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This past weekend was productive and fun, but somewhere deep inside of me, I've still been anxious for this upcoming final exam. I've gotten to the point now where I'm not worried about the grade I'm getting, but more so just passing this dreaded class so I can get it out of my system.
I try to avoid having to talk about school as much as possible because I just cringe thinking about it. But when the topic does come up, I very often get one of those, "No offense or anything, but your Asian" and I go "I know I know!" As if it isn't enough to wake up and see in the mirror that my image does not match my scholarly success, people have to tell this to me like they've just seen a Penguin try to fly. "But Penguin, you're a bird! You're supposed to be able to fly!"
Aside from all this, D took me out for lobster on Friday after work. It might have been the first time I've had real lobster that you break open yourself. It wasn't bad but I did get a little squeamish when D started snapping the claws together to show me how the lobster moves his claws.
Afterwards, we swung by to pick up Romey and went back to D's to see Inga, her mom, and her dog. Romey and Cici (the Shi Tzu) are so funny together! They're also complete opposites. Just for fun, we walked over to Cat's to see her and her parents and show them the puppies (kind of a blurry picture).
I couldn't fall asleep Friday night. I just laid there like an idiot with so much on my mind, I finally woke up and read through some work emails and stuff until I felt a little more tired. I just feel so restless sometimes, I don't know what to do. It's kind of ironic though because once I'm asleep, that's it!
Saturday was a trip to Ricardo with Tim, and then to Uncle Lazslo's for Goulash. Romeo, Cici, and Daytona ran around the yard all night until Romeo discovered Martha's horse. He threw a fit and growled and barked at the horse all night until we left.
Saturday night, I fell asleep on the couch at 10ish (I don't even remember D leaving my house). Woke up at 12 for long enough to walk upstairs, and then I woke up at 5 to change into pj's, and fell back asleep until 1pm. Talk about abnormal sleeping habits.
Yesterday, this guy at work came up to IT with is laptop and his tail tucked between his legs to admit he damaged his laptop.
I guess he was working on an Excel spreadsheet for a presentation due soon and became so frustrated and angry that he actually punched his laptop. The keys on this perfectly new D620 were smushed and could not be pressed anymore. The power button did not turn on the laptop, and you could really see the dent he had made to the laptop.
While I was preparing a crappy Thinkpad for him to work on, he sat there waiting for me and we basically had a therapy session about what sparked his behavior. He excused himself for beating his laptop by saying that "well it's a Dell" and "I've had a really bad week... actually I've just had a bad month". And I'm thinking "so what?" We all have bad days and there is no excuse for damaging company property, even if it is under warranty!
Then he goes on to say that Dell's equipment is bad quality because they hire lots of interns to work for them over the summer. I asked him if he had a problem with interns and he said "no..." and I made his day by telling him "did you know I'm an intern?" and he was all "oh, I didn't mean it like that". Dumbass.
D made this for me to cheer me up and sent it to me:
We haven't had internet for awhile at home. I guess the ATT guy came to fix the phone lines and internet, but Tim forgot to double check that the guy fixed both, and the guy forgot to fix both. So now we have to wait until the ATT guy comes back again. For now, we've been mooching what internet signals we can off of neighbor's wireless, but it is so unstable!
First thing's first to break the exciting news! A month after I asked for compensation two ways and was given a "no", Claude came to me this past week and basically broke the news that I would be granted both. I'm flirting with the idea that the raise is because they can't bring in extra help from college students and pay them less. Claude claims that HR found a "loophole" in "the system" and as long as I can bring transcripts to prove that I am a full time student entering my sophmore year, I would be able to eventually receive this raise.
Did I tell you Kristi is upstairs in IT now? Though she is 50% marketing/bus dev, according to John. This makes it difficult to train her, as people constantly call and show up for help from her for stupid requests. We're chipping away at it slowly but surely, and I'm just keeping positive about it.
Back to the two requests that were granted. I asked Claude "How many extra sets of hands?" and "Where will they sit?" and "What PC's will they use?" and "Who are they going to be" and "What are they going to do?" and Claude basically told me it was totally up to me :) So to make a long story short, Catalina and Tim are starting June 21st if we can get the paperwork together!
Today, we went to a doggie activity day at the doggie day care center that Romeo goes to once a week. My mom works from home on Wednesdays, so she drops him off for $10 and he spends the day socializing with other pups. He got to get his paw print in finger paint, play with his best friend Trigger, eat doggie treats, watch the Rock and Roll K-9s perform, and play musical chairs with other owner's and dogs.
Aside from all this, my relationship with D has been on the rocks. Does that even make sense? I don't even know. It's such a disaster, and we've just been fighting and fighting and fighting. In all honesty, we have the most intense love/hate relationship I have ever experienced. At times, I feel I am so in love with him, but other times, I can't believe how mean we are to each other. Maybe more to come on this later if I feel like ranting about it...
I'm trying to catch up on a few things I haven't written about recently. Maybe just in pictures? D and I finally took down the 25, set it back up again, took down the 40, set up the 45, and set the 40 up over here.
We also decided, spur-of-the-moment to paint the main room in D's apartment and rearrange the furniture, which now looks amazing!
I guess this entry should be dated a week or two ago, but it's an overview of everything that has been happening at work these last few weeks so I don't think I need to change the posted date.
There are some days where I leave work and all I can think is "I just don't get paid to put up with this kind of shit." I am really bitter and cynical about the response I got when I asked Claude about getting compensated properly for my new, ridiculous amount of heavily depended on responsibilities.
Claude usually pulls through for me, and in the past, he has exceeded above and beyond my expectations (and has even suprised me a few times) with his great leadership skills. But this time, I basically got a BS answer.
He said something about how my pay schedule is more stretched out because I'm here all year 'round, and so I'm not considered to be on an intern's pay schedule. Even Veronica last summer, becoming a sophomore, made more than I make right now becoming a sophomore. By proportion, it would be smarter for me to leave and come back than to stay all-year-round.
So my second idea was to ask for a different kind of compensation - to have a second co-op come work with us. I proposed the idea that I bring in a friend (or sibling - I'll get to that later) to help out with some work. I actually suggested this before Catherine even announced her leave, so my train of thought was not geared the way it might appear to others now. This would be the most no-strings-attached solution for IT. Pay the same amount to a second person without having to lift a finger in training him/her, having the obligation to keep him/her the whole summer, or having to worry about anything else like that. But this idea was also shot down.
I better be compensated in one way or another eventually.
