The following is a letter that I wrote to my neighbors across the street. I'm still deciding whether or not I'm going to send it to them:
Dear Drivers in the Riley Family,
I am concerned with the parking situation I have found outside your residence. There is consistently at least one vehicle parked outside your home at all times, day or night. Often there are two or more vehicles present. In the latest instance, the morning of Tuesday, October 20, 2009, all four of the vehicles owned or driven by members of your family (green Dodge minivan, light blue Chrysler minivan, red Dodge pickup truck, and grey Buick sedan) were parked on the street outside your residence.
This occurrence is perplexing to me since there is ample space on your driveway and presumably a two-car garage, which is customary in this neighborhood, in which to house these vehicles. Not only do you run the risk of damage to the vehicles by leaving them parked on the street overnight due to reckless drivers and restless adolescents, they pose a threat to normal traffic flow through the neighborhood itself. I understand that the central location of your home within the neighborhood means that the bypassing traffic is limited; however, there remains a steady flow of vehicles to and from the other residences surrounding your home.
In addition, the location of the vehicles is problematic to the drivers in the house across the street from you. If someone from this residence wishes to exit their driveway, they run the constant risk of accidentally hitting one of your vehicles due to their location directly behind the driveway. Regardless of the quality of their driving, they may be unable to avoid your vehicles due to blind spots and inclement weather hazards, which will become even more prevalent in the upcoming winter months. What is further puzzling about this situation is that, somehow, the residents at the house across the street manage to contain 7-8 vehicles on their premises without resorting to polluting the street space. Their driveway is also arguably smaller in size than your own.
Aside from being a nuisance to your neighbors, the location of your vehicles can disrupt the operation of other services, such as the daily delivery of mail by the US Postal Service; the delivery of packages from couriers, such as UPS and FedEx; the weekly collection of garbage; and, in the coming months, the collection of leaves and the plowing of snow. These service providers should not have to be inconvenienced on a daily or weekly basis due to your lack of spatial planning.
Finally, when pondering this aggravating situation, one has to wonder the point of having so many vehicles in one household with so few drivers. Out of the four members of your family, only two are legally allowed to operate a vehicle. I understand your desire for versatility in owning a truck for hauling, a minivan to carry all members of the family, and a sedan for work purposes, but the second minivan? I cannot find a logical explanation for this automobile. Did you miss out on the Cash for Clunkers stimulus money? Are you nostalgic for washed-up minivan models? Please consider consolidating your fleet of motor vehicles or expanding your driveway space to accommodate the vehicles you presently own.
If this parking situation is not rectified, I will have to find alternative approaches to resolving the matter, such as egging your house on Devil's Night, suggesting a no overnight street parking regulation to be implemented in the neighborhood, or informing authorities of your disruptive parking habits. I hope you carefully consider the points addressed in this letter and the effect your vehicles have on others in the neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Concerned Resident of the Neighborhood
I wrote this while at work and it was surprisingly therapeutic. And if their house gets egged next week, it wasn't without provocation... not that I'd EVER do that.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Monday, Monday... can't trust that day.
Today was a "typical" day at work, which means that I had no clue what I was doing for most of the day. It started out weird in that we had two employees at each other's throats at 8:15 in the morning. Of course my supervisor, who is in charge of employee relations, was not there and wouldn't get into the office until 9. I didn't know what was going on and gave out my supervisor's cell phone number to the manager. As soon as the manager walked away, I was worried about having given out the cell number. I was worried that my supervisor would be pissed that I gave it out. But the person I gave it to is really intimidating and I was kinda afraid of telling her no. This manager is pretty intense and demands things just with the way she speaks. I didn't even think of saying no to her. I wish I had that kind of power over people. Or maybe I just don't have a spine...
Anyway, by the time my supervisor gets in, we are supposed to meet with two people who are visiting from the Wisconsin office. They kinda have to do their own thing out there so they were visiting to get a chance to ask questions and learn things from the main office. Fortunately for me, this meeting coincided with an interview that my supervisor was supposed to do. Because of this, I got to do my first interview with someone. It was actually pretty cool, although I think that has a lot to do with the willingness of the interviewee to talk. This guy was really talkative, almost too talkative. I went in there pretending like I knew exactly what I was doing though and I think it went well. I had a list of questions to ask the person and he didn't really answer the first one, but did well with the rest. I had to listen to a ton of technical jargon while the guy explained specific water purification processes. I just nodded and pretended like I knew what he was saying. I don't know how helpful my notes will be for my supervisor when she has to make a decision on this guy, but at least I have a little bit of interviewing experience now.
We then took the visitors out to lunch, which took two hours. I'm not complaining though because I didn't want to have to do anything. It was also nice because I got a free meal out of it. I thought it would be pretty awkward but conversation flowed fairly well. After lunch I didn't do a whole lot. I had a couple things that had to be done immediately, but otherwise I sat at my desk and watched the time fly by. Today was one of the quickest days at work I can remember for a while.
I had my pilates class tonight too. The instructor told us all about how she has to have her appendix taken out last week and had a cyst on her ovary that burst. Yet she was still teaching the class today. She's crazy. She also decided to add some cardio to the class, which is a nice change up. I like the class, but I wish that it wasn't all the way up in Cranberry. Now that I don't have anyone to spend the class with, it's not as fun. I get to have dinner with John though afterward though, so that makes it worth it. Not to mention it's good for me.
After the class, John and I went to Eat N Park for dinner. While we were there, the day got even weirder. I saw a coworker at the Eat N Park. It was pretty weird because Cranberry is 31 miles north of the office and I didn't think there were many people who lived that far north of the office. I only know of three other people who live out this way, and the guy I saw there was not one of them. Tomorrow I'll have to look this guy up to see if he lives near me. Luckily, I don't think he saw me, or if he did, he let it go just like I did. He's not my favorite person so I wasn't about to go over and say hi. It was strange to say the least.
The rest of this week is going to be nuts. Stay tuned for updates later this week on the next company picnic on Thursday. It is "Autumn-fest" themed and I'll be bringing in a dessert for the decorating contest. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of it. I hope it turns out awesome. Then I'm taking a personal day on Friday and John and I are heading up to Niagara Falls for the weekend. We'll be spending Friday in Niagara and then Saturday in Toronto. It'll be nice to get away, even if it's just for the weekend. I need a day off of work.
Anyway, by the time my supervisor gets in, we are supposed to meet with two people who are visiting from the Wisconsin office. They kinda have to do their own thing out there so they were visiting to get a chance to ask questions and learn things from the main office. Fortunately for me, this meeting coincided with an interview that my supervisor was supposed to do. Because of this, I got to do my first interview with someone. It was actually pretty cool, although I think that has a lot to do with the willingness of the interviewee to talk. This guy was really talkative, almost too talkative. I went in there pretending like I knew exactly what I was doing though and I think it went well. I had a list of questions to ask the person and he didn't really answer the first one, but did well with the rest. I had to listen to a ton of technical jargon while the guy explained specific water purification processes. I just nodded and pretended like I knew what he was saying. I don't know how helpful my notes will be for my supervisor when she has to make a decision on this guy, but at least I have a little bit of interviewing experience now.
We then took the visitors out to lunch, which took two hours. I'm not complaining though because I didn't want to have to do anything. It was also nice because I got a free meal out of it. I thought it would be pretty awkward but conversation flowed fairly well. After lunch I didn't do a whole lot. I had a couple things that had to be done immediately, but otherwise I sat at my desk and watched the time fly by. Today was one of the quickest days at work I can remember for a while.
I had my pilates class tonight too. The instructor told us all about how she has to have her appendix taken out last week and had a cyst on her ovary that burst. Yet she was still teaching the class today. She's crazy. She also decided to add some cardio to the class, which is a nice change up. I like the class, but I wish that it wasn't all the way up in Cranberry. Now that I don't have anyone to spend the class with, it's not as fun. I get to have dinner with John though afterward though, so that makes it worth it. Not to mention it's good for me.
After the class, John and I went to Eat N Park for dinner. While we were there, the day got even weirder. I saw a coworker at the Eat N Park. It was pretty weird because Cranberry is 31 miles north of the office and I didn't think there were many people who lived that far north of the office. I only know of three other people who live out this way, and the guy I saw there was not one of them. Tomorrow I'll have to look this guy up to see if he lives near me. Luckily, I don't think he saw me, or if he did, he let it go just like I did. He's not my favorite person so I wasn't about to go over and say hi. It was strange to say the least.
The rest of this week is going to be nuts. Stay tuned for updates later this week on the next company picnic on Thursday. It is "Autumn-fest" themed and I'll be bringing in a dessert for the decorating contest. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of it. I hope it turns out awesome. Then I'm taking a personal day on Friday and John and I are heading up to Niagara Falls for the weekend. We'll be spending Friday in Niagara and then Saturday in Toronto. It'll be nice to get away, even if it's just for the weekend. I need a day off of work.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesdays are the worst
So I'm back to hating my job again today. It didn't take long from the point where I thought things were going ok (last Friday when they offered me regular full time employment) to me wanting to quit again. I had a general feeling of unappreciation today, starting pretty much from the minute I got to work. I should have known it was going to be a bad day just because it's Tuesday. Tuesday's are always the worst days of the week.
To begin, my parents called me downstairs this morning after I get out of the shower. They said that "I have to come down and see this". My immediate thought was that I probably didn't want to see whatever was down there. But I headed down the stairs anyway. I got to the bottom and I heard my dad say, "Don't let it get in the kitchen." There's another red flag. Whatever I'm supposed to be looking at is something that is alive and shouldn't be in the house. I started thinking about what's been in the house recently. A squirrel? Nope, it's not a squirrel. A bat like at the old house? Nope, not a bat either. It's a mouse. The cats had been playing with it all morning. They were actually batting it across the wooden floor to each other before I came downstairs. That's what I wasted 5 minutes of my morning with. Because of this, my entire morning routine was off and I ended up forgetting to put make up on. Luckily I had some eye liner and eye shadow in my purse, but I wasn't able to cover up all the wonderful zits on my face.
I got into work and things were fine at the beginning. Then a coworker came up to me and proceeded to tell me how she's sorry that she didn't give me credit for a document that I created, which she had sent out to all the departments to use for presentations. Awesome. I spent at least 30 minutes to an hour creating this template document and I was going to present it during our department's presentation, but now everyone has it and probably thinks that this coworker created it. Great. The day was getting worse and it wasn't even 8AM yet.
As soon as my supervisor got in there were double the amount of tasks for me to do because she likes to dump things on me. I guess that's part of my job, but still, it sucks. So, first off I had to fight with the guy we bought our PA system from earlier this month. The one we ordered was out of stock and we had to figure something else out. Of course I had to fight with the guy about it. Then, there was a worker's comp case that happened late yesterday. I had to figure out how to file a claim and deal with that shit. Somehow it was after 10 once I figured some of that out.
The next bit of underappreciation came from the temp who started last week. She had to update a contact list with people from each department. It was updated to reflect this person who was hired late last month but my name wasn't updated and I started two months ago. I mentioned that to the temp and she was like, "Well I just updated it." Well you didn't do your f-ing job properly, so do it again. I don't care if it makes you look incompetent. We've all had those moments so suck it up. Of course, I never said any of that to her because I'm not confrontational. So I'm sure it'll never get done.
In the afternoon, during my meeting with my boss I asked about my newly acquired benefits of vacation time and personal days. According to the policy, if you're hired before September 1 you get 3 personal days, but if you're hired after you only get 1. I was hired as a temp before the date, but my change in status came after, so I wanted to see which date they'd use to determine my personal days. Of course they use yesterday's date so I only get 1 personal day for the rest of the year. Same goes for vacation: I only start accruing hours starting yesterday. That means that I've accrued about a half hour of vacation time. Super. It's like I didn't even exist in the company for the first 8 1/2 weeks.
Finally, after my meeting with my boss I find an email from the assistant in a different department. It states that every year there is a "Girls Night Out" and gift exchange, presumably between all the assistants (which technically I'm not - my title has been changed to HR Associate thanks to my whining). Apparently my supervisor volunteered me into organizing this shit. Awesome. Thanks so freaking much. Now I have to organize an event I care next to nothing about, nor want to be a part of. I also will have to be involved in a gift exchange with a bunch of 30-somethings who are absolutely nothing like me. This happened with 20 minutes left in my day. There were also two new tasks left on my desk for me to do before the end of the day too. Thanks. One more reason to be pissed at the world.
So the end of the day came and I thought I could just go home to commiserate. Nope, wrong again. My mom calls (for the second time after leaving me a voice mail) right before I'm about to leave work. I answer and she wants me to meet her and my dad at a car dealership a little further south from where my office is. I figure I could probably get a free meal at a restaurant out of it so I said I'd meet them there. I got to the car dealership 10 minutes before they get there and then, once they got there, I spent 5 minutes looking at the car they're interested in before my mom says that I can go home if I want. No dinner? Nope, there's soup on the stove at home. Great. So not only did I drive 10 miles out of my way to look at a car for 5 minutes, I have to cook something for myself when I get home. I get home about 45 minutes later than I normally do, the animals are practically gnawing on my ankles for their dinner which was a half hour late, and I have to find something that I'd actually want to eat for dinner.
And apparently Jordan Staal fought someone in the game tonight, which is conveniently on NHL Network, a channel we aren't subscribers for. Thanks life! I owe you one! I think I'll be going to bed before 9 tonight just to make the day end that much sooner. FML.
To begin, my parents called me downstairs this morning after I get out of the shower. They said that "I have to come down and see this". My immediate thought was that I probably didn't want to see whatever was down there. But I headed down the stairs anyway. I got to the bottom and I heard my dad say, "Don't let it get in the kitchen." There's another red flag. Whatever I'm supposed to be looking at is something that is alive and shouldn't be in the house. I started thinking about what's been in the house recently. A squirrel? Nope, it's not a squirrel. A bat like at the old house? Nope, not a bat either. It's a mouse. The cats had been playing with it all morning. They were actually batting it across the wooden floor to each other before I came downstairs. That's what I wasted 5 minutes of my morning with. Because of this, my entire morning routine was off and I ended up forgetting to put make up on. Luckily I had some eye liner and eye shadow in my purse, but I wasn't able to cover up all the wonderful zits on my face.
I got into work and things were fine at the beginning. Then a coworker came up to me and proceeded to tell me how she's sorry that she didn't give me credit for a document that I created, which she had sent out to all the departments to use for presentations. Awesome. I spent at least 30 minutes to an hour creating this template document and I was going to present it during our department's presentation, but now everyone has it and probably thinks that this coworker created it. Great. The day was getting worse and it wasn't even 8AM yet.
As soon as my supervisor got in there were double the amount of tasks for me to do because she likes to dump things on me. I guess that's part of my job, but still, it sucks. So, first off I had to fight with the guy we bought our PA system from earlier this month. The one we ordered was out of stock and we had to figure something else out. Of course I had to fight with the guy about it. Then, there was a worker's comp case that happened late yesterday. I had to figure out how to file a claim and deal with that shit. Somehow it was after 10 once I figured some of that out.
The next bit of underappreciation came from the temp who started last week. She had to update a contact list with people from each department. It was updated to reflect this person who was hired late last month but my name wasn't updated and I started two months ago. I mentioned that to the temp and she was like, "Well I just updated it." Well you didn't do your f-ing job properly, so do it again. I don't care if it makes you look incompetent. We've all had those moments so suck it up. Of course, I never said any of that to her because I'm not confrontational. So I'm sure it'll never get done.
In the afternoon, during my meeting with my boss I asked about my newly acquired benefits of vacation time and personal days. According to the policy, if you're hired before September 1 you get 3 personal days, but if you're hired after you only get 1. I was hired as a temp before the date, but my change in status came after, so I wanted to see which date they'd use to determine my personal days. Of course they use yesterday's date so I only get 1 personal day for the rest of the year. Same goes for vacation: I only start accruing hours starting yesterday. That means that I've accrued about a half hour of vacation time. Super. It's like I didn't even exist in the company for the first 8 1/2 weeks.
Finally, after my meeting with my boss I find an email from the assistant in a different department. It states that every year there is a "Girls Night Out" and gift exchange, presumably between all the assistants (which technically I'm not - my title has been changed to HR Associate thanks to my whining). Apparently my supervisor volunteered me into organizing this shit. Awesome. Thanks so freaking much. Now I have to organize an event I care next to nothing about, nor want to be a part of. I also will have to be involved in a gift exchange with a bunch of 30-somethings who are absolutely nothing like me. This happened with 20 minutes left in my day. There were also two new tasks left on my desk for me to do before the end of the day too. Thanks. One more reason to be pissed at the world.
So the end of the day came and I thought I could just go home to commiserate. Nope, wrong again. My mom calls (for the second time after leaving me a voice mail) right before I'm about to leave work. I answer and she wants me to meet her and my dad at a car dealership a little further south from where my office is. I figure I could probably get a free meal at a restaurant out of it so I said I'd meet them there. I got to the car dealership 10 minutes before they get there and then, once they got there, I spent 5 minutes looking at the car they're interested in before my mom says that I can go home if I want. No dinner? Nope, there's soup on the stove at home. Great. So not only did I drive 10 miles out of my way to look at a car for 5 minutes, I have to cook something for myself when I get home. I get home about 45 minutes later than I normally do, the animals are practically gnawing on my ankles for their dinner which was a half hour late, and I have to find something that I'd actually want to eat for dinner.
And apparently Jordan Staal fought someone in the game tonight, which is conveniently on NHL Network, a channel we aren't subscribers for. Thanks life! I owe you one! I think I'll be going to bed before 9 tonight just to make the day end that much sooner. FML.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Real Job, Here I Come
Good news for me! On Friday, I was finally offered regular, full-time employment thank god. On top of dropping the temporary status, I got a pay increase and I'm eligible for health insurance. That was my main concern with getting to regular, full-time status since my health insurance from my dad was ending at the end of this month. Now I don't have to worry about that, which is a relief. And I'm eligible for personal days and paid leave too.
Friday morning I spoke with my boss about tasks that I had to do that day and he scheduled a meeting for that afternoon that was just labeled with my name. I had a feeling that this meeting would be about my future since I had spoken to my boss about it the week before. It was still kinda awkward because my boss has a very long-winded way of explaining anything so for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, he explained the thought process behind the decision. So instead of just saying, we're giving you a pay raise, he explained how this followed past precedent and how the company compensation plan is structured. I tried to act interested because it's knowledge about the company, but at the same time all I wanted to do was look through my offer letter and see what my raise would be.
He also went into the recruiting process for the job and that they picked me because they think that I can have good potential to grow with the company and blah blah blah. It was interesting information to hear about, but again I just want to read over my offer letter. So I sit there waiting to get to the interesting part and eventually we do get there. The offer letter though states that my job title is HR Assistant instead of HR Associate, which is the title of the job that I applied for. It's a stupid thing to focus on, but still, I feel like 'Associate' sounds a little higher up or something than 'Assistant'. I know that my job is clerical in nature and I'm still an hourly employee, which kinda sucks, but I feel I'm worth more than that. Because of this, I don't think that this experience would count toward getting my PHR (Professional of Human Resources) Certification. For the PHR you need two years of exempt-level HR experience, and my job is non-exempt. Hopefully somewhere in my future, I'll be able to move up. You never know.
For now though, I'm going to be happy that my job is 'real' and that I can have all the perks of a 'real' job. The next step will be getting an apartment, which I hope to do by the beginning of 2010. John is still trying to find a job so we might have to wait until he finds something before we start seriously looking at apartments. I'm ready to move out though. Living with my parents is getting pretty old, as is the commute to work. Hopefully, we'll be able to move soon.
Friday morning I spoke with my boss about tasks that I had to do that day and he scheduled a meeting for that afternoon that was just labeled with my name. I had a feeling that this meeting would be about my future since I had spoken to my boss about it the week before. It was still kinda awkward because my boss has a very long-winded way of explaining anything so for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, he explained the thought process behind the decision. So instead of just saying, we're giving you a pay raise, he explained how this followed past precedent and how the company compensation plan is structured. I tried to act interested because it's knowledge about the company, but at the same time all I wanted to do was look through my offer letter and see what my raise would be.
He also went into the recruiting process for the job and that they picked me because they think that I can have good potential to grow with the company and blah blah blah. It was interesting information to hear about, but again I just want to read over my offer letter. So I sit there waiting to get to the interesting part and eventually we do get there. The offer letter though states that my job title is HR Assistant instead of HR Associate, which is the title of the job that I applied for. It's a stupid thing to focus on, but still, I feel like 'Associate' sounds a little higher up or something than 'Assistant'. I know that my job is clerical in nature and I'm still an hourly employee, which kinda sucks, but I feel I'm worth more than that. Because of this, I don't think that this experience would count toward getting my PHR (Professional of Human Resources) Certification. For the PHR you need two years of exempt-level HR experience, and my job is non-exempt. Hopefully somewhere in my future, I'll be able to move up. You never know.
For now though, I'm going to be happy that my job is 'real' and that I can have all the perks of a 'real' job. The next step will be getting an apartment, which I hope to do by the beginning of 2010. John is still trying to find a job so we might have to wait until he finds something before we start seriously looking at apartments. I'm ready to move out though. Living with my parents is getting pretty old, as is the commute to work. Hopefully, we'll be able to move soon.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Carpool? More like poor call (almost an anagram)
I live far away from my office. I spend about $200 a month in gas alone. It would make sense to carpool with a coworker who lives close by, right? That's what I thought, until I was actually participating in this said carpool. How is it that I always attract the weirdos?
First off, Mr. Carpool, we'll call him, tends to leave earlier than I do. So I have to get ready a little quicker than usual because there's no way I'm getting up any earlier than I already do. We are meeting at a park and ride lot that I pass on my way to the highway, which is convenient, but it's a bitch to pull out of in the morning. We also now have to coordinate our schedules at the end of the day too. All in all, the carpooling makes me leave earlier in the morning and get home later in the day, as well as clutter my mind up with coordinating schedules. Annoyance level = 2 out of 10.
Second, Mr. Carpool is old enough to be my dad. This gets me thinking about all the movies and story lines that have stemmed from middle aged guys and young female coworkers and I was immediately uncomfortable. Now this scenario would never be possible and I gag thinking about it, but still, I don't trust people and I especially don't trust what people think. As we were pulling into work this morning, there were coworkers watching us, and I just know that people are going to wonder why we're driving into work together. And this guy has to say hello to everyone. He even stops the car to talk to people. Is that really necessary? No, it's not at all. Annoyance level = 4.5 out of 10.
Third, Mr. Carpool is a bizarre driver. Now, I know I'm no saint when driving, especially in traffic, but this guy is weird. He is constantly looking down at the speedometer (I think). Seriously, every two seconds or so, he glances down at it, but it's not a subtle glance with his eyes. No no, he visibly moves his head and moves his hand out of the way. (A) Stop looking at the goddamn speedometer, (B) Newsflash: you can move your eyes without moving your entire head, and (C) Don't put your hand in your line of sight if you're going to look in the same place every second. Who does that? Annoyance level = 8 out of 10.
Finally, on the way home today, we had the windows down for a bit and I was fine with that. I moved the window down a little further and he suggested that we put the air on in the car. That's fine, I prefer air conditioning. Haha joke's on me, there is no air conditioning, just the stupid fan set on the cool setting. This actually means humid lukewarm air is now blowing on me. Awesome. So now not only am I mentally uncomfortable, but also physically uncomfortable too! Double trouble! Annoyance level = 10 out of 10.
Oh, and I didn't even get into the conversation. It revolves around sports because I am a guy in that respect. Whatever, I can talk sports with people. Mr. Carpool is a Penguins fan and a Steelers fan. Fine, I can roll with that. The problem, he talks about the same shit over and over and over again. And he laughs at his own jokes, if you can even call them jokes. This just makes the other annoyances that much worse.
When I was driving it wasn't that bad since I had something to do. Being the passenger was the worst. Now I need to think of reasons not to carpool anymore. I mean there is a positive in that I can save money, but I don't know if it's worth the aggravation. We aren't carpooling the rest of this week because Mr. Carpool is unavailable tomorrow and I made up an excuse for Friday. I have an excuse for Monday lined up because I'm starting a Pilates class after work. I think I should just tell him it's not working out for me because it's adding time to my commute or something. I'm not good at telling people news they don't want to hear. And I have to work with this guy regularly so I don't want to piss him off. I really need to learn how to say no though. Oh well. That's my current drama and hopefully I can resolve it quickly.
First off, Mr. Carpool, we'll call him, tends to leave earlier than I do. So I have to get ready a little quicker than usual because there's no way I'm getting up any earlier than I already do. We are meeting at a park and ride lot that I pass on my way to the highway, which is convenient, but it's a bitch to pull out of in the morning. We also now have to coordinate our schedules at the end of the day too. All in all, the carpooling makes me leave earlier in the morning and get home later in the day, as well as clutter my mind up with coordinating schedules. Annoyance level = 2 out of 10.
Second, Mr. Carpool is old enough to be my dad. This gets me thinking about all the movies and story lines that have stemmed from middle aged guys and young female coworkers and I was immediately uncomfortable. Now this scenario would never be possible and I gag thinking about it, but still, I don't trust people and I especially don't trust what people think. As we were pulling into work this morning, there were coworkers watching us, and I just know that people are going to wonder why we're driving into work together. And this guy has to say hello to everyone. He even stops the car to talk to people. Is that really necessary? No, it's not at all. Annoyance level = 4.5 out of 10.
Third, Mr. Carpool is a bizarre driver. Now, I know I'm no saint when driving, especially in traffic, but this guy is weird. He is constantly looking down at the speedometer (I think). Seriously, every two seconds or so, he glances down at it, but it's not a subtle glance with his eyes. No no, he visibly moves his head and moves his hand out of the way. (A) Stop looking at the goddamn speedometer, (B) Newsflash: you can move your eyes without moving your entire head, and (C) Don't put your hand in your line of sight if you're going to look in the same place every second. Who does that? Annoyance level = 8 out of 10.
Finally, on the way home today, we had the windows down for a bit and I was fine with that. I moved the window down a little further and he suggested that we put the air on in the car. That's fine, I prefer air conditioning. Haha joke's on me, there is no air conditioning, just the stupid fan set on the cool setting. This actually means humid lukewarm air is now blowing on me. Awesome. So now not only am I mentally uncomfortable, but also physically uncomfortable too! Double trouble! Annoyance level = 10 out of 10.
Oh, and I didn't even get into the conversation. It revolves around sports because I am a guy in that respect. Whatever, I can talk sports with people. Mr. Carpool is a Penguins fan and a Steelers fan. Fine, I can roll with that. The problem, he talks about the same shit over and over and over again. And he laughs at his own jokes, if you can even call them jokes. This just makes the other annoyances that much worse.
When I was driving it wasn't that bad since I had something to do. Being the passenger was the worst. Now I need to think of reasons not to carpool anymore. I mean there is a positive in that I can save money, but I don't know if it's worth the aggravation. We aren't carpooling the rest of this week because Mr. Carpool is unavailable tomorrow and I made up an excuse for Friday. I have an excuse for Monday lined up because I'm starting a Pilates class after work. I think I should just tell him it's not working out for me because it's adding time to my commute or something. I'm not good at telling people news they don't want to hear. And I have to work with this guy regularly so I don't want to piss him off. I really need to learn how to say no though. Oh well. That's my current drama and hopefully I can resolve it quickly.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
My life as an episode of The Office
Imagine this: You are called into your boss's office along with three other relatively new employees and are told that you will be the judging committee for displays put up by each department in the company. The other employees: two Indian transfers from the India branch of the company and the new janitor, who started two days prior. You are told that you are to choose one winner and three runners up based on creativity, effectiveness of the display, and involvement of the employees within the department. You are also told that one of you will have to speak at the company picnic the next day and announce the winners.
You then realize that it will be you who is speaking at the picnic because two of the other committee members have Indian accents and won't be understood by everyone and the other committee member hasn't been there for a full week yet. You on the other hand have only been there for six weeks but somehow are still considered temporary. You are now hating your job and possibly your life in general. This is only the beginning though. You know that you are inevitably going to piss some people off. There can only be one winner, and there are a lot of displays that are good. And you know that everyone likes to blame the messenger. Lucky you.
This was my life last Wednesday. As much as I tried to pawn off the speaking part onto the other group members, I was still stuck with the task of announcing at the picnic at the end of the day. So after our group came up with our winner and runners up, I got to dwell on the fact that I had to speak in front of 100 people. Did I mention that I hate public speaking?
Anyway, after tossing and turning all night long, I get to work the next day and have to make certificates for the winners we chose as well as certificates for another set of awards being handed out that day. I guess I should probably begin by explaining the whole company picnic process in a little more detail, since this isn't your everyday picnic. This is when I would call in the NBC crew to start filming. The picnic takes place during an extended lunch hour during a regular work day. A few departments sponsor the picnic, choose a theme, and put the thing together. The theme of this picnic was "Country-Western".
To make this an authentic picnic, one of the conference rooms was converted into a tavern scene where "Old Time Photos" could be taken. This room was complete with a hay bale, props such as a wagon wheel, a bottle of beer (empty of course) and a bottle of Jack Daniels (also empty of course), and clothing so you could dress up for the photo. The patio outside was also decorated with hay bales to sit on, western decorations, country music playing, and a real horse. Yes, someone had a friend bring in a horse.
The horse was the main attraction of the day and the owner actually gave grown adults pony rides in the parking lot. How many people can say that they got to ride a horse at the office? Well, my hand is raised. I digress though. Before the festivities could begin, speeches had to be made. The president of the company was supposed to speak, but he didn't want to. He backed out that morning and everyone was running around freaking out. Then, the first speaker who had actually agreed to speak was nowhere to be found. He wandered outside about 15 minutes later (intentional, I think). The other set of awards were handed out and people talked about what they did to earn them and then the big moment for me came.
My supervisor introduced me and I had to grab the mike and go for it. I have never really used a microphone before and I'm not very comfortable with them, so I was nervous. It also didn't help that there was feedback for the first few speakers and they had been fiddling with the volume a bunch of times. Regardless, I had the mike and all eyes were on me. I was so freaked out that I can't even tell you what I said in front of everyone. I rushed through it so fast in order to get it over with. People said I did a good job, but I know I sounded like an idiot. I didn't stumble or trip over my words or anything, so I guess I should be happy about that. At least everyone at the company knows me now.
After that, I could finally breathe again, but my stomach was still not quite right. You see, I actually make myself physically ill worrying about public speaking. I did that to myself in college once too when I was supposed to present in front of a political science class. In that case though, I never had to give the presentation though because the professor got sick and it was the last day of class. I was kinda hoping something like that would happen for the picnic too so I could get out of it, but no such luck.
The fun had only begun at that point because I managed to piss off the IT department and the Finance department with my awards. Apparently IT thought their display was hot shit and deserved to win. They had set up a TV monitor and put together a slide show of clips. The department refused their prize (a basket of candy) and the certificate and promptly turned off their TV. The one guy in the department also threw a temper tantrum and refused to speak to anyone in HR the rest of the day. I still catch him giving me dirty looks too when I see him. The Finance department was more diplomatic about their loss, but also looked at the winner's display, found a typo and brought it to everyone's attention. Seriously people? It's a recognition activity, not the Olympics. I think most people missed the memo about how this was supposed to be fun. So now I feel like I'm being judged by Finance and I am unable to call IT for anything in fear of retaliation from sore losers.
To top it off at the end of the picnic, my supervisor who is in charge of interviewing people for jobs, is called downstairs. An employee referred his friend for a temporary position we have opening up. We weren't going to call this lady back, but she was there that day. You want to know who it was? The lady who brought the horse!! My supervisor had to interview her because she had just brought us a freaking horse for our company picnic. The moral of the story: If you want a job, bring them a horse for their company picnic and they can't ignore you.
All in all, it was the most ridiculous day I think I've had in a long time. When I tried telling my friends about my day, I could hardly believe it myself. The working world is so bizarre sometimes.
You then realize that it will be you who is speaking at the picnic because two of the other committee members have Indian accents and won't be understood by everyone and the other committee member hasn't been there for a full week yet. You on the other hand have only been there for six weeks but somehow are still considered temporary. You are now hating your job and possibly your life in general. This is only the beginning though. You know that you are inevitably going to piss some people off. There can only be one winner, and there are a lot of displays that are good. And you know that everyone likes to blame the messenger. Lucky you.
This was my life last Wednesday. As much as I tried to pawn off the speaking part onto the other group members, I was still stuck with the task of announcing at the picnic at the end of the day. So after our group came up with our winner and runners up, I got to dwell on the fact that I had to speak in front of 100 people. Did I mention that I hate public speaking?
Anyway, after tossing and turning all night long, I get to work the next day and have to make certificates for the winners we chose as well as certificates for another set of awards being handed out that day. I guess I should probably begin by explaining the whole company picnic process in a little more detail, since this isn't your everyday picnic. This is when I would call in the NBC crew to start filming. The picnic takes place during an extended lunch hour during a regular work day. A few departments sponsor the picnic, choose a theme, and put the thing together. The theme of this picnic was "Country-Western".
To make this an authentic picnic, one of the conference rooms was converted into a tavern scene where "Old Time Photos" could be taken. This room was complete with a hay bale, props such as a wagon wheel, a bottle of beer (empty of course) and a bottle of Jack Daniels (also empty of course), and clothing so you could dress up for the photo. The patio outside was also decorated with hay bales to sit on, western decorations, country music playing, and a real horse. Yes, someone had a friend bring in a horse.
The horse was the main attraction of the day and the owner actually gave grown adults pony rides in the parking lot. How many people can say that they got to ride a horse at the office? Well, my hand is raised. I digress though. Before the festivities could begin, speeches had to be made. The president of the company was supposed to speak, but he didn't want to. He backed out that morning and everyone was running around freaking out. Then, the first speaker who had actually agreed to speak was nowhere to be found. He wandered outside about 15 minutes later (intentional, I think). The other set of awards were handed out and people talked about what they did to earn them and then the big moment for me came.
My supervisor introduced me and I had to grab the mike and go for it. I have never really used a microphone before and I'm not very comfortable with them, so I was nervous. It also didn't help that there was feedback for the first few speakers and they had been fiddling with the volume a bunch of times. Regardless, I had the mike and all eyes were on me. I was so freaked out that I can't even tell you what I said in front of everyone. I rushed through it so fast in order to get it over with. People said I did a good job, but I know I sounded like an idiot. I didn't stumble or trip over my words or anything, so I guess I should be happy about that. At least everyone at the company knows me now.
After that, I could finally breathe again, but my stomach was still not quite right. You see, I actually make myself physically ill worrying about public speaking. I did that to myself in college once too when I was supposed to present in front of a political science class. In that case though, I never had to give the presentation though because the professor got sick and it was the last day of class. I was kinda hoping something like that would happen for the picnic too so I could get out of it, but no such luck.
The fun had only begun at that point because I managed to piss off the IT department and the Finance department with my awards. Apparently IT thought their display was hot shit and deserved to win. They had set up a TV monitor and put together a slide show of clips. The department refused their prize (a basket of candy) and the certificate and promptly turned off their TV. The one guy in the department also threw a temper tantrum and refused to speak to anyone in HR the rest of the day. I still catch him giving me dirty looks too when I see him. The Finance department was more diplomatic about their loss, but also looked at the winner's display, found a typo and brought it to everyone's attention. Seriously people? It's a recognition activity, not the Olympics. I think most people missed the memo about how this was supposed to be fun. So now I feel like I'm being judged by Finance and I am unable to call IT for anything in fear of retaliation from sore losers.
To top it off at the end of the picnic, my supervisor who is in charge of interviewing people for jobs, is called downstairs. An employee referred his friend for a temporary position we have opening up. We weren't going to call this lady back, but she was there that day. You want to know who it was? The lady who brought the horse!! My supervisor had to interview her because she had just brought us a freaking horse for our company picnic. The moral of the story: If you want a job, bring them a horse for their company picnic and they can't ignore you.
All in all, it was the most ridiculous day I think I've had in a long time. When I tried telling my friends about my day, I could hardly believe it myself. The working world is so bizarre sometimes.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Where are my friends?
I know this is a common thing for all people, especially those who have recently graduated from college, but where did all my friends go? It's tough to keep in touch with everyone once we've all left college and scattered around the country. I'm lucky that I came back to my home town and there are still friends from high school around, but even they have moved around too. We no longer all live within 10 minutes from one another. They've all grown up, gotten married, and bought houses out in the middle of nowhere. I see them maybe once a month, which is more than how often I saw them when I was in college, but it's still not much.
As for my college friends, they're all at least 3 hours away. Some are still in PA but half way or the entire way across the state. Some are in DC which isn't really that far away, but to think of driving 5 hours after being at work 45 hours a week is not exactly appealing. And it's hard to even keep in touch through the phone or email. I send text messages while at work and sometimes emails too, but they're hardly the same. I haven't spoken to my best friend from undergrad for a week. It's sad. We roomed together for 3 years talking all the time and now we hardly speak to each other at all.
Not only is there the physical divide between my friends and me, there is also a mental divide. Some of my friends have been working real jobs for two years now, saved up money, gotten married, and even want to start having kids. One side of me is really jealous because I have been with my boyfriend for 7 years and I want to have that too. But at the same time, neither of us has been working steady 9-5 jobs at all until recently. My boyfriend probably will never work a job like that and is looking for a new job, and I just started my job a month and don't even know if it will last. So because I don't feel like I'm on the same page as these people, I don't always want to be around them. They just show me what I want and can't have right now. Childish as it may be, it's how I feel. And my boyfriend and I both have friends like that. We want to spend time with them because they're our friends, but at the same time, I know I will come away from my time with them feeling like a screw up.
The other thing that gets to me is the fact that I don't ever have the energy to do anything. Unless it's the weekend, I'm spent by the time I get home from work. I could call one of my friends who lives far away and talk with them, but I don't. I could send emails to people, but I don't. If I'm curious about someone, I'll go on Facebook or something and look at their status. How messed up is that? Instead of calling someone to see how they're doing, I just check an online post. And I know I never update mine, so what makes me think that these people will update theirs?
This is such a whiny post. But at least I'm getting it out of my head. Sometimes writing it down helps to clear it from your head and then it won't affect your mood as much. We'll see about that I guess.
As for my college friends, they're all at least 3 hours away. Some are still in PA but half way or the entire way across the state. Some are in DC which isn't really that far away, but to think of driving 5 hours after being at work 45 hours a week is not exactly appealing. And it's hard to even keep in touch through the phone or email. I send text messages while at work and sometimes emails too, but they're hardly the same. I haven't spoken to my best friend from undergrad for a week. It's sad. We roomed together for 3 years talking all the time and now we hardly speak to each other at all.
Not only is there the physical divide between my friends and me, there is also a mental divide. Some of my friends have been working real jobs for two years now, saved up money, gotten married, and even want to start having kids. One side of me is really jealous because I have been with my boyfriend for 7 years and I want to have that too. But at the same time, neither of us has been working steady 9-5 jobs at all until recently. My boyfriend probably will never work a job like that and is looking for a new job, and I just started my job a month and don't even know if it will last. So because I don't feel like I'm on the same page as these people, I don't always want to be around them. They just show me what I want and can't have right now. Childish as it may be, it's how I feel. And my boyfriend and I both have friends like that. We want to spend time with them because they're our friends, but at the same time, I know I will come away from my time with them feeling like a screw up.
The other thing that gets to me is the fact that I don't ever have the energy to do anything. Unless it's the weekend, I'm spent by the time I get home from work. I could call one of my friends who lives far away and talk with them, but I don't. I could send emails to people, but I don't. If I'm curious about someone, I'll go on Facebook or something and look at their status. How messed up is that? Instead of calling someone to see how they're doing, I just check an online post. And I know I never update mine, so what makes me think that these people will update theirs?
This is such a whiny post. But at least I'm getting it out of my head. Sometimes writing it down helps to clear it from your head and then it won't affect your mood as much. We'll see about that I guess.
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