~What in the Hell?~

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

~ Back to Work ~

And it sucks, you know? At Pennsic all I had to do was wake up, get water, check the coolers for ice and drum to my heart's content. Ah, alas. I've said as much before. I just miss it, that's all. The simplicity of it.

That first week back from war was hell, let me tell you. Getting re-acculturated to this - this - PLACE. Ugh. I would wake up at night and think I was still safe in the yurt. And then I would realize I was home. Which meant I had to go to WORK!! UGH! Not that I mind working. I just mind the assholiness. BIG difference.

(Hey - even if I were filthy rich I'd probably "work". Doing volunteer stuff or teaching.)

So today I'm minding my own beeswax (as I tend to do) and I run into one of my co-workers in the cafeteria. We start talking and she tells me she's taken another job. I'm stunned.

We proceed to discuss "the situation" for another hour and a half. Basically, she has the same gripes as me and has told her management (who is also MY management in a roundabout way). They gave her the same shit they gave me "everyone is busy". No help, no offers of help, no nothing.

But as soon as she told them she got another job, guess what? They were all about trying to get her to say "what can we do to make this better?" Fuck that, fools! You done been told about a zillion times - you don't want to hear it, remember?

I wish I could say "I can't believe it" but I can. They did the same thing to the Master Batcher when he abandoned ship. They act like you're the scum of the earth until you say "I'm outta here!" then suddenly they want to play nice. Uh, no. And God forbid they would actually be PROACTIVE and LISTEN when you told them in the first place there was a problem. Stupid fuckers. *rolls eyes*

She's lucky she's getting out. And I think it will probably be good for her, too. She seems a LOT happier and I know they will treat her better.

We got off on the subject of why people around here in my group can't seem to get their damned work done. It seems that I was the only person who was given an assignment to look over 10 formulas and completed it within 3 weeks ON TOP of my other work. NO ONE else has managed to do this (and it wasn't that hard, either).

Some of these things have been floating around since JUNE 1 and they still aren't done. I made the casual remark that certain individuals spend too much time blabbering and not working.

She was like "so you're not part of that clique, either?" Aw, hell no, girl! Are you kidding? So I told her the "I hate my manager/she's an idiot" story.

She also told me something quite interesting - that there are other people in other departments who have noticed "certain people" always hanging out and blabbering yet can't seem to do their job/work.

This person (who constantly runs around talking and sucking up to the boss) has been here for three years and still can't figure out (or remember how) to order certain things or even DO the core aspect of this job. And if you tell her she needs to pay attention so she understands what's going on, she gets all pissy.

And, of course, the boss doesn't care that she can't do the job. Hell no! She's a suck up! So the boss dumps HER work (that she can't do because she's too busy yapping) on someone else (used to be me until I had a shit fit).

I kinda wonder how all this is going to shake out. I have my ideas and I know what I'd LIKE to happen but it won't be pretty. THAT much I do know.

They have no plans to replace the girl that is leaving - and she does a HUGE amount of work. They haven't a clue.

They just think "we" can "pick it up" or "it's not a big deal". Yeah, well, I got news - it will BECOME a VERY big deal next summer when suddenly we can't ship anything because the yapper didn't do her job. It is HER name that is on those formulas to approve.

You wanna tell me that losing millions of dollars in business isn't going to raise a few eyebrows and questions. Yeah.

I'm so looking for another job. I'm a bit "inspired" now. But I doubt if they would ask me to stay! LOL! They don't think I do anything anyway. Because I'm not always standing in the hallway yapping. I'm usually at my desk WORKING. (Unless, of course, I'm fucking off and ranting on HERE about work! LOL!)

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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 2:37 PM

Sunday, August 20, 2006

~ Back from War! ~

I'm back! Returned from war! Tired as hell and just as dirty. I had a great time. I always do. No TV, no radio, no internet, no phone. Nobody screaming they are going to die if I don't DO SOMETHING right this MINUTE!!!!!! (And no SHOES! Wooo!)

Nope. The worst thing I heard was "we're out of tequila?" And the worst thing that happened is my yurt got yakked on. But not by me (altho I was the one who had to clean it up - ew).

I left Wednesday afternoon - the 9th. I got in later than I had intended but that's ok. Everyone was in camp so that was cool. I unloaded and blabbed but I didn't get the yurt set up so I had to sleep with D. (I did more talking and visiting than actual unpacking - hence the reason I had no bed.)

On Thursday morning we got up and I showed D how to put the rafters in the yurt. She put about 5 of them in then I took over (it was stable at that point). She was simply amazed that just the two of us could set the yurt up with minimal trouble. But the secret is the two electrical conduit poles that hold up the ring. She said, "everyone else takes hours to set theirs up. And they are always bitching about how hard it is. This wasn't hard at all! It went right up!"

I said, "yeah, well, I've been working on it all summer to get it right!" Everyone was amazed. They seem to think it should be some huge undertaking. The truth is, putting the screws in the door takes the longest. Everything else is pretty simple. Once you know what you're doing. Heh.

Thursday I spent the day getting my home set up (all my clothes and tapestries put away, etc.). Then I parked the car and walked around. By the time I had eaten and got back to camp, the sun had gone down. I changed clothes and had a mind to rid myself of that gallon of tequila I've been hauling around forever. So I started mixing up margaritas. And they was GOOD.

Soon there were several individuals in camp helping me in my quest to rid the "house of voodoo" of all tequila. The coffee pot was drafted to mix up larger batches of the stuff (much to D's horror - it's her coffee pot!). Then someone came by with a bottle of Maker's Mark and passed that around. Then some wandering minstrals came by - we gave them drink and they entertained us.

We were just having a lovely time at our impromptu party. Some one said, "this is the best party yet!" Which I thought was rather amusing. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Then it happened. One individual passed out. We threw a blanket on him and continued our revelery until the wee hours. As I was fixing to go to bed, the person was still passed out right at my door - sitting in his chair all quiet. As I was getting into bed, suddenly, he crashed backward thru the door (that stupid chair he was sitting in was very unstable). Then he leaps up and starts yakking. Fortunately for HIM he yakked outside on my yurt, on the ground, on Becky's chair, on the blanket. Then he stumbled home. I didn't realize until the next morning that he had puked on my yurt. THAT was FOUL.

In the camp next to us, some dude busted up a yurt - broke the wall. Thursday night was a bad night to be a yurt on runestone hill.

Becky was PISSED when she found out her chair was covered in barf. Gah! So Friday morning I spent cleaning up the carnage and barf from Thursday night. Then I put an ad in the paper to "beware the yurt yakker".

We hid the rum Friday night. No need for a repeat! I'd cleaned up all the puke I intended for one war!

Saturday I started in on the classes. Drum classes out the ying-yang (but that's what I love). I spent most of Saturday in class. That night I went to Vlad's. Some friends of mine were in for one night and they wanted to go out but they ended up making up all sorts of plans which went totally awry so I went out and did my thing while they sat around watching a movie at someone else's camp. Yeah. Like THAT is exciting!

My "thing" this particular evening was swill rum and chase a New Zealander. Hey - I haven't had one of those yet. ("Yet" being the keyword here). Apparently said individual was painfully shy (I had no idea - I was coveting his wool tunic. It was SWEET and I coveted it mightily! It can get pretty damned cold there!) and I believe I frightened the life out of him. So I let him go. I don't think he realized I was seriously propositioning him. WTF? Like what the hell does "That tunic would look mighty good on the floor next to my panties" mean to any normal male? Bah!

Later I ran into Steve and left with him. Forget that Kiwi if he can't understand I'm serious! We got into camp about 2:30am and my friends still hadn't returned from their "movie watching" (WTF??). So Steve and I went to bed in his camp. The next morning I ran into my friends (who had slept in my yurt). They said they didn't get in until 3am and they were unhappy that they got stuck up where they were. I tried to tell them not to be making any plans or any of that nonsense if they wanted to have a good time but they wouldn't hear of it. So they didn't have any fun.

Sunday was more drumming and classes. Monday was my music day. I had drumming for two hours then violin class then hafla music. I looked like a traveling one man band - my drum and shakey thing on my back, my rik on my belt and my violin case in my hand. It was rather amusing. Later that day as I was wandering back from class I had an ephiphany - not all music is written for a violin! You can play like a flute to that music too! So I bought one of those $5 flutes to see if I could make it play and lo, I did!

(Look - it seemed logical to ME. A violin has 4 strings and music has 4 lines. Duh! That's why I can understand on a violin where my fingers go eventho I can't exactly "read" music. I just look at the dots on the lines and that says where my fingers go. So it seemed "logical" in my strange way of thinking that all music was written for a violin.)

Monday night was "hell freezes over" and that was pretty fun. Hell hasn't taken place in a few years so it was rather nice to have it back. It ended up raining but that's ok. We wandered around and swilled "swamp gas" and generally tried to get into trouble.

Tuesday was more classes but no drumming (it was the exhibition and all the drummers were putting on a show). Tuesday night the neighbors had a party and that was a lot of fun. I got to play my drum and my rik and dance a little bit. I had a good time. Didn't find any willing manflesh but that was ok. I met a lot of the drummers in my classes and had a good time playing with the rhythms I'd learned.

Wednesday we're back to drumming classes and some dancing classes. Wednesday night was "men without pants" party. Chrissy and I headed down there. We had a lot of fun roaming around doing "homeland security spot checks" to make sure no "terrorists" had managed to sneak in a pair of pants! Oh, the humanity!

When we got back to camp we hung around our own campfire and talked until the wee hours with everyone else. That was interesting.

Thursday was a sad day for me. I knew I would be going home the next day. Sad, sad day! But I went to all of my classes - drumming and dancing and it was fun. I packed up quite a bit - got most of my clothes and other stuff put away. Did my last minute shopping and gawking.

That night I headed over to Wulf Den since they were having a shin-dig. This is where things got odd. They had the best dancers but no drummers! NONE! There were like two guys with drums and the poor things were new. I volunteered to go back and get MY drum (eventho friends don't let friends drink and drum) so I could lead (which I don't like doing because I'm not very good). On the way back to camp to get my drum, I was waylaid by pirates who demanded to see my panties (huh?), and attacked by a vampire (WTF?)

Finally, drum and rum in hand, I made it back just in time to see some of my drum class friends rolling in. Yay! So we started drinking the rum and drumming and I got to play "over". Wooo! I got to play the "fancy stuff" over everyone else's backbeat! And I sounded good! I almost couldn't believe it was MY hands making that noise! And I had been drinking. (Oh, wait! Maybe that is why I sounded so good to myself!)

I finally managed to get home late. The next day I saw one of the drummers and he said they played until 3:30am then went to another party. Ugh! I couldn't stay out that late - I had to get home on Friday.

As I was packing up the car, people were taking pictures of it. They couldn't believe that the 12 foot yurt plus all of my clothes and 4 gallons of rum fit into little blue. But yes, Virginia, it all fits! I got packed up and rolled out of home around 4pm. I was sad. Now I have to wait another year before I can escape the madness.

Why can't life be like that? Drumming, dancing all day and all night. No drama, no screaming Asians threatening death over stupid formula cards, no stupid meetings - it's so nice. And I can be myself. I don't have to be a total bitch because no one tries to run you over or bully you.

At work it is constant bullying and abuse. God, I don't miss that in the least. And guess what? When I go in tomorrow the building will still be there and the company will still be in business. Despite all of their hysteria and pearl-clutching over my leaving NOTHING will have happened. NOTHING. No one will be dead because of something I didn't do. Imagine that! And if the company DOES go under because *I* went on vacation then I need a serious raise. A SERIOUS raise.

But right now I'm a bit hungry. There's laundry piled everywhere - this place is a disaster - but I'm making a dent in it. Probably won't have it completely tamed until next weekend. That's just the way it goes. Ah, well.

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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 8:04 PM

Saturday, August 05, 2006

~ War preparation update ~

Today was land grab. I went on a rum run. I have 4 gallons of the stuff so I'm hoping that's enough. It damn well oughta be! LOL!

On the way home from the liquor store, I saw a SHELBY!! OMG!! I knew EXACTLY what it was as soon as I laid eyes on it. Being the car whore I am (and dearly, dearly wanting a Shelby of my own), I got all tingly. Of course, the individual driving it didn't know what the hell he was doing (couldn't even catch me in my 4-banger). It should be taken away from him and given to ME!! I would show him how to drive such an awesome thing!

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It was white witih blue stripes. Oh, man, it was awesome! I had to slow down to keep him in my rear-veiw mirror. And I stayed with him until my exit came up. Damn, that thing was hot! Gave me goosebumps to see something like that. Wants it!! Wants it baaaaaad!

So, of course I had to call dad and tell him. I mean, he can appreciate something like that. Mom wouldn't know a Shelby from a Chevette nor would she care. But dad knew. And he appreciated it.

That was today's big excitement.

For the rest of the day has been spent packing the car (mostly) and getting ready to leave on Wednesday. Believe it or not, the yurt fits in the car and I have enough room for my junk. Of course, I have to have a place for everything - certain things fit in certain places - but that's ok. It's mostly clothes that go on the bottom (under the rafters and the sides). The liquor goes in the trunk (since it's not cold) and the cool has to go in the front seat with my drum and my violin.

That's all the big stuff and it's in there. I might not even have to put the one tote on the trunk but I probably will. That way I can have plenty of room coming home for the junk I will buy there.

Not like I really NEED anything. But I'm sure there's probably some fabric I can't live without and a few books. But I'm not really looking to BUY anything - at least not a whole lot of things. I've got about every book I need or want in regards to costuming. OK - I'd really LOVE a copy of "Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe unlocked" but that's about $200. Yeah.

Now I'm kinda tired. I still need to repaint my toenails (I'm certainly not going to do it there) and get my henna made. I'll do that here in a bit.

I finally managed to make it to the fabric store and get more metallic thread. So I'll be doing a bit more embroidery on Steve's tunic as my toenails are drying. Doesn't that sound so exciting? lol! I'm going to watch "Forensic Files", paint my toenails and embroider! Oh, the humanity!

That's my big exciting life. Wooo! Tomorrow - I think I'll go to the grocery and get non-perishables and pineapples. When I get to pennsic, I can go to the store there and get perishables. It will save room in the car.

The laundry is done, the packing is done (except for putting it into the car), the rum is bought and I'm more than ready to go! It will be so nice to get away from work. And the weather forcast is looking very very nice. Not ungodly hot or stormy. That will be great! And the class schedule is posted (I think I mentioned that before in another post).

Tonight I will get some good sleep knowing everything is done and it's almost time for me to go back where I belong.

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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 8:38 PM

~The Mighty Nephy~

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