Hey, look at the time!

[mousme]

Survived my first day at work without internet. No one died, let there be rejoicing.

My productivity went up a bit, predictably. Of course, there isn't all that much for me to do at work, so once I've caught up on all my filing I predict that I'll be sitting on my thumbs a good portion of the time, the way I was before I got internet access at work sometime in the spring of 2005, if memory serves.

Anyway, I have produced two instalments of Beyond the Pale in two days. Yesterday was the regular posting schedule (every Tuesday), and today is February 1st, which means that I have officially started my personal February Writing Challenge. Let's see if I make it this time. I didn't make it in August, but August prepared me for NaNoWriMo, and I did that, so maybe this'll work. Maybe there's nowhere to go but up from now on.

Oh, it's hard to hold the hand of anyone
Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender
Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender...


Okay, random musical interlude aside...

I am in a very random mood tonight.

I should either go to bed or work on my serial. I have discovered that I can write about 1,000 words over my lunch break at work. Since each instalment of Beyond the Pale is between 1,500 and 2,500 words, this means that, in theory, in the evenings I should be producing anywhere between 500 and 1,500 words. To be honest, that hasn't happened yet.

My best days during NaNoWriMo, I managed, I think, 6,000 words in one day. However, if you can credit it, I'm actually busier this February than I was in November. Be afraid, be very afraid. For one, my club is having a three-day event next week. I'm also going to be taking courses over the course of two weekends. All-day affairs, don't you know. Insert other regularly-scheduled stuff in between, and you get a very busy Phnee.

Well, I shall make do. What is it they say? If you need something done, give it to the busiest person you know. It's true, though: the more you do, the more you seem to be able to get done. (If only I could convince myself that housework should fit into all this :P) So maybe I'll manage it after all, in spite of my misgivings.

Incidentally, you all have permission to pester me about whether I'm writing, and to kick my ass if I'm not. What are friends for, right?


In work-related news, other than not killing anyone while under the effects of internet withdrawal, I am forging steadily ahead in my Quest To Clean My Desk. The One Form has been fobbed off once more on Boss!Lady, who was not at all thrilled to get it back, but that's really not my problem.

The highlight of my workday was filing. Yes, thrills and excitement about in the wild and wacky world of real estate finance. Still, I've been working on the filing since last Friday, and today I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Filing at my office works in four steps (roughly):

Step 1: Manager: *stops by my desk with a large stack of papers* "Here, Phnee, file this for me, would you?"

Me: *smiles wanly at the large pile of undifferentiated papers* "Sure, no problem."

Step 2: Phnee researches the large pile of undifferentiated papers, separates them and scribbles the group name on each paper with her trusty Number 2 HB pencil.

Step 3: Phnee sorts the papers alphabetically into a very large accordion file designed for this very purpose.

Step 4: Phnee takes each section of the large accordion file separately and neatly files the papers away alphabetically by group name in the Credit Files (legal-sized green folders with six divider sections inside, which necessitates further sorting of papers).


I go through these four steps for all the papers in the department, except for those belonging to the TMI Manager. She gets her very own filing system, in which I get to skip Steps 1 and 2, thanks be to every god in the sky.

So today was the end of Step 3 and the beginning of Step 4. I have now filed everything up to and including G. Tomorrow I will file all the way to Z, and then I will start on the TMI Manager's filing. The TMI Manager has yet to figure out (much like the CAM) that I am not her personal secretary. I am the receptionist for the whole department. So she doesn't understand why her filing isn't always done instantaneously, as well as everything else she asks of me. She believes with all her heart and soul that she is OMG SPESHUL and that this means that when she snaps her fingers I will jump to do her bidding, no matter how trivial the request might be.

What she does, actually, is hover. She hovers after she's asked me to do something. It's on my to-do list, she knows I know, because she just told me, but she can't leave me alone to finish my current project in order to then do what she asked of me. Sometimes she even offers to "help" me do whatever it is in order to speed along the process.

To which my internal reply is always: "For the love of all that's good and holy, do NOT try to help me! You will mess up my papers and ruin the system I have carefully designed to make sure this all runs smoothly. Please go back to your office and let me get on with my work!"

Three worst words in the English language: "She means well..."


Anyway, she'll be happy that her filing is done. I did half of it about three weeks ago, possibly four now, come to think of it, because she wouldn't shut up about the whole thing.


Well, that's all for now folks. I am heading to bed. More exciting news from the filing front tomorrow. Wish me luck with my serial, I shall keep you all informed concerning the posting schedule, whether you want to hear it or not. ;)

Cheers!

Comments

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

much with the giggling. my temper has been REALLY short lately when it comes to teachers walking over me ... well, TRYING to walk over me. they haven't succeeded very well.