AUGH MONDAY COMMUTE RAAAAAGE

Ahem.

So, my usual route to work is under construction.  Rather than a 5 lane road at 45mph, it's now a 2-3 lane road at 30mph.  Which some days means 20, depending on the panicked driver in the front of the commuting pack.  Once you get past THAT construction zone, you run into a whack of traffic, because the other route to work is CLOSED so they've been detoured to my route.

Okay, fine.  Back-up route! Half a mile up the road from my turn, it drops to one lane. As a result, the back-up is over a mile long.  Thus, despite the fact that I only need to get into the right lane and make an immediate turn, I can't.  Because everyone else is lining up for the left lane, because somewhere after my turn, it loses a lane.  FINE STUPID CITY FINE.

Back-up route that I haaaaaaaaaaate.  It just sucks.  The end.  You have a two lane left turn on to the road, but the right lane of the left turn is the lane people are supposed to use to get on the highway.  Yeah, right.  Lots of cars in the left lane try to cut right to get on the highway.  Plus there are 4 traffic lights in under half a mile.  Three of them are in a quarter mile.  Then you race and jockey for position for the one lane that bears right, that splits back in to two lanes with varying speeds that no one actually knows.

ANYWAY.  TODAY'S COMMUTE.

My husband had said that the back-up route was just fine.  I opted to trust him, because why not? Worst case, I end up on the route that I hate, but past the part that I really really really hate.  Except... I got behind a car doing 20mph in a 45mph zone.  It was raining.  For some reason, this panics people in this town.  I opted to NOT tailgate her because, uh, what's the point?  I'm not sure if she was inept or decided that I was being mean to her.  I put my left turn signal on, pulled into the turn lane and... she cut me off.  The light was green.  She STOPPED, until the light turned yellow and then turned.  I opted to follow her through the light at that point.

We got to within 15 cars of the traffic light to make it to the road with the one lane half a mile from my turn... and watched one car go through the cycle of the light.  FINE.  LEFT TURN and on to back-up route.  For some reason, a bus stopped to let a car turn LEFT so all the other traffic stopped, too, which meant no one could figure out how to accelerate again for the spot where you race and then jockey for position.  Fine, screwed, whatever, I'll just get in line and get to work when I get to... bus what ARE YOU DOING NOW?  I go around the bus.  And I'm FREE.  FREE I TELL YOU FREE.

(Mind, I'm still in a left lane, there are no turn lanes, so there are some slow downs for cars turning.  That's not so big a deal.  It was the Mercedes SUV driver who was COMPLETELY PANICKED about driving on this road in the lane next to me.  When I had to slow/stop for the left turn cars, SHE DID TOO.  FOR REAL?)

Then, insult on injury, but as I turned and I could see the parking garage?  A dude was in the road, at a construction site, with a STOP sign.  I almost cried.  But when the light turned green, he turned the sign to slow, and I was able to advance.  I lost nothing, at that point.

EXCEPT MY TEMPER OH GOD I HATE COMMUTING.

Waiting

Okay, right now at work:
-My boss is retiring at the end of April.  They've done the interviews for her replacement and as of last Monday, they'd started the reference checks and salary work.  No announcement yet.

-Our grad admissions coordinator gave her notice (she's moving out of state).  Her last day is April 16th.

-We haven't had a permanent receptionist since August 2011.  Knock wood, our temp in that position is moving on this week.

-My position is being shifted, eventually, from my department to a remote office, whether I want it or not.

-Yesterday, at a meeting, another manager voiced what I had been thinking.  Despite the fact that I was never presented with and never had to sign the agreement saying I wouldn't leave for two years, as part of my counter-offer, if I do leave before those two years are up, I'm never coming back.  So I'm in a position of "what if I don't get an interview/offer? and how do I say no and how do I say yes, if I do?"

-So we have multiple open positions, no idea when anyone is going to fill the big one and no idea when the new boss will fill the smaller ones. 

I quit.

AUGH

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH REMANUFACTURED TONERS. I HAVE BEEN USING THIS COMPANY FOR A VERY LONG TIME. THE PROBLEM IS WHEN I PLACE THE ORDER FOR THE WRONG ITEM.

Christ.  My coworker is saying things like "oh, I don't trust them."  What's not to trust?  I'm coming up on 11 years of ordering toner from THIS COMPANY.  If they sucked, they would have gone out of business MANY MANY YEARS AGO.

However! When I say "I need a toner, equivalent to a Brother TN-450," and end up ordering something that comes in labeled TN-570 THAT IS NOT MISTRUST. THAT IS LACK OF COMMUNICATION I HATE EVERYONE OMG.

ALSO: BOSS. YOU ARE ILL. GO HOME AND TAKE THAT ATTITUDE WITH YOU.

/caps of rage

Friday things

We're in the process of hiring a new department manager.  It's an interesting process, especially from the staff point of view.  Our say is limited, because there's a lot that could go terribly wrong if you give people the option to pick their own boss.

So, the committee gets a pile of applications.  They select people to interview.  They narrow it down, they pass it to another committee (who either says "okay" or "try again"), then the original committee meets with the chair and presents the candidates.

As a staff, we were allowed to have a meet and greet with all three candidates. I reacted EXTREMELY strongly (and negatively) to one and I've been taking a lot of heat for it since then.  Not to say that it's completely unjustified - I mentioned the negative reaction, right?

Today, we met with the chair and presented our feelings/thoughts/suggestions to him.  He can dismiss them, if he wants to.  Because of this attitude problem (perceived or otherwise), I actually wrote up a pro and con list for all three of the candidates.  To my surprise, the list was about the same length for all three, though the strong sense of GOD NO remains.

However, I was COMPLETELY surprised to find out, in the end, that we all basically agreed... despite the arguing and the insults slung my way for my opinion.  However, our basic agreement does not line up with the upper level's preference, so we'll have to see what happens.

It's just a matter of waiting, waiting, waiting from here!

It's March. In Michigan.

I feel like that's all I've said for the past week.  It's March.  In Michigan.

Today, we're supposed to get into the 80s.  In March.  In Michigan.  I think the last time we were under 60 degrees was last Sunday?  In March.  Our usual average temperatures are 41 and today, 81?

So, I'm wearing a knee length denim skirt and a cap sleeved short sleeve top and sandals.  IT IS MARCH. IN MICHIGAN.  This is NOT right.

And when I get to work today?  Facilities had turned the heat ON.  It was pouring out of my heater; my office was 80.  This is NOT the way to give me a nice cool office (which, by the way, I haven't had since the temps were under 60.  Because who turns the AC on? In March? IN MICHIGAN?) and it's the way to make me nice and sick.  Thanks a lot, buttheads.

It's still just weird to be in a short skirt, short sleeve shirt, and no coat.  It's MARCH.

...in Michigan.

Running is hard.

Trying to get the running engine going is a lot harder than I would have thought as life gets busier. I'm doing a better job of getting out there as this unnatural heat wave lingers on, but it's not perfect. I think in the end, it'd be nice to get back in the 25-30 miles per week range, but it's a lot harder than it should be.

Monday morning snow

It was a bit of a surprise to have the NPR announcer tell us that the light snow would continue through morning.  Wait, what?  Snow, what? C'mon man, it's winter - do you... oh, wait.

My commute was easy, until I could see the parking lot.  I skidded my way to a stop sign (four-way stop) and then watched the car on the downhill slide his way to a full stop.  I figured it was likely, but I don't usually get to watch someone's tires lock up while the car still moves.  Once I knew he wasn't going to hit me, I proceeded.  The rest of the day should be okay, but it's actually winter cold out there.  Who says that's okay?

Busy week, too.  Two faculty candidates and a graduate recruitment to keep us on our toes.  Today's candidate immediately walked up, introduced himself, and shook my hand.  So unusual and it's usually with the more junior.  Perhaps he is junior, but he isn't fresh out of grad school new.  It was quite pleasant to just chat with him for a few minutes, before his insane two days gets underway.

I'd rather be home, knitting!