A couple of interesting phone calls

Jake's b-day was Thursday. He's in CA right now for some Army training. So first thing Thursday morning I sent him a "Happy Birthday" text message. He called me after his classes were done & we chatted for a while. Poor guy was depressed b/c he wasn't home for his b-day. To be honest, that suprised me. I wouldn't think something like that would bring him down. I almost told him what his gift is (to cheer him up) but decided I really want to see his face when he opens it. I'm not going to say right now what it is b/c Megan will benefit from it too & I know she sometimes reads my blog. But I'm sure they will love it. (Unless they have something like it already *frown*).


I got a really weird phone call Thursday night. The phone rings & caller ID shows a 732 (Batavia) number but I don't recognize it. When I answered it a very nice male voice (!) asks to speak to Juli. He says his name is Kevin & somehow he had gotten a hold of my contact card but he didn't know where. He'd been wracking his brain all week trying to figure out where he'd picked up my card. (I still can't figure out who this is, but I *do* like the sound of his voice....) He went on to say he does Crystal Therapy, at which point I started to laugh. I said, "Kevin, you goofball. I'm the lady who gave you a feather Saturday night." We had a very nice conversation during which he apologized profusely & told me why he was so scatter brained. Now I don't feel so bad about things I've been forgetting!!!
Speaking of forgetting things...‹sigh› I forgot the birthday of a man who, in my opinion, was the greatest performer ever. Period. I'm speaking, of course, about the late, and very great, Freddie Mercury. Hard to believe he would have been 61 years old this year (on Sept. 5th). Love ya & miss ya, Freddie....

Just wanted to mention a couple of other nice things that happened this week. I had dinner with my brother Thursday night. Just the two of us. It was a great little visit. And have made a new online friend, one which I hope will become a face-to-face friend. Hey Luanne - thanks for IM'ing me. ‹hugs›

Gotta go...going over to Kevin's for a visit. Too bad he's gay. ‹sigh›

Later Taters.

Sometimes, in our office, we feel like orphaned step-children

I have to shake my head at upper management. I really think they're trying to chase good people out. As part of the whole "realignment" process, the qualifications of Senior Personnel were identified (and that was part of the reason it took so long for my boss to get me an answer about my raise). Only three consultants have been given the distinction of "Senior" and it certainly wasn't anyone I would have expected. Apparently there's at least one person in the office who is NOT happy with the choices. So much so he about walked out when he got the news that he didn't make "Senior". Now - this is one of our best consultants. If he hasn't already been looking to get out, he sure as shooting will be now. Keep in mind, too, that in the last year we've lost seven consultants over this whole re-alignment project. That makes me think Columbus is trying to clear this office out in order to close it down. They can't come right out & do it because they "promised" us they wouldn't so now it seems like they're doing it on the sly. Which is another reason why I'm looking to get out of here. I don't want to be here when the other shoe drops.

And while I'm on the topic of "Senior" qualifications....supposedly I'm not "Senior" material. One of the "competencies" Amy said I didn't have is management-level communication skills. Ok, I can see that. But what chaps my a$$ is that Shawn, my counterpart in Columbus who is a Sr. Analyst, has the peronality of a wet noodle. Everyone in our office who's dealt with him says it's difficult to work with him. For example...when we had the changeover to our new server I asked him if he would be kind enough to write a script (mini-program) my users could run to re-map their drives & printers. Instead of taking a WHOLE FIVE MINUTES to do this for me, we spent almost an hour haggling over it! He told me to use the script he made when our old server died & just change the server name. I couldn't get it to work. He told me to try this, that, and the other thing. Back & forth, back & forth like I said for almost an HOUR. And that's typical from him! I ask him to help me find something, he asks why do I need it. One of the ladies in our office was having computer issues when I was out so she sent him an email. Instead of emailing her back or even calling her, he remoted in to her machine without warning. Just took it over when she was in the middle of something. I tell ya, if arrogance is a trait needed to become a Sr. Analyst, I'll pass!

As if things aren't bad enough, Amy suggested that I job shadow Shawn as part of my "career path" to Sr. Analyst. This has been set up for this coming Monday. The only good part of this is I'll get ~$100 in mileage expenses. I just have to keep telling myself, "It's only for one day, it's only for one day..."

I was just discussing this whole business of "Senior" qualifications with a couple of co-workers and something occured to me. The fact that Shawn is a Sr. and management feels I don't have the "competencies" to be a Sr. offends me. But hey, most of the office feels slighted in some way, why should I be any different?

Ok, deep breath. Enough of that. Lessee...last time I wrote was Tuesday morning. Nothing much happened at work Tuesday. That evening went shopping for a b-day present for Vicki, one of my friends at work. I had decided to get her a Dream Pillow since she doesn't sleep all that well. Stopped at Enchanted Moments since I know the owners (and my Vickie worked there last Christmas). The only Dream Pillows they had were $13. THIRTEEN dollars. I can make them cheaper than that! But since I needed it right away, I got it. I wonder if I could make a few to sell...

Final piece of news for the moment: I'm no longer the Baronial Chronicler! Yea! (And the people rejoiced!) I'll just have to give my time where it's appreciated.

'Til Later!

Just another day in paradise

Not much happened the last couple of days. Saturday night went out (again!) with Karen, this time to the "Taste of Clermont" in Batavia (the next town over). We didn't go up to Main Street where most of the action was, mainly because neither one of us is too keen on big crowds. Instead we went down to the coffee house where they were having a mini psychic fair. After Karen bought me a huge iced coffee we went out to the parking lot to see what was going on. There were very pretty, shirtless young men in leather pants playing with fire. That right there made the trip worth while! Some of the vendors were people I met when I went to the pipe ceremony (see blog of 8/24). Patches wasn't there but the lady who had given him a ride the day of the ceremony was. I don't know if she recognized me because she didn't say anything to me. But then again when I first met her she struck me as kind of odd.
Ok...I have to change gears here for a second...these kittens are turning into mischievous imps & they're making me crazy. Right now Sherbert is trying to climb on to my shoulder after attempting to get between me & the back of the chair. I had to let them in here with me because they were trying to destroy my wash bowl & stand in the little hallway. They had already knocked the pitcher on the floor & I'd be pretty upset if it got broken.

"Who, me???"

Now...switching gears back to Saturday....hope I'm not hurting too many brains! The vendors...there was Howard, a Native American who gave me the creeps. I was browsing his wares with no intention of buying (I was dead broke), and he started staring at me. I finally looked at him & said, "Is there something wrong?" After he said, "no" I asked him if he had a website, just to make conversation & after grabbing his card I lit outta there. Another thing I didn't like about him was his tent was the first one people hit when they came down the driveway & (according to my friend Kevin) he was grabbing everyone for a readings and not giving the other readers a chance. Kevin's tent was right next to Howard's and that's how Kevin saw Howard pulling people in. Kevin does Crystal Therapy, Reiki, and massage. I had brought him a gift of a dropped feather and in return he did a "grid" on me. (I need to ask him what the purpose of a grid is). Usually when I do something like that I can get into a meditative state pretty easily but I couldn't this time, mainly because flies kept landing on me. So he's said we'll try it again at this house. I'm looking forward to it - just for the relaxation factor!

Sunday slept most of the day. My sleep bank must have been seriously overdrawn for me to sleep that much. And even after all that I'm still a little tired. Really need to make an effort to get to bed earlier. At least I'm not waking up around 3:30 a.m. any more!
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Looks like I jinxed myself. I was awake at 2:30 this morning. ‹sigh› Although it does give me a chance to finish this up, my damned sleep bank will be overdrawn again. Dammit.

Sunday morning was able to talk to my friend Karen in Sweden. That's always nice. Had to cut it short tho. :-( Vickie's friend Lani spent the night & her mom was coming over for a visit. I have to say, there are earth-bound pagans & there are spacey pagans & this lady definitely falls under the latter description. In the sixties she would have been called a flower-child. It was a rather stilted conversation to say the least. Maybe that's what wore me out so much I needed to sleep most of the afternoon!
The only thing worth mentioning about work yesterday is we had the first meeting of the committee to make things better in the office (see 9/2 post). A good dialog was started so hopefully this will really make a difference. What's kind of interesting is the four non-management associates are all pretty close friends. There's me, Donna (who went to Chillicothe w/me to see Tecumseh), Kim (we've done some much together I wouldn't know where to start) and Vicki (my break & lunch buddy). Wonder if Amy did that on purpose or it just worked out that way. But hey, it'll make it that much easier for us to work together.

One last piece of news before I close this. I got an email from Cindy, the lady who had picked up the Cooper's Hawk from me. He didn't make it thru the night. :-( She said Cooper's Hawks are especially susceptible to capture myopathy. Bummed me out big time.

I just realized the date. Don't forget to wear your red, white & blue today and fly your flag proudly. We can't let the bastards get us down.

Ok...I think I'm all caught up now, hooray! Til next time!