Coming Up for Air

I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth . . . It’s been super busy this week - there’ve been a few new developments in the Random Household that have kept my attention . . .

The first announcement . . . Ta-Da! Mr. Random has found a new job and is leaving the Random Non-profit! The new job is a very exciting position in the field that he is currently going to graduate school for. It is not much more money, but it has a lot of potential for growth. He will also be working in the downtown DC area, but in a not very Metro accessible section, so we will need to work out how were are going to handle our work commutes.

We are both very excited and very sad. Mr. Random has worked here for more than a decade and has a lot of history here – he was working here when I first met him and this place has been an integral part of his make-up. You can say in a way that he grew up here. But we both know that this place is not good for anyone, and that it was time for him to move on. It will be weird not having him walk into my office every few hours, or having lunch with him, or just checking in with each other during the day. It will be weird to everyone else because he was the person on staff who had been here the longest and he just knows all and has always been around . . .

The staff is planning a big shindig for his last day – everyone adores him and wants to wish him well, they know this is a great move for him. I am trying to keep minimally involved, so as not to accidentally spill the beans about something. I will let you know how it goes – his last day will be the Wednesday before Memorial Day . . .

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The rest of what is going on is just random stuff. Both my boss and our admin person are out most of this week and all of next week, so I am the only one in the department having to respond to everything and go to umpteen meetings – also meaning that I can’t get MY work done. I’ll probably have to come in on Sunday and do some catching up. This would not usually annoy me SO much, but the admin guy very slickly did not let my boss know that he would be gone for two whole weeks . . .

You see, he told my boss in February that he needed the two weeks off for a vacation with his parents, but she told him then that he couldn’t have the second week off, because she was going to be first, at her daughter’s graduation in Illinois for a few days, and then traveling on work visits to some of our sites that next week, and she didn’t want me to be here alone for a long period of time. He then insisted that his parents had already paid for the tickets (mind you, this guy is 29 years old), but my boss said, “well, you are just going to have to work that out yourself.”

Now, a normal person would have taken that as “No” and not gone on vacation. However, I can see how there was a teeny-tiny bit of wiggle room in that last response – but still! So on Wednesday, when I was meeting with my boss before she left to see her daughter, talking about the things that I would have to cover in her absence, and then I also mentioned that admin guy was going to be gone all next week too. “Oh, no – he’ll be back on Monday,” she said. Um, no . . . he told me he’d see me in two weeks. She looked stunned for a moment and said, “What?” Then we both ran into his office to check his calendar, and sure enough, he marked that he would be gone until the 21st. My boss was livid and we have to figure out now what we are going to do when he gets back . . .

I’m already ticked off because he left a huge project sloppily done, which I then had to spend all day Tuesday redoing and sending out. I also have to do all of the follow-up that he is not here to do. We had moved this particular project over to him for this quarter, since I was taking on a few larger projects, but it has turned out that I still have to shepherd this thing through myself. Arrgh!

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I also just found out that I will be subbing for some evening ESL classes in the next two weeks. I had decided not to teach over the summer, but I told folks I would be willing to sub . . . and of course, they actually do need me to sub. Why, the nerve! (just kidding) It actually shouldn’t be so bad – the main teacher will have already made up lesson plans, so all I’ll have to do is show up. Knowing me, however, I might think up a few little fun things to supplement each class – but that won’t take much time. I was going to miss teaching a little anyway, and this will allow me to get it out of my system before my brain gets fried again . . .

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Going to see another play next week, too: Titus Andronicus, which is one of Shakespeare’s most violent plays. It will be very interesting to see how all the blood and gore will be portrayed – I may spend half of the play looking through my hands . . .

Just a whirlwind of activity going on the next few weeks . . . what will you guys be up to?