Tempin' & Drivin'...

a couple weeks ago i went back to kelly temp Services to sign back up. i worked with them last time i lived up here & ended up getting my "real" job through them. they were super nice & happy i had worked with them before (different office people now) & even got hired on.

they called me up & gave me my first assignment. it will be 2 weeks tomorrow & it was supposed to be over. however, it looks like i'll be there at least another week. the bad thing..it's in Blaine- 50 miles 1 way : so i drive 100 miles a day for a $10/hr job. but, this means we might be able to move into town in the next month or so if i can work steadily through then.

it's fun "playing receptionist". :)

Funniest Fact..

they hired my replacement just now. it's the owner's son...

Fun Facts...

1) 2nd time writing this on my tiny keyboard on phone.

2) bosses here are telling agents i'm leaving b/ i'm getting married. lies upon lies

3) my boss-that-never-works (now part time for health insurance meaning 5 hours or so a week, whenever she has time) put an invite to her baby shower on my desk. a) she spelled my last name wrong b) it's on ny birhtdya, why would you even be that rude to ask? she knows my bday c) she hasn't spoken more than a couple sentences to me since my notice.. & you want presents! maddness

4) TOPPER
my position is now being offered at $15-$18 hour! they will have less work & more money. must be nice. shows how much RESPECT i got here.

my old job...

my job opening is on good ole craigslist as if last night- no messing about. some of my shit tasks were taken away for the new hire; covering reception & printing all the mailing statements. go figure, 2 specific items i asked to be regifted to others that had "nothing to do" over a year ago & was told NO. theory...they want to hire a male. no one makes a male cover reception here...gasp!!

of course the best receptionist i worked with was Richard at atomfilms. he was so fun & really good at his job. a rare combo. if your curious, i copied the entire posting after the jump.

2 glaring changes then what i had in my 2 years there [1 review & $.50 bump after 90 days than de nada]:
1) never had a real title - just administrative ass(istant)
2) never made $15/hr which is offered below..had to basically beg for less than that, we'll leave it at that

some big balls over here...

gave my 2 weeks now.

no one said good luck, its been great having you here- just bummer for us (whaha) & actually asked me to stay past the 2 weeks. like this isn't serious or something. i may have yelled NO. if i would stay longer, then i wouldn't have given 2 weeks now-- are they that dense..answer yes, it's all about these socal folks.
15th is my last day at work. Huzza!! N gives his on friday.

UPDATE: they have now divided up most of my tasks to people that don't have anything to do. the new hire will make more $ & have less BS work..whay couldn't i get that before when i tried??
i can't wait to see the posting on craigslist..i'll let you see it too. :)

new hours

i was able to update my hours. starting monday 730-430. i wanted 730-4 w/half hour lunch but they wouldn't let me. apparently i need an hour?

covering reception for the rest ofthe week so it's busy times.

case of the mondays...on tuesday

i've been tracking my workload in minute increments for boss past couple weeks. sent her the results last nite with email request for changing my hours a little to help.

she wasn't able to just ok it. now i have to meet with her later ti go over the exact same info..

& i forgot to put on anti-persprint. yummy! at least high is only supposed to be 80 today.

heater denied...

i'm always cold. been tested for anemia, thyroid issues, diabetes ect and nothing. just blue fingers & lips whenever i go to a restaurant to eat in. even while wearing gloves, scarf & at least 2 sweatshirts. it's not normal. i know this for a fact as i look around & notice no one else shivering & eating fast.

at work it's really bad with the small space & the air conditioning craziness. i wear finger less gloves, scarf & usually a pretty ugly cardigan [by choice]. there are other girls as cold, i'm not totally out there on this one. one girl has a heater at her desk. i had one when i worked at my previous place & it made the day so much better. [may have had a few late nite drives back, to make sure i'd turned it off of course]

i got one for the current job. my boss sent me a nice email that they aren't allowed, but it's not enforced?? - i could have it if i made sure it was off whenever i left my desk. since i have to walk around a lot to all the printers, cover reception, answer the front door {yes-em}, i knew i wouldn't remember to turn it on/off constantly. since i'm micro-managed [for some reason i've yet to figure out], she would totally be checking up on me. she loves to try to catch me on things for some weird powertrip reason, but has yet too. it's bizarre since i could be an even better worker if i was treated with respect, like i've been at every other job..i DIGRESS!!

so i replied to her email- yes this was by email although her desk is literally right next to mine- i said; thanks for the info & i hadn't known they weren't allowed. [i hadn't since the other girl has one right on her desk no no ones cares about- different strokes for different folks]. i let her know i would be taking mine home, since i'm not trying to break a rule or anything. i don't like the "it's not allowed, but we're not enforcing it" crap. really?? you're just waiting for something to knock me on since you have nothing else to do.

the 2 days i had it there were so warm! i didn't even have to wear my sweater or gloves. i had a regular fan working behind me to circulate the warm flow. sigh...

being tracked...another nail in the micro-managed coffin

new--this week at my work--IT installed a fun internet website tracking program. they'll get reports of what sites you're on, how long, & what you're looking at. i work friggin hard & i enjoy a nice blog post to read to relax for about 60 seconds throughout the day..no more.

at the O it wasn't half this managed, especially when you weren't the screw-up. problem is they can't block enough sites the management (aka my boss) wants to play on so this is the best alternative. big brother for a company with under 20 employees & only the hourly folks are watch'd- just give the slackers more to do! nuff said, but as usual the dumb ruin it for the rest. as long as my radio player stays. without music i'd go nutts. the Sirius i had used to work great, but then the reception went to shit for some reason.
2 more days this week then off for my bday fun!!

catching up...

work has been insane!! one girl quit so her workload was divided between me & another. needless to say i left early on thursday after working 8 straight hours & a 30 min early on friday approved by my boss due to all the work i'd been doing. sure it's nice to leave early, but it just puts me behind the next day which these folks don't get BECAUSE they don't have that much work to ever do.

i do a lot of back-up for everyone else without anyone offering to help me. i guess it's ok since if someone did offer, the intelligent level at this place would cause me to have to "train" them for way to long when i can do it my self...plus i'd still have to check all he other work & correct it so i might as well do it in the first place. arrgg

good news--J's baby is coming next week!
M&E are back!! we got to hang with them yesterday & it was like they'd never really left. :) i'm not sure if we paused for any air during the convo.

Happy Mother's/Aunt Day!

busy days...

i can't believe it's almost turkey day! this month has flown by.

work has been keeping me busy during the day. i enjoy that because usually it makes the time go faster & i can get home. got some good news...i had a 6 month review - got a raise. i also took the opportunity to ask to change my work schedule back to 8-5's every day, instead of some days doing the 9-6's. that was approved! right before my review, we were told the company is declaring chapter 11. exciting stuff! almost like on the office right now. i'm not worried. i've declared chapter 7 & i'm still around. it just freed up all the incoming money i would be getting. i guess the CEO is getting sued by some folks so this is the way to end that. whatever.

we hit up 2 excellent warehouse sales on saturday. after N getting my tire rotated & getting Dim Sum. we discovered sundays are much better for selection at Dim Sum. it was less crowded, but not as much good stuff to pick. it's ok..learn something.

only 3 days of work this week. there's a rumor we may get off early on wednesday, but i'll believe it only if i see it - it hasn't happened yet. thursday we're going up to J & S's for dinner. S's dad & step mom, brother, sister-in-law & niece will all be there. i don't envy the madness, but i can't wait for the food!

3 recent shots. cats are doing really well. still a little tension, but it's cool.

Wise

Weezie

Tim

campin' Hooka

the machines, they are against me...

this week was long & rough. due mostly to machines.

we have to mail out about 800 monthly statements at work. i get to do it with the help of the receptionist. this month i had to wait a whole week to get the pdf of 1588 pages from the "programmer". then i have to make sure they are printed front & back properly. this should be easy. i begin to print the pdf- i mean i try to. low and be-freakin hold, i can't print. too any of the printers i could use-there are 2. i realize this is not starting well. email IT [who gets in around noon], then magically they fix it. for some reason i was supposed to be happy about it. happy you broke something in the system then had to fix it??? i begin to print on 1 which decides to jam after every 4-5 prints. obviously this isn't going to work so i have to switch to the one i'm not supposed to use [of course this was an exception], and it's way far from my desk so i don't like it either. at least it managed to print w/o jamming.argggg

half a day wasted so far. could have had them all printed in a couple hours [how long it takes, when all goes well]

BTW- 3 people review the pdf before i get it to proof for errors. this month they all managed to miss that a bunch of accounts printed to 3 pages. i'm not going to get into details, but this makes for a really crappy time for me. i noticed between pages 750-1000 after spot checking the printouts. then i went back through every page to fix any issues. took the rest of the day into the middle of day 2. prints finally done it was on to the ancient POS folding machine.

i know, i know... it seems redundant but the folding machine did break. bossman [the only one who knows anything about this piece of shiet] couldn't fix it. got that email in the morning on day 3. did manage to get about 300 folded the receptionist stuffed in envelopes & got in the mail on day 2. of course....in the morning she decides to share that she realized the envelopes she had used were the OLD address ones. i looked at her with utter disbelief. this girl has 2 kids, married, likes she's smart, but can't notice anything. this is why i have strong feelings about procreation. i said well, we can't do anything now - i wish you would have mentioned something yesterday since i had others that were ok. i mean what did she expect me to say? oh shiet..lets go to the post office and find them? i mean, why even bother telling me your an idiot [more than is obvious to all]. i would never hire her. esecially in econimic times like now when so many smart people are out there that don't text, sit on facebook & myspace & make presonal calls all day.

day 3 we begin to fold the other 500 statements, stuff, seal & post. i think i forgot to mention that the "smart one" had to leave ealry all of a sudden so i got the joy of sitting up front the last half of day 3. she was only able to help fold and stuff 100 statements. left the rest for me & E to finish, postmark on the tiny postage meter they bought - which constantly feeds wrong [you have to literally hand feed the damm thing].

so the printer hated me, the pdf people are useless, the folding machine makes my life hell & postage meter is useless for bulk mail [duh].

something else was nagging me this week. thursday i did a test & that nite i let N know the fridge isn't working. he jacked the temp up to 5 on friday to make sure. when we got home there was no change. threw out all the milk, eggs & other stuff. transferred the water to the freezer which is working ok, but not at it's best. N went to the office this AM, maintenance guy came about noon, said he had to get a part & never came back. now the office is closed for the rest of the weekend & don't see justifying calling the emergency pager.

i can't wait to see what happens next week!

latest ebay buy...

my she-ra tent! i didn't have this growing up. i didn't even know about it. i found this on ebay and won it. just needed a good wipe down with a damp washcloth and air out. B came over yesterday and had fun in it. the cats are still absorbing the giant cat tent.

the front door...you can see through to the back plastic window.

side shot. both sides are the same image. the colors are still so birght. it doesn't seem like it was hardly used and never in the sun. lucky me!


the back of the tent. the clear plastic window is great for watching cats sneaking up.

i had my review this week and it went well. i don't know what my raise is yet. my boss is waiting until the head boss is in a good mood for him to review it. he makes all the decisions. i know he was super busy this week. it will be retro-active so i'm not worried. my health/dental insurance will start august! i have a call with the lady on monday to go over all the paperwork. work has still been busy and i'm getting more and more tasks (as they love to call them there). i've never worked at a place that loved outlook tasks so much. it's pretty funny but i don't mind learning a new procedure.

i still need to take pictures of my haircut and foli from last week. it turned out fantastic! julie is awesome. only about 3.5 hours to cut and partial foil which was all i needed to get the wonderful orange out. those will come this week. i promise!

Jabba the Hooka

where o where are my dazzles?

you may remember reading a little while ago that i had ordered more of the dazzles gourmet popcorn we first found at the strawberry festival. it was my june treat to myself (in accordance with my hard line budget through 2009). it was charged right away so i figured i'd get them soon.

a couple weeks went by. i sent an email checking the status. no reply. another week...another email and nothing. i started calling and have left 2 messages so far with nothing back. i'm really, really disappointed with them and their service. i'll try once more next week to call then i'm going to have to figure out how to get my money back. this will not be fun..BUT at least some of the new tasks i'm doing at may help me find them.

i've started prepping the underwriting reports for the applications at work. still no raise, but people that do this in "real life" are paid really well and get good training. i (of course) will be paid the lowest they can get away with and get minimal training then be let loose on it. it's fun, but just another thing i'm taking on without much training so i do feel a little insecure. since they don't want to train more, this is what i get and i'll figure it out as i go. i like a challenge..but i also like to be paid what i'm worth. the recept that does nothing but call me to do her job and cover the front while she takes tons of breaks and has to pump a bunch, and she gets paid more then me by at least $2 an hour. i love it! i do her job and mine all day.

i haven't worked directly with someone so lazy before. even at the O, people did work at least. i hope that will change since i do work hard and our boss sees it. the ceo had a meeting yesterday where he told everyone if he catches them on social websites or playing games, they'll be fired on the spot. yup, i told him i was happy he's doing that. i work my ass off all day and all i hear is other people complaining about not having anything to do BUT they never ask for more work...just go play online.

tomorrow i get my haircut and foiled! it's been a year since i had a haircut. she's the last one that cut my hair a year ago too. my birthday present form J&S. no bangs this year!

some chick at work thought she could talk me into bangs. it made me wonder why she wanted me to have them so bad when i myself don't. like she wants me to look stupid for less girl competition or something dumb like that. maybe if i had lower self-esteem her badgering would have worked. then she gets mad b/c i don't want bangs...again. weirdo!! it's not surprise to me why guys don't want to get married-most women are nutts.

got the 3rd off!

since the 4th of July falls on a saturday this year, i wasn't sure if this place was going to have a day off. the UPS guy brought it up since they were checking what businesses will be open. i emailed and was told, since it's on saturday this year there is no holiday. ONLY because the employee handbook said different, i followed-up mentions in the handbook it says if a National Holiday falls on a weekend, either friday or monday will be off for observance. [i won't get paid since i'm not through my 90 days yet...but that's ok by me]

also found out the receptionist will be back from her baby leave on July 1st! seems so fast, i mean not even 3 months but that's ok with me. that means i'll probably move to being an admin project person which is ok. i won't have to sit up front and can go to the bathroom whenever i want! i'm sure i'll break her when she's back which is ok too.

at pick-up-stix, on wednesday's they are offering unlimited wontons for 25 cents each!! read it on fast food maven. we may have to go get a bunch. it's supposed to go on for a while.

yeah! weekend...

the week is OVER

friday was pretty nuts to but i survived & haven't gotten a headache yet. my boss is back on monday so things should settle a lot. she'll be taking care of the CEO & my buffer to other people giving me work. she's cool so it should be ok. hopefully everyone was dully impressed with my work. the one time i put my head down on my wrist pad for a quick rest, i was caught by the CEO. he was nice and asked if my head was hurting. it's nice to see they remember i get those.

now we're going to chill. maybe go to sonic today and stuff ourselves silly. we haven't been for a long time, since they messed up our orders pretty bad. we also aren't sure what the tip situation is there. i mean they do bring it to you so i'd like to tip a buck or two but i'm not sure the "right" way to do it. especially if i'm paying with a CC.

N is going to trek to our small local goodwill for some new work pants. that's usually where he gets them or back at mervyns in the day.

hope your weekend is chill!

the myth of "multi-tasking"...

the week has been busy as i expected. i've gotten about 8 projects in the past 2 days from 2 different departments. both are "top priority".

how to do 2 things at once? you can't. multi-tasking is a joke. it was created to "validate" people who are always doing 4 things at once and people think they're so on top of it..but in reality nothing gets done well if even at all.

sure i can format a spreadsheet, but not at the same time as updating 3 databases and color coding another sheet. i'm also tasked with researching the Small Business recovery act and how the company can get in on that. um hello, i don't really know much about this company, how it's structured or registered or even what questions to ask to get the answers they wants. so i become frustrated with myself that i can't find the right info that they'll want. then i take a deep breathe, relax and remember i don't have to let on how smart i am to these folks. i'm getting paid base for reception and now i'm doing other jobs for free. gotta love it. of course both departments are asking for updates throughout the day knowing i have other things PLUS my regular front desk stuff.

it'll be nice with my boss is back next week. then i will get to give her back her work and hopefully she'll be able to help me balance all this new stuff...or at least talk to the folks to mellow a bit.

don't get me wrong, i love to be busy all day but not buried [while being tied to the desk so when i have a question, sometimes i don't get an answer right away which sucks too. 2 more days.

something smells...funky?

we have a garbage chute on our floor. for a few years people were mature about keeping it clean, especially after i put up a sign. the sign was ripped down, by an angry litterbug, about 9 months ago. i haven't bothered creating another one, since the people they are renting to are lower and lower class...as goes the economy. last nite someone started playing their DRUM SET at 11PM!! lucky me they moved into our building.
here's the garbage chute this morning. it's been clogged since saturday am. even though we do have maintenance on site [i saw them driving around].



the smell, as you can probably imagine is fantastic

weekend recap:
friday: J and B came over and we fried a bunch of stuff in our fryer. then J foiled my hair but we were stopped close to being done when B woke up not happy. fortunately N was able to jump in and with J's direction, finish the foil. the back looked good but the front has some, shall we say, brassiness to it. monday i'm going up to her place after work to do her hair with brown so we'll throw a few streaks in my hair too to tone it down i hope.

saturday: N got donuts from across the street. in the afternoon we went to Fatburger. it was N's first time, but i'd gone for lunch one time. it was really good. i love the fat fries. the onion rings were light. then we watched the last dvd of the Sports Night [tv show] i made N watch. i love netflix! i went to target to get some blond dye to try to tone down the orange, but it didn't work.

sunday: laundry & i went back to target to get a brown dye. i found a great new conair brush for 4.99 with a gel handle. came home and put the brown in and...not really any change. weird. so i've had 4 showers in 3 days which isn't good for my water conservation policy.

the upcoming week is going to be busy at work. i'm covering for the exec. assistant to the CEO. plus learning more about the risk management side by getting some new project from them to learn on monday. all this while staying at the front desk most of the day and being a receptionist. sometimes i feel a little taken advantage of. especially since i haven't even been there a month! hopefully their expectations aren't too high. so i may be hiding under the covers come friday. other than that the jobs been good and the people are nice. i don't want to jinx it.

mirror, mirror in the hallway...

we relaxed this weekend. we made it to dim sum on sunday. i ordered 3 pork humbaughs from the cart straight off because i knew if we missed out on those, we'd be S.O.L. that visit. they don't bring them out too often--maybe once an hour and they go quick. so we brought home 5. yeah!!
the only thing N didn't get was the shrimp w/green leek rice noodle dumpling. he brought home his sweet eggy desserts and i brought the humbaugh & (2) sweet pork buns. the BEST dim sum is still the place we went to in Honolulu on the last visit for M&E's wedding. it was a little more upscale then the usual ones.

i also finished my project of tossing our many pillows into the dryer (2-3 at a time) for 10 minutes or so to kill the dust mites. i saw a show about it. the lumpiness of N's pillows flattened out nicely. i managed to sell my ebay items i put online last week...BUT...none of the 3 buyers have paid yet. 1 girl sent me an emails saying she'd need a couple extra days which is totally fine & i appreciated that. the other 2 i haven't heard any thing from yet and they've all been sent invoices.

weezie was all bellied out on her favorite blanket (it's electric!) and hooka decided to join her...right next to her:


weezie tries to ignore the big furry one...

somethings happening out side...

last but not least...N went to take the garbage out on saturday morning. [we are lucky enough to have a garbage shoot right down the hall] there he saw someone had left a mirror. [people leave stuff all the time. we've gotten quite a few hallway treats to decorate our apartment. we leave stuff there that's in good shape also] he got back and told me to go look at it while he ran to trader joe's and the donut shop across the street. i put on a sweatshirt & shoes right away and headed down. it was great. i didn't think twice or wait but hauled it back right away...already planning exactly were i was going to put it.
here it is:


no scratches or anything...nice and clean & the back has no rips on the backing...i put in on top of the wooden chest i got from my gps. it's the chest his family brought over their belongings in from italy in the 1900's. it even has some stamps on it from the voyage. pretty cool. i keep it covered with a nice orange sarong from hawaii.

N couldn't believe someone would just leave it out. i was glad they did. that's N's GI Joe troop transporter on the left & on the right is the bowl he bought at the avocado festival in fallbrook, ca last week.

work has been going well so far. we took pictures for our badges on friday. i didn't care much since if someone really wanted to see what i looked like, they can look up at my face.

ebay, job, avocados & rattlesnake...oy my...yes oy

in order on the title...

ebay: i got my act together and took pictures of my 3 items and put them up for sale. so far both the she-ra lunchbox, matching thermos, sticker album lot and the strawberry shortcake tin lunchbox, matching thermos, w/extra thermos lot have bids! the NKOTB joe m. "action figure" mint in package still has no bids...and starts at .99...so if you're interested..huh, huh. it's coo though, there are 2 watchers on it so hopefully one will pull the trigger and get it for cheap.

job: so far so chill. everyone loves what i've done with the place. it's all neat and organized now. the other girl had her baby today so that's good she can enjoy her maternity leave not being prego. here are some pictures:


this is the view from my chair...lovely elevators aren't they. the signage is horrible (the suite number is behind the giant open doors) so people always stare blankly left & right when they get off the elevators. the folks across the hall have their doors open all day. but the view in is of a conference room with glass doors and walls...so when they meet in there i can see people. otherwise it's dark.

this is the view in of my beautiful giant desk. it kinda reminds me of atomfilms when we were next to the viaduct downtown seattle. to the left is a glassed in conference room. usually the light is off in there (it's on a sensor). there are the glass doors i have to buzzed people in (employees usually use their badges). the office behind me is empty and used as a satellite office for other employees that work off site and come in on occasion i guess.

here's the building...we're on the 8th floor!

another picture of the building

avocado: we woke up brite & early on sunday and headed to fallbrook for the avocado festival. i swear we saw a huell howser episode where he went there. we were excited to try lots of avocado stuff and there was supposed to be a cooking contest the website said. we got there in good timing (it's about 78 miles south then east of us) & even managed to find a free parking spot! it was right at one end of the festival so it was a perfect location. so we walked through he 6-7 blocks of stands to the original Pedro's Tacos so i could get my potato taco & N could get his rolled tacos. it was delish. then we headed back up the other side of the festival. needless to say we were home by 2pm! there were hardly any avocado things. cold stone sold the ice cream. cold stone! N got it and was disappointed. i wasn't impressed either. we never saw the cooking contest. it was jammed with people and strollers. oh the strollers. and N got coughed on by people who deliberately turned away from their friends toward him about 5 times. it was super hot also which didn't help. N found 1 stand that sold handmade wood bowls and trays and got a cool bowl for $5.

rattler: J & D were going for a walk down to the beach on the river trail between our cribs while D&B were in town visiting. along the way there was this snake lying in the middle of the path. the story goes, D tried to scare it with a stick and it ended up slithering into the brush. if i was there, i woulda been walking the other way so fast. i don't mess with mother nature. D sent a bunch of pictures of the snake but i accidentally deleted them but this one where it's leaving the trail.