Six Weird Things

Here are the rules-
1. Reveal six weird facts/things/habits about yourself and then tag six people
2. Leave a "You're Tagged!" comment to let the people you have tagged know they have to reveal six things (or the entire blogosphere will explode and it will be their fault)
3. Leave a comment HERE to let me know when you have completed your mission

SIX THINGS

1. I can't stick out my tongue. The little flap of skin that attaches my tongue to the bottom of my mouth is very close to my teeth. Jamie was born like me but the dentist suggested that he should have it snipped for the benefit of any future girlfriends.

2. My desk at work must be free of clutter. Everything must be in organized piles or I'm totally distracted. Today I had to spend a little time organizing my temporary desk so that I could function.

3. The smell of coffee make me gag. The taste of coffee makes me vomit. I've only drank about a half cup of coffee in my entire life.

4. My highschool had about 2000 students. The population of the school was larger than any of the communities that it served. We didn't have numbers that I was aware of.

5. I hate wearing colored socks. Up until yesterday I didn't even own any colored socks. All of my socks were the same Nike sport socks but yesterday I went out and bought five pair of trouser socks to wear to work with dress pants. One pair is covered in monkeys for Buggy because she said that you can't have a bad day when you have monkeys on your feet.

6. I can say I love you to my son, my neices and nephews, my husband and my friends but I have trouble saying I love you to my parents and brother and sister. I absolutely do love them but just can't say it out loud.

This was hard and my weird things might be kinda boring. I'm sure that nobody would describe me as normal so why was this so difficult?


The job is still going great. My head is so stuffed full of new information that I'm finding it difficult to think of anything else. I can't wait until I get to the point where I feel like I know enough to be comfortable. I've decided that I like being the trainer rather than the trainee.

Onward and Upward, no looking back

That's the motto I came up with on Thursday morning as I prepared for my last day. I was kinda nervous about how things would go. On Wednesday Mean Jean interviewed Katie, and I was asked to speak to her for a while. She impressed me and I found out that she knew our computer guy so I called him and asked him what he thought of her. He told me that she'd likely be running the place in three weeks if we hired her. She was no shrinking violet like the chinese girl or the deli clerk. What I liked about her, other than the fact that she actually spoke english and had lots of sales desk experience, was that she didn't seem the type to take any shit off of Mean Jean.

Thursday morning Katie came back in to meet the boss who had been on the phone when she was in on Wednesday. She spoke to both of them for a couple hours and it seemed like they were going to hire her but Mean Jean was holding her captive in her office. By 11am the boss came to me and asked if I thought she'd be the right choice. I told him most emphatically that she was far and away the best candidate I'd seen, the other two not even being in the same league. I also mentioned to him that if indeed they were going to hire her that they should get her into me because any training had to be better than none. He immediately went running down to Mean Jean's office and suggested that I should spend the rest of the day training her if Katie was available. After Mean Jean gave her a tour of the shop, which could have been done on Monday instead of burning training time, she was sent to me. We did about 4 hours of power training and I filled her in on some stuff about Mean Jean. I tried to be professional about it. I just felt that she was behind the eight ball enough starting the job with no training that she should have the benefit of knowing what she was up against. She knows she's got a huge challenge ahead of her but I think that if anyone can do it, she can. I also think that she could be Mean Jean's worst nightmare if crossed. *evil grin*

At 3:15pm Mean Jean arrived back at the office with a present for me. I was trying to finish up some stuff with Katie, take phone calls from customers and vendors calling to wish me luck in the future, and say goodbye to everyone. The present was a little Easter arrangement with a little flower and ivy plant in it. I'm sure it cost less than $10. Canadian. I shook her hand and that was it. She thanked me for all my help and away she went. The boss was hiding in the warehouse when it was time for me to leave. I went out and shook his hand and he thanked me for everything and I left. It was bizarre leaving there and I know I have to go back one day next week to get my last check and my printer that I left for Katie, but I'll do that early in the morning when they're not there.

After work four of my co-workers, the ones I've been closest to and have worked with for 20 years, took Dave and I out for dinner and drinks. They bought me a satin camisole and panty set to wear with my new wardrobe. They wrote a poem that had us all laughing like crazy (I'll post a copy of it when they email it to me). It was an absolutely perfect ending. I couldn't have asked for anything more. My best friends from work were there and they all told me how much they'd miss me. My work husband's wife hugged me when we were leaving and told me that even though he might not say it, that he was really going to miss me. I managed to get through it all without tears but just barely.

I was floating by the time I got home. Mom had sent me an email earlier in the day telling me that she'd been talking to my childhood friend that I'm going to be working with in the new job. The friend had told Mom that they were all really anxious for me to start and that it was a great bunch of people to work with so I'm really looking forward to it now that the other chapter is closed.

Onward and upward, no looking back.

Spring has sprung!

We spent the weekend doing spring cleaning. On Saturday we did windows, dusted, and washed everying in the rec room to get rid of the layer of dust spread by the woodstove over the winter.

Sunday I borrowed a carpet steam cleaner and shampooed all the carpets in the house. It was amazing how much sand was in the dirty water from the rec room.

Yesterday I looked out the kitchen window and saw the red buttons and black eyes from our snowman we made before Christmas. It made me giggle.

There's still snow on the front lawn and in other spots where it was piled by the snowblower this winter. I can't wait to see it all gone. The forecast for the next week looks good. We even put the summer tires on last night.

Friday night we picked up subs for supper and went to the cottage and ate them in the porch while looking at the stumps popping up out of the ice. For those who don't know, our lake level has been dropped by about eight feet while they repair a dam at the end of the lake. We won't have water right up to the shore this summer but once the dam is replaced we won't have to think about it ever again. This has been hanging over our heads ever since we bought the cottage. It's so bizzare to look out and see all the stumps that lurk under the surface during the summer. Dave is planning to shorten a few of them up from the paddle boat this summer. I'll try to get pictures.

Mean Jean still hasn't hired anyone for my job. I'm feeling something but I'm not sure what it is. Am I pissed? Am I hurt? Am I insulted? I'm not sure what it is. Everyone at work is saying it's just plain bizzare and weird. It's like they don't realize, or don't want to acknowledge, how much work I do. I've been getting lots of compliments from customers and co-workers though so I'm trying to keep that in mind. I just can't wait for Monday and the new chapter in my life to begin. This job is so huge for me. I spoke to my chiropractor/accupuncturist today and told her I got the job and she asked about my headaches. I told her they'd all but disappeared and she told me that she wasn't surprised.

I've been trying to get around to everyone's blogs and the websites that I frequent. My access at work is limited due to a computer change where I deleted all my favorites and a ridiculously slow connection speed at home. I finally called Bell Canada yesterday and they came today and advised that the problem was inside the house. The regular Bell guy (who is a friend of ours) wasn't working but the guy who showed up was pretty cool. He knew that we had lines we weren't paying for and said that he'd put it through as a no charge. He unhooked the line that was causing the problem and said that I could get Dave to fix it himself. He even told me how to do it. So after a week of connecting at 12 I'm back to a "speedy" 21.6! Woohoo! The joys of living in the boonies.

Tomorrow is my baby boy's 27th birthday! Whatcha getting him? *waits for T-Kitty's answer*

Gather 'round kids, I've got a story for you!

So this morning Mean Jean comes to my office door and tells me that she has a lady coming in for an interview this morning and makes sure to point out to me that she's Chinese. Then she tells me that this lady applied for the accounting position she had advertised for a few months ago and that she wanted me to talk to her while she was here. I said okay and wondered why she would be interviewing this lady for a Sales/Purchasing/Inventory Management position when she had applied for an accounting position but I thought, what the heck, the sooner they find a replacement the better.

Later I was standing in the office when the Chinese lady arrived. I asked if I could help her and could barely understand a word she said but I knew she was there to see Mean Jean so I just went and got her. After their chat Mean Jean deposited the lady into my office. I offered her a chair and she sat then I picked up a list of questions that I had to ask her and mentioned that I had some questions for her and she jumped up and came over and took the list from my hand and started reading them outloud. I asked for the list back when she finished and began asking the questions. Most of them were about any prior experience she might have in the areas required for my job and each one was answered with a no. I then asked her what computer software she was familiar with and she didn't understand the question. By this point I was pretty sure that she wasnt' meant for this job but I continued with the questions to be polite.

She told me that she had worked in a manufacturing plant in China previously. I asked what they manufactured and all I understood was something involving tin. I asked her if she was good with Excel because many of my spreadsheets are Excel based. She didn't know what formulas were so I dropped that line of questioning. I had the feeling that while she could speak English somewhat, she really wasn't fluent and didn't really understand everything I was saying. To me that is a bit of a deal breaker in a position that requires phone and email communication with customers and vendors alike. She kept repeating something about China being a different culture. No shit Sherlock.

Once I figured that I had given her the required amount of time I deposited her back in Mean Jean's office. The talked some more and then went in to meet the boss. He was getting ready for a business trip and didn't have much time to spare so they didn't stay long. Next they went out to the shop and warehouse to tour around. Finally they ended up back at my office door. I'm thinking that Mean Jean was just going to let her say goodbye to me and that she would ask my opinion and then we'd interview a few more candidates and make a decision. But no, Mean Jean informs me that she had taken the lady out to the warehouse to look at all the parts and that she was impressed and thought she could do the job because she was good with numbers.

Mean Jean then tells me that she will be starting tomorrow morning at 8am. *thud* That was the sound of my jaw hitting my desk and then bouncing back up into place. I have never been so completely stunned in my entire life. I immediately looked around for Alan Fundt and his Candid Cameras because this was just way too bizzare to be real. I think I managed to keep my face from giving away my shock but I'm not really sure.

After the lady left Mean Jean didn't bother coming back to ask my opinion, she just went on her merry way confident that she had solved another problem with her superior hiring abilities. Once the initial shock wore off I went and spoke to the co-worker who is still trying to train the last "rocket scientist" that Mean Jean hired. The co-worker said she was going to speak to the boss. When she did, he immediately pulled her into Mean Jean's office where they closed the door and discussed the situation. Of course, I wasn't invited even though I had been the one to ask the important questions and it was me we were looking to replace.

Apparently this lady has been attending a practice company here in town in order to gain experience for the workplace. While I think that idea is great to prepare people for entry level positions, I don't believe that they prepare them for a position as critical as mine. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, it's certainly not brain surgery, but it's definately not an entry level position either.

If she understood the language and could communicate proficiently I'd have no problem with her but that's just not the case. So after an afternoon of phone calls between the co-worker and Mean Jean they've decided not to hire her. I felt terrible for the girl. She was probably so excited about finding a job only to have the rug yanked out from beneath her feet before she even started. On top of that, they've been discussing the lack of progress that my co-worker's replacement is making and how poorly she's doing. They suggested that maybe they should find someone else for the accounting position and move the accounting girl that can't answer the phone over to replace me. ARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

This is a new level of stupidity, even for Mean Jean. What the heck made her think that she'd find a suitable employee for a Sales/Purchasing job in the six month old reject pile of resumes for an accounting position? She has no idea what I do but she is too stupid to even ask. How the hell was I supposed to train a person who doesn't even understand english completely?

From what I understand now, they're going to post an ad on the local job board but that means they won't likely get any replies until the end of the week and that gives me four days to train someone. They are so fucked. *evil grin* Oops, was that my outloud voice?

*chants* It's not my problem. It's not my problem. It's not my problem. It's not my problem. It's not my problem.

I'm so happy I'm getting out of there but I do feel bad for my co-workers that will still be there. The semi-retired guy I work with has been threatening to leave too and he told me today that he's likely going to give them his notice on my last day. *tries hard to stiffle a giggle* Poor Mean Jean.