You Ask One Question...

...and only get one answer.

On another note, I didn’t go to work yesterday. I woke up, slid out of bed and onto the floor. I sat there for a while, shivering. I pulled myself up and wobbled around the room and into the bathroom. My face was whiter than usual and drawn. I decided to take my temperature. I grabbed my thermometer, wobbled my way back to my bed, lay down, and popped the thermometer under my tongue. A few minutes later, I pulled it out and looked. 100.2. I knew then that I wasn’t going to work. I put the thermometer near my alarm which I reset and promptly fell asleep.

An hour later, I slid out of bed and wobbled my way to the phone. I called work and said I wouldn’t be coming in. My boss asked my why and I said because my temperature was over a hundred. She said okay.

I wobbled back to bed and didn’t sleep. My whole body ached. My skin was in that horrible hyper sensitive state.

Eventually, I stumbled out to the living room coated myself in all my blankets and turned on the TV. I don’t remember what was on, though.

After noon, I decided to take my temperature again. This time it was 102.3. Not good. I started to get scared. If I kept getting worse, how could I get to the hospital? This is the first time I’ve ever lived on my own. At any other point in my life if I got really sick I had a parent or a roommate who would have driven me, but not now. Now I’d either have to risk driving myself, which I knew was stupid, or call a taxi.

I was just panicking, of course. By seven o’clock, my temperature was down to 99.8 and I knew I’d be going to work the next day, which I did with my body still aching and my skin still being sensitive and a normal temperature.

One good thing came from all of this, though: I didn’t toss my cookies.

Is This True?

Shy and Withdrawn

People think you are shy, nervous, and indecisive. You're thought of as someone who needs looking after... People see you as a worrier who always sees problems that don't exist. Some people think you're boring. Only those who know you well know that you aren't.

How Do People See You?

Me write good.

Me go to Cowtown tomorrow. Eat food. Visit friends and family. Have fun time.

Three Things I Miss About Working At 'Bucks

1) The days where I would get off of work around noon.

Sure, that meant I'd usually be up before 4AM, but one of the greatest things, for me, was driving away as I knew most of the workforce were just in the middle of their work day. I had hours to do anything that I wanted. I had plenty of time to drive to a the city, pick up some comics, eat good food, wander the mall, peruse Boarders, browse Barnes and Nobles, actually buy books at the used book store, and I'd still be home before six. I could go to the movies and pay matinee prices, on a weekday. I didn't have to deal with rush hour traffic. I rarely saw any of the managers because none of them wanted to be there before 8:30. And I liked getting up early and having a hour or so where I was at work, getting paid, but not having to deal with the public.

2) The quick slow-witted people and the slow quick-witted people.

I made (and still make) a lot of strange comments, often without actually thinking before I speak, that some people wouldn't get until a while after I said it. About two-thirds of the people I worked with there were what I liked to call the quick slow-witted people or the slow quick-witted people, depending on how much I like the individual. These were the ones who would hear me say something and either come over to me to tell me that what I said was disgusting or they started laughing after a bit. Here, I have to watch what I say very carefully and the things that do squeeze between my lips either go unnoticed, or over a head, or I get a look that asks me what the hell I mean when I say what I said.

3) Getting to see the beginning, middle, and end.

At 'Bucks, even if I wasn't the one who took the order or made drink, I got to see and experience the whole process at one time or another. There were days when I only took orders and rang up customers and there were days when I only made drinks and there were days when I did both. Here, at this new job, I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of the process. Lawyers and injured workers and insurance companies start the cases and send them in here. In the end, the judges get involved. Me? I shuffle paperwork from my desk to the files and shuffle the files to the judges, but I don't really experience the any kind of conclusion. I'd like to be involved in the whole process. It's the micromanager in me.

Are We Nuts?

Well, it looks like Kansas has gone insane once again.

Song of the Day

Have you ever been listening to music and a song comes on that seems to sum up what the day was or will be?

"Wrap Your Arms Around Me" from the Bare Naked Ladies hit me that way as I walked to work.

Work and Potter

I’m supposed to be doing work that came from another person’s desk.

Guess what she’s doing today.

I’ll give you a hint, read the post from the second.

That’s right, she’s helping the part time secretary with work for one of the judges.

Not only am I supposed to be doing her work, but it’s work that landed on her desk two weeks ago. Two weeks ago was the week when the judges were gone and so was our supervisor. I know about the temptation to slack off. Hell, I did slack off. Before I slacked off, however, I at least took a big chunk out of my work and then I’d read or browse the ‘net or write a letter or simply stare at the pho-wall in front of my computer.

Part of the problem is that I really like the woman whose work I’m doing. I know she’s smart and when she sits down and work, the pages fly away from her desk. Obviously, she hasn’t been working like that for the last two week. And I wouldn’t mind helping out with the extra work if she or her son had gotten sick so she couldn’t do it or if it was work from this week that she couldn’t complete because she’s playing secretary for one of the judges. Neither she nor her son were sick and the work is two weeks old and that makes me a little bit angry and it makes me wish that I could ditch my work ethic and not finish my work when it’s given to me so that huge stacks from my desk could be given to the people I work with so that I can feel rewarded for not actually doing what I’m paid to do.

On another note, how many of you have the previews for the new Harry Potter movie? Probably all of you, but how many of you get disturbed when you see the introduction of the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang? What disturbs me is that the previews imply that Beauxbatons is all female and Durmstrang is all male. Now, I could understand Karkaroff thinking that only boys would be good enough for the Triwizard Tornament, but I find it unreasonable that Madame Maxime would only bring girls. I’m sure it won’t have any impact on the story nor will it make me not enjoy the movie, but I liked the idea that, for the most part, wizards have had an equality of the sexes for a long time. Even Voldemort has female deatheater in the highest of their ranks.

Okay, back to work.

Title

I was angry when I left work. Today (and apparently for the whole week, although I wasn’t told until this afternoon), I was told that I’m playing temporary secretary for the one judge who doesn’t have a full time secretary. Sure, he’s the new judge in the building, but he’s been there for nearly six months and he hasn’t found the time to interview secretaries. (Rumor around the OT area is that he wants to hire from within, but since he’s been here for longer than four out of five OTs I think it’s pretty unlikely.) The one he has now has partially comes out of retirement (4-8 hours a week) one or two mornings a week and constantly gets upset at the amount of work she has to do. So, us OTs, at least four of us since one is supposed to permanently help at the front counter, are supposed to help take up slack. I didn’t find out that I was involved in this until about two this afternoon, but I’m getting a bit ahead.

At 11ish, one of the secretaries came to my desk and plopped down a pile of paper work that was about nine inches thick. She also left a thing that’s supposed to help with the alphabetizing of papers. I asked what the pile was for. “[The supervisor] will tell you all about it,” she said to me. The supervisor wasn’t at her desk, she was in a meeting with the PJ, so I couldn’t ask her then. She wasn’t at her desk at noon, when I went on my lunch. When I got back from my lunch at one, she had already left for hers. She didn’t get back until after two and I snagged her as soon as I could.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I pointed to the pile.

“Oh, you’re playing secretary this week,” she said. “If you want to,” she added with a look on her face that implied that I didn’t really have a choice.

I looked at her. I looked at the multi colored pile. I looked at her again.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” she leaned in closer, “but we need you to sort through this pile and get the papers to their proper files.” She paused. “But you don’t have to do it.”

“No, I’m willing to do it, I just don’t know my way around a judge’s area.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Just ask for help if you need it.”

Ask who for help? The judge? He had trials all afternoon and if he really felt like this stuff need to be filed, wouldn’t he have done some of it himself? I knew I could ask one of the other secretaries, but I’ve seen how exasperated they can get when they’re asked too many questions.

“We’re trying,” she said, “to get him caught up before the end of the year. If we do, it’ll keep his rating up, we don’t want it to go down, so it’s important that we help out. You don’t have to if you think you’re too busy, though, but I think it’d be a good thing for you to learn.”

“Yeah, I want to learn my way around some more,” I said. “The more I learn the farther I can go, right?”

“Exactly,” she said and then started to lecture me.

I’m a young man, she told me, who should start thinking about retirement. Thinking about my future family. Thinking about the future. She told me that she started her job with the state (about nine months ago, I found out from the one OT who has been working here for over a year) to really think about retiring with the state’s system. And she went on and on. I didn’t need a lecture, I needed to get started on the damn pile sitting there mocking me.

Eventually, she wore herself out and I got started on the papers.

About half of the papers went into files that are going in front of the judge this week. (A few should have been in front of him in the morning.) About a third of those didn’t have their files anywhere I could find them. I asked a secretary and she told me they might be in his office, but I shouldn’t go in there. Instead, I was suppose to go back to my computer and double check if they’re still going in front of the judge or if they’re somewhere else. Most of them are still supposed to seen by him, but I couldn’t find the files. The secretary who was helping me said the judge wouldn’t be happy with that.

Out of the of the other half, a quarter are going in front of the judge at some future time. A quarter of them now belong in files that have gone to other judges. And the last group went into files that the judge looked at a month ago.

When I got back to my desk at about 4:30, there was a huge pile of work for me that came in with today’s mail. So, I’m expected to help the judge all week, and still handle my normal workload. That upset me because I remember when the last two helped the judge, I was handed a large portion of their work to do so they could focus better on helping the judge.

And, apparently, the judge isn't going to be happy about the stack I couldn't file.

Let’s just hope the week gets better.