coworkers – Imaginary Sunshine

The end of something, the start of something

Michelle — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 05:48:01 +0000

The past week or so has been a bit of a whirlwind. I got sick, for starters. Don’t ask me how. How does one come down with a cold in the summer? It defies logic (even though, the biology student side of me is chiding me for thinking that a ‘cold’ has anything to do with actually being cold). I had a really good last week at work. They’d finally hired someone (who was actually recommended by me) to fill the empty position and to, well, replace me! So I had 10 days to train her, get her up to speed. Luckily all the little things that she needs to be able to do on her own after I’m gone from there came up so she got a chance to watch me do one and then do one herself.

Tuesday (30th), two of the salesmen treated me for lunch (got permission to take me out and everything). They joked about how I was going on a ‘double date’ and how when I go and retell the story to my friends at school, I’ll be making them both at least 20 years younger. It was good though, I did like the sushi! I was feeling a little bit under the weather by Wednesday but overall still pretty okay. I kept on ‘catching’ people writing in a card. It’s pretty obvious when they were because another person had left to relocate (still working for the company though) and the card was transferred from office to office via a plain manila folder. It’s easy to tell because they keep on reusing the same folder and someone saw me and quickly closed it. Yeah, I knew what they were doing.

Thursday my voice was half-gone, but still useable (heh, useful for answering phones). The fire alarm was pulled Thursday morning though, and there had been a fire at work. A normal fire is worrisome as it is, but an industrial fire is very worrisome considering the chemicals and the type of company that I work for. The smoke that was going up into the air was pitch black at some instances and then (due to what was burning) yellow later. With my stuffed up nose, I couldn’t smell it but I knew (from experience) that it was disgusting. My primary concern was smoke inhalation for my coworkers that were closer to the fire. First thing I had said to the VP when I saw him after the fire was put out and we were back in the building “How are you feeling? Did you get checked for smoke inhalation?”.

My coworkers surprised me with a small pizza party (how sweet!) and they gave me the card that a lot of people had written really nice things in along with (!) a company jacket (it’s a little big on me, and I’m not going to grow into it like one of my coworkers had said) and a gift card to Staples (I jokingly said that I’d be using it to buy nice pens for school – which I ended up doing on Saturday). It was fun though, everyone cracked jokes about me. I think even though everyone that was there said that they expected to see me back next year, I think they also know that there’s a smaller possibility of that now that my graduation is slated for next spring/summer. Obviously, I’d have to see – but I don’t know. That company has been my summer ‘home’ for the last six summers. They’ve watched me grow into the person that I am now. And it’s comforting to know that it’s there and they want me back, but at the same time… That company is the only company I’ve worked for, despite their change in name. At one point, someone commented how when I first started (2006), I wouldn’t talk to anyone and then (and several people said this) “Now we just can’t get you to shut up!”. They kid, mostly. I am a bit more talkative now, but I’ve also grown out of being as shy now, at least I hope so!

Friday was a very relaxing work day, despite my coughing fits. I went out for dim sum with three other salesguys as they wanted to treat me out for lunch. I got the pleasure of ordering and they were a little concerned (while they’d all been to dim sum before, they never went with someone who really ‘knows’ the dishes well). I ordered a few things that none of them had ordered before – luckily they all enjoyed it! Work went well, hugs were exchanged. I handed out a few gifts (hat for E’s daughter – as promised by a little work bet; baby hat for unborn baby boy for C’s future offspring; some small gifts for the girls that I’d worked with all summer long) and got a few more gifts in return (t-shirt, in men’s Large…?, that’s a company shirt; E got me a good-bye card and super cute pink cat stuffie, picked out by his daughter).

Friday night I was just awful. I ran a fever up to 102F and ended up mildly delirious (according to my sisters). We had no Tylenol or any other medication for fevers in the house so they had to run to the pharmacy to get some for me. I was cold (but hot at the same time) and ended up going to bed at around 9pm that night. I woke up Saturday feeling a lot better but still with a fever of 100F. It’s amazing what 2 degrees lower will do for a person. I was fever-free by mid-afternoon. I went out with my family for lunch, went grocery shopping, I also bought new pens from Staples for school (thank you, work). Today, I feel a lot better thankfully! I’d been doing a bit of cleaning and getting things ready. My backpack is all ready for my first day of classes (well, all I put in was some paper, a clipboard, pens and a chocolate bar – what else does a student need?).

My anticipated next post will be either about my first impressions of my professors for my first term of my fourth (technically fifth, officially fourth) and final year of my degree or about a certain someone, whom I love dearly.

A lot of shopping, a lot of meds

Michelle — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:57:20 +0000

It has been pointed out to me by my sisters that I like thrift stores an awful lot. Mostly because it’s a challenge to find things, and things are inexpensive/cheap (but you do need to know what to look for). My favourite sections are the housewares and the toys. I’ve been collecting soup mugs with recipes on the side for a while and my goal was to end at 6 different mugs. I found my 6th mug last Saturday (July 16th) along with my second oxtail soup mug (because I like oxtail soup!). So while my dad thinks that I’m weird for collecting mugs, I think they’re cute and will one day have a good place on a shelf in my future-kitchen. $1.99 minus 30% for each one.

I also found what I had thought was the perfect work mug. It was light green, large enough for a decent amount of water/hot chocolate/juice/tea/whatever. It was $0.99 (before my 30% card-holder discount). And then I found the perfect work mug. Cupcakes all over it? Cheerful? Large enough to hold a decent amount of liquids? And a little cupcake on the inside? The cupcake cup was also lighter than the fantastic light green mug, and also at $0.99 (before 30% discount) so I was absolutely sold. It sits on my desk at work now. Usually filled with water, hot chocolate, tea or juice.

I’ve been getting awesome mail this week! I got a cute dress and bloomers set (Blythe-sized), two Japanese patterns books (pictured below; Dolly Coordinate Recipe books #5 and #7) and something that’s a surprise for Clay (who does occasionally read this blog so I’m refraining from mentioning it – it’s not much of a surprise if he knows what it is!).

Work’s been… workish. It’s the only thing really going on with my life right now and it’s stressful from 8am-4:30pm because of people. On the brightside, customer that the other people avoid talking to because “he’s really mean” likes talking to me (because I get things done/make sure their stuff gets delivered). Honestly though, I don’t get why they think he’s really mean because he was really nice to me on the phone.

My hand, which I’m not posting a photo of, is swollen. My coworkers have called it my ‘mitt’ and have said things like “Wow, your hand’s like DOUBLE the size of your other hand!”. Yeah, flattering. Last Sunday (July 17th) I went paintballing with some coworkers (that I like). I ended up turning my ankle, winning a laptop-suitable backpack and getting chewed up by mosquitoes. I have 1 bite on my left pinkie, 3 bites on my right shoulder (no biggie, they’re practically gone) and 5 bites on my right hand. 3 are on the back of my right hand, 1 on my thumb and 1 on my ring finger. Which makes life incredibly annoying. On Tuesday it was the most swollen and I had issues with mobility.

Today it has been better with increased mobility, swelling has gone down, reddness has mostly gone away and I’ve been dosing myself up with pain medication, allergy medication (for nighttime only) and ointment to help with the itchiness/pain/swelling. My purse is starting to look like mini-pharmacy (I’ve been keeping bottles of pills in there, the jar of ointment, etc.). Hopefully this will all go away soon and my hand will soon be the normal size!

Being a good girl

Michelle — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:17:52 +0000

I haven’t physically harmed anyone this week.

I feel as if this is an accomplishment.

If you follow me on Twitter or have spoken to me since late Wednesday, you know why.

Life. Sucks.

Roll call for nice people!

Michelle — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:07:45 +0000

Ahh, reading over my entry yesterday, I realize I make that coworker sound really bad. And yes, I’m still oh-so-annoyed. Turns out, I’m actually sitting at the desk that was supposed to go to him. Huh, oh well!

Anyways, to make up for making one of my coworkers sound like a total jerk ahem, I’d liked to talk about some the wonderful people that I work with… Starting now!

M – Supervisor – Thinks I’m the most efficient person in the whole wide world. Not even kidding. Why? Because he says so, on a nearly daily basis. Plus I’m quick, I don’t ask really stupid questions and I get my work done (correctly – on the first time, unless they pull stupid stuff on me).

S – Coworker (desk near mine) – He brought me (and another coworker) donuts today (well, erm, they were near the place where everyone gets coffee and tea, but he took the time to get me one!). Plus, he said he picked the one with the most chocolate and sprinkles. And he says my sweettooth is ‘practically legendary’.

E – Coworker (frequently eats lunch at the same time as me AND talks to me) – Erm… he talks to me? Says hi, gave me a ride to the train station the other day when I desperately needed a way to get home. Plus he actually talks to me during lunch… Unlike everyone else… who just doesn’t.

D – Coworker – Is nice to me this summer! *shock face* He hasn’t tried to push me into machines, wipe grease-covered paper towels on my clothes or face, poked me, shoved me into people or even said anything bad to me so far! I think having kids has really mellowed him out. Or maybe he’s just grown up? But he has civil/normal/remotely-friendly conversations with me now. Which is really weird compared to what I’m used to. Oh well, I’ll take it.

D – Coworker – He got me a bandaid today. And he talks to me and is nice to me – despite the fact that he asks me how old I am whenever I mention crocheting or knitting and says that his grandmother and I would have a lot in common (when asked, he admitted that his grandmother neither crochets or knits, but apparently we’d have a lot in common because we’d both have [different] ‘granny hobbies’).

C – Boyfriend (and coworker) – Why am I using an initial for him? Oh well, keeps it all looking neat and tidy. Let’s see. Super friendly, cute smile (and cute everything else…). Says hi to me, chats to me whenever we can. Puts up with me texting at almost all waking hours of the day. And he says cute things to me (aww). Plus he’s a total sweetheart and I adore him. And he always thinks I look nice no matter what kind of craptastic day I’m having, which is a major plus! (Not that I dress like a slob to work, but sometimes I just have drab days… Just related to how I’m feeling.)

I have a few choice words for someone I work with

Michelle — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:53:28 +0000

I feel like I’m a fairly easy going person at work. I get along with people. I work relatively quietly. I don’t pull stupid office pranks*. I don’t make a mess. I say “good morning” and “have a nice day” when I arrive and leave work. I’m polite. I hold open doors. I say “please” and “thank you”. I apologize if I accidentally interrupt someone, I’m always courteous to my supervisor when I go to him for more work to do. So imagine my surprise when I realize that someone takes advantage of my willingness to be nice and helpful. And imagine how pissed off that could make me, especially when I’m already saddled with redoing a week’s worth of work.

U for Useless User and M for me (or Michelle)

U: Michelle! I need some help and [name of supervisor #1] or [name of supervisor #2 – who’s not really my supervisor, but still counts] said that you could help me.
M: Alright, what is it?
U: [puts paper down onto tape, scribbled numbers] I need you to make me a graph with these figures.
M: … What kind of graph?
U: I just need a graph.
M: … Erm… Okay…

So I did the graphs. Both of them. I should have just done a pie/circle graph of something, instead of a line graph (which is what was actually wanted, but he never specified this). And then after giving him the print out of the graphs, he asked me to email them to him (sure whatever, I did that).

Then I go into my supervisor’s office to talk to him about some of the work I’m doing. I mention doing the graphs for U and then I find out out that he and supervisor #2 never okayed for U to go and ask me to do something. Never, ever, ever. Colour me surprised and slightly livid at the thought that someone did that to me. Granted, it did not take me long at all to do the graphs (at most it was 10 minutes out of my day). Then my supervisor told me that from now on if anyone (besides him, of course) tells me to do something, I should refer them directly to him and have them tell him to tell me to do whatever it is that they want to do. I said okay, I was totally fine with that.

Still pissed off that someone at work used me like that. And it wasn’t as if it was difficult work either, since Excel just automatically generates the graphs anyways. So I don’t see how it was to someone’s advantage to lie to me like that.

Jerkface.

* I have two coworkers, one who has a cubicle in the same room as me and the other one is just always there, who keep on pulling immature office pranks. Most commonly, I get my computer mouse unplugged. Or a piece of tape over the bottom of the mouse so it doesn’t work.

Team Me has sock yarn!

Michelle — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:41:20 +0000

Another Monday, another day at school. The weekend just seemed to go by too fast this time. I didn’t get a whole lot done this weekend (a little thrift store hopping, a little shopping, getting stitches removed, getting new glasses, catching up on reading for biology and biochemistry and deciding on a topic for my biology paper), I wish there had been more time to do more of what I would have liked (I had planned to bake cupcakes, but never got the chance because someone used up all of the sugar and didn’t a) say anything when I said I was going to bake cupcakes and b) didn’t go and buy more. Grrrr.

School was pretty tame today. Got to see a bunch of videos of Celphalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopuses, etc.) doing crazy things. Seriously, glow-in-the-dark eyes of an octopus are pretty darn creepy. But the videos were pretty awesome. I didn’t learn too much in math, only because some idiot in the front kept on trying to argue with the prof that the math was wrong [(1/√2)² = ½ but the student kept on arguing that it was really ¼]. Oy. Plants biology was pretty fun… Once my prof could actually connect his laptop (which had the powerpoint file) to the podium (connected to the projection system). So overall, school was pretty tame today. Nothing out of the ordinary. My scheduled (mandatory!) biochemisty tutorial was canceled for the week (I only have it on Mondays, and it got canceled for all tutorials). And since I wasn’t expected home until later anyways… I went shopping. But not before a classmate in my plants biology class asked me this question:

Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?

I expected a question like “Do you have white-out I can borrow?” or “What did the prof just say about [insert figure here]?”. She’s friends with my friend, R, so I don’t really know her all that well. She said that she just “discovered” Twilight and really wanted to know if I was more for Edward or more for Jacob (she’s still reading the series and just finished New Moon). And all I could say was “Erm…” Definitely not Team Edward and definitely not Team Jacob. And it would have been narcissistic to claim to be Team Me (lol), so I just claimed to be on my boyfriend’s team and that satisfied her curiosity. She was wearing a Team Jacob shirt today (and said she had an Team Edward shirt that she was going to wear on Wednesday. And that it was covered in glitter, ack.)

Ahem, moving on… My thrifted hoodie (from Saturday!) in the most cheerful print ever. There’s hearts, trees, suns, clouds, flowers, stars, ducks and just so much all over it. They look like doodles, but it is an actual print (not just the product of a bored person’s imagination with a few permanent markers). It’s definitely a wear-to-school hoodie. Or a sit-at-home-on-the-laptop hoodie. =) Which is just fine by me, since I’m at school 5 days of the week anyways (might as well wear something that I like! Just need to remember not to wear on lab days, I would consider crying if I got toluidine blue on this hoodie).

Close-up of the scribble-doodle print! Can you tell why I love it?

And today’s little yarn shopping trip… Regia sock yarn! The one in the top left hand corner is 100g, all the others are 50g. The three balls of yarn on the top are for my sister (enough for 2 pairs of adult-sized socks!) and the bottom four balls (in bright, subdued and pastel!) are for dolly knitting projects. I also bought the most massive roll of twill tape ever for making my own DIY fabric labels to put my name on my projects.

Questions for you:

What kind of craft supplies do you buy (if any)? What kind of crafts do you do?
What is one of your pet peeves when it comes to tweets from someone that you’re following on Twitter? (Only applies if you use Twitter, of course.)
What’s the dorkiest thing that you’ve done today?

My answers:

Yarn, beads, wire, paints, cardstock, ribbon, fabric squares, thread. Crocheting, knitting, jewellery making/design, paper crafts (card making), sewing.
If people constantly swear repeatedly. If people whine over stupid stuff (constantly). If people just bitch and moan about stuff and never explain it (I know it’s not a blog, but seriously, a little explanation if you’re going to curse someone out would be awesome). Or if someone does all of the above and never says anything else. Twitter ≠ place for angsty (and boring) teenagers to complain on. Thanks.
Recited the first 20-ish digits of π.

Rain, rain, go away

Michelle — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:03:32 +0000

At school today, I found Waldo sitting with Cleopatra, a rather short looking Jack Sparrow and a random vampire. None of my profs dressed up (I had profs dress up last year, and give out candy – no one was that interested in doing so today). However, classes went well today. Still waiting on the results for one of my midterms (Tuesday!) and then after that, only 2 more midterms, 2 more projects, 2 papers, 1 lab final and 4 final exams. Yeah… I don’t know, the term’s only been a handful of weeks but it’s just felt like it’s been so long. I mean, I only took a midterm last week, but it has felt like it’s been forever ago. I don’t know, it’s weird. Time, not flying at all.

In other news… One of my coworkers has not forgotten about me (they always claim to whenever I pop up again at work). He inherited a tub of gummy candy from another coworker who moved (from Building A to Building B) and he told my mom that “since Michelle always had like a handful whenever I saw her” that I should have the candy. Mmm, artificial colours and flavours, delicious! And then today he sent cookies to me via my mom. So eating handfuls of candy (not on a daily basis, mind you) a few months ago means that I get a tub of candy… Works out well, I think!

The weather has been crap today. The rain wasn’t that bad when I left volunteering today, but I just got to the sidewalk when I saw the bus zooming by and it was going to be about another 30 minutes before the next bus showed up, so I figured that I would walk home instead. 10 minutes later, it was pissing rain. I anticipated the weather being horrible, so I wore a lot of layers (regular shoes though – don’t know what I was thinking, a tee, a hoodie, a jacket, knee socks, jeans). Oh, guess what was completely soaked through by the time I got home? My jacket, my hoodie, my shoes and my jeans, at least up to mid-thigh. Not cool, not cool at all. Oh, and about 5 minutes after I got home? Rain stopped.

And it’s Halloween tomorrow… My names? Working on a biology paper, studying, organic chemistry problems, shopping. Yay… Such is the life of someone who has no… life?

How has your Thursday and Friday been?

One day more

Michelle — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:50:10 +0000

One more work day!

As much as I do like working at the company that I work for, this is the longest stretch that I’ve worked there so far. For the first and second year, I worked there for 2 months each year. For my third year there, I worked there for about two months, took 4 weeks off, and then worked for another month. I took a month off because I was taking a summer course (biology – and it was one of the best professors I had ever had at my school). This summer, I opted not to take a summer course (I was having enough trouble finding enough credits to take in the upcoming year!) so I worked for the full summer term period. I started the Monday after my last exam and I’m ending on the Friday right before the school year starts, a total of 19 weeks straight.

I like most of the people that I work with, everyone’s always been very friendly and pretty cheerful. I’ve gotten to know some people very well there and I do like the company and the fact that they’ll let me work full time and take a full 4 weeks off. Everyone’s been really awesome to me for the last 4 summers, so I’m glad that I went back again this year (it also helped that no where else I had applied to wanted me). I do something different every summer, I gain new experience every single summer and that’s what I like about it. I get exposed to so many different things and to different people. For instance, last summer, I juggled 10+ projects for the last while and it was a very time consuming 10+ projects, but I got them done and learned much better time management than I ever had before. This summer, I definitely worked on my communication skills and got better at enforcing things that needed to be enforced in order to get the job done.

I guess what I’m saying is that despite the fact that I will complain about having over a dozen projects on the go or the fact that “all I do” is enter data for a full work day, I still learned something during my stay at the company every year and I learn new practical skills every summer as well. Which, in itself, is so valuable. I am also incredibly thankful to the company that I work for whenever I have to pay for tuition or textbooks, because without the money that I’ve earned over the past four summers, I don’t think I would be as comfortably paying for school and I love the fact that I don’t ‘need’ to work during the school year (I commute to school on a daily basis and this makes it rather impractical, considering I never have ‘good’ class times).

The “End of Summer” lunch happened today and it was really fun. My supervisor and one of the higher-ups were both there today and both of them invited me back for the summer in 2010, so I’ll have to see about that. Hopefully it’ll work out.

So, just one more day. One more day until my ‘summer vacation’ of three days where I will be preparing for school and whatnot. Just one more day.

I think I’m already missing it.

Floundering

Michelle — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:54:17 +0000

2 more work days.

Work has been a touch hectic. I’m alternating between working at my desk, helping a coworker move files and random stuff and working in production (mmm, cutting things with pliers!). Tomorrow is going to be my “End of Summer” lunch, which should be pretty fun. I’m also halfway done my dozen crocheted cupcakes (I have 6 completely stuffed and sewn up! I still have 2 more cupcake tops to crochet and then 6 cupcakes to stuff and sew together – which will be happening tomorrow). Ahh to self-imposed deadlines and not starting my epic ‘baking’ spree earlier… I think after this it’ll be a while before I make another crocheted cupcake, even if they’re so darn cute! (No photos… yet.) My sister J picked up four of them and started juggling them, it’s so much fun to see cupcakes being tossed around in circles like that.

I posted a new entry yesterday over at Chelle-Chelle.com asking for pop can tabs (silver ones!). I know quite a bit of my offline friends do read this blog (and perhaps not my crafts site) so I thought I’d mention it here. I’m collecting them for use in a crochet project that I can’t start yet because… I don’t drink pop very frequently? My ideal beverages are iced tea, tea, water and hot chocolate (bottled, steeped, poured, mixed). Nothing that really comes in a pop can. So I plead for you to save them for me so I can make/get started on this new crochet project.

Things to do within the next week:

Buy organic chemistry book(s)
Buy infant psychology book (and take a photo to show everyone the uber cute cover!)
Buy a few notebooks
New clothes needed (cleansed my wardrobe of things I no longer wear, no longer fit and has one too many holes)
Wake up on time (a given)
Write an email to volunteering people (need to switch days/times again!)
Sleep
Find my Staedtler pens (where the !&$@ did they go? -tear- They were in my desk drawer just last week and now I can’t find them)
Relaxing (before the 9th)

If you’re starting school next week (or started school recently), what do you still have to get done?

Are you a brainiac? I know who isn’t one!

Michelle — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:01:34 +0000

8 more work days! (Can you tell that I’m counting down?)

On the school front – I have not gotten a response yet regarding that ‘unpaid registration fee’ for the summer term (obviously, I did not take any courses during the summer and it should have been removed from my account ages ago). I need to have it removed soon, as I plan on paying for my tuition (September-December) term this weekend (as it needs a few business days to be fully processed). Yay, paying tuition, whoot?

I’ve been kept busy with work today, at work. I was tempted to actually bring home work today because I hardly got as much done today as I wanted to. But… I didn’t, because I didn’t really want to do work at home (but I know I need to get it done – deadlines!). I was busy with 2 meetings (and driving between Building A and Building B) and sketching out designs and getting things commented and suggestions on. People are too damn agreeable sometimes, sigh.

And the damn highlight of my day? I got roped into the longest conversation of my life with someone that I don’t even like. Gahh, I felt like ripping my hair out after that conversation because the person that I don’t like? SO full of himself and was telling me about how he compares to Einstein and how he took an IQ test once and the tester told him that he was a genius and whatnot. Ugh. This is the person who told me that 40 multiplied by 4 was 400. Right before he told me that he was a certified genius. It took all the will power I had not to go and hit my head against the cement wall. Because anyone who thinks that 40 by 4 (160) is 400 needs to a) get their head examined, b) go back to fourth grade math and c) stop referring to themselves as a genius.

Now, the reason why it was the longest conversation of my life is because I think I’m too polite sometimes and I just get a little uncertain about telling someone to STFU, especially in at work. In hindsight, I really wish that I had. Mostly because it was just so damn long and all I needed was to ask one question and it turned into a spiel of how he’s a catch and how all women love him and whatnot. *gags*

Questions:

What is the most expensive thing that you’ve paid for recently that you had to pay for?
What was the highlight of your day? (Actual highlight or sarcastic one, like my own)
If you’re still in school… When is your first day back? (And if you’re on a different term system than I am, when’s your last day of the term?)
What is one thing that you’re looking forward to from September to December?

My answers:

Haven’t paid for it yet, but tuition and textbooks for the fall.
Sarcastic highlight – read above entry.
September 8th (it’s always the Tuesday after Labour Day – Labour Day is the 1st Monday of September)
New notebooks for classes, new pens!, my birthday (I’m turning two decades old), Christmas break