Bye-Bye Job!

In all of the hullabaloo surrounding Leah's triumphant entry into our lives, my departure from work came and went. Last Wednesday was my final day doing work for our lovely Commonwealth. This morning I am heading to VDOT to meet the drivers from Fairfax who will take the Black Beast back north and then I am officially officially done. Hard to believe that a job I wanted so much is now something I am gladly saying goodbye to!

In the past 3 years since I got The Black Beast in a vehicle trade, I've done nearly60,000 miles in the Commonwealth's service. I have no idea how many clients I saw in the past 4+ years, but I've covered Loudon, Fauqier, Culpeper, Orange, Prince William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties. I've encountered some of the bravest people I've ever met, and I've seen people deal with blindness in so many different ways you can't begin to imagine it. I've seen people as young as 14 who couldn't brush their teeth by themselves when I showed up and I've seen people well into their 90s who were in nursing homes and, well, couldn't brush their teeth themselves ;-) I've seen the fabulously wealthy and the dirt poor in my tenure. People who hated the Yankee coming into their house and people who would have welcomed Stalin if it meant they'd get a little help seeing better. They all touched me, from the ones I prayed I'd never see again to those I prayed wouldn't ask for their cases to be closed (somehow it always worked out exactly the opposite).

And now it's over. And I'm HAPPY. Next job will not be a road job. I'll worry about it in 5 years :-)

Poem from My Boss

My boss, Tim, has a tradition of writing a poem for each member of his staff as they depart. Yesterday my office threw a surprise "Adios/Baby Shower" party for me and he read the poem to us as part of the festivities. Here it is--I totally love it!

Well all good things must come to an end
We find ourselves here, saying goodbye to our friend.
As her time with us begins to unwind,
And she ventures onward, leaving us behind.

We should remind ourselves, this is for the best.
No matter how hard, or how damned depressed,
We feel right now ‘cause we know we are losin,’
One of our family, our dearest Susan.

Although we applaud her for moving on with her life,
To be a new mother, a new stay at home wife.
We still find ourselves here, seeped in the void,
Of our friend who is leaving, whom we so enjoyed.

Never once have I heard her raise her voice,
Not sure if this was, by design or by choice,
But always steadfast, in midst of a storm,
She made us all feel calmer, all fuzzy and warm.

Remembering her first day, I tried to warn her
Not to choose the room in the corner.
And one of the things I’m confident we’ll miss,
Is how she protected us all from Kris.

So remember us Susan, and keep us in the loop.
About the loud cries, the diapers, the poop.
And we hope fond memories, you take as you go
Best wishes my dear, from Fairfax RO.

The New Toys are Here

Holy man, are the new washer and dryer nice. WOW. I practically flew home today, just wanting to get home and do the laundry.

It is SO NICE that they are up off the floor and we don't have to bend over to get stuff out of the dryer. Nor do we have to half crawl into the washing machine to get stuff out of it.

And quiet? Oh yeah. So quiet that I took the phone in the laundry room tonight and talked on it while the washer was going. And my dad couldn't hear the machines at all.

I'm so glad we got the pedestals--the drawers are deep and hold so much. I cleaned out the little cabinet we had in there and we have room to spare.

We did two loads of laundry tonight--the "work clothes" and the sheets. Both were long overdue. The w/d now have Braille labels on them, a W for "work clothes" and an E for "everything else". The only trouble (if you want to call it that) we ran into was trying to measure detergent so high up on top of the machines. So we've rectified that by measuring near the sink and then walking the detergent over. I think we have the capacity for spillage regardless, so I'm still working on a solution. I was happy that Tide makes the same scent and type of detergent as we were using with the old washer for the new one.

As for the old washer, I suppose it has gone the way of all good things. The dryer was picked up by a dude called Ed, who came last night. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but after we got it outside, he literally picked that thing up singlehandedly and lifted it up and over the side of his utility trailer and settled it right in. I was happy he got it--he mentioned that he and his wife have a young one at home who goes through a LOT of clothing and their dryer had gone out on them. Freecycling feels so good. And he swapped us 2 dozen fresh eggs off his farm for it. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I tell you one thing: those eggs are BEAUTIFUL. All different colors. I need to take a picture of them. They're gorgeous.

This weekend should be pretty quiet. I refuse, REFUSE, to think about work. Seriously, the most demanding people have been riding my rear end today. I had one lady call me because every time her magnifier breaks, a teacher has always gone to help her put it back together. So I offered to go tomorrow morning at 9am and she didn't want me to come that early. So I said, "Ok, I can come next Wednesday then." Well that didn't suit her either. so finally, I just had to say "9am tomorrow or Wednesday morning, I don't have any other times available to you." Suddenly tomorrow morning looked real good. Another guy keeps on calling me about his merchandise, when is his merchandise going to arrive? Well, look here, pal, it's not like I'm a dealer. I put the order in, it gets here when it gets here. So I've dug around in my stash and I'm just going to get rid of some stuff and replace it later. And then I had another woman calling me--she got lost taking her mom to the doctor on Tuesday and they missed their appointment. And she only has off on Mondays (which are my office days and I'm not on the road) and so she wants to go on a Monday. I patiently explain that I cannot go on a Monday, but she's insistent, so I'm like "I'll see what I can do." and hang up. I fully intended to call the doctor on Monday to set it up, but she calls back 3 hours later and demands to know why she hasn't heard from me.

Ummmm, let's see here. In addition to opening 2 cases today, I have to finish all the clean-up paperwork from the seminar we had last week. I don't have time right now. I will call on Monday. "Well we need to know" blah blah blah. FINE. So I call the eye doctor's office and lo and behold, the doctor does not see patients on Mondays.

So, I pushed the appointment back a week anyway to give myself a little breathing room and now she's going on June 25th. But that actually works out better for her since she can have more time to rearrange her work schedule. Despite the fact that I offered to drive her mother myself so she wouldn't have to take time off.

My caseload currently stands at 52. My boss has offered to look at the situation yet again. If I just had a couple days to get my paperwork in hand, I could probably deal with it better. Unfortunately this seminar really threw a wrench in the works.

I'm really ready to just throw my hands in the air and say, "Let the chips fall where they may, I'm finished." Unfortunately, we have bills to pay. And I kinda like my house.

So we'll have to see. Hopefully things will ease off a bit.

On the plus side, LOST was frigging AWESOME tonight. Did anyone watch? Anyone want to chat?? Holy cow. I don't know how I'll wait for the next season. Amazing.

Still Alive, But Just Barely Hangin' In!

So, work is kicking my ass, handing it to me to hold, and kicking it again.

We were informed last year that we had to have a conference in the coming fiscal year for senior citizens. The conference, we decided, would be the week before Memorial Day so we could use Memorial Day weekend to relax and recover. Well, this week is the week before Memorial Day. The conference is upon us.

So due to some of the personalities involved, I offered to coordinate the whole thing. I can't really comment publicly on it too much, but let's just say that the entire rehabilitation team is just this side of completely freakin' insane to begin with, and then we look at the component parts and just scratch our heads.

Well, so I figured if we wanted it done right, I should probably do it. Which has left the rest of my team thinking like Alfred E. Neuman.



Yesterday we went and did a lot of the supply shopping we needed to do, and there is still more to do on Monday, but I'm not participating in that, because I don't need groceries, since I am signed up to teach flower arranging. However, we had a marathon run in with WalMart trying to establish our tax exempt status, we had a hell of a time trying to work out the schedule so that everyone was happy, then we discover that the program coordinator for the state has decided to come up for the entire thing, we have to finalize catering, we have to go to the site where we're holding this shindig to get set up, and everyone else is like "Meh, it'll get done."

In the meantime, my new referrals are mounting like the national debit--I am currently 7 behind in openings, and just got 6 new referrals from Richmond. I have about 10 closures to do. And the week after this conference, I will spend every single day driving to Charlottesville for eye doctor appointments. Meanwhile, I have clients breathing down my neck, "Why haven't I seen you?" "where's my equipment?" "What's the hold up?" "Why is this taking so long?"

There are currently 60 of you and there is 1 of me. That's why it is taking so long.

So in short, I have no idea when the hell I'm going to get my paperwork done, when the hell I'm going to get things ordered, which is only going to back me up that much further and life is hell right now at work.

Downtime on the weekends? Hahahahahaha In addition to helping my sister with her wedding, I am busy putting furniture together, meeting with people to do some repairs to our house, attempting to meet up with friends who must think I hate them any more, and of course grocery shopping, car inspection, runs to the dump, cooking, taking care of the rabbit, and trying to coordinate our annual summer getaway plans.

Now throw into the mix that The General and I have just found out that we can't have babies, my sister who never wanted to have kids has found out she is having a baby, every other woman I know is pregnant or has a baby, and as a friend recently suggested to me rather pointedly, no one seems to give a flying f*** about this fact... Add in the fact that the dentist is now calling because there is a foul up with our dental somewhat-insurance and they want to straighten it out or want some money, and I'm just to a point where it's like, here's where we separate the girls from the women and I'm not so sure I want to be a woman any more.

It's all just adding up. I'm not sleeping. Last night, I fell asleep at 1:30 and I was up this morning at 6:00. The night before, I got roughly 4 hours of sleep. I think I am losing my ability to see the forest for the trees here.

The one bright spot in all of this is that I have a phone interview on Monday. I hope it goes well and leads to an in-person interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

So hopefully after a couple of weeks, I will be back to running the streets again like always and until then, I will beg patience. I want to wish Russell and Mrs. good luck on Weight Watchers--I'm just catching up on that happening--and Nicole luck on her new house and Lauren luck with her gym schedule and Cindy luck with Alex being under the weather and Jacalyn luck on finding her camera and Annette luck on getting unburied from work too, and everyone else luck with anything they might need. I'm not ignoring you, I promise, I just need to unbury myself for a couple of more weeks... :)

That's Ambassador Kosior To You

Well, it has taken 6 long years, but I have finally done it: I outrank The General.

I received an email at work that I have been selected to serve as an ambassador of Virginia's public servants at a luncheon with the governor next week.

You may kiss my ring.

I'm excited. Not as much for the fact that I am actually going to meet the governor, which is pretty exciting, but also for the fact that I finally get to wear my new dress!!!

I stumbled upon a website called Igigi, which carries great clothing for plus sized women and they had an awesome wrap dress on sale, so of course, I bought it. And I've been waiting and waiting for an occasion to wear it, and now I have one. This is it: http://www.igigi.com/shop/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.display/currentpage/1/fromcat/107/disptype/3/product_id/443

I told the General, we'd better not Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame this thing. ;-)

Long Day

So yesterday was the first Monday in a long time I've driven from home. For a number of reasons, I decided I should try to figure out some alternatives to leaving from my sister's place, and so last week I stayed at Melissa's, and this week I decided to try it from home. This was due in large part to the fact that last Thursday I had driven to FX from here because I had to take the General to his carpool and I wanted to pick up a few things in my office and it seemed like a good idea. It took less than an hour. So I figured, how bad can it be?

Well, first of all, doesn't it have to rain? At that point, I should have just called in sick, but I had a staff meeting, I had no choice. So I left at 5:15 and I have to say, when I finally arrived in FX at 6:45, I was ready to kill. And the worst thing is, I can't get into my office till 7:00, so I wound up going to get some breakfast anyway.

There was no good reason for it. It was just slow cars in all 3 lanes poking along taking up everyone else's time. By the time I would get around one section of slow cars, I would catch up with the next one. It was crazy.

So to come home, I decided to go "the back way". Drive to Manassas, take the back roads through the woods, and hit 95 down past Quantico. Only when I got out there, 95 was all backed up so I was forced to take Route 1 to Stafford and then hit 95 from there, because I had to go to Falmouth before I could go home.

When all was said and done, I was out of the house 12 hours yesterday, 3 of which were spent sitting in the car.

God I hate living here sometimes. I am hoping and praying the phone rings on Thursday with an interview request from Richmond. It would be an hour commute, yes, but an hour in marginal traffic. And no driving around the rest of the day to see people. Everyone cross your fingers and knock wood for me! :) Thanks.

Just Another Manic Monday

So, I go into work yesterday at 7:15am. I've been going in early on Mondays so I can leave early so I can try to beat some of the rush. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It was a moot point yesterday because I had book club and it was pointless to go in early, except that Judy and Lucas were up at 6:15 and I might as well be too.

So, I no sooner walk in than my co-worker is there. He is absolutely hopeless at the computer, bless his heart, and he had forgotten his laptop at home, so he was working on a reception area computer. I no sooner sit down then he's asking me to come help him find files and stuff on the new computer. Ok, fine.

Then my officemate, Kris, comes in and reminds me that we have to take down the Christmas tree. But we also get an email from our boss that we have to take terrorism awareness training--and I had lost the original emailing detailing exactly how to take terrorism training, to which I got a reply back that the email had been sent in December. Fortunately, I was able to recover my deleted items, find that email, and I figured I'd work on it after I got the tree down.

So, Kris and I take down the tree, while at the same time James is sitting there next to me, asking for computer help. Get done with all that, and Kris and I decide to polish off this terrorism training.

Now, the training requires that you create a log in on some state employees "university" thing, and then you take the modules. Only, we had gotten the handbook for the thing attached to our emails and were under the impression that all we had to do was read it and we'd be done. Surprise!

So, I read part 2 of the email which said about the logging in and crap, and I was like, "Hey, Kris! We have to log in and do the modules." Well, I followed the easy to read instructions about the whole thing--how to get to the website, how to log in, where to go after you log in, and how to take the tests. So I'm sailing merrily along when all of a sudden, a string of curses comes like a blue streak from the other corner of the office. Kris can't figure it out.

So I go to her desk and walk her through it and we're both ready to take the test. So, lo and behold, we start. And it's audio. And we haven't started at the same time, and we can't seem to synch up the sound on each slide, despite a hilarious "1...2...3..." countdown system we try. Finally, I shut down my sound and she plays hers loud and we're sitting there learning about terrorist groups and how to recognize pipe bombs and such. Well, in walks Alex. And he's coming to inform us that he doesn't have to take the class because it's not accessible. "Ok, fine, get the hell out." Then Candace walks by. "Are you guys taking the terrorism test?" "Yes, but it's not accessible to JAWS users, so just send the boss an email and tell him you can't take it and he'll tell you how to get credit for it." Then Shelley comes in. "Susan, are you taking the terrorism test?" Ummm, we're trying to. I'm missing half the slides and I'm going to fail the quizzes if this keeps up... "Because I can't figure out how to log in." So I tell her to read the email from Bob and just follow the directions, it's all laid out very simply, one two three, and come and let me know if she has any problems. Then Debbie the Secretary, who I LOVE, strolls in and asks if I'll help her put a new shelf together. "Yes, as soon as I'm done." Then James walks back in and asks if I can help him find the forms he needs from the intranet.

I'm really losing it at this point. Then Shelley walks back in and asks if I can help her log on, she doesn't know what she's doing.

So, I tell her to hold on till we finish the section we're on and Kris and I shut the door and soldier through, by which point she has to use the bathroom. I go down to Shelley's office and walk her through the log in same as I did Kris. James is straightened around, Debbie's in a holding pattern, so Kris and I go back to taking the modules and quizzes. We JUST finish and it takes us both 20 minutes to figure out how to print out the transcripts and the certificates that we completed the damned things. I take them down to my boss who tells me "I don't need this, you just need to take the classes." AUGH! So, we basically could have just said we took it without all that nonsense.

So I'm settling in, I'm going to listen to my phone messages, when Kris comes strolling back in and says, "You have to go help Debbie now." So I go out and get Debbie and she has a 6 foot tall shelving unit she needs built. And it weighs about 600 pounds.

So we drag that into the back room and Alex, who is still strolling around trying to find things to do that don't involve working, comes running with the tool kit. The file room we are working in is about 8'x8' and already has a copier and 4 shelving units in it. so now there's all that, plus me, Debbie, Alex, and the pieces of the shelving. Finally I tell Alex that if we need him, we'll come get him and he leaves, his place taken by one of the mobility instructors. The three of us women are trying to put these shelves together and one of the VR counselors comes in and starts stepping over us, and it has to be the one who is pregnant and has told us we all have to be very careful around her per her doctor's orders. I'm pounding away with a hammer, there are pieces of shelving all over the place, and she's buzzing in and out. We get the shelving half put together when Debbie and Vijaya decide they don't like the spacing on the shelving, so we take it all apart again. I'm on the floor on my hands and knees hammering the shelving up when Shelley buzzes in and says, "Susan, I know what your'e doing is probably important, but my computer has just frozen up and I really need you to help me RIGHT NOW."

So I say, "Shelley, I'm not really in a good place to help you right now, but if you give me 5 minutes to finish this, I will be happy to help you." So this pisses her off and she turns to Debbie and says, "Debbie, you can help me, right?" So just to keep her quiet, Debbie goes to help her.

We get the shelves back on, and we're turning our attention to the finishing pieces when Kris walks in and announces she HAS TO USE THE COPIER RIGHT THIS MINUTE. So we were using the copier as our kind of workbench--the tools were on it, the instructions. Finally, I say, "Kris, give us two more minutes and we'll be out of here." I just wanted to cry at this point. But now. She insists it has to be done NOW. So I'm like "Fine, give me the papers and I'll copy them."

Well, for some reason, the copier doesn't believe me that there is paper in it, and Kris accuses me of jamming the damned copier. I said, "Kris, it's not jammed, it doesn't think it has paper in it!" So she's yelling, "Turn it off and put it back on." This doesn't help. So I try again and it still doesn't believe me. Finally, she says I'm doing it wrong, so I say, "Fine, go ahead and copy" and take everything off the copier. Well, she has it copying fine, but it's copying the wrong way on the wrong size paper, and she starts cussing a blue streak again. Meanwhile, I'm hammering the final shelf on, and the shelves are metal mind you and it's loud as hell in there, and she starts yelling at me to stop pounding on the shelves.

By the time it was over, it was nearly noon. I finally checked my voice mail, everyone was eating lunch, so I decide I'll go over to BOA, deposit my sister's money, and then get lunch and go eat with everyone. I need to cool down, so I walk. I get to BOA, and guess what!? NO FREAKIN' CASH DEPOSITS! I was so pissed off. So I stormed back over to work, got a salad and sat there and ate.

All this in about 6 hours, mind you.

So, last night was also book club night, and of all nights, the girls chose last night to give me a thank you gift for being the fearless leader of the book club. It was a night I really, really needed a little lovin', and they all chipped in and bought me gas cards since I have so far to travel for book club, and they all signed a beautiful card for me. Ladies, you rock!!

At the end of such a crazy day, it was just what I needed. It took all the fight right out of me... I got home last night and all I was thinkin' about was LOVE. :-)

But my brilliant husband, at one point I asked him yesterday, "is this ever going to stop?!" and he emailed me back and said, "It will when you say 'no.'"

Hello, wake up call!

Next week, I'm going in, shutting the door, and doing MY work. What a concept!

Crazy Janitor Man

It's been one crazy ass day.

I took a client to the eye doctor today. On the way home, she asked if I could stop with her to get a bite to eat. We decided to head to the Manassas Mall food court.

We no sooner walked in the mall when a crazy Chinese man starts screaming at us about his chicken. Because I was with a lady who is blind, I was trying to tell her all the different restaurants which are in the food court and this dude is screaming at me, trying to get me to take the chicken on a toothpick. Finally, after several minutes of this nonsense, I put up my index finger right in his face and yelled "CAN YOU GIVE ME A MINUTE!!!!!!" And he continued to tell "FREE SAMPLE! HERE! EAT HERE! FREE CHICKEN!!! HERE!"

Fortunately, at this point "Jane" decided she wanted Chik-Fil-A, so we walked right past this guy and his chicken, and I couldn't stop because Jane is quite elderly and frail and was leaning on my arm.

So, we get her some Chik-Fil-A and we're seated at a table eating our lunch, and a janitor comes over to the table and starts yelling at me. At first, I thought maybe I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't really understand what he was saying. (Seriously, I think I might be losing my hearing in my left ear--I can never understand anyone any more.) So I said, "What?"

Then he really starts to lose it. But very quietly losing it, just going off on me, and I still can't figure out what the hell he's saying, But I look on the floor, and I pick up the CFA bag I had put there to hold the garbage and I try to put it in the trash bag he's got in his hand.

At this point I thought his head was going to explode. I am listening really, really hard, and finally I just stand up and lean in towards him. I notice he is speaking a foreign language, and honestly, I can't say it was Spanish, I don't know what the hell it was. I didn't catch one single word. So I decide to stand up and try to really get up on him so I can finally hear what he's saying, since he won't speak up and I can't catch anything.

The weird thing? The minute I stood up and leaned towards him, he hightailed it out of there like I was going to shoot him.

So I sit back down and ask Jane if she knew what that was all about, and she had no clue either. It was so weird. I don't know if he was mad at me for the bag on the floor, if he was mad at me for sitting at that particular table, if he was mad at me for being uncooperative with the Chinese guy, or if he just didn't like the look of me, period. In any event, "just in case", I cleaned up the table real good before we left!

If I ever make a movie, you can bet Crazy Janitor Man will have a cameo.

Oops

Yesterday was our big semi-annual office birthday party, for people whose birthdays are January through June.

This year, in addition to being in charge of the cakes, I was in charge of the goody bags. I also picked the theme, which was "Old Time Rock N Roll"--kind of a retro 50's and 60's thing.

So for the goodie bags, I got retro toys--jacks, magic 8 balls, slinkies, etc.

After eating, everyone was tearing into their toys and one of the secretaries mentioned that she had been the jacks champion at her school. Another co-worker mentioned that she loved playing with jacks.

My friend Debbie said (and this is a direct quote):

"Hey! We should have a jacks play off! Let's have a jack off!"

It got dead quiet on the pavillion and then we all started to roar. Love those times you don't know what you've said and then you figure it out... That one's going to make Debbie famous for a while. :-)

Men, Women, and Cars

What is it about women and motor vehicles that leads men to automatically assume we're a bunch of unknowledgeable idiots? (Of course, my enlightened male readers excepted!)

Wednesday morning, I got in my state car to head up the happy highway to work. I started smelling something funny, and approximately .1 miles down the road, smoke started pouring out the vents. No dummy I, I turned that rig around and headed back to the VDOT lot where I park her. Because I am now cell phone-less, I had to go back home and call the state's vehicle management center.

The conversation went roughly as follows:

Me: Yes, I'm an employee for the Dep't for the Blind and just got out of my state car. There is smoke pouring through the vents.

VMCC Guy: What do you mean?

Me: There's smoke coming in through the vents.

Guy: Did you turn the heat on?

Me: The a/c was on, yes.

Guy: Well, can you drive it to the garage?

Me: I'm not driving it anywhere.

Guy: Well, I can't just authorize a tow for any reason.

Me: This isn't just any reason. THERE IS SMOKE POURING THROUGH THE VENTS OF THE CAR.

Guy: Can you put your driver on the phone? I know you ladies from the department have drivers.

(This really got my dander up)

Me: Listen here, I am fully sighted. I am the sole driver of the car. I saw smoke coming through the vents, and I parked the car and I am calling you. Someone better pick that car up and repair it, because I am not driving it any further. I wouldn't drive it if it were my car, and I'm sure as hell not driving it since it's your car.

(Silence)

Guy: Can you turn the car on and turn the heat off and tell me what happens?

Me: I'm not at the car at this point, I'm at home. I don't have a cell phone. [Doesn't that just freakin' figure?!]

Guy: Well if I'm going to send a tow truck over there, you're going to have to go drop off your key anyway. Go over there and then call me back.

Me: Fine.

I go over to VDOT, and do as he says, and the smoke is gone, but a strange smell of burning or melting plastic or something is now coming into the car. I check all my stuff to make sure nothing is touching the vents or nothing could be melting and find nothing.

So I go into the VDOT facility where I park it, which I should have done in the first place, and ask to use the phone. Where I get guy #2.

Guy: Well, all this sounds rather vague. I'm not sure I can authorize a tow. Can you be more specific about what the problem is?

Me: There was smoke pouring through the vents. It was gray and smoky. There is now a smell of burning or melting plastic. I am not driving the car to a garage. I am not turning the car on again.

Guy: Where did you say you were?

Me: Falmouth VDOT.

Guy: That's S-A-L-M-Y-T-H??

Me: F-A-L-M-O-U-T-H.

Guy: S-A-L-M-O-U...

Me: F! As in Frank. F!

Guy: Oh, F.

(You can say that again)

Guy: Can you hold while I try to get Tony at the garage?

Me: Sure. (What the hell? I know Tony--he'll tell me it's gonna be a while)

Guy: Ok, I'm back.

(Congratulations)

Guy: Ok, Tony says he can't get there for a couple of hours.

Me: Fine. I'll leave the key.

Guy: He says you won't have your car for at least 3 days. (said in the tone of "I'm going to take your favorite toy away since you can't play nice.")

Me: Fine by me. I'm not driving it while it's smoking.

Guy: Ok (as in "Fine, if that's the way you want to be, lady.")

Me: Bye.

Now, all things considered, I held my temper pretty well. But come on, please, who in their right minds is going to drive a smoking vehicle to a garage? Jeez, I particularly don't like those kind of macho men who think I have no brain just because I don't happen to have a Y chromosome.

Yuck.

I'm all for people being able to do what they want in their own homes, but, frankly, I'm just totally grossed out.

I'm the type of person for whom showering is a chore. I get in the shower, I do what I have to do, and I get out. I don't take long, supposedly "luxurious", showers, because to me that's a waste of time. Five minutes tops.

Well, this week my clients have been stymying my system!

Care to take a guess why? There's one thing, and one thing only that can make me shower more than once per day, makes me wash my clothes the minute I get home, and totally grosses me out.

Smoking.

Yes, I am an anti-smoking Nazi. I don't tell people not to smoke, but if I'm in someone's home and they ask if I mind if they light up, I don't lie. "HELL YES I MIND!" Only a bit nicer.

And I've had 3 clients this week, all new, who have either been smokers or who live with smokers.

My state car smells like a freakin' chimney. Last night we had to do the wash and today, I just got home, and I'm going to have to wash these clothes (which were just washed yesterday) and hop into the shower again. Which ticks me off since I showered less than 9 hours ago.

But I can't stand the smell of my own self. Then I'll have to Febreze my car, the state car, and the office chair I'm currently sitting in.

And the sad thing is, these guys are all long term clients, so I'm just going to go through this week after week till I can close them. That really sucks.

I SURVIVED!

Client situation has been diffused.

That is all :)

One of those Days

I had one of those days last Friday, and it's been haunting me ever since... Now, granted, EVERYONE (including my boss) told me not to worry about it, it was nothing I should get upset about, and I could just get on with my life.

To me, however, it was the meteorological event of the century. I checked my voice mail all weekend, and tomorrow is D-Day, the day I come face to face with this client who I hope I'm going to be able to help and who I hope to have a good rapport with, in spite of what was a gawd-awful beginning. All I can do at the moment is remember the sound of her screaming and crying at me--a sound that really continues to get my dander up.

Why is it so easy to dwell on this stuff? When something amazing happens, I'm happy for a day or two, and then I move on. But this happened darn near a week ago, and here I am still sweating it.

A couple of years ago, my dad and his then-girlfriend Barb went and took a trip across country. It was the adventure my father was always dreaming of taking, and Barb has a good eye for travelling cheap, so off they went.

When they were coming back after hitting California, they went to Colorado and started climbing a big peak in the Rockies.

To hear my dad tell it, he knew he was running low on gas, but didn't want to waste time seeing the amazing panorama, so up they went, and, you guessed it, the "low fuel" indicator came on.

When they got up there, they asked about gas, and were told they'd have to go back down the mountain when they were done and get it. Dad was told not to worry, just put the car in neutral and glide down the hill.

To hear my dad tell the story, it was the greatest adventure of the whole entire trip. He described the scenery, the people, the car, and gliding quietly down a big mountain road...

All Barb talked about was how pissed off she was that he put them through "that"...

I want to be more like my dad in that regard. I've made great strides in finding the positive and letting most people's issues glide off my back (particularly after reading The Four Agreements chapter on not taking anything personally). But when I can't, man can't I!!!

So my struggle for the week is getting through about 4 hours tomorrow morning and then moving forward. I know once it's over, I'll wonder what I ever got so worked up about.

Please Mom, Don't Make Me!

I don't wanna go to work tomorrow!

I am absolutely dreading it. It's gotten to the point that I can't stand the thought of going in to deal with my:

A) Mostly insane, needy, neurotic, sick, unhappy, incapacitated clients

B) The ineffective muckety-mucks

C) Insane, needy, neurotic, unhappy co-workers.

We are looking into refinancing our house and then hopefully I can quit.

The thought of going in this week, when I look at what's on my plate, is enough to make me want to hang my head down and cry. I spent no time at home this weekend, and got about 1/10th of what I wanted to do actually accomplished. This week is also the week of our Pirates of the Caribbean party, another Dave Barry book signing, I have to work late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, book club tomorrow, and Charlottesville on Friday.

All this and trying to figure out my future as well?? YIKES!!!

I'm not sure what the future holds, but one thing I'm sure of: It cannot continue to hold my current position with my current employer beyond the next 4-6 months. I truly would lose my mind.

Fortunately, everything on the home front is great. I feel like I'm back on track with my personal life and making progress on meeting people in Fredericksburg as well. I'm enjoying the house, enjoying the neighbors, enjoying my time with my husband, and time with friends as well. I'm learning to set limits that I can live with in terms of my time and travel. I'm finally settling in :)

I Oughta Work on the Help Desk

It's after midnight last night when I finally got home last night... I wanted to play with my grandbuns...

The house is dark, except for the porch lights, which the General thoughtfully put on...

I walk up to the door and I hear the computer... Yes, it's 12:15, the General has to be up by 4 and he's on the computer.

Ok, not my problem. I get inside, and flip on the switch for the hallway.

A lightbulb blows and we are plunged back into total darkness.

Ok, no problem. The General comes downstairs, absolutely sobbing.

"Honey, what's wrong?!"

"This has been the worst night!"

"Why? What happened?"

SNUFFLE SOB SOB SNUFFLE

"OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED!? DID SOMEONE DIE!? TALK TO ME!"

"Art cancelled for tomorrow and I had to get Little Anne to come get me and I have a training class and the computer diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied" SOB SOB SOB

"Ok, ok, what's wrong with the computer?"

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave a viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusssssssssssssss"

"Ok, is it still useable?"

"Yes, but I don't know anyone here to help me and pop ups keep going off and I can't get them to stop and I don't know anyone here and AdAware shut down and IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan't fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiix iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit and it's been going on aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllll niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight." SOB SOB SOB

(Mind you this is all taking place in the dark)

"Ok, hold on a second, I'm just going to put on a light and I'll come take a look"

I flick the kitchen switch... Nothing. Hmmmm... That's strange.

Flick on the dining room light. Nothing, no light. Hmmmm... That's strange.

Microwave, oven, stove, fridge all operational... Flick on the outside lights. Nothing. Ok, must have tripped a breaker.

Go downstairs, fumble around while the fluorescents light up... Find "Overhead kitchen lights" breaker, and flip it. Go back upstairs.

Nothing, no light. The lights are dead.

"Ok, honey, we have a minor electrical issue here. There's no light inside or on the main floor."

"Well that's a real kick in the ass, when it rains it pours."

Sometimes there's nothing to do but sit down and laugh or cry when you get to that point... So I forced the General to go to bed, and said I would look into everything in the morning.

I went to work (gotta love those rural county days--I LOVE Orange County!!!) and when I got home, I called our neighbor Jack, my one true hero, to ask if he could recommend an electrician. He said he would be right over.

Well, the breaker marked "Furnace" turned out to be the breaker for the overhead lights, which came on like a charm. Apparently what happened was that when the bulb blew out in the light in the hallway, a wire broke and crossed another wire inside the bulb and caused a short.

Ok, so on to the great machine. I finally, after battling with it for quite some time, discovered that we'd been infected by W32.myzor.fk.fy and did a search on that. I followed the directions for the first suggested fix I came to, and with one call to my husband to find out how to launch "safe mode", I had the machine fixed myself... Granted, it took quite a while, but that was only because the scanning took a good chunk of time.

I highly, highly recommend http://remove-spy.blogspot.com if you run into a spyware, malware/trojan/virus/adware/backdoor situation you can't figure out. If I can make it work from their directions, ANY ONE can. Their directions allowed me to clear out what Symantec, Microsoft, and AdAware all missed.

I called the General with the good news, and he immediately decided I should be a help desk engineer! That might be pretty cool :)

Unbelievable...

I went in to work yesterday... For 2 1/2 hours. It took me longer to drive there and back.

Because there is no way I can resume a full schedule of normal duties (I can't stand on my feet for hours yet), and the doctor's note says "Return to work 4/17/06", everyone is being overcautious until the doctor can write more specific orders about being at sedentary duty or not.

So, they sent me home "for your protection as well as ours"...

I hate that phrase. I guess it's the nature of our litigious society.

I took the paperwork over to my doctor's office and isn't he out until next Tuesday!? UGH!

I know, I know, I should be grateful for another week off, but I'm not. I mean, yes, at least I can get in the car and go somewhere and do something. True enough. That's better than before when I was stuck.

But I felt so good to be able to get up and get dressed and go into the office, and see everyone... *Sigh*

Well, at least I can continue to run my restaurant empire for a while longer ;-)

And finally, a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister, Judy :-) 28 years old... You're getting to be an old lady like your sister!