21:10 - 14.06.05
Hair dos
Well dear diary, the visitor theme continued to playout today with a definite Uranian twist. My sun sign's ruling planet - that flash of inspiration, the bolt out of the blue or a tsunami. Take your pick. Today Uranus starts moving retrograde - backward against the apparent path of the sun. Shake ups and wake ups in store. I'm too tired and I think I've paid my dues, dear universe. Three weeks of illness and no pay is all I can handle right now. No snap elections, but I will accept a winning lottery ticket if you please.
Looked up about two hours in to the work day. My supervisor has been interviewing applicants for a specific position for some time now, so there have been several candidates brought by on the tour of the department. This time the woman was someone I had worked with in the company where I had had to talk with a lawyer about the treatment I was receiving. That supervisor, now job applicant, hadn't been directly involved, but it was never clear where she stood on the issue either. Her department was one I was assigned to off and on for various projects. She was very knowledgeable and a stickler for detail, but she was also prone to violent mood swings, abrupt changes in instructions and was never satisfied with anything that was accomplished. The woman I had lunch with about a week ago and the partner she shares her job with both finally quit after 10 years of working for her, because they just couldn't deal with the way she treated them any more. The company stepped in and moved them to another department, then let the supervisor go not long after. On paper and in fact her work skills are impeccable. However, in a department where there is already some nasty intrigue going on, I don't think I'd like to see her thrown in to the mix. Not my call though, so I kept my tongue firmly between my teeth and continued working. I was surprised how rattled I felt though. The idea of working with her again brought back that stress that happened at that company very strongly. I thought I had left that all behind. Guess not quite.
Next up, about an hour later, my supervisor arrived at my desk with two new visitors in tow. This time she made it clear she wanted to introduce us. Turned out to be the department head for all the records for the company and one of her peers. Up visiting from Texas. Good thing the monsoon has eased off. My supervisor did the honours, then asked me to do a show and tell with respect to the progress made on this assignment. Then she turned to the coworker and invited her to some other place, leaving me alone with the head of records for the company. 45 minutes later - I think - she had reviewed the contents of my weekly reports, discussed some of the major anomalies I was encountering and tracking, such as the legal issues, and we had chewed over some of the legislative problems that come from operating a business between two - or more - countries. She was very businesslike and to the point with her questions and comments, but also very fair. She listened as much as she talked and didn't take offence when I expressed an opinion or brought up an issue that wasn't a happy one. Have I mentioned how much I like this company?
Popped out at lunch to see my chiropractor, then to pick up some odds and ends at the loonie store. Drapery hooks, sink stopper, toy mice and a puzzle book for my youngest as well as some herbals tinctures I had ordered from my favorite health food store. On the way back in at the elevator lobby it was obvious by the accents and discussion being carried on, that our department wasn't the only one being graced with visits from head office. Interesting.
Got back upstairs and started working on the same series of records as I had been coding for the past day or two. Something was strange though and I started taking screenshots of nearly every record I came across. Then scrolling back to records I had coded before lunch and screenshotting them too. Sure enough they seemed to be identical. It was as though the software had developed a hiccup and has produced the same string of records several times - like an echo. There were about a dozen examples just in that one segment. My supervisor was still busy with meetings, but again I didn't want to proceed with edits to those records if further work had to be done to fix the problems that keep cropping up. Went and talked with the loud supervisor. She came and had a look at what I had found and asked for a printout of the screenshots. Came back about half an hour later with her copies colour coded and allowed that she would have to talk with our supervisor about it. Could I work on a different series until it was dealt with. No problem. The next series is all the IT department data. Had to struggle with deciphering the geekese - no offence dear diary - I know the acronyms really mean something, but 20 strung together in a row is just a bit challenging to make sense of. Maybe it was the time of day. It could also be, in retrospect, the fact that as I was packing up for lunch I knocked over the open bottle of eucalyptus oil I keep by the fan to help my lungs function. It landed on the floor with part of the contents soaking the rug. Oi. The scent was about as strong as some of the perfumed ones in the department. When I came back it wasn't quite as bad, but all that fresh air in my lungs might have made me too giddy to concentrate on learning serious techese. I felt really guilty about the spill, but it hadn't been on purpose. None of the people who wear perfume complained, so that was one extra bonus for the day.
Hope there aren't too many more surprises crowded into such a short period of time though. It's hard to keep switching gears in my head. Right now I think it's time to go "wash that right out of my head" as the song goes in South Pacific. Clean hair always makes me feel better and besides if there are visitors again tomorrow I might needs all the extra confidence I can muster. Good night dear diary.
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