My life...or something like it

Pet Peeve of the Day

Now, answering phones at a busy law firm, I get my share of annoyances throughout the day - but my biggest one? When people call and start by saying "I just got a phone call from this number...". C'mon people! 1) There are over 20 people that work here and the same number shows up on your caller ID. There's no way for me to know who from our office called you. 2) If you see you missed a call AND there's a voicemail notification, listen to the voicemail first. Chances are all the information you need to know is right there waiting for you on that voicemail. It might actually save yourself sounding like an idiot because you don't know who you want to speak with. And it might even save you from having to make that call at all.

Ah-ha. I got it. Next time a person calls and said "Someone just called me from this number..." I'm going to cut them off and say "I'm sorry, there is no one named "Someone" that works here!".

Good and Evil

So I had this epiphany this morning. Sometime between 6 and 7am. I realized that it's not so much that I'm going to bed too late, it's the damn cat that starts in with the constant mewing anywhere between 6am and the time I get out of bed that prevents me from getting that extra one and a half hours of good sleep!

I don't understand it. It's always ONE. It doesn't even have to be the SAME one. One of them always does it. If Jonah is being good - and these days he is (thanks to the "happy pills"), it's Finn who's being evil. And he always stands just out of range of the squirt bottle. At least with Jonah, I know if I get frustrated enough, I can jump out of bed and drench him. But if I try to do that with Finn, he knows all the perfect hiding places that are just out of reach of the squirt bottle. Ugghhh. It's not enough that I wake up with them at ~5:45 - 6:30am when they get hungry and feed them. No, then they have to continue to be little pains until I actually get up. And when I get out of the shower? What are they doing? Of course they are snoozing cutely and peacefully and look annoyed when *I* wake them up to pat at them! The nerve.

Decisions Decisions

So I won't go into some long apology about why it's been such a long time. I know it has. But I won't apologize for it.

On to the post.

I really need to start waking up earlier. And going to bed ealier. I think I tell myself this every morning. But do I do it? No.

So this morning I woke up one snooze session later than I should have (it's been happening a lot lately). To make up for it, I decided I'd microwave some oatmeal for breakfast and just take it to work with me. Even though I skipped the breakfast portion of my morning routine, I still left for work a bit later than I should have. Usually I'm able to make it up, because it seems as if the later I leave for work, the less time it actually takes for me to get there. No so this morning. So I got there 20 minutes later than I should have. And to make matters worse, I arrived at exactly the same time as my boss did. So it's not like I could "fib" a bit on the time sheet and say I got there ealier since we walked in at the same damn time.

So today I was planning on hitting the pet store at lunch, since I forgot to on my way home from work last night. The boys are completely out of canned cat food. I actually had to fool them. They should have gotten the rest of the can last night, but I had to half the half so they'd have something to eat this morning. (They have dry food available to them, so it's not like they couldn't eat kibble if they wanted to, they just want to be spoiled!)

But now I have to cut 20 minutes out of my lunch since I was late. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get myself lunch *and* run to the pet store. Do I chance it? Or just stop on my way home from work?

Last Minute

So I never did make a post about the boy finally leaving. It was two weeks
ago. And it made us sad - but also happy that he's finally working again and
hopefully starting to make some good money soon. And we can start planning
on things we're going to do with his newfound income. Like having me come
visit. So last Wednesday, we debated on whether or not to visit because of
the holiday weekend. Should he come here? Should I go there? Should I drive?
Should I fly? In the end we decided that a visit might not be in our best
interests. Mapquest says it takes 7 hours to drive there. That'd be 14 hours
of driving total. Like a whole day of driving. And with gas prices, that'd
be ~$100 worth of gas. So we moved on to flying. Southwest flies into
Ontario and has fairly reasonable rates. Problem is finding a way in to Palm
Springs (Ontario is an hour to 1.5 hours drive to Palm Springs). Rental Car
would be too expensive. Flying direct to Palm Springs was too expensive (for
not much more, I could have a ticket to Hawaii!). So Thursday comes and
Matthew again brings up the topic of me coming to visit. Turns out his
friend (and new boss) is willing to come pick me up from the Ontario
Airport. So we revisit the whole flying issue. We check ticket prices again
- and what we thought was a very reasonable price on Southwest turned out to
be the one-way price only. (They do have very reasonable rates, but you have
to plan more in advance than the Thursday before a Holiday weekend). So the
debate continued. In the end, we decided, even though it was more than we
wanted to pay, we wanted to see each other more. Especially since it was a
holiday weekend and we wouldn't have another opportunity to visit for
several weeks (as for two weeks this month Matthew will be back home in
Hawaii). So I ended up buying tickets ~1am Friday to leave San Jose to
Ontario at 12:35pm Friday. Talk about last minute. At first, I decided I'd
go in to work a couple hours on Friday and say I had to leave early, but in
the end, I figured I'd probably need that time to get myself ready, so I
called work, left a message for my supervisor saying I had a "family
emergency" and I wouldn't be in on Friday. Good thing I did, as I really did
need every minute to get ready before I had to leave for the airport.

The beasties seemed to have done just fine without me. I came back to my
apartment in the same condition I left it - although with the litter box a
bit more stinky than I would have liked. This is the longest I've left them
by themselves - 4 days/3 nights. If I'd been more prepared, I would have
tried to get someone to come in to check on them on Saturday - but I figured
they'd do alright. And they did. (Much to my relief)

We had a very nice weekend in Palm Springs. We were somewhat limited by the
fact that we didn't really have any transportation. Matthew's friend was
kind enough to let us use his big ass SUV on Sunday. We had a very nice
"date". We first went the zoo, The Living Desert, in Palm Desert. My
favorites of course were all the cat species - Mountain Lion, Ocelot,
Serval, Sand Cat, ect. I couldn't believe how uncrowded the place was. I
think we saw more staff than people actually visiting! Probably because this
weekend was the start of their season and it was HOT! Many of the poor
kitties were panting it was so hot!

We then went to a very yummy Mexican restaurant in Downtown Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is definitely a very "yuppie" town and had many yummy looking
(and smelling) restaurants to choose from. After that we saw The Transporter
2. It was quite entertaining. Jason Stratham is fun to watch. He has this
charisma and finesse (plus he's nice to look at) and he made a movie with a
so-so and much overdone plot - into a very enjoyable movie.

All in all it was quite a good weekend. It was very disappointing to have to
come home and think about going back to my crappy job. At least it's a short
week this week. I really really need to make a better effort a finding a new
job.

And I probably had more to say - but I've been interrupted so many times,
I'm not sure it's worth it anymore.

A Friday List

1. Dave Matthews is HOT! I want to have his babies. Now this statement is
not said lightly as I've given babies a lot of thought and at this point in
life, I'm not sure babies and me are a good fit. But for Dave, I'll gladly
have his babies. Now, I'm also not one to have *crushes* on famous people.
Sure, there are a lot of good looking celebrities out there. But Dave, oh
my. He makes my heart swoon. The way he closes his eyes when he sings. The
way he smiles at certain parts of the song. The way he raises one eyebrow.
The way he moves his feet while strumming his guitar. The way he dances with
other members of the band. I just imagine that there's no one else in the
amphitheatre and Dave is singing his love songs to me.

2. Sweet & Spicey tea is not for me. As I've mentioned before in this blog,
although I like the smell of coffee, I don't like the taste (unless it's in
the form of a mocha). But I realize I need my daily dose of caffeine. And so
shortly after starting work here, I discovered the virtues of tea. We have
every kind of tea under the sun. I started out with Earl Grey. Then I
discovered Darjeeling. That ran out so I started drinking regular English
Tea Time. And then I discovered Black Tea. But eventually we ran out of
that. So this morning I was back in the kitchen, looking at all the empty
boxes of my favorite teas wondering which one to try next (that actually
*had* caffeine, there's a lot of teas back there that don't...). I decided
to try the Sweet & Spicey tea. It smells wonderful. Like cinnamon. But it
tastes like chewing gum. I'm sorry, you should be chewing chewing gum, not
drinking it. Guess it's time to find another tea.

3. My iPod doesn't want to play in my car anymore. That makes me very sad
because I love my pod and I miss listening to it in the car. Granted, it's
not the iPod itself, it's the cassette adapter. This is the 2nd cassette
adapter I've gone through now. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy
yet *another* $20 cassette adapter (which will probably only last me a
couple months) or if I should wait until I have some spending money and buy
a whole new stereo that is compatible with the pod. Seems like I could get a
new system (Alpine - the brand I currently have) for ~400. And yay, it'd be
compatible with my pod!! I could control the pod through the head units
controls. Just what I wanted. (Now that I've actually looked it up and found
what I wanted I'll most likey obsess about it until I go out and get one)

The End is Near

At least we think so. So what was intended to be a couple of weeks visit
turned out to be a couple of months - but last night I overheard the
telephone conversation with the friend he'll be working with in So Cal and
they were discussing airports. Looks like the boy will soon have a ticket
outta here. I have mixed feelings. At times, I think thank God! because I
can finally have some me time again. And get back to all the things I've
been neglecting since he's arrived. And at other times, I'm my whiney (but
cute!) self and protest "nooooo. don't go. stay here with me!".

And of course, his leaving again brings up all these sort of other questions
and doubts - how long are we going to keep this up? I guess until it stops
working. And for the most part, yeah, it's worked. Even while he was in
Hawaii. (Not sure how well it would have worked without cell phone plans
with free, unlimited long distance calling (well after 9pm) and a silly
online computer game). And it's worked while he's been here for the past 3
months, stepping all over eachother and the evil beasties. And you know it
must be love when a guy cleans up your cat's puke. Yeah, he's a keeper
alright!

And at least (hopefully) today won't be such a bad day at work. I'm leaving
early to drive up to Sacto area to see Dave Matthews. And I'm coming in late
to work tomorrow.

And yeah, that's about all I have to say about that.

Neglect

Bad blogger! Bad blogger!

Yes, I realize that I've been neglecting the blog. Mostly it's because
nothing really interesting has been happening in my life the past couple
months. And I don't want to be a bore blabbing daily about the same things
over and over.

So Matthew is still here. Neither of us expected him to stay this long, but
we're not really complaining. I'm amazed at how well we're getting along
together, especially since we're living together in a studio apartment, with
a full size bed and two cats. Although, truth be told, I am looking forward
to some time to myself again. And having my desk back. And putting things
back in their proper spots (like the dining table which has essentially been
living in the middle of the "living area" wand has become a "dumping ground"
for all kinds of clutter.) Maybe I can even unpack a couple more boxes! And
start doing some computer projects I've been meaning to do for awhile now
(like getting all my photos organized again). But in the end, I know I'll
miss him more than I want time to myself. Playing WoW over the phone again
just won't be the same as playing side by side. And fighting over the arm
rests. (No matter *what* chair I'm in, Matthew always insists on using *my*
arm rests - even if he has his own!) And having him there for scratches. And
making me sandwiches and salad.

*warning - begin ubergeek part of post*

And I'm still obsessed with WoW. Finners (my Tauren Shaman) hit 60 several
weeks back. It was actually pretty anti-climatic. I had these grand plans of
making him a tuxedo (Tailoring, ftw!), getting him on his Epic Kodo Mount
and posting some screenshots, but in the end, meh, not that exciting. (But
maybe when Matthew goes away and I have some time again I'll start making a
WoW Scrapbook). Last weekend we got our first Molten Core experience. (Ok,
so maybe not the *first*, but since the time before we never made it past
the first two stone guards, I'm not sure that really counts). We spent
around 9 hours, made it to Lucifron, wiped a few more times, and then called
it a run. Matthew was pretty disappointed that we didn't tough it out to
actually kill him - but me (and pretty much the rest of the guild, I think)
felt quite accomplished, having done what no other guilds thought we could
do (make it past the bridge on our very first run). Plus, we didn't have
near enough priests! In fact, during the beginning of the raid, when we had
only 1 priest, a couple druids & some shaman for healing, I was #1 in
healing done! (But in the end I think I got bumped down to #4). I'm excited
to try again this weekend.

And Fezzick is actually getting some game time again. Matthew and I never
thought he'd make it past level 40 (In fact, the only reason he made it to
40 was so that he could max out his leatherworking, I was gonna stop him at
35). I can't even remember why I started playing him again, (of course I
think Finners hitting level 60 had much to do with it) but I did and now I'm
enjoying him again.

And there's Amoozing, my new Tauren druid. And PvP. I've discovered I like
PvP, which on WoW is in the form of Warsong Gulch, a Capture the Flag game.
So far Amoozing has seen the most PvP action. It's been fun playing the
'newbie' zone (level 21-30) because of course (like all my characters)
Amoozing has the best gear she could possibly have at her level and there's
only a few well played characters (like a mage or rogue) that can "beat" her
one on one. (Of course if two or more are beating down on me, I run for the
hills). I wouldn't say I'm really "good" at PvP. But for these levels, the
Horde really dominates Alliance (I think I've only been on 2 or 3 losing
teams) and of course its more fun when you win! I'm trying to decide how
long I want to keep her at level 30 to continue to play at this level. I
can't go out and quest anymore because I'll get too much experience and
level, and I can't turn in any more of my "Mark of Honors" for winning the
game because the next one I turn in, I'll level. And will the 31-40 games be
as much fun as the 21-30 games?

Ok, so I probably spent way too long talking about WoW. so...

*end ubergeek part of post*

Hrm...what else? See, I lost all my focus because of WoW. This is exactly my
problem.

Oh, so I read the latest Harry Potter. I didn't even realize it was coming
out until I saw it mentioned in a Fry's ad. (Yes, that *is* how geeky I've
become!) I'll probably have to read it again just to make sure, but so far,
I think this is my *least* favorite of the series. It was all very
anti-climatic. There was too much "relationship" drama between Harry/Ginny
and Ron/Lavender/Hermione. And besides, I predicted it all a few books ago.
I knew eventually Harry would end up with Ginny. And eventually Ron would
end up with Hermione (I just expected it to be much more humorous than it
was in The Half Blood Prince, in this book, it was just boring and painful).
It just didn't have the action or tension like the previous books had
(besides the silly "love" stuff). But I'll probably re-read it again and
maybe I'll change my opinion. (That's one thing I love about Harry Potter
series, no matter how many times I've read them before, I still enjoy
reading them again). Oh, and of course the ending. Yes, it pissed me off.
But then after watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban for the
first time on DVD (after only seeing it once in the theatre when it first
came out) I realized exactly *how* sub-par the "new" Dumbledore was compared
to the "old" Dumbledore, so maybe it's ok that he won't be appearing in
movies following The Half Blood Prince (although you never know - maybe
Dumbledore will pull a "Gandalf").

And of course, there's work. I still hate it. That's one of the other things
I'll be able to do once Matthew leaves, start job hunting again. There's
more I can say about the crappiness that is my job, but I just don't feel
like it right now.

Hrm, well, I guess that's it. I just got back from lunch and while I could
tell you about some of the movies I've seen, I've just lost all train of
thought and focus. Time to read the WoW Forums. Hopefully they're up now.

You know you're playing too much Warcraft...

and reading too many WoW forum posts when:

You can't wait to go home so you can re-cast your "Advil Buff"

Want to tell the attorneys they need to " /random 100" for use of the
conference room.

Want to tell callers "Sorry, So-and-So is "AFK", why don't you leave him a
voicemail"

I'm sorry, but I'm not superwoman

Yes, be forwarned, it's yet another work rant. You've probably figured out
that I work as a receptionist for a law firm. We're a very busy (yet small
~20 or so employees) client centered law firm. And for the past month or so,
one person ONE (me) is expected to answer every single phone call that comes
in. I'm sorry, but that is impossible. Don't get me wrong, it *would* be
possible if all I was doing was re-directing the calls to the appropriate
staff or voicemail. But no, in addition to answering every. single. call -
I'm also expected to give basic information to potential clients, schedule
client/new client appointments (of which some appointment calls can last ~5
minutes or longer, especially if they want to give me their whole friggen
life story) as well as greet clients coming into an appointment - which
includes (if they're new clients) giving them paperwork to fill out & taking
a polaroid picture of them for our file & offering them something to drink.
Not to mention that when I *do* try to redirect calls and the person the
caller is tyring to reach is not there (or doesn't want the call) and I
offer voicemail, many times the caller will
stammer/whine/complain/hmmm&haaaaa over whether or not they want to leave a
message ... meanwhile I have 5 other lines I'm expected to pickup in the
queue...not like I can put them on hold while they make up there mind trying
to decide if they want to leave a message or not (or maybe I could...but
then I'd just come off as plain old rude & uncaring) OR the staff I'm trying
to tell that has a call is hmmmmm/haaaaaing over whether or not they want to
take it ... and meanwhile 5 more calls are coming in. Our telephone system
does not work on "transfer" - I can't "transfer" calls to someone's
extentions. I actually have to CALL them and say "hey you have a call..you
want it or not?". Not to mention certain staff's spouses who call 20 times a
day. (You want me to get every call - tell your loser of a husband not to
call you every 45 minutes) I have very little respect for the office manager
as it is - so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing up here. I'm doing
my best with what they've given me - and if I'm not doing a good enough job
- fuck it, fire me then - I'd love to collect unemployment while I hunt for
another job.

However, on a more positive note - they've actually gotten around to hiring
a new "Client Services Administrator" (been like a month) so hopefully now
I'll actually get some "back-up" or some of the more difficult callers I can
shove off on someone else.

More work negativity

How I became such a pessimist, I don't know. But to follow on my previous
post, it has been a pretty crappy week here. But somehow I've made it to
Thursday. There must be some sort of weird time phenomenon that happens when
you get older - you're at work on a Monday watching the clock tick by ever
so slowly and you're wondering how you're ever going to survive the rest of
the week. Friday seems so far away. But before you know it, it's Thursday.
Somehow you've survived until Thursday. There's only two more hours til
quitting time and then it's Friday. And Fridays are a piece of cake. But
what happened to Tuesday and Wednesday? It seems like they barely even
existed now. And how did half of June go by without me hardly even noticing
it? Pretty soon summer will be gone and I'll have nothing to show for it!

So this morning the office manager called me into a meeting. There has been
a lot of drama with client appointments and rescheduling/shifting client
appointments because our senior partner attorney had to have some sort of
emergency surgery (nothing life threatening) and needed time at home to
recover. Anyhow, the office manager and I had a miscommunication regarding
one of the appointments (and thankfully another attorney was able to cover,
so it could have been worse than it actually was...) but she wanted to call
me in to make sure that there weren't any more "miscommunications". Beh,
whatever. A fifteen minute meeting with her will always turn into at least
an hour because she can never stay on topic. She then went on to ask me if I
was "happy" here at the firm. HTF am I supposed to respond to that?! There's
no way I can be honest. Because really, what I want to say, is "no, I hate
this job". Really, I do. I'm becoming to see that it's not a very good match
for me. She went on to give me "constructive criticism" that I need to be
more "outgoing" and "cheerful" and greet clients better. I guess one client
review came back saying that the reception area was "cold - and I don't mean
the temperature". Beh, whatever. See what I mean. I don't even care. I hate
this job and I don't care. I wish wish I didn't need the money that comes
from this job - that I could just quit with a clear conscious and find
something that's more suited for me. I guess at this point, I probably do
hate this job more that I hate searching for a new job. I searched to job
postings (good ol' Craigslist) yesterday and actually found one I'd be
interested in. I'm definitely motivated to send them my resume. I could go
on and on about why this is such an awful spot for me - but I think I've
done enough of that already. I just need to do something about it. And soon.