Well, it's been quite a while since I've written, and so much has happened! This was probably the busiest summer I've ever had. I quit the company I worked for since I graduated college, moved to another state, started working as a contractor, got married, watched the little one graduate, saw my friend get married, all while getting used to my new job and flying across the country five times. Oh, and I went to my very first major league baseball game. Now I am home one more time before another big change in my life. My husband (*giggle* that will never get old!) and I are packing up, getting ready to take the little one to college then he and I will be driving across the country to start the next stage of our lives together! That's right, after two long, hard years, we will finally be living together again! This time on the other side of the country. For the first time in our relationship we will be closer to my family than his. He's never even lived outside the state he was born in, so this might be more of an adventure for him.
I'm sure he'd be the first to say I worry too much, but he's never been very far from his family, I worry that it'll be more of a shock than he expects, moving to the other side of the country from everything he knows. I've done it before, so I know what it's like. Although when I did it, I didn't know anybody within 2,000 miles of where I moved to, and he'll at least have me, but still. Of course I'm also worried about him finding a job, and we'll be looking for a house probably soonish. And before all that, I'm worrying about getting packed in time and the four day drive across the country with the pup in the car...
Other than being a total worry-wort, I'm very excited that I'm no longer alone. This "adventure" has been quite a lot longer than I expected in the beginning. And harder too. It's hard to believe that it's finally over! We have lots of plans for the future, and now we can actually work on making them happen. My husband *giggle* wants to get into backyard farming. I think it sounds interesting, but pretty much I'm happy as long as he's by my side.
Well, I'll try to at least take pictures of the trip for those of you still reading, no promises on how much blogging I'll be doing as we cross the country though! Maybe when we start our little farm I'll blog about that :)
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
First Impressions
Let me just say that moving sucks, hard core. Between not getting enough stuff in the Pod and having to rent a big van to deal with the rest of the stuff (after having a breakdown and needing a call from my Mommy) to falling down the porch steps (onto the gravel walkway) and throwing up everywhere in the middle of the night then having to dig cleaning supplies out of the van, I did not have a very auspicious start to the next stage in my adventure. I also left Tennessee a full two days later than I wanted, giving myself only one day to settle in rather than the three I had planned on. And the icing on the crappy move cake was getting a speeding ticket in Virginia when I wasn't even speeding on purpose! *sigh* I'm really lucky my man is so amazing and willing to put up with all this crap! Sheesh moving is expensive, stressful and just plain shitty!
Anywho, I managed to get to Pennsylvania, find the house that I'm renting and get myself and the cats inside before collapsing. Then I realized that I could, for the first time since starting this adventure, order pizza and have it delivered! That pretty much made everything right with the world. Until I realized that I still had not gotten any information on where I was supposed to go, when I should show up, and who I was to report to on Monday morning. Enter my "inside guy" who Rocky got me in touch with (that man is a godsend!). He assured me that there was no way I could miss the correct place to go, that the security at the front desk were really friendly, and that I should show up by 8am.
Sunday I spent the day unloading the van, putting things away and trying to settle in a bit. I also went to the grocery store (close enough to walk!) and found that the drug store, several restaurants, and a coffee shop are also close enough to walk to. I had me a tasty dinner, picked out my outfit for the next day, and went to bed at a decent time.
Monday I got up and spent easily three times as long getting ready as I normally do and still had time to dawdle before having to leave for work. The drive was short and simple, but a bit nerve wracking as there was construction and traffic nearly the whole way and I had to drive it in a huge, 15-passenger van. As soon as I got there I saw that Iggy (inside guy) was right, there was no missing the place. Unfortunately the parking lot at work didn't have any spots I could pull through, so I parked way out at the edge of the lot so I could back into a spot with no other cars around it since I wasn't at all sure of my ability to not hit something. I walked all the way across the parking lot to the front doors, again easily found as I was told, and approached the front desk. The security guard greeted me with a friendly smile and when I told her I was a new hire and my name she said they were expecting me. She had me fill out a little form and get a temp badge then suggested I have a seat and wait for my escort to arrive, since I was almost 20 minutes early.
I took a seat in the nice waiting area, absently noting that my feet hurt. My feet hurting isn't a surprising thing so I just wrote it off to walking across a large parking lot with new dressy shoes on. As I waited for my escort I watched wave after wave of interns come through and be escorted off in large groups, thinking to myself how big is this place that it can support this many interns?! After what seemed like forever my escort finally arrived and took me up to the 4th floor which was to be my new home. She showed me where my desk was then went over a bunch of the normal new job stuff. Once that was over we went to get my badge (only one this time!) and parking permit (had to get a temp one for the van). Then she gave me the grand tour.
This place is freaking HUGE! They have a cafeteria that rivals any of the ones in college for size and definitely in class. It's more like a fancy resort hotel. You can get custom omelets, sushi, fresh baked goods, made-from-scratch pizza, Starbucks coffee, home style meals, the list is endless! There's large seating areas inside and out, overlooking the private park with pond and walking path. Our tour next took us to the basement where there's a full gym with cardio equipment, weight benches and free weights. They also have aerobics classes and zumba. Of course there's top-notch locker rooms, fully stocked with towels and soaps and lotions. There's also a dry cleaner drop off/pick up for free. On the main floor again there are two different banks with ATMs and a mail room where you can drop off any mail or packages for USPS, UPS or FedEx. By this point my head was spinning and my feet were on fire, so I was grateful to be dropped off at my desk.
I booted up my computer, which was waiting for me, and felt warm fuzzies to see that someone had gathered a stock of office supplies for me and taken the time to write "Welcome Kaylyn!" on my whiteboard. I quickly texted Iggy to exclaim at the immensity of the place and tell him where I was sitting. He came by to introduce himself in person since we hadn't met yet, and we chatted for a bit. I poked at my computer for a bit, setting things up how I like them and checked out my training list which was already populated with more than enough reading to keep me out of trouble for a while. I also kicked my shoes off and noted with some alarm the rather nasty looking blisters I already had forming.
A while later one of my managers (I think I have four total) came to give me an overview of the project and what I'd be doing. He explained the basic layout of the organization and the jobs of each branch. We chatted about previous jobs and hobbies and such and I mentioned in passing about being on the robotics team in high school (explaining that you can't get much nerdier than me) and that I really missed mentoring the kids in Alabama. At that he kind of lit up and said that two of his daughters were on an all-girl robotics team and that they had some problems that year with various parts of the robot breaking due to simple strength issues and would I be willing to mentor them on structural analysis and strengths of materials?! He also put the icing on the cake: the team logo/identity is Rosie the Riveter! Obviously I said I'd be more than happy to mentor in any way I could. As Rocky likes to say, everything happens for a reason, and this is obviously one of the reasons for my latest move.
The rest of the day went in a blur, although I was rather hungry by the end because I couldn't stand the thought of walking to the cafeteria with how bad my feet hurt. I met several more people, including a fellow hockey fan across the aisle from me (hockey fans are few and far between in Tennessee) even though he roots for the wrong team. When 4 o'clock rolled around, I could hardly believe my first day was over. After getting assurance that I could, indeed leave after only 8 hours, I headed out to the van, taking my shoes off as soon as I got out of the building. I carefully navigated the tank towards home, stopping at one of the many restaurants on the way to get some celebratory Chinese, and another stop at the drug store for some blister pads. I was relieved to finally be home, to doctor my feet up and stuff my face with delicious noodles. Thus ended my first day.
Anywho, I managed to get to Pennsylvania, find the house that I'm renting and get myself and the cats inside before collapsing. Then I realized that I could, for the first time since starting this adventure, order pizza and have it delivered! That pretty much made everything right with the world. Until I realized that I still had not gotten any information on where I was supposed to go, when I should show up, and who I was to report to on Monday morning. Enter my "inside guy" who Rocky got me in touch with (that man is a godsend!). He assured me that there was no way I could miss the correct place to go, that the security at the front desk were really friendly, and that I should show up by 8am.
Sunday I spent the day unloading the van, putting things away and trying to settle in a bit. I also went to the grocery store (close enough to walk!) and found that the drug store, several restaurants, and a coffee shop are also close enough to walk to. I had me a tasty dinner, picked out my outfit for the next day, and went to bed at a decent time.
Monday I got up and spent easily three times as long getting ready as I normally do and still had time to dawdle before having to leave for work. The drive was short and simple, but a bit nerve wracking as there was construction and traffic nearly the whole way and I had to drive it in a huge, 15-passenger van. As soon as I got there I saw that Iggy (inside guy) was right, there was no missing the place. Unfortunately the parking lot at work didn't have any spots I could pull through, so I parked way out at the edge of the lot so I could back into a spot with no other cars around it since I wasn't at all sure of my ability to not hit something. I walked all the way across the parking lot to the front doors, again easily found as I was told, and approached the front desk. The security guard greeted me with a friendly smile and when I told her I was a new hire and my name she said they were expecting me. She had me fill out a little form and get a temp badge then suggested I have a seat and wait for my escort to arrive, since I was almost 20 minutes early.
I took a seat in the nice waiting area, absently noting that my feet hurt. My feet hurting isn't a surprising thing so I just wrote it off to walking across a large parking lot with new dressy shoes on. As I waited for my escort I watched wave after wave of interns come through and be escorted off in large groups, thinking to myself how big is this place that it can support this many interns?! After what seemed like forever my escort finally arrived and took me up to the 4th floor which was to be my new home. She showed me where my desk was then went over a bunch of the normal new job stuff. Once that was over we went to get my badge (only one this time!) and parking permit (had to get a temp one for the van). Then she gave me the grand tour.
This place is freaking HUGE! They have a cafeteria that rivals any of the ones in college for size and definitely in class. It's more like a fancy resort hotel. You can get custom omelets, sushi, fresh baked goods, made-from-scratch pizza, Starbucks coffee, home style meals, the list is endless! There's large seating areas inside and out, overlooking the private park with pond and walking path. Our tour next took us to the basement where there's a full gym with cardio equipment, weight benches and free weights. They also have aerobics classes and zumba. Of course there's top-notch locker rooms, fully stocked with towels and soaps and lotions. There's also a dry cleaner drop off/pick up for free. On the main floor again there are two different banks with ATMs and a mail room where you can drop off any mail or packages for USPS, UPS or FedEx. By this point my head was spinning and my feet were on fire, so I was grateful to be dropped off at my desk.
I booted up my computer, which was waiting for me, and felt warm fuzzies to see that someone had gathered a stock of office supplies for me and taken the time to write "Welcome Kaylyn!" on my whiteboard. I quickly texted Iggy to exclaim at the immensity of the place and tell him where I was sitting. He came by to introduce himself in person since we hadn't met yet, and we chatted for a bit. I poked at my computer for a bit, setting things up how I like them and checked out my training list which was already populated with more than enough reading to keep me out of trouble for a while. I also kicked my shoes off and noted with some alarm the rather nasty looking blisters I already had forming.
A while later one of my managers (I think I have four total) came to give me an overview of the project and what I'd be doing. He explained the basic layout of the organization and the jobs of each branch. We chatted about previous jobs and hobbies and such and I mentioned in passing about being on the robotics team in high school (explaining that you can't get much nerdier than me) and that I really missed mentoring the kids in Alabama. At that he kind of lit up and said that two of his daughters were on an all-girl robotics team and that they had some problems that year with various parts of the robot breaking due to simple strength issues and would I be willing to mentor them on structural analysis and strengths of materials?! He also put the icing on the cake: the team logo/identity is Rosie the Riveter! Obviously I said I'd be more than happy to mentor in any way I could. As Rocky likes to say, everything happens for a reason, and this is obviously one of the reasons for my latest move.
The rest of the day went in a blur, although I was rather hungry by the end because I couldn't stand the thought of walking to the cafeteria with how bad my feet hurt. I met several more people, including a fellow hockey fan across the aisle from me (hockey fans are few and far between in Tennessee) even though he roots for the wrong team. When 4 o'clock rolled around, I could hardly believe my first day was over. After getting assurance that I could, indeed leave after only 8 hours, I headed out to the van, taking my shoes off as soon as I got out of the building. I carefully navigated the tank towards home, stopping at one of the many restaurants on the way to get some celebratory Chinese, and another stop at the drug store for some blister pads. I was relieved to finally be home, to doctor my feet up and stuff my face with delicious noodles. Thus ended my first day.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Starting Over... Again
Well, it's apparently time to start yet another new chapter for this blog, and my life. I'm moving. Again. For the fourth time in less than two years. *sigh* I HATE moving. And this is a big one in many ways. This time I'm moving almost 9 hour North to Pennsylvania, to a nice town just North of Pittsburgh. While not as big in distance as my first move from Washington to Alabama, this one is bigger in life impact because I'm not only changing jobs, but companies as well. I'm also going from direct hire to contract work, which is going to be a big change on many levels.
The last month or so at work has been rough, and going seriously downhill. Management seems intent on making things as difficult as possible for Rocky and I and I just plain reached the end of my rope. I'm so lucky to have Rocky as a friend as he made this whole change possible. He gave me the contact info for the recruiter who hooked me up with this job. It went so fast it seriously made my head spin! It took little over an hour from the time I sent her my resume (with no preamble) to her calling back to set up an interview for the next day. I had barely gotten off the phone for the interview and was texting my man about it when she called to say they wanted to extend me an offer! Basically in about 24 hours I went from nothing to having a pretty darn good job offer.
If you haven't worked as a contractor before, it can be hard to compare it to direct hire because you make more an hour, but you don't get any benefits. With a lot of help from my mom, and some advice from Rocky I crunched the numbers and determined that I would indeed be making a good amount more than I am now. And I'd be getting back into the Design side, which is where I need to be if I really want to advance my career as a Professional Engineer.
Now, making more money on each paycheck is all fine and good, BUT I have to get there first. And moving is really freaking expensive. Not only do I have to pay to move myself this time, but I also have to reimburse my old company for my moving expenses that they paid from my last move (since it's been less than a year and I'm quitting the company). So I have to find a new place to live, that will accept not only my two kitties here, but our other kitty back home and my baby girl, since they'll be joining me (along with my man!) in less than six months! Not many rentals are down with three cats and a medium size dog.
I did have a stroke of brilliance and rented myself a Pod instead of getting a U-Haul. This way I can load it as I pack (it's being delivered in a couple days) and they'll store it for however long it takes me to find a new place. So I don't have to worry about driving a big truck for 9 hours, and finding somewhere to park it, and unload it into a storage unit, then load it back up when I find a place, just to unload it again. This way I only have to load and unload once, and I don't have to drive it anywhere at all! If only they'd pack all my crap too... *sigh*
Anyway, this last week has been a head-spinning blur. Not only am I still planning my wedding from across the country (with lots of help from my man!) but now I'm working on changing jobs and moving all by myself on this side of the country. I did buy my wedding dress last week which was so unbelievably exciting! I totally fell in love with a dress that I never would have even tried on myself. And I get to customize it to totally fit my unique style. My man is going to be so surprised! I also have my shoes, and ordered a pretty hair piece (can we say birdcage veil??) and custom earrings, and a pretty handkerchief, and something for my Maid of Honor. Oh, that kind of bummed me out. The little one declined to be my MOH, I was SO sad! But I have a super awesome friend back home who picked up the pieces and took over! I am seriously blessed! I also ordered our toasting glasses and gifts for the parents. And a surprise present for my man :)
Well, that's basically what's new with me. I've packed all of four boxes and I'm already feeling totally overwhelmed by all this. It's bad enough having to move at all, but doing it on your own brings a whole new level of suckage to it! But I've done it before, I can do it again! 'cause I'm just awesome like that ;)
The last month or so at work has been rough, and going seriously downhill. Management seems intent on making things as difficult as possible for Rocky and I and I just plain reached the end of my rope. I'm so lucky to have Rocky as a friend as he made this whole change possible. He gave me the contact info for the recruiter who hooked me up with this job. It went so fast it seriously made my head spin! It took little over an hour from the time I sent her my resume (with no preamble) to her calling back to set up an interview for the next day. I had barely gotten off the phone for the interview and was texting my man about it when she called to say they wanted to extend me an offer! Basically in about 24 hours I went from nothing to having a pretty darn good job offer.
If you haven't worked as a contractor before, it can be hard to compare it to direct hire because you make more an hour, but you don't get any benefits. With a lot of help from my mom, and some advice from Rocky I crunched the numbers and determined that I would indeed be making a good amount more than I am now. And I'd be getting back into the Design side, which is where I need to be if I really want to advance my career as a Professional Engineer.
Now, making more money on each paycheck is all fine and good, BUT I have to get there first. And moving is really freaking expensive. Not only do I have to pay to move myself this time, but I also have to reimburse my old company for my moving expenses that they paid from my last move (since it's been less than a year and I'm quitting the company). So I have to find a new place to live, that will accept not only my two kitties here, but our other kitty back home and my baby girl, since they'll be joining me (along with my man!) in less than six months! Not many rentals are down with three cats and a medium size dog.
I did have a stroke of brilliance and rented myself a Pod instead of getting a U-Haul. This way I can load it as I pack (it's being delivered in a couple days) and they'll store it for however long it takes me to find a new place. So I don't have to worry about driving a big truck for 9 hours, and finding somewhere to park it, and unload it into a storage unit, then load it back up when I find a place, just to unload it again. This way I only have to load and unload once, and I don't have to drive it anywhere at all! If only they'd pack all my crap too... *sigh*
Anyway, this last week has been a head-spinning blur. Not only am I still planning my wedding from across the country (with lots of help from my man!) but now I'm working on changing jobs and moving all by myself on this side of the country. I did buy my wedding dress last week which was so unbelievably exciting! I totally fell in love with a dress that I never would have even tried on myself. And I get to customize it to totally fit my unique style. My man is going to be so surprised! I also have my shoes, and ordered a pretty hair piece (can we say birdcage veil??) and custom earrings, and a pretty handkerchief, and something for my Maid of Honor. Oh, that kind of bummed me out. The little one declined to be my MOH, I was SO sad! But I have a super awesome friend back home who picked up the pieces and took over! I am seriously blessed! I also ordered our toasting glasses and gifts for the parents. And a surprise present for my man :)
Well, that's basically what's new with me. I've packed all of four boxes and I'm already feeling totally overwhelmed by all this. It's bad enough having to move at all, but doing it on your own brings a whole new level of suckage to it! But I've done it before, I can do it again! 'cause I'm just awesome like that ;)
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Sorry to Leave You Hanging...
...but shit went to crazy town for a while!
First, and most important (to me), is Rocky and I are friends again. It seems he thought I had called his boss's boss's boss's boss and said that he wasn't doing his job. While he drives me bonkers sometimes by getting distracted worse than a kid with ADD at a mirror museum, I would NEVER rat any friend out to their boss, let alone go that high over anybody's head (also, if you know me at all you'd know that I just plain don't call people). You just don't do that sort of thing! If you can't resolve something with a coworker, you ask your boss to talk to their boss. Well apparently *some* people didn't get that memo because, while I didn't place the call, somebody did. And I felt terrible that any side comment I may have made could have precipitated it. At any rate, it made life pretty ugly for poor Rocky at work. He was forced to report in every 30 minutes and explain how he was productive for the previous 30 minutes. How on earth he was supposed to be productive when he had to call somebody every 30 minutes is beyond me!
Anyway, after letting him vent for a while without really saying anything (it seemed that's what he needed) I tried to slowly guide him back to the productivity I needed to get *my* job done. After he cut me off yet again when I was trying to explain something he had asked of somebody else, I ended up breaking down in tears again (so embarrassing!) from shear frustration. I was trying so hard to do whatever it is he wanted and it kept being wrong! Well, that seemed to calm him down a bit and we slowly worked back to where we had been before the fate full phone call. Apparently that was enough to get us moving and we've made enough progress that the Powers That Be are for the most part leaving us alone. I really wish they'd give us more support, but leaving us alone is better than breathing down our necks.
The second thing is we started (and finished) our first installation. It was totally crazy because a) it was the first one, and b) our schedule for it got moved up almost two months! I, personally, was totally unprepared for it. To add to the insanity a "huge snowstorm" came through Tuesday afternoon causing everybody to freak out and go home early, and then not come in to work at all Wednesday. By "huge snowstorm" I mean we got like one inch of powder. Needless to say I stayed for my 12 hours on Tuesday and was at work bright and early Wednesday morning for another 12. We were supposed to start the install last Monday, but the stars didn't align and we didn't even get close 'til Friday. I spent most of Friday running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get signatures and whatnot that my so-called partner was supposed to have gotten days previous. I have no idea what she does all the time, but apparently it isn't the paperwork portion of our joint job. I was super stressed out and everybody telling me to "calm down" or "take a deep breath" just made it worse. Rocky tried to explain that it's hard for people to function when I'm blasting my distress every which way, but it's still hard for me to keep a lid on it. My man is the only one who can really get me to calm down when I'm like that, and this whole thing made me miss him that much more.
We finally got working Friday afternoon but were soon stricken with issue after issue. First, they didn't order enough bolts. That took several hours to figure out a work-around and to make sure we'd get the right ones before our schedule date. Then we had issues with a pair of Insulators who should never have been allowed back on the job as they had a few months previous been run off the site for getting a little too friendly with each other at work, if you catch my meaning. Also, they just generally have a bad attitude. I've never seen my site manager that stressed out. I think he swore more this weekend than the entire rest of the time I've known him combined. Then the only guy tall enough to reach the stupid thing without a scaffold didn't show up to work Sunday (yeah, we worked ALL weekend). So we wasted another couple hours getting a scaffold built. Then the screws weren't long enough and since it was Sunday we couldn't get new ones from anywhere. It seriously felt like we were never going to get done. In the end we finished only a day behind schedule, which isn't too bad when you think that we weren't even supposed to start 'til like the second week in March.
Thus ended my first full week of walk-downs (physically exhausting) and my first install (emotionally exhausting). Hopefully Rocky and I can become a walk-down dream team and pound out mark-ups fast enough to keep the wolves off our backs. At least we have a little breathing room before the next install, so I can focus on one thing at a time for a bit. Although my partner, who I was supposedly only covering for while she was out on maternity leave, is leaving as soon as she has surgery, probably by the end of March. If the PTB don't get me more support soon, we are all going to hell in a hand basket and it is NOT going to be pretty!
First, and most important (to me), is Rocky and I are friends again. It seems he thought I had called his boss's boss's boss's boss and said that he wasn't doing his job. While he drives me bonkers sometimes by getting distracted worse than a kid with ADD at a mirror museum, I would NEVER rat any friend out to their boss, let alone go that high over anybody's head (also, if you know me at all you'd know that I just plain don't call people). You just don't do that sort of thing! If you can't resolve something with a coworker, you ask your boss to talk to their boss. Well apparently *some* people didn't get that memo because, while I didn't place the call, somebody did. And I felt terrible that any side comment I may have made could have precipitated it. At any rate, it made life pretty ugly for poor Rocky at work. He was forced to report in every 30 minutes and explain how he was productive for the previous 30 minutes. How on earth he was supposed to be productive when he had to call somebody every 30 minutes is beyond me!
Anyway, after letting him vent for a while without really saying anything (it seemed that's what he needed) I tried to slowly guide him back to the productivity I needed to get *my* job done. After he cut me off yet again when I was trying to explain something he had asked of somebody else, I ended up breaking down in tears again (so embarrassing!) from shear frustration. I was trying so hard to do whatever it is he wanted and it kept being wrong! Well, that seemed to calm him down a bit and we slowly worked back to where we had been before the fate full phone call. Apparently that was enough to get us moving and we've made enough progress that the Powers That Be are for the most part leaving us alone. I really wish they'd give us more support, but leaving us alone is better than breathing down our necks.
The second thing is we started (and finished) our first installation. It was totally crazy because a) it was the first one, and b) our schedule for it got moved up almost two months! I, personally, was totally unprepared for it. To add to the insanity a "huge snowstorm" came through Tuesday afternoon causing everybody to freak out and go home early, and then not come in to work at all Wednesday. By "huge snowstorm" I mean we got like one inch of powder. Needless to say I stayed for my 12 hours on Tuesday and was at work bright and early Wednesday morning for another 12. We were supposed to start the install last Monday, but the stars didn't align and we didn't even get close 'til Friday. I spent most of Friday running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get signatures and whatnot that my so-called partner was supposed to have gotten days previous. I have no idea what she does all the time, but apparently it isn't the paperwork portion of our joint job. I was super stressed out and everybody telling me to "calm down" or "take a deep breath" just made it worse. Rocky tried to explain that it's hard for people to function when I'm blasting my distress every which way, but it's still hard for me to keep a lid on it. My man is the only one who can really get me to calm down when I'm like that, and this whole thing made me miss him that much more.
We finally got working Friday afternoon but were soon stricken with issue after issue. First, they didn't order enough bolts. That took several hours to figure out a work-around and to make sure we'd get the right ones before our schedule date. Then we had issues with a pair of Insulators who should never have been allowed back on the job as they had a few months previous been run off the site for getting a little too friendly with each other at work, if you catch my meaning. Also, they just generally have a bad attitude. I've never seen my site manager that stressed out. I think he swore more this weekend than the entire rest of the time I've known him combined. Then the only guy tall enough to reach the stupid thing without a scaffold didn't show up to work Sunday (yeah, we worked ALL weekend). So we wasted another couple hours getting a scaffold built. Then the screws weren't long enough and since it was Sunday we couldn't get new ones from anywhere. It seriously felt like we were never going to get done. In the end we finished only a day behind schedule, which isn't too bad when you think that we weren't even supposed to start 'til like the second week in March.
Thus ended my first full week of walk-downs (physically exhausting) and my first install (emotionally exhausting). Hopefully Rocky and I can become a walk-down dream team and pound out mark-ups fast enough to keep the wolves off our backs. At least we have a little breathing room before the next install, so I can focus on one thing at a time for a bit. Although my partner, who I was supposedly only covering for while she was out on maternity leave, is leaving as soon as she has surgery, probably by the end of March. If the PTB don't get me more support soon, we are all going to hell in a hand basket and it is NOT going to be pretty!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Disappointment and heartache
This week has been one of the worst in a long time. I miss my man so much, for the simple comfort of a hug when I get home. I love my kitties, but they’re not ones for hugging. By mid-morning Tuesday I already wanted to give up on the week. I was really excited because my Insulators were ready to actually start some physical work. It felt like we were finally making visible progress! They got all ready, did the pre-job and headed out to the work area. Later, I saw one of my boys and asked how things were going and he said they weren’t. One of the guys had gotten hurt, bad enough to be sent to the hospital.
I felt bad that somebody got hurt, especially one of my guys, although he’s new and I hadn’t even really met him yet. It made me feel even worse that before I made some calls to find out how he was, I dealt with getting the work going again. Unfortunately when Safety went to investigate the incident, they found that the work area was a big mess and said that my guys couldn’t work until it was clean. Since my guys hadn’t even gotten all their tools up there yet, the mess was definitely not theirs. So I had to find somebody to make sure it got cleaned up, but work was officially killed for the day.
The guy who got hurt will be alright, although he needs surgery. The injury really had nothing to do with the work at hand, as he wasn’t doing anything at the time that he got hurt. So now he’ll hang out in the trailer on “light duty” for however long it takes him to heal. The rest of the guys (and one gal) busted butt and got the work done only slightly behind schedule, so I guess it ended up ok. But it was seriously stressful for me.
Another thing that should have been good, but seems to be turning out not so much is we got a new guy on my side of things for the insulation. He has almost 50 years working with MRI including working for the subcontractor, and the company that made all the MRI for the operating unit. We thought he was going to be a great resource in getting things moving, but it seems all he does is talk big. He yells about schedule and having to get the insulation installed, but isn’t really helping get anything done to actually move in that direction. He’s also slinging mud everywhere without really know what all the rest of us have been through with this. So that’s another big disappointment this week.
The last, and worst, thing to happen this week is it seems Rocky is no longer my friend. I don’t know what I did, but he’s refused to speak to me since yesterday. I had been excited because it looked like we were going to get to work together a lot, and I hoped to learn a lot from him, while actually being productive. But he was, for some reason, dragging his feet a lot. I think it’s something to do with how he perceives he’s being treated by management. Anyway, I was getting frustrated because I really can’t get going on this project without his help and I hate sitting around doing nothing. Well his boss got called (not by me!) about it, so his boss called him and gave him a talking-to. It seems that he blames me for this, or something. I don’t really know because he won’t tell me.
I feel so hurt and upset about it, that he won’t even tell me what he thinks I did, it’s making me feel physically ill. So now, not only can I not do my job, I want to cry every time Rocky walks by without even looking at me. I spent most of yesterday hiding with my Insulators because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Today I’m trying really hard to find something else to be productive with, but it’s not working very well. I’m debating if asking him to at least be professional and let me do my job will help or make matters worse. I’m also wondering if I could even do that without getting emotional about it. I really don’t need the whole trailer to know what’s going on, and I tend to lose volume control when I’m emotional…
Something’s got to give, the question is what?
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Where was I?
With all that’s been going on this week, I’ve totally lost my train of thought for these “catch up” posts. I guess to make a long story short I found some serious flaws in the thought process that had been driving the insulation program. One of the biggest issues is there is nobody even close to being in a management position in charge of the program. I mean, you can hardly even call it a “program” at this point. It’s just a couple people doing their own thing, and not even knowing that half the procedures exist, let alone following them. There’s seriously four different procedures going into various levels of detail about how the insulation program should be handled, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who’s read all four. And project management has been going back and forth between trying to tell me to handle everything myself, and telling me I have nothing to do with it.
This last week has been mostly the latter. They’ve had several meetings, and passed e-mails back and forth (none of which I’ve been *officially* privy to) about the future of the program and my part in it. After two months of arguing and basically making so much fuss they had no choice but to listen to me, if only to get me to shut up, they’re finally acknowledging that there are issues with the “program.” Then they basically tell me to sit tight while they discuss everything and come up with a solution. So for the last week I’ve been sitting around waiting for them to tell me something, anything. They told me not to do anything else while they discuss, so the time has dragged on and on. I hate not having anything to do. And I’m super stressed about it because this insulation is quickly becoming critical path.
During this whole thing, Rocky has seriously been the only thing helping me keep even a tenuous hold on the remaining scraps of my sanity. He’s been going to bat for me in the meetings, and telling me as much as he can of what’s gone on in them. He also lets me tag along when he goes on walkdowns for his *other* job, so I can at least get away from my desk for a little. And, probably most important, he reminds me that this isn’t the end of the world. This project is only scheduled to be around for another year or so, and it’s unlikely that I’ll be kept here even that long. It’s always good to have a friend who keeps your feet on the ground.
I’m so blessed to have so many amazing friends. Each one fills in some part of my life and I couldn’t imagine being without any of them. It’s good to try to take the time to step back and reflect on all the good in one’s life; I haven’t done that in too long I think. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day drama and stress of life that I forget to look at the big picture. I managed to find my soul mate so early in my life and we’re getting married in just a few months. I have a job that challenges me and is teaching me so much, and it pays well. I have loads of friends all over the country that I get to visit and hang with no matter where I am. I have adorable fur balls waiting for me to get home each day. I have clothes on my back, a roof over my head, food in my belly, and I wake up each day able to stand on my own two feet.
When it really comes down to it, Life is Good.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Just Call Me Zippy
I don't know about other types of jobs, but it seems like everybody on a construction site has a nick name. Most of the time the story behind somebody's nick name is hilarious, other times there's not enough brain bleach in the world. Anyway, here's how I got mine.
One morning at work I was wearing my favorite pair of jeans when I went to discuss something with a coworker and as I sat down my button popped right off! Of course, because of how they fit, this was the only pair of jeans in my wardrobe that I didn't wear a belt with. As this was about 7 o'clock in the morning, I settled in for a rough day. Things started out not too badly, as long as I adjusted them when I stood up and didn't put too much in my pockets they stayed on fairly well. Unfortunately that didn't last long.
After nearly losing my pants completely on the way to a meeting I set about trying to find something to hold them on with. First I tried rubber bands, that backfired rather painfully. Then I found that there was a small hole where the button used to be and I was able to thread a paperclip through it and hook the other end into the button hole. This worked surprisingly well for most of the day. I could even take it on and off with only slightly more difficulty than the original button. I thought I was home free.
Then I had to go out in one of the more cramped portions of the plant. Not willing to trust my modesty (don't laugh!) to a paperclip I pondered what would be more sturdy. I mentioned my dilemma to my Superintendent, as he was the one taking me out to the plant. Then it came to me: a zip tie! Not really thinking about who I was talking to, I asked my Super if he had one. I realized my mistake immediately as a look of pure joy crossed his face. He paused, then started digging in his desk, finally pulling out a hot pink zip tie. "Here you go... Zippy!" he said with glee. *sigh* After assuring him I knew how to use a zip tie properly we headed out into the plant without incident. And then we came back to the office, where he proceeded to introduce me to everybody as Zippy. When people inevitably gave him confused looks he'd turn to me, and barely containing his mirth, would exclaim "Show them! Show them!" to which I had no reply other than to stand and show off my fashionable hot-pink zip tied pants.
Thus I will forever be known as Zippy.
One morning at work I was wearing my favorite pair of jeans when I went to discuss something with a coworker and as I sat down my button popped right off! Of course, because of how they fit, this was the only pair of jeans in my wardrobe that I didn't wear a belt with. As this was about 7 o'clock in the morning, I settled in for a rough day. Things started out not too badly, as long as I adjusted them when I stood up and didn't put too much in my pockets they stayed on fairly well. Unfortunately that didn't last long.
After nearly losing my pants completely on the way to a meeting I set about trying to find something to hold them on with. First I tried rubber bands, that backfired rather painfully. Then I found that there was a small hole where the button used to be and I was able to thread a paperclip through it and hook the other end into the button hole. This worked surprisingly well for most of the day. I could even take it on and off with only slightly more difficulty than the original button. I thought I was home free.
Then I had to go out in one of the more cramped portions of the plant. Not willing to trust my modesty (don't laugh!) to a paperclip I pondered what would be more sturdy. I mentioned my dilemma to my Superintendent, as he was the one taking me out to the plant. Then it came to me: a zip tie! Not really thinking about who I was talking to, I asked my Super if he had one. I realized my mistake immediately as a look of pure joy crossed his face. He paused, then started digging in his desk, finally pulling out a hot pink zip tie. "Here you go... Zippy!" he said with glee. *sigh* After assuring him I knew how to use a zip tie properly we headed out into the plant without incident. And then we came back to the office, where he proceeded to introduce me to everybody as Zippy. When people inevitably gave him confused looks he'd turn to me, and barely containing his mirth, would exclaim "Show them! Show them!" to which I had no reply other than to stand and show off my fashionable hot-pink zip tied pants.
Thus I will forever be known as Zippy.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Catching Up, Part Two
Again I'm struggling with all that's happened and trying to sort through what I want to write and how. It seems for me that the hard part is just getting started. Once I get past the first few sentences it becomes easier, at least usually.
The two months or so while my gal was out on maternity leave were insane, and it's not really showing any signs of getting less so. I've learned so much it's crazy. I'm learning about all the different systems in the plant and what they do and how they work. I'm learning how to get over/around my fears of going to talk to people I don't know and, gasp, make phone calls. It's crazy and stressful and there's still a long way to go, but most days I'm glad I'm getting this opportunity to learn so much outside my normal field.
So much has happened and I don't remember all the details or what order things happened in, but I'll try to explain the gist of it. This mirror insulation is rigid, meaning it doesn't bend or anything, and it is engineered, which means each piece of it is specifically designed to go in a certain spot. Now if all the pipe it was going on was out in the open away from other stuff, that'd be great, super easy. But it's not. It's crammed into the bowels of a power plant with thousands of other things all over the place around it. The super cool thing is the people designing the insulation live in Chicago. I don't know if they've ever even been in a power plant, let alone this one. So they have a guy here going out and looking at all the pipes they have to insulate and trying to find all the stuff that is in the space or "envelope" that the insulation will be occupying. He then sends this information to his folks in Chicago and they design a notch in the insulation to provide room for whatever it is that's in the way.
I've found there is so much wrong with this method it's not even funny. For one thing, they've been doing these "walkdowns" for almost four years. So much has changed in the plant in four years the info they gathered at the beginning is worse than useless. The're going to have notched around things that aren't there anymore (letting more heat out, reducing efficiency, and ultimately costing money) and they're not going to have a clue about all the stuff that's been installed since then.
Another huge issue is that when things get hot, they move, sometimes a LOT. Some of these pipes can move upwards of six inches when they heat up. Six inches! With no apparent outside force! To a Civil, this is mind boggling. Anyway, nobody has been taking this into account when they're looking at what is in the way and what isn't. If the insulation is three inches thick and something is five inches from the pipe you'd think it wouldn't be a problem, but if the pipe moves another three inches in that direction, you suddenly have an issue!
Yet another kind of big issue is what if the *thing* that's in that envelope would be damaged by getting hot? Well the people putting all the other stuff in the plant don't always realize just how hot some pipes will get, in their defense they have a lot on their minds. But you have to think, ok my item can handle temperatures up to 300 degrees, this pipe operates at 540 degrees, maybe I don't want to be one inch away from it... So now we have who knows how many notches around things that can't be allowed to get that hot.
If we go back to the moving pipes thing again, heat isn't the only thing that'll cause movements in the plant. It's possible for there to be an earthquake and then stuff will move all over the place. So what happens if something fragile is inside a notch in this insulation and everything starts moving? It's going to get banged up! I'm just a "dirt herder" so I don't know what can handle being smashed up and what can't, and the people who do know, don't think about this stuff.
All of these issues combine into one big nasty world of hurt. Every time I think we've gotten to the end of the problems, another one pops up. I've been really struggling to understand the whole picture because it is all so far outside my realm of experience I feel like everybody is speaking a foreign language half the time. I've been trying to offer suggestions based on my experience and what I see in the field. Some of my suggestions have worked, and unfortunately some of them have made things worse.
The super fun part of all this is I'm not the first person to bring up these issues or ask these questions. There's these two guys who's whole job it is to look at how all the stuff in the plant interacts with all the other stuff. Four years ago they brought up all these questions. They pointed out to management how ugly things could get if it wasn't dealt with soon (this was FOUR years ago!). Management said "Nah, don't worry about it, it's all good." And look where we are now! It just totally boggles my mind that they could be so... nearsighted as to ignore something this big. And because they were shot down so hard, and the implications of these issues are huge, I've been running into a lot of resistance.
Now, some of you may not know this, but I'm really stubborn. When somebody pushes back on me, or tries to brush me off, I lower my head and charge in even harder and deeper than the last time. Most times, when I feel the issue is important (and protecting the people in and around this plant is of utmost importance) I absolutely refuse to back down. Unfortunately I've also never been accused of having any tact. Sometimes the bulldozer method isn't the best, but it's really all I know how to get things done. I'm sure it's shocking that I've made some people somewhat unhappy with me. Lucky for me, I've also impressed some people.
Back to these two guys who have some ungodly number of years of experience at figuring out how all the different things in the plant interact with each other. One of them gave this training class several months ago, basically a crash course on what to look for when installing new items to make sure they wouldn't negatively impact anything else. At the time I had absolutely nothing to do with anything new being installed and I was really irritated at being made to go to this training. Long story short, I acted like a petulant child to him through the whole class and did my best to ignore everything he was saying. Hindsight blah, blah blah right? Anyway, back to when I start actually caring about new stuff being installed and how it interacts with everything else. These two guys actually sit in the same trailer as I do, although they're in a different area. I was working up the courage to go ask them to explain something to me, hoping that the guy who taught the class maybe didn't remember how much of a bitch I had been. So I finally go over there and explain what I'm doing and ask my question and their response totally shocked and confused me.
I expected one of them to respond somewhat negatively and the other to probably be neutral. What I didn't expect was the one to respond negatively was the one I'd never dealt with before, and the one I was bitchy to was actually really nice and friendly towards me! Anyway, over the days and weeks I went back to them more and more as I realized just what a valuable resource they were. I tried to be nothing but polite and respectful to both of them and express my gratitude for their assistance.
Quick aside here, I'm gonna give these guys names so it's easier to explain. The one who taught the class and seemed to get over his first bad experience with me, I'll call Rocky (don't ask, it's not my story to tell). The one who, for no apparent reason, treated me like I was beneath him, I'll call Stuffed Shirt. Anyway, back to the story.
As I pestered them more and more, Rocky and I started being somewhat like friends. While Stuffed Shirt rarely gave me any help without burying it in a lot of really negative opinions and rants and whatnot. I quickly found that he, at least to all appearances, has a REALLY low opinion of Field Engineers. He also seemed to really not like me. After a couple weeks I finally straight up apologized to Rocky for that first day that we met. He kind of laughed and said he had been wondering about that. After that we really did become friends. Since he was able to give me a second chance, I was really confused as to why Stuffed Shirt took such a disliking to me, especially since I couldn't recall ever treating him with less than respect. I know I've run into people who don't like to work with me because I'm young and/or female, but this didn't feel like that. I complained several times to Rocky, since he and Stuffed Shirt seemed to be friends, and asked what I had done to deserve this treatment. Rocky always told me not to take it personally, that Stuffed Shirt was like that to everybody, but I knew there was something else there.
While working on one particular interference issue, I was having trouble getting a handle on the whole situation just looking at the pictures and sketches, so I tried to go out in the plant to look at it. Well, for the first time in my career I found it physically impossible for me to do something. I just flat out couldn't fit in the space to get a look at the situation! And it wasn't my fat getting in the way, (although I know there's more of that than there should be!) I was just plain too big! I was so frustrated and was complaining to somebody in the office, asking if they knew anybody smaller than me that would know what they were looking for when Stuffed Shirt came over and offered to go get more pictures for me (he's a rather slight guy). I hurriedly picked my jaw up off the floor and said I'd really appreciate it. As soon as he left I texted Rocky and was like WTF?! What the heck changed that Stuffed Shirt not only was NICE to me, he actually OFFERED to help without me even asking him to begin with! Well that's when the whole story came out.
Apparently Stuffed Shirt thinks that since I do not meet his ideal of a "professional appearance" he felt I was not worth his time. It wasn't that I'm young or female, it was my piercings, one visible tattoo, and my (fabulous) purple hair. Oh and my clothes (I wear scrub pants and t-shirts ever since the zip-tie incident, I'll explain later). When Rocky told me that, I wanted to cry. This guy didn't even want to give me the time of day because of how I look?! Why does it matter at all what I wear or what color my hair is?! I have a degree from a good school, my Professional Engineer license, and over six years experience as an Engineer. I've had tattoos and piercings the whole time, actually I've acquired more of both in the last six years! Those things have absolutely nothing to do with how well I do my job or how smart I am!
Anyway, the reason Stuffed Shirt suddenly decided to give me a chance is because Rocky asked him to. Which of course made me want to cry for a whole different reason. Here is this guy, who I made a really terrible first impression with, going out of his way to try to change somebody else's opinion of me! I really don't know what I did to deserve such a good friend, but I'm sure glad I have him!
I think that's enough for part two. Maybe I'll still be on a roll and make a part three tomorrow ;)
The two months or so while my gal was out on maternity leave were insane, and it's not really showing any signs of getting less so. I've learned so much it's crazy. I'm learning about all the different systems in the plant and what they do and how they work. I'm learning how to get over/around my fears of going to talk to people I don't know and, gasp, make phone calls. It's crazy and stressful and there's still a long way to go, but most days I'm glad I'm getting this opportunity to learn so much outside my normal field.
So much has happened and I don't remember all the details or what order things happened in, but I'll try to explain the gist of it. This mirror insulation is rigid, meaning it doesn't bend or anything, and it is engineered, which means each piece of it is specifically designed to go in a certain spot. Now if all the pipe it was going on was out in the open away from other stuff, that'd be great, super easy. But it's not. It's crammed into the bowels of a power plant with thousands of other things all over the place around it. The super cool thing is the people designing the insulation live in Chicago. I don't know if they've ever even been in a power plant, let alone this one. So they have a guy here going out and looking at all the pipes they have to insulate and trying to find all the stuff that is in the space or "envelope" that the insulation will be occupying. He then sends this information to his folks in Chicago and they design a notch in the insulation to provide room for whatever it is that's in the way.
I've found there is so much wrong with this method it's not even funny. For one thing, they've been doing these "walkdowns" for almost four years. So much has changed in the plant in four years the info they gathered at the beginning is worse than useless. The're going to have notched around things that aren't there anymore (letting more heat out, reducing efficiency, and ultimately costing money) and they're not going to have a clue about all the stuff that's been installed since then.
Another huge issue is that when things get hot, they move, sometimes a LOT. Some of these pipes can move upwards of six inches when they heat up. Six inches! With no apparent outside force! To a Civil, this is mind boggling. Anyway, nobody has been taking this into account when they're looking at what is in the way and what isn't. If the insulation is three inches thick and something is five inches from the pipe you'd think it wouldn't be a problem, but if the pipe moves another three inches in that direction, you suddenly have an issue!
Yet another kind of big issue is what if the *thing* that's in that envelope would be damaged by getting hot? Well the people putting all the other stuff in the plant don't always realize just how hot some pipes will get, in their defense they have a lot on their minds. But you have to think, ok my item can handle temperatures up to 300 degrees, this pipe operates at 540 degrees, maybe I don't want to be one inch away from it... So now we have who knows how many notches around things that can't be allowed to get that hot.
If we go back to the moving pipes thing again, heat isn't the only thing that'll cause movements in the plant. It's possible for there to be an earthquake and then stuff will move all over the place. So what happens if something fragile is inside a notch in this insulation and everything starts moving? It's going to get banged up! I'm just a "dirt herder" so I don't know what can handle being smashed up and what can't, and the people who do know, don't think about this stuff.
All of these issues combine into one big nasty world of hurt. Every time I think we've gotten to the end of the problems, another one pops up. I've been really struggling to understand the whole picture because it is all so far outside my realm of experience I feel like everybody is speaking a foreign language half the time. I've been trying to offer suggestions based on my experience and what I see in the field. Some of my suggestions have worked, and unfortunately some of them have made things worse.
The super fun part of all this is I'm not the first person to bring up these issues or ask these questions. There's these two guys who's whole job it is to look at how all the stuff in the plant interacts with all the other stuff. Four years ago they brought up all these questions. They pointed out to management how ugly things could get if it wasn't dealt with soon (this was FOUR years ago!). Management said "Nah, don't worry about it, it's all good." And look where we are now! It just totally boggles my mind that they could be so... nearsighted as to ignore something this big. And because they were shot down so hard, and the implications of these issues are huge, I've been running into a lot of resistance.
Now, some of you may not know this, but I'm really stubborn. When somebody pushes back on me, or tries to brush me off, I lower my head and charge in even harder and deeper than the last time. Most times, when I feel the issue is important (and protecting the people in and around this plant is of utmost importance) I absolutely refuse to back down. Unfortunately I've also never been accused of having any tact. Sometimes the bulldozer method isn't the best, but it's really all I know how to get things done. I'm sure it's shocking that I've made some people somewhat unhappy with me. Lucky for me, I've also impressed some people.
Back to these two guys who have some ungodly number of years of experience at figuring out how all the different things in the plant interact with each other. One of them gave this training class several months ago, basically a crash course on what to look for when installing new items to make sure they wouldn't negatively impact anything else. At the time I had absolutely nothing to do with anything new being installed and I was really irritated at being made to go to this training. Long story short, I acted like a petulant child to him through the whole class and did my best to ignore everything he was saying. Hindsight blah, blah blah right? Anyway, back to when I start actually caring about new stuff being installed and how it interacts with everything else. These two guys actually sit in the same trailer as I do, although they're in a different area. I was working up the courage to go ask them to explain something to me, hoping that the guy who taught the class maybe didn't remember how much of a bitch I had been. So I finally go over there and explain what I'm doing and ask my question and their response totally shocked and confused me.
I expected one of them to respond somewhat negatively and the other to probably be neutral. What I didn't expect was the one to respond negatively was the one I'd never dealt with before, and the one I was bitchy to was actually really nice and friendly towards me! Anyway, over the days and weeks I went back to them more and more as I realized just what a valuable resource they were. I tried to be nothing but polite and respectful to both of them and express my gratitude for their assistance.
Quick aside here, I'm gonna give these guys names so it's easier to explain. The one who taught the class and seemed to get over his first bad experience with me, I'll call Rocky (don't ask, it's not my story to tell). The one who, for no apparent reason, treated me like I was beneath him, I'll call Stuffed Shirt. Anyway, back to the story.
As I pestered them more and more, Rocky and I started being somewhat like friends. While Stuffed Shirt rarely gave me any help without burying it in a lot of really negative opinions and rants and whatnot. I quickly found that he, at least to all appearances, has a REALLY low opinion of Field Engineers. He also seemed to really not like me. After a couple weeks I finally straight up apologized to Rocky for that first day that we met. He kind of laughed and said he had been wondering about that. After that we really did become friends. Since he was able to give me a second chance, I was really confused as to why Stuffed Shirt took such a disliking to me, especially since I couldn't recall ever treating him with less than respect. I know I've run into people who don't like to work with me because I'm young and/or female, but this didn't feel like that. I complained several times to Rocky, since he and Stuffed Shirt seemed to be friends, and asked what I had done to deserve this treatment. Rocky always told me not to take it personally, that Stuffed Shirt was like that to everybody, but I knew there was something else there.
While working on one particular interference issue, I was having trouble getting a handle on the whole situation just looking at the pictures and sketches, so I tried to go out in the plant to look at it. Well, for the first time in my career I found it physically impossible for me to do something. I just flat out couldn't fit in the space to get a look at the situation! And it wasn't my fat getting in the way, (although I know there's more of that than there should be!) I was just plain too big! I was so frustrated and was complaining to somebody in the office, asking if they knew anybody smaller than me that would know what they were looking for when Stuffed Shirt came over and offered to go get more pictures for me (he's a rather slight guy). I hurriedly picked my jaw up off the floor and said I'd really appreciate it. As soon as he left I texted Rocky and was like WTF?! What the heck changed that Stuffed Shirt not only was NICE to me, he actually OFFERED to help without me even asking him to begin with! Well that's when the whole story came out.
Apparently Stuffed Shirt thinks that since I do not meet his ideal of a "professional appearance" he felt I was not worth his time. It wasn't that I'm young or female, it was my piercings, one visible tattoo, and my (fabulous) purple hair. Oh and my clothes (I wear scrub pants and t-shirts ever since the zip-tie incident, I'll explain later). When Rocky told me that, I wanted to cry. This guy didn't even want to give me the time of day because of how I look?! Why does it matter at all what I wear or what color my hair is?! I have a degree from a good school, my Professional Engineer license, and over six years experience as an Engineer. I've had tattoos and piercings the whole time, actually I've acquired more of both in the last six years! Those things have absolutely nothing to do with how well I do my job or how smart I am!
Anyway, the reason Stuffed Shirt suddenly decided to give me a chance is because Rocky asked him to. Which of course made me want to cry for a whole different reason. Here is this guy, who I made a really terrible first impression with, going out of his way to try to change somebody else's opinion of me! I really don't know what I did to deserve such a good friend, but I'm sure glad I have him!
I think that's enough for part two. Maybe I'll still be on a roll and make a part three tomorrow ;)
Thursday, January 9, 2014
It's Been a While
Wow, first post in... well a really long time. So much has happened, but at the same time it's almost like nothing really has. It's hard to explain. Every time I thought about doing a post I'd think about all the things I wanted to say and I ended up getting overwhelmed and just didn't even bother starting. But today it feels like it's time to start again, at least with this post.
First, the easy things. One of the biggest is that my man and I are getting married much sooner than we expected. When I go home for the little one's graduation in June, we'll go to the courthouse and get hitched. We're still planning on having a nice "wedding" at a later date, which is a cause of some... contention for some people, but we're paying for it so we can do what we want (my man told me that when I was getting upset about it, I love him!).
Another thing is I was being considered for a position back home, but my boss here won't release me, so I had to withdraw my application. Apparently my boss really likes me even though I talk back to him, basically tell him he's an idiot, and I ignore him and do my own thing. *sigh* I knew it was a long shot, but still... I don't know what I was thinking when I accepted the position in Alabama in the first place, but I certainly didn't think it'd be this freaking hard to be away from my man and the little one!
So here's where things get long and complicated. A few months ago, about three I think, just as I was really getting the hang of how to do my regular assigned duties, my boss pulled me aside and asked if I would like to cover for one of the girls when she went on maternity leave. He said it was for a subcontract and since I've had experience working with subcontracts and whatnot he thought I'd be the one for the job. He also said that the work this subcontract was for wasn't on the schedule for almost a year, so I probably wouldn't have to do much for it at all. I should have seriously run screaming at that point!
My "training" for it started out with going to the weekly meeting and having NO clue what they were even talking about. The subcontractor, TPI, is to design, fabricate, and install something called metal reflective insulation or MRI (also called mirror insulation). Now this totally threw me for a loop because in my very limited experience with thermodynamics I thought metal is a seriously crappy insulator. So first they had to explain what exactly this stuff is. Basically if you cut it open it looks like corrugated cardboard (except made out of stainless steel sheet metal) and it doesn't insulate so much as reflect the heat back into the pipe it's on (see where the R part comes from?). So anyway, back to the "training" every time I asked the girl I was to be covering for what she did for the sub she basically said "not much really." What I couldn't understand is if there wasn't much going on, why did they have a full time person assigned to dealing with it?
Anyway, fast forward a couple weeks, it's still almost three weeks before she's due, so I wasn't really worrying about anything yet. Again, this should have made me worry. Late in the afternoon the day before our weekly meeting somebody came asking for the TPI person. I looked and couldn't see my gal anywhere so I said they could ask me the question and I'd find out and get back to them. Then I started thinking back through the day and thought I remembered her leaving in a bit of a rush. This is about when I started getting worried. The next morning, when she didn't show up, I started getting really worried. Then my fears were confirmed when somebody said she had gone into labor, two weeks early, and was at the hospital. Oh yay for me!
I've run out of steam and this is as good a place as any to break this into a two-parter, so you all get to wait for the rest of the story! ;)
First, the easy things. One of the biggest is that my man and I are getting married much sooner than we expected. When I go home for the little one's graduation in June, we'll go to the courthouse and get hitched. We're still planning on having a nice "wedding" at a later date, which is a cause of some... contention for some people, but we're paying for it so we can do what we want (my man told me that when I was getting upset about it, I love him!).
Another thing is I was being considered for a position back home, but my boss here won't release me, so I had to withdraw my application. Apparently my boss really likes me even though I talk back to him, basically tell him he's an idiot, and I ignore him and do my own thing. *sigh* I knew it was a long shot, but still... I don't know what I was thinking when I accepted the position in Alabama in the first place, but I certainly didn't think it'd be this freaking hard to be away from my man and the little one!
So here's where things get long and complicated. A few months ago, about three I think, just as I was really getting the hang of how to do my regular assigned duties, my boss pulled me aside and asked if I would like to cover for one of the girls when she went on maternity leave. He said it was for a subcontract and since I've had experience working with subcontracts and whatnot he thought I'd be the one for the job. He also said that the work this subcontract was for wasn't on the schedule for almost a year, so I probably wouldn't have to do much for it at all. I should have seriously run screaming at that point!
My "training" for it started out with going to the weekly meeting and having NO clue what they were even talking about. The subcontractor, TPI, is to design, fabricate, and install something called metal reflective insulation or MRI (also called mirror insulation). Now this totally threw me for a loop because in my very limited experience with thermodynamics I thought metal is a seriously crappy insulator. So first they had to explain what exactly this stuff is. Basically if you cut it open it looks like corrugated cardboard (except made out of stainless steel sheet metal) and it doesn't insulate so much as reflect the heat back into the pipe it's on (see where the R part comes from?). So anyway, back to the "training" every time I asked the girl I was to be covering for what she did for the sub she basically said "not much really." What I couldn't understand is if there wasn't much going on, why did they have a full time person assigned to dealing with it?
Anyway, fast forward a couple weeks, it's still almost three weeks before she's due, so I wasn't really worrying about anything yet. Again, this should have made me worry. Late in the afternoon the day before our weekly meeting somebody came asking for the TPI person. I looked and couldn't see my gal anywhere so I said they could ask me the question and I'd find out and get back to them. Then I started thinking back through the day and thought I remembered her leaving in a bit of a rush. This is about when I started getting worried. The next morning, when she didn't show up, I started getting really worried. Then my fears were confirmed when somebody said she had gone into labor, two weeks early, and was at the hospital. Oh yay for me!
I've run out of steam and this is as good a place as any to break this into a two-parter, so you all get to wait for the rest of the story! ;)
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