Good morning all

Lord have mercy, I almost killed me a copier salesman! *eye roll* There is a very irritating copier salesman who has come by himself several times and sent his henchmen (for their are evil enough to be henchmen) to try and sell us new copiers.

They kept wanting to step over and *look* at the copier. Our copier. In an area that is obviously *not* an area for just anyone. I don't know why death glares and bodily placing myself between them and the copier isn't a clear message, but for some reason these guys keep coming back and keep bugging the shit out of me.

Needless to say, we're never, ever using them. Ever.

And next time they show up, they're being shown the door. I am *not* dealing with this crap again.

***

Folks, CSI? Hee. Apparently Nick Lea is going to be something of a recurrent actor for a while if the vibe I got was right. Long-term love interest for Catherine? I don't care, as long as we see Nick more than once, and as long as in the end he's a bad, bad, bad boy.

Can't win for losing.

Lord. Have. Mercy.

Yesterday was the advent of a new day in the office. Front office staff has consisted of me, R. and B. for the last five years. My roles have changed slightly over time (from straight receptionist/administrative assistant to adding some PR work). R.'s role has changed over time too. Well, it was announced yesterday that she's leaving the front office completely and being the production coordinator. Fine. I'm glad for her, because she was doing three jobs, and this cuts her down to two. The accounting portion of her work is what's being cut out.

Well, it was effective yesterday that her role was changing. There was discussion that this would mean something new to be worked out for me and B. After all, we have to eat lunch sometime, and in the past I went to lunch first, with R. covering most of it, and B. picked up the end of the lunch rotation.

But things can never go smoothly. So R.'s promotion happened yesterday. And B. already had vacation days scheduled for today and Monday. Which means fun at lunch time or when I have to go to the bathroom.

Joy.

R. has been wonderful about covering when I go to the bathroom. I was told that I should just turn on our night service (automated message) at lunch time. What I missed was the part where I was supposed to put on a special lunchtime message. *sigh* So at lunch time I then had to dash around the corner and record a special message.

So what do I record? "Thank you for calling ______ _______. We are temporarily closed from 12:00 to 1:00 on Friday, February 20th. If you know your party's extension, please dial it now, or dial 4 for a directory. Press 0 for the operator."

Granted, pressing 0 wouldn't get them anyone, but whatever. The thing is, I have been fussed at in the past for saying anything about anyone being at lunch. I'm also not allowed to say that someone is not available. All I am allowed to say is that they're in a meeting (even if they aren't) and that they're currently out of the office. So when I recorded the message, I kept this in mind.

What happens? I get told that it was the wrong message to put on there. *sigh* I apparently should have put "lunch" on there.

Hi, guess what folks? My name's Heather and I'm not fucking psychic! Plus, this was last minute. I was doing my best. So the Creative Director that writes ad copy is now going to come up with something catchy to say. WTF? It's a phone message. Just frickin' decide what exactly is the right terminology and I'll go with it. We have to start with the company name. We have to tell them to dial the extensions, where the directory is, etc. There is one whole sentence, and a short one at that, that has to be clearly defined. How is this hard? How does this require a "professional"? And what are the chances that the biggest procrastinator on the earth is going to have this one sentence written by Monday at lunch?