This is a story about two of the men i work with, Rob and John (names changed to protect the innocent).
Rob is the boss, but unfortunately not a good one. He is at the top of the totem pole of our department. John is a Patient Care Tech, or PTC. He is at the bottom of the totem pole.
Rob's demeanor gives us the impression that he couldn't care less about this job. He's not invested; it doesn't mean much to him. John is one of the hardest working people you will ever meet. His job might not seem illustrious or significant, but he does it with all his might. John has the attitude that if you are going to do something, you should do it well. John really is the backbone of our department.
There have been a few situations recently that have illustrated the difference in character of these two men. One example is Blizzard Day. I'm still mad at how my boss handled Blizzard Day. He showed no leadership, no planning, no thinking. He was just winging it. Blizzard Day was total chaos. There was not a clear method of communication with the staff or with our customers. It turned out that only about 7 out of 20+ people came to work that day. It was crazy busy, we had no idea what was going on, and each of us was doing the work of 4 people. As you might imagine, we didn't have time for a lunch break. One of the doctors ordered pizza, and it was made VERY CLEAR that the pizza was ONLY for doctors. The rest of us were strictly forbidden to eat any. My boss Rob happened to be sitting at the desk when my loudmouth co-worker Marlene walked up and said, "How come nobody told me we had pizza?!? Here i am starving with no lunchbreak and you guys have pizza!!!" To which we said, "Oh no honey, we aren't eating any pizza. It's only for doctors." She said to Rob, "Well where's our pizza?!?"
Rob said, and i only wish you could hear the tone of his voice (it was the tone of someone who is lying in order to look good), "Oh i tried, i really tried to order pizza for you guys, but no one is delivering today because of the snow."
We all knew that someone was delivering because there were three pizzas in the conference room at that very minute.
Rob just flat out didn't care.
John, on the other hand, after witnessing these events, snuck off to the cafeteria and bought more than a dozen cookies. With his own money. He brought them back, set them on the desk, and said, "I know you guys are really hungry so i got you some cookies. It's not a lot but hopefully it will tide you over for a little while."
It still brings tears to my eyes because it was so thoughtful. Here we have the man who is the least showing more concern than the man who is the greatest. The man who is the least was going above and beyond in order to help out his team. The man who is the least noticed a problem, and did his part to fix it.
Since that day, Rob has continued to be incompetent and making excuses for it. He FINALLY ordered the combo printer\copy machine we've needed forever, but he didn't arrange for anyone to install it. The delivery man took away the old printer (that didn't copy) and put the new printer-copier in its place, but no one from the Computer Nerd department set up the printer with the 3 computers. So we went from having a printer that didn't copy to having a copier that didn't print. Every day for 2 weeks, Rob assured everyone, "Don't worry! I talked to IT and they're sending someone."
Meanwhile, John continues to serve those around him. We have free coffee at my job, but it isn't good coffee. Personally, i ain't too proud for free coffee, but many of my coworkers are coffee snobs and refuse to drink it. They were spending a great deal of money on the Starbucks in the lobby. Someone found a really cool coffee-making contraption. I can't really describe it to you. It's sort of like a french press, but it isn't. I don't actually know what its official name is. The important features are that it doesn't use electricity, but it's easier to clean up than a french press. It doesn't take up much space. Anyway, Debbie is the ring-leader of the new coffee club. She brought the contraption and left it in the pantry for anyone to use. People take turns bringing in their favorite coffee. Once the coffee club got going, people started bringing in fancy creamers. Now a few people have their own mug, rather than the styrofoam cups. It has really blossomed into quite the sophisticated operation. The drawback though, is that it now takes up a lot of space. The benefit of the contraption was that you could store it easily. But now we have to store the contraption, several mugs, different brands of coffee, and containers of creamer. Well John is in charge of the pantry. He orders the supplies and keeps it maintained. He cleared off a shelf for all the coffee supplies, and sweet-talked the secretary into letting him borrow the label maker. He made an "Olson Cafe" label for the shelf and put all the paraphernalia there. Then he christened the new shelf by bringing his 80 year old mother's homemade pound cake, which is amazingly delicious with coffee.
I recognize that having a shelf labeled "Olson Cafe" doesn't sound like much to you. But if you could spend a day in my work environment you would see that it is a very big deal to us. In this job we have no voice. Our customers take advantage of us all the time. They yell at us, they make sexually inappropriate comments, they cross the line. Our boss and the people above him make strict rules without our input. They dictate how we do our jobs, when they don't actually know what our jobs are. So the Olson Cafe is the only thing that is our own. The Olson Cafe is how we take care of each other. It's how we share our generosity. Of the entire 6th floor, that one shelf in the pantry is the only place where we make the rules.
In the Olson kingdom, Rob is the greatest. But in the Olson Cafe, John is the king.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Can't Walk and Laugh at the Same Time
(The Professor kept getting cofused as to why this chair was always in a different spot than he left it.)
Another good laugh\fall:
Monday, April 18, 2011
I've Been Cheating On You
I have a confession to make.
I finally got my blogging mojo back, and now i'm writing for <gulp> another blog.
I'm so excited about this other opportunity, but i do recognize the issues with it. Namely, if i can't write regularly here, how the heck can i successfuly manage not-one-but TWO blogs?
Especially given my complete and utter inability to multitask. I cannot contain two differents thoughts in my head at the same time. You know how all mothers are supposed to be multitasking geniuses? I'm doomed. I can already picture the Big Nuclear Meltdown i'm going to have one day when i'm trying to cook dinner while the kids are running around the house and the tv is blaring in the background and the Professor just got home from work and Offspring #3 is crying because Offspring #2 hit him\her and I'm going to need everyone to JUST BE QUIET!!!
The good news is that we don't have a tv, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I'm trying to sort out in my head which thoughts i'll write on this blog and which ones i'll write on that blog. Rest assured, all the family life anecdotes and BabyGirl stories will still be here. And the tearful entries in which i try to process my own personal struggles will still be here. But i think that everything related to church, faith, and what it means to be a woman will be there. Or maybe when i write something particularly good over there, i'll just copy and paste it here. I'm not sure; we'll have to see.
Hopefully i've got you good and curious now, when i finally unveil what it is that i've been up to. =] I'm writing for the website of my church's women's ministry, RPCC Women. You'll notice that the design is much better over there, thanks to Molly and Laura! I only just finished the initial set-up two minutes ago, so tomorrow we'll start publicizing and garnering a readership. Then the real fun will begin.
I finally got my blogging mojo back, and now i'm writing for <gulp> another blog.
I'm so excited about this other opportunity, but i do recognize the issues with it. Namely, if i can't write regularly here, how the heck can i successfuly manage not-one-but TWO blogs?
Especially given my complete and utter inability to multitask. I cannot contain two differents thoughts in my head at the same time. You know how all mothers are supposed to be multitasking geniuses? I'm doomed. I can already picture the Big Nuclear Meltdown i'm going to have one day when i'm trying to cook dinner while the kids are running around the house and the tv is blaring in the background and the Professor just got home from work and Offspring #3 is crying because Offspring #2 hit him\her and I'm going to need everyone to JUST BE QUIET!!!
The good news is that we don't have a tv, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I'm trying to sort out in my head which thoughts i'll write on this blog and which ones i'll write on that blog. Rest assured, all the family life anecdotes and BabyGirl stories will still be here. And the tearful entries in which i try to process my own personal struggles will still be here. But i think that everything related to church, faith, and what it means to be a woman will be there. Or maybe when i write something particularly good over there, i'll just copy and paste it here. I'm not sure; we'll have to see.
Hopefully i've got you good and curious now, when i finally unveil what it is that i've been up to. =] I'm writing for the website of my church's women's ministry, RPCC Women. You'll notice that the design is much better over there, thanks to Molly and Laura! I only just finished the initial set-up two minutes ago, so tomorrow we'll start publicizing and garnering a readership. Then the real fun will begin.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Newest Tricks
If you looked at my to-do list over the past 3 weeks, you would see one item at the bottom that never gets crossed off: "blog". It's right under "go clean Audrey's place", which never gets crossed off either =].
My lack of blogging is one part busy-ness and one part writer's block. I have a lot of thoughts\feelings that i need to get out, but don't know how to go about it. We had the one-year anniversary of the best and worst day of my life, the birth of the BabyGirl. Lurking underneath the joy and excitement that comes with a baby's first birthday is a great deal of grief regarding how she got here. It's hard to juggle the juxtaposition of a beautiful BabyGirl and the single most traumatic experience of my life. I mean, how can you look at this:
and be sad? I certainly don't want to sound ungrateful to have such a happy and healthy BabyGirl, particularly given the fact that scores of babies around the world never reach their first birthday.
In honor of her birthday, i would like to document some of the things she's been doing recently. (Psst, this is the point where all of you non-grandparents can check out). The purpose of this is so that family members can keep abreast of what she's doing and so that I can remember it fondly in 30 years. Also, if i should die before the BabyGirl reaches adulthood, and am not here to tell her stories of her childhood, she can read this to know what an adorable and endearing BabyGirl she was, and how much i love her.
I should probably go ahead and apologize to my future children yet to come, because i doubt i'll have the time to write about every cute little thing they do. My blog posts in those days will probably read, "Offspring #1, Offspring #2, and Offspring #3 all survived from morning until nighttime without any major disasters or trips to the Emergency Room." To which someone will post a comment saying, "What about Offspring #4?" and I'll say, "What? There's a #4???"
The Professor frequently says, as if it's something he's noticing for the first time, "She's so little!" I always disagree with him. Mostly because she is off-the-charts tall. At her 9 month check-up, she was the height of the average 15 month old. So it was confusing to me that he would say she's so little, given that a) she's taller than 100% of the children her age, and b) she's a lot bigger than she used to be. But now that she's hitting the one-year mark, she is not a baby anymore. She doesn't look like a baby and she doesn't act like a baby. When you stop viewing her as a baby and instead view her as a person, then yes, she's so little! She looks too little to be a person! However, if you were to ask her, she definitely knows that she is her own person.
She has learned some new tricks recently, and they are very cute. She recently learned to "give me five." It makes her so happy that she can do it. When you say to her, "Give me five!" she does it, and then knows she did a good job, so she claps her hands to congratulate herself. Sometimes she gets on a roll and wants to show off all the things she can do, so she will give you five, followed by clapping her hands, followed by waving bye-bye. With a huge smile on her face throughout.
She can say a couple of words. She says kitty, night-night, Da-da, Whoa!, and [sort of] yea! She doesn't necessarily say them in the king's English, but we can tell what she means. She frequently tries to copy what i say. She does a good job of imitating my inflection. The other night i was putting her to bed. She was laying on the changing table and i said to her, "And now it's time for . . . [short pause while i opened the drawer to pull out] . . . JAMMIES!!!" She grabbed the jammies from my hand, hugged them up to her like a blankie, and said in the exact same tone of voice, "AMMIE!!!"
Currently she is fascinated with the wicker baskets in the coffee table. She learns a lot from them, so i'm happy for her to play with them. She pulls them in and out of their cubbies. She puts them on the floor and puts toys in and out of them. She pushes them around on the floor. She turns them over and sits on top of them. Her newest thing is using them as a stepping stool to reach items on The Professor's desk that she is not supposed to have, but is always obsessed with. She tries with all her might to lift them up and put them on top of the coffee table, but it doesn't work. She unfortunately is always holding them long-ways when she tries to do this. If she held them short-ways, she would get it. After repeated unsuccessful attempts, she gets mad and hurls the basket on the floor with a passionate "Uuuuuuugggghhhh!"
She LOVES a good game of chase. And she gets so excited about hide-and-seek. She likes to groove to a good beat. She's a tough competitor in a silly face contest. She will eat anything, which is not always a good charateristic in a baby. Her newest favorite snack is diced mango, but she still has a weakness for shredded cheese (not a surprise, given her family heritage).
She is our BabyGirl, and we love her!
My lack of blogging is one part busy-ness and one part writer's block. I have a lot of thoughts\feelings that i need to get out, but don't know how to go about it. We had the one-year anniversary of the best and worst day of my life, the birth of the BabyGirl. Lurking underneath the joy and excitement that comes with a baby's first birthday is a great deal of grief regarding how she got here. It's hard to juggle the juxtaposition of a beautiful BabyGirl and the single most traumatic experience of my life. I mean, how can you look at this:
and be sad? I certainly don't want to sound ungrateful to have such a happy and healthy BabyGirl, particularly given the fact that scores of babies around the world never reach their first birthday.
In honor of her birthday, i would like to document some of the things she's been doing recently. (Psst, this is the point where all of you non-grandparents can check out). The purpose of this is so that family members can keep abreast of what she's doing and so that I can remember it fondly in 30 years. Also, if i should die before the BabyGirl reaches adulthood, and am not here to tell her stories of her childhood, she can read this to know what an adorable and endearing BabyGirl she was, and how much i love her.
I should probably go ahead and apologize to my future children yet to come, because i doubt i'll have the time to write about every cute little thing they do. My blog posts in those days will probably read, "Offspring #1, Offspring #2, and Offspring #3 all survived from morning until nighttime without any major disasters or trips to the Emergency Room." To which someone will post a comment saying, "What about Offspring #4?" and I'll say, "What? There's a #4???"
The Professor frequently says, as if it's something he's noticing for the first time, "She's so little!" I always disagree with him. Mostly because she is off-the-charts tall. At her 9 month check-up, she was the height of the average 15 month old. So it was confusing to me that he would say she's so little, given that a) she's taller than 100% of the children her age, and b) she's a lot bigger than she used to be. But now that she's hitting the one-year mark, she is not a baby anymore. She doesn't look like a baby and she doesn't act like a baby. When you stop viewing her as a baby and instead view her as a person, then yes, she's so little! She looks too little to be a person! However, if you were to ask her, she definitely knows that she is her own person.
She has learned some new tricks recently, and they are very cute. She recently learned to "give me five." It makes her so happy that she can do it. When you say to her, "Give me five!" she does it, and then knows she did a good job, so she claps her hands to congratulate herself. Sometimes she gets on a roll and wants to show off all the things she can do, so she will give you five, followed by clapping her hands, followed by waving bye-bye. With a huge smile on her face throughout.
She can say a couple of words. She says kitty, night-night, Da-da, Whoa!, and [sort of] yea! She doesn't necessarily say them in the king's English, but we can tell what she means. She frequently tries to copy what i say. She does a good job of imitating my inflection. The other night i was putting her to bed. She was laying on the changing table and i said to her, "And now it's time for . . . [short pause while i opened the drawer to pull out] . . . JAMMIES!!!" She grabbed the jammies from my hand, hugged them up to her like a blankie, and said in the exact same tone of voice, "AMMIE!!!"
Currently she is fascinated with the wicker baskets in the coffee table. She learns a lot from them, so i'm happy for her to play with them. She pulls them in and out of their cubbies. She puts them on the floor and puts toys in and out of them. She pushes them around on the floor. She turns them over and sits on top of them. Her newest thing is using them as a stepping stool to reach items on The Professor's desk that she is not supposed to have, but is always obsessed with. She tries with all her might to lift them up and put them on top of the coffee table, but it doesn't work. She unfortunately is always holding them long-ways when she tries to do this. If she held them short-ways, she would get it. After repeated unsuccessful attempts, she gets mad and hurls the basket on the floor with a passionate "Uuuuuuugggghhhh!"
She LOVES a good game of chase. And she gets so excited about hide-and-seek. She likes to groove to a good beat. She's a tough competitor in a silly face contest. She will eat anything, which is not always a good charateristic in a baby. Her newest favorite snack is diced mango, but she still has a weakness for shredded cheese (not a surprise, given her family heritage).
She is our BabyGirl, and we love her!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I Would Make This Day Last For All Time
One of the movies from my childhood lexicon is "Babe". Yes, you're right, it is that goofy movie about a pig who thinks he's a sheep dog. It's a very sweet little movie. There's a song in it that touches your heart:
If I had words to make a day for you
I'd sing you a morning, golden and new
I would make this day last for all time
Then fill the night deep in moonshine
The lyrics aren't anything impressive by themselves, it's really the melody that makes the song so tender. I sang this song to the BabyGirl last night, and cried while i sang it. I had tried so hard to get home before her bedtime so i could be here to kiss her goodnight. But the CTA had other plans for me. When my bus came, it was so jam-packed full of humanity that not another soul could fit on. I had to wait 13 minutes for the next one, and those 13 minutes were the difference between seeing my BabyGirl and not seeing her.
Well, interestingly enough, the BabyGirl woke up crying around 9:30pm. As soon as i lifted her up from her crib, she snuggled up like she was melting into me. We sat in the rocking chair and sang her usual night-night song, "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus." The moment was so special that i just couldn't let it go, so i lingered there, rocking her and singing to her. This song popped into my head, and as i sang it I heard in my mind the words of advice from friends who had helped me out the day before.
The weekend was very, very difficult for me. An event occurred that brought me great sorrow. There were many tears. My old suffering and grief returned to me, and it was a heavy burden. Fortunately the Lord provided some great friends to help me through it. They patiently listened to me talk it out, they prayed for me, and they gave me important encouragement. They pointed me towards the things i have to be greatful for.
So as i sat there in the rocking chair with my BabyGirl, i heard Molly's voice saying: Your BabyGirl is healthy. She is happy. You have much to be thankful for.
I heard Sue's voice saying: Your BabyGirl is beautiful and joyful.
I heard Laura's voice saying: You are a mother that several of us look up to.
While singing to my BabyGirl, i was brought to tears, but this time not out of sadness. In the darkness with her in my arms, i thanked God honestly and sincerely for making me her mother. She is a blessing and a gift. My cousin Amy said to me, when the BabyGirl was brand new and i was bewildered\exhausted, "God picked you to be her mother."
I have learned that life is hard and full of pain. Yet now and then we get little glimmers of joy. Moments where we are so in awe that it doesn't seem real. Until Eternity, those moments are just moments. But one day they will last for all time.
If I had words to make a day for you
I'd sing you a morning, golden and new
I would make this day last for all time
Then fill the night deep in moonshine
The lyrics aren't anything impressive by themselves, it's really the melody that makes the song so tender. I sang this song to the BabyGirl last night, and cried while i sang it. I had tried so hard to get home before her bedtime so i could be here to kiss her goodnight. But the CTA had other plans for me. When my bus came, it was so jam-packed full of humanity that not another soul could fit on. I had to wait 13 minutes for the next one, and those 13 minutes were the difference between seeing my BabyGirl and not seeing her.
Well, interestingly enough, the BabyGirl woke up crying around 9:30pm. As soon as i lifted her up from her crib, she snuggled up like she was melting into me. We sat in the rocking chair and sang her usual night-night song, "Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus." The moment was so special that i just couldn't let it go, so i lingered there, rocking her and singing to her. This song popped into my head, and as i sang it I heard in my mind the words of advice from friends who had helped me out the day before.
The weekend was very, very difficult for me. An event occurred that brought me great sorrow. There were many tears. My old suffering and grief returned to me, and it was a heavy burden. Fortunately the Lord provided some great friends to help me through it. They patiently listened to me talk it out, they prayed for me, and they gave me important encouragement. They pointed me towards the things i have to be greatful for.
So as i sat there in the rocking chair with my BabyGirl, i heard Molly's voice saying: Your BabyGirl is healthy. She is happy. You have much to be thankful for.
I heard Sue's voice saying: Your BabyGirl is beautiful and joyful.
I heard Laura's voice saying: You are a mother that several of us look up to.
While singing to my BabyGirl, i was brought to tears, but this time not out of sadness. In the darkness with her in my arms, i thanked God honestly and sincerely for making me her mother. She is a blessing and a gift. My cousin Amy said to me, when the BabyGirl was brand new and i was bewildered\exhausted, "God picked you to be her mother."
I have learned that life is hard and full of pain. Yet now and then we get little glimmers of joy. Moments where we are so in awe that it doesn't seem real. Until Eternity, those moments are just moments. But one day they will last for all time.
Friday, March 11, 2011
We Interrupt This Prolonged Absence with Some Videos
Hi Friends!
Have you noticed that i haven't posted in a while? Me too, and I'm very sad about it. You see, I had to change my blogging priorities. In February, i had a certain quota i wanted to meet. I'm not sure what put it into my head that i had to write a certain number of entries, but I was very gung-ho about it. To the detriment of my housework. So in March, we changed the strategy. I had to tell myself that writing is a priviledge, not a right. You can't blog until all your chores are done first.
And that is why we are 11 days into March and I have yet to post anything. My chores just never seem to get done.
I was looking through my folder of videos to find a particular one to go along with a story i was planning to write. I couldn't find the video i needed, but i did find a bunch of other cute ones! My plan is to distract you from my lack of posting with some live-action BabyGirl footage. There are a few limitations to my video-ability that you should know about. Number One - babies do the cutest things in the whole universe until you get the camera out. Then they quit! It's so frustrating. The majority of my videos involve the BabyGirl doing some particular thing, then she notices the camera and stops to stare at it. Number Two - I haven't had the time to practice with any video-editing software, so i don't have the ability to edit out the part where she stares at the camera.
I hope you enjoy these, despite their amateur nature.
First Video: Blueberries! This was taken on January 29. At that point the BabyGirl had an adept pincer grasp, but you will notice that there are more efficient ways of getting things into one's mouth. =]
Second Video: Bathtime! There is splashing, of course. She likes to drink the water like it's a water fountain, and was doing it a whole lot until the camera showed up.
Have you noticed that i haven't posted in a while? Me too, and I'm very sad about it. You see, I had to change my blogging priorities. In February, i had a certain quota i wanted to meet. I'm not sure what put it into my head that i had to write a certain number of entries, but I was very gung-ho about it. To the detriment of my housework. So in March, we changed the strategy. I had to tell myself that writing is a priviledge, not a right. You can't blog until all your chores are done first.
And that is why we are 11 days into March and I have yet to post anything. My chores just never seem to get done.
I was looking through my folder of videos to find a particular one to go along with a story i was planning to write. I couldn't find the video i needed, but i did find a bunch of other cute ones! My plan is to distract you from my lack of posting with some live-action BabyGirl footage. There are a few limitations to my video-ability that you should know about. Number One - babies do the cutest things in the whole universe until you get the camera out. Then they quit! It's so frustrating. The majority of my videos involve the BabyGirl doing some particular thing, then she notices the camera and stops to stare at it. Number Two - I haven't had the time to practice with any video-editing software, so i don't have the ability to edit out the part where she stares at the camera.
I hope you enjoy these, despite their amateur nature.
First Video: Blueberries! This was taken on January 29. At that point the BabyGirl had an adept pincer grasp, but you will notice that there are more efficient ways of getting things into one's mouth. =]
Second Video: Bathtime! There is splashing, of course. She likes to drink the water like it's a water fountain, and was doing it a whole lot until the camera showed up.
Third Video: Waving Bye-Bye! This was taken on January 21. The BabyGirl didn't put two and two together that "waving bye-bye" means "someone is leaving". As far as she was concerned, it's just something fun you do with your hand. She gets the hiccups in this video, which comes as no surprise because she is the hiccuppingest person i've ever seen.
Fourth Video: Popsicle! Oh that face is hilarious.
Forgive me, i sorta got carried away there with the videos. I'm sure the Grandparents don't mind, but the rest of you were bored.
See you again when my chores are done (which will probably be in June) =]
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