his vision borrows mine

So things have such a strange way of coming out. It feels like this week has been reunion week. I should start yesterday at work. The managing partner sent me a rather nasty email, complaining that my reports were behind. (He basically got December’s reports yesterday.) I was rather pissed because I’ve been pulled in so many different directions the past month. First I was sick, then Chris was gone, so I had to cover the front desk. Then Susan quit, so I’ve been picking up slack there as well. Then the first day of the new year I started training Chris’s replacement, Sharon. She’s great, which is a relief. I have no worries about her working up there. But I still had to spend the week training her. Don’t forget the 1099 tax forms for the end of the year, the firm changing its name and all the other end of the year crap.

My job is one of those undefined jobs. I basically get crapped on alot. A project that should have been done yesterday will be put on my desk tomorrow and I’m expected to finish today. I don’t mind, but one big thing that is part of my job is covering for other people when they are on vacation or sick. I make sure they don’t come back to a stressed boss and a huge pile of backed-up work. But that also means that no one covers my work when I’m on vacation or out sick or too busy covering other people!

So, as I was busy doing other people’s jobs, my reports fell behind. I’m just this week finally catching up with reports from Christmas. And he has the nerve to get pissed for me not doing my job. I told Val and she just smiled sympathetically. I told her I was going to email him back and kindly apologize and explain I had been busy. She said good idea. She didn’t offer to go defend me or tell him to get the hell off my back, I’ve been busy. If it had been SED or JMF or SEE who was my boss and Art sent me an email like that, they would have gone up and told him to back the hell off, I’ve been busy. But Val just smiles and nods and tells me to let my steam off and continue to work. Unfortunately, my only option was to do as she suggested and kiss ass. I just wish that for once she would stand up and fight for me. I had mentioned I was going to stay late sometime this week to get caught up on everything else. I think she expected me to stay yesterday, but I had my first day of English class. It was snowy and icey and icky out, but DCC never closes. So I slipped and slid home, after receiving a nasty look from Val.

I was also late to class, compliments of the snow. I couldn’t find a parking spot and ended up parking on the road. I was even more late walking into class. Its a night class, so no one knows anyone else. They are all sitting at the tables with a nice comfortable space between them. Because I was late, there were no empty tables left and I would have to sit by someone. Thankfully I turned and saw Brian Douglas sitting in the second row. I was so happy to see a familiar face. The class went pretty ok. A lot of the teacher talking, but she seems pretty cool. The class doesn’t seem like it will be a ton of work. Well, it will be. A lot of writing, but nothing I can’t handle.

After class, Brian and I got to talking. He’s working at the local movie theater. He was promoted in about 3 days to a manager’s position and he feels totally out of his league. They’ve already fired all but him and one other manager. So the two of them are balancing schedules so that one of them is always there. And there are millions of problems going on there. I tried to help him out best I could. I talked to Julia and SEE today (labor department attorney) about some stuff and hopefully I can help Brian. He also told me about his psycho girlfriend. I told him to break up with her. Between work problems and the general stress of school (which he is paying for all by himself), he doesn’t need the stupidity of this girl making him even more crazy. He told him that he forgot what his parents look like, he never sees his brother and his girlfriend is driving him nuts. He hasn’t talked to anyone in days and I could tell. He had so much on his chest. I called him today and left him a voicemail. He said his phone was dead cause he hasn’t been home long enough to charge the battery. And even though a lot of the stuff he told me was somewhat upsetting, it was so wonderful to see him. I’m so so so glad he’s in my class.

So since I didn’t work late yesterday, I ended up working late tonight. It was actually a good thing. I was on a roll, getting a lot done and I didn’t really want to stop and go home. Usually at 5 o’clock I’m ready to end the day, but I stayed. I was going to stay until 7:30, but the other girl who was staying late wanted to leave at 7. They don’t really like having only one person left in the building, unless its the janitor. I didn’t want to stay with him alone so thats ok. It was probably a good thing she made me leave, because I was more tired than I thought. I called my mom on the way home to let her know where I was. Then I called Manny – no answer. So then I called Megan – no answer. Then I’m flipping through my phone looking at random people and Mike’s name pops up. I know I had kinda decided not to call him, but I thought what the hell. His phone is probably still off anyways.

He answered!

I almost drove off the road! Ok, so not quite, but still! He was so happy that I called. He said because he was gone so long, his phone got screwed up and he lost all his numbers. He was out on a ship, like I had guessed, and figured I hated him now. I told him I thought he was just out at sea and would get back when he got back. He was so excited that I had called. Probably more excited than I was to hear him. He said he was at his mom’s but maybe we could hang out later. He came over around eight o’clock. He’s changed. Besides the fact that he has lost some weight, he’s almost more reserved. He didn’t kiss me hello, although I didn’t know if I really wanted him too. It was really nice to just sit and talk to him for about an hour. He told me about the ship and saw my haircut. Last time he saw me, it was long and brown. Now its short and red. But he kept saying he really liked it. He was supposed to go meet Ali around 9 to buy a car for his brother. Well…..he didn’t leave until about 9:30, just before my dad got home. Good thing too. Very good thing. And he’s changed. He’s grown-up a little bit and he’s being more mature than ever. Its different, but a nice difference. We’ll see what happens. He still wants me to come visit him in Maryland when he’s there for school. I might. We’ll see what happens.

Between seeing Mike and the pot of coffee I drank, I had a little bit of energy. I re-arranged my room like whoa. Hopefully made it more work-effective. Putting my study stuff all in one corner with my oboe stuff to inspire me. I might actually make it into Fredonia for the fall. Imagine that! I could become a college student. How crazy can that be?

Just a day, Just an ordinary day.
Just tryin to get by.
Just a boy, Just an ordinary boy.
But he was looking to the sky.
And as he asked if i would come along
I started to realize-
That everyday you find
Just what he’s looking for,
Like a shooting star he shines.
<B