The hardest thing about my job.

Cin and I were talking last night about the hardest parts of our jobs. For her it's not being overwhelmed by work - meeting deadlines and conducting investigations as fast as possible.

I couldn't really think of anything because my job is super easy. It's mostly paperwork. Then it hit me: the hardest part of my job is dealing with my boss's mistakes.

He's very good with people - very persuasive and personable and friendly. But he's a piss poor administrator. Disorganized, really bad memory, hasty and, most of all, he makes poor decisions.

So at my work there is a constant cleaning up of messes. I'm often the one who gets the job of cleaning up the pile of crap.

Example 1.

We're moving offices. My boss was in charge of organizing the phones. Instead of making a phone call to the cable company, going to VOIP and keeping our numbers. He decides to transfer our account over with Telus, who tells we get different phone numbers and says we can't use our $1500 phones they sold us a few months ago because they don't have digital lines where we're going. For 2 weeks he proceeds to email and talk to 3 different Telus people, including a guy from India, before giving up and dumping it on my lap the day before we move. His instructions to me: "Just make sure it's all working by Monday!" I spend a morning making phone calls and figuring it all out. I get everything working in the end.

Example 2.

He tells our future landlord we need 2 rooms because we have so much junk. The landlord tells us a week before that we only get one room. I suggest to the boss that since we don't have enough space, we continue to keep off site storage. The boss disagrees. A week later I see the single room and again tell the boss it's too small. We should keep our storage space. The boss dismisses the idea and says, "We'll just have to fit it in."

Here are pictures of the move. The extra stuff is in the hallway. My boss goes on vacation and leaves me in charge of cleaning up the mess. Literally. That is all.

An Epic Journey.

Lately I've been having some epic journeys - "containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation" - on the commute home after work.

I leave around 4:30pm, just as it's getting dark, and I arrive at home at what feels like midnight. Everything is dark. It's been pouring rain so I've been staring out of a water-streaked windshield, for hours, lines of red brake lights stretching off into the infinite distance.

I'm drained. Sometimes my leg hurts from pressing the gas and break over and over. My eyes are sore. I ache. I step in the house and am faced with an exhausting task of making dinner, cleaning, putting Jake to bed, cleaning some more.

On Fridays I need alcohol to wind down from a week of this.

Well the latest news is that my company is moving to Maple Ridge! A mere 15 minutes from my house, a few minutes from Jake's daycare! This is insanely good news, if it happens. (The problem is things change so much you never know if it will really happen until you're moving your furniture into the new office.)

I estimate it will save Jake almost 2 hours in daycare. That's a huge difference. It will save me a ton of driving and just in time for the messy winter season. (We're set to move in early December.)

This is a huge stroke of luck as Maple Ridge generally does not have any office jobs or businesses. I should know - I spent a year looking for a job in MR to no avail. Hard to believe out of all the places in the Lower mainland, the place where I work is moving 15 minutes from my house.

I'm flabbergasted. I only have a month left of epic journeys.

They changed the smell of our bathroom at work.

This morning I walked into our bathroom at work and it smells different. Sweeter. More vanillaey and bleachy.

It was jarring. I've been here for 7 months and my nose had quickly adjusted to the smell of the bathroom. I didn't notice it anymore. When I walked into the bathroom, if I noticed a smell at all, it was the foul smell of defecation.

Today it's all changed. The new smell is not unpleasant, just overpowering. I find myself wanting to breathe through my mouth - which isn't so good. If I breathe through my mouth it means the air won't filter through my nose hairs. I'll be breathing in raw shit particles.

I'm sure in a few weeks, my nose will perfectly adjust to this new bathroom smell. By then we're moving to a new location and THAT bathroom will have a smell.

By the way, when you move offices, here are the questions people often forget to ask:

- What is the bathroom like? Roomy? Clean? Smelly?
- Is there a place to go for a walk? Can you walk around the block or is it industrial wasteland?
- Can you walk to a decent/cheap place to buy lunch and/or coffee?
- Is there an adequate lunch room with a microwave, fridge, running water and coffee machine?
- Are there other people who work near you? Are they attractive? Are they your age, or are they really old?
- Is it too cold or too warm? Does the heat work? Is the air condition too powerful?