unexplained

I was in the math center a week ago, happily tuting away, when I looked up and saw a printout posted on a bulletin board. In the middle of the flyer was a photo of adjunct instructor and fellow tutor, Greg.

I thought, "Oh, what's this? We doing instructor of the month or something?"

Then I noticed the "In Loving Memory of"

WHAAT? I was shocked. Friendly, mellow, patient Greg? Passed away??

I had no idea. Neither did many of the others I talked with. He never looked unwell or in any discomfort. He was, I'm guessing, mid 60s, and seemed quite healthy. Loved his grandkids, enjoyed golfing...

Magnum says maybe it's one of those cancers you don't know about until the end. Maybe?

Still feels strange to think I won't be chatting with him anymore. My colleagues in testing were equally shook.

• Speaking of testing, I worked last Saturday with Party Girl. It was a busy day with lots of annoying little fires needing extinguishing. I didn't get much catching up with her until we were closing up. What's with all these people and their issues? Didn't they know I had Party Girl tea to catch up on??

But I did know that she was in a much peppier mood when I worked with her on Friday and then Saturday than she'd been the week before. Things are not great at her dad's facility, but minisculy improved. She's given her husband the what for, and he's taking note. No more mention of her moving out, making him buy her a house.

In short, he's having what seems to be an emotional affair with a long ago girlfriend - The One Who Got Away - from back in high school before his first wife (Party Girl is wife number 2). They talk on the phone and text regularly. I don't know if she lives nearby, but he should pick a lane.

• Speaking of picking a lane, I'm going to lay it all out with my PEO chapter at our upcoming meeting that people either need to step up and take an office or we don't have a chapter anymore. Sad but true. I'm not going to keep us afloat for another year just so we're in this same boat next February. We'll see how it goes.

But I'll be patient and calm and caring. 

It's what Greg would do.

we got spirit...

1. Nobody is willing to take over as PEO president
   
   
2. HR is telling coworkers and I not to talk sh*t about Blossom's chronic absenteeism
   
   
3. Furnace crapped out after an annual tune-up NOT coincidentally. 

So those three things are at the forefront of my little world. Other things at the bigger world, but we'll keep it at the little one.

• I'm frustrated with my PEO chapter. I've never had this issue with the two other chapters I've belonged to, but it's like pulling teeth to get people to volunteer for offices. We have 7 officers, and we've filled 5 very easily, but the two remaining - including President, which I currently occupy - remain vacant for the upcoming changeover.

We had two members who had earlier agreed to co-preside, but now both are backing out. I feel like those astronauts who got stranded at the international space station when the Starliner meant to retrieve them went belly up. Will I have to call on Elon Musk to bail me out?

•  Boss told us about HR getting involved in the problem of Blossom's attendance issues, and he had to pen an "edict" that we can't talk sh*t about her or ask why she calls off so often. I asked him to clarify what we're being accused of. 

Boss says HR is also aware of employee "grumpiness" from having to pick up the slack when Blossom leaves us understaffed so often. 

"Her absenteeism and our resulting grumpiness are two different issues"

Okay, I just wanted to make sure that we were not being told not to be grumpy.

• We had our furnace annually tuned on Monday. Monday was a warm day, and we didn't really need the furnace, but Tuesday morning, I noticed it would not turn on. 

Fix-it guy came out and eventually determined that the filter Tune-up guy gave me was crap, blocking airflow. The safety features in the furnace told it to shut down. Now it has a new filter, the house is warm, I got a service invoice for $0.00 following Fix-it guy's visit.

I'm not mad about Tune-up guy. He only gave me the filter - which turned out to be crap - because our lame butts didn't have any spares on hand. The crap filter wasn't intentional, just a weird situation... pretty sure.

On the bright side:

• 5 enthusiastic officer volunteers
• Fun coworkers, including Blossom when she shows up
• Furnace working fine, and I learned some furnace stuff

How 'bout you?

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Hooking up with [John's Writer's Workshop] this week for the prompt:

1. What’s taking up the most mental space for you right now?

flux

It's a sunny Saturday morning after a somewhat tumultuous week. Not too crazy tumult, but the sunny weekend is welcomed.

The week actually started off pretty good with my PEO meeting and wrapping up that President letter. I'm currently working on recruiting officers for the upcoming year because I and others are ready to ride off into the sunset. People aren't exactly getting in line to be next prez. There are two who had sort of agreed to share the job, but neither has answered my message to confirm. Hmmm. They'll come around 🤞

I have a nice batch of dedicated tutees so far and more available slots in my schedule. I'm enjoying not having a full schedule just yet, though. Classes are coming up on their first exams of the semester, and that typically gets the tutor appointments filling up.

I worked in testing yesterday, and it was just a weird day. Fridays are typically busy, and yesterday was certainly no exception. Add several annoying technical issues, and the day was rather "tits up" as they say in the UK. 

In the midst of all that, at one point, a young woman came out of the testing room to turn in her materials. She was absolutely BAWLING, no holding back. I honestly thought she was going to hyperventilate.

"Are you okay?", which seemed like a silly thing to ask, but I didn't know what else to say.

"I PASSED!..." She loudly sobbed

This was happening as we had several people queued up to check in for their respective tests. I don't think the scene helped to quell the overall test anxiety. 

Additionally, I could tell that Party Girl was a little off her game. It was so busy from the get go, that I hadn't really checked in with her. When things quieted down a little, she sat with Boss in his office for a few minutes with the door closed.

A little while after that, she looked over to Boss, and said, "Y'know, I think I'll just go now", although she had a couple hours left of her shift, and we were still fairly busy.

I did manage to catch her in the break room as she was packing up. She closed the door and gave me the Cliff Notes version of her current life situation. In summary

• The facility where her elderly dementia dad lives is not meeting his needs and is not able to increase his level of care
• Her husband is... well, I'll just say there are marital issues.

She said she wants her husband to buy her a house (as compensation?) so she can move out. This so she can move her dad in with her, quit all her jobs (she also tutors) and take care of her dad full-time.

And I'm thinking, was it that recent full moon or what?

We've also got a situation at work where Boss is chastising - for lack of a better word - all of us unreasonably IMHO. I have thoughts on a rebuttal that I would normally bounce off of Party Girl, but now is probably not the time. 

So, back to sunny Saturday.

feels like

Happy February! It's not that I necessarily love February, but nice to know we're a little closer to spring, days are getting longer, bit by bit.

Last weekend was FREEEEEEZing cold. Today, it's forecast to be in the high 50s. Magnum and I plan to bike to some coffee shop in a little while. This to say, that I am not yet caffeinated while posting this, so bare with.

• This week felt like a productive one. Tutees are starting to fill my schedule at the college. So far, I have a couple of returners from last semester, and the rest are newbs.

• I worked yesterday in testing with Kitty. A little toward the end of the shift, Work Study stopped by. She was on campus for a class and found "everything is closed on Saturday!" Well, everything but us. She'd come by to use our microwave.

She told us that last week was her final week working with us. I'll miss her, but I'm happy to see her go because (1) we don't need a work study in testing - there is not nearly enough for them to do because of limitations in what the testing world allows student workers to do, and (2) I think her new (non work-study) job is a better fit for her. So I'd felt it was a waste of funding and a waste of her talents to have her in testing, but she'll be missed.

• In entertainment news, Magnum and I recently finished watching the Netflix series [Katla]. Watched it? It's "Nordic Noir" based in Iceland, and that's all I will say. I really liked it, although it can be dark and disturbing at times. Now I want to visit Iceland. 

• The [P.E.O.] year is wrapping up. As such, I'm required to write the year-end "President's letter". I had it pretty squared away, but was having trouble with a satisfying final paragraph. Not gonna lie, I asked chatgpt for a little help, expecting it to return something bland and/or irrelevant. But damn, I liked the suggestions and went with them, paraphrased. 

And speaking of not trusting the internet, I just checked my weather app to see about our bike ride. It says it's 38 degrees and feels like 52. Uhm... what?

Whatever, coffee's calling.