get off my back.....

alright, so I said I'd post every day.

bite me.

OK, here's the situation. (my parents went away on a week's vacation....sorry, couldn't resist..)
In my office, there are 9 sales managers, and 3 sales assistants. Mathematically, we get 3 apiece.
My colleague, Jojo (also an asistant) left the hotel a while back. She assisted the Director of Sales and the Director of Marketing, so the position is SLIGHTLY higher than me and my other colleague. Well, they asked me if I was interested in taking over for Jojo - I thought about it a little and I decided to go for it. In the meantime, they started a search to replace me.
In the midst of all this was Jojo's last day. They eventually found someone to fill my open slot, but the girl couldn't start until the 10th (yesterday).
Total time elapsed from Jojo's last day, and yesterday when new girl started?
28 days.
So, until she started, there was only 2 assistants.
And unfortunately for me.... the other girl who works with me is VERY sweet and nice, but doesn't work very fast, and the other salespeople don't trust her with their stuff. So, rather than stuff being spread out, she took care of her three, and I took care of 6.
One of the six is a brand new sales manager, who has a question or needs my help about every 5 minutes it feels like.
There's another gal in my department, who does a bunch of sales reporting and analyisis. Some of the reports she does are mundane, but they need to get done every day.
She has a family issue and needs to be out every friday and monday in April. In fairness, they spread her duties out, but I (of course) got the one thing she most trusted (the one thing that she didn't want to get wrong)
I'm touched by all this love, and I won't lie when I say my ego swells when I know that I'm very needed....but I'm dying here.
I'm trying really hard to be positive and a "team player".
Mostly, I'm just laying low because once the new gal is up to speed, I will actually be working for the 3 sales people who are the lowest maintenance.
(did I also mention that I have to help TRAIN the new girl too? )

• 3 extra sales people
• covering for the sales analyst while she's out for 10 total days this month (plus I hear she may take an additional whole week at the end of the month. wonderful. )
• answering all the questions of the new sales manager
• helping train the new sales assistant
• PLUS I have work to do for the 3 sales people I'm actually SUPPOSED to be working for.
• oh......and I answer the phone all day.
• we also take turns covering for the main receptionist out front for her lunch. We rotate weeks. last week was my week.

Did I mention that I ALSO opened a show last week?

I went from that work situation each day last week, and rushed over to the theatre, and was there until 10ish and do it all again the next day.

That was my Monday through Friday last week.

I didn't have time for blogger.

sue me.

It's a good thing I actually like all the people that are involved or else I'd have already taken out the AK-47 and gone to town.

I need a drink - anyone buyin'???

nothing new

I don't have any interesting CTA tales for the day, so instead I will reference an GREAT old CTA story from back in December 2004.

Read on for the craziness........

http://allthingsdianna.blogspot.com/2004/12/most-surreal-train-story-yet.html#comments

i've been away a couple of days

sorry, faithful readewrs... it's been hectic at work, and since that is my main blogging locale, i've been remiss for a few days.

Let me recap the commute week -

Monday - not bad, pretty busy on the train in the morning and had to do the "sit next to the person I don't want to" for the whole trip. Oh well, at least I got to sit. Going home, no issues.1

Yesterday - Commute in, I left the house 15 minutes early so I'd have time to swing by Walgreen's. I needed a couple of things, and then I had passes to see a movie last night and I wanted to get snacks before O got there (one of those first come first serves screenings - they're usually at 8, but this one was at 7, so I didn't want to DALLY after work, you know?)We sat in between Addison & Belmont for about 13 minutes, so there went my extra time. dammit.
So, to the theatre and going home from the theatre I took the bus. My main irritation with the bus (and I have MANY) is the multiple ringers.
Let me 'splain.
You're approaching your stop, and in preparation for this you pull the signal ringer. It makes the distinctive "ding" to alert EVERYONE ON THE BUS that someone else is getting off, so if you need to get off too, there's no need to pull the chain. However, for pretty much EVERY STOP, once someone pulled the chain, and it went "ding", there's was an average of 3 more FRANTIC pulls on the cord
"I didn't hear the ring - why didn't I hear the ring?"
And these are people with no headphones on, not talking on their cellphone, they are simply OBLIVIOUS to whats going on around them. If they were driving, for crying out loud, would they not hear people BEEPING at them?
retards.

Today - I spent 10 out of my 13 stops listening to REALLY LOUD U2 music. 10 minutes of which was some extended-club mix of "even Better than the Real Thing", which was then promptly followed by my ceremonial one millionth listen of "Vertigo"
Hurrah! sing it with me! "Uno, DOs, Tres, Catorce..."
Actually, don't sing it with me... I want it gone from my head.
She got off at North/Clybourn...we pull out of the station and after about 30 seconds slow to a complete stop and hear the dreaded "disabled train ahead - we'll be holding until the train clears"
happy Wednesday.

Thank God there's a new episode of LOST on tonight, or I may kill myself.

seriously?

today - a man almost sat on me.

what a way to end the commuting week.

sonofabitch.....

i am such a dumbass

today's rant is ALL directed at myself.

So, my usual mode of CTA payment is my lovely 30 day pass (just the regular one you buy at the store, none of this "chicago card " crap.....)
Anyway, it prints the expriration right on the back, and I've been going through this week under the impression that it expired some time on the the 17th.
This morning I put it in the slot and get "see attendant"
I've gotten that message before - my card is expired.
I flip it around and it says "expires 725 pm march 15"
yeah, thats LAST NIGHT.

I needed to buy a pass soon, so I had the money, no biggie.

Here's the complication. I live near one of only 3 red line stations that are not situated right over a currency exchange (dammit!!!!!)
SO, I have to walk around the corner and up the street to the Dominick's to buy a pass from the customer service. This would have been a fast transaction, were it not for the woman at the front of the line sending money via western union.

moral of the story is I was only 8 minutes late puching in at work, which isn't bad, considering.

dianna = dumbass

ho-hum CTA

today was actually a pretty boring an uneventful commute - I will, however, post a story that my friend Michael told me today about HIS commute:

"Here's a CTA story for you. This morning I get on the bus and at the next stop a woman is waiting but the driver blows on by. I say "Sir, I think that woman wanted the bus". To which the driver replies "She was walking her dog". Which makes my mouth drop open as I say to him "Sir, she's blind. That was a seeing eye dog". Numbnuts."

classic.

for the love of Pete, MOVE!!!!

Tuesday's CTA rant

This is a 2-pronged rant (get your mind out of the gutter Brownlee).

Rant, the first
folks, you take the train EVERY DAY, you get on it every day, you exit it every day.....why then is it so hard to decide where to go?
Case in point, today, as I exit the train at Grand, the woman directly in front of me exits the train and once she's on the platform, she comes to complete stop --- to the point that I almost plow right into her the back of her high-priced-but-overly-bulky North Face parka. There wasn't any reason for her to stop - she just....stopped. Retard.

Rant, the second
I hop to the side and try and side-step the bulky-coated hesitant retard. I shake my head rather than say what's on my mind (expletives only, I assure you...). I head toward the escalator, and head up the left side, which day after day is always the side you head for if you want to walk up the escalator - as I do. If you'd rather stand still, traditionally, people always move to the right. This is usually the case..... except when people forget the "move to the right" rules.
The most common thing is NOT someone who wants to stand still staying on the left, it's usually someone who'd rather walk UP the escalator somehow making to the right side, and then when they realize they aren't moving, the push over to the left so they can walk up....and of course hold up the REST of us, who k now they want to walk up and are SMART ENOUGH to position ourselves on the left side from the beginning.

until tomorrow, my lovely readers.

(*disclaimer* - the people I refer to as "retard" - I call them this because the mentally handicapped and developmentally disabled are SMARTER than these people. I would never deign to refer to developmentally disabled as retarded. They're smarter than that.)

New ideas.....

I decided a couple of days ago that I need to resurrect my Blog. The poor thing is dying a slow death. The problem is that I find LJ to be a quicker way to post info and catch up on other folks, so I tend to neglect my Blog.

Not anymore.

Not only will I be updating every day (cross fingers), but I'm going to EXCLUSIVELY use it to air my CTA commuting stories.

Every day, a new story. Some will be happy, some sad, some FRUSTRATING...
(the CTA? frustrating? shut up....)

Onward & upward -

The only thing from today's commute that stands out is an adorable moment I shared with a woman on the train. Since I get on the train so far away from downtown, I'm always able to get a seat. Once we get to Belmont, though, the train just PACKS in with people. So this morning, this woman comes on and is practically pushed into me due to the creush behind her. This makes me look up from my book, and I notice that she is about 7 months pregnant. I immediately pop up and ask "would you like to sit?"
She smiles and says "I would, if you don't mind?" -- and I say "not at all - please do.."
So she sits, and I become part of the crush. Not a normal thing for me on the WAY to work (coming home, different story), but it wasn't awful, just tight :)
We travel all the way down to Chicago Avenue, and she gets up to exit the train. On her way past me, she lays her hand on my arm, and smiles and says "thank you so much for letting me sit". To which i responded "no problem"

Well, it was nice to post a nice story to start with. I'm sure that will change.

Stay tuned dear readers!

(now, I;'m off to try and remove those awful google ads I put in ....)

a kleenex tale

(cross-posted from my LJ)
I’m going to tell you the tale of a vacuum cleaner.

A very important vacuum cleaner.

Back in 2000, I was living in Chicago (for the first time) and living with one of my closest friends, Jenn. We had known each other and had been close since pretty much the first day we met, which was back in January of 1994.
Well, in trying to be more “adult” and purchase practical things for the apartment, I bought this Bissell vacuum cleaner. Not the best vacuum cleaner, but it was over 100$, so that was a lot for me back then….
About a year later, I picked up and moved back to Massachusetts, and when I did, I inadvertently left behind a couple of things. The dish set that was a going away gift for me & Jenn, a mixer I liked and simply forgot…. and the vacuum cleaner.

We have since joked over the years about how “it’s right in our closet, if you ever want it back” and I would always protest and say no worries.

Jenn had started a theatre company just before I moved back to Massachusetts in 2001, and when Sara and I moved BACK to Chicago, it was natural to ease into becoming a company member of that theatre company. I’ve been a company member for over a year and a half now, and I’ve grown to view my fellow company members as family. That being said, due to the emotional and raw nature of the art we do sometimes, much like family - we don’t always like each other, and sometimes conflicts arise.

We (the company) decided over this past weekend that in order to have any hope of moving forward as a theatre company, we needed to let Jenn go from the company. The reasons are there, and it’s not my place to discuss them in a public forum. That being said, though, all of our company’s props, costumes, lights, etc, have always been stored in Jenn’s basement. She requested we remove all of it within 48 hours, which we agreed would be the right thing.

I’m the only one with a large enough “common” space in my basement, so all the stuff is now slated to reside at my place. The rest of the company emptied out Jenn’s basement last night, and then they met me at my place, where we started to unload the truck as fast as we could.

and then I saw it.

tucked in the back of the truck, unnoticed by the rest of the company….

the vacuum cleaner.

my heart fell.

and I knew.

we’re done.

I knew that we didn’t have a good chance to recover our friendship from the mess of the theatre company stuff, but I did have a grain of hope.

not anymore.

I don’t even need the vacuum, but I also can’t bring myself to throw it away.

*YAWN*

9:37 am
i'm awake. i guess i can't complain considering Mace being woken by the construction noise at 6:30....
I'm hungry. i should make some brekkie. I hacve the tools to make a variety of things, but I'm not sure what I actually WANT.... so here I sit --- contemplating breakfast.

Only 5 more performances of the show. Thus begins the most frustrating week and a half....
I guarantee you, we'll have plenty of empty seats this weekend, and then NEXT weekend, for closing, ALL the people who haven't seen it yet SUDDENLY remember "shit! I have to go see the show!" and we end up selling out, and having a waiting list, and turning pople away.....
folks - come during the middle - come the weekend BEFORE closing. If you come closing weekend, you may not get in. This happens with EVERY SHOW IN THE CITY.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind selling out - we could certainly USE IT, it's the people who don't end up making it in.... it's sad.

oh well - I can't change the way people think....

*******************************************

there's a possibility I may need to go to Providence, RI to attend a training session for the hotel. As Providence is only an hour or so from Boston, the ability to actually see people and hang out while I'm there is very high.
Plus, who can complain about maybe being able to see he very last of the fall foliage on the hotel's dime? :)

i love embarrassing videos of me....

in the interest of ALWAYS being able to poke a little fun at myself....

My old pal Paul Bisson recently converted a bunch of his old camcorder movies he took of some wonderfully embarressing college cast parties of ours onto DVD, and he sent me a link to one....

he posted it publicly on his LiveJournal, so who am I to not share that with the rest of the world?


Bear in mind, folks, that this video is 7 1/2 years ago, and I'm a terribly immature 23 (and obviously can't hold my wine)

Enjoy - Happy Halloween


http://www.livejournal.com/users/alex7000/21142.html

great e-mail

Myf friend Molly headed down to New Orleans a few weeks ago, and she just got back and sent this e-mail.
thought I'd share.....

******************************************************************************

Hey Folks,

Just thought I would let everyone know that I am back from Louisiana safe and sound. I think I am experiencing a little culture shock right now, but am doing fine and am readjusting to normal life after one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I spent 2 1/2 weeks working at the River Center which was the largest shelter in Baton Rouge, housing 7,000 people at it's peak, the large majority of whom were from the superdome (Some had been sent to texas and then evacuated back to Baton Rouge when Rita was about to hit). The other large portion of our population was from St. Charles which is west of New Orleans and was Flooded during Rita.

The last week and a half I drove a truck delivering water MRE's and other food stuffs to shelters allover Louisiana and a few just over the border on the coast of Mississippi. I have rolls of film of the area but this crappy dial up connection won't let me attach any of them so maybe later

The people I met are some of the strongest and most inspiring folks in the world from the New Orleans evacuees, the families of Waveland MS, who are now living in tents where their homes used to be with a dignity that is undescribable, the local volunteers who not only took evacuees ionto their homes in Baton Rouge but spent several days a week volunteering to work at shelters and drive trucks, and my fellow Red Cross volunteers who have the most amazing capacity for companssion and self sacrifice.

If you have any questions about my experience or want to know how to help, donate money or time or especially just write or call to say hi please get in touch. Missed y'all!

XOX

Molly

congrats

(cross - posted from LJ, etc)

Dear Chicago,

From "my" Sox, to "your" Sox.

Congrats.

Nothing quite like taking 2 curses and getting them GONE 2 years in a row.

(Cubbies? are you listening? you're next...)


Sorry, Houston, your winless streak just wasn't long enough to contend with the hunger of these players.


Congratulations, South-Siders....

You deserve it!

Love,

Dianna

google ads

so I've decided to try out the Google ads. I figure a couple of bucks wouldn't hurt (if any one CLICKS on them that is!)

holy CRAPPPPPPPPP

(cross-posted from LJ)
::dianna's jaw DROPS to the floor::

The pre-sale starts tomorrow for the FIONA APPLE show 12/4 at the Riv.

oh.
my.
god.


::picks jaw up off of floor::

ok, who's coming with.... Jo, I assume your ass is there... :)

a new page

dealing with living alone was weird....

dealing with being single will be weirder...

baffled.....

how do you nominate someone for the "highest court in the land" who has NEVER BEEN A JUDGE BEFORE??????

Red Sox just clinched the A.L. wild card.....

amen, sistah....

::sigh::

I need a vacation

FINALLY

after what was probably the LONGEST turnover process KNOWN TO MANKIND......

i FINALLY turnedover my keys to my landlord last night (the new folks should be moving in as we speak..... talk about waiting till the last minute)
I frankly allowed him to walk over me a bit in some sposts mostly because I JUST WANTED IT TO BE OVER.......

i mean, the apartment looks better than it ever did while we were living there (except for the boring kitchen, which had to be re-painted - NO MORE RED KITCHEN! boo hoo!) - so, I don't know what his big deal was.
he's such a schmuck.

This whole episode just verifies the fact that my number one goal in my life is to save money aside this year so that I can MOVE THE HELL OUT.


There's a pal of mine here at work who is transferring to Houston in a couple of weeks, and he was telling me about the apartment he's rented. (and BTW, I'll miss him terribly)
it's in an apartment "community" kind of like a subdivision - he's a 10 minute walk to the hotel he'll be working at, and the place is a duplex, 2 bedroom, yadda yadda....
$800 a month, dammit.

makes me REALLY want to move out from the clutches of my landlord....

(not that HOUSTON sounds attractive, just the apartment price....)