A Day in the Life of ME...

Each morning when I arrive to work I spend a part of my time checking in with various aquintances through their BLOGS. These friends keep me up to date on their daily lives and often inspire me through their words. The inspiration today was for an entry dedicated to one day in the life of ME (well atleast a working day). The friend who inspired me to this feet wrote about his work day only because he has actual work to do at his job site. I'm writing this entry because I have little to no work to do at my job site (and wanted you all to know about it).

I arrived at the office at a minute or two before 8:00 a.m. only to realize that I'm the first one there. Since I work for a secured transport company I can't enter the building by myself (I choose to remain unarmed and can only enter the building with an armed escort). I carry a book with me for the express purpose of killing time in my car each morning, so I pulled my book out and read a chapter and a half before Melissa (office manager) arrived to let me in. Melissa unlocked my office door and then went on to unlock her own and make herself comfortable with a pillow between her head and the desk.

Being that I only have one item that must be done each and every day I tend to want to accomplish that first and get it out of the way. I sat down at my computer brought up the driver's money withdrawls and credited their accounts. This took approximately five minutes of my time and now my work for the day was done. The question that always comes next, "Now What?"

I move on to check my email (which of course is mostly junk mail). This takes up a few extra minutes of my day, the time it takes to delete the junk mail and then to respond to my friends emails. At this point I move on to reading the Blogs. There are certain days that checking up on the Blogs is a disappointment, those are the days when not one of them have posted an entry. Today was not one of those days. After reading the new entries I am thus inspired to write my own entry reflecting on one day in the life of ME.

At this time I move on to begin my entry, but am interuppted by Melissa coming back into my office to ask me what I would like to drink since Chad (the manager) is at the store and buying us breakfast. I reply that an apple juice would be nice and continue with my Blog.

Fifteen minutes later Chad is finally arriving at the office over an hour late. He comes in carrying a huge box of donuts for the three of us and drinks all around. The apple juice I had requested mistakenly became apple cider (no real complaints there). Instead of a normal size serving Chad found it amusing to buy me a 64oz container of the stuff (he was laughing at my expression when he handed it to me). Again I have no problem with the serving size, it just means I'll have apple cider to take home with me at the end of the day.

Melissa goes back to her office and her pillow, this time carrying two donuts and her chocolate milk with her. Chad sits down at the desk across from me and begins his day eating donuts drinking his chocolate milk and checking his email. Chad often receives joke emails, which he enjoys sharing with me (though I don't always enjoy listening). The email of the day today was "How Women Shower/How Men Shower." It wasn't really as funny as Chad thought it was, but I listened with a slight smile on my face.

At some point Chad receives a call from one of our drivers (each over the road driver must check into the office twice a day). This driver had a joke that he thought was funny enough to repeat to Chad, and then Chad thought it was funny enough to share with me...I was NOT amused. It went:

Driver: "I saved a woman from being raped. You should have seen her she was in a bikini top and biker's shorts."
Chad: "How did you save her?"
Driver: "I stayed in the truck."

SICK...SICK...SICK...SICK...SICK....SICK

So it was back to working on my Blog after that. I'm pretty consistently being able to work on my Blog with the occasional interruption of a phone call or a paper clip attack from Chad. Phone calls mean me answering the phone and then transferring it to either Chad or Melissa. I rarely have to stay on the phone other than the times when the drivers call and want to talk with me, and all they ever have to talk about is the typical shooting the breeze kind of conversation. The paper clip attacks like the one I just experienced come in random moments when Chad is bored and wants to surprise me.

I just received a phone call on my cell. It was the washer and dryer delivery man that was scheduled to bring my rental units to my new apartment today. He was wanting to know why I wasn't answering my door to let him in. UGH!!! This is aggravating since I spoke with the rental company yesterday and they assured me I could leave a check with the apartment leasing office and that the apartment manager could let them into the apartment with my permission. I went to all the trouble of leaving permission and a check with the apartment manager only to find out today that I needed to sign a written contract and be at my apartment when they delivered. The whole situation is a little frustrating, but instead of letting my irratation get the better of me with the delivery guy I was as nice as I could be and worked towards a solution.

The solution came with me taking time off from work next Tuesday afternoon to see to the delivery of the washer and dryer since I already have to be at home for another delivery that is scheduled to come at that time. I see what next Tuesday is like already, both companies are going to come at the same time and they'll be in each other's way and I'll just look on all innocent like. It's not like I didn't try to schedule different delivery days.

Chad has been on the phone with corporate office and now he wants someone to vent and it looks like I'm the lucky one. I don't really like it when Chad vents, his voice raises and he starts yelling like I can do something about it. I don't like it when people yell at me (though in this case it's indirect) I feel as if people can very reasonably express their opinions in a calm and rational tone.

I've noticed in my weeks here that there are certain unique personalities present in this office. First off is Chad the manager, he typically has three moods. There is angry (which is much yelling), goof off (which means teasing and paper clip throwing) and then there is serious (these are the few moments when he is actually accomplishing work).

Next is Melissa. She is the office manager here and the one I'll be taking over for when she goes on maternity leave. Each morning she comes into the office and immediately commences to her nap with a pillow on her desk. This I can understand seeing as she is seven months pregnant and is suffering horribly from morning sickness. It's not like she has any work to do anyways since I was brought on to do her job, and I'm now fully trained.

Melissa spends her afternoons working through her insurance problems and ordering baby things for the nursery. In fact, a delivery of very cute baby items arrived at the office yesterday. She is having a boy and has decided on a avaitor theme for the room. The room will be full of cute little airplanes all in shades of blue and red. It's actually quite adorable.

Miguel is also in the office occassionally. He is one of the drivers, but mostly does local loads and that gives him time to come into the office to help (though what there is for him to do is a mystery). He is an interesting little man, who speaks english as a second language. Sometimes I have such trouble understanding his english that I just want him to try saying it in spanish and maybe I could understand what he was saying.

Most of the ofter employees are over the road and are rarely in the office. I've met a couple of them, but for the most part my interaction with them is limited to our phone conversations. There are some definite characters in the group and they make my days interesting.

It's now approaching lunch time. This means that the office will order lunch (free lunch everyday) and then procede to the backroom to eat and watch tv. Personally I prefer silence over the tv shows Chad likes to watch, he enjoys the judge shows. Oh, how I hate day time tv!!! I'm of the opinion that these shows bred ignorance and laziness.

The watching of tv manages to occupy atleast two to three hours of our day. This is sad when you do the math on this, I spend ten to fifteen work hours a week watching tv. These are ten to fifteen paid hours, that I sit watching the judge shows. As you tell I don't find this job the most personally fulfilling work I've ever done. The ironic thing is that there are many persons out there who would love this lazy job that I have and that I don't really like.

I should take that last statement back. I like my job for the most part, my co-workers are fun to work with, and the work (when there is some) is enjoyable. It's just not a personally fulfilling job. I don't go home at the end of the day feeling as if I've accomplished something today.

Lunch today is cajun chicken pasta and a cup of chicken encha soup from Chili's.

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The rest of the afternoon went in much the same manner as the morning, and what I had predicted about watching tv for two to three hours.

When I wasn't watching tv that afternoon I was taking care of personal phone calls. It seems that I had stuff to talk over with my Mom. My cousin Jake is bringing some of my belongings out to Utah for me, my Mom wanted me to know how he had packed the stuff into his vehicle. From what my Mom was saying I believe he used a stick to stuff some of my books into a secret compartment...hmmm?? INTRIGUING.

Five o'clock did not come soon enough, but it came. Now it is the weekend and I have two very productive days to make up for a week of "work".