Excessive use of the word hell

This post is rated 17. In television land, that equals a TV7--meaning it is suitable for children ages 7 and older--I, however, stand by my 17. Seriously.

Not being one to swear (until recently--unless I am playing MarioKart) (I am working on that, seriously)--I am way too immpresionable--I found it spewing forth in all of its unstoppable madness today. Oh yes, it was unstoppable. Particularly, the phrase "What the hell?" (For those of you currently arguing that that is not swearing, I consider it mild swearing due to its usage. You have your standards, I have mine.) If you were near me for any period of time today, you would have heard this phrase uttered several times in response to any number of vastly ranging goings on.

One such such event takes place in the store. I completely freaked out and lost it today, so I took my lunch. After putting on my crazed woman behind the wheel performance for anyone in the downtown area, I headed to a store. Upon entering the store, I wandered aimlessly for several minutes before rounding a shelving unit just in time to hear an older gentleman ask "Do I need a toilet cover?"

What the hell?!?!?

Surely I did not hear this man correctly. Why would he be asking if he needs a toilet cover? Does one really need a toilet cover? Isn't this the kind of decision that depends upon personal preference? And what if the person he was asking said "No. No, you don't need a toilet cover.", but this man really wanted one, would he have the nerve to stand up and say "I don't care. I want one of these here fuzzy toilet covers and I am going to get one!", or would he simply shrug, say okay and move on, never fully knowing the fuzzy coveredness his toilet could have splendored in.

I glanced quickly, so as not to be too obvious about the fact that I was completely enthralled with what I was witnessing and behold... he was holding a fuzzy toilet seat lid cover.

Are you picturing this? Seriously, you have to picture this. He was older, though not necessarily old. Maybe just reaching retirement. Whoever he was talking to was not standing right next to him and it took me a few moments to realize there was a young lady (possibly a granddaughter, definitely family) with him. He was standing next to a shelf of fuzzily bright toilet covers, holding one in one hand while petting the ones on the shelf with his other hand, and he asks "Do I need a toilet cover?". See. Chances are you would have had a similar thought even if you did not voice it.

Another similarly unstoppable spewment spawned from the frustrations of an employee (shocker). I had told said employee to put a document on hold until I gathered more information from another employee who was not in yet. To clarify, I said "Wait until so-and-so comes in so I can check with her on some information." She came to me this afternoon with a question on the very same document. Again, What the hell?!?!?! Did I not just say to hold that document. Here you are preparing a document that might not even need to be prepared. (sigh) She did wait until so-and-so came in. My fault for not clarifying. I tried to stay calm but the phrase still flew forth more obstreperously than an 8 year old on Christmas morning.

Forgive the conversational whiplash...
My insane Chicagoland-born-and-raised friend is trying to make me into a city driver. This is the lady to whom we had to explain that the restaraunt we were having our company Christmas lunch at was not in the back of that slow moving vehicle in front of her. You rock and all, but from now on when you tell me it will take me 15 minutes to drive somewhere (or however long you said) I am just going to double it. Or at the very least add on 20 minutes.

Random Thoughtiness...
I was recently informed that one of my friends from my last (and absolutely most wonderfulest...) (you caught the sarcasm in that, right?) job at RBC is going through a bit of a difficult time at work (still). I sent her an email recently, trying to cheer her up, and never heard back. Being the paranoid type, I wonder if I didn't type something wrong. You know who you are, and if you are reading this and I did type something wrong, please blame it on the spell check and forgive me. If I did not type anything wrong and you are just extraordinarily busy due to school and work, then I would love to hear from you whenever you do get a chance.

And of course, there is the snow. (See above where I mention that I really am trying to stop saying the aforementioned phrase--see, I am refraining and I really want to say it right now.) Yeah.

Yet, even with all of that, I have still managed to survive this day and still be in a good mood. Goofy even, and my wonderful, loving husband has humored me through all of my awful jokes, puns, and quotes. I love this man.
Which brings me to "anonymous'" answer: It's a standard picture. I think it comes with all new blogs. I hope my amazingly wonderful husband does not mind that I posted this happy picture of us together in all of our Heath&Wandaness. It sure beats the cute and not-so-cuddly evil cat that seems to have everyone fooled into believing he is sweet and kind and cuddly.

Humbleness

My blog is boring. Really. I don't post the nutitional information of peanuts, I don't say hi to Pete or Ed (not that I wouldn't if Pete or Ed were to say hi to me, but I don't even know that a Pete or Ed read my blog) I don't write about my prettily knitted socks (which I love, btw). I just try to keep in touch with people I don't keep in touch with. Maybe I need a theme. I'm not good with themes. Hmmmmm....

Restoration

Yesterday was pretty much awful. No particular reason, it was just awful. And being the third Monday of the month, I had food pantry. I left work and called Heath, who had previously left me a message saying he was supposed to go fix his boss' home computer, but he was still at work and was having an equally, if not more so, awful day. All I wanted to do was go home and give him a big hug. 11 1/2 hour days kill me. I rarely take lunches or breaks anymore unless I am about to lose it (which, I hate to admit, happens more than it should these days) and yesterday was one of those no break days. My point is, I really just wanted to go home. But I headed over to the church anyway, hungry (my boss kept me busy until I absolutely had to leave to "get me to the church on time"--I love My Fair Lady). Anyway, I cannot say that I usually look forward to this, but I don't really mind, and usually feel pretty good when I leave, but I was less than thrilled at the prospect of a long night after a long day, which I assume is pretty much the same for any emotionally exhausted person. But boy (or goodnight, as my brother would say, adorable as it is), was I wrong about last night. I actually got to be out in the "waiting room" with everybody, talking, and after some of our volunteers had to leave (I believe they had some "breast cancer awareness" going on to go to)I handled calling numbers and marking on cards. A little hard on the nerves when you call a number and a person whose name you should know but just can't remember, jumps up. I got to talk to people more than I ever got to in the pantry room. Not that we didn't talk in there, but it was usually while trying to get them to pick their food so we could keep the line moving. Occasionally you stop everything and listen to someone going through a rough time that needs to talk, or to learn about a new person, but we try to keep things running smoothly in there.

Not only that, but I got to talk to the "newer" volunteers more. Or at least one of them. She's actually the mother/mother-in-law/mother of the boyfriend of the other volunteers, and let me just say that the entire family is nice. I don't just mean the immediate family, I mean the spouse/girlfriend/(and from what I hear)new boyfriend (whom I have not met yet but is supposedly nice, also). The type of people that you feel good after talking to because niceness like that is contagious.
So after I left I was completely rejuvinated (I feel a commercial coming on). It was exactly what I needed. Yay.

So, I stop at Taco Bell on my way home to pick up dinner, as both of us still have yet to eat anything other than a Special K cereal bar, and I really think the drive-thru lady was mad at me. I don't mean disgruntled-employee-does-not-want-to-be-there-and-is-mad-at-the-world, usually you can tell that their mad and it may be directed at you but does not feel personal. This actually felt personal. Before I could grasp ahold of the bag, it landed (luckily) in my lap. But, I was in such a good mood, I just felt bad for her and moved on.

Then, as just down the street from my house, I notice something annoying. Very annoying. All of the houses in the neighborhood have 4 porch lights. 2 on the garage, 1 on the side and 1 by the front door. This particular house I was looking at had 2 bluish white lights and 2 yellowish white lights, but instead of having 2 of the same on the garage and the other 2 on the front porch and side, they have them mixed. How annoying. Really. (Yes, I am one of those people that wants nothing more than to be rid of the people who hang one strand of blinking lights with a bunch of non-blinking lights--seriously people, do you know how incredibly annoying that is?) Imagine my dismay as I get closer and realize that it is my house. Mine. No. No, no, no, no, no. Not going to work. Must be changed. I appreciate my husband changing the burnt out (and even broken) lights. I do. It is nice to not have to worry about that, so I don't want to say too much about this, so... ummmm... I'm just going to try to let that go.

And now that I am finished, I remember that I do not blog right. Everybody else rereads and rewords. Sorry. Maybe I will try that sometime. I barely profread much less fix.

Time

Now that the house is done, I get to enjoy my weekends again. I did little else this weekend aside from cleaning the house and reading. And I enjoyed it. It is hard to get used to not constantly doing something, and even though it has been several weeks since we finished, I am still dealing with the feeling that I am being lazy and should be working on something.

I am not complaining; things worked out pretty well, actually, considering the 50+ hours I have been (and will be) putting in at work for a while. Still no hope of hiring someone else to fill in the vacant position. In fact, an applicant relocating to the area was turned away this last week. Not sure why, but I did visit several other offices in the building to find someone who did accept the resume and made a copy--as much as I hate to admit it (because I feel like I am failing) I cannot do two jobs. (sigh)

I have been enjoying my free time more, and have been doing well on the Through the Bible in a Year project I recently posted about, only to find that soon the church will be hosting Friday night get-togethers regarding the same. Maybe now is a good time for me to do the Big Brothers/Big Sisters thing that I have been slowly...applying (is that what do you do for these things... apply for a volunteer position?) Well whatever you want to call it, I turned in the forms. It's been over a year since I obtained the initial information. I have been working with an incredibly nice Social Worker on this, but never made it to one of the training sessions they have. Seems like a good time. Maybe that is my next "something I want to do" project.

C is for Cookie, R is for Retribution

A cookie party, eh? How about a surprise cookie party? You drop the cookies off at my house, and then guess when to come back for the party. As an added bonus maybe I will get a band. I was thinking The Judds. They are supposed to be on Wheel of Fortune in a couple of days...

In the way of interesting news, I ran into this guy today; he said he wanted to know how to get to Beloit. Seems some guy in a truck on the side of the interstate a couple of months back gave him directions and he ended up in California. Huh... wonder what that was all about.

Anyway, in happy news, the jury trial case was settled so that made things a bit easier. Yeah, let's go with that. Work is work. It will still be there tomorrow. Until then, I am going to go relax and read a book.

6 days of excuses...

As previously mentioned, I am confused because this is unacceptable.

And for those of you who did not get that, don't worry, there are few who will.

I needed to entertain myself for a brief period of time because I am within sight of my breaking point. I mentioned before that Miss I Got A New Job high-tailed (is that hyphenated, is it 1 word or 2, is that the prefered spelling?--sorry, another insider.) it out of here leaving me to do her work and two employees to deal with two .... other employees... alone, with the expectation that nobody would go flying out the window. Silly Marni. Since I have hardly talked to anyone in a while, I offer you 6 days of excuses:

Sunday started off with a lovely freak-out followed by a short but massive migraine. Not much to say there except that my bed is not as comfy as it used to be. Especially after several hours of lying perfectly still, not moving.

Monday was off to work so I could punch in by 6:30 and get started on all the panic-causing work I had. Still dealing with the “migraine hangover”, I was more than ready to turn around and head home when I saw that I could not see my desk. The boss was in this weekend and literally every open space on my desk was filled with files or sticky notes. I had to put everything on the floor to go through it because there was nowhere else to go through this stuff. On top of that, trying to merge two desks into one was not an easy task, especially since the desk that was being merged has more surface area then the desk being merged into. Task not quite accomplished (I was so frustrated that everything looked so messy, I feared another migraine), I set about trying to remember everything I had to do--before the sticky note bombardment. Of course that was before the boss came in for the day and decided that I did not have enough jobs to do, I needed to do some billing. Apparently having one employee solely dedicated to billing 40 hours a week is suddenly not enough. After work I ran over to the “sold” house to make sure no pipes had burst and left us with our very own ice skating rink (which they didn’t) then called my brother to yet again skip out on food pantry. I kinda suck.

Tuesday was definitely not any better. Another 6:30 a.m. punch-in and then a passive-aggressive reminder that monthly past due billing needed to be done and I needed to call so-and-so, and so-on, and then a trip to the doctors office. Now, because of the snow and all I had thought to myself, “Hey self, I wonder if they have had any cancellations because it is snowing pretty hard and it is really cold, and some people have time to reschedule, maybe you could get your appointment moved up…” So I called, and was told they had a lot of cancellations and that I could come at 12:15 if I would like. Since it was 11:30, and snowy, I left. I arrived at 12:05 and proceeded to sit through an annoying hour and 15 minutes of small talk from a not-so-interesting my-ager sitting across from me. Then proceeded to overhear her discussion with the doctor wherein she indicated “No, my husband does not know that I am getting my tubes tied, but we have three kids and I don’t care. Besides, I think we are about done. I don’t think we’ll be together much longer.”, as though she were tired of that old sofa she had in her house for the last 3 years.

After returning to work I suffered through the usual “So, when are you due. hahahaha” jokes from the lady who can’t decide if I am worthy of her presence or not.

Wednesday. (hold-please, I actually have to check calendars because I just thought that maybe I had my days mixed up because this week has been a big blur) Nope. I’m right so far. Wednesday was the day my boss walked in at 6:40 a.m. and said “Oh, thought I would beat you in today.” Nope. Wednesday was also the day the bills had to be done for the village my boss represents. Enough said. Aside from that, I found at that my first day of tagging along to court with the attorney is now going to be tagging along to court with a different attorney because my boss has a jury trial. One that I have to help with. Jury instructions, board preparation, etc. Not that I don’t totally love this stuff, but not right now. I don’t have time.

By Thursday I am more than exhausted and two fighting employees are not helping matters. Mostly because the one that is right is held at a more accountable level than the one who is not, and although I want to fire one of them and never ever have to deal with anyone like her again, I cannot. (More on this in my work blog). By the end of the day I have two bills that have to be done first thing Friday morning and guilt from a conversation that let me know I am letting people down.

Now I am dealing with Friday. After arriving at work around 6:30 all week, skipping lunch almost every day (obviously I am taking a short break today), and flying around like a crazy person, I am just not in the mood to listen to two other employees complain about how much work they have. Especially since their workload has not changed any. They are not feeling the effects of the loss of an employee; I am handling all of that. And the poor biller received word on Monday she had to have five bills done by Wednesday (one of which should actually be allowed a week or more to do). She is also frustrated. My sympathies, Michelle. So as I try to maintain my sanity, I ask that you all please understand. I have meant to call some of you, and I am trying to keep up with my extra-curriculars, but until things calm down (I don’t know when as we are still not hiring anyone to replace Miss I Got A New Job) I am a bit frazzled and forgetful.

I'm evil, but only when you're depressed

Yes. I am back to mean Wanda. This, ironically, does coincide with the employee who thinks I am evil going off of her antidepressants again. Shocker.

On top of that, we did manage to lose an employee; however, it was one of the employees we wanted to keep. Now I am doing three jobs. My own, the job of the lady that is leaving (gone--Friday was her last day), and unfortunately I am still playing the role of babysitter.

As I try to figure how on earth I am possibly to manage this task, my mind went a little haywire this morning and within (literally) 10 minutes time I went from fine, to not being able to see, to full blown migraine. Then my husband proved once again that he is amazing. He jumped right into action, missed out on a long, hot shower on a cold winter morning and instead rushed through one in order to take my grandmother to church for me so she would not miss out on the lunch they were having today.

I assume there is no question as to why I love this man.

Aside from that he is still being wonderful to me even though I am a bit snippy. Trying not to think about work is almost as stressful as thinking about it.

The headache is gone now; I am dealing with the residual shaky, weak, disoriented feeling.

Hooray for work!