New Shoes

A co-worker of mine has been known in the office for his bright green shoes. I’ve gotten so used to him wearing these shoes that I even, at times, associate the color green with him.

Recently, he was in need of a new pair of shoes and was unable to find the green shoes. He has instead opted for blue shoes and I'm having a hard time getting used to them. It doesn’t help that they are an electric blue and parts of them are shiny.
When a few of us stepped out to lunch Tuesday I mentioned that I’m having a hard time getting used to his shoes. He said he’s noticed they are distracting to people probably due to how shiny they are. Just the other day he was in his Father’s office and was introduced to one of his Father’s co-workers. The man kept looking down at his shoes and he said he felt like telling him, “Hey Man! My face is up here.”

“Welcome to my world!”

Ohhhh, I'm feeling a pain in my chest

A bunch of us were chit chatting around the water cooler about things like carpal tunnel due to our computer use and what we do alleviate it. A new employee/co-worker didn't understand why anyone would have these issues.

I said, "Well, when you're almost 40 and been working on computers as some of us you'll see what we mean."

He replied, "You're not 40!"

"I'll be 39 in a few weeks... Close enough."

"You're the same age as my Mom!"

"Oh My Jesus! I think my heart is attacking me!!!!"

I can't believe I'm old enough that I could have a kid old enough to be in the work force with other adults. This new dude is not starting off on the right foot with me.

I have no idea what to title this post

I finished my eight week condensed course and now have four more college credits to my name. The class took up a lot of my time especially the second half of it and now work has me incredibly busy. This makes finding time to blog difficult and the inspiration isn't so easy. I spend about three hours a day commuting due to the location of Mini Red's camp. Quite a few topics have crossed my mind during the long hours in the car but when it comes time to sitting down and writing it out I'm finding other things that need to be done.

This weekend Mini Red and I have been under the weather. When I picked her up from camp on Friday she was sniffing and sneezing like crazy. I had been fighting a migraine all day and couldn't get out of work early since there was so much to do. The evening plans had changed and Mini Red and I were staying in. This meant no blogger happy hour for me this month.

Mini Red and I did get out and make it to the company picnic on Saturday after much debate. I was hoping the heat and just getting out would help and it did. It was a good thing we went because there weren't many people in attendance. Not one of our executives showed up. The company has gone through some major changes in the last year and it has been very scary and difficult for those of us that have stayed/survived. Things have been getting better but the lack of executives at the picnic was quite a blow to many of us and gives a bad impression of how they (The Executives) feel about the company and it's future.

After the picnic we were exhausted. The drive home seemed to take forever and we were looking forward to putting on a movie and taking a nap. Mini Red pulled out the blow up mattress and made herself comfortable and I crashed on the couch.

Sunday brought more laziness and trying to figure out how to transfer VHS to DVD while suffering another migraine. We also watched home movies from when Mini Red was little little little. Oh how she has changed and I would love to revisit her at that age and just hug her. My favorite was at the age of almost four, on Christmas morning Mini Red was lead into the room with the gifts under the tree. When she saw everything she exclaimed in a high pitched voice, "Look at all the stuff!" Aww she is so cute and I would love to have another. Mini Red says I could just have one injected since I don't have a man. How cute is she?

We then reluctantly ran out to get groceries for the coming week during the thunderstorm and this helped both of us a lot. We enjoyed walking through the rain in and out of the store plus Mini Red was a huge help and made this chore enjoyable because we worked together.

As for my course I learned some really fun stuff that can be done with Photoshop. My third assignment was my favorite. In this assignment we were to show what we learned about channels and creating highlights and shadows among other things like rays of sunlight. I used two of my own photos and four stock photos. I added shadows and rays and used filters. Here are the photos I used:

My end result:

Guest Post: IT Support May I Help You?

A friend at work has a second job in the evenings supporting a help desk. He’s been working help desks for 8 years now and gets all sorts of strange calls as I’m sure you can imagine. The other day he told me one and I thought it was so funny I asked him to be a guest blogger.

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When working in technical support I assist different types people. I assist the person who works in IT and swears they know everything, and wants to call just tell me how our system should work. I assist the person who knows damn well they shouldn’t even be near a damn computer.

I even assist the person just learning how to speak English. I have no problem assisting these people; it's my job to help those that are in need.

I calmly do my job until I get a person who simply wants to waste my time; even though I spend my spare time between calls is sleeping or playing PSP. These people are bored and have nothing better to do such as this woman:

Me: Tech support, how may I assist you?

Woman: HELLO?

Me: Tech support, how may I help you?

Woman: Where are you located?

Me: Virginia

Woman: Where in Virginia?

Me: _______, Virginia

Woman: No your not! Most companies like yours outsource overseas, I know you’re located in India or China.

Me: What? No. I’m an American, and we are not located in India I can assure you. Do you have a question?

Woman: They trained you well, you even sound like an American. You even sound black.

Me: What? Huh?

Woman: What's your name, not your fake American name but your real name?

Me: Goodbye douche.

A little while later she called back and spoke with co-worker, who happens to be Asian with a thick accent. He hung up on her when she wanted to know where in china he is located. What a crazy lady.

This is why I blog…

So I have someone to tell all about my odd little days filled with good and bad, especially the good.

The day started off well enough. I got to work and ate my oatmeal with berries. I logged on to see if my test of the Preventive Maintenance (PMs) auto generation worked properly. It did… sort of. This meant tinkering with it all morning and it still wasn't working right. Finally, I set it to run while I was out to lunch and figured I would work on it when I got back.

Trish was picking me up and we were meeting Justin for lunch at Chevy’s at one of the Pentagon malls. First I ran to my car to grab the gift I had for her and the baby. She had offered to pick me up since I was just over the bridge and I was more than happy to let her. So I stood out there on 14th Street waiting for her holding a bag that said “TaDa”. I quickly turned the bag around and gave myself a quick once over to make sure I couldn’t be mistaken for a… You know. Then again they don’t hang around there anymore… Do they? I couldn’t help but laugh and hope she would show up soon, which she did.

I could have stayed at lunch all day. We had a seat outside and Justin and I decided to get the Frozen Watermelon Margarita. YumFookingYum!! We covered a wide range of topics including Boobs. Trish keeps asking me how I deal with them because it’s taking some getting used to. She’s hoping she gets to keep them after the baby arrives. Time flew by too fast and I knew I had to get back and get the test PMs running for the client. We all agreed that our lunch reminded us of a “Sex In The City” episode. None of us could claim to be Samantha but in the end we decided that today Trish was a “Pregnant, Put Together, Charlotte”, I was a “Too Busy Miranda with no Man”, and Justin was “Carrie” because he has the boyfriend, the social life, and just got back from Aruba and is lookin so fine. Beotch! I tried to arrange something where we all go out before Trish has the baby because she could be the DD. Plus she doesn’t need a drop to drink to have a good time or instigate something. I can’t wait to have lunch with you guys again soon. I miss the whole gang not being together anymore.

Back at work I found that all my hard work paid off and the PMs ran perfectly. I documented it and successfully finished some other tasks before heading out. Tonight is class you know and I need to see Mini Red on my way there. I was in a great mood til I came up against Metro Area drivers. They are all over the place and my point was proven as I drove up Cathedral Avenue. Some nut bag not only hit a parked car but his right front wheel was in the parked car’s front windshield. WTF!?!? I know I need to be faster with the camera but I need to see Mini Red before getting to class.

Can I tell you how much I hate Connecticut Avenue on the Maryland side of Chevy Chase Circle? The lanes are so narrow it’s scary and on top of that one of those “Potomac, Suburban Driving, on the phone without a earpiece Mom’s” pulls out from a side road and comes into my lane nearly hitting me. WTF?!?! I even mentioned this to Mom, when I got to her house, who gave an “Oh, one of those” looks because aren’t we all familiar with those women?

So I grabbed a quick bite to eat and a little bit of time with Mini Red before I was off to class. I suggested to Mini Red that instead of watching TV she could read, practice her violin or even write up a review for the blog. I said all of this loud enough so Mom could hear and I think the writing came as a great idea to both of them.

Class was uneventful but a lot of information I'm hoping to retain. When I picked up Mini Red I was glad to hear she spent her time constructively and wrote a post (see previous post).

It was a long day and full of everything imaginable. I think the frozen margarita was key for such a successful day. You should try it sometime, but only one or your right front tire could end up in someone’s windshield.

An office-wide email received today

Every one who has a laptop if you could please send me the following information on it:
1.) Make/Model
2.) Cereal Number (underneath the laptop)
3.) Company Bar Code (if it has one)[underneth the laptop]

Response:
1.) Make/Model: Two Scoops
2.) Cereal Number: Raisin Bran
3.) Company Bar Code: Kellogg’s

Hahahahahaha! I needed that!

Are you ever amazed when you realize what's going around you?

Thursday, I was working out of my office in Alexandria. One of my co-workers was looking out my window and saw this site:

He couldn’t understand why this guy was sitting on this dumpster spraying every last bit of debris that was coming down the shoot.

I said, “It’s their asbestos control.”

“What is it they’re spraying? It couldn’t be just water?”

I told him, “Yup, its just water. When I was at the Pentagon they were doing some renovations outside my office. There were complaints about the asbestos so they put a guy in the dumpster to spray down all the debris so no one would inhale it. The dude standing in the dumpster told me it only helped somewhat but it’s less expensive this way and appeased worries about the asbestos.”

Shortie added, "Our health is in the hands of a garden hose!"

As we were watching this guy straddle and spray another dude comes walking out, stands next to the dumpster to smoke. Unbelievable!

Even more amazing, than the dude smoking next to the make-shift asbestos abatement, is they are open for business. Guests are even in the rooms just below the construction.

I understand sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done as in this case controlling this asbestos. I don't know if it's better to know what is going on and be afraid of how it's being handled or if it's better to be oblivious. I guess this can apply this to many other situations such as politics or is it all considered politics of one sort or another?

Wanna peek? Sure ya do!

I know I know there has been a lack of posts from your truly. I’ve heard it from a few of you and I find that a bit amusing.

Justin, who I haven’t spoken to in about a month, called to see if I was ok.

Google Boy called and said “No posts in 6 days! Is this correct? I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”

I even got an email from Elvis asking what’s up with the dating scene especially after this post. He said he would be my cheerleading section:

She's sexy, she's cute,
She's popular to boot.
She's bitchin', great hair,
The boys all love to stare,
She's wanted, she's hot,
She's everything GSA feds are not.

As for you curious folks… No, I did not hear from DM but I didn’t expect to. Steps have been taken in the dating arena but that is not to be revealed for fear of being jinxed.

This life of mine has so many roles and keeping me very busy especially of late.

Work is very busy and no time to even check out any blogs during the day let alone post. It doesn’t help that I’m on site and only have dial up for internet. On-site we are in a room with no windows on the bottom floor. Because of the tight security we have to be escorted anywhere we go in the building so we just stay in this room until we leave. We are, thank goodness, allowed to go to the bathroom unescorted. I have come to the conclusion that women come from all parts of the building to our out-of-the-way bathroom to unleash the dead within them. Each day I am able to hold my breath longer and longer.

Class is five hours every Tuesday evening. Two hours lecture and three hours lab but the time flies and I’m loving it. We recently learned to repair/restore old or damaged photos and colorization.

As a Single Mom Mini Red keeps me busy. She has swimming twice a week and then there are the various activities such as her concerts. Going to the concerts can be pain not only because I don’t know many of the other parents but I often sit alone or even worse with Mini Red’s father (ugggh), his wife and various other family members of his. I love to listen to Mini Red play but these events get PACKED and are enough to make anyone claustrophobic. I would do anything for Mini Red and thankfully my family tries their best to be there for not only Mini Red but me.

Wednesday is Family Dinner Night. Brotha-Man, SIL, Sis and sometimes… Hmmmm he needs a name. I’m talking about Sis’s boyfriend... Let’s call him Chase. Haha it’s done you finally have a name here. So as I was saying we all go over to the Folks for dinner every Wednesday after work. We catch up on what everyone is up to and sometimes other family members join us like Aunts and Uncles. These nights have become more fun each week and bring us all closer. We love seeing SIL’s pregnant belly growing on her tiny frame. Mini Red will play her violin and more recently I have been sharing what I have been producing in my class. My big night was when Chase found me in Wa Po Express (print edition pg 36) and brought a copy for me. I think Dad got a kick out of it or at least I did watching him read it.

Then there is the one night I run. Mrs. M and I alternate meeting at each others homes and we run different routes each time. This has at times been difficult but we motivate each other. We miss every so often due to weather or illness but try to make it up. We not only get some exercise but there are other benefits like exploring the neighborhoods around us and getting time to talk away from the craziness that is our lives.

So there you have a peek into my crazy weekdays and why I might be tired. You know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way.