That Person

Have you ever worked with someone that just never seems quite that genuine? They have a smile on their face, but you can just tell that somethings not right?

Well, I do.


We've been understaffed for more than a year in our office. And when I say understaffed, I mean by several people EACH. For example, me and my coworker were each doing close to the FTE (full time equivalent) of 4 people.

Now THAT is insane.


But to be completely honest? I'd take that over this new girl that they finally hired, any day. Because we at least worked like a team and covered each other. Things got done. As impossible as it seemed each and every day, somehow we made it happen.

That's a true team, I tell ya. We didn't always agree, but it didn't stop us from obtaining that end goal. And now there’s a kink in that team. A hole. A gap. A missing piece. And that is New girl.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that she can’t do the work. And it’s not that she isn’t getting things done, either.

So what is it? I’ll do my best to explain.


There are projects that we’ve been working on for over a year. Projects that, because she just joined us, she knows nothing about. And these aren’t just simple little projects, but are very intricate and it’s taken us a LONG time to set up the processes and build the relationships that we now have. Everything was moving along fabulously, and then she came along.

She started interjecting herself info parts of the projects that she had no business touching. She’s taken on tasking that she is not only not qualified for, but has been told to step back off of. Yet somehow she involves herself and somehow convinces other key players that she is supposed to be there. This not only makes our organization look disorganized and poorly run, but it also makes me look pretty stupid when I go to take care of something that I’ve been working for some time, now, and she’s already stepped in and tried to do it. The customer is confused. I look moronic. And she has me fumbling to come up with a reason for it all. And a reason for why the way that they were told to do things wasn’t correct and they need to do it this way, instead.


She’s causing confusion and making us look incompetent.


I’m not a mean person. I don’t throw people under the bus. And I would absolutely not stand in front of a customer and say “Well, [New girl] may have overstepped her bounds by telling you that so prematurely, and not only is that not the case, but it's also not her call to make.” Because I am a team player. I don’t believe in stepping on other people to accomplish a task. It’s not right, and it doesn’t just make that person look bad… it tends to make YOU look like a giant jerk-wod and still somehow make them out to be the good person, possibly even the victim.


Homie don’t play dat.

At least not this homie.


However, it’s extremely stressful. I’ve been in my position for almost 3 years, and have maintained a Level 3 in my title that entire time. The only reason I haven’t progressed is because there are only 3 positions above me, all with the same title, and just this past week was the first time any of those 3 people have left, and they replaced them with a girl that is not only fantastic (and I’m thrilled for her, in fact!) at what she does, but has been here the longest and absolutely deserves the promotion. I wasn’t even eligible because I actually work for a company that was reached out to in an order to fill my position, and the main company won’t allow “subs” to fill these top positions.

It’s annoying, but I get it. That’s just the way these things work around here. Not shock there, really.


But I’ve said all of that to say this: New girl is only a Level 2, and has only worked here in this environment and in this line of work for less than a year. Less than. So for her to come in and take over things, all personal annoyances aside, is just ridiculous. She’s not qualified. She doesn’t’ have the experience. And she needs to just take a step off.


Am I crazy for thinking this way?


I’m not one of those territorial kind of people. Trust me. Not with this stuff. Ask any other person I work with. I am all about getting things done, and if that means other people doing it? Well, then by-golly that’s what’ll happen.

Nobody wins when you’re only concerned about yourself. I’ve heard it said that “it’s a lonely road to the top”, and I have no interest in getting there.


But when you are going around to other people and making comments about me, and that you don’t like how I do things, well then grow a pair and talk to me about it. But noo.

What does she do?

She sends these e-mails with our bosses CCd, and tells me in this anything-but-genuine way how I need to do things this certain way that she wants me to.


My response?


I reply to all. I say “we’re doing things this way for a reason” in MUCH nicer wording, and throw in one of those “if I’m wrong about any of this, can you guys just let me know? I’ll gladly change things up if this is the case.” Because I have nothing to hide! I have a great relationship with our bosses. That’s what happens when you learn people and you forge working relationships with them.

Being all sneaky and conniving just makes you look like a tool.


And where I would normally be okay with letting her make a fool of herself, with no help from me, and having her just walk around like said giganto-tool, she’s messing up the relationships that we’ve built with the customers. And it’s taken us years to get to this point.



So basically, I’m just tired of it. It’s stressful at work all the time, these days. I’m constantly second-guessing myself because of it. And no one above me seems to notice the ridiculousness of it all (then again, they could possibly just not care, since I’m already doing enough damage control on my own to hopefully cover up all of her mistakes and over-eagerness).


And now I feel like I sound territorial and like I’m over-reacting.


It’s just not a fun situation. I dread going to work, now, and honestly don’t ever want to stay a full 8 hours. I’ve managed to make myself stick it out, but it’s a fight almost every day.



So pray for me… For patience. For wisdom. For kindness towards her. For energy to make it through the day, with some energy to still clean and make dinner at night. For a little extra dose of love to hand out when I’m feeling particularly un-loving. And for the ability to not take out my frustrations with her on other coworkers or my husband.

I’m really trying to work on loving her. It’s just SO hard when I feel like she seems so intent on ruining me and taking over everything I’ve worked so hard to build up.




It’s so hard to work with people like that. Am I the only one?

Satan's Copier

So I don't hate my job. It's not the most exciting, but it certainly beats being jobless ANY day of the week.

Lately, however, we've been having some big problems with our copier.


*insert grunts and mumbling here*


You see - this copier gets used a lot. A LOT. A Lot. A lot.

And I'm not just talking like 50 copies here and there... try 21 copies of a 350+ page student handbook that needs to be copied within 2 work days.

Yeah.

That's about an average job for this puppy.


So it's no wonder that she's not the happiest of campers. And she's not exactly your olympic athlete level copier, either. She takes her SaWEET ol' time. That's for DANG sure.


Well today, she and I are in the midst of a battle. Oooh yeah. Lexi and I aren't on speaking terms, right now (unless you count the mumbling and exaggerated sighs, that is).

Because she's winning. And that's not a dadgum thing I can do about it.


If you want to know how bad it is, imagine the project size above jamming ever 30 - 55 seconds. No. This is not an exaggeration. I PROMISE you that.

Just ask Studly. He can vouch for me. In fact, he got so annoyed at my almost constantly putting him on hold that the 4th or 5th time in that brief 3 minutes phone call that I asked him to hold, he grunted "Can't you just let me go? This is ridiculous!" So I did.


IN-SA-NI-TY!!!


Know what's even better? I knew that this job would take a pretty big toll on ol' Lexi, so I tried to split it up a bit. It's taken me ALL DAY to just make 9 copies. 9. ONLY NINE!!!


I'm going crazy. It's freaking 6:42 and I'm STILL at work!!! Can you believe this? Neither can I. And I can't leave until it's done because Lexi won't cancel a job without having to be reset. Which means she won't work tomorrow. Or the next day. And then won't reconnect to the server when she's supposed to.


I'M SO MAAADDDD!!! I want to go HOME!! I want to EAT something. I want to read my book. I want to spend time with my husband.

But most importantly, I DON'T want to be HERE!



It's such a crappy machine that... get this... when any of the technicians are in the area, they just stop by. No kidding. They figure they may as well swing by because they know how much trouble we have with it. Isn't that ridiculous?!

We're being told that this machine "should" be swapped out for a new one, soon, but we've been told that for quite a while, now.


Well, at least that's one business that isn't effected by the recession.





Stupid Lexi.

Holy Goodness!

Where in the WORLD (is Carmen San Diego!) has the past month+ gone?? Oh my word, I never intended to take that kind of a blog-slacker-"vacation", but it happened.

I'm officially a bad blogger (not that I was all that fantastic to begin with, if I'm being honest... but hey - it's my blog, so we'll just go with it, mmkay?). Really, though - what happened to me??

Oh THAT's right. Work got completely nuts, on me... as did my schedule outside of work... and then there's that marriage of mine that I'm trying to maintain... and a house to at least attempt to keep up with (which I'm not all that fantastic with due to the other bazillions of things). Mix it all up, and what do we have? A pretty good excuse for skipping out on the not-so-necessary stuff, like blogging.

Well, needless to say - a lot has been going on. Unfortunately, I can't write about a lot of it because, even though this is my blog and it's for my personal babbling, it's not really all that personal. And as much as I love being honest and up front, I'm not really one of those people that can put something out there, knowing it could hurt some one's feelings if they read it. So we'll be keeping a whole lot of stuff off the blog, BUT I will give you some good stuff to hopefully make up for it.

So where have we been - Ah yes. Christmas vacation happened - it was fabulous! But of course was over way too quickly. There was some confusion in our return date and we ended up staying a day longer than we all originally thought, but ah well. It was much needed (we were already packed up and got to purely relax the next day... ha ha!) and much enjoyed. I really enjoy getting to spend time with McStudly's family and look forward to his mother hopefully coming to visit us again sometime soon (woot woot!). :-)

Then there was New Years. The FIRST New Years Eve that McStudly and I could finally spend together... and we didn't. :-/ I was bummed, but ah well. I guess I'll get over it. He went to a party with our Young Adults group at church, and I helped out with the Youth event (which was awesome, btw) at church. I was POOPED afterwards... ask any of the other leaders. It was nothing but evident on my face. I am SO glad our Youth pastor doesn't do lock-ins or all-nighters. (Plus, I just realized that I may officially be an "old fogey", now, with that statement... Nice!)

Birthdays! Mine wasn't super fantastic, but it wasn't horrible. I actually had a great time going out to dinner with some ladies from church. It was nice! Just a couple ladies that I enjoy being around and some food that I love Love LOVE! So, good times. McStudly's birthday was pretty uneventful... well, there was a football game and some guy time while I hung out with a pal, and then we went out the next day (thanks to a nice and needed holiday from work) to celebrate together, just the two of us. Good times, again!

Let's see... what else is there...

Ah yes - the Clinic! Remember way back in THESE posts when I said I was going to train to be a volunteer counselor for a Pregnancy Clinic? Well, I did. And I am. It's a pretty long process, but I am LOVING it!! I'm not almost up to week 5 of my internship. There's SO much to learn, but thankfully I have an amazing Senior Counselor that I'm shadowing. She really is great. I'm learning SO much and with every session that I observe and even the ones we just discuss, I get more and more excited about the work we're doing. And I'm seriously amazed with how much information I'm picking up and absorbing. *sigh* It's really great.

Well, I can't think of much else to catch you up on, currently. Wait - that was a lie. I have plenty, but to be honest, I'm tired and have quite the headache. Not a fun combination, especially when you and your husband have an agreement to go to bed together and he's in the middle of a very intense (as opposed to...??) video game online. I do have some things I'd like to think out and type up to clarify, but I don't think it's going to happen right now. Perhaps being snowed in will give me the chance to do a bit more of that?

...then again I have a LOT that I could be getting done around the house...

...nah!

It's Crunchtime!

Sorry I've been missing in action lately, minus the random song lyrics, etc. Things have been REALLY crazy around our house, what with getting ready for the grandparents' visit, and all.


The Bathroom is FINALLY painted. HOORAY!


At last count, the following had already been completed:

- remove all wallpaper
- remove almost all remaining wallpaper adhesive (thanks to the tip to try using fabric softener diluted in water - works like a charm when combined with a little elbow grease!)
- sand walls where needed
- patch/spackle nail holes and any other places as necessary
- take down ugly huge-mongous mirror
- remove medicine cabinet
- take out ugly bathroom light that's been with the house probably since it was built (ick!)


And now we can add the following to the list:
- prime
- paint
- temporarily take out toilet and replace wax ring

- remove all wallpaper and adhesive from behind the toilet, prime, and paint

- put toilet back and set in place with new bolts and bolt covers (my dog tried to eat the old ones)

So what's left to do before Saturday? Well, I'll tell you:
- hang pretty new light
- replace old mirror with new one
- replace medicine cabinet (might to just put it back in, due to random/weird measurements)
- purchase and set up shelving
- install newly purchased toilet in place of old icky one
- buy new bathroom rugs
- buy a few candles, etc, to put on shelves
- buy and hang a hand towel holder
- buy and hang a toilet paper holder
- buy and hang a "regular" towel holder
- install new white light switches to replace the icky yellow colored ones
- install new white outlet to replace icky yellow one
- install new white outlet and light-switch covers to replace gold ones (eww!)
- install new white vent cover to replace icky yellow one
- scrub floors, and remove the stubborn wallpaper pieces that have re-attached themselves from the walls to the floor
- scrub the tub, since it's gathered nastiness over my neglecting it for other tasks
- scrub the sink, since it's caught in and every bit of dust and dirt from the remodel




So, needless to say, we've got a lot left to do. And that's just in the bathroom! Take a look at what we have to do in other areas of the house -

Spare bedroom:
- clean out closet
- move storage boxes into closet (as much as possible)
- re-arrange what little furniture there is, including Austin's crate
- purchase and "install" (??) futon
- purchase something to put the TV on
- possibly throw out the old crappy desk that's in there (if we can find something else for our filing section)
- replace backplate for light switch (it's currently gold - ??)
- put in tall standing lamp from downstairs

Living Room:
- buy new tall standing lamp
- buy new curtains for window (to replace the too-small single curtain I have had ghetto-ly covering it since we moved in
- straighten up the built-in bookshelves (UGH!)

Kitchen:
- there's not really anything that could save this kitchen, right now...

Master bedroom:
- hang new ceiling fan
- possibly re-arrange furniture (not likely - that junk is heeeeeaaavy!)
- get all folded clothes out of baskets and actually put away (quite a feat in our house)
- shoes in closets, instead of right by the door, where they are easily accessible
- persuade McStudly to let me buy the new bed set I want from BBB.

All over:
- MAJOR cleaning
- scrubbing of the previous owner's nastiness on the windows, etc (she was a smoker, and I haven't gotten to do this since we moved in)
- vacuum (again)
- mop hardwood (and probably sweep again)
- dusting



So a lot of it is basic cleaning stuff, but with all the bathroom remodelling and painting we've been doing, it hasn't been done as often. Last weekend I did a good clean sweep of the downstairs, to clean off the dining room table (well, almost all of it), sweep the kitchen, wipe down the stove (which I don't typically let get dirty), straighten up mail-drop area, sweep laundry stairs and mudroom, scrub downstairs bathroom sink... etc etc. McStudly vacuumed (what a lovey, right?!) for me and has been tremendously helping with other things as well. He's even off work this week (oh yeah, did I mention he's finally on terminal leave from the Air Force? Another post for another day...) and muscling everything around the house while I'm at work, to get it done before arrival day.

AND I have a friend or two coming over Saturday morning to help me with the final scrub-down before they get here that evening (THANK YOU LADIES!!! Any others want to join us? Lunch will be MY treat!), so that will be MARVELOUS!!!




So I guess that's it. Definitely do-able, as long as we get to work and quit the lolli-gagging! A note on the picture front: so far, there's been no luck with the finding of the bathroom pictures. Hopefully they'll turn up becuase I REALLY want to show you how much better the bathroom looks. Sheesh! But if not, I guess you'll only get pics of the finished product. *sigh



Well, I guess I'll catch you cats later... I gotta get to work!

You've GOT to be Kidding Me!

So we did it. Last night we primed our bathroom walls. It was a much anticipated event and I was SOOO glad we were finally to that point.

That is... until it happened. We started priming, and soon found that our primer would start to glob together instead of priming our service. It didn't do it in all areas, just the areas that our brush rolled over more than once. HELLO! It's PRIMER!! This is NOT supposed to ruin your service that you've worked so hard to prepare up to this point. It's supposed to make it BETTER!!


I, along with McStudly, was completely and totally irritated with this crappy excuse for a product. When we went to buy the stuff, we naturally were headed for the KILZ. But the Lowe's guy (what an idiot, for reasons other than this) told us that 1-2-3 Primer would be better.


What a load of SHITACKE MUSHROOMS!! It was AWFUL!!

So we tried to just finish the rest of the walls carefully. Minus the vast damage to the main focal wall in the bathroom, the rest of the room turned out fine. But how frustrating!!


Being the person that I am, today I googled "1-2-3 Primer" and called the company. No joke. we don't have money to just throw away on crappy products here, people. I need something that works and works right! HMPH!!

Anyways, I spoke with a real person relatively quickly, and come to find out, it wasn't the primers fault... not what I wanted to hear... but at least it wasn't our fault either, right? Well... kind've. When I told him what happened, the very well educated man, who actually knew what he was talking about (thank GOD!) responded with "eh - ma'am? Was there any wallpaper removed from the wall?" DOH!

"Yes, but we washed and treated the walls as we were supposed to, so that shouldn't effect anything... right?"

"Well," he says, "that's not entirely true. You see, even after you've treated the walls, a small amount of adhesive can still remain, unseen by the naked eye, and then when you go to apply a water-based primer, it slides instead of sticking to the surface, creating your 'globbing' effect." (I kind've liked how he used my oh so technical 'globbing' term)

"Oh..." Boy did I feel like an idiot.

He gave me an easy way to fix this problem, and suggestions for the next time we would be in the situation. Apparently, there's a product called "Cover Stain" that would help with the globbing, if we didn't want to scrub with a paint thinner, and then on any future walls that were covered in wallpaper, we should first use an oil-based primer. It would stick to even the adhesive, and prepare the surface for you... then you can go ahead with your top coat.


Did any of you guys go to painter's school? Because how in the WORLD are you supposed to know this stuff?


Well, anywho - we now have even MORE work to do with the almost non-existent time-table that we're working with. McStudly's grandparents will be here in... *counting*... 10 DAYS!!! They won't be staying at our house for 12 days, but their flight lands in 10 days!! So we wont' have much time to work on the house once they get here.


AAAHHHH!!!! My head is on fire! My head is on fire! Anybody live in the Ft. Meade area and willing to help a sister out??? I mean, I know it's Easter weekend and all, but did I mention - AAAHHH!!!!


In all actuality, I'm a bit of a paint-snob. I don't want anyone else to help with painting just because if it gets screwed up, I don't want someone else to be "inwardly" frustrated at. So unless they're professionals, and I could get my money back... ha ha... I don't want help with painting. BUT I do need help with the organization and decluttering of our spare bedroom, moving furniture around in our master bedroom, and re-priming our walls. So if you're in the area and up for that, help a sister OUT!


Thanks much. And for those of you begging for pictures (Lindsey!), I looked last night and can't seem to find the pics we took when we bought the house. Big Sis will look at her home computer and HOPEfully still have them, or you may be deprived of our hideous wallpaper job. *sigh* I know... disappointing it is, but trust me... I'll do what I can to make up for it.





Toodles!

But teacher, my dog ate my -

SHOES!!!

What is WITH this dog lately?! I don't get it. He's usually fine with this stuff. He's had a MAJOR oral fixation, lately, and I wanted to kill him!!

He was SO good yesterday evening. I was doing dishes, and when I usually have to listen really closely to his every move, and wonder what he's getting in to - he just sat there in his window seat, and watched. Then slept on the floor of the kitchen. He was being awesome!

But I guess... he's slept since then. Because this morning was not so cool. At first, he had gotten some mail off the table (a favorite pass time of his), and as soon as I told him to "leave it"... he did! It was fantastic. We were both happy AND he got lots of lovin' for it. Apparently he misinterpreted that to mean "Hey... why don't you go get something ELSE you're not supposed to have. That'll be fun!"

Just so you understand how this happened, let me give you a little info. McStudly is switching back to his night schedule, which means... he went to bed SUPER late last night, to sleep during the day, so he's awake for his 12 hour shift tonight. Translation - I have to get ready out of the bedroom so as not to wake him up. So... with that... I continue my story.

I brought my clothes out, and set then on the back of the couch, then let the dog out and fed him, etc. While he was eating, I did everything in the bathroom and blah blah blah. Well - I went into the living room to finish getting ready, and Austin was chewing on what I thought was his bone, over by our chair in the corner.

I finished getting dress...

looked down to put my shoes on...

and there was only one.

???

Picture my face as the SUDDEN realization hit me - he wasn't chewing on his bone - he was chewing on my SHOE!! So... I whisper-yelled (the kind you do when you can't be loud, but you want the whisper-yell-recipient to REALLY feel your anger and frustration - like when you draw on the hymnal in church - because it is, after all, a giant coloring book for young children, isn't it? - and your mother just doesn't appreciate your creative genius...) at him, and pryed it from his mouth, only to find that he had now chewed a nice, big-toe sized hole RIGHT in the front of my last pair of work shoes.

nice

And - I say last pair, because he snuck (yes - snuck. he's berry berry sneaky... we underestimate his sneakiness) into our bedroom, last Thursday evening, and ate my other work shoes.

Needless to say, whatever shoes I buy today over lunch (at the PX - ROCK ON military discounts!), in order to replace the slippers (Yes.... slippers) I had to wear to work today, will always be in only one of two places - on my feet, or in their original box, in my closet.

Dumb dog. *sigh* But I love that little dirtbag.

How can anyone resist this face?!

But teacher... my dog ate my -

PHONE!!

No really, though. He really really did. Luckily it's working (kinda) for now. And we're not planning on replacing it anytime soon, though I would LOVE that. But I wish I could should you a picture of just how bad it is.

For those of you that don't know, I have an Orange EnV, from Verizon. I heart this phone. Or... I heartED this phone. Becuase now, I can't use it!! I can use ONLY the buttons on the outside/front of the phone. The keypad inside?! Out of use... I can hit any button on the left, and it pushes "7". I hit any button on the top or the right, and it connects me to the internet.

*sigh*

I love my dog, but now I can't use my phone. I'm sad. :-(

**For those willing to make donations to the "help Sarah Replace her Phone" fund, please make checks payable to Sarah Puhl, and leave comments with desire to forward cold, hard, loving cash. You will be contacted with the drop time.**

And NOW - the moment you've ALL been waiting for!!!

Random Happier Thoughts!!!

Yes that's right - this weekend is a 3 DAY WEEKEND!!! *applause applause applause*

Thank you... thank you...

AND Some of you lucky ducks get a shortened Friday, too! Wait... what's that?! I'm a lucky duck? ROCK ON!!! I get off at *drumroll* 2 O'CLOCK today! woot woot

AND Myanmar junta finally agreed to let all aid workers help the Cyclone victims. Awesome!!

Now I must admit... American Idol took me by surprise, and I heard it took David Cook by surprise, too. I think we ALL thought David Archeleta (sp?) was going to win, but he didn't. Whatever - they're still going to sign him, and he's still going to put out a CD, right?! Sounds good to me! ;-)

Blah blah blah.

So... today will hopefully go by quickly. I mean - I've already been here for about 1..2..3... just over 2 hours. And I only have about 4 to go! SCORE! It's really jsut one of those days (as I believe it is with any holiday weekend. Your boss hands you a one page, double-spaced, size 20 font document, and you're tempted to say "I'm sorry, I can't type this one page, double-spaced, size 20 font document - I only have 4 hours left! Just can't be done..."

But You do it anyways. Typing one line... then adding a little something to your blog... then typing the second line... then adding a little something to your blog... third line... checking e-mail... 4th line... doodling...

You finally realize that 3 1/2 hours have passed, and Oh shucks! It's almot time to go!! Poor little document never knew what hit it. You typed faster than Auntie Em in a Cyclone and them BAMMM! You're SO ready to go home and you watch the clock...

tttiiiiiicccckkkkkkkk

toooooooooccccckkkkkkk

ttiiiiiccccckkkkk (what the heck?!)

toocccckkkkkkkk

tiiiicccckkkkkkkk (oh for the Love of Pete)

toooocccckkkkk

And it goes on. Just as a watched pot never boils, so a watch clock never FRIGGING STRIKES QUITTIN' TIME!!!

*queue sappy orchestra music*

And so are the days of our lives...

Memorial Day


So this weekend, we rememorialize (???) those who have served our country. Some have died, some still live on, and some still fight even today. It's not about what you believe, and it's not about your opinion. It's about these people giving of themselves for YOU and YOUR family. Not all have had to serve overseas, but every Soldier, every Airman, every Seaman, every Marine has sacrificed something for you - time with their family, a comfortable place to sleep, a chance to "live it up" like we all do - they've each given something of themselves for us.

I know some have served for the wrong reasons, a political agenda, or for no reason at all but to pay for their schooling. Whatever the reason, they still served.

So while I'm busy trying to convince McStudly to wear his dress blues to church on Sunday so that I can stare at his rear in those FANTASTICLY fitted navy blue pants when the Pastor asks for everyone serving in the military to stand and be recognized (deep, dreamy breath... *sigh*), y'all show some support this weekend. Even if it's just a "Thanks man" high-five. Go for it! Connect four! (sorry... I had to. It's one of those automatic brain responses... blame the lame game commercials of the 90s. and PS - how was THAT for an alliteration?! Rock on again!!)



Peace out, homies!! And Word to the military! ;-)




Tootles....