Oh my (purchases oils 'n stuff).
Then I'll take the chocolate.
Montana -- actually -- right now I think I'd enjoy some home improvement, it would be different from my current stuff. But right now the main stuff that we can still do without calling in outside help is painting, and it's hot and humid. I really, really, really don't want paint fumes. But I did have a couple of anxiety dreams last night, and one of them involved going to work in a blue top and then getting to the bathroom at work (where there are mirrors, of course) and finding out that the top was spattered with white paint.
The other anxiety dream was that I was walking around topless at work and again did not notice it until I got to the Ladies' Room. I kept opening the door and peeking out at the cube farm to see if the coast would be clear so that I could get back to my desk (where my top and bra inexplicably had been left). But it never got nonbusy so I waited and waited.
Oy.
Yesterday was another festival of trying to get things to work. I actually finished the project I talked about on Monday, but I volunteered to expand it so while that self-imposed deadline is passed, I now have something else going on. But it's actually good -- I'm trying to get together a much fuller, richer understanding of the database (there are thousands of fields) so I'm trying to get a description of every single one of those fields. A bunch of them are already defined so that will be easy -- just copy, paste and make sure the explanations make sense. Of the remainder, there are a lot of duplicated fields (that's how a database works -- lots and lots of identical fields are joined in all sorts of wacky combinations) so I can just copy those definitions. But then there are going to be others that I'll really have to investigate. I think this will help me a lot with
ad hoc reporting so it's worth it to put in the time.
Also spent about five (yes, five) hours with my colleague trying to get a series of scripts to work. We finally did get them to run and I can see that they may or may not be useful but I think for the most part they're a fancy way of doing something that doesn't really save a significant amount of time at all.
But if all goes well, by the end of business tomorrow, my colleague and I should be clear enough on things that I can hand him one, possibly as many as three reports. Next week, another three and then we may ease off slightly as the remaining seven on the list are a lot more difficult. But at least this will alleviate some things.
There's apparently been talk about pulling my database reporting tool license because allegedly I would stop doing reporting. Well, I know that that's not going to happen (stopping reporting), because I am continually bugged to do stuff plus I would be backup in the context of vacations and other contingency planning. Essentially, pulling the license is a swaggering way to try to fight with my boss (this was another department suggesting this) but the person who really gets hurt is me. A lot of gamesmanship goes on (like George said about his office,
more divas than La Scala) and I often find myself thrown into the center of it, probably because I am a better-trained and more thoroughly integrated temp than some of the others are. Hmmm.
One bright spot -- one of my colleagues brought in his 8-year-old son, and the kid stuck his hand out (for me to shake it) and said, "Keep up the good work!" It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Then later he and I argued baseball and discussed the voting for the Rookie of the Year. I'm a hit with the third-grade set!
