Thursday, August 29, 2013

Another Crazy Day...

Last weekend, I made a casual remark that sometimes works can be a little slow, because my job is largely based on issues that come up.  Apparently, I cued some kind of Murphy's law, because this week has been insane!

This morning wasn't so bad. Just keeping busy. Noon came, so I headed off to the conference room (I've been giving the data entry team training on business writing). I had been challenged by a team mate to insert the following three themes into my presentation: Mt Rainier, zombie apocalypse, kangaroo pouch.  I did pretty well. I started by saying that good writing can seem like a challenge, like climbing Mt Rainier. I talked about tone, and said they should use their personalities and not sound like corporate zombies. I was all prepared to tell the group to take my tips and store them away in their kangaroo pouches of learning, when I noticed something horrible. I had made a punctuation error on my Powerpoint slide. I had failed to use a close quote around the word "please".  I couldn't help but point it out, and I moved on pretty well, but I totally forgot to mention kangaroo pouch. So close. Side note: the punctuation error came one line before my note about proofreading. Epic fail? Oh well. I used it as a learning example.

Fast forward to 1:30. I'm busily preparing a different presentation for a team meeting at 2:30. The thought that I may not take a lunch is entering my mind. I click send on an e-mail, and it fails. Four times. My internet is down. I crawled under my desk to see if the cord had come out, but it hadn't, so we contacted the IT department for help. Fun fact: I pretty much can't do anything without the internet at work....so I just sat there and waited. I realized that I really wouldn't be getting a lunch, so I pulled the peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of my purse, and ate it at my desk, hovering awkwardly over the IT guy as he investigated...and discovered that my cord has become loosened from the wall. Feeling lame, part two. It was kind of funny, though.

2:27. Scrambling to finish my presentation, since I was sans internet for roughly 25 minutes. Definitely no lunch (good thing I ate my sandwich!). Suddenly, a co-worker approached: I had to take a call. Fighting off a look of panic, I took the call. The dude at the desk kitty corner to mine smirked slightly with amusement (and some pity) at my plight. After the call, I hurriedly uploaded my presentation file. Two different people starting chatting me questions, but there was no time! I locked my computer, grabbed my meeting supplies, and made a run for the conference room, ten minutes late. I tried to sneak in, but the only open seat was at the front of the room.

Good news: that presentation went quite well. As did the four o'clock writing training.  

So then it was 4:30. Half hour before quitting time. I told my boss that one thing had led to another and that I hadn't taken a lunch. He asked if I had things I needed to do. And I did. So I clocked out for ten, ran triage on everything I had left, and went home (well, I got a little way-laid talking to co-workers....).

The end.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Oh, What A Day!

Today was an interesting day at work, so I thought I'd write about it.

It all started at ten a.m. I had scheduled a conference call with an account manager that I work with. I dialed the conference call number. I was the first person on the call. Soon, I heard a *beep beep*, the sound you hear when someone else enters the call.

"Hi, Jason?" I said, expecting the account manager. Suddenly, one of my coworkers, Josh, started laughing. I laughed, knowing I'd fallen for his joke.

30 seconds later: beep beep. "Hi, Jason?" Again, Josh laughed. I laughed, but glared. He said he wouldn't do it again.

30 seconds later: beep beep. "Hi, Jason?" This time, it was Logan cracking up. I continued to good-naturedly laugh.

Yet another 30 seconds later: beep beep. "Hi, Jason?" Nope, still not Jason. Steven started laughing. It was still funny, but I was reaching the end of my rope. Josh sensed this and announced that they were finished.

Later, after running an errand at lunch, I returned to find the office dark. Apparently, the power had gone out while I was gone. I was there only a few minutes before someone came through to announce that power wouldn't be back until 6pm, and that we could go home. However, after standing in the parking for about ten minutes, talking to a coworker, I noticed people heading back into the building. The power had come back on. I told my friend to make a run for it, but decided to go back to work. I had stuff I could do for another hour and a half, and figured I may as well make some more money.

There were about 20 of us in my department that stayed/wandered back in. I did get some work done, plus a lovely game of foosball with my teammates (I'm getting better!).

Afterwards, I drove home in my old car (my sister borrowed my new car to drive to Salt Lake). It was super trippy, because it's so much bigger. It was also very hot, as it does not have working air conditioning.

So that was my day. Hope you found it to be interesting.

Family Reunion! Mostly pictures of Heber

Harrison Family Reunion! Always a good time. Heather and I headed down on Thursday to join the camping festivities. It was fantastic to see my family, some of whom I only see at the reunion because they live so far away.  The low point was the fact that a big, black bull moose was sighted several times around the campground, but never by me! Many of you know that it's been years since I've seen a moose, so it was really depressing that I never caught it. Oh well.

Below are some exciting pictures from the trip. Fancy hair by Heather, fun at the Heber Valley Railway Station and the Dairy Keen, and a random statue we saw while driving around Midway.














I Changed My Mind

Remember that time that I said I was going to do this awesome list of 100 facts about me for my 100th post? Well, I changed my mind. Partially because it was taking really long, and partly because I got all the way to 50 and thought my draft had been saved, but really it only saved up to 16. Extra lame.

So instead, as I head into the next 100 posts and beyond, I'd like to make a couple of blogging goals. As I love blogging once I sit down and start typing, sometimes I have the pause from my busy life and take the time to blog. So here's what I want: I want to blog at least once a week. I want to blog more about my life (but of course, there will still be random rants). I want to include more pictures in my posts, because that makes them way more awesome.

So here's a little picture catch-up:

My awesome new car!
And my awesome bumper sticker (awesome for all you Firefly fans out there).
The cake we decorated for my friend's birthday. We only had pink frosting for the poor boy. I think we made up for it quite nicely.
Donuts for my 28th (!) birthday.
My new hair color! I'd been thinking about red for a long time, and finally took the dive.

So there's a quick catch up up to the end of July. More posts to come!