New Furniture

The furniture in my office is

Old
Broken
Ugly
All of the above

I've been talking with a environmental consultant (cube designer) to get this stuff replaced. Actually, our AA has been talking to her for me. What I have is solid heavy light oak. I'd be perfectly happy with utilitarian, easy to maintain Steelcase stand-alone units. It looks like what it's being replaced with is lightweight laminated light maple of some kind by Knoll. My environmental consultant couldn't come up with pictures ("Just go to Knoll's website and look up the model#" except that doesn't actually work). Gee. But I shouldn't complain too much considering that one of the fortunate few managers who gets to have and keep her office! That is if my boss deigns to approve it!

Lunch!

Bologna sandwich, orange, V8, and sticky lemon pound cake.

CH Project Status Meeting

My dreaded first of the year meeting with CH and the rest of the transition team went pretty well. I didn't really feel well prepared for it. I actually, naively, thought that some movement might occur between 12/15 and 1/1. Obviously, I was delusional.

LM's First Day

LM showed up in my office this morning at 8:45, fifteen minutes after I arrived, notebook and pen at the ready. "Where do we start?"
Me: We don't, actually. I'd like you to work on packing your stuff for moving later.
LM: Oh? Okay. I thought we'd sit down bright and early and talk about the organization.
Me: Normally, that would be my first choice but I'm not available to do that today.
LM: Are you sure?
Me: (what, I don't know my own schedule?) Yes. If things slow down, we'll spend some time together later today. Otherwise, it'll have to be tomorrow.

I know, joining a new team is rough, especially when you don't know what they do, or how they do it. She may end up being a pain in the neck for me. She wants to control and the first thing I really gotta do is ensure that she knows that I am in charge. Her previous manager warned me about this one. I'll try to be nice because I'm not an evil pointy-headed manager, really.

(Update, August 1, 2005: LM accepted a job in a different department.)

Happy New Year

We went to see Movin' Out last night. Got dressed up, and I even wore dress shoes instead of my ubiquitous clogs. What I realized after seeing the show was:

a) I don't care for Twyla Tharp choreography generally, and not at all in this case. I'm more of a Fosse girl. Or Jerome Robbins. Or Agnes deMille.
b) It's a cool vehicle for Billy Joel tunes played well, and convincingly Billy Joel-ish.
c) I wanted to hear more Billy Joel music.

I wasn't sure what I expected but it definitely involved sets and speaking. They did the first number and I thought, uh oh, don't let this be a waste of good money. No sets, lots of "concert" lighting, and the band was set high in the fly zone on their own platform, which was really cool. It's basically dance set to a greatest hits collection - a rock ballet. It tells a story about kids falling in love, falling out of love, going to Vietnam, coming home broken, and redemption. Everyone is happy in the end. Through the wonder of dance. It was too short, though. I'm used to stuff like this being 2 1/2 or 3 hours. Whas it Dance, with music? Music, with dance? Since I didn't care for the choreography, I can't say that it was a joyous melding of the two, although I'm sure that's what Twyla and Billy had in mind. The dancers were very good, and iHubby says they executed the work quite well, considering the choreographer, and promised he'd do his own Twyla dance imitation for me when we got home. He chickened out.

iHubby and I did agree we needed to do this more often than once every several years, though, regardless of whether the show is great or just good. Good is ok, even if I am a spoiled elitist pig. Oops. Coastal Democract.

We came home via Harris Teeter, having obtained what I thought were the necessary ingredients for a Cosmo. Faulty memory: I got grenadine instead of lime juice and triple sec. Oh well. At least we had the vodka. I made something that resembled a Cosmo. I'll call it a Dirty Cosmo, because instead of triple sec I used pulp-free orange juice. I barely had enough lime juice from half-a-dozen lime slices to make up the required 1/2 ounce. It was tasty nonetheless. I used the recipe from the Happy Hour Cocktail deck that showed up in my stocking.

We came home, mixed up the Cosmo, poured wine for iHubby, and played Visual Eyes over Chex Party Mix. Yum! Got bored with that, turned on Letterman (which turned out to be a repeat with Kevin Spacey), smooched at midnight, and picked up MatrixBoy at 1:00 from his girlfriend's house.

My resolutions:
1. Go to two more shows at the Chrysler this year
2. Try one drink from the Happy Hour Cocktail deck each weekend
3. oh, hey, there isn't a third!

Last Day of Vacation

Having spent my entire vacation at the mercy of Christmas and mandatory (corporate) training, I feel ready to have some legitimate time off. Ya. That or a stun-gun to my boss's groin. iHubby laughed at me that I was doing mandatory CBTs at the very last minute, which reduced me to a pile of tears. It's a sad reminder that this entire year has just been one big headache. Gross amounts of overtime have been incurred in order to meet expectations - let's not even talk about exceeding expectations. Which, of course, brings up the entire issue of performance reviews, a.k.a., judgements.

Wicked witch CH can't seem to do any wrong and I can't seem to work at all effectively for her. My commitment falls completely flat. I wish I knew why I feel that way about anything and everything about her and her leadership. She hasn't actually done anything. Uh. Maybe that's why. Duh.

Sunday Morning

I'm learning about Kerberos today. It's a rough subject for 8:20 in the morning but I'm up for it, having fortified myself with at least one cup of coffee, and had my morning giggle watching Maggie and Tasha chase each other around. And, now that I've found out that it's a private key encryption protocol that allows client/server authentication to occur over an interently insecure network connection, I'm ready to take a little break.

I've taken over the entire dining room table. The third floor AC isn't working, which in turn makes the 2nd floor warmer than usual. This, in turn, forces me to flee to the first floor for cool comfort. Yes, I like it cool. 71-72 is my style. My books, my laptop, my camera and dock, my little desk organizer, and I have all moved to the dining room table. This wasn't an option until we got the WAP, which by the way works wonderfully. We have wireless access in every room of the house (except the third floor). Even the kitchen! I like to move around. Change of scenery. I get bored.

We (Kent) has ripped out a 7-foot section of uuuugly cabinetry in the kitchen. We decided, for better or worse, that we'd start the darn kitchen remodel and do a little at a time. In that sections place is a 7' high, four foot wide open steel shelving. It look better than it sounds. We have two of those now, and definitely freed up some real estate. It also helps us visualize how we want the kitchen to look. It looks as though there is some very good hardwood under about a half-inch of other flooring. We're actually excited about this. Hardwood in the kitchen? Sure, why not! What the hell!

All of a sudden, now that we have a membership at Costco, Kent likes to go grocery shopping. Wants to go. Asks when I am going. Volunteers to go. I'm not questioning it, just liking it.

Happy Friday

Smobriety Day 18. The craving comes and goes, especially when I finish a particularly daunting - or unwelcome - task. Frequently happens at work. Ha ha.

It's official, Nick has dropped out of school; to his credit he promptly took the GED test. Now we wait for about six weeks for the results. I still have mixed feelings about it all and despite all good intentions will continue to wonder where we screwed up. I'll probably never know.

Work continues to be a blessing/curse/confusing conundrum of politics and actual productivity. Things that I think should happen quickly, don't. Things that I think shouldn't happen so quickly, do. And everyone absolutely has to cover their collective asses. Well, ok, I do too but at least I'm not so damned obvious about it. There is no real place for idealism in corporate America. Maybe I've just become One Of Them, and cynical to boot. But the pay? It works for me.

Summer is here, practically speaking. The ambient temperature is between 89 and 100 every day, with lows around 70-75. It's the heat index that pushes it up so high. It's unbearable.

I've had weird physical things going on and now I wonder if they are connected. Clumsiness. More than the usual. Some small balance problems, mild dizziness - like Labrynthitis but fleeting. Of course, I'm always tired - I have been for some time. Motivation? Libido? What're those? Fatigue, muscle tightness, joint stiffness and pain...and, just the other day, the strangest episode of total disorientation. I was driving up the ramps in the parking garage, listening to All Things Considered. Nothing unusual. First I noticed that there were three parking spots next to an elevator where before there were no parking spots. Now, that's pretty odd, I thought. How is it possible to move an elevator and add three parking spots? Was I in the right garage? I rounded the corner and there was another elevator with three parking spots that shouldn't have been there. On one side the the garage there is an elevator with no parking spots next to it, on the other side is the elevator with the three spots. I looked out beyond the openings to locate a landmark and couldn't find one. Where the fuck was I? Was I in the right garage? I looked at the floor letters. Shit! They moved those too! I was starting to panic. Surely this wasn't right. Finally, I got reoriented. But I was scared. Terrified, actually. I figured out that somehow I thought I was on one side of the garage when I was really on the other side (just writing about it gives me the creeps!). I think. Actually, I don't know. I just know what for about 30 seconds the garage and surroundings I saw everyday had changed.

I've made an appointment with Dr. Garris. She'll know what the hell is happening.