My life...or something like it

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.

Welcome to the beginning of a crappy week

Tired is an understatement. Exhausted is an understatement. I feel like I'm
hungover - yet I'm not, cause I can't even remember the last time I had some
alcohol, let alone been drunk.

Last night, Sunday night, I started out with the best intentions of getting
to bed at a decent time. The boy and I were playing WoW together (though
actually, I was fooling around on one of my alt's while he was auctioning
and doing other stuff - so it wasn't like we were playing "together" as much
as enjoying one another's company side-by-side). So I log out and announce
that it was late and time for bed. Matthew looks at me in this sad voice and
says "but I'm not done playing with you yet..." So how can I resist? I
concede that it's really not *that* late, and I could stay up another 30-45
minutes. We decide to play two of our characters together and about 1.5hours later I'm in bed. (I actually probably *would* have gone to bed at my intended time, but we were questing in this elite area and another player
asked for help with his quest and wanted to join our party. Being the nice
person that I am, I allowed him to join, and by the time I wanted to get to
bed again, we were too far into everything to abandon him...it actually
worked out ok, as the boy and I a quest with him and made good progress on
another one...plus I leveled, which is always good!) Sleep probably wouldn't
have been *that* bad if the evil kitties would have gone to sleep when we
did - haha - wishful thinking. I don't understand them. They'll be konked
out all evening - but as soon as Matthew and I shut down, turn out the
lights and get into bed, they insta-awake and decide it's the perfect time
to whine, fight, bellow and just generally disturb us. Evil evil cats. No
more skipping anti-anxiety pills for Jonah (as this helps all of us get a
more peaceful nights sleep!).

And of course work always sucks. Such a struggle to go there everyday. I've
now got two minutes left here - so I'm ready to bolt. I'll end with that!

Just when I thought my cats couldn't get any weirder

Jonah starts "humping" last night. It was the weirdest (and funniest) thing
ever. I've never seen Jonah (or any other cat for that matter) do this sort
of thing. He got up on the bed and started "making biscuits" on the fleece
blanket the was crumpled up on the bed. Then he kind of got up on his back
"tippy-toes" and started "thrusting" his pelvis. At first I was worried that
something was wrong and he was going to have a massive diarrhea explosion on
my bed (he's been known to have digestive/bowel problems before - but always
in the litter box) but after this activity went on for several minutes -
with Matthew and I staring in fascinated horror - kind of like watching a
car wreck - and then we started laughing uncontrollably when we realized
exactly what it *was* that he was doing. I wonder if this will now be
Jonah's new "thing" or whether this was a one time deal.

Quiet

I can't believe I'm actually going to say this - I know once I actually do
say this it's going to cease to be true any more - like I'm going to break
the spell. But I'll do it anyway. My god, it's actually quiet here at work.
And it's so nice. I've been here 34 minutes now and the phone has only rang
3 or 4 times maybe. And I can be lost in my thoughts or deep in others'
weblogs. It's grand, I tell you.

Work really really really sucks. I hate it. I know I've said it here before.
I'm sure I'll probably say it again, but I actually abhor this job. Every
morning I dread coming to work. It's a battle to get out of a comfy bed in
the morning (and even *more* comfy now that I have my boy sleeping beside
me!) and go to a job that I hate. One that doesn't challenge me. One that
only stresses me out. And one where all the other people working around me
are stressed out and unhappy in their positions as well.

Oh. And I found out on Friday that the office manager is planning on taking
away Yahoo Instant Messenger. Because it invites "spam" she says. What a
load of crap. But it's now Tuesday and YIM is still on my computer, and I've
come to realize our office manager never follows through on about 70% of
what she says anyway...although Tuesday is a day when our "IT Guy" is here -
so maybe he's planning on uninstalling on everyones machine today.

And I could probably go on and on about the crapiness of work here. But I'll
spare you that.

On the homefront things are fantastic. Matthew's still here and that makes
me happy. No plans yet for when he'll move on down to So Cal to start
working with his friend. But since he never plans anything this doesn't
surprise me. I'm sure I'll come home on day and he'll tell me, "Oh, so I'm
leaving in two days..."

We've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft, geeks that we are! But we
have a lot of fun doing so and I'm *not* ashamed! But really, it would be
nice to be able to pull ourselves away from "the crack" and get out for a
hike or something. The weather is sooo nice. I feel so bad about wasting it!

I also need some new ideas about what to make for dinner. Pasta is getting a
little redundant. I love my crockpot - but that also requires getting up
even earlier (and I have such a hard time getting out of bed anyway) to
prepare and let sit all day.

So yeah, it's been awhile since I've made a post - but really, nothing too
exciting has been going on.