Steno, oh how I miss you

I don't know how many times over the past year I complained about having to practice my steno, but I know it had to have been a lot.  I didn't like practicing.  Okay, I plain old hated it.  In fact, I hate having to practice anything.  But that's beside the point.  As much as I hated practicing, I absolutely LOVED steno.  I still do, and I can't shake it.  I know, dorky, nerdy, weird, whatever you want to call it, but it simply fascinated and excited me. The idea of writing not only single words but entire phrases in just one keystroke made me giddy!

"I can't recall" = KWRARL
"I don't remember" = KWRORM
"Did you go" = STKUG
"Do you want" = TKAOUPT
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury" = HRAEURPBLG

One stroke can say so much.

Last weekend, I blew off the dust that had been steadily settling onto my stenograph over the month or so since I had sat down in front of it, and I finally put it away.  I couldn't bring myself to do it any sooner.  It genuinely hurt me, almost like I was putting down a long-loved pet.  No, I didn't cry, but I felt nostalgic and, yes, a little empty even.  It was a very sad day for me, and I guess I'm still in mourning for my loss.

It's a mystery to me

I see this all the time while I'm driving into work in the morning: a woman on the phone, usually not a man, also driving to work, obviously engaged in the most engrossing conversation of the entire day.  Wait a second--it's like 7:30 in the morning.  What could you POSSIBLY have to talk about at 7:30 in the morning???  How are you even functioning well enough to drive amongst sleepy-eyed, barely-awake motorists who could hit you at any moment due to the joys of sleep deprivation?  I don't get it.  Is it me?  I mean, what is so important that you have to carry on this conversation first thing in the morning, while you're DRIVING, no less?  I just pray you don't shut down 76 East because you couldn't wait until, I don't know, lunchtime maybe, to hear about how Stacy and Bobby hooked up last week and he never called her back, and how Linda and Joe are getting a divorce, and how Donato is cheating on Antonia, all while you side-swipe the sleepy dude in the car next to you while you're trying to change lanes, because hey-how'd-my-exit-get-here-so-fast, causing a ten car pile-up.

Twice as nice

I think not. 

This one is just going to be my rant. 

I absolutely LOVE doing my work TWICE because people just don't know how to COMMUNICATE or do their RESEARCH before giving me an assignment.  Thank you for wasting my time and shitting on my day. 

Love, Okim

Perpetual Headache

It seems I've had this headache for months now.  I did have a little respite from it for about a week, probably a month or so ago, but my head has been on a rage lately.  Stress, not sleeping well, insulin, bad allergies, none of that helps at ALL, let me just tell you.  I went to the acupuncturist last night and he stuck one of the needles in my forehead.  It didn't hurt or anything, it just felt like there was a piece of paper sitting on my face.  Sound annoying?  Yeah, I'd say.  Did it help?  Somewhat.  But I think him crushing my skull and bruising my neck to get to some of the points "more gently," as he put it, helped more, though.  More gently?  Shit, if that was gentle, I'd hate to feel "firm."  Maybe what he really wanted was just to feel up my weird-shaped head.  More on that in a later, separate post.  For now, I'll just try to crush my own head.

Problem-solving skills...or lack thereof

I work with a lot of young people.  I am 37 (I know, so ancient, right?), and most of the people I work with are in their early-twenties, so for a lot of them, this is their first "real" job out of college.  Ugh, I remember those days of greenness and the 30-somethings would roll their eyes because of some alleged faux-pas I committed.  Whatever.  I try not to be that way.  I don't roll my eyes, no.  But I do get pissed off.   Not at little things, like an honest data entry error or not remembering how to do something (unless I've already told you like four times).  It's when people don't put on their thinking caps and TRY to figure things out, even simple things, for themselves.  It's like they need to be told everything, what to do, and how to do it.  Am I your mother?  Do you need to have your hand held to cross the street?  Should I change your diaper?  I do need the practice, after all, if I intend on becoming a mother.  I have the perfect example of what I'm talking about.  True story:

A letter needed to be mailed out, so I put the envelope, ready to go (all it needed was a stamp), on the 20-something's desk.  I put a post-it note on it that said, "Please stamp and mail out today."  I found the letter back on my desk a few days later, not even the next day, with a new post-it note on it that said, "We don't have any stamps."  Uh.  Okay.  WHAT????  You have GOT to be kidding me, right?  I'm the type of person that can't hide her feelings well, even on paper, so I wrote in the angriest of letters, "If there are no stamps, then GO TO THE POST OFFICE AND GET SOME."  Here's a newsflash for you: you're the receptionist--that's your JOB!

See, this is what I'm talking about.  I had to tell her what to do.  Okay, maybe I yelled at her on paper.  I probably could have been nicer about it, but I was pissed.  You left this letter on my desk for three days because there weren't any stamps in the office??  Come on.  Any 30- or 40-something would have known to go to the post office, wouldn't they?  And don't get me wrong, it's not because she's dumb.  She is FAR from dumb; in fact, she's very bright and picks up things very quickly.  But unfortunately, she is cursed with what most of her generation is cursed with: no problem-solving skills.  I don't know what's changed in the curriculum since I graduated, but clearly our colleges and universities need to institute some sort of class that teaches the ability to think outside the box, or better yet, to just THINK, period.  Or maybe a class in pure common sense might be good for everyone.