Entry 06/11/2005 08:37:57 PM – Mentat 165

Entry 06/11/2005 08:37:57 PM – Mentat 165

     I’ve come to the conclusion that this year, if I don’t die from all the stress and the drama that’s gone on, I’ll live forever.  But let’s take this week one step at a time, and then the year in review after that. 

     Cricket’s moved up from being hand fed, to actually eating on her own, but she will only do it if I’m by her at the bowl.  This means that I’m still with her 1/2 hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, making sure that she eats everything in her bowl.  Definitely an improvement than having to sit there with her with wet food and make sure she puts some in her mouth.  Unfortunately though, she refuses to eat anything that she has to chew, and prefers it to be soft or mashed before eating at it.  There has been no sight of her vomiting around the house, and her stools are finally looking more normal — so I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not so much a gastro issue.  And it’s not a chipped tooth, because during the week, she and I had play fought a little (to see whether she had energy, and to make sure that she’s doing all right), and her biting during her play fighting was no different than it was prior to this fiasco…  So I think it’s a combination between the food that she didn’t want to eat, and the fact that she’s been lonely without another cat in the house to keep her company. 
     I’ve been thinking that perhaps I should look into another cat, to see whether that will give her a little more incentive to eating without my having to sit there with her in order to get her to eat.  At least today — she did a little eating at the bowl on her own, without me being too close at hand. But then I do admit that I did get her a little high with catnip, which may be why she suddenly had the "munchies" or some such. 

     Then on Wednesday when I got home, the rental property got around to replacing the unit that had died.  And like I had said in the last journal entry — they did a damned fine job at not only getting the unit put in, but also repairing the damage that the last set of halfwits had left when they had put the monstrosity that worked for four years that it was put in.  I have to admit that this one’s a hell of a lot quieter than the last unit.  Which is a good thing, given that I don’t have to blast my music while sitting here in the other room playing online or working on journal entries.  What’s really odd about the unit is that it also comes with a remote, which I can use from the other room, to set the temperature, the fan control, even when to stop and start the unit based on a timer.  Not the sort of thing I would expect in this place — given the fact that they’re notoriously cheap about such units, and buying something that could appear more expensive… 
     And as I said — the notable difference between this unit and the last unit has to do with the fact that the contract that put it in actually did a damned professional job fixing the window… I’m truly impressed with the work, and the fact that the man had cleaned up after himself afterwards.  He even used the dustpan, brooms and mop to clean up a majority of the mess that he no doubt made putting the unit into place. 

     The single biggest shit comes from work.  And man what a mess that certainly is!!!
     Let me first set the stage.  Tuesday is the stage.  I had called in the day before in order to tell the agency that the A/C unit’s motor had died and that it needed to be replaced.  They had come over during the day and took the A/C unit’s panel off and looked like they had tried to kick start the motor through the inside of the unit.  They had left the cover off, and I thought they were either working on getting the motor replaced, or just left in the middle because it was quitting time.  This was doubly reinforced because the unit’s front panel was laid through my cat’s water and food dishes.  So, Tuesday, I stay home and wait to see whether they’re going to fix the unit. 
     This is actually a secondary issue, because I was running really late Tuesday morning, and instead of catching the #6 bus to get to work, I saw it pulling to the stop from the driveway to the complex, and it was clear down the street.  So instead of showing up late, I had decided to either show up REALLY late, or not at all, and stayed home to see with morbid curiosity whether or not they’d show up.  By 11:30, they didn’t, and I really needed the money and to go to work — so I got dressed back up and headed to work. 
     The next day — I get to work and Keeya tells me  that I need to go through "retraining" Lorna because the woman has way too many questions and that I needed to make sure that she’s gets everything.  And she also stressed that I should get her to move a little bit faster/get her up to speed.  Keeya tried working out when I should come back to the area to re-train her and suggested that I come do so when I got back from lunch.  I told her that I would sit there with Lorna when she went to lunch, as I would like to work through my lunches to make up the time that I had taken out.  She continued to say when I got back from lunch, and I stressed each time that I would work through my lunch for this…  So, when she disappeared to lunch (something that lasted about an hour to and hour and fifteen), I sat there eating my lunch and explaining everything to Lorna to ensure she got it down pat, and that it all made sense.
     Poor girl.  She really didn’t have the experience to working with files, file management and windows, and while she got the scanning portion down without so much as a problem getting the scanner to scan all the contracts — she did have some problem naming and getting them all to the same place.  But I’ll get to that in a moment… 

     Tried to get into work on-time/early the next day.  That went to the crapper when the train decided on taking it’s sweet-assed time getting to Lindbergh Station.  Missed the 7:14 AM bus out to Cobb County, which meant that I was taking the next one.  Wouldn’t it just beat all, because the next bus was a training bus for some potential driver that I hope to god doesn’t get a job at CCT.  First off, the heifer couldn’t get it out of first gear when going up any hill, and by any, I means just that: ANY.  Up each hill we went, at speeds not better than 25 mph on the highway, and no more than 3 mph in Cobb County itself.  This meant that the usual 35 minute drive to work turned into an hour — getting me to work by 8:30.  That meant for Thursday — I would I would either be getting a 1/2 hour of make-up time, or be a half hour short.  I took the make up time. 
     But this day was Lorna’s last day, and I found out later through Keeya that the reason why was because after three days of seeing the numbers, Dawn had been unsatisfied with the results that Lorna was putting out (fortunately, Dawn didn’t hear the stories that Lorna was telling about her anxiety attacks and needing the money, of which I’m sure she would’ve been gotten rid of all that much quicker), and I was relegated back to doing the scanning and the data entry (and dealing with Keeya’s every beck and call for whatever shit job she doesn’t want to do).   I was still pretty surprised by the loss, but then I had thought that it was some sort of implosion I wasn’t aware of during that shock.  After I had discovered it — it seems perfectly natural and logical. 
     But Friday is where it all falls apart… 

     Got into work Friday right on time.  Seems that if I take the bus to the next stop, I can slip through the gate, and to the back door, and get to my desk by exactly 8:00 instead of 8:03 or 8:05 (depending on the amount of stopping the bus has to do).  Went through work like I normally did, and after about a half hour, I was starting to thing she wasn’t coming into work — but alas, she showed up 15 minutes later.  Then began going through the routine of the morning, and I had filled out my timecard with the expectation of it getting signed early so I can start the process early.  As it turns out though, she took a look at it, and said that I had in fact taken a lunch on Wednesday and that I should adjust my timecard.  I told her precisely what I said, of which we got into a brief argument.  When she said, "don’t let it happen again, and began signing. I told her not to and that I would fill out, as I would fill out a corrected timecard.  She went to the copier and made a copy, keeping the original.  When I saw it — she scratched out the hours, dropped it an hour and a half (the woman can’t count hours at all)..  I about exploded right then and there. 
     Instead, I stormed down to the break room, explained to them that this was my last day, as I wasn’t about to put up with her shit and her pettiness anymore.  This turned into a royal fiasco, as Chris came down from the office in order to try to work this out; which turned into an even bigger mess because my blood pressure was skyrocketing when he told me that he wanted me to sit down with Keeya to sort this out and stay on (because she said that it wouldn’t be worth all the trouble for an hour). 
     Of course my attitude was that I don’t care if she came right out and called me a liar, or insinuated that I was a liar.  I am a man of integrity and after the shit with my mother and the way she cheated and stole, there’s just no way in hell I want to be caught doing the same shit she had done.  And this accusing me of padding my timecard, when the bitch herself comes and goes whenever she wants, makes personal calls like there’s no tomorrow, and takes extended lunches…  well that was the straw that literally broke the camel’s back. 
     So, Chris was there from the office, and we stepped outside for close to 20 minutes while I swore like a trooper, and stormed about all the shit that she would pull, and the fact that there’s all sorts of ethical and moral dilemmas going on that she’s in the middle of, and has no place making those kind of decisions without managerial supervision.  So after that talk, I took the rest of the day off with the promise that I would think it over during the weekend, and either come back on Monday, or discuss it further with Chris and the office that day.  I also agreed that the office needs to get involved with Keeya’s boss — Dawn — and try to work out precisely what my job description is.   I told Chris that the instant that he gets the information, to give me a call and I would work out a decision by then.
     By the time I got home and played online and Diablo II a while, when I realized that Call-Wave wasn’t running, I checked and saw that the office had called in..  But it was from the Midtown Office and not the Marietta office.  At first I thought that it was them accidentally calling me to tell me that they had a job offer, so I called and spoke with Dawn at the office, and realized that Chris was there, so I talked with him.  Chris told me that there’s a conference call between me, the agency and Dawn on Monday at 1:00 in which we’re supposed to be discussing some of the issue that were going on.  According to Chris he had hinted as best as he could that there was an issue with Keeya and that it couldn’t be gotten into because the Keeya was part of the conference call. 
     Can’t wait to see how this is going to turn out. 

 ===========================================================================
 
     But I think the true piece of work came today…  Yes, I turned 41 today.  Today, Will and I officially broke up.  But I’ll get to that tomorrow when I work on my birthday entry…   I just wished that it could’ve waited until tomorrow.  Crying for two hours over it today seemed like a totally depressive drag.  Especially for a day where I was hoping to have just a little bit more hope than this.  But I guess that’s what I get, and what I deserve for my dear john letter two weeks ago.  I’m zonked…  I’m drained…  and I want to die…  if that means dying for 6 hours. 

     T-Minus Sixteen days and counting.