monday’s class was in fact Medical terminology and it starts at 8:55 and I had ALL THE WORNG BOOKS. AS usual when things like that happen… I called my mom and at that point she tells me that she read on Heidi’s blog that Kate is engaged. WOOHWOOO! That made me feel a little better about my class debacle. So I went into the right classroom and sat down. Then I started talking to this girl who had sat down next to me, you know just chit-chat. Well the teacher made us go around the room and introduce ourselves, and the girl next to me says “Hi, my name is Katherine”. I almost fell out of my chair. You see 16 years ago in September on my first day of high school, in my first class, scared out of my wits, in gym class,
sitting against the wall in the wrestling room I started talking to the girl who was sitting next to me, and that was Kate. She turned out to be my best friend all through HS, so it was trippy that this girl was also a Katherine. I managed to make it through class because she let me share her book. Freaky! I feel a lot better about this whole idea of school. I think I can handle it.

After class I had to make a run over to my mom’s house and in doing so I have to drive past Kate’s house and I said to myself if her dog is in the yard I am going to make a quick stop to see the ring. She was home and I got the story about the ring and I told her about the chick in class. Great times, and we shall be doing beer soon. I love that girl!

dreams....

Before I tell you about my week I have to tell you about 2 recurring dreams I have had at least once a week since I graduated HS.

1) It’s the first day of school my Sr. year and I walk in and I have no class schedule and I have no idea where I am supposed to be and to top that I have no locker. I spend the entire dream freaking out about my classes.

2) It’s somewhere in the middle of a trimester and at first I am trying to plan what classes I can skip by how many absences I have in each class, but I can’t even remember the last time I went to 2nd hour so I should probably go to that class but I haven’t turned in any of the home work so I wouldn’t know was going on and what about the other classes. And so the cycle begins…

Now I know these are silly dreams but I always manage to wake of from them just as stressed as I was in the dreams. I have my fingers crossed that now that I am back in school I can at least have different school related stress dreams.

I’m the schmuck

Yeah… It started on Wednesday night. I was all ready to go to bed when I opened my pill box to find I was out of my sleeping pills. Now I NEEEEEEEED my sleeping pills otherwise I sleep really hard for 2 hour wake up with a nasty migraine type headache that wont go away and then I can’t go back to sleep. It was 11 at night and I REALLY didn’t want to run Walgreens again, like the last 2 times my sleep pills ran out. I don’t think about them until it’s time to take them and then I end up at Walgreens at midnight. Anyway, I didn’t want to go so I got the bright idea to take the samples Rob’s doc gave him that didn’t work for him. Only I think… I have to take double doses of my normal sleep meds so I should take double of the sample meds because one didn’t work for Rob. Whoops!! First they made my legs really twitchy, then I finally fell asleep but it was crazy. I now know where they came up with their ad campaign, from someone who took the meds. It wasn’t exactly Abe Lincoln and a talking beaver but damn close. When I woke up I felt like SHIT. I would say a 6.5 on the pain scale. When I left for work I still felt under the influence of the meds and as I drove I almost lost what little coffee I had managed to drink. So I called Manager and tell him how I felt that I am half way there but don’t think I can make it can I call in sick. He told me no. HE TOLD ME NO. We had a tech flying in to work on our server and he NEEDED me to be there. I said I was going to be less then useless and he said that was ok. So I sat at work all day Thursday drinking ginger ale and tried not to get sick. I almost lost it twice while sitting in the weekly staff meeting. The tech’s flight was delayed and I kept asking if I could go home, “if he is not here by 5 you can go”. He got here at 445. DAMN IT!!! At 6 Manager said he had to go and I had to stay until the tech was done. I was less then happy. When Manager left I told the tech I was having a bad attitude day, but to his benefit I didn’t care if he took us off the air and/or fried the server. Luckily Tech said he had done all he could do for the night at 740, so I did end up working 8 full hours. When I got home at 815 I still couldn’t keep anything down and felt like the meds had me (as my hubby likes to say) by the booboo’s. Knowing how bad I felt and that I was going to pass out as soon as I hit the pillow, I backed out of lunch with my buddy Bret on Friday (today). I SUCK. I did get my pills and I did get some real sleep, like 14 hours. But I suck… and I owe Bret a beer.

The Story Of Coworker - Part 2

Things went back to the way they were before he left. Still doing a half assed job, but he was feeling better and seemed less angry at me and the world. That lasted for almost 3 months, now at this point I had been there almost a year. My schedule during that time was wed-sun and it sucked. I was told when I started that wouldn’t be a permanent and I started to pitch a bitch. I was being reasonable, I wanted Sunday and Monday off. That would give Coworker Friday and Saturday off. Manager basically he didn’t have a choice he was going to start working Sundays and that marked the return of pissy, whinny, angry Coworker. At that point he was still having Wednesday Night Poker at his house with 3 or 4 friends but that started to dwindle, more then once I heard him on the phone telling one friend or another that he would get them their 30 bucks. Now I doubt this was poker money, I think he just started borrowing money and not paying it back and they all just moved on with out him because it wasn’t long after that he stopped talking about the poker games. He was also becoming very short tempered so I figured away to claim one of the unused cubes in the main area as my one so I wouldn’t have to be in the same room when our shifts over lapped. One day in mid August he informed us he was going have a roommate. We don’t know if this roommate was a friend or some poor sap that answered an ad on Craigslist. They were going to fix up his basement and all these grand plans… once again… whatever I stopped listening. In October, and I don’t know how it came up, but I mentioned that The Boss sometimes lets workers take advances on their paychecks. Not 2 days later he was in The Boss’ office. Our receptionist at the time HATED coworker and LOVED to gossip, she was a wealth of information and there are days I miss her. She told me that Coworker asked for a $500 advance, well over the next 5 weeks he had advanced over $1500. He also told us he got rid of his land line and was going to get a cell phone but for the time being he was without a phone. By mid December he had cashed out his 401k (without taking taxes out) and was at least $700 in the hole to our company. Then the collection calls started, at work because he still had no phone of his own. He did manage however to call in sick more then once, but we had no way of getting a hold of him. Up to 5 times a day including weekends we were getting calls on our common line. Three people use this phone and there is no way we can just stop answering. When they would call and Coworker answered you could hear him say “Coworker isn’t in today.” It got to the point where Manager had to ask The Boss to talk to the lawyers about getting it to stop. It slowed down but now it’s just his mortgage people. In February of this year The Boss received papers to start garnishing Coworker’s pay. In the last 5 months, his hot water heater died, the kitchen pipes burst , his car has had 3 flat tires, a new alternator, been in 2 car accidents, had 3 traffic tickets, the taxes became due on the 401k and he still doesn’t have a phone. At some point you would think I would start feel pity for this slime bucket but the fact is he has done this to himself, and considering how he treats other people I am not shocked he has no friends left. I just don’t understand how after all this he feels it’s ok to act the way he does, and the kicker is he is 34 year old. There will be continued chapters on Coworker in the future I don’t see him changing any time soon.

Decades Of Debt Day

This should be titled “how Coworker can even fuck up my day off”

Earlier this morning I checked my work email and I had one from Manager saying his Pop was in the hospital and wouldn’t be able to make it into work and asked if I could log in remotely and set things up so Coworker only would have a little extra to do. As soon as I read that I turned to hubby and said “10 bucks says Coworker doesn’t even show up today.” I logged in and did what was asked and figured ignorance is bless and left it at that. This afternoon we met with the Financial aid people. I signed on the computerized line, got all the loans I needed, and I am starting school on July 16th. It wasn’t what I would call fun but it was necessary. I wanted to go out for drinks after but we couldn’t because we had a notary coming to the house at 6pm because we were also refinancing our mortgage. At 515 Manager calls me and tells me he just got a message on his cell that his boss The Boss had called and said that it was 5pm and no one had showed up at work today, could I rush into work and get things set up. You see Coworker (and you’ll hear more in part 2) doesn’t have a phone, no not a cell phone (he doesn’t have that either) a real phone, so work has no way to get a hold of him. When The Boss checked our area there was a hand written note that said “I’ll be a little late – Coworker” He had no way to find out what “a little late” meant. The Boss called Manager, whose cell phone was turned off because he was at the hospital, telling him it was 5 and no one had been into work all day. Why he didn’t just call me I don’t know but that is ok. The problem was we had the guy coming over in less then an hour there was no way I could get there and back in time so I told Manager that as soon as I was finished up I would haul ass in to work. He was cool with that, frankly he had bigger things to deal with. Just before 6 my gut told me to call work. It was 6 hours after Coworker should have been at work that could still be considered a “little late”, in his pea brain anyway. Sure as shit… fucker finally showed his ass up at work. This is when flames started screaming out of my ears. It went like this:

CW – Control room
Me - So you got shit covered because I really don’t have the time to go in to work
CW - What are you talking about
Me – The Boss called Manager because no one has been in so no work was done today and The Boss is pissed.
CW – Why would The Boss be pissed and where was Manager
Me – Read your email. Managers dad is in the hospital so he couldn’t make it in, you didn’t show up to work and no one can get a hold of you.
CW – The email was sent at 1109 last night.
Me – well do you have shit covered? Because I can’t deal with this
CW – Yes I have...
(click)
That is when I hung up. I was so pissed off I was shaking, my whole body was hot and I was shaking. I tried Manager and his cell phone was turned off, just then the notary pulled up. Great.. my head hurt and I was still shaking because jackass had the nerve to be pissed at ME? I stepped out side so they could get set up and I called Manager to leave a voicemail saying I called work, jackass was there, he was playing innocent, was pissed at me for telling him The Boss was pissed off, was likely also pissed because I hung up on him, and if things didn’t get done tonight it was my fault because I took him on his word when he said the shit was covered. I walked back in to the house to sign papers for the house…still livid.

We’re sitting there the guy seems nice enough… sign this… initial that… sign this… So have you heard that there is no REAL LAW saying we have to pay income taxes?? No where in the tax code does it say it’s a law and the IRS knows that and there have been lawsuits proving they know that. And did you know that They want to get rid of the Dollar and join up with Mexico and Canada to use the Amero (like the Euro only CRAZY!!!!!!!!!) Sign this… initial that… and on and on he went. I was looking around for the duct tape I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head… How the hell did my day end up like this?? What Pharos’ cat did I run over in a former life to earn me this amount of CRAZY??? We waited until we heard his car drive away and fell on the floor laughing. I grabbed my Dr McGillicuddy’s Cherry schnapps filled the glass and added a splash of 7up for color and sat down at my computer. When I checked my email this is what I found sent to me only

All Monday was my fault; if I had emailed Manager and cc’ed The Boss on Sunday pm when I knew I could not make it in until Monday pm, you guys would have covered and we wouldn’t have had an empty control room half the day.

Further, if I had left my emergency contact# (867.555.5309 BTW) someone could have at least gotten a hold of me.

I was wrong on both counts and I am sorry I caused any trouble-

Coworker

I sent this to Manager and The Boss with the message
This is not my problem, you two deal with it

I closed my email and put Shark Tale in the DVD player, mixed another drink and started typing. I feel better, but I also know that as much as jackass SHOULD get fired he’ll slime his way out. That is ok, I am on the road to getting the hell out and that (and the booze) is great feeling

BLAH!!!!!