No time to talk, as I am wrapping up the end of the fiscal year proofreading (due by midnight tonight, yikes!), but I'M GETTING A RAISE! Hooray!
I agreed to too many things, which has resulted in me working 50+ hours of overtime in the last two week pay period. While this is going to be a nice chunk of change, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be hearing from payroll and possibly HR about it, and frankly, I don't need the aggravation. Yes, all are aware that I work overtime, and it comes from various and sundry budgets where it has been allocated for my use, so all is well on that front. But I'm pretty sure there are rules about overtime where I work... who can have it and how much being one of them.
If I had been more sensible, I would have said "NO!" when certain people asked me to write certain documents that had no (no) statistical data compiled when they came to me. I did try to back out, but got talked into staying. Another mistake I will not make again. Now, the whole team is mad at me about things that are not my fault. It's great fun. Not really. In fact, I hate it so much, I am probably going to be quitting my overtime gig. I have a meeting in the second week in July. If things are not resolved to my satisfaction, and by resolved I mean me having a contact person who I can get in touch with on a regular basis to check in, etc., I will probably be applying for some evening shifts at the good old Barnes and Noble. I'm pretty sure it would be less stressful.
I quit my night job to get away from stress, yet I have it in spades because my other big project is nowhere near finished, and it must be finished by Saturday. So, that's fun.
So, that is what I know. Everybody wants a little piece of me, and I want to go away to my happy place. Have a happy Monday!
P.S. If you are a meth, pot, crack, crank, heroin or other form of drug addict, please have the presence of mind (I know, I know, a contradiction in terms) to STOP TALKING TO ME. I don't feel good, and I don't care about all the crazy things that are going on inside your head.
Every year, I promise myself that I am going to either go to a big hippie party or have a big hippie party for the summer solstice. And every year, I find myself celebrating by doing the longest days of work of the year.
Next year, I hope to celebrate the solstice with more than a blog entry. Someday, I hope to visit stone henge on the solstice.
Does this make me a hippie? Probably. I just dig the sun. It makes me happy, literally. And anything that celebrates it being around the most it possibly can in one year is a chance for me to celebrate. I like the winter solstice, too, because after that the days get longer.
So, does anybody else plan to do anything with their maximum minutes of daylight today?
I would like everybody to celebrate my new work fan with me. Everybody say "Hey Oh!" :)
It is a Lasko tower fan with a remote. It pretty much looks like this only 4 inches smaller. It has three speeds and a timer, and it rotates, which is pretty darn rockin awesome. Plus it came with a small one for my desk, which will be sweet when everybody comes back and the room starts to smell like feet again. The desk fan also has a clippy. I assembled the base on the larger fan myself, and that always makes me feel tough and independant, so that was fun, too. I even tracked down the department's magnetic screw driver.
On the whole, it is a very exciting Monday. And while the batteries are AAA and not included (bastards), it's still a pretty kick ass fan. I sort of want one for my house.
You know, in case anybody's keeping track for Christmas. ;) Share something you want to celebrate in the comments.
This is just a friendly reminder to those of you out there with asthma and other lung and/or heart problems to keep an eye on the TC Air Quality Index. It's in the yellow right now, which means it's all cool unless you're unusually sensitive, but it's expected to go into the orange, which means all of us with asthma, etc., need to take 'er easy!
Turn on the air and relax, kids. And be careful to drink lots of water everybody else! And quit driving your cars. Ha! Im just kidding. I like to throw that in because every once in awhile the news says to do that when the air quality is bad.
This morning while I was enjoying my ziplock baggie of Crunch Berries in the car, I hit every single green light on my street.
That never happens. The first light on my street is notoriously long and runs on timers rather than sensors, so I almost always hit it just as it is turning red. Then, I hit every other light down the street as it turns red. Not today! In another unprecedented event, I only had to pause briefly at two stoplights on my drive this morning. I hit all the everlasting lights just as they were about to turn green or just after they turned green. And I didn't get stuck behind any slow people on the freeway. Everybody slow had the courtesy to drive in the right-hand lane for once.
Overall, I made it to work in less than 15 minutes, which meant that I was on time with Crunch Berries to spare!
There are few things that make me happier than the lights all changing from red to green a few seconds before I get to them so that I don't even have to pause on my way through. There is a similar scene in Weeds, and it's great. I love watching the green lights blink on down the line. I love that feeling of absolutely perfect timing--the serendipitous kind that you can't plan.
Lately, that's how I feel about my life. I keep stumbling upon perfect timing. I keep coming up with serendipitous good fortune when I trip over a block in the road. I see stop lights, but then they flash over and I am free to cruise at will. I may not know where I'm going, but every place I turn, I see signs of "GO!" regardless.
I'm sure this feeling will pass (I'm sure it's me being dorky in love), but for right now, life is good. One project is nearly done, the other has a deadline of a couple weeks from now, the sing-along-dance-party neighbors moved out, I've got my favorite man, I like everybody I know, and the whole street is lighting up green.
I can't think of a better way to start the morning.
The boyfriend and I made homemade pizza and watched Dharma and Greg tonight. This was delightful and fun! I introduced him to my mom's homemade pizza sauce, which he liked. This is yet another reason why he's a keeper. I've added it to the growing list. :)
The not-so-fun part of my day was that I got the chance to head over to Bethel's library and deal with their librarians. I couldn't get into the articles in their ERIC database for my work project (because I was searching from Metro State because I'm really bright, too [not]). Our conversation went like this:
"Have you created an account?"
"I'm an alum, and I gave you some money and you gave me a card; does that count?"
"Did you create an account? An account?"
"Gave you money?"
"Created an account?"
"I don't know what that means."
"Then you didn't create one. Here, do it here."
"Do I use the barcode on my library card or my old ID number?"
"I don't know. Hey [student worker], does she use her barcode? Can she do this if she's just a community memeber? I don't know what you should do. Here, I'll go get you logged in. What do you think, [student worker]."
While this was going on, I typed in my old student ID number and created an account. Then they didn't believe that it had really worked, so I logged into a computer while they debated whether or not I could create the account I had already, in fact, created.
On the up side, they showed me how to operate the database and request articles interlibrary loan from the comfort of my own home on my own wireless. This means that I don't have to go back anytime soon, so that makes me happy.
It was an OK day, after all. :)
This month, I read only one book. June is not looking like it will go much better. Hopefully when July comes, I will get some more reading in.
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clark: *** 3.5 Stars. This second book by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was an excellent little read. Broken up into short stories, this book more broadly explores the world laid out in Clark's first novel. It starts out a bit slow, so lit loses points for pacing. But as the story moves forward, the reader is reminded of what makes Clark's writing so fantastic: Her attention to detail. She sets many chapters as historical documents, which helps to make the world more believable. It's a nice companion to the first novel, and the tones of the two pieces are very similar.
If I have reservations about the book, they are that I think she is perhaps more of a novel writer than a short story writer. I saw these more as possible lead-ins to other, future novels. Additionally, as I said, the pacing was a little off. They felt a little more like chapters and a little less like short stories. As a result, the conclusions were slightly unsatisfying in some cases.
On the whole, I would say that the pacing issues are not a major problem, and this book is a great read, though it is probably more of a "chick pick" (notice how I did not slay flick because it is not a movie.) I enjoyed it a great deal, so thank you to 10 who sent it for Christmas and pick it up at the library if you have some spare time for reading.