Improvements

Huzzah! Work is not insane! There are no items that haven't been dealt with in ages because I didn't have the appropriate information! No one is mad at me! This shows marked improvement! I may actually be made permanent in May, instead of getting the sack! Yay! *happydance* Okay, you wouldn't think I'd be so happy about keeping this particular job, given how I bitch, but frankly, Sourcebook Central 2.0 can ill afford to have me unemployed.

Incidentally, I never mentioned how Meet the Parents Week went. I mean, actually, it was Meet the Mothers week, but, you know, close enough. Mum positively adores dodgyhoodoo, which is nice. We basically sat, had drinks ("Smoking Parrot" chardonnay for them, lots and lots of black coffee for me) and did the "mad funny story marathon" that the Neilson women do so well. Mum even said that I could smoke in front of her if I wanted to, which made it easier to ... well, not. I know she hates it, and the least I can do is be respectful of her virulent anti-smoking deal. After all, she was at least tolerant of mine when I was chibi, and I was a lot more vituperative about it (well, I was seven, and seven-year-olds tend to be ... vocal). So all in all, it went well. The next "eek" is when my stepfather finishes the Neilson-Moore kitchen and we the denizens of Sourcebook Central 2.0 are invited to dinner.

Lunch with Mrs Hoodoo (or, as leopard_lady puts it, Ma Hoodoo) was a little more enigmatic, but also seemed to go well. She liked the restaurant, produced a box of chocolates as a belated birthday present for me (berating dodgyhoodoo slightly for not having told her when my birthday was until he announced that he'd given me a diamond for my birthday but you all know that story already...) and asked if it would be okay for her to accompany us to Covent Garden when we went on the hunt for bath and shower base gel. Which they had, incidentally, which proves that they only have it in stock when I come in. But before we got there, we had a look in Baldwin's (I prefer Neal's Yard; it's tidier, if more crowded) and, once we hit Covent Garden, had a look in the Teddy Bear Factory, where Mrs Hoodoo was just as amused and charmed as I was about the multitudinous outfits with matching shoes and things that you could get for your stuffed toys (they had roller skates. They had ice skates. Too cute to be allowed). We stopped at the Maple Leaf after that (not so crowded as I usually see it, but it was 4 pm on a weekday) and chatted and generally had a good time before we met up with Kate (Sister Hoodoo), who was taking Mrs Hoodoo out to dinner. The amusing aside was that, when we stopped to chat, Kate peered at me for a good two minutes with a very confused look on her face and then said, "Were you blonde the last time I saw you?" She was rather relieved when I said no.

I got an email from the prima mod of Hollow City today, asking for my 'revised' character sheet (though it really is just the original because I'm not allowed to spend any XP for two in-game days). And yet Grace is still stuck in Kaldi's Coffee Shop, asking Kid Mage about nuns. I'm starting to feel like Hamlet. ("Stepdad's a freak, Mum's a whore, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are probably buggering each other, still not king.") Still, I sent my current character sheet, asked if she needed the background as well, and generally played nice. I think the mun who plays Windy is back this week so when the US wakes the fuck up, maybe I will actually be able to roleplay. Argh, I like these people (particularly shadow_lynne, who loves to discuss her characters and how she's screwed them over about as much as I do) but I really did come here for the roleplay. Oh well, I will have patience.

The Other Reason I Hate Work

I am so unbelievably bored.

Honestly, there is stuff to do, but it's all fiddly stuff that I can do in five-minute chunks. I've sorted out the new papers -- all that needs to be done with them now is to attach them to an email to Peter and Hilary. I've sorted out most of the queries that have come up since I've been away, but since there weren't many (and at least one of them was Michael not being arsed to go through a folder properly, to wit: "I couldn't find the referee's opinion that the card says arrived." *search* "It was in the back of the folder." "...Oh. Right.") there's not much left. I have an hour and a half to do maybe twenty minutes' work.

Oh, and incidentally, I think Michael had an attack of the stupid last week. A second referee's opinion on a paper came in while I was away. Now, what I have to do with these is scan the two opinions, update the card and put it in the appropriate part of the T-card file, stick the whole thing in the the out basket and send the opinion (along with any others I may have two opinions for) to Ham-Fisted Editor and Lady Competence. Instead of quietly putting the second referee's opinion on my desk and letting me sort it, or just sending the whole thing to the editors and leaving me out of it, he did half the job -- put the second referee's opinion (sans cover letter) in the folder, put the folder in the out-basket, and updated the card, but didn't scan the opinion, send it to the editors or move the card. Then he scrawled some vague nod to what he'd done with everything on the cover letter and left that on my desk. Easy to sort out, relatively, but an absolute pain in the backside.

Get. Me. OUT. Of here.

*sigh* It could be worse. There could be chaos. I keep reminding myself of that as I watch the clock, contemplate eating the calendar and generally wish I was anywhere but here.

Still not king.

Blipdate

We had drinks and went out for best tempura in the city (that I know of). It was reasonably nice, except that we were both tired and cranky.

We came home. Cat was on crack. It went, "YOU'RE HOME! Pet meeeeee! Okay, petting done; feed meeeeeeeee! Okay, feeding done; pet meeeeeee! Okay, been petted, need the looooooo! Okay, all done; PET MEEEEE! Okay, petting done; let's trash the house!"

Still. Not. King.