Corner of Bourbon & Division

I haven't been updating this thing properly lately. In fact, I haven't been doing much at all that involves the computer at home. Mostly, I've been too tired to do anything in the evening before going to bed other than read through the day's LJ entries, post something short and pithy about cleaning, and then collapse in a tired heap. I've been writing at work, so the August Writing challenge continues apace, even if I'm not posting the results every day.

Everything else has pretty much gone by the wayside.

( cut for length )

So this is what's been going on in Phnee's world of late. As you can see, dear readers, you're not missing all that much. Mostly it's cleaning and cooking and cats, a little bit of writing, and a lot of seeing friends and generally being all sociable-like. Nothing earth-shattering, just domestic tranquility.

I have been reading LJ, as mentioned, but just haven't had the energy to comment on most entries. My apologies for that. Once I get used to the new schedule I've imposed on myself, I shall doubtless start commenting more.

Today was mostly an exercise in frustration, caused as usual by the CAM. Suffice it to say that after she cut into my lunch hour yesterday ("I need ten minutes of your time" turned into half an hour of my time, predictably enough), she did it again today. Her clients wanted coffee, and they wanted it *now* and basically bitched and moaned that we hadn't provided lunch (for a half-hour meeting!), so I got dispatched to fetch the poor dears coffee and cookies.

Normally, this would be fine. Today, there were two problems with this plan: 1) L is not there, which means that I have to be at my desk to answer the phones; 2) It was ten minutes before I was scheduled to go to lunch.

So, I got one of the admin girls to mind the phones while I was gone, and cut into my lunch break yet again. The admin girl was very nice about it, considering that she has her own work to do and can't always be covering for me when the CAM has one of her fits.

The CAM later gave me more work which involved wrestling with our ever-cantankerous fax machine, and so I spent about two and a half hours on something which would have taken maybe twenty minutes of her time if she'd bothered to do it herself and do it properly. Then she told me to "relax" and not take everything so much to heart, as though it was somehow wrong of me to take my job seriously and want to do it well and thus get frustrated when I can't. Meh.

Otherwise, the day went pretty well. I finished my filing, and so of course Boss!Lady provided me with a whole new unprecedented batch of filing. I actually got a fair bit of that done too, in-between fighting with the fax machine and running interference with various clients.

Someone told me the other day that it sounded in this LJ as though I really hate my job. That's not exactly true. I do like the people I work with: they're all extremely nice, and there's a definite sense of departmental loyalty here that I reallly like. The work itself is tedious and repetitive and unrewarding in the extreme, and that's what I don't like about it. I also seriously resent the fact that I haven't been made a permanent employee. Having a few health benefits and, oh, paid vacation time would go a long way to reconciling me with this job.

It's a job I can do, and that I can do well. It's not what I'd rather be doing with my time, but I can think of worse jobs. In fact, I've been in worse jobs (Bell Mobility and Fast Scaffolding spring to mind). It pays the bills, and the working environment has a lot going for it.

So, that's me setting the record straight.


In other news, since people have asked, my arm is almost 100% better now. I went back to the hospital about three weeks after my accident for x-rays and various poking and prodding, and they basically told me to go my way and sin no more. They didn't even think I should bother with physio, and just told me to use my arm as much and as normally as possible. So that's what I've been doing, and now I only get occasional twinges in my wrist and shoulder, which is where there was the most soft tissue damage (as opposed to the elbow, which is the bit that actually broke, ironically enough).

The main difficulty I have is hauling around heavy files, but even that gets easier every day. I can now dance entirely pain-free (and let me tell you that's a relief!), and I started back with Random Colour the day after I got rid of the sling without too many ill effects. Apparently beating on things with sticks doesn't pose any kind of problem for me.

Dancing has been going extremely well, I might add. I've been going to as many of the classes as possible, although I've been good about keeping my Sundays free of club activities. I've been doing this for about a year and a half now, and to be honest I can't imagine living without some sort of dancing now. It's even hard for me to imagine how I managed before, when all I was doing was staying home in the evenings.

The one disadvantage, if I can even call it that, is that there are lots of other things I would love to be doing as well. There are projects I want to work on, people I want to see, and places I want to go, and when three out of seven nights a week are taken up with dancing, well, that leaves very little time for these other things. Monday nights are booked for 24, and that leaves Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sunday evening is generally not good for staying out late and what have you, as it's a work night, ditto for Wednesdays, and suddenly you're left with Saturdays, when everyone else has ten million things scheduled.

I can't really complain. Things are going, well, smoothly is perhaps too strong a word. But I'm treading water, keeping my head above the surface, and I'm not too tired yet, to push this metaphor to its limit. I'm still reasonably optimistic that one of these days I'll stop treading water and actually start swimming toward a goal. Right now, though, treading water is a good thing. Definitely better than the panicky drowning I was doing two years ago. A lot of things in my life still suck (especially financial stuff), but at this point I am cautiously hopeful that I'll eventually be able to get a handle on it, and that's more than I was able to say before.

Okay, bed. I am rambling and in serious danger of getting maudlin, or worse. The serial has been posted, LiveJournal has been updated for the first time in a long time, and I have a whole day's worth of filing ahead of me (Whee.), so I'm going to get some shut-eye.

G'night folks!

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?


( Really boring rambling about work )


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!

Dear Self,

Don't taunt the CAM. It's too easy, and thus not as much fun in the end. Pick a target who won't automatically rise to your bait.

Love,

Me


In other news, almost everyone has left. L got a lift home with the CAM, and now I'm all by my lonesome at reception.

*twiddles thumbs*

I have one bill left to take care of, and several metric assloads of filing, and the One Form to do.

The One Form is pure, unadulterated administrative evil which takes me several days of very tedious research to complete. It's basically a form that puts all the departmental expenses in one place, and I have to verify the whole thing. Unfortunately, the One Form blithely assumes that we keep all this stuff in one place, which we don't. There isn't enough room, for one thing. Also, the One Form's concept of math does not correspond to Earth Math, so I spend a lot of time with my calculator trying to figure out where the hell those numbers came from. I've been doing this for nearly a year, and it still takes me forever to finish it.

One Form to frustrate them all
One Form to find them
One Form to bring them all
And in the Administration bind them...