July 31, 2006

I am finally done with stats. Both classes. I really couldn’t be happier, even if it looks like I may need to retake one of the classes since I didn’t get a very good grade. Considering my grade was determined by two assignments and on one of the assignments I couldn’t get my questions answered, I can’t really blame myself too much for that. In my other class I have a B, so while it’s not my ideal outcome, at least I don’t have to take the ANOVA class again. I gave her really poor ratings, as I’m sure a few other people will since she never answered people’s questions in time. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay out of pocket for the class (work paid my tuition for the whole summer).

Other Boss is really pissing me off this morning. He sent me three e-mails, one of which was to get me to come by his office this afternoon to discuss, among other things, my moving offices. Uh, hello…I thought this was already resolved and that I wasn’t moving. I think he’s trying to pull something out of his sleeve and he has messed with the wrong person. I hope my real boss gets here soon so that he can put a stop to this crap once and for all. He also wanted to discuss getting me a work study student. Riiiiight…when you start paying part of my salary, then maybe we’ll talk about that. Seriously, how much sense does it make to pay someone to help me with my work that you’re not paying me to do?! I’m sure he means well but he is just so off base it’s ridiculous.

July 26, 2006

I took some OTC allergy stuff yesterday morning. I was high as  a kite all day long and then up all night. I got maybe 3 hrs of sleep. And oh God am I feeling it now….

A little giggle July 24, 2006

So this online stats course that I just finished has a discussion component (not mandatory, but encouraged). It’s basically a bulletin board where you can post questions or answers to others’ questions (“Yeah, that’s what I got” or “Run the such-and-such test and then check out the p-value” and crap like that). There was this one woman in my class that was either:
1) Crazy
2) On crack
3) Both

Case in point: There were 397 posts in the “Assignments” forum. I counted 78 that were NOT made by her. On one particular day, between 8:17 AM and 9:32 AM she made ELEVEN posts in a row (as in consecutive, with no one else responding). She starts up every single day at around 8 and most of her posts are never later than 6 or 7 in the evening. Hey, I understand wanting to do well in a class, but she is just too much.

I maybe posted fewer than 10 times.

I so don’t understand people like her.

ETA: Homegirl MUST be on crack…I did some Googling and found her resume…I’ve never EVER seen something like this (copied directly):

Juris Doctorate, Expected 2010

· Doctor of Philosophy, Educational Psychology, Expected 2007

· Doctor of Philosophy, Instructional Technology, Expected 2007

· Master of Science in Human Development, Expected 2007

· Master of Arts in Educational Psychology, Expected 2006

· Masters level certification in Early Childhood Special Education, Expected 2005

Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Veni, vidi, visa! July 24, 2006

I finally found some shoes. I played around on Amazon and found these shoes, which were an amazing deal and basically what I was looking for. I just hope they’re as comfortable as people say they are, as I will need something that can hold up to a good bit of walking, what with work and my upcoming trip to Chicago (that is one place you NEED good shoes). I was happy because I ended up paying about half what I was willing to pay.

Scott and I just joined up w/ Grow Alabama, which is an organic farmer’s co-op based out of Bham. They deliver to Northport and we’ll get veggies every other week. I think it’s great because it helps bring business to Alabama farmers rather than corporate farms in places like California. Another cool thing about the program is that the farmers are all organic or they are moving towards all organic, so definitely a good thing there. This week we’re getting, among other things, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and peaches. Yay! I anticipate a peach cobbler and some fried eggplant in my very near future. If you eat a lot of veggies (and you should!) it’s a good deal, although it seems kind of pricey at first. Hopefully as they add more customers they’ll go down on the prices a bit. They also have kosher/halal/free-range meats and I think eggs and milk, too.

Just a couple more hours before I sail on out. Wooo hooo!

July 24, 2006

I biked in to work today. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. It was actually kind of nice and it doesn’t feel like it took much longer than my car trip. Not to mention the fact that I’m getting some good exercise in the process. The beginning of the trip is a bit hard because there are a few hills to climb, but once I get to downtown, it’s almost all flat or sort of downhill. If I made a habit of it, I could end up saving a lot of money on gas and maybe lose some weight in the process (I’m looking to tone up, lose 5 lbs or so, nothing huge). I know the ride home will be a bit hot, but I think I can do it. If nothing else I’ll just take my time since I don’t have to be home by a certain time (whereas I had to be at work at 8…I was a little late, but whatever).

I’m looking forward to a lazy, boring day at work. I hope I’m right about that.

July 23, 2006

I am done with my Analysis of Regression course! Hell yeah! This week I will wrap up my ANOVA class and then never, ever, ever take another stats class. Well, at least not one taught online by this particular prof. Not a positive experience, despite the fact that I’ve been successful in past online math courses.

I went shopping today to try to score some comfy brown sandals (something fairly flat, cute/work appropriate and that can withstand a lot of walking) and came up completely empty handed despite going to Parisian, Target, Steinmart and Shoe Carnival. If anyone has any ideas, do let me know. In the meanwhile I bought a 12 pack of white washcloths for $2.49, a scarf for $1.97 and a cute black crocheted shrug for $5.97. I also went by the pet store to buy my baby a new rawhide and some treats. That dog is so freaking spoiled.

On Friday I found out that I am getting a 5% raise effective the beginning of the school year (basically, next month). That will be so freaking sweet, even if it doesn’t translate into much.  Maybe I can see about getting another raise or something like that in the near future.

Ok, I take that back. July 20, 2006

So earlier I said I didn’t hate my job? Well, I don’t, at least not the part of my job that I’m PAID to do. I work for three public service programs in the College of Ed. Two of them are paying my salary; one is not (yet…whole other story). Which one do you think pisses me off most and is most demanding/hard to get along with? Yep.

Here’s a lovely list (since that’s how I operate) of the shit I have put up with them since I started working in mid-April.

• Being made to go get 4 coffees from somewhere in another building and being handed $5 in order to pay for them.
• Having to stay 30 or 45 minutes late to finish something that could have been done days earlier if they would have just returned a simple e-mail.
• Listening to people complain and gossip about people who I feel are doing their jobs just fine. And a lot of the stuff I’m hearing is so not my business (including stuff about our dean)
• Having to listen to them use obscenities quite regularly in daily conversation. I would hope that by the Ph.D. level one would broaden in vocabulary. Obviously not.
• Being told on a number of occasions that I will be moving over to Room ____ in Carmichael…wait, no…oh, yeah you are…maybe…later…oh, next week…next year. Enough already!
• Being talked about/to like I’m five years old
• Forced to do mundane computer tasks that I think Brubeck could do because someone doesn’t know how to do them (I’m talking how to burn a file to a CD here…not rocket science).
• Being forced to listen to my other boss gripe and moan about how hard he has it, then making me walk with him another 2 blocks out of my way to his car, then he takes off and leaves me to walk back to my car in 100+ degree heat and in heels (after I made it clear that I really had to get back soon)
• Having to take his calls when he’s “too busy” to take calls, when NO ONE in my department has ever done that. No one is too important to take their own calls.

OK, so after all that I’m pissed. The straw breaking the camel’s back was when I was asked to make a ton of copies for a class of his, which is well outside of my job description since it was for a class, meaning the departmental secretaries should take care of that. I did it anyways, but then asked my supervisor about it and she said that he was waaay out of line and to send out an e-mail directing them to take their copying work to the departmental secretary and not me. That went over like poop in a punchbowl. I got an e-mail from the director of research (my boss’ minion and lapdog) telling me that I shouldn’t have done that and that I could have handled the situation so much better, etc. etc. I forwarded that to my supervisor and let’s just say she’s going to nip that one in the bud. All the departmental secretaries HATE the people in the program because they’re arrogant, demanding and rude. I’m just waiting for it to hit the fan.

Oh, and I dare him to say the least bit of anything nasty to me…there’s a lot of people who would like to see him gone.

July 20, 2006

I finally got my bike! I’ll post a pic later, but it is so pretty. Scott and I went riding last night up around Riverside Park then we went home to grab some money and we biked over to a new coffeeshop downtown. It was really hot and I was smelly, but it was so rewarding. Figuring out how to use my gears and build momentum to climb some pretty big hills made me feel like I knew what I was doing. My ass is kind of sore today (I think I don’t have enough cushion) but other than that I’m ok. I went to yoga the other day and somehow hurt my left tricep so I’m still kind of getting over that. I need to get back in shape. Once the whole bike thing starts working out for me I may start riding it to work, especially when it cools off. The mornings aren’t so bad, it’s the afternoons that suck. That way I could save a lot of $$ on gas and insurance (you get a huge markdown if you’re not driving in to work every day….less driving, less risk).

I finally installed iTunes on my computer here at work so now I can listen to my music, which is so nice. I haven’t had any real work to do yet today, so I’m just kind of chilling. It’s nice. I may not get paid much, but at least I don’t hate my job.

That’s funny…I don’t look like an idiot July 19, 2006

I will step up and say to one and all this: Do NOT go to Tuscaloosa Opthamology/Riverside Optical. Don’t do it. (Wouldn’t be prudent…lol) I was treated so freaking poorly and I am angry. Literally, angry. I had an appt at 7:45 this morning since I have to be at work at 8 and wanted to miss as little work as possible. My exam a couple weeks ago wasn’t pleasant and I didn’t get fitted for contacts, so I had to come back to do that today. Everywhere else I’ve been it’s done all at once, but this place seriously does NOT have its act together. I got called back after waiting about 5 minutes, then went to the optical side to put in the contacts, then back over to the opthamology side to have the nurse look at my contacts, then I got stuck in an exam room for over half an hour w/ no one coming in to let me know what the hell was going on. FINALLY….the dr. comes in at 8:47 and spends maybe 4 minutes with me. Then, as if I couldn’t be pissed off enough already, the receptionist was very rude to me. She was condescending and treated me like I was not only 5 years old, but also a complete idiot. She told me that there was a $29 fee for the contact fitting, but I had been told that I wouldn’t have to pay anything. She looked at me like I had just thrown up on her desk or something. She said, “Well…I’ll just send this to our billing department.”

I didn’t get into work until nearly 9:30. It makes me mad when I’m late because of other people, especially when I’m careful to be punctual at all costs. I seriously feel like customer service has gone waaaaaaaaaay down in quality in my lifetime. At the risk of sounding like an old lady (I AM in my mid-20s, after all…) people just aren’t nice like they used to be. I remember salespeople/receptionists/persons in the service industry being so much nicer and more competent. Aw, well.

July 17, 2006

Today has been not anything like I imagined, given that I haven’t been in since Thursday afternoon and my boss hasn’t been in since the 7th. He’s pretty much left me alone. My other boss took me out to lunch as a late birthday lunch, which was so nice. I brought a hunk of my mucho yummy birthday cake into the office to share and apparently people are enjoying it, as there’s not much left. Scott got me a chocolate cake from the German bakery downtown and dude…it didn’t disappoint. So yummy, but yet so light. My b’day gift from him was a brand new bike click here for a pic. He had to order it since the bike shop downtown doesn’t carry much in the way of women’s bikes (sexist!) but it should be in soon.  My mom got me a nice nightgown, a candle and some decorative pillow. My aunt got me pajamas. My dad gave me money (best gift ever, as far as I’m concerned) and I think my sister is mailing me something (which is fine by me, because it only prolongs the birthday fun!) Overall a nice birthday, if an uneventful one.

I feel bad because Brubeck’s been crated up a lot recently. Maybe I will take him for a walk when I get home tonight, even if that does promise to be really difficult (he’s still got the puppy energy, but he has a full-grown body so that makes for a lot of craziness). I can’t wait until he mellows out because then he will literally be the perfect doggie. He obeys me pretty well, but at times he just gets soooo worked up and he’s hard to physically control because he weighs roughly half what I do. I wish he realized that, because my insides do not appreciate when he jumps on me like when he was a 10 lb puppy.

Scott and I have finally finished painting the back bathroom. We’ve decided that our goal of having the house painted by the end of summer was a tad too ambitious. We’ll do what we can, but it will likely take the rest of the year. It’s better to paint when it’s cooler outside because the brutal heat makes painting that much more strenuous. It’s seriously amazing to see what kind of effects a little paint can have.