This morning I walked through the door here at work, and before I could make it to the time clock, I got the biggest tightest heartfelt hug you could ever ask for. No words, no reason - this particular friend of mine was just excited to see me at 7:50 am. And there is nothing more rewarding or refreshing than the love we get in return for being caring and understanding people.
Before I could make it to my desk, I heard three "good mornings" and one "hope you had a good Thanksgiving!". Not only are the residents here lucky to have us, we are lucky to have each other.
At my desk - I got everything unlocked, opened up & running and I realized...it's biscuits & gravy day. And breakfast here is always free! Another added bonus.
Upon returning to my desk with my warm free breakfast, I open my email to find a message from the boss-man that reads..."Thank you. You are great!" At least once a day, he makes a point to tell me that he appreciates me...even on days like today when he isn't here. That in itself, makes it all worthwhile.
And now, I sit here at my desk looking across the ghost-town that is usually my booming lobby...and even though I miss all the usual smiling faces, I am thankful to be here. It's going to be a long drawn out, quiet day - during which I will have absolutely nothing to do...but I'm not going to complain about it at all. Compared to what I was doing at work on this day two years ago, I'm going to say that I have it pretty damn good.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those cool kids at US Farmer, who are surely ear lobe deep in t-shirts & bullshit today. I hope you're holiday spirit remains high, and gets you through the tough times. God bless you people and your shipping skills! :)
Friday, November 23, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Happy Anniversary, Jdale!
A little over a year ago, during one of many White Trash Wednesday events in the Trailerhood, I pulled out the old trusty Burn Book. It was the first time I'd had it out in 8 months. As I flipped through it, page by page, recalling every splendid memory and laughing candidly about each and every random quote, I thought to myself..."Damn, I miss Jdale." Of course, being all tough about it, what I said to everyone was...."Too bad she sucks ass these days..." and I brushed it off and carried on. That same night, we brought the Burn Book out of retirement, and wrote a ton of hilarious shit down on a fresh crisp page. A new beginning of sorts.
The next day, I received at text that said "I think you need to call Jdale. You miss her and you can't say you don't because I saw it in your eyes when you opened the notebook last night." I replied with, "Of course I miss her, but that don't mean shit...I still ain't talking to her." All tough again.
Turns out, this mediating friend of mine was very persistent. He kept on and on trying to convince me to call her. Even after I cussed him out and had tantrums about it, he still kept on. When my stubbornness proved to be impenetrable, he took it upon himself to contact her instead....and convince her to talk to me.
Later that night I received another text, this one a forward. "Please tell her I love her and I miss her. And I'm sorry. She's my soul mate, and I'd give anything to have her back." I was at work, and the only thing I knew to do was rely on Nikki to give me sound advice...she had never failed me. After we weighed every pro and con, and went back and forth for hours - I was still torn about what to do. (And I was also mad as hell, because it was all stupid-head Casey's fault for even putting this all on the table in first place!)
After that, I don't remember exactly what happened. I'm not sure if I texted her or if she texted me or what...but we spoke and made plans. EBG's Saturday Night, we'd have a beer.
Saturday night, there I sat - by myself at EBG's, kicking myself for even agreeing to the dumb shit, but even still - an hour early. I ordered a bucket of beer, sat there and drank. The band started, I sat there and listened. And then the door opened, and like a beacon of light in the night...there she was. My long lost best friend. My Jessica #Koff. The Executioner to my Mastermind.The Bubba to my Forrest Gump. The Ren to my Stimpy. The air drummer in my air band. My soul mate. My non-driving, loud-mouthed, obnoxious, ridiculous, intellectually-challenged....best friend.
 |
| "...the Jessica's are back. Tell a friend." |
Today, we're celebrating our one year anniversary. We never thought that the stupid green 5 subject notebook that we purchased to document our epic adventures in, would end up being the one thing that would eventually bring us back together..but it did. And it now holds a whole new year's worth of memories.
I also feel compelled to thank Casey Chadwell once again, for battling it out with me through my most stubborn and conflicted times. He forced me to get my head out of my ass and made me realize that what I really needed in my life at the time, was her. Of all the gifts this man ever gave me, giving me my best friend back is the one thing I'll be forever grateful for.
I love you, Jessica Delaine Dale. Now, put yer titty back up, we've got celebrating to do. :)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Lunch....Lady?
I believe, that if the word "lady" is in the title of the profession you chose, you should be required to act like one. But there must be an underlying rule that lunch ladies learn in lunch lady school, that says that they have to be mean to every single person they serve. Or maybe it's just me. Either way - every time I have had to interact with a lunch lady, in the history of ever, they have been thoroughly unpleasant.
I'm a tad perturbed this morning because I seriously just got a stank eye over a biscuit. I mean, really? I'm sure that I appeared to be just another drooling & aggravating employee who wanted some damn gravy...but really I was a sickly employee who had just taken an ass-load of medicine that was going to come hurling back up out of my belly if I didn't soon put some substance behind it. I understand that they ran out of biscuits, and I understand that it takes time cook more. What I don't understand is why they always gotta throw attitude at me like a fast ball when I ask them a simple question!
But y'all don't worry...all is well, thanks to the best receptionist wing-man ever known to man...
Thank you Michele, for braving the evil forest of the kitchen and returning with a golden biscuit. You saved my life today!
I'm a tad perturbed this morning because I seriously just got a stank eye over a biscuit. I mean, really? I'm sure that I appeared to be just another drooling & aggravating employee who wanted some damn gravy...but really I was a sickly employee who had just taken an ass-load of medicine that was going to come hurling back up out of my belly if I didn't soon put some substance behind it. I understand that they ran out of biscuits, and I understand that it takes time cook more. What I don't understand is why they always gotta throw attitude at me like a fast ball when I ask them a simple question!
But y'all don't worry...all is well, thanks to the best receptionist wing-man ever known to man...
Thank you Michele, for braving the evil forest of the kitchen and returning with a golden biscuit. You saved my life today!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Tell Your Stories.
"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better." - Anne Lamott
Favorite quote there...and I'll tell ya why.
I personally feel like if you are going to be a shit person your whole life, you shouldn't be able to throw a pity party when your years and years of bad decisions finally catch up with you. And, if you do decide to throw yourself that pity party, I should be allowed to crash it.
I have sympathy for a lot of things, like sick babies & hungry puppies, but I don't have sympathy for stupid. Something that I do have is a memory like a steel trap; once something is in my head, it's stuck. You do something shitty to me, or let me see you do something shitty to someone else, I'm gonna remember. I'm gonna keep it tucked away in my big brain, in an arsenal of keepsakes, readily available to bust your balls as soon as I feel it's necessary.
If you do what you do, all the time, with no respect or regard for anyone else at all, completely selfish and arrogant, I should be able to warn people when you attempt to take advantage of their honest compassion. If you sit around and tell a sob story to get people to feel sorry for you when you don't deserve it, I should be able to combat your story if you don't tell it right. If the correct story was one that you didn't want known, maybe you should learn to behave better. I don't feel like anyone is required to feel sorry for you, when a situation you've created bites you in the ass.
As if you couldn't tell, I'm grumpy today. It seems like the good folks always end up with the shit end of the deal and the bad ones get everything handed to them. Since that's the way of the world, if you're a shit person and I have the appropriate ammunition, I'm going to do what I can to make sure you feel a little shitty every once in a while. If holding you accountable for your actions makes me a bitch, then so be it. What holding you accountable for your actions won't do is make me a fool, and I'm down with that.
Favorite quote there...and I'll tell ya why.
I personally feel like if you are going to be a shit person your whole life, you shouldn't be able to throw a pity party when your years and years of bad decisions finally catch up with you. And, if you do decide to throw yourself that pity party, I should be allowed to crash it.
I have sympathy for a lot of things, like sick babies & hungry puppies, but I don't have sympathy for stupid. Something that I do have is a memory like a steel trap; once something is in my head, it's stuck. You do something shitty to me, or let me see you do something shitty to someone else, I'm gonna remember. I'm gonna keep it tucked away in my big brain, in an arsenal of keepsakes, readily available to bust your balls as soon as I feel it's necessary.
If you do what you do, all the time, with no respect or regard for anyone else at all, completely selfish and arrogant, I should be able to warn people when you attempt to take advantage of their honest compassion. If you sit around and tell a sob story to get people to feel sorry for you when you don't deserve it, I should be able to combat your story if you don't tell it right. If the correct story was one that you didn't want known, maybe you should learn to behave better. I don't feel like anyone is required to feel sorry for you, when a situation you've created bites you in the ass.
As if you couldn't tell, I'm grumpy today. It seems like the good folks always end up with the shit end of the deal and the bad ones get everything handed to them. Since that's the way of the world, if you're a shit person and I have the appropriate ammunition, I'm going to do what I can to make sure you feel a little shitty every once in a while. If holding you accountable for your actions makes me a bitch, then so be it. What holding you accountable for your actions won't do is make me a fool, and I'm down with that.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Good Morning, How Can I Help Your Phone Etiquette?
8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I sit at my desk and I answer a phone.
Answering the phone was something I loathed at my last job because every time the phone rang it meant that I had to do something. It meant that I had to take a subscription, take an apparel order, take a dealer's ad corrections, or take a bitchy message due to fact that the president never would accept his calls because marthastewart.com was more important than the business he was running. 9 times out of 10, I was so far behind in the job that I was responsible for that I just flat out didn't have time to be dealing some half-wit farmer out of North Dakota whose magazine showed up in the mail missing the inside pages. Like, who gives a shit? Not me.
Now, I answer the calls and immediately direct them to someone else. Which isn't so bad. None of the calls require me to do much of anything more than get them to the correct person they need to handle the business at hand. Remembering a building load of extensions was a pain in the ass, but I've always been good with numbers so it didn't take too long. They even supplied me with a dorky, yet practical headset that allows me to answer the phone when it rings without even having to move my ear over to the receiver. It's pretty awesome.
As painless as that may seem, I still find myself very aggravated at 75% of the people who call me on a daily basis. I get all worked up like twice a day, I'm not even gonna lie. I have to call across the room at least once a day to vent to my receptionist wing-man...."Michele, what the hell is wrong with these people?!" And normally, I get out of her exactly what I'm after...which is a laugh, an understanding sigh, and some words of encouragement. You see, Michele did my job for years; she understands and is always there to support me. She swears that she was normal before she had my job...and she may very well be right...I kinda feel like I was normal once, too. But still, she pats me on the back, gets me back on the right track, and I go right back to answering the phone.
Please understand that the fact that people call me constantly isn't exactly what gets me all twisted out of proportion. It's the general lack of manners of the people who are calling. They normally fall under one of three aggravating categories: rude, dumb or persistent.
It bothers me when I answer the phone and the caller is having a full-blown conversation with someone else that's in the room with them. I feel like if you are going to make a call, it's rude to not devote all of your attention to that call. When I answer the phone, I have a long drawn-out spiel that I have to put out there, and it throws me off when I answer the phone and someone is already talking. I will even sit there, and not say a word until the caller gets all weird and can't decide if I've answered or not. Because at that point, they shut up and listen. And when that finally happens I say, "Good Morning, how can I help you?"
I also get worked up when someone calls and asks me a dumb question. For example, I hear my boss's phone ringing in his office. It stops, immediately mine starts ringing. I see that it's an internal call, hmph. I answer, no spiel on these calls thankfully, internal calls only require a friendly hello. And then I hear, "....is the big man not in his office?" Well dummy, I don't know...didn't you just call in there? Did he answer? No? What do you reckon that means? Or when I get a call like "...could you tell me if Donna is in her office?" Well dummy, I don't know....how about I put my x-ray glasses on and peer through the walls? Or better yet, let me call someone to come cover the front desk for me so that I can walk to her office and take a look. Come on now people, won't hurt you to think a little before you dial a number.
My absolute FAVORITE aggravating caller is the one that just won't quit. Never fails, around noon every day, someone will call and ask for someone that is on their lunch break. I mean, we are all pretty much hard asses up in this place - but we still gotta eat. The first time they call, I will transfer them as requested and hope like hell they have sense enough to leave a message. Ha! Never happens. As expected, I end up having to suffer through a tedious routine...which involves at least three call backs to "try" other places this person may be hiding, and then a page overhead to try to locate them. When all that fails, I get the same line..."Well, I HAVE to talk to them." Okay genius, what else do you suppose that I can do? I'm practically chained to the front desk. I have to have someone come cover me so I can go take a leak...so what exactly do you suppose I do about the fact that someone across the building isn't answering the phone at the exact time that YOU need them to? Instead of saying all that, I just ever so politely remind them that it's lunch time and suggest that they just leave a message and wait for a call back. I always get a huff and a puff, but then they agree. At that moment, I sit back and think about how that caller just ripped 10 minutes of my life away from me, and how it all could have been avoided if they would have just left a message the first time they called. This happens every, single, day.
I've never been one that was real good at biting my tongue, its proven to be pretty painful for me actually. For the sake of keeping my job, I have no choice but to grin and bear down, maybe that is what makes my eye twitch. I have figured out that if I sit at my desk and make a smart ass face while I listen to the nonsense on the other end of the line, it makes me feel quite a bit better...however, that tactic kinda freaks out the innocent people passing by. I'm fine with them thinking of me as the crazy receptionist girl because if it hasn't got me already, the "crazy receptionist plague" will inevitably catch up with me sooner or later. With that being said, don't be surprised if you call me one day and my spiel has changed. I feel like a good solid day of "Good morning, how can I help your phone etiquette?" may be very beneficial to the integrity of the general population.
Answering the phone was something I loathed at my last job because every time the phone rang it meant that I had to do something. It meant that I had to take a subscription, take an apparel order, take a dealer's ad corrections, or take a bitchy message due to fact that the president never would accept his calls because marthastewart.com was more important than the business he was running. 9 times out of 10, I was so far behind in the job that I was responsible for that I just flat out didn't have time to be dealing some half-wit farmer out of North Dakota whose magazine showed up in the mail missing the inside pages. Like, who gives a shit? Not me.
Now, I answer the calls and immediately direct them to someone else. Which isn't so bad. None of the calls require me to do much of anything more than get them to the correct person they need to handle the business at hand. Remembering a building load of extensions was a pain in the ass, but I've always been good with numbers so it didn't take too long. They even supplied me with a dorky, yet practical headset that allows me to answer the phone when it rings without even having to move my ear over to the receiver. It's pretty awesome.
As painless as that may seem, I still find myself very aggravated at 75% of the people who call me on a daily basis. I get all worked up like twice a day, I'm not even gonna lie. I have to call across the room at least once a day to vent to my receptionist wing-man...."Michele, what the hell is wrong with these people?!" And normally, I get out of her exactly what I'm after...which is a laugh, an understanding sigh, and some words of encouragement. You see, Michele did my job for years; she understands and is always there to support me. She swears that she was normal before she had my job...and she may very well be right...I kinda feel like I was normal once, too. But still, she pats me on the back, gets me back on the right track, and I go right back to answering the phone.
Please understand that the fact that people call me constantly isn't exactly what gets me all twisted out of proportion. It's the general lack of manners of the people who are calling. They normally fall under one of three aggravating categories: rude, dumb or persistent.
It bothers me when I answer the phone and the caller is having a full-blown conversation with someone else that's in the room with them. I feel like if you are going to make a call, it's rude to not devote all of your attention to that call. When I answer the phone, I have a long drawn-out spiel that I have to put out there, and it throws me off when I answer the phone and someone is already talking. I will even sit there, and not say a word until the caller gets all weird and can't decide if I've answered or not. Because at that point, they shut up and listen. And when that finally happens I say, "Good Morning, how can I help you?"
I also get worked up when someone calls and asks me a dumb question. For example, I hear my boss's phone ringing in his office. It stops, immediately mine starts ringing. I see that it's an internal call, hmph. I answer, no spiel on these calls thankfully, internal calls only require a friendly hello. And then I hear, "....is the big man not in his office?" Well dummy, I don't know...didn't you just call in there? Did he answer? No? What do you reckon that means? Or when I get a call like "...could you tell me if Donna is in her office?" Well dummy, I don't know....how about I put my x-ray glasses on and peer through the walls? Or better yet, let me call someone to come cover the front desk for me so that I can walk to her office and take a look. Come on now people, won't hurt you to think a little before you dial a number.
My absolute FAVORITE aggravating caller is the one that just won't quit. Never fails, around noon every day, someone will call and ask for someone that is on their lunch break. I mean, we are all pretty much hard asses up in this place - but we still gotta eat. The first time they call, I will transfer them as requested and hope like hell they have sense enough to leave a message. Ha! Never happens. As expected, I end up having to suffer through a tedious routine...which involves at least three call backs to "try" other places this person may be hiding, and then a page overhead to try to locate them. When all that fails, I get the same line..."Well, I HAVE to talk to them." Okay genius, what else do you suppose that I can do? I'm practically chained to the front desk. I have to have someone come cover me so I can go take a leak...so what exactly do you suppose I do about the fact that someone across the building isn't answering the phone at the exact time that YOU need them to? Instead of saying all that, I just ever so politely remind them that it's lunch time and suggest that they just leave a message and wait for a call back. I always get a huff and a puff, but then they agree. At that moment, I sit back and think about how that caller just ripped 10 minutes of my life away from me, and how it all could have been avoided if they would have just left a message the first time they called. This happens every, single, day.
I've never been one that was real good at biting my tongue, its proven to be pretty painful for me actually. For the sake of keeping my job, I have no choice but to grin and bear down, maybe that is what makes my eye twitch. I have figured out that if I sit at my desk and make a smart ass face while I listen to the nonsense on the other end of the line, it makes me feel quite a bit better...however, that tactic kinda freaks out the innocent people passing by. I'm fine with them thinking of me as the crazy receptionist girl because if it hasn't got me already, the "crazy receptionist plague" will inevitably catch up with me sooner or later. With that being said, don't be surprised if you call me one day and my spiel has changed. I feel like a good solid day of "Good morning, how can I help your phone etiquette?" may be very beneficial to the integrity of the general population.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
I've Always Got Something To Say.
"You've always got something to say. Can't ever just keep your damn mouth shut."
- Christopher Dale
This quote is from a letter that my amazing boyfriend wrote to me in March of 2007. Not one of our finer moments of course; it sure pissed me off real good at the time. But the last time I read the letter, I got a real kick out of that particular part. Lol, he was soooo right! I do always have something to say...and I really can't ever just keep my damn mouth shut. Ha! He knows me so well.
Earlier today, an old accomplice of mine suggested that I start a blog...because my Facebook status about cherry coke zero tasting like cardboard got him tickled. Immediately, I went to find that letter just for that quote, because if indeed I decided to start a blog, it absolutely had to be included in the very first one.
As I was finishing up what my mother refers to as my weekly "whore chores"...I started thinking. A blog, hmph. I like to write, when it's something I care to write about. I scored a distinguished on my senior writing portfolio, so I know I have the ability to do it. I spend a lot of my time at work bored to death, so I definitely have the time. Jessica Dale is my best friend, so there will be no shortage of material. A frikken blog....why hadn't I thought of this before? It's perfect.
Now, I don't know how often I'll post a blog, or even if you'll like to read what I've got to say, but I think I'm gonna give it a whirl. I feel like I might as well use this big brain for something productive, so it doesn't get all rusty on me.
So, y'all stay tuned...with any luck I'll keep you entertained.
...I've always got something to say. :)
- Christopher Dale
This quote is from a letter that my amazing boyfriend wrote to me in March of 2007. Not one of our finer moments of course; it sure pissed me off real good at the time. But the last time I read the letter, I got a real kick out of that particular part. Lol, he was soooo right! I do always have something to say...and I really can't ever just keep my damn mouth shut. Ha! He knows me so well.
Earlier today, an old accomplice of mine suggested that I start a blog...because my Facebook status about cherry coke zero tasting like cardboard got him tickled. Immediately, I went to find that letter just for that quote, because if indeed I decided to start a blog, it absolutely had to be included in the very first one.
As I was finishing up what my mother refers to as my weekly "whore chores"...I started thinking. A blog, hmph. I like to write, when it's something I care to write about. I scored a distinguished on my senior writing portfolio, so I know I have the ability to do it. I spend a lot of my time at work bored to death, so I definitely have the time. Jessica Dale is my best friend, so there will be no shortage of material. A frikken blog....why hadn't I thought of this before? It's perfect.
Now, I don't know how often I'll post a blog, or even if you'll like to read what I've got to say, but I think I'm gonna give it a whirl. I feel like I might as well use this big brain for something productive, so it doesn't get all rusty on me.
So, y'all stay tuned...with any luck I'll keep you entertained.
...I've always got something to say. :)
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