Last Day

Today was my last day of work at the Boys and Girls Club. It was definitely bittersweet. I'm going to miss those kids, but I'm not going to miss some of the drama or the running around. The price you pay to work with kids for nine months. ;) Also, I can't post pictures with faces, but I did want a couple on here, so these are two shots of the kids playing with sidewalk chalk on our last day. The boys are drawing Dragonball Z characters while the girl is starting on a flower that ended up being larger than her. I'll miss them!

I love my job :)

In case anyone was wondering, my job is with an elementary school, after hours, as a "youth staff developer" which is a fancy way of calling me an underpaid teacher for kids. :) My co-workers are pretty stinkin' fantastic and everyone has been super helpful and considerate while I've been pregnant. And (as all you teachers can back me up on this) while some days are a lot harder than others, I love going in and seeing my kids every day. The only bummer of the job is that I can't take pictures of faces. Boo.

One of the 'classes' I teach is arts and crafts. Here are a couple of shots of my kids working on some origami last week:





These are three turtles and a monkey (I made the monkey):

Dear body,

I'm super grateful that I was able to find some part time work to do, but why did I have to wake up this morning (my "first day") with a temperature of 99.7°? Especially when my normal temperature is closer to 97.7° or 97.8°?

Sick Day

It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the workday goes, since everyone in my office is sick, Although it is pretty funny to listen to the sounds and hear lots of sniffling among the typing . . .

"Cub hobe"

Yeah, you know what that means, don't you?

I bet everyone calling in to work today is LOVING me because I'm able to enunciate and speak clearly and loudly even.

::giggles like a maniac::

::coughing fit ensues::

Pride cometh before the fall . . .

Last Friday, the toilet at work stopped up. I'd never tried to unclog one before, so I actually had to google instructions on how to do it correctly (since everything I was trying was failing). Finally, after watching a vid and reading an article (yeah, isn't that weird?) I was able to get the toilet to cooperate and empty itself. I found this one of the high points of my Friday, so I proudly shared with my roommates and sister.

Of course, today, after the repairman came for the fact that it was leaking every time it was flushed (a problem that's persisted for about two weeks) and gave it a 'once over,' the toilet stopped flushing properly again. Boo-fail. (I did 'fix' it again just now. But I'm going to be humble and hope that that keeps it fixed.)

Here's hoping.

I have the weirdest stories . . .

I was perusing my old e-mails (I've neglected my hotmail account so long that I had 48 pages in my regular inbox (I'm down to 25 now!)) and found this gem of a story:

So, the phone rings at work and I answer like I always do--"Creamery on Ninth, Naazju speaking, how can I help you?" And it's a guy wondering if we've gotten his application and can he get an interview? "Let me connect you with one of our managers." So I go down to the office and tell Anna she has a phone call. All the managers are there (they are actually in the middle of doing interviews) and I'm great friends with all of them, so I stay and chat for, like, two minutes while Anna is on the phone--and we kind of listen in. He's aking her what the job description is, what kind of perks you get (the only one is 50% off of our meals up to $5 a day--whopee), etc. Finally, he asks something like, do any Hispanics work there? Anna responds, "yes, we have a couple, and actually, one is sitting right in front of me, her name is Naazju, would you like to speak with her?" So she hands me the phone and says, "I think he doesn't understand something and wants it explained in Spanish." So I say, "this is Naazju, how can I help you?"
"Were you the one that answered the phone earlier?"
"Yes, I am."
"Oh, I thought you might be Hispanic, because you said my name correctly." [It's Pablo Gutierrez]
"Okay."
"Well, I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime."
"What?!" [Please note that I really did say that into the phone and my co-workers teased me about it for months.]
"I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime."
"I guess so."
"Great, I have an interview there on Friday at 7:00, would you like to meet me at 7:15? Then we can eat there [yeah, at my work!] and your manager says you have, like, a coupon or a discount? Like, a 2 for 1 deal? We can use that when we eat." [Yeah! My discount at my work!]
"Um, okay, I'll see you on Friday."
So I'm worried about it all week long--I mean, he's weird and I've never met him, and I'm teased about it all week long and everything. So I sign up to work on Friday night at 8:00. I figure that's a good 45 minutes, and if *I* want the date to continue I can just say something like, "I'm really sorry, I have to go to work, but we can hang out again tomorrow," or something really lame.
Friday night rolls around and I'm in the office with the managers waiting for him to show up. 7 o'clock. 7:15. 7:30. 7:45. Nothing. He missed his interview AND his date with me. Lol. I worked, it was good, yada yada.
The next Tuesday, I get a phone call while I'm not at work. My friend Annie answers it. It's Mr. Pablo (as we affectionately call him at work). He wanted to apologize for not coming in on Friday for the interview OR teh date, and gave his number to Annie to give to me so I could call him and we coul talk and set something else up, because he (thankfully!) has no other way of reaching me, except through work. Annie accidentally threw the number away. :)

Aw, yeah. I had completely forgotten about Mr. Pablo until I ran across that e-mail. Also, just to put it in perspective, this e-mail was sent just less than five years ago. :D But the story took place about five years ago exactly (it was right in between summer and fall semesters at the Y). And I'm still giggling! :D

A shoe by any other name . . .

Today was cleaning day at work. I know, you're thinking, 'dear heavens, Natalia, stop talking about how you have to clean in heels all the time. Yeesh.' Well, today's entry has a surprise twist: I was in slippers for cleaning day! Apparently the pattern is just that I have to be wearing a weird kind of shoe to work to inspire cleaning. Also, the quiz of the day was matching authors to books I got a seven out of ten.

(And, for those of you who are confused, the reason I am wearing slippers to work is because I went on an hour and a half walk up to the temple yesterday to be alone with my thoughts and wasn't thinking about the fact that I was wearing heels until halfway through my journey. Fifteen minutes later, I was walking home barefoot, but the damage had been done.)

Vacuuming in heels

You know. Cuz it's tradition. :)

Seriously?!

Sometimes I fear for the human race.

I mean, they should really rename the term "common sense" because it seems like almost no one is born with it anymore.

Andrea Bocelli's got nothing on me!

I would just like to say that being in an office all by yourself, while nice, is still very, very lonely.

Unless you start belting opera. :D

Goodbyes suck

Having moved more than once or twice in my life, I'm used to having to part with people.

But sometimes it just really sucks to have to say goodbye.

Some situations, while "normal" and completely expected, are still sucky goodbye moments.

Sucky.

Hot, Salty Tears

I am frequently amazed at how happy I can be and how quickly someone can take that away, or vice versa.

Two examples:
1. Yesterday was a pretty crappy day. Some stuff happened at work, my sister was trying to drive through a blizzard, other life stresses were going on. Mild consolation: I got to cook for people. I love cooking and baking and I especially love feeding people. I was grateful that it was my turn for dinner group. But it wasn't until my visiting teachers came over at 9 pm that I was truly able to turn my day around. I will forever be grateful to Jessica and Kathryn for their visit last night and for soothing my soul. They have no idea how empty my spiritual vessel was and I could never express or explain how much they helped. The rest of my night was amazing.

2. As you may have noticed, the previous blog was only posted about an hour and a half ago. I was thrilled. On cloud nine. Doing mental jumping jacks. Knowing world peace could happen. Then, a series of phone calls at work where a "phantom customer" couldn't be found among three sister companies finally got thrown in my lap, even though I tried every way I could think of to find out which company this person could call to get results and ours wasn't it. Twenty minutes full of yelling, personal fiery darts, sarcastic comments, thinly-veiled threats and a complete misunderstanding of how much we actually did the for the customer later, I finally hung up the phone and began to sob. I just had to run and hide in the bathroom because a customer walked in and I couldn't stand to face her with puffy eyes and salty tear trails still visible on my cheeks.

It's amazing what one person can do. For good or evil. Please choose good. Know that I am trying to consciously trying to choose good, too.

"I'm not dead yet!"

The last couple of days have been interesting. Usually when I'm sick, I'm out for a bit (generally 24 hours or a week, depending on what I get). However, this time, I was up and down a lot. There'd be a couple of hours where I could hardly move due to the crazy throbbing in my head and then, suddenly, I'd feel fine enough to get up and cook. Or, my favorite, when I suddenly couldn't stand to be cooped up in my own apartment and suggested to Clark that we go on a walk and really only made it as far as the manager's office before I thought I was going to fall over (it's a good thing we picked up contracts and he was expecting his family a couple of minutes from then or I might have had some serious issues).

But, even though I haven't been feeling my very best, I AM grateful that I got sick. Why? Well, mainly because it gave me an excuse to rest--I know I've been needing that for a while. But, also, it helped me realize what good bosses I have. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they were very understanding and insisted I stay home and get better (or leave early, as the case may be).

You don't know me . . .

* shiver * Sometimes the technicians I have to work with over the phone are so *weird*. And hit on me, which is creepy, because I've never met them.

At least I'm consistent!

There is a sweet older gentleman who calls in to our office every other month, or so, and he analyzes voices as a hobby. He tells me my voice is crisp and clear, has a lilt (which implies friendliness) and I say things in a sure manner, which helps people believe me. Every time.

Huzzah!

How much of a coincidence is THAT?

Today a customer came in and winked at me.

Three times.

I'd rather sleep, thanks.

I have to work Thursday night. I think it's time to break out the bubble wrap that I saved. :(

Customer Service

I think my least favorite phrase right now is "I know it's not your fault, but. . ."

This phrase completely negates itself. In fact, you should have stopped at "fault." No, it isn't my fault. No, I can't fix it. No, I can't make the people whose fault it actually is fix it. There is nothing to be done so please stop yelling at me.

At least when I was at Wal*Mart on Monday night to pick up the new Rock Band (which doesn't exist in UT county as of right now) with my friends and the employee was telling us he didn't know where it was we didn't blame him. On the downside, he kind of blamed us.

Everyone in this world should have to work a customer service job for at least 3 months. And "renew" their "I've experienced the crappiest of crappy experience" license every 5 years. Then maybe peace and goodwill could exist between us all.