Category: irritated

Plan in place

In reading the “odd news” today, I inadvertently stumbled across my strategy for the first Tuesday in November.

Source.

NAPLES (Reuters) – Ballot stuffing took on a new meaning in Italy’s parliamentary election on Sunday when a man ate his ballot paper in protest at the country’s politicians.

Police in Naples said they had charged the 41-year-old businessman with destroying election materials. He said all Italian politicians and politics “are crap” and that he was protesting “against the system.”

Nom, nom.

Should I add rooster sauce or mayo? What condiment goes best with crappy politics, hmmmmm?

Inauspicious start to the week

As mentioned before in these pages before, I have become a full blown commuter, taking a train and shuttle bus to get to and from work.

It’s one of those “when it works, it works great” type of deals. To be honest, the whole thing usually just works. Easy. Since my company subsidizes the cost of using commute alternatives, I can ease my pocketbook from the pinch of $4 gas.

However, this morning was one of those days where it didn’t work. Oh, all seemed fine. I walked to the station. The train arrived on time. I climbed on. Hey, I even got a good seat!

Then I overhead the conductor on his cell phone. “Hit, huh? At Menlo Park? Ok. Delays of up to an hour. Ok, I’ll make the announcement.”

Ruh rho.

Yup. The train in front of us hit a pedestrian. And since dancing with a train never goes well, the whole operation had to come to a halt.

My train stopped at a station that was just far enough from both home and work as to be troubling. The conductor told us to get off and figure out what bus to use or whatever. Ugh.

With a cell phone on the last vapors of battery charge, I called a cab and paid an inordinate amount of cash to make it in to work about an hour late.

*sigh* All’s well that ends well.

In other, better, news, I’m happy to see in the ABQjournal that it’s official as of today, the New Mexico quarter is OUT. If you are in Santa Fe, there’s even a little ceremony.

Yay! I can hardly wait to have one in my hand! W00t!

We’re going big time, Oh Fair New Mexico!

Time Zone Zombie

I got approximately three hours of restless sleep last night. See, while it was midnight on the right coast of the country, over there on the left coast, it was still early evening. Prime time for me!

So there wasn’t much sleeping. And then there was getting up early to make a 7:00am breakfast-slash-meet-‘n-greet for this meeting. The meetin’ and greetin’ is useful, very useful, but I’m afraid I wasn’t *quite* on my game today. God bless Starbucks for getting me through.

Now I’m sitting in a stuffy hotel conference room, breathing stale air and the odor of drying, toughening “hotel chicken” wafting in from the kitchen.

But hey, a hard day hotel conferencing still beats a good day toiling at my desk at work. And we will actually finish at 5:00pm today. Go figure! I can’t complain…or rather, I can, but I shouldn’t.

I think it will be early to bed tonight. Right around the point I’m used to living la vida Eastern Time Zone, I’ll hop a west-bound plane.

Good times…

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy…

No, I’m not doing an Easter bunny impression. Tho Easter is nigh…can you JUST believe it? Easter already. To where do the months evaporate?

Meanwhile, back to my anticipatory restlessness.

I have truly become an internet consumer. I ordered something *really cool* online last week. They said it would ship the next day. It did not. My expectation was one day ship. I demand one day ship!

Yesterday I navigated an awful call tree at Big Conglomerate (and I work for a different Big Conglomerate and procure call trees as part of my job, so I know from which I speak) and when I finally got a real person on the line, I screwed up my righteous indignation and demanded to know where my not inexpensive product was.

I was told, “huh…we can’t figure out why it didn’t ship. I need to contact the warehouse. It will take 24 to 48 business hours to get back to you.”

Business hours? Ok, where I come from “business day” is eight hours. I’m no good at math, but 24 divided by 8 is THREE DAYS.

To which I replied, “I am NOT happy with that estimate”.

They said that was just to protect in case of a weekend, but they really meant one to two days.

One day has elapsed. No response.

Back on the phone. In an endless hold queue.

How ’bout this to ponder. Why does on hold music universally SUCK? It is the soundtrack to my insanity. It really is.

Meanwhile, my leg is bouncing.

I reeeeeally want this item I’ve ordered. It’s not like air or food or something. I just have internet buyer lust.

Plus, by buying something, I’m, like, helping the economy, maaahn!

*sigh*

“Please continue to hold and your call will be answered in the order it was received.”

: hostile :

The Fools!

About a year ago I put in for a new job at work. It would be a promotion. I’d be the boss of myself, which would be fun, but difficult at staff meetings…what with me ordering myself around like a minion and everything.

Yesterday after a long year of *waiting*, I heard from my boss that they “decided to go another way”. Which means, they hired an external candidate.

I was assured “it’s not you, it’s me” and “we can still be friends” and “I just need to see other employees” and other tried and true breakup lines.

I like my current boss, so it’s a bit sad, but really, I’m ok about it.

I think, maybe, Boss Lady might have done me a favor. The expectations around that job role are a little weird. It’s been vacant for like a year and a half. No one really knows what that job is supposed to do anymore. I even asked my Vice-President when he interviewed me what were his expectations. He had no answer. That concerns me. It’s nigh impossible to do a job when you have NO idea what is expected of you.

In addition, one of my employees worked with this incoming person at another company and didn’t have high marks.

Oh well, I’ve suffered fools in this department before.

Like I said…maybe in the end, this is actually for the best.

Next!