Wherein I act like a mature adult but secretly want to mash play-doh into the carpet.
February 18th, 2003
We're coming up on the second day where I am the only person in the office. Actually, scratch that. I am not the only person here, but it does feel like it. My uberboss is here, and a new person who started yesterday is here too. But the ladies that I work with are all off at a conference, and won't be back until Thursday. This fact seems to have shocked many members of the university community. Nevermind that it is a conference for Ontario university registrars, and it is Reading Week as well so the average density of people in this building is something like 1 per 100 sq.m. anyhow, and most profs have scarpered off to wherever profs on reading week go.
I am tired of answering the phone, only to have people be pissy at me when I can't help them. I try to help, and I try to be polite and friendly and chipper and nice and all that businessy stuff but I tell you, my patience is wearing thin. When someone needs something for a meeting that is in an hour, I don't think it is wise to call and expect everything to magically happen. It certainly isn't wise to then get huffy and mad at the person who answered the phone, who couldn't care less, and had only answered the phone out of a perverse desire to be helpful, a desire she will certainly attempt to quash in future, as all it is doing is giving her an upset stomach.
I am also entering prospective grad applicants into the student records system. It is tedious, boring and annoying, and I again am only doing this so I can show how wonderful a little worker bee I am and how good it would be to hire me on full-time once my contract is up. Actually, entering students into the system, while boring, is an easy task, which does provide a sense of accomplishment. My other projects are being beastly and obstructive, so I am letting them fester for a few days. This ordeal certainly has reinforced my notions that I am not a very good people person, and I do better performing my own projects, with realistic deadlines, and answering the phone and being yelled at by impatient people is at the bottom of the list of fun things to do at work.
I can't wait until Thursday.
The weather has been incredibly cold lately. More like an expected winter. The past few years winters here have been quite mild. We've missed the storm in the US right now, but today we've had flurries all day. I am very put out that we haven't had a snow day yet this year. This morning, when I left for work, the effects of the sublimation of the snowflakes made the air seem warm. It was a nice change.
Tonight I am supposed to go pick out a shower for our new bathroom in the basement. I don't think I will be able to make it, though, as it generally takes me about an hour to get home by bus. I am really longing for spring because then I can start riding my bike up to work every day. It's about 45 minutes each way, but it is so much more mentally and physically rewarding than taking the bus.
Later...I took off early because I couldn't stand being there any longer. I arrived home in good time, and have decided to make buttermilk bran muffins for breakfast, and some soup for supper. I added figs to the muffins because I was feeling figgy.
On the Plate:
Creamy Vegetable Soup
To a saucepan I added 2 c. chicken stock (I make it myself and keep it in the freezer in those nifty Gladware containers), some kale, a chopped onion, a roughly chopped carrot, 6 brussels sprouts. This simmered until the carrot and sprouts were tender. I added some salt, pepper, and thyme. I would have added potatoes, but I didn't have any. I then added 1/2 c. milk.
I whizzed this all up until smooth with the immersion blender, and I happened to have some frozen turkey so I thawed it, diced it and put it in the soup to warm.
I served it with crusty bread and it was very good and satisfying, especially with it so cold and snowy out.
I ran into my good friend Hollie online today. She's in training for a marathon! She's started an exercise journal chronicling her experiences and it is really neat.
Books I have Read Lately:
- Turning Point, Fortune's Wheel and Fire Margins by Lisanne Norman. These are the first three books in Norman's Sholan series. At the heart of these books is the classic inter-species alien relationship, but Norman makes it fresh and interesting. I really enjoy her depiction of the felid Sholan and the humans on Keiss. There are at least another three books after these ones. I have my reservations about how the story will unfold, but we will see. I suspect these are going to turn into Alien Sex, All The Time, With Every New Species Discovered, but I hope this is not the case ().
- Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. This is the third instalment of the Dresden Files. These books are similar to Laurell K. Hamilton or Tanya Huff's work. Harry Dresden is Chicago's only practicing wizard. In this book, he must discover who is torturing ghosts in town, but soon discovers there is more going on than meets the eye. A combo of mystery, horror and fantasy, these books are excellent. I loved this one, and I can't wait to read book 4 ().
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)