I thought I’d take a break from all of the prop 8 stuff and let my blood pressure settle down a bit. Plus, I know my readers are just itching to know how things are going at work. So I’ll be nice and update you.

Things at work have definitely picked up since I last bitched and moaned about how quiet it was. It seems like once the summer wound down, people were back at the office and projects were once again in motion. I am happy to report that my days of late have been pretty busy and I don’t spend nearly as much time perusing the interwebs.

A lot has been happening in terms of the friendships and connections I’ve been making. First up, I’ve made new friends with two gals we’ll call Marigold and Natalie. Marigold is a super sweet Mexican woman in her mid forties. She’s got this whole innocence/naïveté to her. She’s got a thick Mexican accent and for the first few months, she called me “Liza” only it came out “Leeza.” Natalie is a bit more grounded than Marigold and much more cynical. I’m not sure how old she is but she’s very down to earth and is a what you see is what you get type of person. Truth be told, when I first met Natalie I found her to be annoying. I think that’s the case with a lot of people though, I’m going to chalk this up to my oft-cynical nature. Ahem.

I digress. The girls were working on updating sections of our company’s web site. They were having a bit of trouble since their knowledge of both HTML and our content management system (CMS) was limited. Through my helping them, we became friendly and chatty with each other. Along the way, Natalie and I became coffee run friends. The woman she reports to is an exact replica of my former boss so whenever Natalie gets frustrated and in need of a break, she comes to me to bitch. We’ve also started to take lunches together and a few weeks ago we went out for an end-of-the-week drink.

I’m testing the waters with Marigold and Natalie. I’m thinking of coming out to them because I’m tired of having to refer to S as “the other half” or “my partner.” I think Natalie would be cool with it – during the US election, she criticized Palin’s views on homosexuality and gay marriage. I think Marigold will be alright with it too, she’s the type of person that would still see me as me and not some big ol’ ‘mo.

And then there’s Harry. I know when she first started in the department I posted on here about how annoying I found her. Over time though, she’s grown on me. I think it’s helped that we’re no longer cubicle neighbours. (Perhaps absence does make the heart grow fonder!) She’ll come over to my side of the floor and sit and gab about what’s going on with the event gals. I guess not being in the middle of that all day helps me tolerate it. Plus, I’ve come to see Harry beyond her enthusiasm for her job. I’ve become familiar with the soft, sensitive girl who always worries about saying and doing the right thing. Again, I’m testing the waters with her and trying to gauge how she’d handle the queer thing.

Speakerphone Asshole and I are officially on a limited talk plan. He seems to think that because I don’t have a penis, I should bow before him and all of his requests. Right. I’ll get right on that. Let me backtrack: earlier this year, our department bought a new software program that my boss (Larry) and I outsourced, tested and learned. It was always made clear to the rest of the department that I would not be doing all of the work on the new program. I would merely help the other folks (mostly the event gals) as they learned the program and worked on it. Speakerphone Asshole must have missed the memo because he kept coming around to my workstation aggressively inquiring why I hadn’t gotten the work related to the program done. I quickly told him that it wasn’t my responsibility, he had three underlings and one temp person to do the work.

Things were awkward but got much worse after I took the day off to take my dad to surgery. Speakerphone Asshole and his team waited until the last possible minute to generate some reports using the new system. They expected me to just pop on over and create the reports with a snap of my fingers. When Speakerphone Asshole found out I wasn’t in the office that day, he flipped his lid. Larry told him to look up the manuals that came with the software and Speakerphone Asshole just about had a coronary, “we don’t have time for manuals!!” He didn’t talk to me for almost three weeks after that. (I was heartbroken, let me tell you.)

Speakerphone Asshole has thus created a negative view of the software and puts the blame for any glitches that come up on my shoulders. (Because I’m the one who wrote the program, apparently.) Tanner is one of Speakerphone Asshole’s underlings. She and another Barbie doll in the group have taken on Asshole’s views and act like total princesses when it comes to doing any work. They seem to think that I should be doing their work for them. Right. I’ll get right on that.

So things have been a bit tense and awkward as people who haven’t taken the time to fully learn the new system bitch and moan when it doesn’t work for them. Most of the time, its mistakes they wouldn’t have made had they put in the effort to learn their shit. I don’t sweat it though because I know I have Larry’s support and he’ll just reiterate that the onus is on other people to learn the system.

Speaking of Larry, I still really enjoy working with him. It’s so easy to get him sidetracked, all I have to say is “hey, have you heard about this web site?” or “how’s that new netbook working out?” and we’ll end up having a geek chat for minutes on end. He kind of irritated me this week though. That big honkin’ tree in our backyard is coming down this week and Larry asked me to have some of the wood set aside for him. He has a fireplace in his home and he’s always looking for free wood. Even though the Arborist said the particular tree’s wood wasn’t good for burning, Larry insisted. This irked me because part of the hefty cost we’re paying for the tree cutting is the removal and here I’ll have to leave wood sitting on my property because my boss is Cheap (notice the capital C.) It’d be one thing if he lived down the street but he’s going to travel a fair bit to get here and he only has a small car so he’ll likely rent a van to lug it all back. All for wood that isn’t that great but he’ll take because he likes to keep his fireplace going to reduce his heating bills. Oi. I told Natalie about it and she responded with an exasperated, “can he not afford it?! I’m sure he makes enough.”

I’m not going to complain too much. Larry and I get along like a house on fire and I wouldn’t want to report to any of the other managers in our department. Particularly not Speakerphone Asshole. Ha! That would almost be comical. Until I got fired for punching him in the bread basket. I think I’ll come out to him at some point soon (Larry that is, not Speakerphone Asshole) – I met his son last week and he tells me about his family a fair bit. I think I get him to open up more then other people. That’s probably because I see him for the nice guy he is and not the socially awkward snob the rest of the department perceives him to be.

Well, this got a lot longer than I initially thought it would. Yet I still feel like there’s more to say. Maybe I’ll write some more on Friday when Larry’s away from the office (he’ll probably be at my house picking up some wood for burning!) and I’ll be less motivated to be you know, productive and stuff.

Related posts:

  1. Verbal Diarrhea
  2. Office Politico
  3. Free Agitation
  4. Senior Level Assholes
  5. BlackBerry Aggravation
  6. Up Front Charlie
  7. All in a Huff
  8. Limited Options
  9. A day in the life of moi
  10. Long Overdue Chat