A long weekend ahead

I've been waiting for this respite. These past few months have been tough and the extra day off is a welcomed relief. Tomorrow, BJ and I are having "Girl's Day" out. Lunch at Reston Town Center with shopping afterwards. My nephew's wife is having a birthday in June and I'll have to find her a gift. And whatever strikes my fancy :o) - Then, if I'm not too tired we're going to try to see "The DaVinci Code". We've both read "Angels & Demons" and "The DaVinci Code" and are curious to see how the book translates to the movie.

Work is getting better. The boss have moved into the corner office previously occupied by Charlie. It took her about 10 minutes to do some puttering around and arranging her things and she took ownership of it. She looks like she belongs there. She's given me a few new assignments and I look forward to doing more for her. Jeff is having trouble adjusting to the reorg and the new things she is putting in place. I think he forgets that she is just the funnel. It is all coming from the Executive Group and she abides by their requests. She truly believes in the changes and I follow her lead. I want to see our project succeed. Once again I say I'm happy and I hope I won't eat my words.

I haven't been sleeping too well these past two nights. David came by to give me my body work and pushed and pulled and I think I feel better. We'll see how it is in the morning.

We had decent weather today. Sprinkles but the temp rose to the 80s. I anxiously await Summer.

And my Portuguese lessons continue. Some of the words stick in my brain and I find myself muttering them to myself. I guess I'm learning. I remember words like Maca (apple) and Moca (young girl) and know that I can get them confused easily. I can see my saying "That is a beautiful apple" but would have trouble telling someone to "take a bite out of that young girl". LOL This is a process and it goes on. I do believe I'm learning.

Not too much to complain about, but worry is with me. My friend Karen called a few minutes ago and her grand daughter (30ish) is in the hospital suffering from multiple blood clots on the brain. She has been in surgery all day and there is no news coming from the relatives. She's very worried and I don't blame her. I pray that our dear Lord touches Tracy and removes the clots and heals her completely. If you, dear reader, feel the need, please pray for her too.

I will report more as I hear it.

God bless you all.

No OT this week.

The backlog of paperwork in the section where I've been helping out has been cleared. With the help of two additional coworkers this past week, we've got it down to daily inflow. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it. I hear through the grapevine that we have a cleared admin 'in-the-pipe', ready to come aboard. The OT looks great on my paycheck, but I've become very, very weary of coming to work with the chickens. It's been two months that have felt like forever, but I think things will change.

With my new boss in charge, there will be some changes and some new things put in place. It's been great working for her and she's giving me more and more things to do that fall in inline with my job title. On Friday I was able to get caught up with some chart making and refining and gave her the finished products. She liked them. Made me feel good. Her style is to not give me a direct assignment. She'll ask me if I'll do a favor, or help her out with something. She makes me feel like I am a help to her and that's important. Although Charlie thanked me for my help, he did make me feel like wallpaper. So once again I can say, so far - so good. I hope I don't eat these words.

My brother-in-law is in town this weekend. I haven't seen him since my nephew's wedding. Although we have spoken on the phone several times and email on occasion, I've not heard much from him. I do know he has a piece of sapphire jewelry for me from his trip to Thailand. We'll be having Sunday brunch together. That's another sore spot, but I'll leave that griping for when I report on the brunch. It'll be good to see Bob.

I have the usual weekend chores, but no urgency about doing them like the past 6 weeks or so. I don't have to rush to get them done in order to get to the office for OT. I intend to enjoy this.

Feeling good and a bit happier than before.

God bless you all.

Mid Week

I wish our spring would get here. It's mid May and it's still chilly. I would love to see the warm sun, no clouds or rain. I guess by the end of the week this front will pass, but in the meantime, I think I'll mildew.

Work is good. Today, my new boss called from the car on the way in and asked me to work up a new chart. I love doing these things. It took a little longer than I liked, but she was pleased with the end results. The reorganization is moving along and there are some unhappy people on the project. Like me, some don't like change. Just happens that this change will do me just fine. I look forward to going to work tomorrow. This feeling has been hiding since February.

The wounded officer died this morning. More sadness for a community still coming to grips with the loss of another officer last week. The cruiser is parked on the curb, his picture is next to it, the right hand lane of the street is blocked off and flowers are piling up once again. As I pass the police station going to and from work, I feel a heaviness in my heart and I say, this is too close to home.

God bless them and God bless us all.

On the lighter side of things.....

I've always been fascinated with Rio and as a kid saw pictures of Guanabara Bay and the beach at Ipanema. My dream trip has always been to see Sugar Loaf from the beach. Many people have said I'd be disappointed because of the crime, but it still is my wish to see it before I leave this earth.

Because of this I became fascinated with the early 60s Bossa Nova craze and still love hearing songs sung in Portuguese. In fact, XM Radio on AOL has a Bossa Nova station that I listen to most of the time. Yes, it's playing now.

I also played around with trying to speak Portuguese but it is a very difficult language. I thought Russian was tough. HA! This one is worse. How do I know? I sent away for a well known language learning course and have been spending my idle hours this past week studying Portuguese. It's going to be a long haul. I know the words I want to say in my brain, but somewhere between there and my mouth, they come out sounding not like my brain wanted them to sound. It is spoken from the back of the throat and the tip of the tongue. Now for a Polish kid from the South Side of Milwaukee this is quite a feat.

I've been playing with the voice recognition portion all afternoon and just can't get it. I must say however, the Total Immersion technique is quite effective. When I am doing my lessons I have started to look at the pictures and think in Portuguese. I mean as far as "a car and a cat" or "a boy is lying under a table", but at least those images are Portuguese thoughts.

This may take awhile. But I'll not give up yet. It's only been 5 days.

This past week went well. My new boss has taken the bull by the horns and is making changes. My thoughts are that she and our VP had these plans in mind before she was appointed. I remember hearing some of these thoughts from him, before I was assigned to help in the section that lost help.

There is some reorganizing to be done and till I see the changes in operation I can't give an opinion. I just know that I enjoy working the job I was promoted to do. Since Charlie left, I've been torn between the VP and another who thought he was in charge. Now he has taken a back seat and is doing his job which has many new wrinkles to it and I am doing my job which is assisting our Program Manager. I may begin to like my job again.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I think of my kids in Russia and wish they knew how much I wish I was their Mom. I'm waiting for the letters that BJ brought back with her to be translated.

Other than that, I am well and fairly happy.

God bless you all.

What a week!!!

This past week there was a terrible tragedy within a mile of my home. An 18 year old crashed a stolen truck through the fence of the police station and opened fire with an AK47 (or whatever number it is)spraying more than 70 shots around the parking lot. One female detective was mortally wounded and another veteran police officer was wounded with 5 shots to the body. She has since died leaving behind 2 small children and a husband, also a detective. The wounded officer is still in critical condition. Return fire from other officers killed the shooter.

I think what has shaken me the most is the distance from my home. It's not even a mile and as a matter of fact, I drove past the scene, on my way home from work, about 8 minutes before it happened. Now that's cutting it awfully close to home.

The entire community is grieving. The officers have parked the slain officer's cruiser near to the curb and placed a large photograph of her beside it. Many neighborhood people have brought flowers and the entire car is covered. The street approaching the station has one lane closed off, which of course backs up traffic as it at the beginning of a large business park. My office is right around the corner. Directly after the shooting, it was thought there was more than one shooter so the woods and streets closest to the station were searched. Our office building was under lock down until around 6:45PM. Nobody was allowed to leave.

This morning I stopped at Starbuck's and there were 3 officers having their breakfast. I gathered my courage and told them I had something I wanted to say to them and hoped I could get through it. I thanked them for all they do for us and said I was sorry for their loss. All three looked a little amazed but only said their "Thank You"s. I just felt I needed to do that.

The funeral is today and when I came home for putting in a little OT, there were cruisers angle parked all the way up the street, officers in dress uniforms and a cordon of local motorcyclists with their bikes also angle parked in the turn off lane. Their long hair was tied back, beards and 'staches neatly combed and each wore a white shirt under a black vest with their individual club's insignia on the back. I think they were assembling to get ready to leave for the funeral. I'm glad I got to see it.

As for the shooter......an 18 year old clearly with mental issues. He thought he was Jesus Christ combined with Satan. He told a friend that he felt his brain growing so he could be more intelligent and it hurt him. He was possessed with the thought that the 'zombies' were coming to get him. It seems as though no adult took him seriously or listened.

What a loss.

God bless you all.

Say goodbye - Say hello

My dear friends the "K"s are seriously considering a move back to their home state. They took a few days vacation and went house shopping, found something they adore and are now eagerly awaiting a buyer for their home here. Even though I'll be in touch with them by email and phone, I will miss each one very very much. TK, with that absolutely, knock-your-socks-off smile and BK, perched on my little file cabinet bravely listening to my every gripe about my job. I am grateful to our dear Lord for crossing their paths with mine.

Now in the meantime, my dear friend Catherine who moved to Wausau, Wisconsin (I love to call it WarSar)two years ago and hated every nano-second of it, is coming back to Northern Virginia. Her husband realized that the grass isn't greener in Wisconsin and he loves the smell of our air pollution better, so he applied and was offered a great new job here. They should be moving in mid-June. I don't think she'll be as close as she was before she left (1/2 mile up the street), but they want to find something in this area so their kids can be back in the same schools they hated before they left. Of course she'll go back to work and five will get you ten in a month the commute will get her. Anything outside 2 miles from one's house is a 20 minute drive. And that gets you to the main arteries.

Life is strange. The older I get and the more I learn and I guess I wouldn't do one thing differently. Except maybe not hurt those I loved so dearly.

Work was back breaking again today but at least there's a little glow at the end of the tunnel.

I've got a new boss. :o)

God bless you all.

Finally, a new boss

Charlie, my previous boss resigned from the company in early February. We have been without a formal leader since then. We've had an interim Program Manager but he has been so busy with two other positions he was trying to do, I could almost say we had no leader.

When I was offered my first position with the company I was hired as Administrative Assistant to the Deputy Program Manager. I was thrilled because I had heard many things about her. First and foremost I heard tell she is fair and supports her team. I usually don't like working for women because they can be so catty, but for some reason even before meeting her, I had no reservations.

I cleared in less than 90 days and I was thrilled to be able to go into the secure area without an escort. I got to go 'behind the door'. The day after I cleared, Charlie called me into his office to tell me that the current Project Coordinator had resigned and he would like me to take the job. Of course, I said yes. But this meant I didn't get to work for Slavica.

I worked for Charlie for almost a year before he left. He had been a good boss although now in retrospect, he wasn't very effective as a leader. Last week, the required position posting, for his old job, was sent to all in the company. They must wait three days for any applications to come in. Today at our weekly company meeting, our interim PM announced that Slavica had been made the new Program Manager. I was elated. After more than a year, I get to work for her.

She said she was looking forward to my working for her and that although we still had a lot of hard work ahead of us, she knew we would have fun.

I am so glad.

I hope I don't eat those words.

It was a good day.

God bless you all.