leafing through

No, not NCAA. Work! Since day one at my job, I was warned about the insanity that happens in March. We have begun formulating the 2012 budget and the process is in a word: disorganized. Everything seems to happen at random and we have meetings upon meetings to discuss… To discuss. But I’ve been talking to various people who are in different jobs and it seems like everyone is working some long hours! I’m trying my best to not “wish my life away” but geez I’m ready for the weekend!!

It’s what I do! It’s what I’m good at! Breaking things! The sugar jar.  The food disposal (which turned out to be the circuit breaker, whew!).  A fitted sheet.  A jar of capers (darn glass jars).  Some towels. A steel mixing bowl (darn Made in PRC). I’m available weekends only.

These past few weekends, I’ve been tackling some cleaning projects. Some big, some small, some I thought were supposed to be small but turned out to be big (hello, lining cabinets requires emptying everything out and putting everything back!), and some just plain necessary like laundry.  During all this, I’ve learned a few things.  Things most people probably knew long ago but I just recently test drove and who knew!?  Heloise was right!

1. Baking soda and vinegar are the bombs.  Baking soda can scrub gently and if you have a hard time getting the gritty stuff off, just use vinegar and it bubbles away!  Also, I put them in my laundry.  Baking soda in the wash cycle.  Vinegar in the rinse cycle instead of fabric softener (thank you Zeh!). Vinegar is also great for wiping stains off countertops. The smell goes away as it dries.
2. Swiffer is genius.  I could kiss it if I didn’t just wipe it all over the floors.  I love it.  LOVE it.
3. Toilets aren’t as evil as I anticipated.  I’m under the assumption that I cleaned it properly, which is a very big assumption.
4. Bleach is super wonderful! If you have towel-boredom, just bleach it and you will get new colors! Red turns peach.  (I totally meant to do that.)

Next weekend on my get-to-do list:

I should call it my “Maybe-get-to-do” list.  I don’t really wanna get too ambitious here. I still have going out to do if the snow lets up, and a Superbowl to sleep through.  Highly important stuff going on here.  Though with this weather, cleaning is almost the default activity if going outside isn’t all that appealing anyway.

Even though I had today off at home, there was no lounging around sipping wine going on. Nosirree. I decided today would be a good day to put a dent on my “get-to-do” list. This list is what I get to do because I have a roof over my head, running water, all the wonderful modern day amenities. Whatever makes me feel better about doing chores right? First, I cleaned the bathroom drawers. Then I ran ice cubes in the food disposal to clean it which wound up breaking it. Then I made lasagna which turned into two lasagnas. I don’t know how that happened. Then I scrubbed the kitchen cabinets and the microwave. The grease is too stubborn to get off or I’m not using the right products. Then I made dinner – jicama, marinated shrimp, and lettuce salad. They were supposed to be those Vietnamese wraps but the rice paper I got was too thick and couldn’t be rolled. The peanut sauce turned out well though. In between all that I did four loads of laundry. And in between that, I tore a fitted sheet. I am destructo-woman, it’s a superpower.

Every time I have one of these big cleaning-cooking days, I have a whole new appreciation for my desk job. What a relief there’s work tomorrow. I’m beat.

At 6:30 this morning, the court’s inclement weather recording said they were closed “today” which I wasn’t sure meant today or yesterday. I decided to go to work since it was on the way to court anyway. Midway to work, when I called the court’s hotline again, they said they were operating normal hours. The previous recording must’ve been from yesterday. After an hour at work, I arrive at the courthouse at 9AM to see a police car pulling up directing traffic away and a swarm of people across the street. Some disgruntled ex-employee there had called in a bomb threat. After waiting for about a half an hour, they announce that it’s going to be 2 hours so I walk to the nearby library, find the most comfy chair I can, whip out my book to read 2 or 3 sentences and then promptly fall asleep. When I overhear the guy next to me talk to his friend about the court, my ears perk up and I ask him how much longer he thinks it’ll be. He says probably another hour. He turns out to be one of the judges there. About 15 minutes later, he leaves and another 15 minutes later, he comes back to tell me the courthouse has reopened. Coincidences of coincidences, on my way out I run into my college buddy and her new baby! The nanny takes her son to the library and she goes with me to grab a coffee before I go in for jury duty.

Not long after I get there they call for the jurors. I just got my coffee! I chug as much as I can, preparing myself for a long session but right after we pile in, the judge dismisses us because of a hiccup with a witness. He issued a continuance where they have to reschedule the trial and pick a new jury during that time. So I completed my jury duty without much effort and head back to meet my friend and her son and nanny for lunch.

This past Tuesday, I had an airhead moment and completely forgot I had jury duty. It wasn’t until the court lady called me asking me why I missed it, that it dawned on me. The first time I’m called up for jury duty ever and I blow it off. Thankfully, they forgave me and rescheduled me for today. So you can probably guess where this is going when I say that my initial thought was, 200 folks here, what are the odds? Given only one case was looking for 12 jurors today. Given there were over 60 jurors participating in the voir dire. Next week, I won’t be going to the office.
I think a big part of it was it’s the holiday season. The first thing they did was ask the group of 200 people to let them know if they already had travel plans for the holiday. Knowing this trial is going to take place Christmas week and more than likely New Years’ week, they anticipated a big group being unable to be in town throughout the entire trial. Immediately, a line formed up. The other part was the circumstances of the trial was relatable to many people. I live in a bubble. What can I say?

I am so sleepy this morning, if I weren’t sitting in a cubicle, I’d be taking a nap at my desk right now.

Some days I pretend my job is make-believe. Like if I were a kid sitting at my desk doing something that required concentration and deep analysis. I’d make charts and tables like they’re ultra smart and important. Then I would go talk to other super smart and important people and nod knowingly as they said something intelligent and respond with some thoughtful remark. And all of this work is critical because the ability of our organization to achieve it’s superhero mission rests upon the success of these efforts. That is my job. It’s like I’m on set in Hollywood 40 hours a week. Only instead of ER or CSI it’s another acronym.

Waiting at the morning bus stop at around 6:30 AM sucks. The old grannies like to make small talk, prattle on about their lives, and weekends of excitement. Me, I like to hang back in silence. If any of the old granny ladies say ‘hi’ or ‘good morning,’ I’ll reply in kind. This morning though, one of the grannies comes up to me after she finished sucking down her cigarette and some coffee.

“Why don’t you ever say ‘good morning’?”

“What? I do.”

“You never say good morning. It just makes the day so much easier!”

I look at her and reply, “I’m not awake yet.” That’s the censored version of – Step away bitch. I didn’t have a double dose of stimulants to wake me up.

“Pacific” that’s how Bubba (my boss) says it, as in, “I’ll go ask Potatohead for more pacific information.”

Yah, you do that.

I haven’t been drinking coffee regularly for a while so when I downed it this morning it worked. Really well. Like normally, I snooze on the bus ride in but because of the coffee, I caught a glimpse of how our crazy driver battles post-Labor Day rush hour. So first, he sped up on an exit only lane then cut in at the front, then he changed four lanes into the HOV lane and maybe 5 minutes later, change four lanes back out to exit. In the middle of rush hour traffic which wasn’t stop-and-go yet. I think to make his job more interesting he pretends he’s on the Indy500. I wasn’t sure if it was the driving or the caffeine that made my heart race. Tomorrow I’m going to skip the coffee.