24
Apr 08

Trucking along

My move, my current job, the spring semester – funny how all of these things are wrapping up at the same time.

First, the move
The woman moving into my apartment took a look at my furniture on Tuesday, and she’s taking most of it. The couch, the TV and stand, a chair, a dresser, and a large desk I keep in the kitchen. Yay! Getting rid of the couch and TV would have been such a pain.

I need to get rid of: the coffee table, two boxes of books, one box of kitchen stuff, two vases, and a broken down shoe cabinet, which I’ll have to take apart. Since I have half-day tomorrow, I’m going to spend all afternoon taking care of this stuff.

It just hit me yesterday that I only have till next Wednesday to finish everything up. I still have to:

Change my address, though the woman said she’d let me know if anything important slipped through, and I’ll go pick it up.

Cancel my cable, which means undoing all the equipment and dropping it off at my cable company, which, luckily, is close to work.

Cancel my Con Ed.

Crap!

Funny how those last few things can sneak up on you like that.

The job
You think I didn’t care before? I so don’t care now.

I had a transition meeting with my boss on Monday, and now I know: he will be super annoying till the bitter end. A lot of what I do, like I’ve said before, is very operational. For example, uploading documents to a website, making sure we have enough materials for our educational programs, and dealing with issues that are small but can still keep a program from running properly.

My boss has it in his mind that the director of operations in sales will be willing to handle these small, tactical things.

A director. This means she’s three levels above me.

She did volunteer to own the website, which she’s been wanting to get her hands on for some time. But I know her: she wants it so that she can make all the business decisions on how it’s designed, what information is on it, etc. She won’t want to sit there uploading frigging PDFs and implementing HTML. I don’t think she even knows how.

My boss is retarded.

Also another one of my “projects,” which isn’t really a project, hence the quotes, is purchasing these e-guidelines and licenses for this online tool. All it is is coordinating the purchase. We do the same thing every year. But does he have an easy answer for how to proceed?

“Well, I think we should have a meeting with this person, and this person, and this person, and this person, and discuss how it’s being used, and determine how we should use it, and what’s the best way, and – “

“Do I need to be involved in this?”

I don’t, thank God. My boss said he’ll be, quote, a nice guy, and take it over himself.

If I ever I’m in a leadership position, what I’ll do is surround myself with highly competent people I trust, and you know, TRUST THEM, and let them do the work. I do this now. I have a budget coordinator I’d trust with my life, as well as someone in operations. They are awesome and I let them run the show. My boss’ philosophy is to get into nitty gritty details, and to know as much as those people. Well, then what about my own job?

Retard.

Oh, did I say that already? My bad.

School
So my first semester is coming to a close. This Monday I have a term paper and presentation due, and I’ve only started the research. I think after midterm I felt sort of pooped out, and have been slacking. But at least I know what I want to write about, and have just a few more articles to read.

Tonight I have to schlep out to Brooklyn for class. It’ll take me an hour to get there, dammit.

The final for that class is on May 8. It was supposed to be on May 2, but the teacher will be at some conference. That’s okay. That means that after I turn in my term paper and give my presentation on 4/28, I’ll have some free time before May 8. Then first summer session starts the next week.

Okay, back to work.


08
Apr 08

Tuesday randomness

It’s only Tuesday and I’m already ready to get random.

I finally got my watch fixed. After several years of not wearing a watch, I’ve recently started wearing my again. Only I either a) can’t stop looking at it, especially in long boring meetings, or 2) forget that I have it on so that I’m wandering around, wondering what time it is. Today I forgot to wear it.

Firefly was a good show. MB downloaded a bunch of episodes and we’ve been watching them for the past few days. What a good show. It’s neat that Chinese is thrown in here and there (the Alliance is a U.S.-Sino Alliance, since in the future America and China will be the only true super powers left), but sometimes the actors’ accents are so bad, I can’t tell what they’re saying. Too bad the show was canceled.

My mother can be so annoying. I called her late last week to tell her about the jobs I’ve been interviewing for, and how I actually feel hopeful. She said, “That nice. But it’s not like your job is so bad now.” Um, have you not been listening to me complain for the past year?

But that’s not all: “Sure, getting a new job is nice, but what’s more important is that you’re with someone now.”

Wha? Hunh?

One doesn’t preclude the other – career and relationship are in two different realms for me. I was perfectly fine boyfriend-less, but in a crappy job with a shitty boss, I’m still unhappy. No boyfriend = happy. With boyfriend = happier. Crappy job = UNHAPPY. Uncrappy job = happy.

My mother didn’t really see my point.

And the rest. Reposted my furniture ad and have gotten more responders. Hopefully tonight “Jenny” will buy my tea tables. Another woman is supposedly interested in the dressers and couch. Don’t tease me!

Had another digital marketing interview bright and early this morning. I think it went well, but who knows. Have my last one for communication manager in a little bit.


06
Apr 08

More furniture fun

I’m slowly but surely selling pieces of my furniture.

Needless to say, the flaky girl who couldn’t keep straight what time she wanted to come by backed out. “Oh gee, I measured my apartment and I don’t think they’ll fit.” Maybe that’s something you should have thought about before being so annoying about me holding those two tea tables. Lame ass bitch.

I hate to say this, but so far it’s been the guys who have been very straightforward – “Want. Buy.” – and the women who are flaky and can’t make up their minds. The three people who have actually bought stuff (namely the leaning desk, both bookcases, and my bedframe, which I never thought I’d get rid of) have all been guys. The women?

Case #1
Saturday morning “Sabrina” stopped by bright and early and said she wanted the bookcases. But first she’d have to see if her husband would move them, and she’d let me know about Sunday. Not a word.

Case #2
“Iris” emails me about the Sleep Number bed, saying that recently her husband has died and that she needs a new bed and a “good night’s sleep.” Oh my, TMI. :(

In any case, I send poor Iris a picture of the bed. Her reply?

“Is that a real Sleep Number bed? It doesn’t look like a real Sleep Number bed.”

Why, because Lindsay Wagner isn’t lounging on it saying, “I’m a 34”? I didn’t even bother answering her.

Case #3
“Nikki,” the annoying tea table girl.

MB was back in time to help me with the bed this afternoon. Luckily he was around to help take it apart because I don’t think either the guy or I would have figured it out. Or it’d have taken 2 hours instead of 20 minutes.

Aside from all the furniture madness, I also saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day with YP. It was really good. I enjoyed it immensely.

I’m mostly caught up with school so I think I’ll work on my writing tonight.


04
Apr 08

TCOB

Register for summer and fall classes – check!

Place Craig’s List ad to sell furniture – check!

Send thank you card and small gift (a box of Neuhaus chocolates) to the very nice librarians at my site visit – check!

Go crazy with interviews – check and check and check!

Library School

My school has the worst student registration site. What we had to do was fill in this “worksheet,” email our advisor – which turned out to be just the office assistant so who knows if she actually checked anything – wait for his/her approval, THEN register for classes.

Also there are separate searches for classes and sections. Like you could pick a class for summer session 1, only to find out it’s not available during that term. Good usability. PLUS on top of everything the whole system was down at peak registration time.

Luckily one of my classmates told me about her whole experience so I knew what to do. I will be taking:

Summer 1: Web design. Wanted to take Digital Libraries but no one else signed up for it so it was canceled.

Summer 2: Electronic Collections and Services.

Fall: Information Technologies & Information Sources and Services.

The summer classes are compressed so instead of just one day a week for two and a half hours, they are two days a week, three hours at a time. Pretty intense. But I have all of August off, yay!

Work
This week I had a total of five interviews, two for that communications manager position, two for digital marketing, and one for a new position, project manager in compliance.

Both for communications manager went well; I am crossing all of my fingers and toes.

The first one for digital marketing was stupid. The guy just went on and on and on about the position and the website that I’d be managing, and then proceeded to tell me all about his own background. I talked for maybe two seconds.

But the second one, which I had this morning, went well I think. The woman and I got along and had an interesting conversation, and she said a few “very goods.” She also made the position sound more appealing than I thought it was from my first interview.

The one for the compliance project manager position was yesterday, and went well too I think, similar to the first one had for communications manager. When they scheduled it with me, the assistant called and said, “This is Whomever from Corporate Compliance,” and I thought, What did I do?

I’m glad to have all the interviews, but I want to KNOW NOW if I got any of those jobs. I had an extremely annoying meeting with my boss (and others) yesterday, and I just sat there silently. I really don’t care to fight the fight anymore; all of this bores the shit out of me. And my boss continues to micromanage and be paranoid.

I don’t know if the possibility of getting another job makes me feel better or worse about my situation. I think better in general: when I imagine a new position with the people I’ve met with, I get very happy. But in contrast my current stuff seems even worse.

Furniture Craziness
People are so annoying. Most are reasonable – can I see a picture of that chair? – but some are just unbelievable. For instance, regarding a time for a pick up:

Her: How about after work on Friday?
Me: Okay, how’s between 5:30 and 6?
Her: Okay so I’ll be there at 5:15 tonight.

Also,

Her: Actually do you think you could bring the tables to my workplace?
Me (What are you smoking?): No.

Supposedly this person is coming tonight at 5:30. We’ll see.

Other dumb questions:

Any ladies’ clothing available?

Yes, let me get that for you in a size 12.

Would you consider delivering the book cases [which btw are almost 8 feet tall] to the Bronx?

I’d rather leave them on the freaking street for birds to poop on. In fact I’d rather pay someone to leave them on the street for birds to poop on.

I do have a reasonable buyer coming in tonight, taking one bookcase and my desk. He has tools and a car and everything. Yay!

Missing MB
He’s away on business till tomorrow night. His company has had some, um, issues lately so he’s on the lookout for something new. Right now he still has a job but he feels little loyalty what with the way employees have been screwed over while la-la-la management traipses off with their millions. Meanwhile those whose pensions were tied up in stocks have nothing now. :(


01
Apr 08

What a packed day yesterday

Between finishing up my paper and preparing for my presentation, having that second round interview, giving my presentation, and rushing out to go to YP’s comedy show, I was definitely pooped by the end of the evening.

I think my presentation was fine. It’s amazing how quickly five minutes pass. The professor gave us 2 and 1 minutes warnings, and I was very surprised when she held up the “2” when I was only 1/3 of the way through. After that I was talking a mile a minute.

Since I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the library I visited, I included some random illustrations I had found, which people seemed to find amusing.

By the time I got to YP’s show I was hungry so MB and I ordered some fried mozzarella concoction and buffalo wings. Edible but so bad for us. I don’t know if it was something in the chicken wing sauce or the stress from the day, but I had such a gigantic headache by the end of the evening. Only after downing two Advils, taking a little walk, and drinking a ton of water and tea, it went away.

A funny thing: who do I see at the show but one of my classmates? He was there to see one of his friends perform. Weird!

Now today I need to take care a couple of other things, namely registering for summer and fall classes, and putting my furniture for sale on Craig’s list.

Got some interviews for another position, this one with digital marketing. While I had just 3 for the communications manager one, including both first and second rounds, for first round for digital marketing, I have four! Crazy. Might be a good idea to get out of marketing once and for all.


25
Mar 08

Moving, Charleston, & Work Apathy

Get ready for a long one.

Had a productive/relaxing vacation. Spent Tuesday through Thursday going through my apartment, getting rid of stuff, bringing stuff down to MB’s. Oh, did I mention that we’re moving in together?

I’ve been wary about mentioning it here, but the move is going to dominate my life for the next couple of months. Seems crazy right? We’ve been together for barely six months, but sometimes you just know when something’s right.

I got my new lease early last week so I took that opportunity to call and say I wasn’t renewing, and ask if I could break it a month early. They were pretty nice about it, saying that if they could get someone to sign for May 1, then I could break it. Otherwise, I’ll just let my lease lapse on June 1. It’s good timing: they wanted to raise my rent a $100.

The brokers descended almost immediately, and were really annoying at first. I guess one woman was in competition with everyone else. She raced over to my place, saying, “I’ve been waiting for your apartment for so long! You couldn’t decide when you were leaving!”

I was like, Um, no, my place has been on the market for all of four hours. Dumbass.

I have nothing of value left in my place – except the gigantour TV, good luck toting that out of my place – so I had keys made for them and am just letting them show it whenever. My only request is that they call beforehand. Who knows if they will but I don’t really care.

Besides, I want to get rid of my TV, couch, bookcases, and other large pieces of furniture. MB’s place just doesn’t have room for that stuff, and I really don’t need it. Also, I’ve gotten several years’ use out of everything. Hopefully Craig’s List will help me purge all my junk.

It feels good to let all of those things go. I feel like they’re from my old life, and I’m shedding my old skin.

During my time off, I also:

Did my site visit for library school. The assignment is to visit a library, and observe for three hours. I picked the medical library of Sloan Kettering. They were extremely nice and helpful, and it’s a beautiful space. The highlight for me? Excellent coffee for 25 cents. Woohoo!

Went to the dermatologist. Waste. Of. Time. She barely looked at my face before trying to prescribe me oral antibiotics. It’s not like I have rampant acne so I didn’t want to take antibiotics if I didn’t have to. They always do a number on my stomach. So I went with the topical stuff instead. Who knows if it’ll work.

Got my taxes done. Got quite a chunk of return, which means I’m paying too much, but oh well.

Ran six miles. So I worked out just once during my vacation, but at least it was a good one.

Went to Charleston. On Friday, MB and I flew out to Charleston for a little vacay. It was an absolute madhouse at the airport, and we actually almost missed our flight. We were sitting there, keeping an ear out for announcements, but only heard the very last one.

Then we proceeded to sit on the runway for close to an hour. MB was pretty relaxed about it, which helped me be less antsy.

Got into Charleston around dinnertime. Our hotel was on the harbor side, so after settling in, we took the free trolley into town and ate at Magnolia’s, at the suggestion of the trolley driver. It was good Southern food – I had the fried chicken while MB had the shrimp and grits – but a bit overpriced.

Overall the weather was very nice. At night and by the water, it was chilly, but in the sun it was in the 70s. The sun was unexpectedly strong so that MB’s poor shaved head got totally burned.

We basically spent the whole time eating and walking around. The houses there are these beautiful old Southern homes, and it was cool to walk by the water and see birds that we don’t normally see, like pelicans and other sea birds which I can’t name. One looked like a black egret while another looked like a tern. And of course there were seagulls.

More highlights:

Ghost & Graveyard Tour. We wanted to do the Dark Side of Charleston tour cuz it was “rated R,” but it was sold out. The Ghost & Graveyard Tour was still fun though a little cheesy. Mostly the guide just told walked us around told some spooky stories.

The best part was when she took us to a cemetary, and told us about plat-eyes, a type of mischievous ghost from Gullah culture. Apparently they’re most active during the full moon – which it had been the night before – and take the shape of a white creature. Supposedly during a tour on the night of the full moon, a woman saw a white cat with green eyes in the graveyard we were in, and at the same time felt a severe stabbing pain in her side.

So after that we were all a bit creeped out and keeping our eyes out for a white cat. “I want to see the cat!” MB announced cheerfully. He doesn’t believe in any of that stuff and wasn’t nervous at all.

After the tour, as we were walking away, I said to him, “You wanted to see the cat,” and then a frigging cat jumped out at us from the bushes. It wasn’t white – in fact it was black – but that didn’t stop me from yelling, “Oh my God!” and jumping ten feet, at least according to MB. Some people from our group were behind us, and totally cracked up. We were laughing like crazy for a good long time.

Poogan’s Porch. This restaurant was a stop on the ghost tour and supposedly one of the most haunted places in America. Poogan was a dog who hung out there and died in 1979. Supposedly if you eat on the porch, you can feel a dog rub itself against your legs, and dropped food will disappear.

But the spookier story is that many years ago, two spinster sisters lived in the house. After one of the sisters died from a fall down the steps, the living sister, Zoe, went nuts and died in an institution. After the house was renovated into a restaurant in the ’70s, weird stuff started happening – people seeing a little old lady waving from the second floor after the restaurant was closed, stuff being moved around, and the topper, a woman who used the second floor bathroom, looking up to see the image of a little old lady in the mirror.

So of course we had to eat there.

The food was really good. We had fried green tomates, jambalaya, and crab cakes. For dessert we had their “award-winning” bread pudding. I don’t usually like bread pudding, but this was SO GOOD. Moist and not too sweet.

As we were eating, I sort of forgot about the spooky stories. Then the waiter was telling this other couple the Zoe story, and the woman said that she had gone to the upstairs bathroom earlier and felt totally creeped out, and that was before she even knew the legend.

So then I was like, “I want to check out the bathroom!” but then immediately started to chicken out. After some prodding from MB, I did go upstairs, and of course that bathroom’s light was off and the door partially ajar, which for some reason made it seem skerrier.

I was a total wuss and couldn’t go in.

MB was like, “You’re lame,” and went by himsef. Of course nothing happened. After we finished eating, we went together, and again, nothing. But we only stayed for two seconds, enoug
h for me snap a couple of pictures, and for MB to shut off the light, scaring the bejeezus out of me.

Charleston Cooks! Cooking Class. MB signed us up to my consternation. While I like cooking, I just don’t feel confident about it, and don’t like to do it in public. But then I thought, okay, it’ll be good to get out of my comfort zone.

Turned out not to be hands on but lecture style. It was still fun though. It was Easter Sunday so the chef made a ham, biscuits, greens and grits, and lavendar tea cakes. The glaze for the ham and the greens and grits were good, but the biscuit sucked, especially compared to the ones we had at Poogan’s Porch.

Dolphins, up close and personal. Another way to get into town from our hotel was the water taxi.

On one of our trips, we saw some dolphins, first in the distance, so subtle I thought I was seeing things. But then the water taxi guys pulled up to where the dolphins were and they swam right up to the boat. I’ve never seen a dolphin that close up in the wild before. The water taxi guys said they weren’t really supposed to drive up to the dolphins, but MB and I were the only ones on the boat – it was Easter Sunday – so they made an exception.

Back at work. It wasn’t as bad this morning as I anticipated. Some annoying emails and one particularly annoying phone call, but that’s all. Helped that I got lots of sleep last night. We flew in on a 6 AM flight, so going to bed at 11 was no problem.

While I was gone, my boss and team members worked more on trying to redefine our team. I so don’t care. I was very happy to see that I got second round interviews for that communications manager job I want so badly. I live for the day that I can see ya.


16
Mar 08

Spring flinging

As in flinging stuff.

Spent the weekend getting rid of stuff. Must have made four or five trips to the curb, and each time the stuff mysteriously disappeared. That is till I saw one of my Crate and Barrel boxes in the foyer of the Chinese acupuncture place next door. Chinese people love free stuff.

Also shredded a slew of old documents, getting my two file boxes down to one. Dumped a huge garbage bag of clothes I haven’t worn in years at Housing Works. $900 worth! I also have books I need to donate, and a box of kitchen stuff that was too heavy for me to bring down to the curb. Hey, MB, first order of business when you get back from Chicago!

Aside from the spring cleaning, I hung out with YP a bit Saturday afternoon. Had a coffee and a nosh, then walked around the city. It was a gorgeous day, like winter was finally ending. Today I saw SB and Ellie for a little while. Little Ellie had the crazy medusa hair going.

Just one day of work this week. There’s a small thing I totally procrastinated and need to take care of tomorrow. I feel myself getting stressed, but I need to remember that it’s really a small thing and can be taken care of. I don’t know why I always do this to myself – procrastinate to the point where I’m totally stressed and wake up at 5 in the morning and can’t sleep anymore. I’m such a doofus.


10
Mar 08

Weekend update

I finally worked on my paper yesterday. As I thought I was more productive with MB around and working too (fun work, not work work). Also did my reading.

I hate daylight savings time. There I was, thinking I was getting up at 10, and it was already 11. By the time we ate – MB made French toast, yum! – it was well after 2.

After we got our work done, we took a walk, grabbed a light dinner, and browsed around a Barnes & Noble. I wanted to get Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but it wasn’t there. Three of his other books were though. Will probably hit Amazon.

I know y’all are probably sick of hearing me complain about work, but I’m really not in the mood for it today. At 11 I have a meeting which I don’t think is necessary, given the changes, but the request came from my boss, and he’d rather waste an hour of everyone’s time rather than just say, “We don’t know if we’re doing this now that the team is different,” and give 60 minutes back. Then at 12 I have a 2-hour meeting for a project that I was so lucky to inherit, as one of my dumbass agencies said.

“That just shows they think you’ll do a great job!” she said of the 30% increase of my workload. “Congratulations!”

Are you a robot, or just a complete idiot?

Anyway, it helps to remind myself of the good things in life. Vacation next week, woohoo! Aside from South Carolina at the end of the week, I’ll just be sticking around here. Need to take care a bunch of stuff, including my site visit for school, a dermatologist appointment (finally! I’m really tired of breaking out all the time), and my taxes too, which reminds me I need to actually make that appointment.


19
Oct 07

To do’s

The first of November is creeping up and I’m still working on my MLS applications. Yikes!

Outstanding:

One set of recommendations (out of three)
One set of transcripts (out of two)
My personal statement

I should get the last set of recs today, and the transcripts today or Monday. If I don’t get them on Monday, I’m following up with the school. My undergrad ones came lickety split. And I’ll work on the personal statement this weekend.

I don’t think I’ve written that I’m taking another memoir class this semester. Better get one in before school starts.

It’s a very different format than my other classes. Usually two or three people workshop per class, having emailed their pieces to everyone beforehand. There’s in-class writing, as well as discussion about books.

In this one, there’s no emailing beforehand. Everyone – all five of us – reads 8 to 10 pages aloud, and then people critique. If you have more pages, people can take your stuff home and give back to you the following week with comments, if they have time. The teacher always takes home and returns with detailed comments the following class.

At first I was wary, but it’s actually been okay. Gives us more time to work on our own stuff. The only problem is that the stuff I’m working on is already pretty polished; it’s more the overall structure of the whole book I’m concerned about, which can’t really be addressed within 10 pages.

Then again, I can work on the structure part on my own, and maybe speak with the teacher off-line, and get my 10-page sections extra polished. Polished doesn’t mean perfect. People always find things that don’t make sense, which is extremely helpful. Or you can say, “Well in an earlier draft, I had this. . .” and people might respond, “Oh you should put that back,” or “Cut this other section.”

I like feedback like that. No pussyfooting. Just, “Cut it.” Awesome.

At first I thought the book would be divided in three parts. Part 1 my marriage, divorce, etc., part 2 China, and part 3 unknown. When I first told the teacher about it, she immediately thought I should intersperse parts 1 and 2 into one book. At first I resisted, but now I think she’s right.

I’m actually excited about the idea. I want to finish the China portion as quickly as possible, then print everything out and look at how I can move the parts around to make a whole, which will show me overlap and gaps.


14
Jul 07

TCOB Friday

Well, except for a post.

Friday morning I did a lot of work for a change. Just hunkered down and did it. I complain about my job, but it’s not the work I dislike. If I’m just left alone to do what I need to do, it’s fine.

It helps one of my new co-workers seems pretty cool. We’re working on this project together, and agree our boss has been very unclear about his vision. Since she’s new, she was able to go to him and say, “I don’t get it” (though not in so many words), and so at the meeting he was able to clear things up. I’m still not sure if the project has any value, but at least we’re all clearer on the direction.

Had a meeting at noon (no lunch! had to concentrate on keeping from stomach from growling) and that consultant I have an on-and-off crush on joined via phone. I was hoping he’d show – I even wore a cute outfit (yes: I’m a loser) – but I think his office is in New Jersey. I got all giddy when he addressed me by name directly. So high school.

I accomplished even more work after the meeting, and was still out by 3.

Oh yeah, I also finally made dentist and eye doctor appointments. Well, the eye doc appointment is on time. The dentist is overdue from April. Also made my travel arrangements for a meeting in Chicago at the end of the month. For some reason, I’m really looking forward to it. Probably because I won’t be presenting, just participating in different trainings. Plus it’ll be my first time to the windy city, outside of stopovers in O’Hare.

Today’s reserved for writing and running. I’m looking forward to my jog in Central Park, and the weather seems perfect for it right now. Tomorrow there will be thunderstorms and I would prefer not to be hit by lightning. Ouch.