Thursday, March 09, 2006
Well, everything isn't 100% peachy keen, of course. Good moods like that only come around every once in a while, but I am trying to be a little more optimistic.
At job #1 it was a very stressful beginning to the week. See, there's a big report that myself and the other tech write each year. It gets shipped off to a government agency to be combined with other reports. I finished my half of the report in early January, the deadline was Feb 17, but the other tech finished last Friday (March 3; he's been swamped with work from other projects). No one from the agency had contacted us about being late, so we figured that it wasn't a big deal and we'd get it to them when we could. Well, we gave our boss the first draft of the report and he decided that we should add a bunch of new tables and figures and sections of text, and they were all on subjects in my realm. This report has been very cookie-cutter for the past 10 years, so I had no way of knowing about the added work in advance. Then an hour later the agency called and my boss said "Cathar1ne's just putting the final touches on the report, we'll have it to you tomorrow!"
So 1) I had to scramble to get all the new stuff in, and 2) I'm sure it sounded to the agency like I was the one who was running behind and holding up the report. I had my part done two months ahead of schedule! Argh. I worked frantically throughout the day on Monday, but had to work at RL that night, so I came in at 5:45 on Tuesday morning to finish. It doesn't matter what the agency's people think of me, but I just know they all think I'm just some young, irresponsible tech. Bah humbug. At least it's all finished and turned in now.
Exciting, I know.
Poor, poor Ryan has been working even harder than me lately, which is saying a lot. He has his thesis-type group project this semester, and has been working about 30 hours a week on that, on top of his normal 40. So hourwise he's working just slightly more than me, but his is entirely intellectual, whereas mine is more varied. It's frustrating that I can't do more to make his life easier, but I'm just not an engineer. The one benefit to the situation is that I don't have to feel guilty about abandoning him to work at RL on evenings and weekend lunches because he's occupied working on his project.
So we're both quite exhausted from working so much, but it'll be over in April. Once his project is over, I'm scaling back to two permanent shifts per week at RL, plus picking up the occasional shift whenever it's convenient and I want the extra money. We can resume going on weekend trips, plus we have the weeklong trip to WA in store.
Overall I have to say I am thrilled with my decision to get the RL job. Not only am I in much better financial shape, but it's been good for my emotional health to get out and be around other people (meaning more my coworkers than the nasty customers) instead of staying holed up at home all winter. The weather is starting to warm up a bit- it rained today instead of snow. It could always go back to snowing again next week, but maybe spring is on the way. If I just keep working nonstop, it'll be summer before I know it.
So to tie this post and last together, I'd have to say that although life at the moment is still "meh," it's all looking up and all will be well that ends well.
Random memory for Tessa, who wants more entries: crusing the parking lot of Kinko's in the summer, trying to catch a glimpse of a (turned out to be gay) trapezoidal-headed teddy bear. Hahaha.
At job #1 it was a very stressful beginning to the week. See, there's a big report that myself and the other tech write each year. It gets shipped off to a government agency to be combined with other reports. I finished my half of the report in early January, the deadline was Feb 17, but the other tech finished last Friday (March 3; he's been swamped with work from other projects). No one from the agency had contacted us about being late, so we figured that it wasn't a big deal and we'd get it to them when we could. Well, we gave our boss the first draft of the report and he decided that we should add a bunch of new tables and figures and sections of text, and they were all on subjects in my realm. This report has been very cookie-cutter for the past 10 years, so I had no way of knowing about the added work in advance. Then an hour later the agency called and my boss said "Cathar1ne's just putting the final touches on the report, we'll have it to you tomorrow!"
So 1) I had to scramble to get all the new stuff in, and 2) I'm sure it sounded to the agency like I was the one who was running behind and holding up the report. I had my part done two months ahead of schedule! Argh. I worked frantically throughout the day on Monday, but had to work at RL that night, so I came in at 5:45 on Tuesday morning to finish. It doesn't matter what the agency's people think of me, but I just know they all think I'm just some young, irresponsible tech. Bah humbug. At least it's all finished and turned in now.
Exciting, I know.
Poor, poor Ryan has been working even harder than me lately, which is saying a lot. He has his thesis-type group project this semester, and has been working about 30 hours a week on that, on top of his normal 40. So hourwise he's working just slightly more than me, but his is entirely intellectual, whereas mine is more varied. It's frustrating that I can't do more to make his life easier, but I'm just not an engineer. The one benefit to the situation is that I don't have to feel guilty about abandoning him to work at RL on evenings and weekend lunches because he's occupied working on his project.
So we're both quite exhausted from working so much, but it'll be over in April. Once his project is over, I'm scaling back to two permanent shifts per week at RL, plus picking up the occasional shift whenever it's convenient and I want the extra money. We can resume going on weekend trips, plus we have the weeklong trip to WA in store.
Overall I have to say I am thrilled with my decision to get the RL job. Not only am I in much better financial shape, but it's been good for my emotional health to get out and be around other people (meaning more my coworkers than the nasty customers) instead of staying holed up at home all winter. The weather is starting to warm up a bit- it rained today instead of snow. It could always go back to snowing again next week, but maybe spring is on the way. If I just keep working nonstop, it'll be summer before I know it.
So to tie this post and last together, I'd have to say that although life at the moment is still "meh," it's all looking up and all will be well that ends well.
Random memory for Tessa, who wants more entries: crusing the parking lot of Kinko's in the summer, trying to catch a glimpse of a (turned out to be gay) trapezoidal-headed teddy bear. Hahaha.
