Rockin

11-19-09

Holy hell, people at my work can be such idiots. Ok, maybe not idiots, but they certainly don’t do their jobs very well. It is amazing that they make so many simple mistakes that we have told them to pay attention to 100 times.

I process adjustments and spreads. The reps fill out these little spreadsheet forms (that I designed) that list the document numbers, some pertinent auditing information, and amounts and what to do with everything. It is super easy, especially when you have worked for us for, oh, I don’t know, 10 minutes. Yet they keep fucking these up. They forget to write a number down, they write the wrong one down, they don’t put the right info. It is crazy. I know, it isn’t a huge deal to make a typo, but this morning, the chick in her stack of 10 spreads, every, single, one of them, was wrong. Are you freaking kidding me??? Not one of them right? This is money, people? You have to be accurate. We have auditors swarming at all times. If we are missing even the dot on an i, we get dinged for it. Yet these kids don’t seem to care.

Now, some of it is my fault. I often correct these instead of kicking them back. Mostly because I just want to get the spread done and when I kick it back for one small number that they didn’t write on there, and I know what the number is, why kick it back. Well, now it is on principal. I have to treat them like children. It is a shame, but they will never learn if I don’t. Sigh. Simply amazing.

I am wide awake now. I am sure that will change. LOL! I feel tired. I slept ok, but really, I think just being at work makes me tired.

We didn’t do the walk last night. I decided that really, if I am trying to fight my sick, I needed to relax. So we all hung out in the backyard in the afternoon. We played catch with Lycos while Luna tried to get her head bit off. Luna found Lycos’s tongue endlessly amusing. Lycos would sit there, panting, waiting for us to throw the ball. Luna would then hop up under her mouth over and over, trying to nip at Lycos’s tongue. It was the best. When she actually got it, Lycos would promptly yell at her. Too funny.

The boys showed me exactly how much more agile and daring they have become. They continue to climb on things like Spiderman, all the while making me gasp, and of course in turn making Ken laugh hysterically as he points out they haven’t even begun to give me a heart attack with their gymnastics. Fantastic. Well, at least they have fun.

They played zombie for a while, which was amusing. What was even more amusing is our game of tossing the tennis ball for Lycos, while aiming at the boys. It sounds more cruel than it really is. Mind you, they often tell us to throw it at them. They are in the play house, which is where we are aiming anyways in order to hopefully get it up there so Lycos has to climb the ladder. Yesterday, they told me to throw it at them, so I promptly did, to which they laughed and laughed. When they flop themselves on the swings, we also aim for the butt. They think this is funny, too. We don’t hit them hard. So with one throw, we amuse the kids, and exercise the dogs. Who knew a $2 tennis ball would be so awesome?

At dinner, I decided to take Lien-Thi’s idea of having the boys tell me what they are thankful for. Dax was not much help when he just came back with his catchphrase of the moment. “Dax, what are you thankful for?” “Um, butt!!!” Bobby at least was more insightful. He first asked me to define thankful. I explained it to him, and so he thought for a second, then tells me, “Um, my shoes, you, daddy, Dax, some balls, and my shoes.” I could not have loved him more than I did just then.

The boys are eating like crazy. They wolfed down a whole sandwich, and a banana each. Plus a couple glasses of milk. And a small piece of cake. And get this, they asked for more food! I am so screwed when they get to be teenagers. I am going to need a second job just to pay for food.

On the advice of the net and Stephanie, I decided to give the dogs some pumpkin. Monarch was pretty annoyed when I opened a can of something and it wasn’t tuna juice. I offered him the orange glob, but he refused. Oh well.

We let the dogs in. Lycos smelled her bowl and was tentative about it at first. But she decided it was good. Luna was crazy. We set her down in front of her bowl and I don’t even know that she knew what she was eating for at least 30 seconds into her inhaling it. I have never seen anything eat that fast. I was tempted to give her more! I did give her the normal bowl of kibble, too. She also inhaled that. She acts starved every second of the day. It is crazy! I realize that is just a dog thing, but man, it is no wonder people overfeed their dogs when they act like this. You so just assume based on their behavior.

Poor Ken had to unclog the drain. He had to snake it and everything. The boys “helped”. Apparently when all the water rushed out outside, they were endlessly amused. They told me later how gross it was, but I could see the twinkle in their eyes with how happy the gross made them.

I got a nice fix of HIMYM last night. I am really upset that we are caught up. I kind of liked being able to watch like 5 episodes in a row. The problem is, I am now so addicted, I can’t go more than a week without watching the new one. Sure, the old ones are great, so that sometimes helps me get by. But I may need to record a few for a couple weeks and get caught up on other shows. We still need to watch House! Glee recorded last night, so as much as I need to watch that every week, I can wait a day or so. Why are there so many good shows???

It is going to be a chaotic day, I can feel it. It is month end, so this is the time of the week where everyone gets stupid. I don’t have to do reports till Tuesday, but the next couple days get stressful for folks, specifically my boss. Fun city.

One more week!! At this time next week, we will be eating breakfast with Chip and Dale! YAY!!! Also, in one week, I can finally start thinking about Christmas. I can decorate and do all kinds of fun stuff. It means this weekend is busy busy. We need to make sure the house is in order, laundry needs to be done, and packing needs to be accomplished. Man, I have so much to do! I can’t decorate for Christmas until we get back from the Thanksgiving holiday, but really, I don’t think it will take too much. I am considering a super small tree. What with puppyness and kidness, a tree might be scary. We will see. If I do the small tree on top of the entertainment unit, it will keep presents fresh, and the tree from being eaten. Plus, it is cheaper.

I have never worked in an service industry that gets tips. I know people who have, and I of course understand their desire for tips. But is it wrong that I still think the tip thing needs to go away? I think that people who waitress need to get paid a real amount. Don’t base their wages on tips. And if the service is bad, fire them. If it is good? Give them a raise.

This comes up because a caller into K&B this morning said he was a limo driver and he drives lots of people, including bands places. He asked is it wrong to expect say, Death Cab for Cutie to tip him when he drives them somewhere? I say yes! Their management paid for this service up front (which mind you also has the silly clause of gratuity included) and the guy drove them where they needed to go. Look, we don’t expect the driver to pay the band a reverse tip when they say crash or get stuck in avoidable traffic. So why should the band pay him for doing his job?

I know, this is a topic that has been endlessly discussed, especially back when Reservoir Dogs came out. But seriously, I question it all the time. And I tip well! Mostly out of embarrassment and fear that I don’t tip enough. I also love to tip a waiter that we might know. We have had several waiters in the past that we sought out and who treated us quite well. They gave us free food, stronger drinks, and made the whole night wonderful. So to me, tipping them made sense. But tipping someone who simply brought me my food in a timely fashion and got me a refill of coke shouldn’t mean they get 15%.

In reality, I am just annoyed by prices that are not what they say. When I get a burger and fries and it says it is $5, why do I need to pay an extra 75 cents for a tip? Why is it when the car says it is $15K, you can get them to bring the price down to $12K? Why is it when I log onto EBay that I have to keep telling them how much I am willing to pay for something? I hate auctions, I hate haggling, I hate tipping. It isn’t just because I am cheap, either. Seriously, haggling and auctions sometime get you stuff for way cheaper. I am just one of those folks that feels like shopping should not be such a hassle. I love sales, but not black Friday. I don’t care to push or be pushed when buying a pillow. I do like it when I see that something is on sale, though, and I am even pretty good about waiting until it goes down in price even more, but not so much that I am willing to check every day. If it happens to be cheaper the next time I am there, I might pick it up. Shoot, I have needed a better purse for 9 months, yet I refuse to pay more than $15 on a purse, and even then, that seems pricey.

The boys are really enjoying costume time. Today, they went as Buzz and Woody. I wonder if tomorrow they will go as the Tin Man and Lion. I told Ken it is clear that we need to set them up the costume trunk.

I love the term “cartoon hate” to describe an un-natural hate for something. A hate that is so extreme, it could only come from someone like Elmer Fudd towards Bugs Bunny. I may start using that term. I also have decided that beawesome rocks. On Bolt, Rhino says he is beyond awesome, or beaweseome. Dax and I both use the word.

I have had the damn song, “Movin on up” from the Jeffersons stuck in my head for a few days now. Facebook’s fault. Or more importantly, many applications. All of the games have the announcement of when you level or expand, and it says, “Gena is moving on up in Yoville”. So of course, all I can think is that damn song. Sigh. I think Ichipod needs to help me through this today.

Dammit! I realize all the newer songs I downloaded are on Ken’s itunes, not on Ichipod. Grr!!

Yay! The boss is off to a staff meeting and then lunch. He is going to be gone from 10:30 to 2!! Yay!!!

Is it wrong that I still like Milli Vanilli?

Crap. So apparently there is a second dose of the damn H1N1. In 30 days. So I will be arming myself with a lollipop this time so he can hold it while she does it. Sheesh. We may need to bring out the big dogs of bribery and go to McDonalds if he can do it.

Interesting insight from on of my IT friends. He just told me that he predicts that when the economy picks back up and jobs are more plentiful that half the people here will leave. I am surprised at this. He then proceeded to ask me that if I was offered $10K more a year at some place, wouldn’t I leave? It is an interesting question. The problem is, I have been offered other jobs in the past few years. Some with more money, some with better benefits, some, well, just possibly better. Yet I turned them all down. Even in the height of my annoyance with this place, I turned down a job that I had already accepted! Why? Well, of course there is the obvious reason which is that I hate change. In accepting a new job, it would mean new people, new situations and a whole lot of proving myself to people again. Let’s face it. I have been here for 9 years this month. In that time, I have shown the masses that I rock. I have helped change things for the better. I have created policies, I have created forms, I have made my mark. People know if something is broken, I am a good person to possibly fix it.

Plus, look at my benefits. And no, I am not talking health and dental. I am talking I am sitting here, writing my journal every day. I am listening to my radio every morning. I can leave whenever I need to. I get to come in at 6 every morning and leave by 2:30. I live 4 miles away. Can you get that at another place? Probably. But do I want to take the chance to lose that right now? Not really.

Of course, job security is always key. It is obvious that they don’t care if you have been here 5 minutes or 5 years. Layoffs can hit them all. But the norm is last hired is first fired. That being said, do I throw away 9 years to go to a place that has that plan in place? Sure, maybe if we were more secure financially. I might try for something else. But really, right now, there are very few places that hold appeal to me. Look, if Mattel came knocking on my door, I would already be sitting there right now. Other than that, I can’t think of any place that could woo me. Maybe some other toy store or I don’t know, a place like Earthlink used to be when I started. But I am too old to dink around with some places. I am not saying I am proud of my career choice right now, but honestly, I could be doing so much worse!

My morning has gone by much faster than it has all week. I suppose being busy is a good thing! Now I have an afternoon ahead of me that could be blah. We will see. I have to call a pain in the ass customer and try to decipher an IT email so that my boss who barely speaks AR can understand geek. Should be trying.