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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Workpocalypse - The Resolution

After I was sent back to The Other Office (OO) “until further notice,” I sent an email to John in regards to his best guess on how long I might be down here. 

His response?  “No less than a month with the possibility of permanency.” Oh, hell no. I did my time as a secretary; I don’t want to do it again.   He also asked that, if I had to choose between 2 jobs – this or something else I despise – which would I choose. This question made me think that he was going to “Re-Org” (yes, I made that a verb) my job into a totally new position.  Either way, I was getting screwed. 

I sat at my desk and came up with a bulleted list of about 12 points that I wanted him to think about, and to discuss when he went into a meeting about this.  The hours of this job do not work for me. I don’t want to be a secretary. How do I still do my job. Stuff like this.  I reviewed it, edited, edited and edited it some more (the first version was REALLY angry…) before I finally sent it to him. He said that his meeting was that afternoon, and I wanted to make sure that he had time to read it before hand.

I felt better after sending it, but the next day, one of the Assistant Directors (who used to be one of the 5 Managers I assisted), pulled me aside and talked to me, not as an Assistant Director, but as a friend.  She acknowledged my feelings, and suggested that I try to roll with the changes. She was not able to give me anything definite, but she made it seem like if I sit down and shut up, things would work out how I wanted them to.  She also apologized for how horrible the whole Management Team handled this with me.  It wasn't “She’s got nothing to do so send her over there”, but it was “When we thought about who was awesome enough to be dropped into a new job with no training, there was no doubt that you were the only choice”  Okay, so that stroking felt good.

If John, or Gertie or anyone else had just SAID that in the first damn place, I think this whole thing would have been so much more palatable. But from the beginning, I felt like I had been forced over a desk and screwed hard.

After that discussion, I relaxed and just ‘went with it,’ which I don’t like to do, but had to do.  I decided that worrying isn't going to change the outcome, so I’ll just ride the 10 hours of overtime per paycheck (it pays for races! Or roof…. But that is a different post).

This afternoon, I headed to a meeting with John, Gertie, my office’s receptionist and another coworker whom I work with a lot doing Orientations.  In this meeting, our new jobs were laid out.  I would return to my office on August 12 to resume my job of Staff Assistant.  In the afternoon, I will take over for the rest of the day and handle the Orientations so that that coworker can do what she was *originally* hired to do and be a Records Clerk. Before I leave the OO, I will train a Temp to fill in until (no later than) September 30 (the end of the fiscal year). 

Now, here’s where it gets ironic. In all that chillin’ and relaxin’ I did, I kind of started liking working at OO!  So, in that meeting, I was almost upset that I didn't get to stay. I’m such a fickle bitch, I guess…

So, I ended up with a nice amount of overtime, a ‘vacation’ from the stress of working at the main office, and plenty of time to work on personal stuff (like this blog!) Now I have to move a bunch of stuff BACK to my old office by Monday!  I can’t wait to have my walls and door and peace and quiet back! I’ll miss the overtime and close parking, but I’m not a secretary and I never wanted to be one.



Monday, July 29, 2013

We finally have a date!

Oh, hallelujah, there is a date for our roof!!!

We're finally on the schedule and the crew should be working on the roof by July 31st!  Just a little ways past July 2nd, right?

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Where is my roof?

So, remember way back when, when I said that I was getting a new roof and that it should be done around the 2nd of July?

It's 3 weeks past the 2nd of July, and there is still no roof.

We're not even on the schedule yet....

Due to weather in Florida, and being backed up, we are looking to be near the middle to end of July...

Sigh.

Can we just get this done, already?

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

FAM Fest gets changed...

The drama of the FAM Fest 5k continues!

The original FAM was cancelled due to weather.  It was rescheduled to June.  Come June, I was in the throes of a full-on lung infection or something - the Mucinex Family had been living in my lungs for two weeks and there was NO way I was ready to run again.  So I asked if I could defer to another race. The Race Director was fine with that, and told me to email her when I knew which race I wanted to change to.

I emailed her today, and I have changed to Run for Haven 5k in Orange Park, FL.  It's in September, after my birthday. You run right by the river, and you get a finisher medal! Yippee!  It's my first out-of-town 5k and I look forward to a bit of a ME day!

Monday, July 15, 2013

ScrewNado 2: Electric Boogaloo

This morning, I came back to my office, after spending a week at the Other Office, and quickly, my boss (Let’s call her Gertie) popped her head in my door, asking who was at OO. I told her that I didn't know, but that I had been under the impression, after conversations last week with different bosses, that I would be filling in for the week, and then on Monday, I would be coming back here, and the other boss would figure out what to do at OO.

Apparently, I was mistaken. An hour later, Gertie and John called me into John’s office.  I was told, after being admonished for not going back to OO, that I was going to be filling in at OO “until further notice” because there was no money in the budget to hire a temp.  

I am now required to not only do MY job (from a totally different building 4 blocks away), but to do the job of the person I’m filling in for. 

Until further notice. 

I’m thinking that means more than a week….  Because of how the re-organization has been going, there have been rumors that I would be sent down here permanently, so this shouldn't surprise me, but it does. I guess I should start packing up my old office and moving in down here.

Monday, July 8, 2013

ScrewNado!

As most of you know, I work as a staff assistant with the county.  I’m basically everybody’s bitch, and frankly, I’m really good at it. However, in the past year or so, there has been a lot of re-organization happening, and three out of the five managers that I assisted are no longer with us. This leaves a lot of free time for me. I’ve been saying to my boss that I need more job tasks, but all I would ever get was, “Oh, you’ll get some!” but I never got some… until now.

I was  sitting at my desk this morning, minding my own business, when an email popped up from my boss’ boss.  Basically, someone at another office quit, and they needed a Front Desk Assistant RIGHTNOW. My ever-helpful boss (let’s call him John), shoots out an email to the Assistant Directors that *I* can go down there for the time being. Uh, wait, WHAT?

Yeah – so for this week (and possibly into next week), I am going to be reporting to another office/department and filling in at a position that I have no idea how it works. Thanks, guys.  If I didn't feel insecure about my job and how unimportant I was to this group, I sure do feel it now!


Thursday, July 4, 2013

35th Annual Melon Run - July 4th, 2013

Before I get to my race report, I have to tell you about the super awesome thing I did before the race:  I got to sing the National Anthem before the race!!  OMG! Let’s back up…

I follow Florida Track Club on Facebook (they are the local running club, plus the club putting on the Melon Run), and the day before the race, Meredith posted that she needed someone to sing.  There were a few joking posts like “if you want your ears to bleed, I’ll do it!”  I thought about it for an hour or so, checking back to see if someone had the guts to volunteer, and after seeing that no one did, I DID.  I got no response after a few hours, so I emailed Meredith to let her know that if no one else had volunteered via email, I would do it. She emailed me back about an hour before I left work saying that I got the gig.

GASP! What the hell did I just do? I haven’t sung in public in years! Not even karaoke… 

Okay, breathe…. 

First thing I did was get the lyrics and put them in my iPod as a ‘note’. That way, I would have them, JUST IN CASE.

Second thing I did, was sing it over and over on the way home. I got the timing and key down, was pretty confident on those big notes, and I felt pretty good.

Once home, I told the family, then proceeded to go into Race Prep Mode. New playlist, take a shower, paint my nails, etc, before going to bed early. J had to work at 7, so I had to take him before heading to the park.

I woke up around 6 and had a bowl of Special K Oats & Honey, then got dressed. Tried to chill, but wasn’t all that successful.

After dropping The Hubby off at work, I headed to the park and ended up getting a pretty good spot (since I was so early).  I went and picked up my packet (was in the wrong line at first), and headed back to the car for the obligatory Bling Shots.

Tech Tee - Designed by a local (contest winner) - The colors are great!

This is my number! See the Posse peeking out from behind?
Soon it was about 20 minutes before the race, so I double-puffed, pinned on my bib, loaded my SparklePockets and headed back to the Start line, where I needed to find Meredith so that I could sing. Along the way, I got a drink of water and turned on the iPod to the ‘note’. Just in case.

Gettin' crowded here... And all these people are going to be staring at me soon
Dudes in skirts win every single time! 
She had ribbons all the way down her back! A lot more 'Murica than my little garland in my hair!
Meredith sent me to Scott, who asked if I wanted the mic or the bullhorn. I can’t imagine singing into a bullhorn, so I opted for the mic.

Man I forgot how heavy these were…

…..breathe…..

Scott introduced me, and I was on.

Man! Only a few notes in and I remembered how much I love to sing in public!  The National Anthem is a very hard song to sing, much less sing a capella, much less a capella AND with one days’ notice, and I have to say that I kicked ass. I cracked on “land of the free”, but I finished strong with “home of the brave”.  I want to do this again next year!!

Thanks, Race Pace Photos for capturing the Double Chin of Freedom!
I had a volunteer record me singing, and if your ears can stand it, I’ve included it at the bottom of this post.

After that, it was time to line up at the start line and take off!

The view from the back
 Luckily, I’ve raced this route before, so I am familiar with the pitfalls and I can go at my own pace. I forgot to start my Garmin (as usual), and it took longer to find satellites, and the Nike got paused somehow, so I have no real record of my time, other than my “official” finish time, which sucks. I like having that info from Garmin.  Oh well.

You go ahead and tire yourself out on that hill, I'll be back here walking!
I ran at the beginning when the gun went off, but quickly slowed to a walk since I knew that it would soon turn into a long uphill.  This of course put me in the back of the pack. As usual. I’m fine with that. I’m not trying to win. Just trying to be better than I was last year.

Mile 1 came quickly (seemingly a LOT quicker than last year), and it was soon time to turn onto the boardwalk, which was slippery from the rain. 

How did this happen so fast? And why is this jackwagon running in cargo shorts?
Blurry photo, but you can get an idea of how pretty (and wet) the boardwalk section is
I walked that section, then made up some time in the neighborhood (passing Mile 2) before turning onto 16th Avenue. 

Blessed by the sun at Mile 2
16th Avenue has the second Hill of Doom (the first Hill of Doom is on 8th Avenue). I knew it was coming, so I prepared for it, and kept my pace all the way to the top. At the top of the hill is when we turned back towards the park and the finish line. 

This is NOT the 2nd Hill of Doom, but you can see how hilly the road is in general
I was able to maintain my intervals and I plowed through the finish line at 47:28 (official time).  I destroyed my previous time by over TWO minutes!  I can’t wait to demolish that next year!

The awesome Merideth handing out finisher bracelets for the kids' Mile Fun Run
BOOM! 
More Double-Chins of Freedom - and I'm airborne, too!
I wandered over to the various tents set up, to see if they had any fun swag (I grabbed a t-shirt from the UF tent) and ended up getting a chair massage. Heavenly!  I always love getting these just for the reaction of the masseuse. They are always so surprised at how tense I am and I just giggle. I’m a mess people, just rub. J

After my awesome rubdown, and a quick finish line photo, I grabbed some cookies and some Gatorade (screw bananas!) and wandered over to see the awards. 

I look like a hot neon rainbow mess! It all matched in person, I promise!
There is no bling for this race – all age-group winners get watermelons, presented to them by the Watermelon Queen.  (I think I’d rather have some sort of bling…) I ran into another Princess Posse Member, April, and we chatted for a bit. She and I are both shy introverts, so there wasn’t a lot of chatting! 

Like, I'm the Watermelon Queen, Y'all!
Finally, as I’m getting ready to get out of here, I remember that Merideth said that, for singing that morning, I too would get a watermelon! I got my gift (it’s HUGE) and began the trek back to the car. I think it was more tiring to carry the thing to the car than it was to actually run the race!

It is HUGE!
I don’t like to eat watermelon (evil funky texture), but I love the FLAVOR of watermelon, so I’m going to try to make sorbet, or just puree it until I can figure out what to do with it!

So hot and sweaty – time to go HOME!


Oh, and if you stuck with me this long, here is my rendition of the National Anthem.