fake blood and a weird haircut

Well this week, she was a busy one. Nothing specific, just into the homestretch of the semester at work and the beginning of a new PEO year. But my head's still above water. 

I worked last weekend and there was  law enforcement/ EMS training event going on on campus. One those things with "trauma victims" and various simulations. We were told a flight-for-life helicopter would be making an appearance, but by the end of our shift, we realized, no helicopter. We were promised a helicopter!

Also this week, I went in for a haircut. I've been going to the same stylist for a couple of years now. She does a good job and is reasonably priced. The salon is pretty laid back - professional but not snobby.

Each stylist has their own little cubby, partitioned off from the others. And it's not uncommon for the stylists to chat with each other across partitions. Sometimes, my stylist's college age daughter drops by and catches up for a while.

But this last time - tell me if this is weird. I'm there in the chair getting my haircut. Daughter comes by with a friend and shares greetings with my stylist while going to the breakroom. Then they come back out and some other dude comes in - not a college dude, but an older guy. Someone's husband? I dunno. He wasn't there to get a cut or anything, just stops in to shoot the shit.

So it's me in the chair, my stylist is working. Her daughter, daughter's friend, and weird older dude are just hanging around. Stylist is dropping hints now and then like, "Sorry, I can't visit much today, my schedule got backed up a bit..." And I'm there like I'm having my haircut at someone's backyard barbecue.

The trio isn't taking the hint, just keeps hanging around and visiting. I still have no idea why older dude is there. Honestly, I'm not sure why the 19-year-old daughter with a car hangs out at her mom's work either. Stylist says something like, "Sheesh, I feel like I'm being graded - everyone just watching me work, heh heh" *hint*hint*nudge*nudge*, and still they stick around.

In hindsight, I should've glommed onto that and said, "How do you think I feel?!" but I just remained there feeling awkward. They probably still wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

When she finished up, and I paid, she seemed to be giving me apologetic vibes with her eyes.

But it was weird. Was that weird?

hi ho

Big, wet snowflakes are falling outside my window. Looks like it's gonna be a bus-to-work day. This image showed up in my fbook feed today - from my hometown's history:

Just a little reminder how posh most of us have it today.

We had a fire drill at the college this week. Thankfully, that day, it was relatively warm and sunny out. We had to scoot all of the people who were testing out to the gathering spot. 

Now, staff was given word of this drill several weeks ago so as to plan accordingly. We happened to have several students from one particular class taking an exam at the time. Later, their teacher emailed us, concerned about the students being able to collaborate during the fire drill "break", stating, "I thought the testing center was exempt".

Uhm, well, no. Fire drills are to be treated like the real thing for EVERYBODY, not surprisingly. We told the instructor that we were out there with her students, while not burning, and they behaved themselves, mumbling under our breath how she shouldn't schedule a large exam during a planned fire drill.

Left feeling rather underappreciated once again, I can now look at those early coal miners from my weird little hometown and realize I've got it pretty good.

the heat

I'm off of work and scheduled a furnace tune for today. It's supposed to happen "sometime between 8am and noon". It is now a little after 9am. So I wait. I guess I'll do this little mid-week debrief exercise:

1. Name one new thing you learned this week

I learned that dogs should NOT eat grapes/ grape products. Who knew??

Someone on NextDoor posted that her dog ate a grape. She was quite worried, wondering what to do on the weekend since her vet office was closed. And I was all, "Dog ate one grape? What's the fuss?"  Well, now I know!

2. Acknowledge someone for a job well done.

I'll give a shout out to Work Study - our student employee at work. She's a military veteran who now gets paid by the VA to go to school. She admittedly is not passionate about being a student, but realizes it's probably the right thing to do, plus it pays the rent. 

In the meantime, she's trying to figure out what to be when she "grows up" while taking general classes. She comes in to work a few hours each week and is a total people-person - has a way of engaging people in conversation and taking their minds off of the stressful testing environment.

3. Describe a good idea you heard.

I didn't actually "hear" this idea, it's something that I discovered while decluttering. So maybe I heard it from some decluttering angel? 

Anyway, here's my tip: I used to keep shoes I didn't wear regularly in their respective boxes in my closet. Dress shoes, winter boots, summer sandals, etc. I decided to get a small shoe shelf and chuck the boxes. In so doing, I unboxed shoes I realized I didn't want anymore. Keeping them in boxes was outta sight, outta mind, and I'd forget I had them. 

Once I shelved them, I saw I had redundant / unwanted shoes that went into the donation box instead. I mean, now many pairs of black business casual shoes or casual canvas sneakers does one need?! 

4. Describe a feeling you experienced.

Sarge told us a story about a time earlier in his life when he briefly worked as a repo man for a rental center. The worst repo he ever did:

They were sent to a home to repossess a large entertainment center, complete with big screen TV and gaming console. When they got there, young kids were sitting there, holding their game controllers and crying. It was right after Christmas.

The mom made a dramatic scene in front of the kids about how she hadn't received her child support check that month, so all that new stuff from Christmas had to go. Sarge said it was almost as if she'd planned the whole thing - buy all that stuff on credit only to have it repoed in order to make the dad out to be the Grinch. 

I doubt the dad was innocent in the whole thing, but Sarge's story just gave us so many feels, and not the good kind. Disgust, anger, sadness, blech. Some people.

5. Describe something that pushed you outisde your comfort zone.

I've not done anything particularly "uncomfortable" lately. After covid precautions lifted enough, I transferred to a local [P.E.O.] chapter, and shortly after that, they asked if I would serve as chapter president when this next year rolls around. I said, "uh, okay?". The P.E.O. year ends/ starts in March, which is coming up. My turn at prez is right around the corner. Uh, okay?

6. How will you apply what you've learned?

Be careful with the grape-dog combo!

show me

 I was at work Friday afternoon. We were wrapping up the last few testers of the day while Boss and GrandBoss were conducting interviews for assistant boss. 

I mentioned a few weeks ago a student who was busted with a cell phone and also found to be spitting in his private room 🤢. He offered a lame excuse for the phone and denied spitting even though we had clear video footage. I don't know what consequences, if any, he faced for his sins.

Anyways, Spitman was in taking another test on Friday, and I just had a feeling...

I zoomed in on the overhead camera as he seemed overly hunched over. Sure enough, as soon as I had a view of his lap, brightly lit up cell phone, right there. I was working with Star, and as soon as the phone became visible again, I drew her attention to the monitor to verify I was seeing what I was seeing. 

Just then, Spitman actually picked the phone up and began typing something into the screen, so really, no further verification needed. I went in, guns a-blazin'!

"You can't have a phone in here", I stated the obvious.

"I don't have a phone!", the blatant lie response.

"Oh brother, here we go", said inside my mind.

"We clearly saw you using a phone on our surveillance camera", probably to no avail.

"I don't have a phone!", the brick wall response.

He stepped out of the room, indicated his jacket pockets were empty, walked over to the locker where his items were stored and showed me a cell phone in the locker. 

"See! There's my phone", because a person can't possibly have more than one.

I suspected the phone was, at that point, in his underpants, and I wasn't about to request a search.

I told him he could return to his test, but we'd have to file a report because he was clearly using a frickin' phone.

Sure enough, we saved the video footage of the bust, and he's clearly seen doing a quick *zhoop* of the phone into the sleeve of his slightly too big jacket when I first entered. Then as he stood, he popped the phone down the front of his pants. 

I don't get it. I mean, how can people just blatantly lie so easily? And the thing is, the class he keeps cheating in is a developmental math class. It carries NO college credit. It's a class to help students who are behind in math, to prepare them for college level courses. 

It would be like needing a cast to set a broken bone, being provided with a suitable cast, but chucking the cast and wearing a fake one to make it look like you're healing.  If he can't pass that class without cheating, he will absolutely drown in college algebra.

Not to mention, I was then faced with the inconvenience of having to file the incident report. I mean, how rude.

I just wonder what's up with Spitman. Is he trying to get kicked out?

nicotine of time

There's a student at work - new student this semester. There's something about him, he just rubs me the wrong way. Seems very "tightly wound" and just has a negative vibe about him.

He's an older "non traditional" student. I'd say he's around 40 years old. He's never been nasty or anything, just... off putting. It's difficult to say what it is, he just has this bad aura vibe. I've mentioned before that the students we serve in the testing center are those who have accommodations for testing through disability services, otherwise they would test with their classmates in the classroom. 

So this guy has a crap ton of accommodations. One of them is that he can take breaks without it counting against the time allowed for the test - a common accommodation for people who are on some sort of medication schedule or a diabetic who might need a snack or someone with anxiety  who just needs to walk away for a bit, etc. 

So he came in for his first test with us last week. He pulls out his pack of cigarettes and lighter to have at the ready if/when he wants to take a break.  We just looked at this because he should know that his breaks-allowed accommodation doesn't mean he can leave the building in the middle of a test. In addition, the entire campus is a "no tobacco or vaping" campus, so what was his plan?

Apparently, he did pop out for a smoke break at some point. I had left by then as my shift was ending just as he'd showed up thinking, "thankfully, I'm out!". The next day, I asked my coworkers what happened, and they said that Boss said, "just let him go", because I'm not the only one who is uncomfortable with the guy, and no one wanted to be the messenger.

Other than that guy, most of the students are very pleasant and appreciative. Without the accommodations, many probably wouldn't be in school. Honestly, I don't always agree with some of the accommodations allowed for certain classes, but figure it will all sort out in the working world... maybe.

And I've mentioned "Ben", the student with cerebal palsy for whom I scribe for calculus quizzes and exams. He's a nice kid, with a fun sense of humor. He plans to be a biomedical engineer.  

He's never once asked for nor expected a smoke break.

So I like my part-time test center job well enough at this season of my life. I guess my favorite thing is the people we meet.

And my least favorite thing is the people we meet.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Tell us your favorite thing about your job.

down by the crick

Hot enough for ya?  This morning I stepped outside for a run at what is usually a pleasant time for such activity. But alas, it was already 76 degrees. Gross.

I realize 76 degrees would be pleasant for some, but we're spoiled here, and it's typically a good 10+ degrees cooler at that time in the morning.

Strangely, conditions seemed to improve as time went on. I ran mostly following a creek, which proved to be my, literally, cool friend. I crossed many other runners, walkers, bicyclists, and such also wanting to beat the heat. 

Last week on reddit, runners were discussing amazon prime day deals. I skimmed and saw heart rate monitors, gps watches, etc. Nothing I was interested in. Then someone said, "Nuun tablets half price!", and I was all, "what are nuun tablets?"

Well, I guess I'll find out, because I ordered me a 4-pack prime deal.

In somewhat related news, read about this guy? Assassinated while running. Hmm, bet he thought he was doing something healthy. He regularly posted his running and bicycling routes on the Strava app for all to see. Not a good idea for a commander during a war against Ukraine, or any place else for that matter. 

I, like many others, use Strava for logging runs and bicycle rides. Once again, I'm grateful I'm a nobody. But this is another example of how surprised I am with what people will post online. Strava, naturally, includes privacy settings, but the former commander didn't use them, apparently. It's like some facebook friends who give updates about how they just landed at some airport destination far far away from home for a specific number of days, a la , "Hey, go rob my house!"

On the flip side, Strava can be a handy thing, like last week when a woman was cooling down after her run and was approached by perv who tried to "expose his genitals" before she left the area. She got some snapshots from afar and posted a be-on-the-lookout to a local Strava group. 

She didn't get a good picture of the perv himself, but that's a pretty distinctive vehicle. 

Seen him?

strike up the...

I was a small town girl living in a lonely world...

Okay, I wasn't necessarily lonely, but I did spend my formative years growing up in a small coal-mining town - one where "everybody knew everybody" pretty much. 

When I was a sophomore in high school, our marching band was invited to a festival, featuring a large parade and field competition, in another state. This was a relatively big deal for our little town.

Anyone who's been involved in HS marching band knows the constant need for fundraising activities. This festival brought us band kids to new heights in such efforts. Finally, at a certain point, the townspeople responded with, essentially, 

"We don't need any more candles/ place settings/ chocolates/ mixed nuts/ child labor... Can't we just make a freaking donation??"

Why, yes. Yes you can. Now, this was long before the digital age. There was no web, so no website to go to and donate through Paypal or such. Everything was done face-to-face via check or cash.

One fateful day in late winter/ early spring was the designated HS Band Festival day or something like that. We band kids would infiltrate the neighborhoods and collect donations from anyone wanting to contribute. 

It was a Saturday morning, and we all showed up to the band room wearing our respective band hats  to get our - literal - marching orders. That year, I was part of the banner girl team. We toted around letters that spelled out our high school and mascot and did little dance things. 

I was the "A". Other side had a "S" for the spelling of our mascot. 

And yes, we wore blue hard hats.

Our instructions for donation collecting included that we stay in pairs when going door-to-door. Well, my similarly hard-hat clad teammate and I soon had the epiphany that our work would go MUCH faster if we split up. So we did exactly that, she hitting one side of the street, while I took the other. We'd meet at the end before returning to the band room.

This was all going smoothly as I neared the end of my route. I had two houses left. *insert dramatic music here*

I was on the tasteful porch of a tasteful house in the square behind my house.  A cheerful man answered the door, he was friendly, smiley. I could hear young children in a room off of the entryway watching Saturday morning cartoons. The man was still in his bathrobe.

"Oh yeah, yeah!" he greeted when I told him my reason for being on his porch (and wearing a hard hat), "My wife has the checkbook, hold on!".

A moment later, a similarly smiley, friendly woman arrived with checkbook and pen  in hand. She began making out a check, asking about the band's preparation for the festival, etc. The kids happily watched their cartoons, the man stood a few feet behind the woman, opened the bathrobe and...

• shucked the corn
• peeled the chili
• polished the banister
• adjusted the antenna...

Yeah, he was jerking off, looking me in the eye while his friendly wife wrote out a donation check and his cute kids watched cartoons. 

I said nothing but remember thinking, "oh for the luvah Pete..." something like, and fixing my eyes on the charitable woman's hand writing the check. The wholesome moment had taken a decidedly disappointing turn.

I said my thanks and exited the porch. 

But hey, the festival was fun.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

1. Tell us about a memorable neighbor from your childhood neighborhood.

happy day

Happy Mother's Day, y'all. Hallmark holiday that it is, I do still appreciate my mom and also my kids for allowing me the job.

I was digging around in my archives from one year ago. At this time back then, we were into celebrating Meego's graduation from college. Woot!  He's working full-time now, moved out of the college-years "Lake House" into his own place. We'll get together later for some birthday shenanigans.

I also found in my archives, memories of my dispute with Nurse Ratched. Ugh. 

To summarize, we had a particular nursing instructor at work who was being "not very nice" to us in the testing center. Her wrath stemmed from an incident between one of her students and the not-always-tactful Boss. 

I understood her being upset with Boss, but when she decided to aim her tyrannical ways at us underlings, my coworkers and I said, "F--- that!"

It was the first - and thankfully the last - time I ever felt a need to submit a formal complaint to an HR department. Two of my coworkers and I did just that. 

I was actually a bit surprised at the quick response. Our complaints were delivered to the head of HR himself who called and discussed the situation with each of us individually. We don't know what was said to Nurse Ratched, but I'm sure she had a talking to.

There have been no negative incidents involving her since. On the few occasions I've had to correspond with her via email, she's been profusely thankful.  There also seems to have been an uptick in the frequency of positive remarks from other instructors like, "appreciate you guys!" or "thanks for everything you do for our students!" blah blah blah.

Up until a few months ago, I'd never even met her in person, but I knew what she looked like when one of my fellow offended coworkers stalked her online and found her.

She stopped in for a rare visit late one evening while Assistant Boss and I were going through some closing procedures. I was in the back room closing out a few things when Nurse Ratched  walked in all stealthfully. I imagine she peeked in, saw Assistant Boss in there by himself, and deemed the coast clear.

I sensed it was her, so stepped out in full reveal, to which she did one of these

I responded with one of these

She thanked us "for all you do", told us about what nice comments we get from her students, then hastily left. 

She's no longer a problem. I have no regrets about filing a complaint with HR. 

I hope to never have cause to do it again.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Look into your archives. What were you blogging about a year ago around this time? Are you still dealing with the same thing? Your thoughts?

concentrate

When I was a college undergrad, I did my time working retail. This was back before "online", let alone online shopping. So Christmas time was a zoo, Christmas eve being the worst. I was shocked at the number of shoppers on Christmas eve - grabbing whatever was left on the nearly empty shelves in order to have SOMEthing for Uncle Charlie!

Now, years later, I've circled around to another part-time job, this time at a college testing center. The equivalent to retail Christmas eve is last day of finals, which was yesterday. A steady stream of the anxiety-riddled.

At one point in the mayhem, an instructor stopped in. Instructors come by on a regular basis, usually to drop off or pick up exams. So this one - an older man - wandered in, and I met his gaze.

"Hi. Dropping off? Picking up?"

He looked at me rather confusedly, "Uhm... neither", then he turned to Assistant Boss, who was behind me, to say, "I'm in class giving the final, but if you have any questions about my tests for students here, it's okay to call me".

Assistant Boss said, "okay", and old instructor guy exited.

Then Assistant Boss looked to me and said, "That was weird".

And I said, "Yeah, why would he need to come in here just to tell us that".

And Assistant Boss, who is male, said, "No, I mean, why did he tell it to me instead of to you??"

"Oh, that", I replied, "because clearly my lady brain can't handle his complex instructions".

This particular instructor even looks similar to this manly man from a scene in Orange is the New Black:

Except in addition to regularly ignoring us women-folk, he often seems a bit spacey. Recently, one of my fellow lady-brained coworkers noticed him intentionally stealing pens from us. Weird, especially given that our pens are nothing special.

Maybe he thinks it's fine unless someone sees him stealing pens? And women don't count?

So I chalk his behavior up to him being a little "out of touch", or him losing his mind, and not worth the angst.

He teaches biology. Hmmm.

storm before the calm

I worked the Saturday shift with Party Girl yesterday. She confirmed, as I expected, that she is also hoping big for Boss's promotion. In fact, she didn't mince her words when the subject came up, stating, "Oh, he needs to get the F*CK outta here", then told me how he held her captive talking about stock car racing while she was trying to "actually get some work done" on Friday.

Boss has been a life long bachelor for all of his 62 years until just a few months ago when he moved in with his "girlfriend" of about 2 and a half years. We consider his living alone for so long to be the main reason behind his long-winded, self-centered monologues. Or is it vice versa?

Wouldn't it be funny if he got the promotion, but kept his current office? Ha! NO!

Either way, girlfriend must be a glutton for punishment or otherwise made differently than the rest of us. 

Anyway, another good week down. I finished up with all my college tutoring for fall semester as students are in the throes of final exams now. Tomorrow is sure to be a zoo in the testing center as it's the last day of finals. The storm before the calm.

I'm not at all on the ball with Christmas prep, but no biggie since we don't make a big deal about it in our household. Still, I like having something for each of the kids to open. And I might finally get some lights hung later today. Neighbors keep putting us to shame.

This reminds me that it's once again time for the box of diabetes to arrive from Magnum's dad's wife. I've mentioned here before how most of it ends up at work breakrooms and/or the trash since I don't know of a good way to get her to stop sending the mountain of store-bought sugar shock each year. It just seems so wasteful.

Maybe she'll forget this year? 

waiting through the bad hurt

 "I was so confused. I didn't know what to do!"

Tuesday, I worked with one of the new-hires. I'll call her The Writer. It was her second day of training, and I liked her right away. She's an English instructor for her "real" job at the college. She asked me what she should be working on, so I asked if she had her training checklist from Boss, and I would get her going.

"I... don't know", she replied. "I worked with him last night, but he spent the whole time talking about his time in Mexico.  I was so confused..."

*Oh for chrissake*

"I'm so sorry. Yeah, he does that...", I sympathized. Oh, the poor woman.

Some readers might recall that, when I first took this job, I had a similar experience with Boss in regard to hockey. He droned on and on about hockey. 

I was so confused. I didn't know what to do!

I don't know why he does this. I honestly think it's possible that he has some sort of condition. He'll get rolling on some monologue and can't stop, and Boss's favorite subject is himself. I've since learned to anticipate it, see when it's about to happen, and cut him off at the knees, but it's not always easy or altogether avoidable.

It's understandably difficult for new hires because (1) it's so freaking weird and uncomfortable, but (2) it's the boss.

Thankfully, Boss was busy doing boss things on Tuesday, and we got some actual training and decent two-sided conversation in. 

"Oh, this is so much better!", The Writer exhaled.

I know some people don't like their bosses for a variety of reasons. Except for this issue, I mostly like mine - he's considerate and flexible with scheduling, very personable and approachable, treats us fairly, and he's good at running a test center.  Many test centers didn't survive the pandemic. 

In short, I like working FOR him. I don't like working WITH him.

I've worked there a little over one year, and four people have come on board and left within that time (if we count recently quitting what's her face, which I think we should in this case). I wouldn't be surprised if  Boss's ramblings were a key factor in the exodus. 

Of those of us who remain, I think Assistant Boss has learned to block it out, Party Girl - well, she drinks. A lot - and I've learned to stop it before it really gets going. I think Sangria uses a combo of stopping it and blocking it out. Now we've got two newly hired part-timers who also teach on campus. Fingers crossed for them both.

I wouldn't say I love this job, but here are some likes:

• I like helping college students with their educational goals
• I like helping professionals get their licenses and certifications
• I like my work schedule, it's probably one of the better paying part-time jobs I can easily tolerate
• I like my short commute
• I like my coworkers and the instructors and tutors I've gotten to know
• I like the steady paycheck and 401k, which I don't get as a contract tutor
• I like the tidy, attractive campus

Gonna focus on the positive.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. List 7 Reasons why you love your job.

my big bust

And so ends another week of summer.  Today's agenda includes finding ways to beat the heat.

Yesterday, we helped Meego move a few big items from his college rental to his next address. The college "Lake House" was a good setup for the last 3 years, now it's ready for another round of students, most likely.

Meego's moving in with a friend who recently bought and is renovating a house. How a 20-something guy was able to procure a house in the current market is a bit of a mystery. But he's a nice, hardworking "kid", so more power to 'im. 

I say "we" helped move some stuff, but really, Magnum got the truck and helped load.  I was at work while that was going on and met up with them later to unload a couple of little things and check out the new place.

Speaking of work, we have two new coworkers. One, I will call Sangria. She is replacing Martha - recently left to sell everything and head for the greener grass of Mexico. Next, we acquired a work study student whom I will call Donatello. 

Both seem to fit in well and round out our little group of seven: Boss, Assistant Boss, four part-timers, and a work study.

Speaking of working yesterday, I bagged my first bust. 

We're open Mondays thru Fridays, typical business hours. And we're also open for four hours on Saturdays. Weekdays typically have 3 to 4 staffers, sometimes a work study. We all rotate the Saturday shifts, which staff two people.

So I was on yesterday with Assistant Boss. It looked to be a typical mellow Saturday, and for the most part, it was. People who came in for testing were friendly and well prepared. One woman "warned" us that she was pregnant and may have a sudden need for the restroom...

We give tests for professional certifications/ licenses, and we also administer makeup or accommodated tests for students at the college.  A college student came in for a makeup math exam, and we got him set up. His was an online exam, so we locked down his workstation so he couldn't access any websites other than his exam.

There are surveillance cameras set up at various angles to observe people while they're testing. We also have remote access to what testers have on their computer screens.  

Do we constantly watch these cameras and monitors?

Oh, heck no. Invigilation is not that invigorating.

Assistant Boss and I were hanging out, talking about our cats or something, when we noticed College Kid acting kinda suspicious - looking around at computers near him rather than his own screen. Being a Saturday, the room he was in was nearly empty. It looked suspicious, but he wasn't breaking any rules. 

Then there was this bit of activity flurry - Pregnant Lady needed the restroom, Insurance Guy left his ID behind, and Water Treatment Guy needed a score printout. 

Assistant boss signed out Pregnant Lady and got Water Treatment Guy's report while I ran down Insurance Guy in the parking lot. The dust settled, and I was sanitizing when I  happened to glance at College Kid's monitor. He had reached over to the adjacent computer, googled some math references, and was pondering his search results.

Still footage of the crime. His test is on the monitor to his right.

Alarms blared, lights flashed! We stormed the testing room, guns a-blazing!

Well... actually, Assistant Boss went in and told College Kid he can't do that while I shut down his search remotely. Redundant, because College Kid most certainly knew he can't do that. 

Meantime, we got screenshots of his googling and time stamps of how long he engaged in the covert activity. Plus, we got the video footage of the brazen scheme.

We filed the appropriate documentation and spoke with his instructor.

"Welp, he gets a zero", her wrath rang down.

Exciting times in test proctoring. Assistant Boss told me this was the first cheater caught since COVID began. Is it a sign that we've turned the corner on the pandemic?

Or as Tigger would say, "The start of a new error!"

surf's up

"Would it be considered harassment if a coworker or supervisor attempts to stop me from filing a claim of harassment against another party?"

My coworker, Party Girl, posed this question to me last week while well within earshot of our full-time coworker, Bugs.  Bugs is not in a supervisory role, but when Boss is gone, Bugs is typically put in charge. Boss happened to be out of town when things were going down with Nurse Ratched.

Party Girl, another coworker we'll call Betty, and I had dug around and found the official HR form for submitting a claim of harassment.  We decided to each submit our point of view of the Nurse Ratched situation, and Bugs attempted to discourage us from doing so.  The question was Party Girl's cute and clever way of telling Bugs his "advice" was not needed.

"Pretty sure the answer is 'YES!' as we all learned from our mandatory harassment training", I promptly replied as we all gave Bugs the side eye.

He backed off after that.  

To summarize, Boss did something we all (except for maybe Boss) agreed was inappropriate (not sexual, nothing like that) with a student.  That student went to her instructor - Nurse Ratched - to complain about Boss and ask for some leniency on the exam she took with us since she was feeling frazzled while she worked on the exam.

Nurse Ratched, understandably, became upset with Boss and complained to... somebody.  I really don't know what all happened after that as I don't have a need to know.  But because of the incident between Boss and Student, Nurse Ratched decided to bully, judge, and demean all of us, even though she's never dealt with anyone other than Boss, other than that one incident.

And THAT is when it became a problem for Party Girl, Betty, and me.  Nurse Ratched's abuse toward us seemed to be persistent and escalating, so the three of us each decided to get our two cents in.  

Bugs tried to stop us, saying, "It's already being handled" - referring to the Boss/ Student/ Nurse Ratched incident.

We disagreed as it had spilled over to baselessly involve us three underlings.  This was a new situation for handling.

Anyway, we felt good about telling our sides of the story and get confirmation from the honcho in HR who handles these things.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting much, but I guess something happened.  Nurse Ratched has been cordial in her subsequent communications.  Dare I say, apologetic, even?

Sheesh, in all my years, I'd never felt a need to submit a report of harassment or anything else to a Human Resources department. Kids, I tellya.

I feel good that we didn't just cower and hope it goes away.  I'm glad we spoke up for ourselves despite Bugs' attempts to stop us.  

Bugs is a nice enough guy, but doesn't like making waves. We more or less told him, too bad, you're in the deep end of the pool with the big girls now.

And to this day, I still haven't even met Nurse Ratched in-person.  

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Write a blog post inspired by the word: proud

from empty to cuckoos nest

I had some revelations this week.  Nothing ultra profound, but the universe has spoken to me.

It has to do with work, and the details would be boring to readers. Plus I don't want to type it all out.  But this week, a certain instructor at the college - we'll call her Nurse Ratched - started throwing barbs at us in the testing center. Little passive aggressive condescending barbs.

Our staff consists of the director, one full-timer, and four part-timers.  I'm one of the part-timers.  I have never personally met Nurse Ratched nor had any dealings with her other than being a target of her dissings this week.

All of us part-timers are upset about Nurse Ratched's baseless hostility as she's provided no reasons detailing why she's laying into us.  We strongly suspect it stems from an incident between one of her students and our boss, and now she's writing all of us off.

I mentioned here once before that my boss can be somewhat annoying in that he has a tendency to talk incessantly about himself or topics of interest to him.  I was painfully trapped in a particular marathon he went on about college hockey - even after I expressed zero interest in college hockey.  

Anyway, he's very down to earth and can be okay to work with - aside from that annoying tendency.  I'd also say he's good at his job as far as dealing with facilities, software, budgets, scheduling, testing companies, etc.

His customer service skills, however...  ooch.

Luckily, he deals with customers and students very little, but there was that one recent incident with Nurse Ratched's student.  And now Nurse Ratched seems to think we're all clowns because of Boss's behavior.

This bothers me because, as I've said, I also am often annoyed with Boss's behavior, yet I  keep my mouth shut because he's Boss.  So what's happened here - I actually agree with Nurse Ratched about the incident, yet she sees me and my equally innocent coworkers (who, like me, get annoyed with Boss but say nothing) as mini Bosses.

Revelation-wise, this is telling me to speak up when I see questionable or inappropriate behavior, even when it's coming from the boss.  And just because I'm a "lowly" part-timer, my input is relevant. It's my choice to be part-time. I've sat back, biting my tongue, while higher ups make decisions that affect me.  Screw that.

Also, Happy Mother's Day to the moms out there. I rather miss being with young kids all day - so much more mature than what I deal with at work now.

good morning

I'm sitting here enjoying some coffee while catching up on a few blogs.  I had an enjoyable morning run and am just chilling, post shower and breakfast

So what?

Well, my work schedule is different now, and I think I like this better.  I used to work early morning until early afternoon.  Now, I'm late morning until early evening.  I'm 40 hours a week instead of 30, but I feel like I'm more productive, both at and away from work, because of these lazy mornings.   Then again, it's only been a coupla days.  Give it time...

It's nice to see visitors at the nursing home.  I've been there since September 2020, so don't know of anything pre-pandemic.  Most of my young charges who work the evenings are high school or college students, all girls.  While they're great with the residents, they are clearly enjoying young visitors, particularly grandsons!

One of the girls said a rehab patient asked her if she's married.  She's not.

"Oh, not into guys?", he asked.

"I'm seventeen", she deadpanned.

We pondered his ignorance and inappropriateness.  Was he hitting on her? Probably, it happens frequently (with absolutely NO chance of anything coming of it...)  

Maybe it's these guys getting bolder near the end, or having their minds make them think they're young again.  Or a little of both.

Why assume only two options?  Married or not into guys?  Women have many opportunities for fulfillment these days, most seventeen-year-olds know that.

They just need to remember that, now that the grandsons are here.

SilverLiningness Sunday

Yesterday was a workday for me, and it was thankfully nice and mellow.  My boss and assistant boss both have Saturdays off, so it's the day of the week that I'm "in charge".  Last Saturday was when we had that latest COVID situation frenzy, so while that was exciting, I was happy for a mellow day yesterday.

After work, Magnum and I went for a walk.  We're back to earning points for cash at his work's health incentive program.  I shoot for 10,000+ steps a day for maximum points.  

So we hoofed it about 4.5 miles, and my linked app credited me with about a measly 3,000 steps for the trip.  I don't think so!  Not only that, but we were nearly hit by a irresponsible bitch woman in an SUV failing to yield to pedestrians (us) in a crosswalk.  

So I figured I'm due a Silver Liningness blog post.  Onward.

Winter bicycle update:  I thankfully decided not to buy a third bicycle, deciding that three's a crowd.  My new winter tires have arrived, and I'm going to put them on Ariel and see how they are on dry pavement.  Others have told me they just leave them on from November-ish to March-ish, and they're fine even on no-ice days, so we shall see.  Here they studly sit beside me, patiently awaiting employment under the watchful eye of Catbug...

Why do I have a Catbug plush?  That's another story.  Anyway, I figure if I don't like the feel of them on dry roads, I'll just change out the tires.  It'll be good practice for flats I don't intend to get.

Whachu reading?  I've just finished reading a couple of books by Japanese authors.  They were recommended to me from my Kindle for some reason.  Both books were strange, but I liked their strangeness.  I think.  

Certainly not for everyone, but I went from going, "okay, what is the point??" to "Hmmm, lemme think about that for a bit" with each.

Working in the time of COVID.  This week, the CEO of the healthcare system I work for mandated that COVID vaccines will be required for employment as of April 1.  We've already had some fallout from staff who don't want the vaccine.  I'd decided to get it at the end of this month before the mandate was announced.  I'm thankful to have it available to me and at the thought of protecting our senior residents.  Fingers crossed it does the job.

In closing, I'm thankful for nice long walks, even if I don't get credited the full step count.  And I'm thankful for not being run over by a motor vehicle.

stood up, lied to, spit out

I had the morning off and had arranged a meet up with this guy.  As the appointed time approached, I prepared for his arrival - cleaned myself and the house up a bit, took the dogs out back so they wouldn't interrupt the liaison.  

The appointed time arrived, but he did not.  "Maybe running a little late", I deluded myself.  Surely, he was on his way.  He'd even sent an email to confirm we were still on.

We'd met online through - I guess you'd say - a mutual interest.  He wanted to check out my unruly bush, as he was apparently into such things.  

Well.  I had plenty to offer.  I'd even given my bush a once over earlier that morning, to make sure to impress.  

So, where was he?  At ten minutes past, I decided I'd check in.

A woman answered.  What?

I explained the situation, and she said she knew of our scheduled meetup.  She would find the man and call me back.

A few minutes later, it was the woman on the phone again.

"He said he was there and rang the doorbell and knocked, but no one answered, so he left"

"But... but... my bush?", I stuttered.  "Will he be coming back?", I asked pathetically after confirming they had the correct address.

No.  He had other places he needed to be, but I could arrange for another time....

What the hell?

First of all, the he-was-there-but-no-one-answered story was ridiculous.  (A) I specifically watched for him as I value people's time. (2) the dogs will bark if someone approaches our house, and they were quiet the whole time, and (Last but not Least) we have a freaking Ring®️ doorbell that records all the comings and goings to and from the front door, and there was a whole lot of nothing since I walked in at about 6am.

He was a no show.

So I'm all, look, if you don't want the job of removing the juniper bushes from the front yard, just say so.  Don't make me block time out for you, then not show up, and try to make it look like it's my fault.

Spurned, I went on the prowl.

I arranged another meetup at the university, with a young college student, no less.  He was punctual and gave me exactly what I'd (ordered earlier online for curbside pickup) needed.

Before returning home, however, I made one more stop.  The pet store.  The exertion elation was almost indescribable (35-lb bag of dogfood) as the burly man well met my needs.

So yeah, I feel better after a couple of competency fixes.  But you're not off the hook, Davey Tree.

Did she lie to me?  Did he lie to her?  Were they both out smoking a bowl in the truck?  We'll likely never know, but he's not gonna touch my bush.

A woman scorned and all that.

comfy?

I'm realizing that I'm quite comfortable with change, actually often crave it.  Moving has been a nice experience in that regard.  I'm liking the smaller house in the smaller city and exploring new places, and it's good to get out of old ruts and see things with fresh eyes.

It's got me considering some things that make me uncomfortable, though.  In  no particular order...

Loud people
I had to go to a UPS store to return our old internet modem/ router.  One of the customer service people was so LOUD.  He was a young guy - early 20s I'd say - and just filled the whole place with his loudness.  Why?  I don't know.  He was friendly and competent, but my god.  On a similar note,

Long Stories
Don't get me wrong, I love to read anecdotes - on blogs or memoirs or wherever.  Listening to them, though?  Not so much.  You ever have someone just go on and on with some narrative, including irrelevant details,  without coming up for air?  I even get uncomfortable when I see someone else being subjected to another just droning on.   Also similarly,

Giving lots of details
I guess since I don't like listening to people's long drawn out tales, I'm typically very succinct when speaking.  I wonder if it's typical of people who blog to not be overly chatty?   A conversation should not be a monologue, and I like listening to responses and wait to be asked for more detail.
Also, as a tutor, I've been trained that, "the student should do 75% or more of the talking", so I ask a lot of questions while tuting.  Students learn to not expect a lecture.  On that note,

Guilt
Well I think guilt, by definition, is uncomfortable, but it's something I've been thinking of recently.  One thing about moving is that Magnum's sister is the sole point of contact in Colorado Springs for her and Magnum's mom and stepdad.  They're in their 80s and living in a senior living community with their needs quite well taken care of, but they do need assistance once in a while.  SIL and her husband already do a lot for them, and I was feeling like we should shoulder more of that load... and then we moved.  Times like this, I could stand to speak up  more (see above).

Clutter
It's not news here that I dislike clutter.  Moving is great for getting rid of clutter, but also a great way to expose it all.  Downsizing just makes it seem even bigger.  My anxiety has been triggered this past month 😱.  Seriously, I've had no desire to watch Marie Kondo's Netflix show, although I'm a fan.  Just watching the trailer with the "befores" gave me the shakes.  But on the contrary,

Silence
I don't like loud or incessant talking, but a little background chatter is nice.  I'm typing this at the public library because I'm not good at being a homebody.  And lastly,

Forgetting to get confirmation
I took my commuter bicycle to a nearby shop yesterday for a tune-up.  The shop gets great reviews, is close to where we live, and the staff person was very friendly.  So I dropped the bike off after giving my name and contact info, then left with no copy of any work order or anything.  He typed stuff into the shop computer and said it should be ready today or tomorrow, but I've got nuthin' to show for it or prove that it's my bicycle.  The shop is smaller and much less busy than the one I was used to, not surprisingly.  I always got a copy of any work orders at the last place, and didn't really think of it this time.  Hopefully, Ariel and I will be reunited.  Fingers crossed.

What's something that makes you uncomfortable?  I'm listening.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. List 7 things that make you uncomfortable

signs of summer

I put a "No Soliciting" sign in the front window yesterday.  In the past three days, I've had 4 cold calls ringin' my bell.

Magnum was in favor, although he didn't necessarily agree with including "Please" and "Thank You".

It strikes me as strange that, in this day and age, people still go around knocking on people's doors.  Even local girl scouts don't typically sell cookies door-to-door but rather set up some tables in good and legal locations.  In fact, some enterprising girl scouts set up shop outside marijuana dispensaries.  Now THAT'S good business thinking!

In contrast, to me, people going door-to-door soliciting business strike me right away as either not very skilled business folk or scammers.  The scammers solicitors this week included a house painter, a pest control guy, a church group, and a financial planner.

1. My next door neighbor paints houses.  I'm pretty sure the solicitor guy saw the neighbor's trucks emblazoned with the company logo and contact info, which is why he didn't ring that door.  I pointed out to him that, if I want my trim done, I'll go to my neighbor.
2. Yes, I know we live among bugs.  I'll deal with it without bug birth control
3. I've heard of Jesus.
4. The financial planner guy struck me as particularly odd.  He showed up in tie and sport coat, as seen in this footage from our Ring®️ doorbell.

I'm not posting his image here to shame him, in fact the angle of his face obscures it pretty well anyway (he looks like he might be praying?).  But he was walking up and down the neighborhood like this, and it was about 80 degrees and sunny out.

I wanted to say something like, "You got your bachelor's in business?  Maybe an MBA in finance?  Is this really what you saw yourself doing after graduation??"

But I just said, "No thanks", and the dogs were all a-bark, and he was probably glad to get out of there.  Merlin is a super sweetheart, but he's got a mighty bark that comes in handy.

Years ago, Chaco advised me to put a "No Soliciting" sign in the front window.  I said I thought it seemed mean, but he reasoned that I was doing them a favor in letting them know that we are a waste of time.  Made sense, but that sign faded and I took it down a short while ago.  Now the solicitors had us back in their sights, so new sign it is.

In the meantime, I'm still chipping away at all our tree damage from that storm a couple of weeks ago.  I'm making manageable limbs from big tangled limbs and it's piles o' pain.

Where's a tree trash hauler to ring my doorbell when I need one??













Do you get solicitors at your home?  Do you listen to their spiel, maybe enlist their services?  

the lost boys

We picked up Meego for winter break from college last Friday.  He'd moved to a new dorm just the weekend before, and for that, I'm grateful.

One of Meego's good friends from high school also attends this university.  They'd tried to room together, but didn't get all their info in on time apparently.  But no biggie, they still hang out.  The university has an app that's "kinda like Tinder" where incoming freshmen can peruse profiles and find compatible roommates and get to know each other a little ahead of time.  Seems like a good thing, in theory.

So Meego found a roommate through the app. We met him on move-in day, and he seemed like a nice enough guy.  And he does have some good traits... but those traits are all fuzzed because of the copious amounts of drugs the dude uses.

It's sad really.  Meego says he'd start smoking weed first thing after waking up in the morning, and he's clearly addicted to JUUL pods.  In the short time Meego's known him, the roommate's done Molly, mushrooms, and cocaine, along with weed and booze and who-knows-what-else.  He says he won't do PCP. Well, nice to know the kid has discriminating tastes.

When we met the kid on move in day, he came across as outgoing and friendly, excited to be in college.  I'd say he had "the look" of a potential partyer, but a good portion of college kids have that look.  Meego says there were times when people would come into the room and roommate would just be staring into space with his mouth open, oblivious to others in the room.

Meanwhile, Meego's HS friend was in a 4-bed suite.  One of the 4 messed himself up by mixing alcohol and Xanax.  Twice.  He was sent packing after the second strike, another sad story.

But hey, there's a silver lining.  Meego and HS buddy and HS buddy's remaining suitemates started thinking about Meego moving out of the drug den an into the vacated 4th bed.  Meego was dealing with the situation pretty well, but still, Magnum and I were all, "Hell yeah, see what you gotta do".

So they made it happen.  I thought the university would just wait until the start of next semester, but they moved Meego a week before the break, and we picked him up from the new digs.  Not only does Meego have better roommates, it's just a nicer dorm - newer and nicer facilities.

This helped to not hurt druggie roommate's feelings.

Meego:  So my friend's got a vacancy in his suite, and I'm gonna move into it.
Drug dude:  Oh, cool.  Yeah, that's a nicer dorm
Meego:  Yah...

Meego let the ex-roomie keep the (our) dorm fridge and microwave since he would otherwise have to go without.  The ex will supposedly pay Meego for them, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  I think the whole thing has Meego appreciating where he is now


Got any "interesting" dorm / roommate experiences to share?