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Dec. 7th, 2005
Shutting up now
Dec. 7th, 2005 07:28 amCellmate often criticizes me for not asking more questions about people's private lives.
I have always been reluctant to ask for personal information not volunteered.
At The Knowledge Company, it took me a couple of weeks to confirm that the owners were married. They interviewed me together by phone, but that's exactly what you would expect. They usually arrived together every day, and they had a portrait in the office where IJS saw clients, but both of those things could easily be explained. A professional portrait to represent the firm (though it didn't quite look like that), and a similar schedule for people who could decide when they wanted to come in, but who also needed to work together during the day. Nobody told me. They had different last names. I finally got up the nerve to ask and everybody thought I was a nut. But what if they hadn't been married. How dumb would I have felt?
So, anyway, I don't tend to ask probing prying questions.
I am now developing a different, but I think related, aversion to making idle comments.
My desk at work is a disaster. Covered with paper. My desk is also quite centrally located so just about everyone in the office walks by at least once a day, and almost everyone walks by frequently. Once an hour or so. And I guarantee you that sometime today somebody will comment on the amount of paper. How they won't be able to see me soon? How do I know what's on my desk? How upsetting my workload is. Etc. Getting tired of it, people. I'm the one trying to dig out from under the pile. I'm fully aware of its magnitude.
And no, I don't think these are directed comments. I really don't get the impression that people are hinting that my desk needs to be cleaned becaue it embarrasses them or something. I think they just need to make a comment on it.
One of my new goals in life is to not do that to people. I am really struggling not to make passing comments unless they are strictly positive and complimentary. So I compliment people on their clothes that look really good, or the fact that they are looking slim. But I have begun trying to ignore the fact that people look like they are getting a cold, unless I feel that I may be taxing their limited strengh in some way. I'm sure everybody else has said to them already today, "Wow. You look terrible. Are you getting a cold?"
I have always been reluctant to ask for personal information not volunteered.
At The Knowledge Company, it took me a couple of weeks to confirm that the owners were married. They interviewed me together by phone, but that's exactly what you would expect. They usually arrived together every day, and they had a portrait in the office where IJS saw clients, but both of those things could easily be explained. A professional portrait to represent the firm (though it didn't quite look like that), and a similar schedule for people who could decide when they wanted to come in, but who also needed to work together during the day. Nobody told me. They had different last names. I finally got up the nerve to ask and everybody thought I was a nut. But what if they hadn't been married. How dumb would I have felt?
So, anyway, I don't tend to ask probing prying questions.
I am now developing a different, but I think related, aversion to making idle comments.
My desk at work is a disaster. Covered with paper. My desk is also quite centrally located so just about everyone in the office walks by at least once a day, and almost everyone walks by frequently. Once an hour or so. And I guarantee you that sometime today somebody will comment on the amount of paper. How they won't be able to see me soon? How do I know what's on my desk? How upsetting my workload is. Etc. Getting tired of it, people. I'm the one trying to dig out from under the pile. I'm fully aware of its magnitude.
And no, I don't think these are directed comments. I really don't get the impression that people are hinting that my desk needs to be cleaned becaue it embarrasses them or something. I think they just need to make a comment on it.
One of my new goals in life is to not do that to people. I am really struggling not to make passing comments unless they are strictly positive and complimentary. So I compliment people on their clothes that look really good, or the fact that they are looking slim. But I have begun trying to ignore the fact that people look like they are getting a cold, unless I feel that I may be taxing their limited strengh in some way. I'm sure everybody else has said to them already today, "Wow. You look terrible. Are you getting a cold?"
IwantitIwantitIwantit
Dec. 7th, 2005 09:53 amApplied for apartment on Monday. Check probably got there yesterday. Why haven't they called yet?! < /unreasonable >
I want the bastard clients to all go fuck themselves.
This guy just called and very snidely said that he had contacted me over a month ago and he didn't get the information he asked for and he was going to follow up one time and blah blah. I was apologetic about the delay on the phone, quite concerned I had somehow stashed my message about him and failed to contact him.
But his attitude pissed me off, so I also decided just to see who the idiot was in this case.
I went back through my outgoing mail, and I found the mail I sent to him on October 25 (the day after his phone call on October 24), giving him all the information he requested.
SO...
I forwarded that e-mail to him, with a new cover, dripping with honey and sugar, about how I would bend over backwards to be sure he got his documents by the end of the year, but he could also FEEL FREE to use another attorney's office, if that was an intolerable delay.
Fuck head.
This guy just called and very snidely said that he had contacted me over a month ago and he didn't get the information he asked for and he was going to follow up one time and blah blah. I was apologetic about the delay on the phone, quite concerned I had somehow stashed my message about him and failed to contact him.
But his attitude pissed me off, so I also decided just to see who the idiot was in this case.
I went back through my outgoing mail, and I found the mail I sent to him on October 25 (the day after his phone call on October 24), giving him all the information he requested.
SO...
I forwarded that e-mail to him, with a new cover, dripping with honey and sugar, about how I would bend over backwards to be sure he got his documents by the end of the year, but he could also FEEL FREE to use another attorney's office, if that was an intolerable delay.
Fuck head.
Apartment score!
Dec. 7th, 2005 09:03 pmWe got the awesome place!
Husband belatedly today wondered what the utilities will be like. Hidous, I'm sure.
But who cares!
DOUBLE our current floor space.
We get to pick the paint colors.
Beautiful neighborhood. LAKEFRONT!
And they are even putting in a walk-in shower in the remodeling they are doing in the basement, per our request!
This place hasn't been too bad, but we are crammed in like sardines. It will be AMAZING to finally live someplace were we and our 5000 books and 7 bazillion legos actually fit.
Also, SUCH a relief to know we have a place. I was worried we'd be on the street in February.
Husband belatedly today wondered what the utilities will be like. Hidous, I'm sure.
But who cares!
DOUBLE our current floor space.
We get to pick the paint colors.
Beautiful neighborhood. LAKEFRONT!
And they are even putting in a walk-in shower in the remodeling they are doing in the basement, per our request!
This place hasn't been too bad, but we are crammed in like sardines. It will be AMAZING to finally live someplace were we and our 5000 books and 7 bazillion legos actually fit.
Also, SUCH a relief to know we have a place. I was worried we'd be on the street in February.