I have had to deal with more bullshit in the last two days than in the entire previous four plus years at work. Since the news that our budget was slashed, things at work have been getting more and more political. I'm an engineer. All I want to do is engineer things. My goal is to make whatever I design safe, and to meet the design requirements. I do not like kissing ass, and I do not like people telling me I have to do *this* to make *them* happy.
The frustrating thing about where I work is, you kind of have to work there to understand anything I say about it... I once again had to go outside for a while this afternoon to curse loudly to the wind. I was incredibly unproductive. We found out that *somebody* added another step to our stupid tasks. It's an utterly ridiculous added step. Nobody knows how or when or why it was added, but there it is. Something that used to take maybe a couple hours and just three people, all of whom are in the same room as me, will now take WEEKS and people 20 miles away. I'm so tired of politics getting in the way of my job!
In the middle of all this political crap, I had a rather lovely anxiety attack about what to wear tomorrow. Tomorrow my company is putting on a "career fair" to give us in risk of being laid off the chance to see where there are positions on other projects in the company. It's a day off, but is it kind of like an interview? I'm looking for construction "camp" jobs, where the workers live on site in trailers or dorms. So do I dress the part? Or should I dress up nicely? Everybody suggested business casual, but they all had different definitions of what that is. I have lots of casual/work clothes, jeans and t-shirts and whatnot that I wear to work and around the house. And then I have sexy/dressy date night clothes. I don't really have much in between. Finally I just threw up my hands and decided on a mix: jeans and a nice shirt and cute cowboyish boots.
The whole day conspired to put me in an incredibly agitated state by the time I was heading home. Oh, the icing on the cake came in the form of an e-mail late in the day. Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, is coming for a visit to our site next week. He is such an important person that he cannot be bothered by our work schedule and is showing up shortly before we're supposed to leave. So what do they do for our grossly underfunded project?? They tell us that we are "expected" to attend this presentation after work hours, and we will be compensated with an hour of time-and-a-half overtime pay! Because what we all want to do is stay an extra hour on the last day of the week to listen to some big-wig talk at us! How many jobs could they save instead of paying the rest of us overtime to listen to some stupid speech?? Luckily I asked my HR rep about it and was informed that we don't actually HAVE to stay. Several people on my van are not eligible for overtime pay, so we are leaving at our normally scheduled quitting time. I'm relieved.
Anyway, I headed home in a funk. I had told my man I wanted to sit on the patio and smoke and get trashed with him. Earlier I mentioned taking a bath. On the way home I got a text asking if I wanted dinner before or after my bath. Hmmm I didn't know we had dinner plans. I noticed a small smile creeping across my face. When I walked into the house I was greeted by delicious smells and sizzling veggies. Mmm quinoa and stir-fry with shrimp and fresh herbs from the garden. Fabulous! I felt my bad mood and stress lifting. After dinner we headed out to the patio. There was a perfectly timed break in the rain. We sat in our comfy chairs, on our gorgeous patio, looking out across the Columbia River Valley and the immense, black storm clouds rolling in. I had a lovely mix of vodka, Malibu, and orange juice and a cute little peach cigar. My sweet had his beer and a Swisher Sweet cigar. Pepper hung out with us, exploring the hill and trying to sneak over to the compost heap. It was relaxing. The view from my patio is quite stunning.
Our naughty cigars done, I headed in to start my bath. I had bubble bath from Ulta, and bath salts and sugar scrub, mango mandarin. I soaked, scrubbed, shaved and drank the day away. By the end of my bath I was soothed and relaxed. Now here I sit, cuddled in bed watching Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freedman. He has a fantastic voice. First thing tomorrow is my first actual workout with Brian. Then the career fair. Then running around to all sorts of appointments. Saturday is cleaning day. Hopefully by Monday I'll have myself back in order. And maybe I'll have a light at the end of the WTP tunnel...
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