Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Instructions

Me: I don't want to sound selfish, and you know I have never asked anything like this before, but seriously: This is a miracle, something I was positive would never happen, and it just has to be all about ME.

Greg: I know, sweetie.

Me: Remember me telling you how Adam Ant would never tour again? With his mental illness and all that? I just can't believe it's happening. He's almost 60!

Greg: I remember.

Me: Even if I decide I need to do something that seems strange, like run in the second the doors open and then just sit and stare at the empty stage for an hour, you'll support me and do whatever I want. Okay?

Greg: Okay.

Me: And if I have to weep for a while, what will you do?

Greg: I will put my arm around you and let you cry.

Me: And if I have to weep for a while again later?

Greg: Same.

Me: And you won't get weirded out by my weeping?

Greg: I love your weirdness.  Do I need to put tissues in my pocket?

Me: No, I'm taking a small purse.

Greg: Got it.

Me: I mean, he's doing mostly old punky songs!  The ones nobody's ever heard of, the b-sides and the ones from Jubilee. I seriously can't even believe it.

Greg: I know, I'm excited too, I really like those songs.

Me: (tearing up) I know you do, and it just means so much to me to have you there with me and to share it with you.

Greg: It means a lot to me too.

Me: This part is very important, okay?  I don't know what it will be like, if our seats will be up against a barrier, or if we can go right up to the edge of the stage, or if most people will stay in their seats or what.

Greg: Sweetie, we have front row center.

Me: I know, but what if there's a space in front of the seats and people go in front of us? We can't let that happen!  I will be right up against either the stage or the barrier, in the very center, right in front of Adam, regardless. Okay?

Greg: Okay.

Me: And you will be right behind me, and you'll brace your arms on either side of me if people are pushing and shoving. Right?

Greg: Right.

Me: And if there are short people right behind you who might have trouble seeing, do we care?

Greg: No, this is your day and you are the only one who matters.

Me: That is correct.  And if the concert t-shirts are horribly expensive and overpriced?

Greg: We'll buy two, one for you and one for me.

Me: (tearing up)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Working Woman

Work is moving along workily.  After a month and a half, I am still trying to get the actual program set up correctly, but it is finally looking like implementation is imminent.  While I kind of enjoyed the challenge and the independence and the decision-making and people listening to my expertise, now it's starting to wear on me and I have to keep telling myself that I don't have to do everything.

We've decided that to make things more efficient all the agents have to either be flexible with their schedules by 2 hours (meaning their start times could vary by up to 2 hours week to week) or come up with a really good reason why not. But it's me telling the director this, then the director tells the managers, the managers tell their supervisors, and the supervisors tell their agents. I am completely positive that there are agents who really don't understand what's about to happen, and since they were hired to work a set schedule, I have every sympathy for them.

Still.  Reassuring them/helping them understand is not my job. If there are a bunch of upset people when the first schedules are released, at least I can take comfort in the fact that I am in the other building, and none of them know who I am.

So the first day of agents looking at the new program to see their schedules, and of supervisors and managers looking at the supervisor version, will be Monday, October 1.  Which is my 9th wedding anniversary and a day that I typically take off to spend with my sweetie-pants. And it's also the next workday following the ADAM ANT concert.  It's also the day after my mother's 91st birthday. This is not great timing, especially if things are getting behind and I'm having trouble.

I'm really hoping I can get all the info loaded into the program and get everything ready to go by mid-week, and then have at least a day or so at the end of the week to review stuff and make sure nothing was missed. I also have to train the director and managers on it, so that they can train the supervisors who will then train the agents. The massively simplified version will be very quick and easy to learn, hopefully just a few minutes. Then the next step will be to get everyone trained on the full version, and roll out all the other things it can do besides just show schedules. That'll take at least a month or more.

I have to wonder if my bosses (ie, the two people I report to) aren't talking about me and wondering what the heck I'm doing and why it's taking me so long. They don't understand the program well enough for me to explain. I assume that when I give them quick overviews of what I'm doing I at least sound knowledgeable, whether or not they have the slightest idea of what I am actually talking about. I assume they trust that I am actually doing stuff.

I do, I must admit, enjoy getting my paychecks.




Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Pride About Our Manner

I am way behind on my apparently ill-advised movie watching goal for the year. To meet the goal I will need to watch 26 movies in the next 3.5 months, approximately. That will not happen.  New goal for 2013: Watch more TV shows!

TV series are arguably an equivalent art form to movies now, with cable channels throwing tons of money and people like Alan Ball at them. I have not had more time for movies because I have been positively enthralled by shows like Downton Abbey, Louie, Homeland, Girls, and now... Oh, now.  Now I am completely and utterly addicted (ha) to Breaking Bad.  Greg and I started watching it on Netflix and got sucked in right away by the amazingly realistic characters and the fascinating plot. We are now up to the middle of season 4, and we literally can't stand to watch anything else. We have Real Time with Bill Mahers and Louies and Daily Shows piling up on the DVR, and they will all just have to wait until there are NO MORE Breaking Bads, because we can't watch anything else.

It's just such an intense, semi-movie-like experience to watch episodes of a series one after the other, instead of waiting a week or months in between. We have so many more we want to see, too.  We haven't seen The Wire or Deadwood or... well, there are plenty to keep us busy.

I have completely fallen in love with my little Kindle, too.  I bought a pink faux leather case on eBay, and I've even taken it to work to read on lunch breaks a few times.  I've been reading a fairly mindless but cheerful and entertaining ebook series about witches.  I saw a review of the one I'm reading now (#3) on Amazon that said the reviewer would not be buying any more of these relentlessly cheerful, unrealistically nice novels. But that's exactly what I am enjoying! I don't know, I'm not in the mood for realism and darkness.  Or maybe I'm getting enough from Mr. White.

Work is going fine. I have literally read the entire manual for the program they hired me to know about, but I had no idea how many changes needed to be made, and I had no idea how far beyond my knowledge and experience this would go. I am liking the challenge, though.  And I have to admit, being basically boss-less and working completely independently is nice for me. I find that if I keep trying I actually CAN figure out things that seem hopeless. This whole job feels oddly temporary, but so far I think I am doing a great job (even though, truly, no one sees it yet at all) and I'm feeling optimistic.

I have wanted to write about how excited I am to go see Adam Ant in concert on the 29th of this month, and it is such an emotional thing for me that I can't find the words. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime I have gotten thrilly butterfly-tummy at least once a day just at the mere idea of it.

I feel beneath the white
There is a red skin suffering
From centuries of taming

No method in our madness
Just pride about our manner
Antpeople are the warriors
Antmusic is the banner

A new Royal Family

a wild nobility
we are the family
~ Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni


Tell me those drums don't make you want to buy front row center tickets to hear it live, and to DANCE.