I really REALLY like my new job! I really do. However, as repayment for some awful sins that I've perpetrated either in this life or a former one, I am forced to deal with "Joe".

Every office has a "Joe". He's the guy who will wear a three piece suit to work even though the dress code only requires a collared shirt and khaki-style pants. He's the guy who in staff meetings will bring up new ways to "improve the numbers" by asking that additional work be put on everyone. He's the guy who thinks he's "going the extra mile", when in actuality, he's really just being annoying to those he's trying to go that "extra mile" for!

Since Tuesday morning, I've had to sit with "Joe" at my side. Part of my training consists of sitting with others in the office and having them help me if I need it. Now, I've been there for a month, so there's actually very little that I really NEED him for...a point that he's having a hard time accepting, as he has demonstrated all week. Here's an example of a typical exchange between us:

Joe: Ok, when you receive a call on the phone, you have to pick up the phone and say, (insert company name here).

BryM: Yes, I know this. I've answered a telephone before.

Joe: Ok, and when you find out the engineer's name, you should always say something like 'good morning'...or 'good afternoon'...whichever applies according to the time of day.

BryM: Yes, I know that. I have worked a telephone before and I have actually done a job very similar to this in the past, so I have a REALLY good idea of how to handle a phone call when it comes in.

Joe: That's fine, just fine. Ok, so now, even if the engineer is at the hospital or doctor's office working on the equipment (I dispatch engineers that work on medical equipment) and the administrator is fully aware of his presence, you still need to call them and let them know that the engineer is there working on the equipment.

BryM: Well that just sounds kind of silly...why call them just to tell them something they already know? I'd be kind of annoyed if someone did that to me.

Joe: It's called good customer service. If you go the extra mile for the customer, you'll advance quickly in the company.

BryM: That's not good customer service..that's being redundant and really just annoying. Annoying a customer, especially one who's as busy as a hospital administrator, isn't a good way to make brownie points with the boss at work.

Joe: Well, in theory, I agree with you, but it's a requirement of the job, so it has to be done. What can ya do?

*Joe then breaks out in a hum of the theme from "The Facts of Life"*



BryM: I just looked in the manual and it says you don't have to call the customer if the engineer is already on the site working.

Joe: Hmmm....well, I'd still rather call them and let them know...just to be on the safe side.



And on and on and on.....all day.

I've had visions...daydreams even...of shooting this guy into outer space! The MOST annoying thing that he does is try and talk to me while I'm on the phone....that's something I've ALWAYS despised!! At one point today, I had to put the person calling in on hold to turn around and ask him to repeat what he'd just said...of course what he'd just said was something that I already knew in the first place!!! GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

On a brighter note though:

------>> I won a battle with Christine the Truck today. Yesterday I'd reported that the cigarette lighter had died, thus making me XM radio-less. Well, turns out it was only a blown fuse, which was easily replaced. Of course, at lunch time I drove to get something to eat, and the temperature gauge started creeping dangerously close to the "H"....

Here's an idea: Maybe I could tie Joe up, stick him in Christine the Truck and shoot them BOTH into outer space??!!

------>> I changed my profile picture. Can I just say, BLECH! I'm NOT photogenic at all! At least I can make the picture in black and white so I'm not AS hideous! hehe

Well, that's it for tonight! Hope everyone has a good one!

Around this same time last year, I made a most terrifying discovery....one of those big ass black and yellow garden spiders had built a huge web right beside my front porch. Now, given the fact that I am absolutely TERRIFIED of spiders, this didn't set too well with me, but having said that, I decided that I was going to do something I'd NEVER done in the past: I let the spider live.

After a few weeks of this spider demonstrating that she meant me no harm, I felt much more comfortable with her presence. I even named her! Claudette minded her own business...she spent most of her days just hanging out in her web, eating insects that flew into it, and even laying eggs at one point. THAT made me really nervous, but she guarded her egg sack with her life, so there was no way that I could eliminate her offspring before they were born.

Anyway, last fall, Claudette came up missing. She just vanished one day, as did the contents of her egg sac. I was a little more than disappointed because I'd actually grown quite fond of her. I'm still convinced that Claudette's disappearance was no coincidence, though I've never found any concrete evidence to support my theory.

Tonight, I'm going to introduce the latest arachnid addition to the BryM household....he's a little tan spider....well, actually he's a BIG tan spider (they're ALL tarantulas to me!), and I have named him Maurice. He's built a web at the upper right hand corner of the front doorway. Now, that's a bit close for comfort, but it's really cool to stand in the safety of my living room and watch him just outside the window build his web and catch his meal!

Yes, I even help him out now and then. I'll turn the porch light on and watch as the insects just fly right into the web...at which point he scurries over, bites his victim, and then wraps them up for later. Tonight he caught a big moth...and for dessert, a nice flying beetle! I'm sure he's grateful for the help in catching his meals, but I just hope that he understands (like Claudette did) that if he ever attempts to make a move towards ME, he's history!

In other news:

----> I could start a daily blog on all the things that are going wrong with Christine the Truck. Today, the cigarette lighter went out. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a huge deal, except for the fact that I NEED the cigarette lighter to plug in my XM Radio and cell phone charger. Folks, I can't express enough how much I have grown to DESPISE this truck. I've had some shitty vehicles in my time, but this one is quickly inching itself up to the very TOP of the list!

Today I got a vivid reminder of one of the not so great things about working in an office environment....the monthly staff meeting! It's basically a forum for the supervisor to go over the statistics for everyone on the floor, bring up any issues that have come up since the last meeting, etc. So far, nothing out of the ordinary....snoozeville.

And then came the 'teamwork exercise.' Today's 'exercise' was the brainchild of the resident employee who feels that he should have been a supervisor instead of an hourly grunt like the rest of us. Every office has one...he's the guy who wears the suit and tie in the hopes of catching the eye of someone important who will promote him on the spot. Anyway, he comes up with this game that requires us to split into groups, and each person in the group got a piece of paper that read something along the lines of "you can only write capital letters", "you can only draw a vertical line", etc....so anyway, the object of the game was to get each person to contribute to making your name on a name tag. Of course, we only had 7 minutes in which to do this exercise. Thirty people who can only draw a vertical line had to do 30 different name tags in 7 minutes.

Yeah, it didn't work so well.

Luckily by the time that the 7 minutes was up, we had about 30 seconds before it was time to go home for the day! I thought I would break my neck getting out of the door and away from this game!!

Well, that's about it for tonight....got to recover from the day!

Anyone over the age of 25 has seen the movie "Christine" I'm sure. If you haven't, then where in the hell were you back in the early 1980s??!! Anyway, until yesterday, I was convinced that I was the new owner of Christine..only in truck form.

It started out when in early April (the official start of summer here in North Carolina) I discovered that the air conditioning wasn't working in my truck. Now, being one who HATES to sweat, this was of course not something that pleased me. So, since April, it has been me against Christine the Truck. So far, she's won. Yesterday, however, I won at least ONE battle.

I took Christine down to the cousin's house. I love the cousin for many different reasons, but yesterday that love grew into all out worship...it took ALL day, a new a/c compressor, $70 spent in money that I don't really have, lots of aggravation, two trips back into town for various other parts, and a LOT of sweat, but he FINALLY got the a/c working!!!!

Once the a/c was FINALLY working, the cousin took on the task of changing the plugs and wires...a task made more difficult by the fact that the plugs hadn't been changed since the early 1990s...NOT my fault, by the way!

So after EVERYTHING was finally done on Christine the Truck, I started it up....and she made the most GOD AWFUL squealing noise I've EVER heard come from a vehicle!! Naturally, since it was now pitch black outside, nothing could be done...or so Christine the Truck thought! There is a wonderful invention called Liquid wrench that enabled me to get home without the awful screeching coming from a belt that is clearly not tight enough or TOO tight. Either way, hopefully that problem will be fixed today.

Now it's personal. I'm going to drive this truck until it literally falls apart. Since buying this thing back in October of last year, here's a short list of what I've dealt with:

---> the stereo speakers work when they want to...even after replacing both of them, they still alternate right to left depending on their current mood! Thank God there's such a thing as XM Radio or I'd have nothing but static to listen to when the speakers do work!

---> the passenger side air vent just fell out one day as I was driving..yep...just went "ker-PLUNK" onto the floor!

---> every couple of weeks, I lose at least a quart and a half of oil, yet NO ONE can seem to find out WHERE it's leaking from!

Hmm....
Looking over that list, maybe it HAS already literally fallen apart?

There are quite a few out there who see Friday the 13th as a 'bad luck' day...for me, it's one extreme or the other...either VERY lucky, or VERY un-lucky! There's no where in between. Today was one of my better Friday the 13ths!

To start with, even though I was a little bit late leaving the house this morning, I didn't hit any heavy traffic AND I actually managed to get a parking space on the bottom level of the parking deck at work! Getting a space on the bottom level is next to impossible during the summer at this place for good reason...you can park down there and not even have to think about your car getting as hot as an oven!

Later, I had a couple of different people singing my praises not only to my supervisor, but to the bigwig on my floor as well! It goes without saying that when you're the new kid on the block, it's a good thing if your colleagues are praising you to the big boss! It also helps in the self confidence area..something I've been lacking the last week or so...it's SO tough being the new on a job. I have felt like an idiot at times, so it's nice to hear some positive comments from my colleagues!

After my workday ended, I didn't have any traffic on the way home AND I stopped by to pick up some seafood for dinner and they had it ready in just a few minutes! Normally this place takes at least 30 minutes for carry out orders!

So all in all it was a good day for me! The BEST...VERY BEST part is that I don't have to get up and go to work at the customer service desk tomorrow...or any other day!!! That in itself is one of the best things to happen to me in MONTHS!!

Well, that's it for now! I hope everyone has a great weekend!