Gasp!

So, I don't want to jump to any wild conclusions, but I think yesterday was my first good day at work.

I found out that the problems with the daily census are not because I can't get it right...they're because the other girl I have to match with can't get it right, and she was making me feel like the idiot.

That was a triumphant feeling!

Then, I had to receive another round of training over the phone, but I took very careful notes, and I made the person pause so I could do so...and I got it all down, and then went on to do two more of the same procedure on my own, to completion, without having to call her back.

Today is the staff "party." We have to do our monthly required "in service" training, this time on answering call lights....and then there's a raffle, and a little performance of the 12 days of CHRISTMAS...yes, Christmas.....in which I will be one of the 12 drummers drumming.

I wanted to be, with my two direct reports, the 3 french hens, but someone got to it before I could.

Good day, everyone!

Thought for the day

Think about this.....is it really appropriate for a guy with a portable key board, being paid to play a gig at an old folks' home, to play "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" for his wheel chair bound audience?

Is it?

I picked up the mystery package when I got home from work. Thank you BHD, and ++hobbitt!! The annual calendar is always a treat!!

I got to meet another resident at work today. She's 90 years old, and wants a bill brought to her room every week, so she can pay weekly instead of once a month.

I will have to be the one to do that, so I got to go meet her and speak with her today. I will take her bill to her tomorrow, by myself, and will go every Wednesday there after to take her bill to her.

I have to get from where I am over to Unit 5. I have NO idea how to do that without going outside, because that's how my boss took me there today....so I hope it's warmer tomorrow than it was today !!

I have the feeling I could fall in love with this lady. She reminds me of a certain old lady in my past, except her accent is thick as Texas tea!

Suspense!

We got over to the mail boxes JUST after the apartment offices closed for the night (the girl was just turning off the lights and leaving)....and discovered that we had a parcel notice!

Somebody sent us something! And we can't pick it up until tomorrow.....the suspense......!!

Holiday Wish List

Okay...this holiday season, we DO plan on shipping gifts to my family back home.
Nothing extravagant, due to my lack of income for several months....but there will be shipments.

SO---just putting this out there.....I know it's kinda tacky, but doesn't EVERYONE put together a wish list when they know there is a time for gift giving coming up? Huh? Don't they?


WISH LIST for Dave and Paula

*First off, we each have an Amazon.com wish list. If interested, please email for details. That's surely the easiest thing to do.

*Blue Ice Vodka (it's made in the USA, of potatoes [so it's a TRUE vodka], and is probably the best moderately priced vodka available. Not sold in OK)

*Trader Joe's Quick-Cook Steel Cut Oatmeal
*Trader Joe's First Lady Olive Oil
*Trader Joe's Ratatouille
*Trader Joe's cooking sauces (nothing spicey, though...they're KILLER~)
*Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Pretzels

*Grateful Dead Calendar

*Pasta Barilla PLUS, in penne rigate and rotini shapes (the grocery stores down here don't carry the PLUS products)

Unfortunately, the only other things we can think of are too difficult and expensive to ship....like Dominick's deli soups, and Dominck's store brand (Safeway) frozen Chicken and Pork pot stickers....and stuff like hot dogs and pizza....and an entire Portillo's restaurant!!

If we think of anything else, we will post it as an addendum to this blog entry.

Thanks !!

TGIF!

Sigh.....so the trainer WAS here for 4 days, but, again, she spent a huge amount of time NOT training me.

I learned very little about how to do month end close.

HOWEVER, she realized this, and has assured me that she will come back and do it with me again next time.

I ended up having to work extra hours yesterday, and the day before, because of month end stuff....and because my trainer was too busy during the day, so I had to stay late.

So yeah....during a period of forced reduced hours, I ended up working two 9+ hour days in a row.

As a result, my direct supervisor called me yesterday (she was out of the office all day), and said that I was working too many hours, and had to leave as soon as possible.

I said "But we haven't done month end stuff yet, and Mary said I was OK'd to work a full day, and even extra hours, if necessary."

My supervisor then proceeded to YELL at me on the phone, "Mary's NOT YOUR BOSS! You need to get as much done as you can, and LEAVE!"

So, I got off the phone, and went to tell Mary what my boss had said on the phone.

THEN, MARY starts yelling at me!!

NO LIE! (Really, what was happening, was that they were yelling at each other, but using ME to do it!) She made me call Marilyn back and tell her I have to stay as long as it takes.

Marilyn was a bit more calm when I called her back, and just said "Ok...you're fine. I'll talk to Mary another time...."

Ultimately, Mary had me stay pretty late, despite Marilyn's wishes, and knowing that she was getting on a plane today, and would not have to deal with any consequences!

HOWEVER, she DID apologize to me for handling the situation inappropriately. AND she apologized for all of the interruptions during my over all training, too!

Anyway, then today, Marilyn was back in the office, and she came into my office and apologized for her part in yesterday's fiasco, too.

That was not only surprising, but nice.

She also said that my working the extra hours was ok. It couldn't be helped. (They still don't have to pay me overtime for my extra long days, after all, because last Friday was one of my forced days off. The pay weeks run Friday to Thursday, so I will still only log 33.5 hours for the week, even with the late nights.)

And, while she was in my office, she asked me how I feel about the job so far, and how I think it's going, and I was honest with her. So....we'll see.

She was very encouraging and positive, though, and said she understands that the training period can be overwhelming.

I pointed out that it would be LESS overwhelming if my trainer hadn't spend several hours of each day on conference calls or out of the office!!

In other news, I finally got a printer in my office.

But, on the other hand, I still don't come up in the payroll system, so I am not "on line" with the new time clock they started using today, AND, I may have trouble with my next pay check as well.

WTF? I've been there a month, now, and they still don't know who I am.

As I have been saying, this is, without a doubt, the most dis-organized, chaotic, and ill equipped office I have ever worked for.

But, I DO keep going back.

Ordered the ham

With Dave's assistance, I ordered the ham for Christmas eve tonight.

I emailed my Aunt Judy, who lives up in Guthrie, to see if she'd like some. She is my late father's youngest sister.

It may have been many, many years since she's had Virginia Ham for Christmas eve. Who knows?

She may not even like the stuff...but, chances are, even if she doesn't actually LIKE it, she may be nostalgic for it, and so, she may like to have a slice or two.
It is, after all, what she had on Christmas eve every year of her growing up, too.

It is good to taste memories sometimes, even if you don't care for the flavor.

We can certainly take her a plate on Christmas day, if she's interested.

Anyone who knows my family knows the significance of the ham.

It is the ham, every year, that has drawn us together. That has brought us to that still point in which we remember who we are, and where we come from.

The aroma of a cooking Virginia Ham IS Christmas eve for us, and always has been.
For generations.
Literally, for 200 years.

My next project is to go out and find a big pot, and a platter....now that I am 900 miles away from my "ancestral" pot and platter.

But, the point is, there will be ham cooked in my new home this year, on Christmas eve.

I will desperately miss being with my family, for the first time in my life, but if we all can smell a cooking ham, wherever we are, then we can waft through time and space on the steam, and be together in spirit.

Whatever

The trainer is back this week, theoretically to train me on everything I have to learn in order to do month end close.

She was on a FOUR hour conference call today.

I did part of what needed to be done today (thankfully, she had done a "test" run of it a couple of weeks ago, and trained me on it then), and did it alone, and with complete success. Without even asking one question.

It involved balancing and reconciling the deposit logs. Apparently it was a big deal that I did this perfectly on my first try.

However, the other thing that was due today never got done, because of the conference call, and so the trainer is doing it herself RIGHT NOW, because it has to get done.

Fine.

I won't have a CLUE how to do it next month, because instead of training me on it, she was on the phone.

I have to hope that either I will have a different job by the time I would have to do this task next month, or else she will somehow figure out a way to train me on this critical piece of month end work before I am expected to do it on my own!

Whatever....I am going to take a hot bath and go to bed early. Again.