Things That Make You Go Hmm...

I was talking to a co-worker about working as a librarian and she said the thing that you never want to say to a librarian, "You'll get to sit around and read books all day." When I told her that librarians don't read books at work she told me that I could just have staff people shelve the books for me so I could go read. Oy. If you thought the same thing, please check this blog post out.

We were doing a discussion board assignment for my online class, and I made the comment that I am against banning anyone from looking at anything on the computers in the library outside of child pornography because it is illegal (there's more to it than that, but it's not interesting). One of my classmates in my group said that just because child pornography is illegal to me doesn't mean it's illegal and that it's the library's job to decide what's illegal, not mine. Whaa??

Miscellaneous

A coworker did Reiki on me the other day. It was nice, but I wouldn't pay $75 for it. I'm not a spiritual person at all, but let me tell you, I was extremely relaxed on the drive home. So relaxed, in fact, that I pulled into my driveway and didn't remember driving home at all. One of the things she told me is that the spirits demanded that she tell me to relax, so I'm going to work on relaxing more. My goal is to be like Peter in Office Space, but with a little less money laundering.

Speaking of not worrying, I just found out on Thursday night that they are creating an office manager job that would be perfect for me. The person would supervise support staff, do some HR, and generally make sure the York, Harrisburg, and Lancaster offices run smoothly. I already am essentially the office manager in Harrisburg, but I don't have the authority to do anything or the pay of a supervisor. Plus, I should probably have some kind of supervisory experience if I want to get a full-time library job that pays more than minimum wage. I'm pretty sure I'd be qualified to do this (my current supervisor doesn't even have a Bachelor's degree), but my fear is that they are transferring me to a job that no one else in-house would be able to do, and they might not want to go through the hassle of hiring and training someone else. I really want this though, so wish me luck!

My hatred of PETA knows no bounds, but they've really done it this time. They are asking Ben and Jerry's to use human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their ice cream. WTF?!?! First of all, no offense to all the mothers out there, but that is fucking disgusting. Second of all, you don't mess with my Ben and Jerry's. This idea is so ludicrous for a variety of reasons that I'm not going to mention because anyone with two brain cells to rub together (in other words, people who aren't members of PETA) can see how flawed it is. It's so stupid that I'm wondering if it's a joke.

I just finished Season 2 of Dexter and I sent an e-mail to March since he wants to talk about it...still haven't heard back. Where are you Maaaaaach?!

In other TV news, I completely forgot to watch The Office premier on Thursday night. I guess that takes it off my list of the top 10 shows. I did watch it on Hulu and it was good, but I still think the magic that they had in the first two seasons is gone. I won't talk about any specifics since some people may not have watched it, but right now I much prefer 30 Rock. I loved season 1, and season 2 is coming out on October 7 and is on my queue.

Job Interview, Part Deux

I have an interview with the Department of Public Welfare on the 17th. I'm not nervous at all; because of the way this works, the job is pretty much mine if I want it. Basically I have one week to think long and hard about what I want. I'm leaning toward not taking it for various reasons, among them not wanting to lose vacation time, having upcoming medical appointments, possible issues with leaving early to make it to school on time, and the fact that I made some connections in class this past weekend with people who work in various libraries in the area. Plus, if I turn the job down and change my mind later, I can just re-take the test. I can't even decide what I want to order at a restaurant; how the hell am I supposed to decide what life path I should take?!

More Stuff

There still isn't too much interesting going on in my life. I got my results for the civil service exam and I applied to 4 different counties, but there are really only 2 where I would want to work. For York, 11 people did better than I did, 1 did the same, and 200-some did worse; in the other county 21 people did better and 645 did worse. So basically, I'm tied at 12th for the York list and I'm 22nd for the other list. But, like I said, it probably wouldn't be the right move for me to take this job right now. For one thing, I'd lose all my time off, and we do get massive amount of time off to make up for our lousy pay. For another, there would be a lapse in my insurance, and I have a dentist appointment and a couple doctor's appointments coming up, not to mention that I'm on a couple different meds, one of which is a psychotropic, and you generally don't want to randomly stop taking those.

School has officially started, and I am not in school mode yet. I had my school e-mail rerouted to my Gmail because my school e-mail is a pain to access and some e-mails from my professor ended up going to my spam. Luckily they weren't sent that long ago and I didn't miss any deadlines because of it, but I could have gotten an early start. I like to stay ahead of the game, because if I don't, I feel like I'm drowning. My professor is making podcasts for our online course, which is very nice. I used to have to sit at the computer listening to hour-long lectures and now I can put them on my MP3 player and listen to them while I watch dishes or do other inane things.

I'm definitely leaning toward starting a private blog. I have a bunch of things going on right now that I need to vent about, and I have a crew of awesome, supportive blog buddies. And it's cheaper than therapy! By the way, for those of you who have private blogs, I just did some catching up over the weekend. Bloglines refuses to show when private blogs update, so I had assumed people just stopped blogging.

Stuff

Two good things came out of having our door kicked in: our landlord had a screen door and a deadbolt installed. I have wanted a screen door since we moved in here about 3 1/2 years ago. The weather has been so beautiful here that we haven't needed the AC and I've been able to keep the door open. It might sound like a little thing, but I love fresh air. He didn't have a deadbolt put on the back door, but I got the carpenter's card and he only charges $20 an hour, so I'm going to ask if I can have one put on if I pay for it. It's futile because our doors have windows in them, so all someone would have to do is punch the window out and reach in to unlock the door, but at least you can't kick in a door that's deadbolted.

The kid and his mom were moving out on Saturday (he's actually not a little bastard--he's 19 and has no job and lives with his mom) and I REALLY wanted to go over there, but it's not fair to rip him a new asshole when I have no proof that he did it.

I took one of the civil service exams for a state job on Monday. It was an interesting experience; talk about a motley crew. We were all herded around like cattle and had orders barked at us. One woman didn't know how to use a mouse. Oy vey. The test was pretty easy. It's for an income maintenance case manager at the Department of Public Welfare. The first part was reading over part of the handbook and answering questions that described a household where you had to say whom was eligible for certain benefits based on the text. One of the questions was something like, "Everyone has a right to apply for benefits regardless of eligibility. In this case, 'right' means..." Three of the answers had to do with correctness and one was about something that is guaranteed to you. Are there people who would get that wrong?! There was a math part that was basically calculating benefits and gross income, there was a hilariously cheesy part about interpersonal skills where you had to watch horribly-acted vignettes and say what the person should have done, and then there was a part about grammar. I'm sure I did well, but there's a pretty long wait for these jobs. If I were planning to work for the state and retire I would probably accept it, but my future is so up in the air right now, that I don't know if it would be worth it.

I'm thinking of starting a private blog, but I don't even post on this one so I don't know what makes me think I'd post on a private one. I do feel a little stifled here though, for reasons I don't want to say here. School starts on Monday though, so I should probably hold off.

I hope everyone's enjoying the last few weeks of summer. I'm more of a fall person myself. That's pretty much all that's going on right now unless you want to read more detail about my exciting life of waking up, going to work, coming home, doing inane things in the evening, going to bed, and then starting all over the next day.

Update

I'm gonna make it short and sweet because I feel like I've told this story many, many times over the last 30 hours, but I didn't get the job. I knew as I was leaving that I probably wouldn't get it because it seemed like I didn't have the right experience that they were looking for, and I got a call from HR today confirming that. I really appreciate that they called me so quickly to let me know so I didn't have to wonder. I'm sort of annoyed that I wasted my time/ink/nice resume paper/gas running to a post office that hadn't picked up the mail yet to send thank you letters. Oh well. I'm scheduled to take a civil service on August 18, so we'll see how that goes. This weekend I get to go to Rusty's and I must get drunk at least one night to reward myself for going through the ups and downs I've had over the past few weeks.

Thanks, everyone, for the well wishes. I have the best blog friends ever!

Thinking Calming Thoughts

Today is D-Day. My interview starts at 1:15. I feel prepared, but I'm completely exhausted. After work yesterday, I went to dinner (I had fish tacos for the first time and they were awesome--I don't think Californians are crazy anymore) and then to Hersheypark with a work friend and didn't get home till a little after 11 and then didn't go to bed till after midnight, then I had to get up for an 8AM dermatologist appointment this morning. I just finished my coffee and I stopped at Burger King for a Croisanwich and a large Dr. Pepper, the breakfast of champions, so hopefully the caffeine will help me wake up.

Yesterday my coworker accepted a job, so when she leaves I'm going to be swamped unless management is organized and they replace her quickly (pause for laughter). I have a lot riding on this job and, I'll be honest, I'll be devastated if I don't get it. I'll let you all know how it goes when I get home! Thanks for the well wishes!

Job Update

My interview is scheduled for next Tuesday. I go in at 1:15 to go over benefits, meet with one doctor at 1:30, another doctor at 2:00, and then a woman who works in the position I'm applying for (I don't know if we'll be working together or if she's leaving) at 2:30. An almost 2 hour interview, good Lord!

One of my coworkers had the best. idea. ever. He said I should get on MedLine and find some research studies that these doctors have done. I found about 12, so I'll read over them this weekend and try to make some sense of them! Gotta love having access to Clarion's databases and inter-library loan!

Squee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit! I have an interview for my dream job!!

As you may remember, we were bought out effective July 1, and they have all these plans for me that they think I like, but in actuality, they blow. So I was putting my feelers out on Friday evening and found a Clinical Research Associate position at a local hospital. I thought, "I'm probably under-qualified, but what the hell?" I come home from work yesterday and have a message that the physicians are interested in meeting with me and would like to set up an interview. I was so excited I was shaking! This job would kick massive ass! I would be using my mad librarian skillz to help ER docs to research. I didn't get the message till after 5 yesterday, so I have to call after 8 this morning to set it up, but it just so happens that I took off Friday and Monday since Rusty came home. Everything's coming up Jenny!

It wouldn't be me without the downsides: I have to treat very lightly at work about this because with the merger they have to get rid of some people. They're not getting rid of me, but if this got out to the wrong people, well... Also, I have to go buy appropriate interview attire and I'd rather be torn limb-from-limb by a pack of wolves than go clothes shopping. I had 3 dreams about this last night: 2 were that I didn't get the job and 1 was that it only paid $20K. Wish me luck/pray/meditate/send me good vibes; I'll keep you posted!

On another note, I'm going to copy B. and open the blog to any questions about anything. I read March's questions to her and was like, "I want to answer those questions!" So ask away!

Where Have I Been?

March was wondering this the other day; I can only assume it's because he's secretly hankering for more Idol Thoughts. May is usually my busiest month because that's when I come out of hibernation and there are always a lot of birthday dinners for myself and a couple of my friends who share May birthdays. This May has been no exception. As you all know, I've been having nervous breakdowns over cataloging since January. I handed in my final paper in the end of April, then headed off to Mooresville to see Rusty. Two weeks after that, Chris and I went for a long weekend in Washington, D.C. and then right after that, my first summer class started. My second summer class starts June 3; yes, they overlap. And the birthday dinners haven't even started yet! The first one is today, I'm still waiting to hear back from L. (If you're reading this, thanks for ignoring me!! :)) and another friend, there is a breakfast pending with some old co-workers, and an outing to see Sex in the City with a current co-worker coming up. That's a lot for someone who is as adept at sitting on her ass as I am.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. D.C. pics are forthcoming; I don't have too many because the weather was horrible. Steady rains and temperatures 25 degrees below normal sort of marred my big plans, but I had a good time nonetheless. I ended up getting an 88% in Cataloging. I'm usually not happy with a B in a class for which I did so much work, but that was hell and I had D at one point, so I can't complain about a B. Especially since he ripped my paper apart... It's also a little annoying that he considers an 89% an A, so I just missed it. But, as one of my co-workers told me (remember what I said about working with therapists?), I need to let go of the negativity and move on.

I had my first session of my first summer class this past weekend and it was the best class I've had so far. I adore the professor (and I think she really likes me) and only looked at my watch about 3 times, compared to 3,000 times in my other weekend classes. I'm actually considering switching the class I chose in the fall to have her again. On a side note, I just found out that someone else will be teaching cataloging next time it's offered. Arghh!!!!!!! If I had waited, perhaps I could have had a professor who doesn't have such an arbitrary grading system. Sorry; letting go of the negativity... I'm dreading having these two summer classes overlapping (the first one is three weekends and the second is online) because we have to do as much in 5 weeks as we would normally do in 4 months, but by July 3 I'll be 6 credits closer to graduating. By Christmas I'll have 7 out of 12 classes and all I'll have left to take is electives, so I can take things that actually interest me.

There aren't any Idol Thoughts for last week because I worked Tuesday night and my Ti-faux is still out of commission, so I taped it and only watched David Cook's performances. No surprises Wednesday night; Syesha should have gone weeks ago. The Office season finale was Thursday and it was great. Pathetically, I'm glad that I'll have my life back after Wednesday. I rarely watch TV in the summer, and I won't have time to until July anyway. I even bumped my Netflix subscription down to 2 at a time.

Work is still insanely busy, compounded by the fact that I've been off so many days in the past month. I'm off again on Monday, so next week will be crazy again, but I'm hoping that things will calm down after that. Obviously we're closed on Memorial Day, but there's a huge difference in the amount of work required when I'm off on a vacation day compared to a day we're closed. It hasn't helped that they were switching the servers, so our MIS has been down a lot and 95% of what I do requires the ability to use it. The only other thing on the work front is that we got new computers (our old ones were castoffs from the state, so they were probably about 10 years old).
Now it takes less than 2 minutes to open a new window and I have a flat-screen monitor so I have free space on my desk! Woot!

So, with everything that's going on, I'll be posting D. C. pics and Idol Thoughts next week and then probably won't be around too much till July unless something awesome or stupid happens. I expect it'll be the latter. I hope everyone has a good beginning of the summer!

Work Drama

I don't usually post about work here because two of my co-workers are also MySpace friends and I link to my blog on my MySpace, but they already know about this and if anyone else finds it, they can go screw. Our company is being bought out by another, much richer company. It has been described by myself and other equally cynical co-workers as a sugar daddy situation where we're spreading our legs and taking it.

Last Friday, before I went to Rusty's, I received an e-mail that said, "Please note attached memo regarding weekly time sheets and the attached time study form that you are to utilize starting on Monday, April 28th. Thanks for you assistance in this matter."

At first I ignored it because I thought it had to do with people who submit time sheets to get paid. Then I read it more closely and read the attachments. One was this (partly paraphrased): "We totally fucked up in our last merger; therefore, we find it necessary to continue to assess various administrative needs within the agency along with the skill set of specifically identified staff members. This is being done in an effort to ensure smooth and affective [sic] operations in each program area. With this in mind, we have identified a number of staff who will be expected to complete a weekly time sheet of daily activities starting on April 28, 2008 until further notice.

Since you personally received this email, please assume that you have been selected to complete the attached time sheet. The time sheet must be thoroughly completed every week and submitted to X by 12:00 every Monday. The sheets will be reviewed by management on a weekly basis to get a better sense of what functions are occurring effectively and efficiently and what areas of concern have surfaced that need to be appropriately addressed. Questions that might arise through the weekly reviews will be addressed with you personally. If you have any specific questions/concerns, please feel free to direct them to our attention. [this will be important later] We want to thank you in advance for helping us complete this assessment which we feel will serve to strengthen our ongoing operations."

By the way, my supervisor didn't even know about this till I forwarded it to her with a WTF?! message attached.

Also attached was an Excel spreadsheet with days of the week across the top and half-hour increments on the side; the squares are approximately 2 square inches each.

This e-mail came from one of our VPs who is not directly over me and who, when I left the York office to go to Harrisburg, called me into her office and said, "Don't start slacking because you're leaving York." You all don't know me, but I am extremely diligent, precise, and hard-working. I've never gotten bad grades or bad performance reviews at work. I did have some shortcomings at my position in the York office; however, many of them were beyond my control.

On several occasions I have brought my concerns to management and my co-workers have made it known to them that I'm extremely underutilized. Apparently management felt the need to treat us like children instead of giving us the opportunity to assess the "various administrative needs" of our position ourselves or discussing with management what we believe to be our "skill set." Here's another great idea. Maybe if we actually got the performance reviews that we're supposed to receive, those could be assessed to determine our fucking skill sets.

One of the other mental health agencies in our area recently closed, so now we're pretty much it, which means not only are we getting all of their clients, we're getting all the clients who would have gone to the other agency. In the first 9 days of April I had done 80 intakes; before this agency closed I usually averaged about 2-3 a day. So, since my workload is so high right now and since I was off for three days last week and since our computer system will be down from noon Monday until possibly Wednesday and since I do a job that was previously done by myself and another full-time employees and since this is the beginning of the month, which is when I have to do the billing, I e-mailed this VP and asked if I could hand my time study in late due to the fact that I felt it was a more effective use of my time to do work that requires use of the MIS while it's working rather than to fill our a time study.

No dice. But she doesn't respond to me directly, she tells the director of the program for which I work, who is also not directly above me, that I can hand it in on Friday (this past Friday) if I can't do it by Monday. WTF?!?!?!?! If I don't have time to fill out the time study by noon Monday, how is it helpful to allow me to hand it in three days earlier!? Apparently logic isn't in this woman's "skill set." God, I hate that phrase. The poor director got an earful and I had a meltdown. Luckily, the upside is that those are more accepted in a counseling agency than they would be in say, a law office (the downside is that everything you do or say is over-analyzed and you're given a diagnosis).

So, being the slacking employee that I am, I spend 4 hours this weekend doing work to play catch-up. And you better believe I made it known on my time study sheet (I made up my own instead of the shitty one they supplied, thank you very much.)

File this one under it's time to look for a new job. At least my resume is updated.