I need the weekend.

Negativity really bothers me. Really bothers me. And here as I started to type this, it was in a negative tone. So I backed up. I just had a rough day. I had a confrontation at work today with a girl that reports to me. Our corporation got a new phone system (which we didn't want, but as part of the corporation we had to have). The change in technology meant changes for in our procedures. And people don't like change. Yes, there have been glitches and problems that needed correcting. But there adjustment and compromise is also required. I was 'assigned' the duty of coordinating our division but I didn't get that assignment until a couple of days before the cutover. We were left out of the planning stages and that meant we had to deal with a lot of problems when the switch happened.

For about 4 weeks straight, I've had complaints nearly every day. Some, with legitimate problems that needed to be fixed and a lot of "why did we need these new phones again? Oh, we didn't". I didn't ask for the new phones either. But the complaining just to complain is getting old. And since it has been pretty non-stop, my nerves have been on edge. When I got a complaint today (a true problem), but in the same tone as the constant complaints to me I got a bit defensive. More than a bit.

I made the decision to go back to the original plan. Many of the problems that we are now experiencing are because we tweaked the program to do a lot of things (several conflicted with each other in the programming of the new system - and we tried to work around that - causing additional problems). So, we will lose some of the functionality that we requested, but the problems will be fixed. And we will just have to learn to live with the changes in procedure (hopefully without further complaining - it doesn't help, it just fills my shoulders with a lot of weight).

On top of this, today I had to deal with trying to help my mom get her "houseguests" to move out so that she will have her privacy when she comes home. That was really uncomfortable.

She was told that she might come home tonight. Though it is now nearly 8 pm, and still no word from anyone as to what time she will be released. Once before, they released her at 11:30 pm. I didn't get home until 1 am and had to wake up at 5 am. I pointed this out to her and asked that if they try to release her after 9 pm, if they can not let her stay until morning and I'll come get her first thing. But SHE is ready to go. I just hope they make the decision to keep her until morning. As I hope for that, I feel terribly guilty. That is selfish of me, isn't it? She's been there for 3 weeks and is really ready to go home. And I don't blame her. I just hope I can get her home and back to my bed by my "10 pm bedtime".

Well, tomorrow is Friday, so the week is almost over.

Craziness

I'm sitting here at work listening to the phone ring off of the hook. Non-stop. This is crazy. It would be wonderful if it were customers calling to place orders for stairs (do you need any stairs? LOL). But no, these are crank calls from Brazil. Or at least they *say* they are calling from Brazil. So far today we've had over 80. It is only 1 pm. We had 84 voice mail messages last night on the company overnight answering system. Of the 84, 82 were crank calls - two were actual customers. We can't ignore the batches of messages or the ringing phones because you never know when one will be a real customer.

Some of the calls are just hang-ups, some you hear giggling in the background, and for some they talk. The talking (sometimes in Spanish or Portuguese, sometimes in English) is anywhere from "I speak English. I from Brazil. I play soccer every day." to vulgar comments. AT&T has not been much help. I know that there are computer records of the origin and destination of every single phone call going through their system. We are keeping a list of every single call, with the time. It is almost turning in to a full time job for the receptionist who has a lot of other things to do.

I just don't GET IT! WHY? This is not a single day occurrence. This is happening every day and has been for 3 weeks now. Weekends too (last Monday we had over 200 voice mail messages from the weekend - with ONE from a customer). What is the fascination? Why would someone waste so much time on this? One of the worst things is that this is on our nickel. They are calling in to an 800#. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Until then I just wanted to take a minute to SSSCCCRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAMMM!!! AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!

Ok, I feel better ... vent over. :)

Getting back to a normal work week

My mom had her surgery yesterday. I took off of work Friday and found out too late in the day that they would reschedule. When they rescheduled it for Monday, I couldn't take the entire day off again. I went in for a couple of meetings in the morning, and stayed until about 2:00. I got down there and she had just been moved to the Surgical ICU. She will be in there for at least a day so that her leg (where she had a bypass) can be closely monitored. They need to make sure the blood is flowing from the new artery in her left leg created from a vein taken from her right leg.

They will watch it closely over the next few days and see how the healing progresses with the improved bloodflow before a final decision is made on any further amputation. That was good news since originally we had been warned that she could lose the rest of her foot during the surgery.

I went to the PTO meeting last night at the school. For a school with over 400 kids, what a shame to have 5 people attend the PTO meeting - and 4 of them were board members. Well, now all five are ... since I was suckered in to being the secretary for next year's PTO. But really, I don't mind. I'm just saddened that so few parents bother to come to the meetings. Is this normal?

Well, it's Tuesday morning and I need to go get in the shower...

Trying this out

I finally dove in. I created my own blog. I just hope I don't bore you all to death.

It's Sunday morning and the house is relatively quiet with the exception of Peter Pan on the TV in the playroom. I was hoping to sleep late this morning but no such luck. Philip woke me up at 6:30, thirsty. I tried to get him to fix himself some water (didn't work), or to at least give me "5 more minutes" (only worked twice). So I was up at 6:40. Tee Dee, Tee Dum...We're following the leader, the leader.... sorry - Peter Pan is a bit too loud. What did I say about the house being quiet?

Yesterday we worked on cleaning the house. Though I feel bad because Chris did more than I did. He washed and folded clothes (I put away). And he cleaned the floors. I HATE mopping. Truly hate it. I cleaned the kitchen, and did some general picking up (dealing with school papers from last week - how do they build up so fast?). I also cleaned my scrap area. That was fun. It gave me some inspiration. I love working on a clear area. Now I can't wait to make it messy again. I really need to learn to keep it relatively clear as I scrap. I'm just such a messy scrapper. I wish that wasn't the case.

We're going to brunch with Chris's mom and step-dad today. I need to get moving early today. I always seem to make it to the afternoon before I get dressed on weekends. I'm not lazy, really, I swear I'm not.

We'll I'm going to play with getting this set up.

well, I think it is cool, but I think it needs a spell check. LOL My typing is horrible this early in the morning.