Warning: long rant ahead
I thought I was going to have a stoke today. I was up too late again last night, as usual, so after taking the girls to school, I went home and took a nap. When I got up, I had time to eat, take a shower and get dressed for work, go to the pawn shop to pay interest, and get Kent lunch. Then I went to work. I got there about 12:30, which is normally plenty of time to do the two pages I do for the Sunday Lifestyle section. I do one page with "highlights" from various organizations, a couple of puzzles, and Annie's Mailbox. The other page is the Announcements: Anniversary, Birthday, Engagement, Wedding. Normally, Bill K. scans the photos for these. They are supposed to be done by Tuesday night, but he usually does them Wednesday night. I didn't work Tuesday, and Wednesday I just didn't notice that he wasn't there. I was pretty busy Wednesday night with five pages.

So, if I had known that Bill K. was ill, I could have (and would have) scanned those photos Wednesday night after the paper was put to bed and I was waiting to hear that all the pages were okay. Unfortunately, I missed out on that announcement, and although someone in the newsroom told a certain person that it "needs to be done," that certain person didn't realize the exact deadline, so they didn't get done. I realized this about 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, the day that I do the pages and they go to press. So, that left me with 15 photos to scan, which was totally unexpected. I was nearly having a panic attack. I have to leave work at 3 p.m. to pick my kids up and can't be back before 4. I was really freaking out, thinking about all the stress I was having because (apparently) this other person doesn't realize that if you don't get something done, it affects other people.

I got back to work at 4 and got the photos scanned, then started on Friday's paper. Finally, I could calm down. Part of the stress came from the fact that I missed a personal deadline of turning my timesheet in to the Student Success Center. I get paid to take notes and transcribe them for a student in my class. The deadline to turn timesheets in is the 20th of each month, and the check is sent on the 15th of the following month. So, now I won't get paid for my February hours until April. I had planned to turn my timesheet in after dropping the girls off and before heading back to work, but that plan died when I had to go back and scan the photos.

Part of my stress also stems from the fact that I think some things at work just plan don't work. There are three computers in the newsroom with Photoshop on them. Two are next to each other, one is at the desk next to mine. The person who was there quit, and I asked if that copy of Photoshop could be put on my computer instead. No go. I asked if a scanner could be put there. Also no go. Picture this: there are two computers in the old Pagination area that both have Photoshop. Another department got a new scanner, so their old one was put on the computer on the left, where there was already a scanner. The semi-new scanner is under the older scanner. You can't use two scanners at once, and if someone is on that computer, you can't scan at all. It doesn't make sense to me to see two scanners hooked up to one computer and someone's using it when I'm frantically going around trying to find a place to scan the darn photos! It's unreal. It didn't help that the person on that computer refused to move. Although I got back around 4, it was about half an hour before I could start doing the scans.

The rest of the evening seemed to go okay, except when I took my supper break. I wasn't watching where I was going, and my left arm was swinging a little and hit something hard. It hurts a little, mobility is slightly impaired by pain, and there's a definite bump. I'm going to see how it looks in the morning. (Wait, it is morning - well, when I wake up, then.) And, I should do laundry, but I think I can find something to wear... I hope... and the girls will just have to find some not-too-dirty socks... Good night.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Aunt Nancy's Green Cake

My Memories May blog train

So, it's been awhile