Last week is over. A new week begins.

It was a rough week: A coworker lost their Aunt on monday, one lost their snake.

Tuesday, the flooding. Missed work..basement... Also, something else -

Robert Botts was one of our Supervisors at Charter. He was pronounced missing on the previous Thursday, and I found out on tuesday. I joined the facebook group helping to hunt for him as well. Sent pictures, tried to help as much with the grassroots as possible.

Wednesday, came in a bit dazed. AlphaTom gave me time off the phones to work on team stuff, and to keep an eye on me. He had heard what had happened - seen a picture I sent. Apparently it hit one of the distros. Thursday, we all were talking about Botts. We were being offered VTO (volontary time off) to go join the searches, if time became availiable.

Friday.
Friday, I walked up to my computer, and was setting it up. Cherish came by, and began to gently lead me away, downstairs. I had heard moments earlier that his body was found. I was escorted to HR - one of at least 10 people. Grief counselling. Chuck sat by me and was talking to me, encouraging me to let it all out. I cannot just cry on command though. He talked with me for about 45 minutes during my lunch as well.

I am a morale officer, in a sense. I help make people better, and stronger. And I was hit hard. He wanted me to talk to the concillor about my mom - her loss hit me, from years before. He wanted to have me talk about the flooding as well. I did, actually, and was crying in there as well. Angel was there, and I had her go in first.

Botts was not my supervisor. I was hotelled with his team when I was in HSI. He had the seats in the morning, Beck, at night. He always had a kind word, and was silly. If you were really having a hard time, he would pull you aside and talk to you, helping to let it go, and to laugh. He liked playing with his lazy eye, pointing it out to make people comfortable as well. I alsways liked him, and he would generally say hello when I would pass. I passed on several nesters to his team during my stint as nesting coach as well, letting him know where to place them. When we had the pirate theme day (pirates of the Carribean came out) he was one of those who dressed like a pirate. I posted it on the Facebook page for the others to see as well. We miss him. The details are still being worked out to exactly what happened.

60-70% of the supervisor staff went home or were sent home. AlphaTom was upstairs and immediately gave me a hug when I came up there. This surprised me - I've never seen him do that. He did leave at 8 - he was expressly told by his Manager to leave at 8, if he did stay. I think he was worried about me and some others as well. He's my Alpha, and leader. I will protect him as well.He's going through the transition for business right now. It is the hardest part of the job - you have to get past several months. If I can, I will help him get past this.

.......

my dad was in the hospital for outpatient for kidney stones. He is out, and seems better.

.......
went to frisbee golf, had to stop at hole 16. Overheating, wasp stung, and needed to take my meds. Went to the doctor for my tonsils, and got steroids and antibiotics. I literally cannot go downstairs right now.

at PennStation I heard one of my three trigger songs, and began to cry again. "One Sweet Day" Mariah Carey/BoysIIMen.
I only hope there is some kind of service here that we can all atttend in some way. I'll take unpaid time off. I had a lot of respect for that man, and our Charter Family will miss him.

RIP Robert Botts. You will be missed. Funerals are for the living, and we will continue to do our best and to lift up those around us.

Taking telephone voip calls after 2 days of limited training. Not the trainer's fault - he hasn't been doing too well.He's really sick. We had our ES staff helping us out.

I hate not knowing my job, and having really high handle times for my calls. Sigh.....

Well....

One of my coworkers was working on the Charter Wiki. I pointed out that Team King didn't have a page.

The person working on getting it updated was approached by my old supervisor about his own page.

It is blank. But he has a page.

So.....
I had him create one for our team. With just one word on the page.
...
...

Fnord.


I cannot decide whether to tell him or subtly direct him to find it.


mwah ha ha!

I'll just be glad when this week is over. Thats all I can say...

yesterday was bad at work.

I'm now one of the team captains for team King.

I got a call first thing that was a customer mad that we turned off his service for nonpayment - he was 54 days past due. He first ended up saying there was a gun to his head. Then he changed it to say I had a gun to his head. He wanted credited for the time he was down....because he didn't pay his bill. I tried to explain billing. He wasn't listening. He demanded a supervisor. I asked if I could put him on hold - I asked for 5 minutes, because he wouldn't say yes. "Yes, keep saying I'm sorry, and tell me how sorry you are". "why do you keep asking to put me on hold - do you have to?" - yes, I do have to. I cannot get a supervisor if I am being yelled at by a customer.

It took both Brian and Tom to talk me down, I was shaking so badly. I wasn't crying, I was just very very shaken.

Later, I have a 40 minute billing call going over his bill. he doesn't see the discount. I was trying to create a new contract, but he still said we were lying about the 20% off for 3 services. He ends up getting mad and hanging up.

End of the night I get a 50 minute call. She wants the video turned back on. I am showing it was disconnected 4/29. She was just told about it. She has records that she sent a payments in. They are not on the account - I set up a billing ticket for research, knowing she is going to have to contact the bank to see if the payments cleared. She wants a supervisor, because I cannot turn the services back on without full payment. Sigh..

couldn't do anything right. And it was a Tuesday....

About two weeks ago, there was a member of the VAS team that passed away, by the name of Will. I always saw him with a book - he never really said much, but was always reading. There was no funeral service here - he was from somewhere upstate NY.

Our work's charity of choice is the Family Place. What the current fundraiser involves, is currently bringing in any children's or teens books, gently used, for their library. Charter Business already has 50+ but I haven't really seen any on the lower floors. I plan to hit half price books on the weekend to add to these.

I think thats a really neat thing to help others and remember him - I donated 10 that I had - a couple of the colored Fairy books, and some of the Tamora Pierce series.

I don't think we can donate books to his home library, since I haven't found anyone who knows where he was freom.

But as a memorial, I think this was sweet. I'd like to think if I passed, they would do the same for me.

Feeling bleah. Getting more energy, except when the weather goes from 33 to 60 - yo yoing. My sinuses think this is a bad idea. Silly sinuses.

Catching up a bit on sleep has helped a bit. Work is trying to uptrain me further - which surprises me - I cannot reach my time goal right now. Dealing with drama there - boyfriend storms out, sup asks if he wants to quit he says yes. He then later calls back saying "I want my job back". Girlfriend is at the point of tears, where another sup steps in and gies her time off the phones. Sup has also given up alcohol for Lent. Fun times.

Working on Rolemaster character. Trying to, anyway. I really don't like 10 page character sheets. Sigh. Foxwit is helping.

Didn't win the giant tv. Sigh. I guess I will try for the Wii for this month, even though I don't need it.


Cats are safely away from toes. I got them food. I will not wake to missing toes, which is a good thing :)

Need to clean up some. Nez is bringing in a date on Saturday he met off ok cupid. I know very little - don't know how things will go. He's taking her out to dinner on Sat. Honestly, he needs to do somne more cleaning up as well.

Hopefully we can celebrate our anniversary sometime soon. It was February 19th, but he was sick that weekend, and had other plans for this weekend.

I like some structure to my life sometimes. I blame the cats for messing things up. Meow.

Off to bed. Hopefully the nightmares will stop soon,. Dreaming of being at work, dreaming of the end of the world....not good things.

And it keeps getting better all the time....

Today over 50 people did not show to work.

I understand. My power went out at 5 am. I had no sleep. I kept hearing the shotgun blasts of tree limbs breaking and cars crushing and shattering through the rain covered slush, snow and ice. Sigh. At least Foxwit and I suspected it would happen and had our cells set as alarm clocks- handy lil' things, cell phones.

So: The tally:

No Power.....okay, can cope
Hot Water...goood
Stove...okay
Oven - nope - doesn't work without power
Oil Lamps - have oil and wicks, both hurricane globes have been shattered -
problematical with cats
Heat - no heat - electric thermostat...bad
candles- running low. Picked up more, and aaa batteries. Cannot find any lanterns for sale
blankets- yep, and sleeping bags as well.
water - leaving running in the tub - the cats like that at least
basement - freezing and dark - hard to find work clothes between shivering and candle
(even in daylight)

I already know my sole purpose in life for the next week (when not here at work) - heat for the cats. And food.

Work is running off generators, and they have it set way too high for the heat. The moment you step outside, the lungs shudder. We got pizza though. Yay pizza. Constant queue - had to keep apologizing about the wait, and explained we were without power for half the city. Spoke to three companies in a row who had the same issue- and, where was there other office. Why here, of course! It made me laugh :)

Gotta laugh and smile somehow right? I cannot leave the cats alone, though I have had offers if we get too cold. I'll survive. Been taking pics. Of course, cannot download them...

Anyone want an ice sculpture of a kitsune?

Just really tired and feeling like I am doing everything wrong right now. Trying to plan the future. Struggling at work.

Despite the costumy thing at work, I'm just low. Tomorrow is the team meeting. I need to speak to my sup before my shift anyway about one of my contracts thats a bit odd. One of mine came back looking like I was trying to take credit for someone elses contract. I sent up a case to have that looked into and cancelled my contract. One of my talk telephones says there was no one by that name working there. But I got her name for the notes. Sigh.

I'm just hoping I'm not setting myself up to be fired. I have trouble meeting the time goal, and am really struggling with the sales this month.

I see the listings for Origins asking "Are you going to be there?" and I get no straight answers out of the guys. I've planned some time off for March, but don't know where that is going - Foxwit's birthday is that Tuesday, and I had mentioned it before making plans.Sigh.

I dunno.

There was a drug bust or arrest out fromt of the house this morning. They caught the guy trying to run out the back.

Just so tired, mentally, spiritually, physically. And winter has barely begun...

Doing wacky things at work next week. Monday is 50s day, tues 60s and wed 70s.

Gotta make a poodle (or my version) skirt.

Its like a challenge. I'm silly.

I suppose I could take pictures of my outfits, if people want to see them.

Dealing....

insecurity...stress.

Knowing stock for my company is no longer 12 cents a share.......but 8.

Worrying about my sick kitty....I think the drops are helping


....was supposed to have a meeting in the conference room with my sup today and it was cancelled...and he usually has these at his desk....

little energy...tired a lot. achy.


trying to arrange my life for the convienience of relatives...and cons...and loves...and don't forget cats...... must not forget cats.....

sigh

Feeling overwhelmed. Can't I just be whemed?
Please?

Thanksgiving work. Woo hoo. Holiday pay plus time and a half. Free lunch I took home. 3-7 PM. Ate golden corral for lunch.

I logged in at 4. I didn't get a call up to 3:57. At that point I found out they were offering OOSA (out of seat activity) so I took that for 2 hrs- hanging up snowflakes over the pod, cutting out paper ones, using paper from the recycling bin. Oh, and playing the Wii. I played against my telephone lead and one of our escalation specialists. Beat them both times. Had a 172 bowling game the second time. I can wii bowl alright...showing up these poor guys. Then I logged back in at 6 and got one call. Not too bad a day for 20 + an hour. The call was a telephone issue, so it took 24 minutes (supposed to be 9 min or less). Oh well.

Got home, ate chicken and rice with broccoli cheese sauce and corn - Foxwit made it and it was yummy.

I'm dreading tomorrow/today. 10 years of retail experience makes me nervous on Black Friday. Their theme,at work of course, is to wear black tomorrow, so I shall. Its not one of my normal outfits, but hey. A retail location down tommorow is a very scary thought, lets put it that way.

Haven't chatted much this week - either he is off google or it looks like he's there and he isn't. Sigh, I knw he has other fires to put out and other people and obligations...but he can help me smile when I have a pain of 6-7 on a 1-10 scale. Luckily its mostly 4-5 right now.

Tues night I considered going to the emergency room since all the pain. I went in to my usual urgent care center - since I don't have a doctor (or dentist) and they said my ears were "perfect". That my tonsils were really infected, He gave me some new medicines- 4 chewable pills per day - amox variant, and a steriod syrup to take every eight hours for 5 days. I have my cell set to wake me at 4:30- am foe the next few days. The nurse asked if I had wisdom teeth removed. I was told by my last dentist I would never have them. I am thinking that perhaps he was wrong. I am waiting the course of these medicines before trying to find a dentist because the steroid says it seriously lowers immune reactions and not to go near anyone with communicable diseases.

That has been my holiday week. Saturday is turkey day for us.

Hoping to make it through tomorrow relatively sane...wish me luck!

Looking forward to the weekend. This week has been dragging on....

However, bought some nonperishables for Kentucky Harvest - I think my donation is around 25 items. There's a contest among the sups who will bring the most - they want about 100 items per team. I feel the people who are doing Ramen is cheating. I'm sure these people already get tons of Ramen.

I also donated to our Hot Drinks Basket. Teas mostly. Others have donated coffee, sweeteners, creamers, hot chocolate and marshmallows. These are auctioned off next weeek for Family Place. They money is then used to buy gifts for the families there.

But, it is nice to do things for people who cannot have the luxury of buying all these goodies. There are those who do things for me when I cannot (and I have offered to pay before too). But I like helping those that I can as well have a better day, holiday, or time when I can too :)

Its been one of those days....

Go into work - Foxwit is working 9-6 so I am riding in with D. I check my phone for messages. There is one from the Doctor's office. They refused to do my FMLA paperwork since it was only tonsillitus, and that should be reserved for more serious conditions. Like talking in a call center of 500 people, barely able to speak? I guess that wasn't important.

This may mess up my vacation plans. I am going to try and talk to HR tomorrow to see if there is a way to salvage them since they could take away my vacation planned in December, for Yule. Since I had no sick time left, they go to vacation automatically.

Then, my Vista's hard drive crashed. I had to run back and forth for 30 minutes doing an IT ticket and doing tests on it. So I sat away from my team as well.

They have me troubleshooting Telephone. I did residential a year and a half ago, when they outsourced the department. Business is different. They don't want me to transfer calls. But mt telephone mentors are all off on Tuesday. The Lead I asked for help wasn't at his desk, nor was another one. Someone finally had pity on Elita's team and helped me. Over an hour long call - my time needs to be 9 minutes or less. That's my worst stat.

I was QA'd three times in the last 2 days. Two 100s and 1 95. Still annoyed I missed that 5 point thing for the 95 :P

Tired...long day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

They are doing a UPS Truck Pull for Special Olympics. I will be busy this weekend, but if you want to donate, here is a link. She is one of the CB supervisors, so I'm trying to help raise money for her :)

http://events.soky.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1049565&pg=personal&fr_id=1080

Gee...

Yes, I've been offline for a week. We lost power on Sunday, around 1pm. We regained power tonight around 9PM (Friday). Good thing I'm hurricane trained - I have oil lamps, candles, matches, charcoal, analog phone (cordless do not work without power). We had hot water, and a gas stove, though the stove didn't help for several days. We lost all food in the fridge(s) and freezer. Been living off cereal, a hot meal at lunch - usually McDonalds and snacking on more cereal when getting home. I work until 10 but ride with D. who gets off at 11:30.

Tues and wednesday they gave out food at work - soft pretzels, mac and cheese cups, chips, snacks, drinks. Tues had hamburgers and hotdogs. Popcorn they have been doing all week as well. They also allowed for dressdown all week, which was nice since Sunday night is laundry night. I actually was in pirate garb today, because of talk like a pirate day.

Awfulhorrid checked in with me yesterday and today for a short time, since I wasn't chatting with him anymore (funny how a lack of power can cause that). That helped a lot. I was talking with him Sunday when the hurricane force winds came into Louisville (Cat 1, but still hurricane force - thanks Ike!). I was cleaning out the branches in the road for emergency vehicles.

Foxwit and Nez were having more issues than I - possible from going through a lot of them as a kid helped. I don't really get too hooked to gaming systems or internet. The AC lack was bothering them more than I. The hum that blocked out other sounds is what I missed. A neighbor was running their tv off their car battery so that would start every couple hours all night. People would yell to each other in the dark to talk.

At least there was hot water :)Work had power - besides I know they have generators as well.

O like camping, but they wouldn't allow me to start a fire in here...go figure.

Despite being a gloomy day, at least I was productive at work. I have to get 5 people per fiscal month to agree to buy or listen to our spiel on Telephone. I'm up to 6. I also had someone want to buy a 13 pack of static IP addresses - why they needed 8 or more is odd to me, but feel free...If they go through, I have my MRR for the month - I have to raise revenue 30 bucks per month as well. Trying to get my time down on my calls - I am supposed to only have 20 seconds of work after calls (that's hard). My quality assurance scores are high - I can fake perky really well with customers. The good thing is they really cannot curse you out or call you out for that- you aren't swearing, you're not rude, and it sounds like you're genuinely willing to help.

Which, honestly, I am. It's just, on some days when I have been down, I fake cheerful. I don't want to let my coworkers down, or make the company look bad. After awhile though, it isn't really fake anymore. It helps on those gloomy bad days like today - very drizzly and stressy.

And Rileybear sent me a snugs to make me feel better - yay! Someone replied to my post :)

( health related )

Eventually they will get to the blood tests, and they are also checking for high blood pressure too. Then hopefully my feet. I am stiff and sore- some is probably stress.

Anyone good at massage? My only candidates here do acupuncture and they aren't too particular wheere they put their needles (aka claws).

Having a rough week. I just don't seem to be getting enough rest or sleep. I seem to put my foot in my mouth when talking to people as well.

I am tired and down. And I know it isn't fair that I am causing others stress by me being around, either in the real world or virtual world.

Trying to cheer up- and I fall. The drizzly weather isn't helping - I know the plants need their water. But it is grey and dismal. I kinda feel like that right now. I want to chat, and my sweetie isn't online. I was quoting some lyrics last night...maybe that did it. Who knows? Maybe it is a meeting....maybe a request of his other sweetie with whom he has plans for this weekend.

Maybe I should eat some brains..yeah, that would help. Then people would be chasing me with chainsaws or machetes... Nah, not worth it.

Sigh. At least I finally got a package sent that I said I was going to send a week ago. I'm sorry its late. Look for it Tuesday, Awfulhorrid.

I got a compliment from a fellow coworker yesterday. I was told I am bubbly and cheerful, and he didn't see how I could do it. I learned, when I first came, that there is little you can do to a person who is cheerful when they are trying to help. They aren't swearing, or being disrespectful, and they're being perky. So I developed that for calls. I fake being cheerful. Sometimes it makes me more cheerful at the end of the day.

I hope it works today. I just found out there is a fantasy league among the ES for talk telephone in business. I have three I think - its just letting the customer know that we will contact them back about telephone - or, if they have time when they call (and sales is open) I transfer them across. If they accept telephone, I get $10 in commission.

I don't like feeling bad. The doctor's office wants a sample on Saturday which I think is pointless. Then I need to get some blood pressure tests and come in on another visit. And on a separate visit my yearly physical. Its is more of an urgent care clinic than a doctor's office, so they cannot do it all at once. At least, I hope it isn't trying to milk me of all my insurance money.

Someone help me smile?

past few days update

Thursday, after nesting, I went with Researcher to Steak and Shake. I haven't been able to talk to him much, since our jobs and timetables have been so different. We chat occasionally here on LJ and he recently went on Facebook. I heard the news of his family, and his future plans. It was nice talking with him and we ended up talking for three hours :)

On Saturday we went to see Hellboy II. I have that stupid song stuck in my head now. No hidden spots in the credits, alas. I've gotten to the point of seeing if something is hidden there, after the ones that have been popping out lately.

Moved things out of the house- refridgerator that hasn't worked since Novemner. Washer that hasn't worked since April (I think). More flooded bookcases and chairs that were broken. Old clothes, ruined beyong repair.

Foxwit had his allergy shots yesterday and is miserable. Constantly coughing. They gave him a sstimulant pack in case he seems to be going into anaphalactic shock. I just hope this settles down soon. It alsmost as bed as when he went in with a cold.

Trying to get used to CB. When I can, I plan to stay on the 4th floor - more help that way.

My day wasn't great either...

Woke with migraine.

Discovered I was the only nesting coach there. Had panicked nesters.

Helped train my replacements.

Called missing coach - he had a float day and I couldn't remember - see migraine above.

Second coach to come in is more than an hour late - she said she told one of my bosses - they didn't relay. She was really apologetic. Luckily had leads there to help - see help train replacements.

Called down to HR - always a fun proposition, when HR wants to talk with you. Luckily it wasn't what I thought it was for... asked friend to kill me and he wrapped cord around neck (luckily they didn't see that)

Friend we carpool with got time off and ends up needing a ride home from 5 or so miles up the road, in a direction we don't go.

On the plus side, I sent messages to my sweetie, which made me smile.

Someone asked jokingly where to find a ball in chain, and I told him where, the hours that store is open, the price and the address. I'm a finder - go figure :)

And I looked at pretty pretty celtic tshirts again today. Still deciding on which I want :) Make sure you look at shirts 1, 2, and 3 on the saga site and the other stuff as well. Very pretty stuff.

http://shop.webomator.com/cgi-bin/cpshop_posters.cgi?i=cm/bws01.4024174

http://shop.webomator.com/cgi-bin/shirts_hoodies.cgi?i=cats_design_shirts_w.bws01-21250315+celtic-art-cats-womens-pastel-t-shirt.html

http://www.printfection.com/sagashirts/Celtic-Cats-T-Shirt/_p_705290