Introducing Our Neighbor

I sit here, watching The Hobbit with Boyfriend, enjoying our house. Things are hung on the walls (most of them). We have tons of eggs in the fridge thanks to our chickens. We're learning to remember where things are in the kitchen. Boyfriend cleaned up the garage the last two days. The wood we've gotten is 6split and stacked.

While we are enjoying our new house, there is one thing we are not enjoying. Our neighbor across the street.

It began the week we moved in - their dogs barking incessantly. One night, they barked non-stop keeping Boyfriend up between 1am and 4am. Finally Boyfriend was fed up with the dogs on our property (yep) barking incessantly that he went outside and chased them back home across the street. He knocked on their door and eventually the wife answered the door. Boyfriend asked her nicely if she could keep the dogs on their own property and quiet and she acted all bewildered and had no idea what he was speaking of. He replied with, "You can't hear that?" pointing at the (still) barking dogs. Nope, she apparently couldn't hear it.

A couple days later, the husband came over after getting home from an elk hunting trip to discuss the incident, dressed to the nines and wearing $1000 alligator boots. And by discuss, I mean using his 6'6" frame to intimidate Boyfriend into never ever scaring his wife that way again as she is ill. (Like Boyfriend was supposed to pyschically know that.) Boyfriend is not one to be intimidated, and therefore, got back in the guy's face telling him that his dogs bark incessantly. The neighbor said, "Dogs will be dogs and they'll bark. I also like them barking because it keeps critters away." Boyfriend clearly stated that his dogs barking like that are a nuisance and there are laws against it, and that he's simply asking that the guy keep his dogs on his own property and quiet. He questioned how Boyfriend knew they were his dogs, and Boyfriend replied with, "You have two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, correct? Your two dogs have been getting into my yard, attempting to bother my chickens, pooping all over my yard, and barking at me while in my yard. By law, if your dogs are threatening my livestock, I have every right to shoot them. I don't want to do that. I'm simply asking you to keep your dogs quiet. You're argument that 'dogs will be dogs' is not a valid argument. It's a bother to your neighbors." After a few choice words (started by the neighbor), the neighbor finally said he would do what he could.

About a week later, that dogs were barking incessantly during the evening, for three hours straight .As a side note, it amazes me that dogs never seem to go hoarse. Boyfriend and I decided to go over and talk to them about it. Off we went, knocked on the door, and the daughter answers. We politely ask if she could quiet the dogs as they've been barking for three hours and we can hear it through closed windows and over the TV. She crosses her arms in front of her, gets an extremely pissy look and says, "Dogs will be dogs and will bark. I can't make them stop." I asked if there was a pen they could be put in, or put in the garage for a bit until they quieted down. That wouldn't work either. Boyfriend tried talking to her for a few more minutes and she got pissier with each minute. Because it was dark, we had walked over with a flashlight. Boyfriend began to turn Italian while talking and at one point, the flashlight smacked the door. It was by accident, but that's all it took. She started hollering that she was going to call the cops.

I dragged Boyfriend away. Back home, he left a message with the Sheriff's department regarding the issue. Two hours later a deputy calls back and Boyfriend has a lengthy conversation with him. He told his side of the story, and the deputy eventually told Boyfriend that the daughter called claiming she was scared for her life and that of her toddler. When her dad got home, he also called the sheriff. The deputy told Boyfriend that he does have a right to shoot the dogs if they are bothering his livestock. And asked us not to go back over to the neighbors house.

Now, when the daughter drives by, she stares at us, makes rude faces and flips us off. No joke. And the guy just stares at us when he drives by. Nice.

The worst thing about all of this? This neighbor is a minister. He's unlike any minister I've ever known. Now granted, I don't know very many, but I have never met a minister like this. He has shown us absolutely no respect whatsoever. We both admit that he has made an effort to keep the dogs quiet, and we do appreciate it. When he's not home however, his wife and kids don't give a shit.

And as it turns out, the entire street hates him.

To be continued . . . 

Oh The Tangled Webs We Weave

Wednesday seemed to go about like any other work day. Except there was a training meeting via phone conference for about an hour or so, starting at 8. Rather boring and until we start the new process, we really won't have that many questions or really understand the whole thing. 

Bubbles was her normal self - her utter cheerfulness infecting all those around her. Meaning the complete opposite of course.

I did my work throughout the day, finally coming to a point about 4pm where I didn't have anything to do. I had been working on doing some clean up on my "schedule" (pestering people as to why we haven't received payment), and had walked back in and heading to my desk when L asked me what I was doing. I replied that I was working on my schedule. She wanted to see what I had, which wasn't much as I've been keeping a close eye and it's been only one page long (when I started it was 3 pages) and I had addressed anything over 5 days old. I told/showed her and then asked her if she had anything I could help her with as I was pretty much done for the day. She said she had a project for me. Made me happy as I like to stay busy and didn't want to told to leave early if I didn't have anything to do.

I went to my desk to put my papers away and went back to L's desk so she could show me what she wanted me to do. She was looking to clean up our inventory online and make sure it matches what he physically have. As she's going over all of this, I saw an email notification pop up in the bottom right hand corner of her screen.

Now I'm not being nosy, as I was there for a reason and staring at her computer screen for the same reason. I was not snooping  or accessing anything I shouldn't.

The email was from Bubbles. The notifications also include the first couple of lines of the email. And since the notifications only pop up for about 10 seconds, I don't remember it verbatim. 

However.

What I do remember is this: "Dang! . . . . hope she'd go home early!"

I think the part I'm fuzzy on was something about me being done for the day or not having anything else to do.

Now, here's what bothers me. Bubbles sent this to L. I like L. She and I get along well and she's a good teacher. L is also the assistant office manager.

I will let that last bit sink in.

How fucking inappropriate is that? Only tons. My last hour of work I was really pissed off, but I didn't show it. I sat down with the printouts from L and set about matching what's in stock physically and online. Now, I know Bubbles and L are "friends" to a point. I believe they started at the company about the same time, and they take their lunches together. Well, to be honest, L, Bubbles, and T get to take their lunch at noon. I have to wait until 1. My boss typically doesn't eat her lunch until 12:30 or 1 and she usually eats at her desk.

So basically speaking, I am (in a sense) ostracized from the group having to take my lunch after everyone else.

Also, from day one, Bubbles has (for some reason) been quite hostile towards me. I have been chalking it up to her personality and that our personalities don't "mesh well". I am aware that  not everyone gets along, and I don't go to work to make friends. I do, however, expect civility and I don't believe I really get even that. Either that or her version of civility is vastly different than mine.

I talked it over with Boyfriend - saying I may need to talk to my OM on Monday when she gets back. As the whole situation is inappropriate and creating a hostile environment. However, if I complain, Bubbles will get talked to, and she knows exactly who will have complained. There are only 5 of us in the office, including the OM. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Boyfriend suggested I start documenting everything instead of going to my OM. Which I will start doing. Besides, either way I still take the brunt of it. If I leave it be, Bubbles will continue to exude her contempt for me. If I make a complaint, it will only make it worse.  So really, I'm screwed either way.

Also, Bubbles repeated a comment about having to fix stuff on her "schedules" and that those problems are due to other people's incompetence and laziness. She repeated it at least 3 times. If she's referring to me, I don't know what "problems" she's speaking of. She mentioned a few weeks ago for me to watch something and I have been. I even went to my OM to verify if I was following correct procedure. So I took measures to make sure to not make the same mistakes. If there are other mistakes she's referring to, I have no idea what they would be as no one has said anything. And if they are my mistakes and they aren't telling me about them, there is no way I can stop making said mistakes. I can't learn and grow if you don't inform me and teach me.

Oh. And that laziness bit? I'm not sure you could consider me slacking on the job. I do the deposit every day, process any and all dealer trades and wholesale transactions, process contract cancellation requests, and work on my "schedule". And when I run out of stuff to do, I ask L or the OM if there is anything I can help with, even if it's just filing. I even took on the dreaded task of shifting all the deals in the filing cabinets to make room. Me? Lazy? Doubtful. She may be referring to just our company, however, seeing as I'm getting the hint that she believes I'm incompetent and lazy, I'd like to say this to her:

"You think I'm lazy? I work three jobs, seven days a week. Three weeks in, I'm still unpacking and getting settled in my new place. I'm preparing to host my first Thanksgiving. Most every night I get home about 5:30 and do stuff around the house - clean, laundry, dinner, dishes, ironing, stack wood, go cut more wood, unpack, move shit around, write stuff for my grandparents magazine, do online training for my weekend job, and spend some quality time with Boyfriend. You're only 22 years old and you have a shit-ton of things to learn - one of them is basic civility. And trust me, you're not perfect either and you don't know everything. You are not entitled to anything so you can shelve your 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude. Also? Involving the assistant manager in your hatred of me is highly inappropriate work place behavior. So fuck you and the horse you road in on. Bitch."

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do some more unpacking before I go to bed.

Lazy, my ass.

Humpfh.
 

I Am Most Seriously Displeased

Does anyone want to know the most annoying sound in the universe?

It's not that horrific sound Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels make in Dumb and Dumber.

Give up?

It's silence.

I have been job hunting since March. I've had two job interviews in three months. Two weeks ago, one of the three staffing agencies I'm signed up with called me and asked if I'd be interested in a potential job. I said yes (duh), and she put my resume in the pot. She called me a week later to tell me that I hadn't been chosen. (sigh)

I search online for jobs a few times a week. I apply for retail jobs, clerical  jobs, part-time and full-time. I apply for weekend only positions, and anything that doesn't require a phlebotomist license and a medical billing/coder degree. I apply for jobs I see in the paper.

My parents check online for jobs for me every couple of days and the paper every day.

And in the three months of job hunting and countless (read: couple hundred) applications I have sent in, only TWO have called me for interviews.

T.W.O.

And one of those that called me for an interview wanted to badly to give me a job - 5 hours a week for minimum wage.

Are you fucking kidding me?!

I am frustrated. I am pissed. I am annoyed. I am hurt. I am perturbed. I am irked. I am upset. I am miffed. I am fuming. I am offended.

I. Am. Tired.

How do people keep this going for months, or heaven forbid, years? How? My money is pretty much gone. And if not for the kindness of my parents, I'd be homeless. Unemployment didn't pay that much, and them assholes cut me off because they didn't believe me that we lost our mail distribution center (they say it only takes three days from mail to from Redding to where ever the hell they are and in reality, it takes 10 days. TEN.) and my stuff was always late because of it. But it can't be the mail, it must be me.

I am so tired of job hunting. Of constantly entering the same information over and over and over. And over. I'm tired of uploading my resume to "fill in the application" and it gets most of it wrong so I have to correct it. I'm tired of the fact that in this day and age, you rarely have a person to contact regarding your application because businesses prefer you to apply online. I'm tired of the online assessment tests. I'm tired of having to create a "log in" for every single business I apply to because they each have their own website or they use some random third party place and I have to "register" in order to apply for the damn job. I'm tired of applying for jobs I know I can do but can't get a call back on. 

Most of all, I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of being worried - constantly worried about money. I'm tired of losing sleep - knowing my part-time job is only temporary for the busy wedding season (so through September at best) and the end of wedding season is looming, even though it only just began a month ago. I'm tired of wondering what I'm going to do if I still haven't found another job.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for my cousin for getting me part-time work and trying to keep me close to 20 hours a week. I'm thankful for him putting up with me at work most days of the week. I'm also thankful he gave Boyfriend a job doing deliveries and pick-ups. I'm glad to have a job to go to; something to go do for a few hours every day. But it will end at some point. And some point is just a few short months away.

I'm angry and tired. And I'm tired of feeling that way.

Has anyone noticed a pig flying around?

Yesterday, Dr. A and I went to lunch at a cafe in town. It's been around for awhile, but neither of us had tried it. We decided to try it today. I doubt I'll be running back for more anytime soon.

We walked in and got in line - there were probably 4 people ahead of us. We found a menu and perused it while we waited. And waited. And waited some more. The guy behind the register looked like he didn't really care about much of anything to be honest. He had a completely blank expression; in fact his face never once changed the entire time we were in the establishment. The other guy in the "kitchen" looked about as excited as Guy #1. Eventually, Guy #2 gets off his lazy keister, and starts taking orders.  Of course, then there's no one to start fixing the food that people have ordered. Seems like a great system.

Dr. A finally reaches the front and orders. I'm after her and order the "turkey BLT, minus the TOM". Because I don't like tomatoes. They're slimy and disgusting.

I think Guy #1 took me literally. Very literally.

Twenty minutes or so later, Dr. A and I finally get our sandwiches. I look at my sandwich and notice the TOM  (as in tomato) on the sandwich so I start peeling them off. Dr. A looks at her sandwich and says, "I think I got yours." I hand over my plate with her sandwich (after putting the tomatoes back on and apologizing for fingering her sandwich). She handed me the plate with my sandwich and her side salad . . . keeping the side salad. Yeah. I know. The dude totally messed up.

So I look at my sandwich, and there's still tomatoes on it. When I lift up the bread to peel off the tomatoes, I notice there's not a slice of turkey on the sandwich. It's a regular ol' BLT. Dr. A starts laughing at me, and I bite into it because I'm too hungry to wait for the blank-faced idiot to waste 20 minutes more attempting to fix the error.

The reason I say that Guy #1 took me literally when I said "no tom" is that a male turkey is called a "tom". Although, in most restaurants, tomato is often abbreviated as "tom".  So, I guess, if you want to get highly technical (which I don't), I guess he got the order right and didn't serve me a "tom".

I'm quite positive that there has to be a pig flying around on this earth somewhere, because I swear that would be the thing to get me to eat a tomato.

I did text my mom with "would you believe I'm eating a tomato?" She replied with "no fucking way!!!!!" (with about a dozen more exclamation points behind it). Then she came back with, "and it didn't kill you?!?!"

Yes, yes. I know. It didn't kill me. I hate tomatoes, but I was starving and lucky for me, the tomatoes were sliced very thin. But they are still slimy and disgusting.

And keep an eye out for that damn pig. It's gotta be around somewhere. 

Doesn't "manic" belong to Monday??

When I go into Job 3 every weekend (aka, the vet's office), it's a toss up as to what kind of day it will be. It could be so slow we're literally sitting around with nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs. It could be just busy enough to keep us going with a few minutes here and there to breathe. Or it could be a pull-your-hair-out kind of crazy busy day with your lunch hour being the only breathing time  you'll get until you clock out.

Two weekends ago, it was so slow. Like agonizingly slow.

Last weekend I could barely remember my own name it was so crazy busy.

I walked in just before 8am and set my stuff down. I glanced at the appointment book and my jaw dropped. We were double-booked for nearly every appointment. I went from shock to annoyance as I went to get the money from the safe. The doctor came in and started treating the parvo pups we have in quarantine. After awhile I asked him if he knew he had two ranch calls between 8 and 10 to vaccinate and de-worm a bunch of horses. He knew nothing about it. It was that time that his first ranch call phoned us and asked when the vet was coming out . . . yeah. He finished treatments and ran off. We then get a phone call for the tech to take him a bunch of stuff as the owner didn't have it on hand.

Our regular appointments started showing up before the vet got back. And the phone rang off the hook - with people who wanted an appointment that day. *sigh* We were just lucky that people were understanding of how busy we were.

Of course, as annoying or difficult it can be to get a client in with a sick pet or a pet with a nasty fox tail in some orifice, at least they call ahead of time. It's the people that show up without calling and no appointment that can be a little more frustrating. One family brought in a sick pup - after having been sick for several days post surgery and having been tested for parvo numerous times, guess what it finally tested positive for? Parvo. She joined the ranks. This is a nasty time for parvo.

In the afternoon we had some travelers pop in saying there were spots in the dog's eye. Now, if your just passing through, I can sort of understand stopping by the vet if something funky arises. But it would nice if they found the number and called us first. Then about an hour before we closed some guy pulls up with a stock trailer. I had nothing else scheduled as I figured we'd still be working on our appointments (which we were). This guy comes in and asks if the doc could Bangs 6 heifers ("bangs" is a vaccine for cattle). I gave a face and went to ask the vet. He just looked at me, like "are you serious?!" But he said okay, asked to have the cows ready in the chute for him out back. Not 10 minutes later, some gal drives up with a horse trailer saying her horse is lame and she needs to have the doc look at her mare's leg. No appointment. The vet was still in back treating a patient, so I went back there and told him about the gal and her horse. He asked if they had an appointment, and I said they didn't they just showed up. He shook his head and sighed saying that they'd just have to wait. Turns out it's a chronic issue with that horse, not an acute sudden issue. *sigh*

Or there was the young gentlemen who brought a puppy in for it's first set of puppy shots. And no, Jewels, they aren't up to par for dating material. They came in saying they had an appointment for 10:30, and when I asked their last name, it wasn't on the book. They claimed they had been there yesterday and the gal had told them to stop by the next day at 10:30. Yeah, I got the whole story from the high school helper later. Anyway, I had them fill out new client stuff so I could get them all entered in. Apparently while I was slammed with checking people in and had my back to the other side of the room, those two dimwits left without paying! I know it was on purpose and it annoyed me.

I was never so happy to see closing time hit. I literally ran to lock the front doors so no one else could walk in and ruin our peace. I spoke with the tech about the booking issue. She told me that just before closing on Friday, she had noticed we were tripled booked for Saturday. All day long. Well, for a good portion of the day, we still would up triple booked. Poor doctor never had a chance. The issue is that there are two new receptionists during the week. The one that trained me has recently decided to leave to be nearer to her family. So that left two new people with no real trainer.

Even today, I called them to verify appointments for Wednesday in Sticksville. Those girls had started booking us appointments at 9 a.m.! The doctor doesn't get in until around 8:30 and then we're typically doing surgery until near 10. After we verified appointments, I told the girl, "FYI, I wouldn't schedule appointments for us until 10 as the vet doesn't get here until closer to 8:30 and then we unload his truck and then he's in surgery." She said okay and that she was still new. I told her very nicely, "Oh I know, and I know it's daunting. I'm still fairly new myself - only been with the clinic a couple months. But just for future reference...." Turns out my surgeries cancelled so, the early appointments work out this week. Sheer luck.

Now, I like being busy at my jobs, it makes the day go by faster. Well, typically. But there's this fine line between twiddling one's thumbs and wanting to dive into a vat of chocolate to relieve stress.

April Blogging Challenge: U is for Unknown

Okay, so this is my sad, horrific post for the letter "U". I'm typing this at 11pm, to barely make my cutoff time, and I'm tired and I want to go to bed as I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow finishing my route.

I've been at a loss for the letter "U" since the beginning of this, and seeing as how I didn't have the brains to attempt this post on Saturday night and have it scheduled for today I'll never know. So, stupidly, here I am, with still nothing to write. Since I don't know what to write for "U", I'll just simply fill you in on my weekend.

Saturday, I went to work at job number 3, got home and cleaned out the back of my car to make room for paper bundles. Then went to my grandparents house to load up my car. Had dinner, and came home to finish cleaning house. I finally flopped onto the bed around 9 - yeah, I know. Got up early on Sunday, drove 3 hours to my destination, and delivered some papers. I was surprised to get an extra day off, so I met my parents for a movie - Source Code. Good movie.

Didn't get online at all on Sunday - it was kind of nice actually. Thought for a split second: Hmm, maybe I should write a blog post for Monday. Hmmm, I still have no idea what to write for the letter "U". Eh, I'll think it about tomorrow. Seriously.

That evening, we watched a movie my parents had from Netflix - The American. Never ever watch this movie. Unless you can't sleep and counting sheep isn't working. Worst. Movie. Ever. 

Monday, my mom and I went into town to visit with her mom, and my dad's parents. Then ran my errands. Bought a couple scrub tops, a collapsible back scratcher (I've really missed the one that broke), and some random Target stuff. The one thing I have withdrawals from is Target. Although I did also have my first fast food in nearly 3 months. I got a 5 Layer Burrito on Sunday from Taco Bell, because that was oddly the first thing that popped into my head. Man was it delicious. Today, mom and I split a Quarter Pounder Meal at McD's. The burger was okay, but the fries were delicious. And the funny part about the McD meal, was that we pulled to the side in parking lot to quickly eat it, only realizing after we'd parked that were to eat this artery-clogging meal directly in front of a gym. And in front of about 5 people running on treadmills - facing us. Whoops.

Once home, mom fixed my dinner request, which was her taco salad - YUM. Then we ordered The Last Three Days on video on demand. Good movie.

Now I'm sitting here typing this sad "unknown" post so that I technically have a post of the blogging challenge. And after typing this, I still don't know what I would have written for the letter "U".

*sigh*

Drinks & Dilemmas

I'm sitting here drinking a margarita thanks to K. It's pretty darn good. 

I also have a dilemma.

I have a margarita and a dilemma. And no the margarita won't help the dilemma. And no, it's not the dilemma, either.

My dilemma is my computer. I've had my laptop for about 3.5 years. It's outlasted it's previous version by about 8 months. With that one, the hard drive took a nose dive out of nowhere. With this one, it's the battery. Every time I turn it on, or take it out of standby, I get a nice little notice from Dell in the corner that says, "Your battery is able to charge normally, but it's nearing the end of it's useful life." I wish it would give me a date of it's demise. That would be helpful.

So, I went to Dell's website to price a battery. Holy Shit! They're expensive. I was really naive apparently in thinking how cheap they might be. Nope, that little sonofabitch is $150.

See my reactions below.

So, while I was recovering from the battery sticker shock, I checked out laptops. For another $150, I can get a new computer. Sad.

I could spend the $150 on the new battery, and a week later, my hard drive could go up in smoke, and I'm out the the money for a new computer and the new battery. Or it could last another year. Or can I spend the extra $150 to get a new, faster computer. As much as I love my computer and as much as I hate spending that kind of money (which is getting a bit scarce, although I still have money in savings), at least the new one would have a warranty. I've been noticing a severe slow-up on my poor computer, I'm thinking the processor isn't able to keep up with the demands of the internet and keeping several operations running. Also, certain keys are starting to stick and I practically have to break out the sledge hammer to get them to work. And no, it's not "backspace" or "delete", which I would have figured would have been the first to go.

I had wanted to wait and save for a Mac, as I hear nothing but good things about the machine. However, I do understand that some of the software can get quite pricey. As if the damn computer by itself wasn't so pricey. Sheesh.

I'm happy with a PC, it's all I've really ever known. However, Vista came on my current laptop and after a month I begged someone to wipe that shit off my computer and put XP back on. Vista was the most annoying program. EVER. So, if anyone has a newer computer that has Windows 7 on it, I'm curious what you think of it. I'm just curious.

Otherwise, my dilemma (that is not being hindered or helped by the margarita I'm sipping) is what am I to do about my computer. I don't necessarily like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.