Pavlov's Uke

Just before lunch break a coworker entered into the office, looked at me, then jumped...

"But? isn't it lunch time?"

I was just about as confused as she looked.

then she said... "I was sure it was lunch time, I heard a Ukulele in the back room a few minutes ago"

awesome.

oh hai

I think one of the best things I’ve ever heard just happened. Ok, let’s make that TWO of the best things… ever.

First, a staff at the office told me I should probably start reading books by some woman, that she LOVES to read her stuff, “AND, she’s a psychic… but, you know.. a real one. On Montel and everything!”

Then, a manager came in and asked me the result of an assignment she’d given me yesterday. This was not the same manager who ended up coming in to help- it was one who likes to give additional work. I had not gotten a chance to do it, but I had some places I needed to stop by around town, so I told her I’d go do it and call her with the results. She seemed a little annoyed that it wasn’t done… I called her less than 10 mins later with the info.
Flash forward to a few hours later- I still need the results from her part of the assignment (it was the exact same assignment, just done in a different area… the area being right outside her office door). I give the manager a call and ask her what she’d found.
“um… I haven’t done it yet”

who decided that?

I got to insist that I be joined by a manager today at work... they had a replacement for someone who was away- but then the person came back, so they cancelled the replacement- but then the person called in sick, and there was no replacement... on the busiest day of the week.

I was thankful that she was willing to come in... there's not too many places where that would happen.

Ordered some more worms today... very very excited about them coming... I'll give the mailman a heads up this week...

I spent some time at the trailer, looking to hang out with some friends... turns out they were waiting for me at the beach... that's what I get for leaving my cell phone at home.. though, I'm thinking that when this one dies... I might just go without. (a scary thought.. but... might be a good idea)

and finally, I ran 2+ Kms tonight... 

Don't expect much from me tomorrow.

thank you

there are days when my job brings me jems like this one::

Diva* now 20-25 doll at begno and tracy loss at begno she is mad at the grils she is

milke funnny of the grils at begno**

(one of the young women that I support likes to send emails to update everyone on her life... she's a microblogger of sorts I suppose.)

*name change (of course)

** translation (just in case you're slow) "Diva won $25 at Bingo, and Tracy lost all her money. She is mad at all the girls, she is making fun of the other girls at bingo"
No Doubt.

more on that later

in addition to the request for more on worm tea, there are some things that if I don't write them down, they'll be lost forever and they really shouldn't be.

After a talk about the pros and cons - St Bernard's vs. Turkey Basters ....

I found this note on my desk this morning.

L.Bo
your eggs
in crisper
people fridge
kitchen
'Chelle

I thought it fit well.... more on all this later

uh... yeah.

Sometimes at work, we have a meeting to get ready for a meeting.
Today was a meeting.
We had the meeting about the meeting a few weeks ago.
Actual quote from today's meeting::

"This month, the end of the month was at the beginning of the month."


Now, I don't know what disturbed me more... the part where it was SAID. Or the part where no one batted an eye... and when I asked what that meant.. they looked at ME funny.
Maybe we should have a meeting about it.

hungannna

"the only thing worse than waking up is... waking up twice".

My mom said that to me once after I'd hit my snooze button for the millionth time some morning.

Lately, I've taken to finishing my shift on Thursday mornings, and falling asleep on my couch a home until it's time to go to work (an hour later). I can usually fit 20-30 mins of snooze time in there.

The only problem is, I keep walking into the office with pillow face.

anger management? (or) an eyeroll sort of day

Ok, so this week for work we've been sitting in on a two part session on dealing with conflict. Most of it was "feel good about yourself" regurgitation from Oprah and Dr.Phil ... (I'm not so much a fan)

When our break started, our ED came to the door and motioned for me to follow her... a co worker giggled and asked me if I was going to be ok (a running joke about my feeling like I'm being called to the principals office). I rolled my eyes and headed out.

And then I saw her.... A woman that I've had to deal with for work... a woman who's not the easiest to get along with... standing in the hallway. (This woman doesn't work there, I've just been working "alongside" her for a bit).
Not only was she standing in the hallway... she was fogging all the windows in the building with the steam coming from her ears, and the flames shooting from her eyes.

I took a deep breath and followed her into the meeting room...
thankful I had the upper hand....

Because I was fresh from the "dealing with conflict" course.

(insert eyeroll here)

a little corner of my desk at work... it made me laugh all week. I think I'll start buying myself flowers to keep that water bottle in action... (no fear, I have two others)

The other corner of my desk... also makes me laugh. (Thanks Jenny for the talking button... you have NO idea how often someone comes to the desk and asks to hit it... they need the "pick-me-up" I guess!) (hit the link for your own shot of self esteem boosting funny).

I don't know why I'm posting about my desk at work... that's the last thing really that I want to be thinking about on a Sunday morning!

holy-holey-wholey- hoo lee.

(note:: I wrote this yesterday... but I'm posting it today...)

Hoo Lee, the first Chinese restaurant that I ever ate in… that WASN’T a buffet… is closing.
Or, at least, someone told me that the other day… I should probably read the note on the door when I walk past it tomorrow.
But that’s not today’s topic.
NO!

It’s Shrove Tuesday… the beginning of Lent.
Pancake day.
I forgot to eat pancakes.
I ate a bowl of taco casserole instead.

At the office today we were talking about pancake Tuesday… “Harvey” was with us, and was running his usual stream of thought… it was then I remembered that I’d just read an archived post last week (while looking for slothfest info) about the last Shrove Tuesday we spent together. So, of course, I shared the story with them...

Tonight for work I went to church to eat pancakes.... (remind me when you see me
that I've given up all potatoes and their products for lent) walking out of the
church, JB turns to me and says (as per usual) "that was a big big portion eh?"
I went into auto response
"yes yes, it was big big" (because apparently
I was Jacob Two Two in a previous life?)
Then in a change from what should
have been next (that being: "a big honkin' portion")

"those were
Anglican sized pancakes"

what? Anglican's have their own sized pancakes?

I finished my story... and they turned and looked at me. First laughing, then deadly silent.

"are you blogging about us?"

words and me

Words have always captured my attention.
Well, not WORDS... but more the meaning behind them... I think way too much about that sort of thing.
Where phrases come from, why one sound means something in one language, and something else in another. And even the meanings that one word can have.... just based on how it's said.

For example.

Monkey.

Monkey is a word that makes you smile. Not because the word "monkey" is a particularly fun word to say.... it's not even a word that feels good to say (thinking about the way syllables are formed in your mouth... I don't like the feeling of "key" -that weird thrusting forward of air over the top of your flexed tongue...** ) But no, we smile because of the critters we recognise as going with that name - or set of sounds. We think more about the fun loving little critters, or, like me, you might think of that little rubber armed flying monkey toy that screams when it crashes into something.

At work we've been doing a survey. It's an online survey, hosted by none other than ... "survey monkey". A name that makes you think of a fun little gadget for all your fun surveying needs!
I couldn't stop laughing when I heard the message on my phone from one of our pretty "serious toned" managers, reading- droning a piece of information about the survey monkey... it sounded like it was some sort of joke... like everyone had decided that instead of "fuzzy little poop throwing animal", Monkey really meant "a droll device used to compile information and categorize it."

** more on the feeling of words some other time.

*** I bought some jujubes today. That has nothing to do with anything. I just really wanted to eat some.

****and the African meal pulled together just fine... with help from the two roomies.

***** did I ever mention that the two roomies also share the same first name?

uh oh

Chirstmas is days away.
When will I have time to wrap everything?

I wonder what my boss would think if I were to bring everything to work with me on Monday?

let it snow let it snow let it snow

Growing up I had a love hate relationship with snow, errr... rather with snow days.
Snow-I liked. You could make all sorts of cool things with it. Forts, snowmen, snowballs, toilets. A guy in grade six made a life sized toilet out of snow one year, I spent the next three winters at home trying to recreate it.... to no avail. Then one year my cousin showed me what you could do with food colouring in a spray bottle.... We built a giant rat and made it look like it was decapitated and bleeding all over the lawn... then went and "shot" all the snowmen in her neighbourhood.
It was more the "SNOW DAY" that I wasn't the biggest fan of...
My parents owned and ran a local business. Because of this, snow days didn't happen in our house- instead, we'd get a ride to school with mom. No matter the weather. This left my sister and I and the 12-15 students within walking distance stuck at school.
Here's where the love-hate kicked in, my nerdly-art side loved it. I always volunteered to clean the art cupboard on snow days. Teachers didn't actually teach anything to the 12-15 kids in the school, we watched movies, caught up on reading, listened to music, and changed the display boards. The hate came in- in the act of having to get dressed, in having to go when no one else was there, in having to make small talk with the teachers. That... I did not love.

Once in high school, I started to get snow days. Bussed into another town, if the weather was bad, I'd sit beside the radio in the morning chanting my bus number under my breath (come on 387, come on 387!) praying to hear that Milford had cancelled his route... But Milly was a tough old coot, and the cancels were few and far between.

Fast forward to working life... I've held a job now since graduation that doesn't allow for snow days. The entire town might be in lock-down in a blizzard, but a group home still needs staffing.

This morning I woke to the tiny ping of ice pellets hitting the windows... windows coated in ice, looking out at trees coated in ice. And I sighed.
Until I remembered something.... I work in an office now.

ring ring riiiiiiing

me:: uh... hello?
boss:: good morning, just calling to let you know we're not opening the office today, please activate your calling list.
me:: uh.... (then with more enthusiasm than I should have...... to my boss)
All RIIIIIGHT!

is someone standing gaurd?

pretty sure I'm not suppose to check my daily reads from work.....
however.. yesterday I had a 5 minute span where-in I didn't take a smoke break (because I don't smoke), and had nothing to tide me over till my meeting with my boss.
Except... I wasn't counting on the sneeze being quite so funny, and nearly blew my cover doing a "turn that laugh into a coughing fit or phlegmy throat thing".

L.Bo is embarrassing herself everywhere

I love facebook status lines.

At work, the front office is blind to what's going on in the hallway, it's also blind to a meeting room that is directly across from the door to the hallway.... So, to make that a little more clear, you enter from the hallway into the office- turn left to actually enter the office area... OR go straight and enter the meeting room.
It often happens that people in the hallway will chat with people in the meeting room... without the people in the office hearing the hallway people.
Yesterday I was the chat-er in the hallway. I made a comment to someone in the meeting room (unheard by the office people) and entered into the office while continuing the dialogue....

what I said was "Darlene! yummy ice tea! MMmmmmMMMM, lookin' good!" while Dar shook up her bottle of ice tea by doing a little dance.

what was heard by the delivery guy standing in the office-and whom I came face to face with as I finished talking- was "MMmmmmmMMM, lookin' good!".

needless to say... I turned right around in the office and walked into the meeting room as fast as I could.

back to the date book

the other day at work someone asked me what it is I do with "all my time". She prefaced the question with something about her life revolving around her kids... and their hockey scheduals... then asked with this hint of pity what there was to do in the 'burg as a single person.
ouch.

now here lays my dilemma... there are 3 concerts, two activities and 2 get-togethers with friends I need to choose from for the weekend. What ever will I do?

an aside... anyone want to go to ptbo friday night? There's two bands I really want to see....
(including wee-dav-id).

I can't tell the difference, can you tell the difference?

Ok.. the new job.
I've been there a few weeks now, and I still have no clue most days what it is that I'm suppose to be doing.. but it's getting better and better. I'm showing up in the right place now... so that's a start!

So... this new place is pretty busy, there are people coming and going all the time. It would be fair of me to say I really only know about 75-80% of who's in and out. Here's the thing.. sometimes... it's hard to tell who's an individual being served by my employers, and who's not.... it can be a pretty fine line in some cases. (this workplace too is supporting individuals with developmental delays) I've been learning not to judge a book by it's cover so much...
two cases to look at.... two days ago, an adorable young man (18ish?) walked in.. I thought to myself.. "ummmm... I think I may have found BabySheff's prom date!" After a few minutes with him, I figured I better put that phone call on hold.
Yesterday, a LOVELY man walked in (I'm thinking 28-32ish?) (lovely in a sort of bashful geeky cutie boy way). I was introduced to him, he gave a shy-ish handshake.... then turned away... and then...... I saw the purple and grey backpack.... backpack? Must put that phone call on hold too.

Anyway, an hour later, I'm walking past the meeting room, I see thru the window the guy with two other staff. I see him pull a laptop out of the backpack and start a presentation...
where'd I put that phone?

the office

as in... the tv show.. and my new life!
ok, so I won't be there (in the office) in the future as much as I am now... but... for now, my reality is pretty similar to the show.
really.
I love it!
I was created for this environment... I have NO bloody clue what I'm doing (there's a lot to take in right now) but.... it's great.
so, if you think of it, pray for me. I'm trying to absorb a ton of info, in a limited time (as I have next week off for SVFF). Thankfully, it's not expected that I figure everything out right away... my boss said give it a month before any of it makes sense... so I'm clinging to that hope.

Ninjas, please pray for some friends of mine as they are on the hunt for a house!!! pray that the right thing for the right price would come their way.... and SOON!

I was looking at my calendar... it's the end of AUGUST!!!! how did this happen???? SVFF is only a few days away.... eeeeeeeek! so much to do... if I disappear for a little while... you'll know which field to find me in