insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009 A Very Happy Merry Hallogivingachuhmasza To All! I think I merged all of the October through December holidays in there, but I'm not 100% certain--I may have missed Talk Like a Pirate Day. It feels like the holidays have come too quickly this year--I finally started to get excited about Thanksgiving after dinner (but before pie, so I think that counts). And I love Thanksgiving! It's a great excuse to cook mass quantities of really rich food in massive amounts of dairy products (like butter) and then to smother them in more dairy (hello, heavy cream!). My favorite holiday came and almost went, and I didn't care. Well, I did make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and a noodle kugel (which I think is why the Jews wandered the desert for 40 years--God was hoping they'd lose the recipe! I had texture issues with it, but in theory, it should have been noms). But that's not my usual Thanksgiving M.O., as most who know me can attest. I am starting to get excited about Christmas though. I'm having Christmas dinner with Kurt on the 10th, early, I know, but his schedule is getting hectic covering all the warm fuzzy holiday stories in Sheridan. That, and I think he's impatient to find out what his present is....but, I can tell the blog-world, because Kurt doesn't know that I blog. :) I got him an X-Box 360 and a Gorillapod tripod. Yes, I did buy my 39 year old boytoy an X-Box. But in my defense, he has one, but it broke (and he likes to play video games, especially if he only has a few minutes to relax--it's a quick way to take a mental break), and the only games I got for him are the free ones that came with it. Also, in my defense, I did spend a lot of money on him, but the X-Box came with a rebate Mastercard, and I paid off one of my credit cards. In FULL. And I had enough money to buy my roommate a Christmas present, and I'm shipping out pottery to people and local folks are getting cookie tins. So, thbpbpbpttt. :P Oh, and I got my roommate, Ben, a widget-charger: it's a big battery that can be charged from a wall socket, a USB port or from the sun; it can then be plugged into any widget to provide a charge (laptop, mp3 player, cell phone, etc.). It's pretty spiffy, and he'll be happy that it can be solar-powered. I live with a hippie. I managed to find the only other one in the state for a roommate. Ben also does not know the blog exists, which is why I can share. I'm not only excited about giving great presents, but also about going to the Bighorns to cut down a Christmas tree for the apartment. I'm thinking about hosting an old-fashioned tree-trimming party, complete with food, cocktails and ornament-making. Hey, it's not Christmas until someone makes a penis from the ornament dough. :) Ben thinks it'd be fun, but I think he's excited about food and booze. In not such exciting news, work has gone from being fabulous to being the pit of suck. My new boss is a dick. Some of it is understandable--I mean, I was out of the office for nearly 6 weeks for grad school/vacation/Economic Development Institute, and that's a long-ass time. However, the board, not me, set the policies regarding personal time off to state that if it's not used in the year that its accrued, it expires. And that I can't get paid out for unused time. And that I get 17 days of PTO. And although the board did agree to go halvsies with me on time for grad school (one semester=training; one semester=PTO), I took the fall semester, the first one as PTO. And that trip back east burned up all 17 days. And as far as my commitment to grad school goes--when I'm spending $42,000 out of my own pocket for this, which is MORE than my salary, I AM going to attend, whether or not that's convenient with the office schedule. I'd like to see you, Mr. Boss, tell me that I can't have the time off to go to residency--the moment you tell me that is the moment I tell you to take this job and fuck yourself in the ass with it. I also can't help that Economic Development Institute was the week after I returned to the office, and that was my 2nd of 3 sessions. And I had grant funding to cover the bulk of the training costs. And the board had previously committed to my completion of that program, so I could then take the next step and become a Certified Economic Developer (CEdC). So, yeah, throw a hissy fit about that--all of which was out of my control. However, my boss did more than throw a hissy fit; he demoted me. I will keep the title of Project Manager (we just bought more business cards and they all say project manager); however, my job duties are those of receptionist/website update bitch/grant writer. It's like I'm receptionist ++. I, thankfully, am not taking a pay cut; however, I'm not happy about the diminished responsibilities. There are a few really cool projects in the works that I could manage, but my boss wants me to have no part of them. I'm not sure if it's his way of paying me back for being gone so long, or if there's more to it. I've felt there's been a shift organizationally that's pushed me out of a leadership role and into a minion role, and I can't shake the feeling that it's because I lack a penis. I was told to edit a letter from the board chair to the mayor, and in it the chair praised my boss because "he may not have the fancy letters behind his name or have experience with economic development per say, but he's worked with everyone on the board--he's homegrown." My boss is part of the good-ole' boys club, and I'm a woman. This is the guy who screwed up a site visit for a $1.5 million grant to purchase a facility to house start-up companies. And somehow I'm the one who was demoted? What the hell? I don't understand it, and I'm none too happy about it. I've been keeping an eye open for other things, but it's a tough market out there. I've been biting my tongue, because I need a paycheck, pittance that it is. It's been a stressful few weeks, needless to say. The upside of things is that if I do need to quit, Ben has offered to assist with things until I can find something new. Kurt has been amazingly sweet, supportive and encouraging--I need to focus on graduate work and either bide my time or find a new job--Kurt is more than willing to travel to make things work, saying that if he can't drive to see me, he'll fly to see me. I believe him. Which is a whole other weird thing for me, as I never thought I'd get to a point of seriousness with someone so soon, especially not after Ian. I can't explain it, but things with Kurt just seem right. It's not easy--we both have odd schedules, I have grad school, he has a daughter (and I have not met her, but I'm not ready to do so), he's nearly 10 years older than I am, etc.--but he's worth the effort, I think. He's genuine--honest and hard-working. I respect that he doesn't tell me what I want to hear, but that he tells me the truth. It's hard to find someone who will do that. Especially with someone who can be as difficult and stubborn as I am. He deals well with my quirks, and I deal well with his. Sometimes, I think that's the toughest thing. posted by jaime | 4:16 PM 0 comments |
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