Domestic Geek

This really has been the longest work week ever. It shouldn't because we're really busy, but having the Friday supervisor there everyday makes every day seem like Friday, yet Friday never comes. I also agreed to work overtime this weekend to get extra cash. If we would stay busy enough between now and my Vegas trip that I could get OT every week, I'll make it.

We lucked out last night, though. The Friday supervisor lives two streets away from us in the same park. The transformer that supplies electricity to her street blew and they were in the dark for over six hours until crews could replace it. Of course, I had no clue this happened until she asked me how I liked the heat last night. I was totally confused by her question and she thought we were in the dark, too. Six hours without my Internet connection? Don't think I could bear it!

I try not to complain about work much anymore because compared to other jobs, there's really not a whole lot to complain about. Unfortunately, there is one big problem. I hate it when my supervisor goes on vacation. The person who covers for him is the Friday – Sunday supervisor and when she's there on Monday, it feels like Friday and that makes for one hell of a long week.

I forgot to mention this, but yesterday my supervisor was hinting about something happening in two weeks. He said something about help coming for the archiving part of my job. I couldn't get him to elaborate, though. Am I being given more responsibilities? Will I get a raise? I don't know and it's driving me mad!

What sucks is I can't pester him all next week about it because he's going to be on vacation. Dang it!

Keep your fingers, eyes and toes crossed that it is a raise. A big raise.

So, last Friday was SysAdmin Appreciation Day and I tried really hard to drum up support for the holiday for Marcus. Unfortunately, I work with dolts.

First, I went to Marcus' immediate supervisor to get permission to decorate his door and to get her to drum up the day with the rest of the staff. Well, she didn't bother to tell me that she was going to be on vacation for most of last week. Hmph. Turns out she didn't bother to tell anybody before she left, either.

Then I talked to my supervisor and told him we should celebrate for Marcus and the prepress tech guy. It totally slipped his mind (so he says). Nevermind that I wrote it on the CALENDAR that he looks at every darned day.

So, Friday I stopped at 7-11 and bought him one of his favorite canned caffeinated coffee beverages and proceeded to decorate his door.

Apparently nobody I work with learned how to read. All day long, people wished Marcus "Happy Birthday." After a while, he got tired of telling people it wasn't his birthday. Others thought the mini CDs in between words in my HAPPY SYSADMIN DAY banner were letter Os. I thought they might have trouble with the banner, so I printed the sign at work that morning with the URL for the SysAdmin Day site. Clueless...the whole lot.

At least Marcus knows one person in the building truly appreciates him.

[more photos in the SysAdmin Day 2007 gallery]

I was floating on cloud 9 for a little bit at work today. A couple of week ago, I was asked to design a cover for a client's catalog. Here is the email the CSR sent my supervisor today (yes, she apparently has a punctuation problem):

Hi -

I have a Huge Compliment for LaDonna in pre-press - every year myself along with The lucky pre-press person get to design the cover of this catalog. The customer gives us a picture and tells us to go for it - Well, LaDonna did a great job The customer is extremely happy and says this is the best cover ever Please let her know how happy the customer is and thankful to her for her expert design work

Thanks,
XXXXX

One of my co-workers said such emails go into our files at work. I have some ammunition to ask for more money come raise time.