yeah what the hell
Jul. 15th, 2009 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Man. Logged about 9.5 hours at work today. Photo printer went down on Monday night. This is not some rinky-dink inkjet thingy. It originally cost $200,000. If the component that was broken had been one of the lasers, the part alone would have cost $7,000. It wasn't; I don't know what it wound up costing, but it was less than that. Tuesday was hell; no ability to print, customers wondering where their orders were, customers trying to place orders and sometimes getting them in before we had a chance to tell them that they weren't going to go through, etc. We started a list of people to call as soon as the lab was working again. And then a customer infected our photo kiosks with a virus, which was totally rad of her. So we had to shut everything down and give it a thorough scrubbing with anti-virus software things. And the tension got ridiculous, but there was absolutely nothing any of the floor employees, like me, could do. Many other things made it bad in there-- district manager's wife mysteriously ill so he'd spent the night in urgent care with her, various and sundry other similar things, and above all the knowledge that the district manager and his second-in-command were both to leave today for a conference.
But we got the lab back up today, and spent the afternoon working feverishly to get things running properly again and catch up on the backlog. We only permanently, irretrievably lost two orders-- well, two and a half. Small bummer, but not horrible-- the two I spoke to were both regulars who aren't going to storm off in fury or anything like that.
We were on track to get things under control, but then the person who was supposed to close solo got sidetracked (well, depending how you look at it) into selling a camera. OK, it was a $2500 camera. But she spent over an hour explaining it. (The customer drew a chair up to the counter to sit and listen better.)
So I stayed and printed like a mad thing, until she was done with the customer, and then I loaded film a bit, and then I finished burning some CDs. I was really quite tired, but didn't mind too much-- for one thing, I need money, so more hours is more money, and for another thing, it's very satisfying work. I mean, the reprints of 100 nearly-identical photos of an elderly woman smiling awkwardly ad infinitum were a bit tedious, but apparently she's a very sweet little old lady, and since all the photos needed the same adjustments and the machine saved my settings, I didn't really mind. And then somebody had really cool photos of their trip to the Galapagos, including a group of people mugging across the equator and a really neat shot of a seal with a lizard climbing it. And somebody's photos of a lightning storm, while nearly impossible to cut the negatives, looked super cool-- and looked way better once I adjusted the color and saturation. Neato!
But finally I'd finished all the stuff besides printing, which only one person can do. So I counted the drawer, and made my way home. Where, I'd been warned, there was no food. So I bought a roast beef sandwich at Anderson's. And got milkshakes for everyone in the house, because I am nice.
I had planned on grocery shopping tonight, though. I have not had time, and do not really have time. I just signed up for a sixth day next week. This means that tomorrow is my second-to-last day off before i leave for Pennsic. I am pretty much totally out of time. I have forty or so eyelets to bind, another two or three pairs of pants to make, another two tunics to make, and the first three to hem. And I have to buy numerous things. And I have to do all kinds of other shit I can't even think about. So I am stressed out like a stressed-out thing. And I know I've forgotten all kinds of things.
That's what's really a bummer. I have been super stupid lately! I keep having incidences of aphasia, where I just can't get the right word to come out of my mouth-- it really feels like my mouth isn't under my direct control at times like that, kind of like trying to manipulate a small complex object with numb fingers. Eck. And then I forget simple things, and do things like... well, Tuesday, in the midst of the horror and drama, I answered the phone. The warehouse guy in Philadelphia asked for my coworker, S. S was, as it happens, standing right in front of me, selling a lens to a customer. I looked straight at S, and in my head thought, W isn't here yet. (Because, as it happens, W wasn't there yet.) "S isn't here yet," I said. "He should be in in a couple of minutes, though." "He's not?" the warehouse guy said. "Oh, that's weird. Well, just have him call me."
"OK," I said. And hung up.
"Um," S said, "I'm right here."
I looked at him, baffled. "I know," I said.
"You just said I wasn't here," he said.
I blinked. "No," I said. "W isn't here." And then I remembered having spoken, and I remembered saying S. "Oh!" I said. "Wait!" I had to think back. Yes, Philly guy had asked for S. "Crap! I thought he asked for W! But... What the heck just even happened?"
S shook his head. "Um," he said, "I'll call him back when I'm done here."
I apologized to Philly guy and explained that, as he hasn't met me, he wouldn't know this, but I am blonde. I don't like to blame my hair color, but it is sort of funny, I guess. (I used to get super-defensive about it, and ill-considered blonde jokes are part of the reason, now that I think about it, that I can be so aggressively intellectual at times.)
Yeah I do shit like that kind of a lot. And I would be more worried, except that I kind of have always been like that.
Anyway. Sunday was brutal. Monday I spent sewing, to the point that it wasn't really fun anymore by the end. Tuesday was horribly stressful. And Wednesday was just long. My eyes hurt now.
BUT, I got that story about hot dogs done and submitted, so hopefully it'll be in tomorrow's paper. It wasn't as good as the story I wanted to write, but I didn't have time.
How is a simple part-time job taking up so much of my life? I suppose having a time-consuming hobby on a tight deadline is contributing too. But dang. What the hell man.
But we got the lab back up today, and spent the afternoon working feverishly to get things running properly again and catch up on the backlog. We only permanently, irretrievably lost two orders-- well, two and a half. Small bummer, but not horrible-- the two I spoke to were both regulars who aren't going to storm off in fury or anything like that.
We were on track to get things under control, but then the person who was supposed to close solo got sidetracked (well, depending how you look at it) into selling a camera. OK, it was a $2500 camera. But she spent over an hour explaining it. (The customer drew a chair up to the counter to sit and listen better.)
So I stayed and printed like a mad thing, until she was done with the customer, and then I loaded film a bit, and then I finished burning some CDs. I was really quite tired, but didn't mind too much-- for one thing, I need money, so more hours is more money, and for another thing, it's very satisfying work. I mean, the reprints of 100 nearly-identical photos of an elderly woman smiling awkwardly ad infinitum were a bit tedious, but apparently she's a very sweet little old lady, and since all the photos needed the same adjustments and the machine saved my settings, I didn't really mind. And then somebody had really cool photos of their trip to the Galapagos, including a group of people mugging across the equator and a really neat shot of a seal with a lizard climbing it. And somebody's photos of a lightning storm, while nearly impossible to cut the negatives, looked super cool-- and looked way better once I adjusted the color and saturation. Neato!
But finally I'd finished all the stuff besides printing, which only one person can do. So I counted the drawer, and made my way home. Where, I'd been warned, there was no food. So I bought a roast beef sandwich at Anderson's. And got milkshakes for everyone in the house, because I am nice.
I had planned on grocery shopping tonight, though. I have not had time, and do not really have time. I just signed up for a sixth day next week. This means that tomorrow is my second-to-last day off before i leave for Pennsic. I am pretty much totally out of time. I have forty or so eyelets to bind, another two or three pairs of pants to make, another two tunics to make, and the first three to hem. And I have to buy numerous things. And I have to do all kinds of other shit I can't even think about. So I am stressed out like a stressed-out thing. And I know I've forgotten all kinds of things.
That's what's really a bummer. I have been super stupid lately! I keep having incidences of aphasia, where I just can't get the right word to come out of my mouth-- it really feels like my mouth isn't under my direct control at times like that, kind of like trying to manipulate a small complex object with numb fingers. Eck. And then I forget simple things, and do things like... well, Tuesday, in the midst of the horror and drama, I answered the phone. The warehouse guy in Philadelphia asked for my coworker, S. S was, as it happens, standing right in front of me, selling a lens to a customer. I looked straight at S, and in my head thought, W isn't here yet. (Because, as it happens, W wasn't there yet.) "S isn't here yet," I said. "He should be in in a couple of minutes, though." "He's not?" the warehouse guy said. "Oh, that's weird. Well, just have him call me."
"OK," I said. And hung up.
"Um," S said, "I'm right here."
I looked at him, baffled. "I know," I said.
"You just said I wasn't here," he said.
I blinked. "No," I said. "W isn't here." And then I remembered having spoken, and I remembered saying S. "Oh!" I said. "Wait!" I had to think back. Yes, Philly guy had asked for S. "Crap! I thought he asked for W! But... What the heck just even happened?"
S shook his head. "Um," he said, "I'll call him back when I'm done here."
I apologized to Philly guy and explained that, as he hasn't met me, he wouldn't know this, but I am blonde. I don't like to blame my hair color, but it is sort of funny, I guess. (I used to get super-defensive about it, and ill-considered blonde jokes are part of the reason, now that I think about it, that I can be so aggressively intellectual at times.)
Yeah I do shit like that kind of a lot. And I would be more worried, except that I kind of have always been like that.
Anyway. Sunday was brutal. Monday I spent sewing, to the point that it wasn't really fun anymore by the end. Tuesday was horribly stressful. And Wednesday was just long. My eyes hurt now.
BUT, I got that story about hot dogs done and submitted, so hopefully it'll be in tomorrow's paper. It wasn't as good as the story I wanted to write, but I didn't have time.
How is a simple part-time job taking up so much of my life? I suppose having a time-consuming hobby on a tight deadline is contributing too. But dang. What the hell man.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 04:05 am (UTC)