A typical Monday conversation with UR. ❓❗️ (Mondays are not our friend).

*come Monday morning, confusion from last week and the weekend have culminated*

UR: I need to talk to you about some billing.... one of us have messed it up pretty bad.
Me: Ok.... what's the project name?
UR: Ok.... me, I have it messed up. Let me just go get it, I'll be right back.
***ten minutes later***
UR: Here it is. I have this amount, but the subcontract has this price. Why do we have AIA's that say differently?!
Me: Because there was a change order increasing the original contract amount to what we have billed.
UR: But, not everything has been billed.
Me: Yes, it has. You're missing a invoice.
UR: Oh.... that makes more sense. So, what about these other two projects? Have all three been billed out? I'm needing to know to make sure that I haven't gotten any projects criss-crossed.
Me: Let me check on all three of them. I'll need to look in our system and then pull some bills and I'll let you know.
***ten minutes later***
Me: Yes, all three projects have been billed out complete. I sent the company all the billing between November and December.
UR: That's great! Thank you!
Me: You're welcome. Anything else?
UR: Yeah, quick question.... why did we bill the jobs out complete when we have haven't even started one of them?
Me: ................ UR: ................ Me: ................... UR: .......................

How I'm really feeling the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

I have yesterday's hair and no make-up, BUT I showed up to do payroll AND wore pants. So basically, they should just be happy I managed to crawl in here.

However, I don't wanna drag myself out of bed (or in the interest of full disclosure, off the couch where I passed out) and I think this look of exhaustion and bewilderment is permanently stamped on my face for the day.

Maybe even the entire week, depending on how it goes. And sure, after tomorrow I'm off for FOUR WHOLE DAYS, but I have to make it through today and tomorrow to get there.

Can I even do that? You know, drag myself around for almost 48 more hours? Who even knows at this point. You may have to go on without me. We shall see.

UPDATE: It's now Wednesday and I'm literally about to walk out of work (UR is letting me off about 1 hour, 45 minutes early), and I made it. I'm still being incredibly dramatic (let's be honest, incredibly dramatic is just apart of my general personality), but I did in fact make it through.

Now, if you'll excuse me.... FOUR WHOLE DAYS.

Danielle has a new color-coordinated system in place and I'm going with it.

Today is finally Friday and Dani and I have done no less than four dances (albeit, TERRIBLE dances) to celebrate.

Y'all, it's just been one of those weeks. And I think you all know what "one of those weeks" means. It means that it's been long, exhausting, we were in a state of general confusion, were convinced that all day Thursday was in fact Friday (and extremely irritated once we realized that wasn't true), and people are extra annoying.

Not to mention I had to take a "personal" day on Tuesday to handle some business downtown and somehow threw my week off by at least three days. Dude, how in the hell do you take one day off and it feels like you worked an additional three? That is math that doesn't quite add up and I call bullshit.

Anyways, I have mentioned here and there that we have made some changes (and by "we" I mean Danielle has wanted to reform everything and I go along with it, because she's my boss and I don't have energy to argue.... plus, they're all really good and effective changes) and at times we've been at our wits ends. In fact, there have been days where we've wanted to jump out the window.

But, she finished developing one change today and I have to say, it may be my favorite yet. And it's not my favorite, because of any particular reason, except HOW she came up with this system.

You see, at our company we have three(3) Project Managers and we have to keep in line all threes separated billing. And while that doesn't seem like a big undertaking, let me just go ahead and let you in on the fact that our company was founded in 1966 (we do all commercial work and usually it's Hospitals, Government, and Museums) and has NEVER had a system for that.... until the last couple of years.

We've been learning as we go and it has been quite the process.

For one particular area of it, Dani has decided to color coordinate our three different Project Managers and finished her "development" of it this morning.... Roger is blue, Steve is red, and Chris is green. Seems simple enough, right? Oh, it is. It's going to be a very easy system to deal with, maybe the easiest one yet. Now would you like to know how she decided to pick the colors and why she chose them for the easiest way for her and I to remember it?

Roger is blue.... because Roger usually wears a blue shirt. Steve is red.... because his hair is "practically" red. And Chris is green.... because that's his favorite color. I. Shit. You. Not. Once she told me this and I laughed she said, "yeah, it seems silly, but now you'll never forget it!" And she's right.... it's too damn hilarious to me to forget!

Here's to the weekend. Cheers, y'all.

Christmas 2017: a company party, a three-day weekend, and lots of wine.

Remember on Friday when I was contemplating running away to join the circus? Well, you'll be happy (or incredibly sad) to know that I didn't join the circus, but it's still an option that I'm keeping open.

Friday was our annual Company Christmas Party and they decided to do it a little differently this year. Usually we have the party in our warehouse (we rent heaters and tables), but this year they (and by "they" I mean UR and Dani) decided to have it elsewhere.... so we rented the back room of a brewery in downtown Indy.

There were some other changes made too, but mostly we're sticking with location and food on this one.

I would like to go on the record of saying that usually we freeze our asses off at these parties. Yes, we rent heaters, but it's the end of December in Indiana, heaters or not.... WAREHOUSES ARE F*CKING COLD. And then we usually end up ordering and picking up wings, pizza, etc. There's a whole lot of setup and teardown involved and it usually ends up being alot of trouble.

But this year the only thing we had to do was rent the room, choose the food, buy the drink tickets and show up. (And we did minimal raffles like usual). Aside from the little snafu of them not realizing that our party was scheduled from noon to three (they had us down from three to six), it went smoothly. And no worries, they quickly set things in motion for our original party time.

We all proceeded to drink, talk, laugh, play darts, and find Where's Waldo? It lasted for a couple of hours and once everybody was ready to get out of there.... we just left. Because we didn't have to clean or put away ANYTHING. We just left. Which is probably my favorite part of it all (aside from getting lost on my way home.... don't ask).

And yes, my family had a nice Christmas. We went down to Aunt Poot's and Uncle D's for Christmas dinner (that we eat between noon and one) and exchanged a couple of presents and Momma and I came home. It was a three day weekend (with another one on the horizon!) and it was mostly just me, Momma, and Tayder chillin' at the house and getting alot accomplished in the way of settling in. That was my favorite part.... the "chilling" part. It was a good weekend. A cold one (it's about eleven degrees outside this morning), but a good one. (I forgot to take pictures of Christmas itself).

Merry Christmas and all that jazz that most people say at this time of year.

We had our annual company picnic. (Almost two weeks ago).

(And promptly wanted to punch like twenty people in the face).

I've mentioned in the past about our "annual company picnic" and shared random pictures from the events since I started working at my current job. Nothing too big or anything, but like I said, it's been mentioned.

Almost two weeks ago (oops) on October 10, we had this years. Ever since Aunt Susi made Dani and I responsible for them, we've held them more towards autumn instead of the usual June/July (because we took a vote and the vote was: Dani and Katie- 02 vs Everybody else- 00. In other words, we were tired of sweating so much, so they didn't get a vote).

We had discussed not having one at all, because attendance over the last five or so years has been low. And no, it's not just me, I haven't even been here that long. The employees just seem to want to do other things and if we're being perfectly honest with each other, most are jerks. So, you know, there's that.

This year was no exception. Besides Dani and I (with three people that we brought between us, I brought Momma and Dani had her husband Chris that works with us and her little girl), Tony and his son, our other warehouse guy, Uncle Roger (with Aunt Susi- she invited Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob like every other year) and Aunt Poot and Uncle Darrell (he's retired from our company), there was five employees to show up.

FIVE. And only one of them (a guy brought his wife and three of his kids) had family with them. Oh, and one guy brought his wife. That's it. Apparently the majority of the other guys were trying to "make a statement" by not coming. Well, they succeeded. I don't know what "statement" that they were trying to make, but the "statement" that was received was-

"Whatevs. All of us there had a real good time; We ate tasty food and treats; Had our pictures drawn by a caricature artist; Laughed and painted pumpkins. If you didn't want to come, that's all on you. But, jokes on you in the end, because we all took home the leftovers and they, too, were delicious."

And the President of our company decided to put them (the company picnics) off from now on. And probably also our Christmas party. Why? Because all of that shit is expensive as hell and a shit ton of work, and since the ones of us that plan it (i.e. Dani and I) don't care if we have it or not, we've decided no. While we all had fun, it's just too much money and work to have that small of a turnout.

And we're (again- Dani and I) perfectly ok with that. Afterall, that's just time that we can have to do what we really want. (Like drink and watch tv).