I notice the most RANDOM things on my way to work and can't go down the freeway ONE time without looking over to see it. Like for example, I see this silo every single day that has the words, "Hi Biscuit" written on it. I don't know who Biscuit is or what they did to earn the honor of someone they knew to go and graffiti the side of this silo. Heck, I don't even know if Biscuit is a living, breathing human being. I do know exactly where this silo is and it has come in handy as I was driving to work one day and glanced in my rear view mirror only to see a car spinning towards me. I stepped on the gas just in case they were going to hit me and then pulled over to call 911. I looked forward to see the silo and knew EXACTLY where I was on the freeway. It was my first time calling 911 and it was quite a scary experience. I also notice the most heinous looking billboard on my way home. It is this big, fat, hairy man dressed up ina cow suit with a stupid grin on his face holding wads of cash. every time I look at it, I want to slap my face for even thinking about it. Yes, this image does haunt my brain. Perhaps I will take a picture of it one day and post it on here for everyone (or no one) to enjoy.
As I have said before, I have like a 50 mile roundtrip commute. It is great fun to say the least. So as I am driving to work at an hour of 6:45 am when no one should be on the road (ok, I guess most people are fine with that hour, but not if they are in the same sleeping mode that I am in) I can't help but get a little frustrated. Athough I would never admit to it, it could be slightly my fault. Sleep is extremely important to me so when my alarm goes off just before 6 am, I am not exactly in the mood to jump out of bed and get a fresh start with the day. Actually, my response is usually the opposite... I shutoff my alarm and reset it for 10-15 minutes later. So being the thinker that I am, the time that I had originally set my alarm for was JUST enough time to get me there ontime... so naturally, sleeping an extra 15 minutes is going to make me 15 minutes late to work. So as I scramble to get ready in the morning and head out the door, I am wanting to get there as quickly as possible. Being that I travel on a 2 lane freeway (wait, is this the kind where 2 lanes are going in the same direction and the other direction has its own two lanes? That is exactly the thing I am talking about) I don't have time to wait for a slow semi pass an even slower semi. As this happens, I find myself shouting "YOU IDIOT! Did you NOT see me approaching you from behind?" and then usually let out a roar or frustration. Being that this is a regular occasion, I have begun to get even more nasty. Driving on the freeway is one thing, but entering the freeway is even more of an impossible task. The entrance ramp is like 2 feet long... in all seriousness. Ok, maybe a few yards longer than two feet, but that is the way that it seems. So we have these huge trucks going approximately 70 MPH and you are trying to enter the freeway. So they will either let you in and run right on your tail until you can get up to speed or they will practically run you off the road. Usually there is room for them to move into the other lane, but even then, they are stubborn and refuse to move over forcing innocent drivers, like myself, to try to gain speed on the side of the freeway. Usually this sends me into quite the fury after which I usually lay on my horn for a minute and yell at the driver... to myself. It is great fun.
So the other day I was driving and looked in my rear view mirror to see a red pick-up truck passing a car in the turning lane. I didn't want this moron to get past me, so I kindly slowed down and blocked both the turning lanes and regular lanes... just to be polite. So after a few minutes, I got back into the normal lane and then the guy, surprisingly sped past me in the turning lane (totally illegal). To give him a friendly hello, I just honked my horn constantly for a good 20 seconds. It was great. I am probably going to get myself shot one day...
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Another Day, Another Dollar
Work today sucks. The air conditioner is broken. I don't think anyone understands the pain I am going through as I am seriously sweating buckets. As if I wasn't already unmotivated to do anything, our 90 degree office isn't helping my cause. Ick.
As I said before, I work at a trucking company. As you can imagine I see some pretty interesting things happening every day, but mostly just interesting people (i.e. people who can't breathe because of their extreme emphysema and who choose to hack and cough rather than breathe... yes, I am grateful for my working lungs). I do love my job, but there are quite a few pet peeves that I have while working here (as I hope you can imagine). I am going to try to keep it to a clean-cut 10, but I can't promise that I won't get carried away.
LIST OF 10 THINGS KRISTINE HATES AT HER OFFICE (in no particular order)
1- I hate when faxes or other papers come through the printer and I have no idea who printed it or what the heck I am supposed to do with it, so I have to walk up and down the rows and act like an auctioneer and ask who the h printed it. THESE THINGS DON'T PRINT ON THEIR OWN PEOPLE... SO SOMEONE CLAIM IT! Most of the time I have to interrupt their phone call and ask them if it is theirs. Soooo annoying.
2- I hate it when coworkers who sit by me get in paperclip fights and throw them at eachother (yeah, real mature, I know) and they miss each other and end up hitting me. Therefore, I have taken the liberty to become the paperclip Nazi.
3- I hate it how my computer freaking faces everyone in my office so everyone can see what I am doing at any point in the day. My email window is small, but people still comment that I email my friends all day. Guess what people? I ain't got no shame.
4- I hate when people want me to help them and they expect me to get it done right then. Do you not see that I am currently working on things? I am sorry, but you are not my first priority... and you never will be. I am Marc's secretary... if you want something done right now, get your own personal secretary, cause you ain't gonna find it here!
5- When I am washing and folding the sheets from the sleeper rooms (don't ask) and people come up to me and say, "Ok, I am going to bring my laundry tomorrow so you can do mine." And then grin like a fool, waiting for me to laugh. Nope, not gonna happen. Not gonna give you that satisfaction because that is the lamest thing I have ever heard for one and two, I have heard it like a thousand million trillion times... so WASH YOUR OWN DANG LAUNDRY or get a wife and have her do it. I am not your wife, housekeeper or slut. I am the ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT. Get it? Good.
6-I run this report called "Miles" (so they can track their progress) 3 times a day... 7, 12, and 5. That is all. I hate it when my coworkers ask me when I am going to run the miles. I run it the same freaking time everyday. I am not the kind of person who will just switch it up to make things interesting. I run it 3 times each day at those specific times. Sometimes they will run them at like 3:30 and stuff and expect me to put it up on the whiteboard. No, I run it at 5, right before I leave. I am not going to cater to your needs just because you want to impress other people by having the top numbers. WAIT UNTIL FREAKING 5 o'clock. K?
7- I hate when drivers come through my door after their smoking break and ask, "Are you having fun yet?" What do you think? I am working with people like you all day... Does that answer your question?
8- This can pretty much be summed up with two letters. JD. This is the guy who has tourettes in my office. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging him in the slightest way because of his disorder. When I first started, I was nice to him and gave him the benefit of the doubt. That has since come back to bite me in the butt. It is because I was nice to him in the beginning that he feels he needs to hit on me. No, I wasn't interested in you, I was just being a friendly person. That is all. Apparently he didn't get that memo cause he hits on me on every available occasion. No thank you, I don't want to go out with you, or drink with you or have any relations with you. Thanks though. Next time I want to act upon those instincts, I will give you a call... but don't wait up for me. I also hate when he tries to compliment me in the weirdest ways... For example, the other day I wore a skirt to work. He came up to me and said "I like your skirt." I thought that this was odd to comment on one single article of clothing... couldn't he just settle for something like, "you look nice today"? So I politely said, "thank you". Then he was like, "No really, I like you skirt" and then went on to describe why he liked it...Ok. I get it. I heard you the first time... did you NOT hear me say thank you? Or the times when he is leaving the building and feels like he needs to explain where he is going or tries to come up with a "clever" way to tell people he isn't here. One day our convo went down like this:
JD: "I am going to the bank. If anyone asks me for... tell them... I went to prison." Goofy grin.
Me: staring at the computer.. not even looking up. "Ok".
I was so proud of myself... I didn't even want to give him even the slightest bit of satisfaction so I didn't even give a courtesy smile or laugh. This guy just has a way of getting under my skin... seriously.
9- When drivers call and I transfer them to their manager and then when they get the voicemail, push 0 to go back to me and say, "Jeff isn't answering his phone." Ok, what did you want me to do about it? He is sitting in his desk, let me transfer you again. Transfer them, they shoot back to me and complain again. Listen, there is really nothing I can do about it. I am strictly here to transfer calls, not to get after someone who is not answering your call. Obviously they are dealing with something more important than you, so LEAVE A FREAKING MESSAGE ON THE VOICEMAIL. That is what it is there for. Thank you.
10- I hate it when people around my office bring me mail and they bring me like 5 letters with none of them licked. So after a collection of the day, I have to go through the letters and lick each one. It is disgusting. I have saliva on my tongue just like you do people... so DO IT YOURSELF!
Wow, that was hard. If only you people who read this blog (aka, no one) could understand the stuff I have to go through each day. It is a wonder I can still function like a normal human being... or something like that.
Ok, so today one of my coworkers calls me up and is telling me that I just transferred some call to her and they guy on the phone said I sounded like I was cute. At first, I was a little flattered until I REALLY thought about it. So let me get this straight, I sound cute on the phone, therefore, I am cute in person? I mean, come on, do ugly people really sound ugly on the phone?Granted, a few ugly people are going to sound ugly and a few cute people are going to sound cute, but for the most part, people are just going to sound the way that they sound, regardless of what their physical appearance actually is. Gosh! The nerve of some people.
Well, I hope that gave you a good idea of the intelligent people I deal with on a day to day basis. That is all.
As I said before, I work at a trucking company. As you can imagine I see some pretty interesting things happening every day, but mostly just interesting people (i.e. people who can't breathe because of their extreme emphysema and who choose to hack and cough rather than breathe... yes, I am grateful for my working lungs). I do love my job, but there are quite a few pet peeves that I have while working here (as I hope you can imagine). I am going to try to keep it to a clean-cut 10, but I can't promise that I won't get carried away.
LIST OF 10 THINGS KRISTINE HATES AT HER OFFICE (in no particular order)
1- I hate when faxes or other papers come through the printer and I have no idea who printed it or what the heck I am supposed to do with it, so I have to walk up and down the rows and act like an auctioneer and ask who the h printed it. THESE THINGS DON'T PRINT ON THEIR OWN PEOPLE... SO SOMEONE CLAIM IT! Most of the time I have to interrupt their phone call and ask them if it is theirs. Soooo annoying.
2- I hate it when coworkers who sit by me get in paperclip fights and throw them at eachother (yeah, real mature, I know) and they miss each other and end up hitting me. Therefore, I have taken the liberty to become the paperclip Nazi.
3- I hate it how my computer freaking faces everyone in my office so everyone can see what I am doing at any point in the day. My email window is small, but people still comment that I email my friends all day. Guess what people? I ain't got no shame.
4- I hate when people want me to help them and they expect me to get it done right then. Do you not see that I am currently working on things? I am sorry, but you are not my first priority... and you never will be. I am Marc's secretary... if you want something done right now, get your own personal secretary, cause you ain't gonna find it here!
5- When I am washing and folding the sheets from the sleeper rooms (don't ask) and people come up to me and say, "Ok, I am going to bring my laundry tomorrow so you can do mine." And then grin like a fool, waiting for me to laugh. Nope, not gonna happen. Not gonna give you that satisfaction because that is the lamest thing I have ever heard for one and two, I have heard it like a thousand million trillion times... so WASH YOUR OWN DANG LAUNDRY or get a wife and have her do it. I am not your wife, housekeeper or slut. I am the ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT. Get it? Good.
6-I run this report called "Miles" (so they can track their progress) 3 times a day... 7, 12, and 5. That is all. I hate it when my coworkers ask me when I am going to run the miles. I run it the same freaking time everyday. I am not the kind of person who will just switch it up to make things interesting. I run it 3 times each day at those specific times. Sometimes they will run them at like 3:30 and stuff and expect me to put it up on the whiteboard. No, I run it at 5, right before I leave. I am not going to cater to your needs just because you want to impress other people by having the top numbers. WAIT UNTIL FREAKING 5 o'clock. K?
7- I hate when drivers come through my door after their smoking break and ask, "Are you having fun yet?" What do you think? I am working with people like you all day... Does that answer your question?
8- This can pretty much be summed up with two letters. JD. This is the guy who has tourettes in my office. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging him in the slightest way because of his disorder. When I first started, I was nice to him and gave him the benefit of the doubt. That has since come back to bite me in the butt. It is because I was nice to him in the beginning that he feels he needs to hit on me. No, I wasn't interested in you, I was just being a friendly person. That is all. Apparently he didn't get that memo cause he hits on me on every available occasion. No thank you, I don't want to go out with you, or drink with you or have any relations with you. Thanks though. Next time I want to act upon those instincts, I will give you a call... but don't wait up for me. I also hate when he tries to compliment me in the weirdest ways... For example, the other day I wore a skirt to work. He came up to me and said "I like your skirt." I thought that this was odd to comment on one single article of clothing... couldn't he just settle for something like, "you look nice today"? So I politely said, "thank you". Then he was like, "No really, I like you skirt" and then went on to describe why he liked it...Ok. I get it. I heard you the first time... did you NOT hear me say thank you? Or the times when he is leaving the building and feels like he needs to explain where he is going or tries to come up with a "clever" way to tell people he isn't here. One day our convo went down like this:
JD: "I am going to the bank. If anyone asks me for... tell them... I went to prison." Goofy grin.
Me: staring at the computer.. not even looking up. "Ok".
I was so proud of myself... I didn't even want to give him even the slightest bit of satisfaction so I didn't even give a courtesy smile or laugh. This guy just has a way of getting under my skin... seriously.
9- When drivers call and I transfer them to their manager and then when they get the voicemail, push 0 to go back to me and say, "Jeff isn't answering his phone." Ok, what did you want me to do about it? He is sitting in his desk, let me transfer you again. Transfer them, they shoot back to me and complain again. Listen, there is really nothing I can do about it. I am strictly here to transfer calls, not to get after someone who is not answering your call. Obviously they are dealing with something more important than you, so LEAVE A FREAKING MESSAGE ON THE VOICEMAIL. That is what it is there for. Thank you.
10- I hate it when people around my office bring me mail and they bring me like 5 letters with none of them licked. So after a collection of the day, I have to go through the letters and lick each one. It is disgusting. I have saliva on my tongue just like you do people... so DO IT YOURSELF!
Wow, that was hard. If only you people who read this blog (aka, no one) could understand the stuff I have to go through each day. It is a wonder I can still function like a normal human being... or something like that.
Ok, so today one of my coworkers calls me up and is telling me that I just transferred some call to her and they guy on the phone said I sounded like I was cute. At first, I was a little flattered until I REALLY thought about it. So let me get this straight, I sound cute on the phone, therefore, I am cute in person? I mean, come on, do ugly people really sound ugly on the phone?Granted, a few ugly people are going to sound ugly and a few cute people are going to sound cute, but for the most part, people are just going to sound the way that they sound, regardless of what their physical appearance actually is. Gosh! The nerve of some people.
Well, I hope that gave you a good idea of the intelligent people I deal with on a day to day basis. That is all.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
This is what the longest summer of your life will do to you...
Well, here I am... once again. I have succumb to the blogspot world once more. Back in December, I was a member of a group blog... that has since ended. I guess the thought of starting my own blog came as I was driving home from work one day. Being that I had a 50 mile roundtrip commute each day, I found that I had plenty of time to think. As I began to think, I thought to myself (one of my many)... why don't I publish all of these many random thoughts? I thought to myself, I could write in my journal, but since I have SOOO much spare time on my hands at work and typing is much faster than writing.... well you get the picture... and here I am.
I work at a trucking company and you can imagine that I see my handful of interesting (yet that doesn't even describe them to the fullest) people each day. I moved from Utah to California precisely 14 months ago. Growing up in Utah my entire life caused me to be somewhat... sheltered. So you can imagine the shock that I went through for my first month working with these truckers. Sure, I had seen interesting people before, but I still was not mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared for these people. I will continue on with various stories of them... but not yet... this will come in later posts. Although, I must say, my family is PRETTY entertained with the stories that I have of them each day.
So this summer is pretty much the best summer of my life (complete sarcasm if you couldn't tell). I work 50 hours a week... 7-5. Working at 7 means that I go to bed at about 10 pm (quite the change from the previous months). I made a lot of friends the last summer that I was here, but they have since moved on to "bigger and better" things (missions, marriage, jobs, and traveling). I am not even kidding when I say that EVERY SINGLE friend I made last summer is gone. I have seen a few of them during the course of the summer, but I can still count the amount of social activities I have participated in on one hand (no exaggeration). With the summer coming to an end (thank goodness!), I am enjoying my last weeks of true freedom by being as lazy as possible. It pretty much isn't any different than any other time during the summer, but it just makes me feel better that I am attempting to be even more lazy. :). My day pretty much goes like this... wake up at 5:50 (more like 6:10), out the door by 6:30 (ok, more like 6:50), to work by 7:15. I have a few assignments at work. I have reports to run, phones to answer, mail to sort, etc. I don't know if the people before me actually used all of their time in the day doing these tasks, but somehow I manage to finish everything by like 8:30... and that is on an unmotivated day. Therefore, I am left with like 7-8 hours of finding small things to fill my time. I was getting pretty good at Sodoku puzzles, but I have since refrained from continuing this since I was getting sooo into it and it was starting to halt the actual work I had to do. Praise the heavens that my friends Tara, Carolyn and Laura are also at desk jobs and are able to email me. In between my emails, I to surf the web, gaze out the empty window to the sunshine I am missing out on, or better yet just stare motionless at my blank screen. So after work, I head home and pretty much just hang around with my family until it is time to go to bed. Thanks to the wonderful world of TiVo, I am able to watch my fair share of television programs. I also have taken up the habit or reading while I can since the other eight months of the year are spent reading textbooks. So as you can imagine, I have lost countless braincells which seem to have been replaced with pounds of fat along my waistline. It is GREAT.
So I leave for school in about 18 days. Up until last night, I was so excited to go back... although I never share any of that with anyone. If I am consciously thinking about how much longer I have until I go back, this eternal summer of four months only keeps going slower. I am excited to move into my new apartment, see my friends, start some new classes, meet new people, but as I was thinking about it last night, there was like this pit of fear in my stomach. I have no idea why. Maybe now that it is getting more of a real thing, I am getting nervous about it. It could be the recent "slap in the face" news that my dad threw at me the other day with not having a car of my own up there... leaving me to actually DEPEND on someone else, which I typically hate to do. It could also be my handful of bad roommate experiences, the boy drama, the friend drama and the horrible grades of last year that are causing this fear of the new year, but I am typically not one to fear change. I lived in the same house for 18 years, but when we moved last June, it started a vicious cycle... When I go back to school, this will be the 5th new place I will have moved to in the last 14 months. That is a lot for me, but time is quickly approaching. The only solution that I have to all of these problems is that I guess I had better just MOVE ON and enjoy the time I have left to relax and by with my family...
Well, 18 days and that number is only getting smaller. Wish me luck with the time I have left!
I work at a trucking company and you can imagine that I see my handful of interesting (yet that doesn't even describe them to the fullest) people each day. I moved from Utah to California precisely 14 months ago. Growing up in Utah my entire life caused me to be somewhat... sheltered. So you can imagine the shock that I went through for my first month working with these truckers. Sure, I had seen interesting people before, but I still was not mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared for these people. I will continue on with various stories of them... but not yet... this will come in later posts. Although, I must say, my family is PRETTY entertained with the stories that I have of them each day.
So this summer is pretty much the best summer of my life (complete sarcasm if you couldn't tell). I work 50 hours a week... 7-5. Working at 7 means that I go to bed at about 10 pm (quite the change from the previous months). I made a lot of friends the last summer that I was here, but they have since moved on to "bigger and better" things (missions, marriage, jobs, and traveling). I am not even kidding when I say that EVERY SINGLE friend I made last summer is gone. I have seen a few of them during the course of the summer, but I can still count the amount of social activities I have participated in on one hand (no exaggeration). With the summer coming to an end (thank goodness!), I am enjoying my last weeks of true freedom by being as lazy as possible. It pretty much isn't any different than any other time during the summer, but it just makes me feel better that I am attempting to be even more lazy. :). My day pretty much goes like this... wake up at 5:50 (more like 6:10), out the door by 6:30 (ok, more like 6:50), to work by 7:15. I have a few assignments at work. I have reports to run, phones to answer, mail to sort, etc. I don't know if the people before me actually used all of their time in the day doing these tasks, but somehow I manage to finish everything by like 8:30... and that is on an unmotivated day. Therefore, I am left with like 7-8 hours of finding small things to fill my time. I was getting pretty good at Sodoku puzzles, but I have since refrained from continuing this since I was getting sooo into it and it was starting to halt the actual work I had to do. Praise the heavens that my friends Tara, Carolyn and Laura are also at desk jobs and are able to email me. In between my emails, I to surf the web, gaze out the empty window to the sunshine I am missing out on, or better yet just stare motionless at my blank screen. So after work, I head home and pretty much just hang around with my family until it is time to go to bed. Thanks to the wonderful world of TiVo, I am able to watch my fair share of television programs. I also have taken up the habit or reading while I can since the other eight months of the year are spent reading textbooks. So as you can imagine, I have lost countless braincells which seem to have been replaced with pounds of fat along my waistline. It is GREAT.
So I leave for school in about 18 days. Up until last night, I was so excited to go back... although I never share any of that with anyone. If I am consciously thinking about how much longer I have until I go back, this eternal summer of four months only keeps going slower. I am excited to move into my new apartment, see my friends, start some new classes, meet new people, but as I was thinking about it last night, there was like this pit of fear in my stomach. I have no idea why. Maybe now that it is getting more of a real thing, I am getting nervous about it. It could be the recent "slap in the face" news that my dad threw at me the other day with not having a car of my own up there... leaving me to actually DEPEND on someone else, which I typically hate to do. It could also be my handful of bad roommate experiences, the boy drama, the friend drama and the horrible grades of last year that are causing this fear of the new year, but I am typically not one to fear change. I lived in the same house for 18 years, but when we moved last June, it started a vicious cycle... When I go back to school, this will be the 5th new place I will have moved to in the last 14 months. That is a lot for me, but time is quickly approaching. The only solution that I have to all of these problems is that I guess I had better just MOVE ON and enjoy the time I have left to relax and by with my family...
Well, 18 days and that number is only getting smaller. Wish me luck with the time I have left!
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