Reading: Magazines. Miranda July is apparently on hold, and these things are apparently not my decision. I want to read more of her stories so I can finish the collection and move on to things that I would rather read, but instead I've plugged through an entire Car and Driver and am quite a few pages into my new Popular Science. The new Popular Science has given me an idea for a great company that somebody has probably already started and is making millions off of. I'm good at thinking of things after everybody else does. I'm not stealing ideas, I'm just legitimately ignorant to the world outside of my little sphere of influence. Knowing is half the battle.
Listening: I just popped Offspring's Greatest Hits into my CD player today. I've been anti-iPod lately for some reason. Well, I know the reason. I have an armband on my iPod, and when I listen to it in my car, I slide the armband over the gear selector so the iPod doesn't fly around when I'm driving. Lately, I've been taking bottles of water with me everywhere I go, and my cup holders pop out of a spot just behind the gear selector, occupying the space where the iPod normally resides. This problem has a simple solution in that I just the iPod ahead of the gear selector, but I'm lazy so I've just stopped using it. So I'm listening to Offspring. I honestly feel that time will prove that Offspring was one of the better bands of my generation. They have a distinct sound that has always set them apart from other pop bands and their songs have always been either entertaining or quite intelligent. Songs like Come Out and Play and Original Prankster are radio classics, and I think the average person would be amazed at how many hit songs the band actually has had in their long career (it has been damn near 20 years since their first CD debuted). Go to iTunes and depress yourself by counting the number of Offspring songs that you know and love. Go ahead, nobody's watching. You can cry, it's okay. It's the first step towards recovery.
I said something at work today without thinking. The words had apparently been waiting to rush out but just hadn't been given the chance until today. It's no secret that I've become disgruntled in my employment. Disgruntled is the wrong word. Frustrated. I'm bursting at the seams but nobody has offered me a bigger ball to reside in (promotion). So today Joy (my direct manager) asked me if I would mind working six days next week since two of our tellers have to have minor surgeries that will have them out at the same time next week. I told her no because I close on my house on Friday and need that and Saturday to move. She had forgotten that I had the time off and was fine with it, but then I offered to work open to close from Monday to Thursday if it would help. "You'd do that? How could you stand that?" "Well, all I do when I go home is change into shorts and hope I die before I have to go to work the next day anyway, so it wouldn't be much of a change." Whoops. Brad (my coworker) thought it was hilarious. He didn't stop laughing for a good five minutes. I don't know how Joy responded because I started laughing too. It wasn't true, but it was a very good summation of my current attitude toward my job. Monday was a good example. Joy went home sick first thing in the morning. Michelle (my boss) had to leave early to pick up her kids. It was slow because we were busier than hell on Friday, and nobody generally gave a shit about work. I didn't want to be there, but yet I still got a teller observation done, made several phone calls to people who needed to come in and sign things, worked two different account reports, copied and filed about twenty new signature cards, resolved an issue for the back office, completed three days worth of minor account maintenance requests, and I think that's about it. So I polished off 1.5 peoples tasks for the week in about four hours while still getting in a healthy dose of screwing around. Like I said, my statement wasn't true, but it was what needed to be said right then. I have today (Wednesday) off, so I'll be my usual chipper self again on Thursday when I have to go back.
Virginia might utter the same thing I did at work tomorrow if her brain allows her mouth to function. She worked from about 5am until 11:30pm on Tuesday, and she's received two pages since she passed out at 11:40pm. I don't know how she's still going. I'm wired to run without sleep. She is not. Very definitely not. It makes me wonder why the very profession that tells us how awful fatigue is for our bodies and how poorly we perform when fatigued willingly subjects its professionals (and the people in charge of OUR well-being) to mandatory fatigue. It seems to me that doctors should be REQUIRED to only work a certain number of hours per week and not a minute more. They should be chased out of the hospital when they start nodding off at inappropriate times. This month has been really hard on her and it scares me that it's not quite half over yet. I'm naturally negative. I like bitching about things and bagging on things. Because I'm good at it and you should do what you're good at. Virginia asked me not to speak negatively about her long hours and such because she has to stay positive or she'll crack and I've been faithful to that, but she scared me tonight. In a very serious tone she started talking about how maybe she had made the wrong career choice because she didn't feel like she was cut out for it. Then she laid on the bed and passed out. I hope the last nineteen days of this month don't crush her spirit and enthusiasm. Reason #4,628 that I couldn't be a doctor...
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