Roller Coasters

I refrained from posting a frustrated post on Friday night but I think tonight I need to release a little of the emotional roller coaster. Don't worry, I promise it will be the cliff notes version.

Last week at work: highs and lows on projects (you already read about them)

Friday: busted butt on huge fires, left with an outstanding issue, no correspondence all night, and then whammo! a communication stating something was finally fixed but I wasn't around to verify it. Oh, that made my blood boil. I had my BB on me all night and not one single communication came my way asking for assistance.

Saturday/Sunday: only school work, no work work I was so peaved

Monday: ok day in general at work but I found out at the end of the day, the one person that helped us out on Friday and worked like a mad man to make things right was lectured about not doing a good job. WTF! Oh, it gets better. The higher power that insulted me is the one that insulted him by saying he must have had a communication problem. The guy sent emails every hour with statuses and we were physically talking to each other face to face throughout the day. He did not drop the ball. We have a broken process but the broken part is after things leave his hands. Wow. Talk about slap in the face to all that worked hard on Friday.

So...that leads to my class tonight. Only 3 students showed up. I thought there would be no way I could stretch the material an hour but I did and it was productive. They aren't talkative but they are good students. Too bad the other 11 didn't even show.

Yep, highs and lows all week long. Such fun.

Warning to All Beer Drinkers

Beer drinkers beware: Shortage to boost costs

Need I say more? According to a report on MSN, rising costs in fuel, aluminum, and a shortage of hops will contribute to the price increase. Maybe I should stick with wine or rum. Seems to be plenty of that around.

Life without Ryan

When I leave for work or vacation, Ryan usually has a fun packed schedule of all the things he couldn't wait to do until I left. I on the other hand, haven't done one thing out of the ordinary. I still got stuck at work later than anticipated and felt super guilty cause Annie had to go the bathroom really bad when I got home. I tried to make up for it by playing catch, giving her a treat, and filling her treat ball. Other than that, I picked up the kitchen and house a little and have been doing school work. Then early to bed to get back up and go to work. No need to feel bad. I just don't have a gazillion hobbies I want to do when Ryan isn't around.

I had just turned on My Name is Earl, blogged a smart ass comment on Ryan's blog about how he can use the internet on vacation but he can't call his wife when no sooner had I hit send, he called. Talk about Karma!

I really need to grade some message boards tonight. My mom will be here tomorrow which means getting a couple hours of grading in over the weekend is going to be tough enough. Time to quit blogging and get to work.

I Survived!

After yesterday, I was ready to call in sick today. Instead I headed in (a few minutes later than normal) to the office with full anticipation of a crappy day ahead of me. I hadn't even set my computer down and a VP was lurking around my office asking me about when my boss would be in (she flew in this afternoon). I wasn't sure what she was fishing for but this VP only comes around when she wants something. Right away I thought-busted for being 20 minutes late! Oh well, I don't take lunch and I knew I would be staying past 5:30 so I put my stuff away and opened my email.

Surprise number one: A student I helped out with a little worldy advice sent me a very nice thank you. I was told I am more than a teacher, I am inspiration. Made me tear up and put a smile on my face.

Surprise number two: Presentation to a specific group of people who were supposed to review a communication plan and three captivate tutorials for feedback had little to no feedback. That is good. Less rework and debating tactics.

Surprise number three: The three rescheduled training sessions went pretty good. The one school I thought would tear everyone apart had positive feedback. When I got back to my desk, I had a very nice thank you from a Dean who copied his VP and the Provost.

Semi-surprise number four: My boss saw me packing up at 5:30 and only kept me an extra 10-15 minutes. Normally it would have been an hour.

Final surprise for the day: Walking partner was easily swayed to skip walking and get Chipotle for dinner. Ah...what a perfect way to celebrate a long day of goodness.

Since Annie is pain in the ass, I knew my good luck would end sooner than later. After a game of catch, a rawhide base ball and several trips outside...she keeps talking to me. How much more can one spotted dog want from me? Obviously quite a bit more. She also thinks Ryan is coming home soon or hiding since she keeps looking for him. I wonder if she looks for me when I am gone. (note to the husband, even if she doesn't, tell me she does)

Frustration Day

Multiple times I woke up dreaming about work. I had 4 one hour sessions set up for train the trainer on a new product. I am half of the team working on this. My team created the training documents (after many rounds of revisions because the other team didn't have their crap together) and organized all of the training. The other team has been continually late on delivering their half (and when I say team, it's one person).

This other half, owed me a massive document and matrix on Thursday for help desk training in which he did not deliver. Friday, he didn't deliver on another communication. Today...I get a message from his boss that he is stuck on a flight somewhere and won't be in until noon. I rescheduled our 11am training session and asked her to clarify if being in at noon meant in the office or landing in Florida. No answer. At 12:45, I had to cancel our 1pm training session. Then at 1:30 he called to tell me he didn't get any of his stuff done and he wanted to cancel the remaining two sessions. I put my foot down-sort of. I cancelled the 2pm because that group would have been brutal even though the parts they would have scrutinized were his. I didn't want to sit through that awkwardness. I forced him to hold the 4pm. Like usual, some new surprises I didn't expect to come out of his mouth came out.

After a torturous hour of trying to act like we were a team and knew what each other was talking about it was over. I felt like a failure even though I know my stuff was right on the money. Tomorrow should be interesting. The worst part to this whole debacle is that the product goes live Wednesday and the part he was responsible for is no where near where it should be. Things that should have been done a month or two ago haven't even been thought of or touched.

Oh well, hopefully I will sleep well tonight and dream of him getting his butt wiped across the office floor for being such a loser and me receiving a cake in my honor of being so spectacular. I said it would be a dream! :)

Double G Day

That's right, it was a double G day. I know you are thinking what the heck does that mean. I got groceries today (with Ryan's help of course) and graded papers. I was trying to make it a triple G day but the items left to complete can't quite start with a G word.

I have a little prep work for tomorrow night's class and I should start my own homework for work. I doubt I will get to my own homework...I want to but darn it, it's the weekend and weekends aren't for working.

Sloth Day

Today was an official sloth day. I did clean the kitchen (magic scrubber pad thing is awesome!), cleaned my bathroom, and put my clothes away but that was about it. I watched all but one tv show that I had taped last week and have watched several hours of HGTV. I never did shower and I never graded any papers. I am thinking about going to bed and reading for a little bit before I call it a night.

Maybe tomorrow I will shower and leave the couch...maybe.

Partial Grading = Complete

I was able to grade all the people who didn't turn things in for last week and finished my discussion board grades. That just leaves me a hand full of papers to grade this weekend. Nice!

Not much for stories here except that Jazzy is becoming a lover. Yep, she actually got caught curled up next to me on the couch last night. Once Ryan said something she jumped down but she must have watched a good 5-10 minutes of tv like that. Soon she will voluntarily sit in a visitors laps...well, maybe.

To grade or not to grade?

I think I have posted a similar post in the past. It's 8pm and I just don't have it in me to grade discussion boards tonight. The only reason I think it's ok to bail on this idea is that I had another student withdraw from my class (actually, she was administratively withdrawn). I think that leaves me with 15 students and I know not all of them turned in their assignments or posted this week. I think I can squeak it in tomorrow night or Saturday.

Monday night class-drama

Last night I was excited to teach the HR unit that went oh so badly last time I taught. So far, no one had posted any comments on the discussion board that agreed with the idea that deciding against hiring the best qualified person because she was pregnant was ok.

About a half hour before class, I received an email stating there were technical problems with the seminars. I thought, oh great, this will be fun. Then I started receiving emails from the CTO and the Executive Director of the tech team about the issues asking me for some info. Ughh! I started my class and they were having problems while I was on email and aim with multiple students and co-workers. Then I got booted from class. Eventually I was able to log back in and started class.

I got through the lesson and it was a success because two students were very excited to participate (we created a mock job description, held the interview, and role played). The rest of the class were bums and didn't really get into it. We stayed online 15 minutes after our normal class would have ended to wrap up.

Just now I checked the discussion boards and there was a heated debate between two people about whether they were discriminating or not. One hurt the feelings of the other but I don't think he was pinpointing anyone in the class, just supporting his argument (which in my opinion was right). Damage control time-I had to remind them that everyone is entitled to their opinions, the discussion was good, and to remember to be sensitive to their peers. You would think they were 13 years old sometimes.

Next week is the economics unit-YUCK!

Blue Monday

Today was a rather "blue" day. I didn't feel like going to work today, I felt icky at work, and I wanted to strangle some people. Not the way I like to start my week at work. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Tonight on the other hand...I am teaching the HR unit that blew up on me the last time I taught it. I am going to try my same tactics and hope this class is more in line and less concerned about the discussion question. I will let you know how it goes.

Thank You Computer Man!

The computer man at work saved my documents! I gleefully picked up my pc at 12:45 today and it was in working order. During a very long meeting, I started to back my stuff up. It took me over 2 hours to complete it because 20 minutes into the transfer, it would find a corrupt file and I would have to delete it and start all over. That happened 3-4 times. I am ok with only losing a handful of files. I can deal with that.

I did not have a "Shannonigans" night. I decided that tonight would be the night if they told me today that it was unretrievable. Thank goodness the computer man found it, my liver thanks him.

My computer is at the hospital

Monday morning-before 8am. I get to work "early" and log onto my email. Hmmm...my pst's (personal folders) are all collapsed. That's weird. Let me try opening them. "You do not have permission to open this file." WTF?!? Reboot. Shit, I received the same error. Time to call the help desk.

45 minutes later, no love and a ticket was opened for me. I proceed to answer the few emails in my inbox. Then I need a file so I go to my C: Drive. Oh F-Me! "You do not have permission to open this file." Panic is starting to set in. I haven't backed up my C drive in months....oh shit! Everything is on there. EVERYTHING! Call help desk back ASAP.

45 minutes later (it's now after 10am), less love and they appended my original ticket. No sense of urgency from the man on the phone and he doesn't seem to understand I can't do my job without any of the files I have been working on for weeks! Panic is definitely setting in with the glimmer of hope it just says I can't access them, I can still see them.

At 11:15 I can't take it anymore and go to the mysterious door without a label. They let me in, I plead my case, they say they will take a look at it. Another 45 minutes later they tell me to go back to my desk they will call me in 15 minutes. Half an hour later, I go down to the room and am told to try it, it works. Uh, no! It doesn't work. Now all my files are opening with wingdings and say they are corrupt! Starting to feel nauseous, sweating, pissed, and not wanting to hear what they have to say next. I ask for a loaner computer.

30 minutes later I am at my desk with my loaner computer. It is an APPLE 2E, I swear. It was the oldest monster on the face of the earth in lap top form and runs slower than molasses in 30 below temps. I get pissed and switch to webmail which wasn't much faster.

4pm I get a call. Ummm...we need to keep your computer overnight. We haven't finished running all of the diagnostics and it isn't looking good. Ok I say. It's not like you want to push the man who might save your soul by being snappy with him.

Then the true moment of panic set in. I have class tonight! All of my seminar notes are on that computer. I know I backed up a couple months ago...it should have my seminars saved on the shared drive. Victory, I salvaged tonight's and the next 2.

Before I go into doomsday mode, I am holding a little hope out for them to save my documents. If not...the next couple months are going to be a witch at work and at home prepping for class again.

The only light at the end of the tunnel was that my seminar went well. Granted, I couldn't host my office hours since I can't load AIM or meebo.com on my computer at home. Not sure why but I was not in the mood to trouble shoot.

I sure hope tomorrow is better.

Lazy Saturday = Chore Sunday

Both Ryan and I were bums yesterday so today we have a few chores to run. One is for him to get a knee brace to play b-ball on Monday. I am deadset against it and think he needs to bail for another week or two until he is healed. I know I won't win this battle so in the future, when his shoulder goes out or he seriously injures his knee, just remember "I told you so."

Random note: Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet is a great show! I have heard so much about it. I had been looking for reruns to see what it was all about and yesterday I watched an episode. It is a great animal sitcom/soap opera. Unfortunately in that episode one of the main characters died. I had only watched that half hour episode and I was bummed for her and the Whiskers clan. Now I have to start DVRing it to keep up and make sure her babies are ok. I thought I was doing well not getting addicted to too many tv shows but it looks like I just added one more to my list. Thank goodness for DVR.

Grades and Outreach Complete!

I finished up my unit 2 grades today and completed a ton of outreach. It is raining on and off so I think I might snuggle up with a book on the couch, take a nap, or go to a movie. I could clean the floors but I think it can wait one more day. Laundry can wait too.

I put out some of my fall decorations last night. Maybe I will pull out the few halloween items I have. I used to be good at decorating for holidays but now the bin is buried in the closet and it is more work to uncover it than to just skip the decorations. I guess I will have to wait and see if I get a burst of energy.

11/20 hanging in there

I just graded the message boards for this week. With that and the quiz figured in, 11/20 are hanging in there. I still have the weekly assignment to grade (which might help some but it is going to take down others). YIKES!

I need to do some more outreach before the weekend. I guess when they open your class the Saturday before a Wednesday term start, you probably aren't going to get the super prepared or dedicated students. It's nice because I only half to grade half the amount of papers but the outreach takes up more time than grading the other half. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other...

Doh, Stupid Erin!

My class was going extremely well tonight. I was done with my content a few minutes early so I was shooting the breeze a little and asking for ways to improve the class. Then I get the wild hair up my butt to ask them if anyone had a clean joke. Well, you be the judge on this one. It went a little something like this:

Student: Why do women wear panties?
Erin: Umm...this better be clean.
Student#2 and #3: Why!?!
Student: Because it's the law in CA to cover all manholes!
Erin: Oh god-that's not clean!
Student: I am sorry, I hope I didn't offend anyone. I typed before I thought.
Erin: Next week, all jokes must be cleaner than that one.

So, I think before jokes are presented, they will be screened by me in advance. Lesson learned-never try to liven up an already productive and successful class.