the good, the bad, and the stupid

The Good:

No, wait, actually let's get The Bad out of the way first, shall we?

The Bad:
Still no chairs. Unbefreakinglievable.

Ok, here is the story --
As I've mentioned before, we wanted to order new chairs for the studio's interview set, and Mr. Promotions Guy told me THREE times (once in writing, no less) that he would be able to buy them for us as long as the total cost was under $1000 and we bought them before the end of the year; promotions basically had some extra money in their budget that they had to get rid of before the end of the year, so he was willing to spend it on the new chairs we wanted for the studio.

I delivered on my end of the deal, finding a chair model of the appropriate size, color, shape, and PRICE -- quoted at $274 per chair (so $822 total price for three chairs; well under budget, if you didn't notice) -- and gave Mr. Promotions a photocopy of the chair as pictured in the store's catalogue as well as a written quote and contact information from the store. About 24 hours later, I checked in to see if he liked the chairs and if we could get them. He told me he was "this close" to working it out with accounting.

WHAT?! What happened to having the money in the budget?!

OK, fine. So that was like three weeks ago.

TWO weeks ago, still no news. With the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided not to sweat it; the normal 9-to-5 folks in Promotions and Accounting wouldn't be around anyway, so nothing was likely to get accomplished.

ONE week ago, I checked in again via email:
"Hey, how are things going with the chairs?"
"Just trying to do some creative budgeting to make it work."

WHAT?!?! What happened to being "this close?!!"

TODAY, I see Mr. Promotions Guy and wanted to chew him out completely, but instead, I said, "Any progress on the chairs?"
"Weeellll..." Mr. Promotions Guy says, "We just have to get it approved...see, it's all really stupid the way it works, like, it's money from MY budget, but we have to get it from another account, and then THEY have to take that money from OUR budget, and..."

The way you talk, all I hear is blah blah blah.

"OK, keep me posted," I say, hoping that hints his need to get this taken care of.

Seriously, if he wasn't actually in control of the money in the first place, why would he tell me what he told me in the first place? It wouldn't be as big of a deal if he'd have just said, "I can't promise anything, but if you try to keep it under $1000, there's a better chance we'll be able to swing it with accounting."

But instead he remodeled his office and then left something that EVERYONE could use, like the new interview chairs, to the uncertain fate of the accounting department.

What stinks is, I really like this guy and I think he's trying to do a lot of good things for the station. And I really like what he did with his office. But it's like the time I bought a new outfit and then found out one of my paychecks was coming a month later than I thought it would. You don't spend money you don't have, or in this case promise to spend money you don't have.

Frusterating.

The Good News:
1.) It's Friday. Holla! (Yep, that just happened.) And that means all the good Friday things that come with it, including new episodes of 30 Rock and The Office that I watch Friday mornings online (and by the way, this week's Office episode is about the place where I work! Crappy copier, crappy chairs, budget surplus!!! It's too perfect. It absolutely made my day and gave me an easy way to laugh about how ridiculously inefficient things seem to be around there sometimes).

2.) I am officially on vacation! I'm not going anywhere, but I will have lots of time to do Christmas shopping, read, relax, maybe do some video editing, go to the gym, and also do some of that day-time stuff I don't normally have time to do, like eye and hair appointments. Plus I get to sleep at night like a normal person!

3.) I get to go see Justin's play tonight! Justin is pretty much me in a 6-foot-five boy's body. (Scary, huh?) This kid thinks like me, loves movies, musicals, and music, and all of the trivial information about them, as much as I do! I always tell him he's the little brother I never had. He is also a very talented and enthusiastic performer and I am so excited to see him onstage tonight! I've seen so many plays this fall thanks to all my little civic theatre buddies...so much fun!

4.) There is a package in the mail on its way to my door, which is always super-fun! I got a gift card to Victoria's Secret for my birthday, but didn't use it until now, and today I tracked my order and it is on its way out of Missouri. It's so fun to track packages; it's kind of like watching cookies bake in the oven -- if you can see the progress, it's a little easier to wait for the final product!

The Stupid:
1.) Here's the situation: I get home from work this morning. I'm holding my purse and lunch container in one hand and a stack of books and my keys in the other. So my hands are a little full, and it's a smidge chilly outside. The way it works at my apartment is, you can get in the first set of doors without a key, but you have to unlock the second set, and it's an oldish set of doors, so you have to jiggle the key in the lock a little bit, you know what I mean? It's not like a magnetic strip card or anything. And there's kind of this unspoken but universallly understood rule of common courtesy that if you're inside the building and near the front door, and someone who clearly has a key to the building is trying to get in, you go open the door for them so they don't have to mess with the key. Especially if they've got stuff in their arms. Now, if the person is a creep, just standing there waiting for someone to let them in, you should keep the safety of yourself and your fellow building dwellers in mind and let the dude fend for himself. But I'm saying if their key is in hand, indicating that they clearly belong inside the building, you go ahead and let them in.

OK, so back to me at the door this morning, with arms relatively full, fumbling with my key. There is a girl standing right in front of and I mean RIGHT IN FRONT OF the front doors, wearing her fuzzy slippers and bathrobe, flipping through a magazine or newspaper insert or something. I am trying to unlock the door and she is staring right AT me and just stands there, thumbing through whatever glossy piece of publication she's got. It is taking me longer than usual to jiggle the lock and get the doors to open, and she WALKS AWAY.

Seriously?!?!!

2.) There was like a fifteen-minute span this morning during which I could not make calls with my phone. A friend called me while I was still at work this morning, and I silenced the call. On my way out to my car, I tried to call my voicemail to see what he'd said, but my phone kept showing this "call failed" message. So then I tried to make just a regular phone call and the same thing happened. I finally tried calling my phone from my landline when I got home, and my cell phone wouldn't pick up the call. So then I decide to just check the voicemail through my landline phone, and I put in the password to get into my voicemail THREE times, and it wouldn't let me in. And I know I was putting the correct password in, because I watched myself punch the numbers and even said it outloud the last time as I dialed, but still no dice. So then just as a last shot, I try calling my voicemail again from my cell phone, and it works. Then I call my friend back...the phone works fine.

So I dunno what that was all about.

3.) This is stupid, but not in a bad way. Yesterday I had a dream that I met Amy Poehler, which is weird because earlier that day (don't ask me why), I was thinking about what celebrities I would most want to meet, and I came up with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Kristin Chenoweth. And I don't usually have the kind of dreams where something happens to me that I was thinking about that day; I usually have the kind of dreams where my teeth are falling out, or someone is chasing me but I can only move in slow motion, or I'm trying not to be shot or stabbed. Yes, I do not tend to have pleasant dreams. If they are on the more enjoyable side, they are usually totally random and have nothing to do with what happened the day before. But yesterday in my dream, I met Amy Poehler and we wanted to get our picture taken together but no one would take a picture. Like, people kept getting out their cameras and we kept stopping our conversation to smile at them, but then the people with the cameras would never actually take the picture...they'd just look at us through their viewfinders and then go back to what they were doing.

Analyze THAT!

(See, that was stupid, wasn't it?)

OK, that's all I've got. I'm officially on vacation. Yay!!!

Until later!