outta here

I think I’m too exhausted to be excited by the fact that I’m ….off for the next week!!! And I didn’t really make up my mind about what I was going to do until today, so I’m still finding it kind of shocking to realize I’m taking the whole week off. We’re all off for the Easter holiday on Monday and Tuesday (yes, we’re weird – most people are off Friday and Monday but the college has always taken Monday and Tuesday) and ages ago I’d said I was going to take the rest of the week off as well because we were planning to go to Charleston, and the 13th is our anniversary. Well, since it’s supposed to be ridiculously cold this weekend, even in Charleston, we decided to postpone our trip.  So I went back and forth over should I take the days off anyhow or should I take Wednesday off and work the rest of the week or should I just not take any extra etc etc etc. Finally decided last night that the hell with it – I’m taking off. It’s a good time to do it, at least for me. I am kind of caught up on all the major chaos, and everything else can wait. And in no time at all it will be graduation and Licensure Madness will begin, so I better take the time while I can. It certainly isn’t like I don’t have LOTS of vacation built up.

So.. no more office lunacy!! It’s been very tense around here, so I’m very very glad to be escaping for a few days. New Person J and Insane Boss have been outwardly cordial but on the brink of snippiness with each other. They did have a talk in her office early this week but I don’t think it did much but make them even more annoyed. Insane Boss told J. that people think she’s rude to them, and that one of the supervisors overheard her call him "high maintenance" (which is IS, and we ALL call him that but none of us think it’s even remotely possible that he overheard her), and that everyone else in the Dean’s office overheard the argument they had the other day. Which first of all couldn’t be true as the only one – beside me- within hearing distance was K’s student worker, and second of all, if it WAS true it’s Insane Boss’ fault for standing in front of J’s desk and arguing with her. At the point voices began getting raised, Insane Boss should have said "Let’s step into my office" and they should have shut the door.

My point being we suspect her of making things up to keep us in line. I’ve had my suspicions based on other things she’s said. J says she goes through the stuff on and in her desk when she’s not here too. I’m sure she’s going through mine as well – my stuff is such a mess that I’d never notice. PARANOID!!!

And now K is in big trouble because she’d initially said she was taking today off, then decided Wednesday that she’d also take Wednesday afternoon and Thursday off. And didn’t mention it to Insane Boss. Who looked as if her head was going to explode when she asked where K was, and we said she was gone till Wednesday. And I have to say, that was not a good move on K’s part. And I don’t know why she did that. And for once I don’t blame Insane Boss for being ticked off. But I’d say there will be a showdown Wednesday. That I would really rather not be around for, being Ms. Non-Confrontation and all.

Okay, speaking of confrontations, I’m about to go have one with whoever the hell is in the copier room making ridiculous amounts of noise. And let me just say, this has gone on all day long. BANG BANG BANG CRASH SMASH BANG CRASH BANG. Along with YAK YAK YAK YAK at the top of the lungs. My desk is right beside the copier room wall, where there is also a door going between our office and the copier room. Totally unusable as my desk is up against the doorway, but it results in our being able to hear every single sound that goes on in there. "Us" as in ME. I don’t know if the copier is being more obnoxious than usual today or what, but ALL DAY LONG I’ve heard slamming and banging and smacking and then things hitting the DOOR, and it’s driven me so crazy that I finally put up a sign in there. That says something along the lines of "Please refrain from slamming, smashing and kicking the copier, as it is VERY annoying to the occupants of the adjoining office." That’s sure working well. That’s working so well that a few minutes ago I went and turned it off and locked the door – it’s Friday afternoon before a four day break, what’s with all this heavy copier usage??? So naturally here comes someone back, unlocking it, turning it back on. At least they were quiet and didn’t slam things around and scream on their cellphone. About all the stuff they were doing the night before with their "date" which was WAY more than ANYONE outside http://www.porntales.whtevr needs to know and certainly far more than I wanted to hear, and yes I DID get to listen in on that some time back. Which causued me to put up another sign letting people know that we DO hear everything that goes on in there. That got taken down fairly quickly, but still gets talked about in our office.

Okay, it’s nearly time to go. Leave the copier freak to whatever it is they’re doing in there, which apparently involves copying War and Peace.

We’re going back down to Morganton tomorrow to see yet another Baker B niece – a total surprise. This one had a baby last summer – their first, and they are in their late 30s and got married right after they graduated from college – and we’ve never seen it. Neither has Baker B’s mom, and we’ve been trying to drag her to Baltimore, where they live, for a year with no success. Wednesday I get a phone call, and it’s the niece – they are on a roadtrip, and are in Bristol Virginia (of all places – I still am not too sure why) and are going to be in M’ton this weekend. So it’s a good thing we postponed the Charleston trip. We’ll probably go down tomorrow and come back Sunday, then I’ll go see my parents Monday. So I’m not going to just be lying around watching soaps and eating bonbons on my days off.

I never posted any more pictures from our last trip to House O’Weirdness, so why don’t I do that?

My mother in law is Queen of Creepy Dolls. They are EVERYWHERE.

This is, sadly, a little blurry. I may have to try it again this weekend. It’s in one of the downstairs bedrooms. Looking at the bed. Which is where the above Creepy Doll is lounging.

A closet upstairs. This house is old and full of closets, and they pretty much all look like this. I’d kill for this kind of closet space, and my MIL fills it with 15,870 pairs of shoes and 894,536 handbags. And a bunch of cake carriers.

Little Lamp, Lurking Doll.

Frightening closeup of Lurking Doll.

<img alt="" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/444958263_36fdccf255.jpg?v=0&#8243; />

Winged…thing…on the front porch. I’m sure it’s very effective for scaring off burglers. It sure scares ME.

The shed, with flying wheelbarrows and what looks like a portal down there towards the floor.

From inside the shed. I’m a little obsessed with the shed. Okay, I’m a LOT obsessed with the shed.

Through the window.