12:17 a.m. - 2004-06-10
sleep
I think I was too tired to try writing last night and it showed, didn't it dear diary. I think I'm way past that now.
Got up about 5:30 am to go to my downtown job. Made it in at 7:30 and found that there was no work to do. Called my supervisor. Yes he had said that we would be at the workplace AS USUAL on Wednesday, but he had meant for a meeting at 9 am, not regular work hours. I decided to pop into my chiropracotr's because my back and neck were unbearable. That time of the day he can give me a lot of attention and he also likes to discuss politics with me. I'm always careful what I have to say while he's working on my spine. Not that he'd cause me any harm, but he might get overexcited at some of my real points of view. You've got my beliefs all through the postings I've made dear diary, so you know what I'm talking about. That notwithstanding, we have very thorough, very enjoyable conversations about all things politic. Since it is behind closed doors I can say what I want without worrying about the Ottawa crew getting their shirts in a twist.
My supervisor was kind of cranky during his time with our team, but then I am too, so I just wrote it off to other work issues and tried not to take it personally. After the meeting, that was to plan the second phase of this project, it was obvious that our liaison, A, wanted me to stay and work. No problem, it was what I intended in the first place. We are now dealing with hard copy rather than electronic records. Shift, sort, analyze, and file - data entry later. Worked until about 4 pm then grabbed a cab to get to work. The driver was telling me about his life story - he's from Nigeria - and he had a lot of interesting observations to make. Sometimes it pays to just shut your mouth and hear what the other person has to say.
Got to the office about 4:30 pm and never stopped running. My office manager hauled me off to pick up office supplies. Since my first assistant quit, I'm the only person with a credit card, so there was no choice considering the size of the bills. It also gave us some quiet uninterrupted time to talk about the office and personal things. Our friend who is still in the Middle East sent us both an e-mail last night that was very disturbing as much for what it didn't say as what it did.
In the office, a man already thinking he should go to the wrong poll. Nothing would convince him differently. Sigh. I did nothing but put out fires again. My printer came by at about 7 pm and it took until 8:00 to finish. Staff kept interrupting, until I finally just had to close the doot. Ballots were the issue. No ballots no election - right?
Next up found I couldn't get into any but one of the software programs today. The Automation Co-ordinator was on the phone with support services for over an hour trying to get it fixed. Couldn't print out two statutory documents as a result of the problems. Advance Poll notice and Mobile poll notice, great support from the it people, but they're as exhausted as we are by all the demands and the lack of resources, I guess. We get nice little reminder e-mails if our phones ring busy for 5 minutes though. Next time it would be nice if we were allowed enough phones and computers. It would be even nicer if they actually worked a reasonable amount of the time starting the day we moved into the office. Let's be equitable about how criticism is doled out when trouble is brought to light.
We worked until about 11:30 pm tonight trying to get some of our day to day work caught up. No chance with all the technical problems and as the head office had locked us out of some key areas. Anyway, I'm tired dear diary so I'm going to bed, good night.
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