Remember back in middle school and high school when your classroom would get going on a hot topic and almost everyone in the class would chime in on the subject? And a certain few kids just HAD to share their own personal experience. Like, Sara would speak up on the topic of daylight savings and share how one time her dad forgot to set his clock back and he rushed out of the house and that caused him to get into a fender bender. And then some kids would share and it would only kind of relate to the topic at hand. Like Jeff would say, “Every year we buy new alarm clocks.” See, it only kind of related to daylight savings.
Well guess what? These are the same people that work all around you today. You can easily identify them. They are the ones that when you go to them with a question they refuse to drop the conversation about themselves with a co-worker. I will give you an example.
I go over to all-grown up Sara’s desk to ask why the pricing is wrong on an item in the computer system. Sara is talking with co-worker Jeff. Jeff just finished asking her when she is going to buy that new car she looked at. I interject, “Sara, this price came up as $549.99 and not $619.99. Is there an ad for this time frame?” Sara looks at me, pauses, and then tells Jeff “Well I will buy the Accord when they have their winter sell off sale.” Now, I did not specifically wait to ask my question right in the middle of their conversation. I just walked up and asked her.
Work comes before chit-chat, but not to this generation. And I am part of this generation I am talking about. Guess what Sara and Jeff? You are not that important. The price for the ad is important right now. Talk about your fucking car later!
I have co-workers, who say I am not being very social because I don’t specifically get up from my desk, go over to theirs and chit-chat with them. I talk with the people around me a lot while we are working on mindless things. That seems fine to me, everyone does that without issue. I would love to talk with you, except here is my problem: you will talk my face off for at least 20 minutes. I don’t want to commit to that kind of time. I will come over and talk to you for less than 5 minutes and then try to tell you with body language that I want to get back to work. Nobody in my generation gets it! They keep talking about themselves. They jump from one topic to the next. Once our topic is resolved I want to go, but then you sigh, make some inane comment and start in on how your time out last night was. I don’t care!!!
I came over to ask you if we are off on Christmas Eve, a semi-work related question. By the time I am excused to leave your desk, and by that I mean you shut your face off, I have heard about how hung-over you are, what new video game you bought and how hard it is, what new movie you want to see, how your cell phone is broken and what your kids did that was annoying or cute. My consciousness left 13 minutes ago and while I look around your cubicle I nod mindlessly.
It’s not that I don’t like you as a friend. You are cool, but learn when the conversation is done. I feel like I was verbally raped. You got to unload your mind but when I do the same thing you aren’t genuinely interested, so I learned not to do it. In fact, I like that phrase. I give it over to you, the masses. The next time someone won’t shut up on the phone or at work, or even if you run into a Sara or Jeff in the grocery store, say you were verbally raped.
That is all.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Working Records
Last year right around this time, I embarked on working the most days in a row that I ever had: 36 days. Some people at previous jobs told me hoping for pity that they had to work two weeks straight. Well I put that to shame. And I’m also sure people have worked more than that consecutively. Consider the people that work for Kellogg’s and UPS. I hear they work 7 days a week, but I also heard they get paid bank.
Those thirty-six days were stressful to me and my streak only ended because of Christmas Day. I worked from November 19th to Dec. 24th. Somehow I managed to buy Christmas presents for all the people on my list.
Maybe I should have seen this terrible year coming from how last year ended. I also remember that once New Year’s was over, I had an overwhelming longing for the holidays to return. That was a feeling I hadn’t gone through in previous years.
From what I can tell between my two work schedules I work on Friday the 20th through the 27th. Based on how schedules have been, I will continue working from the 28th through at least the 2nd. That is thirteen days in a row, which I think I can handle. We will see if I beat last year’s record or get more days off.
Come on Holidays, get here quick!
Those thirty-six days were stressful to me and my streak only ended because of Christmas Day. I worked from November 19th to Dec. 24th. Somehow I managed to buy Christmas presents for all the people on my list.
Maybe I should have seen this terrible year coming from how last year ended. I also remember that once New Year’s was over, I had an overwhelming longing for the holidays to return. That was a feeling I hadn’t gone through in previous years.
From what I can tell between my two work schedules I work on Friday the 20th through the 27th. Based on how schedules have been, I will continue working from the 28th through at least the 2nd. That is thirteen days in a row, which I think I can handle. We will see if I beat last year’s record or get more days off.
Come on Holidays, get here quick!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Not a Complainy Rant
Update to the birthday concerns. Today, my boss got me a big, delicious chocolate cake and the people working sang “Happy Birthday” to me. And two co-workers left me cards and one of them gave me a my little pony because I always tell her that I want a pony named “Butterscotch”. Although two people on my team didn’t even tell me happy birthday, and that doesn’t cost a thing. I have to admit, I am ticked off at them.
Outside of work, I had a very mixed birthday celebration. My mom fell down in the shower and it took me 40 minutes to help her out of it. I really didn’t want to call the fire department, because she kept yelling not to and wouldn’t put on any clothes. But I got her out and that made me happy.
With that bad news out of the way, onto the good news. I was very nervous that my birthday party would be lame. How wrong I was! I had a great time with lots of people. And, the best part, my friends chipped in and bought me a new camcorder. Mine broke several months ago. This one is a JVC Everio. The best part about that? No more tapes to deal with, it’s all done on SD cards. To top it off, my friends each recorded a birthday message for me and when they gave me the gift, I got to see their warm wishes.
I still can’t believe it. I have a new camcorder. I can go back to work on movies. I was wanting to tackle a full feature length film but then my other camera broke. The genre? Horror/comedy of course! I have the camera, a stand and plenty of willing actors. The only thing I think will be an issue is the sound quality. People will have to yell to get good sound. You can only fix sound in my low grade editing programs so much. I think I will get going on a story treatment for my friends to recruit some as willing victims, er actors next week.
I also got $110 in gift cards to Lane Bryant. Cash from each of the grandparents. With that money I got a new printer/scanner and the new Kathy Griffin book. One friend also bought me a gift before he knew about the chip-in; he got me Simpsons Scene-it and Simpsons Uno. Yeah, I like the Simpsons.
Definitely the best part of the year that I am going to have.
Outside of work, I had a very mixed birthday celebration. My mom fell down in the shower and it took me 40 minutes to help her out of it. I really didn’t want to call the fire department, because she kept yelling not to and wouldn’t put on any clothes. But I got her out and that made me happy.
With that bad news out of the way, onto the good news. I was very nervous that my birthday party would be lame. How wrong I was! I had a great time with lots of people. And, the best part, my friends chipped in and bought me a new camcorder. Mine broke several months ago. This one is a JVC Everio. The best part about that? No more tapes to deal with, it’s all done on SD cards. To top it off, my friends each recorded a birthday message for me and when they gave me the gift, I got to see their warm wishes.
I still can’t believe it. I have a new camcorder. I can go back to work on movies. I was wanting to tackle a full feature length film but then my other camera broke. The genre? Horror/comedy of course! I have the camera, a stand and plenty of willing actors. The only thing I think will be an issue is the sound quality. People will have to yell to get good sound. You can only fix sound in my low grade editing programs so much. I think I will get going on a story treatment for my friends to recruit some as willing victims, er actors next week.
I also got $110 in gift cards to Lane Bryant. Cash from each of the grandparents. With that money I got a new printer/scanner and the new Kathy Griffin book. One friend also bought me a gift before he knew about the chip-in; he got me Simpsons Scene-it and Simpsons Uno. Yeah, I like the Simpsons.
Definitely the best part of the year that I am going to have.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
This is it - No not the MJ movie
This is it. My last day of being 24. Every time my birthday rolls around I try to use the day before to reflect on the year. You know like will I be a better person? Will I be smarter finally? All that goofy, sappy stuff.
Last year I worked on a different team at my primary job. And those people got me presents and a cake. This time nobody did. I can’t complain though. I mean you can’t get mad at someone for not spending money on you. But even a card would have been something uplifting after the year I’ve had. And what do those cost? $2? Well, the fancy new ones with sound are more like $5, that’s a bit crazy I know. Maybe when I come back, the people that were off today will have left me something. I’ll let you know.
Tomorrow, on my actual birthday, I need to stay with my mom at home. So I won’t be doing much until my dad gets home from work. And even then, I need to help my b/f clean his house to host my b-day party. So definitely a quiet birthday but a tremendous aftershock with the party I hope. I even scheduled a hangover day. I know, I am so smart.
Recall back to the theme of this whole blog. This is the worst year of my life to date. I am very apprehensive to what my birthday party will bring. So far, nobody seems to care that it is even my birthday. We all got ‘em right? I know, but that is just another thing that depresses me on top of everything else in my life.
On the bright side, this year is almost over. Less than two months to go.
Last year I worked on a different team at my primary job. And those people got me presents and a cake. This time nobody did. I can’t complain though. I mean you can’t get mad at someone for not spending money on you. But even a card would have been something uplifting after the year I’ve had. And what do those cost? $2? Well, the fancy new ones with sound are more like $5, that’s a bit crazy I know. Maybe when I come back, the people that were off today will have left me something. I’ll let you know.
Tomorrow, on my actual birthday, I need to stay with my mom at home. So I won’t be doing much until my dad gets home from work. And even then, I need to help my b/f clean his house to host my b-day party. So definitely a quiet birthday but a tremendous aftershock with the party I hope. I even scheduled a hangover day. I know, I am so smart.
Recall back to the theme of this whole blog. This is the worst year of my life to date. I am very apprehensive to what my birthday party will bring. So far, nobody seems to care that it is even my birthday. We all got ‘em right? I know, but that is just another thing that depresses me on top of everything else in my life.
On the bright side, this year is almost over. Less than two months to go.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sick Day...Kinda
I feel cruddy today. My boyfriend has the flu (not the evil super flu), and my head has been hurting all day. I think today I just want to relax.
I used my first official b-day gift today. A free burrito from Qdoba. Hooray! I also put together my bday music list for my party next Friday. I took a great song from each year I've been alive for 25 awesome songs.
I think I have all the components for my Halloween costume I just need to try it on and add my fake blood. Fake blood makes almost any costume better! Also, each year I want to be something specific, like a particular character, but then I end up making my own costume and I am happier. I get to be creative because I wait until about a week before Halloween when the store's are running low on items and I put together something cool. This year I waited too long for the piece-de-resistance of my costume that would have been fx contacts lenses. They are like $160 and take 10 days to ship. So, I wont have the weird eyes, but hopefully I can still pull this costume off.
So really today is not so bad except for the crazy headache. At least I'm not at work like this.
Super-Evil Flu you are not welcome in this house!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
First Week of School
Today was my mom’s second day of adult day care. I felt like the mom today when I dropped her off. She asked me, “Are you leaving me here?” I wasn’t really sure what to say so I told her that Dad would be here to get her at five.
It felt like day care for little kids because we the care-takers drop them off before work and the adults working there gather them into the group to join in on the current activity. They have ceramics, sewing, fitness, quizzes, lunch time, snack time and a hair salon. This…almost sounds like fun if you forget the fact that the residents would rather be at home.
Adult day cares are a weird place. I don’t know how I feel about this arrangement yet. I need to get the first week over with. Maybe by Saturday I will have a better handle on this.
If I haven’t said this yet let me just tell you all something. Go home tonight and hug your mother. I don’t care what your situation with her is; if she is alive and has full mental faculties, then you got it good. Put aside the bullshit and appreciate that you can talk to her about anything. I can’t even stress this point enough. Do it!
Sometimes our bodies turn against us with cancer; ain’t that some shit?
It felt like day care for little kids because we the care-takers drop them off before work and the adults working there gather them into the group to join in on the current activity. They have ceramics, sewing, fitness, quizzes, lunch time, snack time and a hair salon. This…almost sounds like fun if you forget the fact that the residents would rather be at home.
Adult day cares are a weird place. I don’t know how I feel about this arrangement yet. I need to get the first week over with. Maybe by Saturday I will have a better handle on this.
If I haven’t said this yet let me just tell you all something. Go home tonight and hug your mother. I don’t care what your situation with her is; if she is alive and has full mental faculties, then you got it good. Put aside the bullshit and appreciate that you can talk to her about anything. I can’t even stress this point enough. Do it!
Sometimes our bodies turn against us with cancer; ain’t that some shit?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Let's Do Some Math
I find myself looking forward to any type of a day off. Let’s do some math here.
A week has 168 hours. I work 39 hours at my primary job. I usually work 15 hours at my second job. I normally do about 5 hours of homework each week. So I am doing 59 hours of work each week compared to an average worker doing 40 hours a week. But if we want to calculate free time that would be a whole different story.
If I add in time before work that I wake up to get ready, travel time, lunch hour and time eating in between jobs that takes my unavailable hours from 59 to 73.5 hours. That leaves 94.5 hours for free time. If I take out time sleeping that really leaves 38.5 hours a week for free time. Don’t forget now on Thursdays I watch my mom. So that is like half free time and half occupied time. So a true free time number would be closer to 33 hours. I would give the average worker at least 59 free hours with their work hours, lunch hours, drive time and after sleep.
Some of you may not have sympathy for me and my 26 hours less of time. But that is more than a full day less than you that I can sit on my butt, or hang out with my boyfriend, or go shopping. That’s about four and half days each month.
We can take this even further though. Keep in mind I work for a movie theatre. People like it when you have seen the movies. So of my 33 hours, I try to spend 3-4 each week watching two movies. Not to mention that I love movies so this is a relaxing time for me. I usually find myself needing to stop at a store like Target or Wal-Mart each week for either groceries or something miscellaneous. Before work on Tuesdays each week, I go to the bank and run miscellaneous errands. Thursday nights by 8:30 I can do what I need to do, but lots of places are almost closed. I like to watch two shows on Thursdays, that’s another hour. You can see how thinly stretched my time is. I believe that puts me down to 24 hours to be able to say, “I don’t know what I want to do.”
This is the reason I can be grumpy and be dying for my days off. I love to see holidays coming up on the calendar. My birthday will be here in 11 days so I am anxious for that. Then it will be Thanksgiving, and before you know it, X-Mas.
But by the time I use a day of paid time off from work and that day arrives, I find my to-do list full so that maybe by 8:00 I have free time, and I just feel wiped the next day. Wednesday nights and Saturday nights I have found free time lately but my friends want to hang out. And yes I am including that in my free time. But we all know it’s not quite the same. Usually you just end up doing an activity everyone can agree on, but if they weren’t there I think I would be playing Zelda: A Link to the Past.
But I don’t have any paid time off scheduled right now. I think my next vacation will be around February for my b/f and my 5th anniversary. I also want to go to Mall of America because I’ve never been.
A self-indulgent rant.
A week has 168 hours. I work 39 hours at my primary job. I usually work 15 hours at my second job. I normally do about 5 hours of homework each week. So I am doing 59 hours of work each week compared to an average worker doing 40 hours a week. But if we want to calculate free time that would be a whole different story.
If I add in time before work that I wake up to get ready, travel time, lunch hour and time eating in between jobs that takes my unavailable hours from 59 to 73.5 hours. That leaves 94.5 hours for free time. If I take out time sleeping that really leaves 38.5 hours a week for free time. Don’t forget now on Thursdays I watch my mom. So that is like half free time and half occupied time. So a true free time number would be closer to 33 hours. I would give the average worker at least 59 free hours with their work hours, lunch hours, drive time and after sleep.
Some of you may not have sympathy for me and my 26 hours less of time. But that is more than a full day less than you that I can sit on my butt, or hang out with my boyfriend, or go shopping. That’s about four and half days each month.
We can take this even further though. Keep in mind I work for a movie theatre. People like it when you have seen the movies. So of my 33 hours, I try to spend 3-4 each week watching two movies. Not to mention that I love movies so this is a relaxing time for me. I usually find myself needing to stop at a store like Target or Wal-Mart each week for either groceries or something miscellaneous. Before work on Tuesdays each week, I go to the bank and run miscellaneous errands. Thursday nights by 8:30 I can do what I need to do, but lots of places are almost closed. I like to watch two shows on Thursdays, that’s another hour. You can see how thinly stretched my time is. I believe that puts me down to 24 hours to be able to say, “I don’t know what I want to do.”
This is the reason I can be grumpy and be dying for my days off. I love to see holidays coming up on the calendar. My birthday will be here in 11 days so I am anxious for that. Then it will be Thanksgiving, and before you know it, X-Mas.
But by the time I use a day of paid time off from work and that day arrives, I find my to-do list full so that maybe by 8:00 I have free time, and I just feel wiped the next day. Wednesday nights and Saturday nights I have found free time lately but my friends want to hang out. And yes I am including that in my free time. But we all know it’s not quite the same. Usually you just end up doing an activity everyone can agree on, but if they weren’t there I think I would be playing Zelda: A Link to the Past.
But I don’t have any paid time off scheduled right now. I think my next vacation will be around February for my b/f and my 5th anniversary. I also want to go to Mall of America because I’ve never been.
A self-indulgent rant.
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