More of my boss

Sorry for being awol of late - was going to write last week, but than my boss made my life horrible again, just before he left for the holidays (aye, what is his problem?! Its like he enjoys ruining my holidays).

It did get me to wondering...is it me? Am I a difficult employee? I don't think so. But how to know? And yet I can't think that is the case, because I have had jobs where I was I a long standing employee and one wouldn't be a long standing employee if they were difficult. And in those instances the managers and I got along fine. I think perhaps my problem is that I can't deal with with bad managers. If you are a good manager who doesn't micromanage my every move, I am a better employee.

I know I must be doing something good, the head of the department did thank me for all my work right before we left on Thursday. As I say to my husband, this boss is going to become the head of the department at the end of the year and I have to imagine that my boss's micromanaging personality is going to manifest itself onto the other professors, because he will be there boss as well.

And than my sister says that perhaps I am not flourishing in this job is because it is not what I wanted and after working so hard for two years to get my MBA, this is most definitely a step backwards. Does that make sense?

Either way, I'm resigning, the baby is on the way and I don't need this negativity in my life.

Happy Story

In the spirit of the holidays, I wanted to share a happy story I stumbled upon while listening to the BBC yesterday (I like to listen to the BBC at work, its the closest I can get to London at the moment).

It starts out sad, about this little boy abandoned in a Russian orphanage. He has cerebral palsy. Its the early 1990's, the Russian economy is falling apart, he is stuck in Baby House 10, going undiagnosed medically, the workers at the house think he is mentally retarded. The conditions at the orphanage are sparse, no real love or affection and the little boy is left in a silent ward with no toys, no exercise, no education all day, every day. By happen chance, a British journalist's wife stops by the orphanage and Vanya, the little boy, calls out to her. This sparks a connection that will help save his life. She monitors and keeps an eye out for Vanya. Yet, poor little Vanya is sent at age 6 to a mental asylum, housed with adults, living a nightmare. But Vanya continued to reach out to the adults around him and through this, Sarah, the journalist's wife and Vika a Russian woman, labor to get Vanya out of the mental asylum (Russian beau racy caged him and other children like him, in adult mental homes) and finally adopted by an American woman. Now Vanya lives in Bethlehem, PA, is an honor's student and a member of the Boy Scouts.

I know the story is rather sad but the ending is happy, (yay!) which is what I like and can go for. Presently, I can't do sad stuff, it must be the hormones, but I just start to get weepy. I can still do angry though. Don't get me started on my boss!

Has anyone ever had the experience of this, with a supervisor.... if said supervisor is not busy, they will come and bother you? Its like they don't want to do their work, so they will come and make work for you? In my case I am noticing that acutely. My boss, RARELY sits at any length of time in his office just doing work. He LOVES to chat with anyone and everyone. If there is no one around for him to chat with, he comes and creates work for me or takes time out to critique my work. To me, its almost like a child or a cat, he must be distracted with shiny toys (in this case other people to talk with) or he comes and bothers me, like he can't entertain (in this instance, work) by himself.

Don't forget - Free Shipping Day is tomorrow! Check it out here - www.freeshippingday.com

Snowy Days

I had a number of points I wanted to blog about and now its all slipped my mind.

I am missing the snow, I love the images coming from Europe, particularly Paris with the snow - how beautiful! There is something magical about snow days, even though I've lived in snowy weather all my life and a snow day is really nothing new for me, I still marvel each time I see snow falling.

I am saddened by the news in England that they will begin charging students for higher education. It is just a tragedy that will prohibit many from going to college, high costs, high graduating debt. What does it say about a society full of uneducated people? Shortsighted thinking if you ask me.

Just finished reading a baby book - nothing to make you feel like an inadequate parent than reading those books and the baby is not even here!

Kitchen Gadgets

Some changes at home, we are moving. Alas, not out of Arizona (God will I ever leave this horrible state?!) but into a different location. We most definitely need a bigger place, the baby is not even here yet and she has taken over our one-bedroom apartment! I find it funny that something so small needs so much stuff! Tonight is our first baby-care class. Thankfully, both mothers are helping us out when the baby arrives, so for at least the first six or seven weeks we won't be alone, parenting. I know, I know, millions of people do it alone all the time, but if the experts (our mum's) are willing to help, why not take advantage, no? Hey, if Yo-Yo Ma was willing to teach my kid the cello, why would I say no? It's the same comparison in my mind.

I am hoping in this move to clean out some of the stuff in the apartment. Just looking at the kitchen there is room for de-clutter, too many Tupperware dishes, too many glasses, on the flip side, not enough kitchen gadgets. Thank God for those Bed, Bath and Beyond gift cards! Also, I'm wondering if maybe we shouldn't invest in a new vacuum cleaner, the one we have doesn't seem to pick up as well as I would like.

Working in an office, I have one big pet peeve. Why do people always think the administrative staff are experts in all functions of the copy machine? This use to bug me at non-descript airlines and now bugs me at the new location. It seems the higher the position or degree of the person, the more inept they are with the copier or more demanding that someone else fix the copier machine. The hilariousness in this situation is that I don't actually have a degree or certification in copy machine repair, but I do have common sense (what a novel concept), most copy machines are made for the 8^th grade education level, the machine will often walk you through what is wrong with it. A person just has to read the screen. The other day a student came in demanding I fix the machine, he didn't ask to nicely and I was not pre-disposed to help. I did glance at the screen and say, "oh its broken." And did not volunteer to help fix it. The student was clearly annoyed and very sarcastically suggested I was smarter than him. I replied equally in a sarcastic tone, "clearly." He left. As soon as he was gone, I went and 'fixed' the copier machine…it was out of paper. He might be a doctoral student, but at that moment, I was smarter than him!