am I really….free????

Today was my last day at the Hell O’Rama!! It’s a very very strange feeling. I just realized yesterday that I’ve been there longer than any other job – seven years. My previous job was also my previous record  – five years. No wonder I feel like it’s been an eternity.  

It was a strange day. K was gone, and will be on vacation all next week. Which means there will be nobody in our office next week. Except our two wonderful and supremely capable student workers, but they’re just there a few hours each. K had vacation scheduled, and admirably refused to change her plans. Insane Boss was gone today too. She kept saying yesterday how sorry she was to not be there on my last day – I kept thinking, I am SO GLAD. Because she’d be driving me out of my mind all day trying to get me to move files and order office supplies and send stuff to Archives and help her look for things in her office. Instead of focusing on what was urgent, like getting licensure sent to Raleigh so people don’t end up waiting six months for their pay increases. And leaving all my stuff in some kind of vaguely logical order. I honestly think she has no idea how much work my job involves. Because nothing but student teaching exists for her.

I seem to be having trouble just walking away from it. I was all, "Just call me if you need to!!! Email me if you’ve got questions about anything!!!! Don’t hesitate!!! I don’t mind a bit!!!!" And I’m thinking they BETTER keep up that database I’ve spent YEARS on, tracking all the licensure!!!! They BETTER not let this paperwork sit around a month!! They BETTER not forget about those admission applications!!!

I’m sure that Monday any separation anxiety I’m experiencing will vanish.

I was there all day today. I’d thought I would at least leave a little early – but no! I didn’t even take a lunch. I worked and worked and worked. Which is a pretty good indication that they are doomed, when I’m having to work like that just to get caught up enough to be able to walk away from it. And I still left a number of things undone that I just could not get to. But… oh well!!! I was also trying to weed through seven years worth of stuff on my computer, deleting what I could – which wasn’t much, I just can’t delete anything – and moving stuff to the shared drive so Insane Boss and K can get to it if they need to. 

Naturally I realized after I got home tonight that I forgot to delete all my bookmarks. I deleted a lot of them days ago, but left some of my personal ones – including OD! I don’t leave myself signed on to anything, of course, but I did mean to delete them all. Oh well. I can’t imagine anyone is going to have enough time on their hands to figure out what diary is mine, and read it.

I don’t think it’s quite sunk in that…. I’m OUT OF THERE. I get to start a new ERA! That nightmare is over! And I’m pretty positive that at the very worst I may find my new job less than exciting. And I’m SO okay with that. All I hear is good things about that department and the people who work there. When I started this job, a number of people expressed horror. And would say things like, "Wow… that department has a very high turnover rate!!"

And of course every phone call I got today made me happier to be getting out of there. Like the guy who says, "Well I HOPE you can help me! I’ve been transferred five times!!!" And then tells me he needs to mail his licensure stuff to me, and he wants to make sure I get it because he’s mailed it several times and it keeps getting lost. I’m thinking, yeah, right! Of course it does! Because that address I have on the packet in big bold letters is the address straight to Licensure Paperwork Purgatory! And I’m sure you got transferred five times because you dialed my phone number which is right there in big bold letters too!

 And the woman who tells me she’s just graduated with her masters in Educational Media – so, on the line that asks what area of licensure she’s applying for, should she put Elementary Ed? Which she’s been licensed in since 1999?? Oh, why not! We’ll let DPI read your mind! THAT always works.

Oh, oh, and the Reading Ed person who, as is the nature of all Reading Ed people, did not read and comprehend her paperwork before filling it out, so not only filled out way way below the dotted line where it instructs them to STOP filling it out, but continues to fill out our part, listing a date a month earlier than her actual graduation date, and best of all under "Accrediting Institution" she writes, "Watauga County." Ummmm…..NO.

  I’m about to fall asleep over the keyboard – so I’ll leave with some pictures of the holes all around and inside our house. Oh, and the car is still in the shop. Of course. Today I talked to my Honda Place Buddy who was waiting to hear from State Farm so I called State Farm and was told to call another division of State Farm – the SC/GA claim division, I have no idea what I’ve been calling for all these other claims – and they told me they’d talked to the Honda Place Guy already – but she assured me she’d call him right that minute and tell him what to do. I think at this point he’s called them and they’ve called him for so many different problems that everyone is confused. I’ve just about given up hope EVER getting it back. And it’s another weekend without Stella. Waaaahhhhh!!!!!

Oh… ummmm, these are going to be teeny. Because this is the size they are on Flickr and it’s going to take all night to go into each one and get a bigger size. Because I’m on … DIAL UP!!! Well, this will give an idea.

Holes behind the house.

Holes beside the house.

Great big things sticking out of the wall in the basement. Which will be sawed off at some point. And I have to admit, I am VERY embarrassed by the basement wall. That really isn’t mold. It needs painting. Badly. Now I’m thinking, no wonder I hate going into the basement – it’s haaaaaarible!!

The hole in the "finished" part of the basement that awaits an anchor. And a great big pile of dirt on the floor.

Baker B standing on a chair trying to rip off the panel. Yes, not only is our basement disgusting and scary, we also have unsafe work habits!