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I wonder what it is that makes random songs pop into my head at any given moment, that have no association whatsoever with what I'm doing? I was plodding along on an FMEA for work, and all of a sudden the WB frog popped into my head with his, "Hello my baby, hello my honey..."
I am intensely grateful that heart-to-heart conversations with Calvin happen on a daily basis, instead of only on the rare occasion that I know some couples experience.
My back is still somewhat screwed up, but I'm employing Calvin's suggestion of ignoring it. In his eyes, there's nothing else to be done because I'm getting old and will have aches and pains for the rest of my life. Cheery sumbitch, isn't he?
Apparently, Mz. Bitchypoo hates everybody today.
"Hello my baby, hello my honey,
hello my rag-time gal.
Send me a kiss by wire,
baby my heart's on fire!
If you abuse me, honey you'll lose me,
then you'll be left alone.
Oh baby telephone,
and tell me I'm your oowwwwn!"
This date in history is apparently not one that I've ever been motivated to write in. So! A random archived entry, for your amusement. A day at the Phoenix Zoo.
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March 17, 2004
W-O-R-K in the U-S-A
You know what I hate? I hate that my website looks different on my work laptop and on my home PC. On my work laptop, this space that I'm writing in right now is a nice, eye-calming grey-blue, which is nicely complimentary of the other colors on the page. At home? It's more candy-purple, and it hurts my eyes a little.
Humph. I just had a hallway conversation with a co-worker, about an upcoming project that her group might be asked to help out on. She was immediately on the defensive, questioning what her group would be asked to do. When I mentioned some of the group leaders who supported the project - you know, just to show that we discussed it with the resident experts first, to make sure it was a worthwhile pursuit - she said, "You can name drop all you want, it doesn't mean I'm going to support it." So I'm a name dropper, huh? You know, it's infrequent enough that someone is directly offensive to me at work, and it leaves me blinking for a bit. My immediate inclination to call them out on it ("Hey, bitch!") has to be stifled. Well, I'll let my manager and her manager duke it out. And when I wind up working with her *despite* her protesting participation, well, I *still* won't call her a bitch.
I do think we should redefine our training on "constructive confrontation" to include swear words. Really. They're a much more succinct method of expressing your feelings, rather than saying, "I did not appreciate your hostility, it caused me to feel stress and anxiety. Pray, let us find an amicable solution to this issue and further nurture our working relationship."
The "official" policy at AcronymCo is "no music". The unofficial policy is, "If we can't hear it, go for it." So most folks have got a stack of CD's and a pair of headphones stashed in their desk. I remember when I first brought headphones to work and used them - I even asked my manager first, and she said she couldn't give a rat's ass, as long as I could hear the fire alarm if it went off. Another one of her direct reports found me jamming away at my desk, and declared that headphones were against the rules and that he was going to tell Bosslady (yes, his exact words *were*, "I'm gonna tell." Five years old, much?). She sat two cubes away from me, and I laughed out loud when I heard her say, "Stop being such an asshole, A***. I told her she could."
Fast forward many years and many managers (and many cubicle moves, as it happens) later, to today. I'm working on a project that has me moving between papers and notebooks spread up one side of my desk and down the other, and making notations and lists on the white board hanging on my cubicle wall. Headphones are impractical for so much movement, and yet I couldn't even bear the thought of slogging through my work without the benefit of music. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and listen to LaunchCast on my laptop's speakers. Out loud. Ooohhh.
My cube neighbor came back (after a meeting, I assume, though at 3:00 he could have been playing hookey, enjoying the 90 degree weather during a long lunch). I rolled my chair over to his door (Cube opening? We don't have doors. Whatever.) and asked him if the music was bothering him. He listened for a moment, and a faint murmer could be heard. "The voices in my head are louder than that. But I can't be held responsible if I burst into song."
Another cube neighbor, kitty-corner to us, pipes in, "Are you still gonna sing?" (He's recently informed me that I sing along, and he sometimes has to guess about the song because he can't hear the music.) "Uh, I dunno, probably," I said, and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Why?"
"Well, it'll probably sound better when you're not wearing headphones."
"Indeed?"
"No, wait! That sounded bad. I meant, you don't sing the whole song, just little scraps of it, and now we can hear the whole song instead of just a few words out of nowhere every now and then... and... um..."
Uh huh.
I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but my manager has taken another position, which leaves my group bereft of a boss for the time being. We should be taking advantage of the "cat away" thing by taking long lunches and leaving for happy hours at 3:00, but no - we're too diligent for that. Boring old group, anyway, showing up on time and leaving after 5:00. Pooh.
Management is talking about doing a re-org of our department, to shift around responsibilities and try to better organize things for the same amount of heads to take on more work. They've been talking about it since the end of last year, and nothing has come of it yet. My manager's departure may provide them with the impetus to finally make some decisions - we should see in the next couple of weeks if it has that kind of effect.
According to my (former) manager, when this re-org happens, I may have a choice between two aspects of my job - to do one or the other full-time instead of splitting my attention between the two. And if that's the case, I SO know which direction I'm going. I mean, there are parts of both jobs that I hate doing, but the sheer number of sucky things for one job so far outnumbers the sucky parts of the other job, the decision is easy. Problem is, my (former) manager tells me that the work that I do for the sucky side of my job garners a lot of compliments to the muckety mucks - that I do quality work, that the data is reliable, etc. and yadda. It also happens to be the area that we're the most short-handed on people with experience.
I'm afraid I can see what's coming down the pike. They'll appeal to my sense of "doing what's right for the team", they'll point out the lack of experienced people, and they'll "suggest" that I take on the sucky job. And if that happens... well, I won't fuss about it. Because I like being gainfully employed. But it sure will provide me with (further) motivation to get school over with so I can have a degree in an entirely different field, and then appeal to *them* to move me to a job that makes more sense for my skillset. Or my "skill bag", as my (former) manager puts it.
Speaking of my former boss, true to tradition, we're throwing her a going-away happy hour at our house next Thursday. As far as work-related functions are concerned, we've held two baby showers (one was combined for two people), two team buildings, one just-because happy hour, and (now) three going-away happy hours at our house.
So now the tagline around here, whenever some kind of change occurs, is "Party at Laura and Calvin's!" I don't even have to send out directions to our house anymore. We have a rep for hosting a good time - the number of "accepts" to the calendar invite increases with each function. And that makes me happy - if I had tried anything of this sort at all with my ex, people would have avoided me, my house, and my general vicinity for the rest of my working career. And they would have looked at me funny and whispered among themselves when my back was turned. To say that 'my ex' and 'socializing' are not synonymous would be a gross understatement.
But everybody LOVES Calvin - he's great at hosting parties, socializing and making sure people enjoy themselves. Mostly, he cracks everybody up - if it's been said to me once, it's been said to me a million times, "Your husband is such a funny guy!" Makes me proud. In fact, my co-workers like him so much that whenever we have a work-related function outside of the office, they ask if he's going to join us for the inevitable happy hour that follows. Since the office is less than two miles away from the house, and all of our happy hours wind up at a restaurant or bar near the office, he usually makes an appearance after he's stopped home after work and changed his clothes (and grabbed the motorcycle - it's so much more sexy to show up for these things on a motor, rather than in a white mini-van with the company logo plastered all over the side). Thinking about it now, I hardly EVER see anyone else's significant other hanging out with us. Calvin used to work at AcronymCo, so he gets all the in-jokes, but has the perspective of "Life After AcronymCo" that keeps the conversation lively - VERY lively, sometimes.
I work with a good group of people - other people are always expressing envy at the amount of "outside of work" stuff we do together - team buildings and lunches and happy hours. It used to happen a lot around here, in every group. But it's rare now. I wonder if it'll change for us, too, when we get a new manager. I hope not - we should cling to the things that make our jobs bearable, and you can bear a lot with a few beers to back you up.
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