Work Gripes
No updates for a while…sorry bout that. I’ve been writing them in my head at work, but by the time I get home, all I want to do is crash out. It’s a good thing though. It means that my job is challenging me and making me want to do my best. Last week was bill close, so the week went by very fast.
We stayed until eight on Friday even though my department had our reports clean by noon. We had to stay to help out the lazy–oh I mean not so fortunate billers. I have no problem with staying to help; I am a total team player. However when I watch people stand around talking every time our supervisors go into a meeting instead of doing their work ESPECIALLY when it’s bill close week, it makes me kinda angry.
Oh well, so this week is the slow week, but it is also a week of changes. Oh yes. They change shit here more often than they ever did at my old job.
We were told mid month that our supervisors would be going away. Some will take management positions; some will take senior specialist jobs. Either way it won’t take place for a couple of months. In the mean time, they decided to shake us all up and give us new marketplaces and new supervisors. This was set to happen today, but of course it hasn’t really.
I’ve barely met my new sup and our reports haven’t changed so we basically had very little to do. And I’m sure my new sup is a nice person but I am going to miss the hell out of M. She was the coolest. Loud obnoxious and fun, just like I like it. She is also incredible at what she does which, I’m sure is part of the reason for the moves. I don’t want to toot my own horn but our team under M has kicked ass! A lot of the other teams, yeah not so much with the asskicking. So I know the change has to happen for the good of the whole billing team blah blah blah, but I don’t have to like it!
I got recognized today in an email. Three of us from my team did. R, P and I and two other folks for our great report cleaning on our bill close. It made me feel especially good because I still haven’t had any formal training. Work has pretty much been my world lately so I don’t have much else to report.
Oh! The dog has a new talent! 🙂 He has proper etiquette for eating edamame. For those of you that don’t know what that is (because I didn’t until we took an Asian cooking class), it’s these tasty little soy beans in a pod. You basically squeeze them out of the pod with or without salt and you don’t eat the pod. Well Rob and I had some on Sunday and there were some left over on the stove. Rob said something smartass (big shock) so I grabbed one and threw it at him. It bounced off his arm and hit the floor. We laughed and each assumed the dog would eat it up whole.
About a half an hour later I heard Rob in the kitchen laughing. I walked out and saw him staring at the empty pod halves on the floor. He asked me why I would do that, and I said I didn’t. We both looked over at the dog who stared back at us with his usual “Duh.” expression.
Keep in mind that this is a dog that will eat ANYTHING. He’s ingested a plastic string cheese wrapper before because there was a tiny piece of cheese left in it. Rob grabbed another bean and tossed at the dog. The dog gobbled it up and Rob and I shrugged assuming that we were delusional. The next thing we know three bright green soy beans shoot out of Romie’s mouth followed by the empty pod halves. He then greedily ate the beans, nosed away the pod and looked at us for more.
I’m sure it really is a “you had to be there moment” but Rob and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world!! We gleefully fed him the rest of the edemame while tears of laughter leaked down our cheeks. Yeah, I know. We need hobbies.
Overtime
My first paycheck from my new job will have overtime on it! This may not seem like a big deal to you but when you come from working where I worked before, it is. At my old job, even if you worked OT you couldn’t claim it. Big nono.
Yesterday was end of month at the new job so we had to get everything squared away and make sure all the invoices would go out. It was kind of hard for me since I still have no official training and have only picked up on a couple of things here and there. But they gave me enough work to keep me busy until seven at night. My very first ten hour work day. Heh. My sup actually told me I could go home around six or so and I said that if there was more stuff that I could help with than I would so she loaded me up. 🙂
I certainly didn’t mind since finishing last night meant I didn’t have to go into work today.
I have one complaint about my new office building. The bathrooms are numerous but they all only have three stalls. That’s it. In a facility that houses 500 employees, the bathrooms have three stalls. It’s like Grand Central Fucking Station in there!
I am the type of person that when I have to go, I have to GO. I am all about the courteously flush and all that but these toilets have zero water pressure. You have to flush two or three times just to get the toilet paper to flush down sometimes. So every time I go in to do my business there are people in there or they walk in right after I get in there. I hate it. But I guess if that’s my only complaint so far it’s not too shabby.
I know I’ve gushed about the break room before but I discovered that one of the vending machines is for frozen foods. Frozen dinners, ice cream bars…YUMMY! And they have this neat little hot cocoa machine that you just press a button and you have a piping hot cup. Yeah, so I’ve led a sheltered life but this to me is very cool.
So overall so far the job is good. The people I am finding are a bit indifferent. I smile. It’s what I do. If I pass you in the hallway, even if I don’t know you, I will smile at you and maybe say hello. It’s in my nature. A lot of the people in my new office don’t smile. They just stare blankly at me when I walk by them and smile at them. It kind of creeps me out. I mean, how much of an effort does it take to smile? *sigh*
I’ve been managing to get to work on time every morning despite the horrific traffic that I now face. It’s been kicking my ass at night though. I get home and just want to crawl into bed at six thirty. I am the kind of person that will sleep an entire weekend away if you let me so this getting up at six thirty in the morning shit is for the birds. I do it though. Rob said last night that he was very impressed and proud of me that I have been doing this.
“It’s almost like this job is making you…responsible!”
Very funny wiseguy.
If you don’t know me…let me fill you in. I am the Queen of late. I was born two weeks late and my mom said it set the pattern for the rest of my life. I worked in my former job for four years and was probably on time a handful of times. The new job has a very strict policy on tardiness. It’s going to take some getting used to but I will. I have to. I really like this job and I want to stay there.
Drive By Number Two
So last night we had another fucking drive by shooting. Yes. Kelly is pleased by this, can you tell?? I would have never put it together and it may have nothing to do with it, but Rob pointed out today that the last time this happened it was raining a lot just like last night.
At any rate, Rob didn’t have to fill out a report this time and the cops didn’t seem to concerned with him other than to ask if he lived here and what he saw. When he told him that he was in the house and heard the shots and that was it the cop kind of turned away and didn’t care anymore. The only info he got was that they found shell casings and that one bullet struck one of the Monte Carlo cars in the driveway.
I had a major freak out and the bottom line in the end was that Rob said he would move if I REALLY wanted to but that we really can’t afford it. I know this, I really do, but DAMN! For four years we lived on this street with no problems. Sure this house would play their music loud on the weekends when they had their parties but that never bugged us. We’ve been known to crank our stereo while cleaning the house or what have you…but still two shootings in two months.
Fuck!
Sooooooo….I started the new job. I’m not sure where to begin.
I go there on time (if you know me at all, you know this is a major feat for me), and  must have looked very lost as a gentleman approached me and asked if I was a new hire. I said yes and he directed me towards a meeting room.
I spotted Kat and DD right away and scurried over to them to sit down. DD told me she had been worried since “we are the queens of being late”, but we both managed to be on time.
We were handed folders and paperwork that needed to be filled out. There were about fifteen of us in there I think…maybe more. As we filled them out we broke off in groups of four to get our ID badges. Already it is quite a switch from my old job where I didn’t get a picture badge for like four or five months. After a horrid picture we went back to the room and continued to fill out paperwork while everyone else got to get their badges.
I was a little concerned initially that after the trainer I had at my old job I would find the trainers to be stuffy, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth. There were four of them. G, C, K and R. G was the head of the trainers and led most of the training that day. They were all very funny and they joked with each other constantly. You could totally tell they love what they do and enjoy people who are a little chilled out and not so rigid about the whole “new job” thing. It was nice.
They briefed us on the “mission” of the company and all that good stuff for about an hour and then we played “bingo”. It was basically a break-the-ice-and-get-to-know-you game. The bingo sheet consisted of questions like: “Who has size 6 feet?” or “Who is left handed?” That sort of thing. We had to go around to all the other new hires and ask them the questions and then write their name down on the square. Once we had them all filled out then we got “bingo”. It was actually fun. There were only two people that admitted to snoring (that was one of the questions) and I was one of them. 🙂 After we were all done we went around the bingo board and we all shouted out the names to the questions and if there was a story behind it, it was told. It was quite fun.
We took a fifteen minute break and then it was back to the training. They covered the list of the higher ups and managers and the departments and then we got a tour of the place. It’s really a lot larger than I thought it would be. The break room was enormous!!!! They have like six or seven vending machines. One for sandwiches, one that had things like hot pockets and ramen noodles (of all things!), one for bottled soda, juice and milk, one for canned soda, one for snacks and one that I cannot remember what was in it. Two industrial sized fridges, seven microwaves and all sorts of other gadgets and gizmos.
The place is a bit of a maze but I am starting to get used to it now.
After the tour we broke for lunch. Kat, DD, our new friend Mel and I all went to a Mexican place nearby and got a bite to eat.
Back at the office we switched meeting rooms and went through some more training. I think they saw after an hour or so that we were going a little stir crazy because they said we should play another game.
We played “hot potato” but with a koosh ball instead. Basically we picked a topic and then had 30 seconds to name an example of the topic and pass the ball to the next person. The person holding the koosh when “time” was called was out. DD whined that she didn’t know anything so she didn’t want to play and we all laughed.
The topics ranged from fruit to movie stars. I was called out on the president’s category. I froze when I was told my guess had already been said.
The last two came down to ID and DD. The category was actors and actresses and DD got a major case of the giggles when she couldn’t guess anymore and blurted out “EMILIO ESTEVES!!!!” I thought for sure she was going to lose because she couldn’t stop laughing but she managed to pull out a victory! YAY!
Of course the trainers started to joke with her that there was clearly an Emilio Esteves story that we hadn’t heard yet. DD told me later that the real reason she got the giggles was because in her mind she was thinking of Ally Sheedy and she just couldn’t bring herself to say it. 😀
Anyway she won this calculator thingie that opened and folded itself up automatically, a little spiny jelly animal and a tiny eraser.
By the end of the day I was just soooo tired. I guess all those days of doing nothing but surf the net really didn’t prepare me for an eight hour day again.
My training class was comprised mostly of one department. There were only three of us not going in said dept; DD, another guy and I, all of us in a different one. So today the three of us sat in our own departments and watched others do their job while the others trained for their own department.
They stuck me with a guy that really wasn’t into training me or anyone. He had taken Monday off and was behind in his work and he clearly didn’t want to be slowed down by having to teach someone. So I watched him for an hour or so just do his work with out much explanation.
He would get up and his cube neighbor Pat would talk to me. She was fairly new too. Just out of training and she wanted to let me know that she was there if I needed her. She told me that when she first came out of training and even before, no one would even speak to her. She made a huge effort to try and help me.
Finally DD grabbed me for a smoke and when I came back the guy I was training with wasn’t at his desk. Pat went over to the sup and when she came back she said: “Kelly you can sit with me. I don’t know it all but I will try and explain it as best I can.” So that is how I spent the rest of the day before the HR meeting.
My boss came along and assigned me a desk so the rest of the time was spent clearing out this old person’s desk. Poor Pat was saddled with most of that.
I went to lunch with Kat, DD, and Mel again and then we went for our H/R meeting. It was long but the HR lady was super cool and nice. We were all itching to get out of there and she let us out early after she covered the class.
So far I think it is going to be a good experience…and I hope to prove myself right. Wish me luck!
Weekend at Ak-Chin
We just got back from Harrah’s Ak-Chin casino resort. We got there once and a while when the price is right. It’s only about a half an hour away from house and it quells our Vegas urges for a little bit. When we called to reserve our room we requested a smoking room but we were told the only smoking rooms they had available were two queen beds. Being the die-hard smokers that we are we accepted it. When we got to the property and were checking in, the lovely desk clerk told us that she could upgrade us to a non-smoking pool side king room and we could smoke on the patio. Sounded okay with us. We have a queen bed at home so anytime we can sleep on a king in a hotel we prefer it. When we got to the room it was much bigger than the rooms we have had the last two times we visited. How funny is it that I never get upgraded in Vegas but I do at the Indian casino?
It was a nice little break. Rob has been extremely busy at his work as they are starting up the summer courses and he has limited time to get everything done. He really needed this.
The thing we discovered about the Indian casinos around here is that the slots don’t loosen up until around one or two in the morning. That is also when people finally leave so you can actually find a spot to play. Since we got there around nine or so, we putted around the room for awhile just to kill time. We had rented some DVD’s for the portable DVD player so we watched “The Others”. Neither of us had seen it. Rob was of course critical of some of the inconsistencies of the movie but overall we really liked it. I had heard it had a surprise ending, and when you hear something like that you of course watch extra close and think you know what it’s going to be. It wasn’t what we thought at all. I won’t say anymore about it in case you haven’t seen it before, but it’s definitely worth renting.
By the time the movie was done it was time to go down to the casino. We didn’t win, but we had fun.
Saturday was spent watching TV and using the TV internet system. Which was a joke. The tagline on it said: “surf the net at WARP SPEED!” It was more like warped speed. It was just very lame. There is a reason webtv never caught on.
We discovered our room upgrade wasn’t as great as we thought. Our room was great, but we didn’t get as good of a room as the people above us. Apparently they got the room with the trampoline, or at least that is how it sounded. We woke up to it in the afternoon and it went on for hours.
We intended to go to bed fairly early on Saturday night but the Black Jack machines were calling Rob’s name. He didn’t end up coming back until around two in the morning. Needless to say, it was very difficult for us to wake up this morning for check out. As a result when we got back to the house(after giving the dog some much needed affection) we took an hour and a half long nap.
So here I sit, waiting for the WWE pay per view with the dog at my feet just waiting for me to drop one of my Bugles.
We didn’t do much gambling this weekend but it was nice just to sit in the hotel room, get room service, swim in their gorgeous pool, watch DVD’s(we also rented Rosemary’s Baby and Hedwig and the Angry Inch but haven’t finished watching them), and just basically be out of the house but still be lazy.
It was a nice weekend but as usual I am glad to be home to my own bed and my loving(if disturbed) doggie.
Any Male Readers, Run Screaming From This Post.
I had to have an ultra sound today as I have been having very irregular periods over the last few months and I wanted to get down to the bottom of it. Actually I just wanted to get on the pill to try and regulate them it’s my doctor wants to get down to the bottom of it.
I went to the doctor on Thursday and the male nurse that saw me heard the word Period come out of my mouth and announced that I needed a pap smear. As he was flying out the door to relay this to my doctor I had to shout after him that I was still, in fact, on my period.
“Well, um, uh, then…we have a problem.” Was his response. He ran out the door to discuss with the doctor and came back asking me when I would no longer be bleeding. I informed him that that was the whole problem. I do not know when I will stop because last month I didn’t stop at all.  He got kind of flustered and said: “Ummm, I gotta go ask the doctor again.” As he flew out the door a second time he actually muttered: “I’m so glad I’m not a woman.”
My doctor finally came in and we discussed what was happening. She said the first thing she wanted to test for was to see if I was anemic or not. Ironically the way to test for this is to take blood. I asked if there was a blood test to see if you have diabetes. She said yes but that I should really be fasting when I do it so I told her to write down that test and I will do it some morning on my way to work.
The second thing she wanted to make sure about was that my ovaries and uterus were functioning properly. She wanted to make sure there are no cysts or what have you that might be possibly causing this bleeding. That brings us to today’s lovely visit to another doctor to have my insides checked.
When you have an ultra sound done they make you down 44 ounces of water an hour before your visit. I followed directions. I drank so much water I was sick to my stomach. Yet when I finally got into the examining room and they started using the little scanner looking thing, she told me that my bladder was not full and I would have to go out to the waiting room and drink more water. As you can imagine, drinking more water was the last thing I wanted to do, but I did it.
After about 45 minutes another girl came and took me in a different examining room. She said my bladder was full enough to see my uterus but not my ovaries. She went on further saying that it didn’t matter since they can take pictures of those when she does the probe.
WHAT?????
My doctor conveniently forgot to mention that she had ordered a probe as well as the ultra sound. Oh, and it is just as invasive as it sounds. I’ll spare you the gory details, just know that it involves a camera at the end of a very long stick.
So yeah, Kelly was a very uncomfortable girl today.
I don’t know when I will hear back on the results of my tests today. I go in to get the blood work done Wednesday morning.
I’ll keep you posted.
wow, just, wow
Okay so this morning Brian got an email from his girlfriend Stephanie saying that someone she works with heard that they are going to close our call center down. I know that sounds very he said/she said but The person she heard this from just happens to be the live in boyfriend of the woman that works under our operations manager.
To cease any more doubts that I am just being a drama queen, about an hour ago a mass email was sent out stating that we are having an “All team meeting” at three today.
Dum de dum dum. The last time we had an all team meeting it was to tell us that they were laying off the logistic and accounts payable departments.
So needless to say this place is a SuperRumorMill right now. Everyone is freaking out. At this point I am trying not to lose my mind.  I mean, I don’t want to lose my job, but I’m not going to sweat over it until I absolutely have to. I have to admit though that it doesn’t really make me want to run out and do all my work right now. The desire to do my job has been zapped from my body(and let’s face it there was never much desire to work *in* my body)
This company is going under anyway. They are all about finding new little ways to bill the customers for false fees. *sigh*
On a lighter note. Peanut Butter Shakes from Sonic are the best! Hey I have to find joy where I can right??
Later…
Sixty days.
They gathered us all up in the former A/P department and told us that they were consolidating the call center. Time frame: 60 days.
They told us we would find papers with our managers that would give a date on it. That date is our last day. Some people’s last days will be as soon as Friday but they will be paid for the 60 days.
After the meeting our manager pulled us all into her office and let us know that we don’t have papers. Mainly because corporate doesn’t know what to do with us. We will be on for longer than sixty days but they don’t know how much longer. Corporate thinks that we do a better job than the other offices but they don’t know if they can keep us in the Western division.
So, while I am going to keep my job longer than most in this call center, it doesn’t matter to me. Either way, they are going to break up our little family.
Random Rolls of Film=Reflection
Rob wants to go to a movie tonight but I am going to try and convince him not to go. I am too tired. The thought of sitting through a two and a half hour movie about killing people really doesn’t appeal to me right now.
The other day Rob found two random rolls of film on the table and dropped them off to be developed. He surprised me with them on Friday night. The first roll was half of work people(How old were these pictures? Well Renee and Mike still worked here!) and the other half was Maine in July of 99 when we went out for Mags’ wedding. The other roll was Maine in November of 2000 when took our annual trip and most of that was when we went to the Oakland Legion to see Jeremy’s band play. Some of them are quite funny.
It got me thinking how much vacations have changed now that we have the digital camera. Before we took pictures miserly, afraid to use all the film on bad pictures and you never knew how the picture turned out until you went to your local photo place and got them developed. Now with the digital camera we get instant gratification not only with making sure the picture came out okay but just being able to view and post your vacation shots on the internet for your friends to see. It is truly amazing to me how far technology has taken us. Not to mention the fact that our digital camera has already paid for itself in film and developing costs!
I so love living in the “gadget” era.
Quick update on a busy day in Vegas
Oh, what a day, what a day!
We woke up this morning and Rob announced that he was going to take me to dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere. He had wanted to keep it a secret so I would be surprised but he remembered my intense fear of heights and had to make sure I was okay with it.
Let me just tell you, it was wonderful!
There was a bit of a wait for the elevator and then they can only fit so many on it. The elevator freaked me out a little because there were so many ppl crammed together on it and it rises at an extremely rapid pace. Your ears pop instantly once it gets going but I guess it would take forever to get to the top at a regular elevator speed. At any rate, it was totally worth it!
The restaurant itself revolves 360 degrees an hour and is completely encased in glass. Just Vegas scenery as far as the eye can see. It was also very elegant compared to what I am used to. Rob and I don’t usually dine anywhere that actually has cloth napkins so I was impressed.  I ordered a turkey club on a croissant with fries and Rob ordered a half a chicken cashew sandwich on a croissant with the lobster bisque. Everything was wonderful. The wait staff was attentive without being overbearing and the deserts looked fabulous. Too bad we were too full from the meal to get one.
Once lunch was done we played a little at the Strat and found it pleasant. Not too fancy for us, a bit of a downtown feel. From there we headed to the Venetian for a very anticipated trip to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I had been wanting to go here for the last two years but we have never had the time/motivation in the past trips to do it. It was very much worth the wait. I have so many pictures! It was really creepy at first because you can’t tell what is real and what isn’t until the person moves, but it was so great!
We joined the Venetian slot club and then played some nickel Yahtzee machines. I bought in for twenty and left with seventy-five dollars and a new feeling about the tightness of slots on The Strip. Maybe they aren’t so bad after all. Currently we are back at the Four Queens and Rob has won us some money on our new favorite Regis machines. We will soon be heading back down to see our favorite bartender Dan and play some more slots.
I just thought I would update really quickly.
It has been a wonderful day so far!
Day One In Vegas
We left the house around seven fifteen in the evening. Not as early as we would have liked but with my new schedule at work it was all we could do.
We made our traditional stop in Wickenburg, AZ at the Basha’s there to get munchies and some sandwiches since we were starving. Also we picked up four gallons of water. We learned long ago not to drink the water in Vegas.
We ate the sandwiches in the car and then headed back out. I was dead tired but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get to sleep. I fear the days of sleeping in the car for long stretches on road trips might be a thing of the past for me.  Another stop, this time in Kingman for gas and then we were onto the final leg of the trip where I finally did manage about a fifteen minute nap.
We stopped at the Hoover Dam to put the top down on the Mustang. I didn’t matter that it was freezing. We had a convertible and we were going to experience it in all it’s glory! Shivering a little we made our decent into my favorite city in the world.
We checked into the Four Queens in downtown Vegas and headed up to our room. I was so tired at that point that I wasn’t into the whole Vegas mood. This happened to me last visit but I shook it off then. I figured I would do the same this trip once I had a few drinks in me but the opposite happened. My stomach started to turn on me.
Rob figured I just needed to walk around so we went downstairs to the nickel palace. I got a mai tai and settled down at a Price Is Right machine, but the price was clearly wrong. Ten dollars quickly donated to the Las Vegas economy. I moved over to a Press Your Luck machine and Rob took a seat next to me on a Let’s Make A Deal slot. We both got some bonus rounds but it was still twenty dollars gone too soon for me.
Rob went off to get a drink and I sat down at a Regis machine. Ireally liked it. I put in Ten and got a lot of play off of it. Rob came back and also had luck on the Regis machine next to me, cashing out ten bucks ahead.
I was finally feeling better so I told Rob while he waited for his hopper change I was going to go up to the room and use the bathroom. Strangely enough, as soon as I got back up to the room I started to feel sick again. It was about 80 degrees in our room. We know the deal with this particular tower at the Four Queens because we have stayed in this tower before in the winter and it was explained to us that they shut off the air conditioning in this tower during the season and apparently crank the heat. Rob came back up and we took the window off the hinges so we could get some fresh air.
He convinced me that I needed to get out again so we went down to Fitzgerald’s next door. I held down a Monopoly nickel game while he tried twenty on blackjack. Overall I just wasn’t enjoying myself. It was boiling in there and I wasn’t feeling good so after losing twenty more dollars we went back up to the room.
Rob got some food from Magnolia’s downstairs so I ate some and went to bed.
I woke up at two this afternoon and feel decidedly better having gotten a lot of sleep. Not a great start to the trip but who knows? Maybe our luck will change.
About Me
I am a 50 something married woman living in California.
I enjoy music and traveling, watching crap movies, snuggling with my two adorable dogs and trying to be a good person.
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