The Killer Kite

It was a beautiful, fog-less day in Ventura yesterday so we decided to take advantage of it and go the beach with some friends. We had brought our new stylin' beach chairs and a cooler full of food and drinks, so we were all set to kick back and soak up some rays. We had just gotten settled and were nearing full relaxation mode when a lady and her daughter who were sitting near us decided that it was time to bring out their enormous, terradactyl-sized kite. As soon as they started setting the kite up, it became pretty obvious that neither of them had ever flown this kind of kite before. It was one of those kites that has two seperate handles that you use to control the flight movements, so it was a little more complex than just your regular run-of-the-mill kite on a string - and it was a pretty windy day.

Once they got the kite ready to go, we were waiting for them to walk it over to an area of the beach that was less crowded, since our spot had quite a few people. But much to our surprise, they decided to start flying it right in the middle of our heavily populated section of the beach. Now, this kite didn't just soar peacefully up in the sky. Oh no. This thing was zipping wildly from side to side and making frequent Kamikazee type dives towards our poor defenseless heads. The kite even crash landed several times only inches away from terrified people on their beach towels. You'd think that after several close calls and a number of death glares from the people around them, they would realize that it was time to move to a clearing that was less crowded, but amazingly, this was not the case. And so instead of an afternoon of relaxing and listening to the waves gently lap at the shore, we were all fearing for our lives and listening for the wizzing sound that indicated that the kite was speeding in our direction. Thanks a lot, lady.

Well, a half hour later (and after multiple close calls with the killer kite), I finally yelled "Look lady, no offense, but could you take your kite somewhere that's a bit less crowded?" And she says "Oh, yeah, we were just going to do that. There's too many people here anyway." It took you 30 whole minutes of torturing your fellow beach-goers to figure that out?! Amazing.

I may never be able to look at a kite the same way again...

The Land of the Temps

I have been working as a temp at a biotech company for the last 6 months while I looked for a decent job. Quite the interesting experience. In case you're not familiar with the world of temping, all temps have to get hired through an agency, which put us through a series of very basic computer tests to make sure we sorta know what we're doing before they send us out to interview for positions. Then our test scores are actually sent with us when we interview so that prospective employers can get an idea of what kind of computer skills we have. Sounds like a fairly reasonable process, doesn't it? You figure that's gotta weed out some of the less competent people. So why is it that the majority of the temps in my office are total idiots?! (Ok, perhaps this sounds a little mean, but they REALLY are!)

For example, last week one of the guys in my office actually asked me how to change the format of a page in Word from portrait to landscape. Ok. Then he couldn't figure out how to get the page to print. (Um, you press "print"?) Another guy was given the job of putting some files away that were in a box in alphabetical order with tabs that said A, B C, etc. So what does he do? He just shoved them into the file drawer in any old order he wanted to. That just doesn't make sense! If these were really difficult jobs, I might understand an error or two, but trust me, none of the things we are asked to do require a whole lot of brain power. That's why I'm constantly amazed at how often these people screw things up.

Here's another great example: Last Friday, we had to make a couple hundred binders for a meeting and then deliver them to various people throughout the company. One of the temps - let's just call her G - took a bunch of binders on a dolly to deliver to another building. One of these binders just happened to be the only one that had classified information in it. When she got to her destination, lo and behold, she realized that one of the binders had somehow disappeared along the way. (I'll give you three guesses which binder it was.) She called us in a panic and wanted to know what she should do. Well, the logical thing would be to back track and see if she could find it - which she did, and it wasn't there. So of course, we all started a massive hunt to find the thing before we had to sound like total idiots and report it to our boss and security.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I were carting a bunch of things on a dolly, I would probably notice if something fell off. But apparently, G was pulling the dolly behind her and talking on her cell phone at the same time - strangely enough, she never heard a thing. (Roll eyes here). Yes, accidents DO happen, but this just seems like a major act of incompetence to me.

To make a long story short, we never found the darn binder, even though the whole company was put on alert to look for it. Someone must have picked it up, liked what they saw, and kept it. I was expecting heads to roll, but we all still had our jobs (including G) when we went home on Friday, although we were all praying that the confidential information wouldn't show up on the evening news that night. Needless to say, I doubt that my office will be handling any classified information again in the near future.

Yes, I realize that I'm complaining, but I assure you that after the two-hundredth time of the same person asking you how to make text bold in Excel, you would be teetering on the edge, too. And besides, if you can't complain on your blog, where can ya? I'm just relieved that Friday is my last day here. I can't WAIT to see who they bring in to take my place...haha

Back Sliding

Week 9.5

I am sitting here staring at the ham sandwich that my husband so graciously made for me this morning and I'm desperately trying to make myself take a bite. I keep telling myself that it will taste really good and that it will make this wave of nausea go away, but my poor stomach just won't believe me. It knows I've tried to trick it before, and the results weren't pretty. And since I'm totally exhausted and the restroom is clear on the other side of the building, I think this whole sandwich thing is a losing battle. Oh well.

I thought things had been getting better. I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and she took one look at my pale, pinched face and prescribed me the holy grail of nausea pills - Zofran. (Why she didn't prescribe that right off the bat, I have no idea, but beggars can't be choosers, right?!) I popped one of those precious little pills into my mouth right away, and about thirty minutes later, I almost felt normal. NORMAL. What a concept! I even got hungry and began an instant love affair with BBQ potato chips. I was on top of the world. We drove up to Mariposa to tell Hoby's parent's about the baby and I felt fabulous the whole time. I was in heaven.

I went to see Dr. Fine again this past Friday and she immediately remarked on how much better I looked. (Maybe that jinxed it?) She did another ultrasound and this one was the best yet. I actually got to see our tiny little friend moving all over the place - the baby looked like she/he was trying to kick box or something! It's strange how I can't feel that, but I guess I will soon enough. I had a big smile on my face as I left the office, thinking how this pregnancy thing wasn't so bad now that I wasn't puking anymore and that seeing the baby made all the suffering worth it - and that's when it hit. A big fat wave of nausea. Put me right in my place.

Since then I've been feeling terrible. We went to a really fun party on Saturday night and I refused to be a party pooper, so I bravely tried pretend I felt fine - I even boogied on the dance floor a bit. All I wanted for one stinkin' night was to feel okay and enjoy myself. But on Sunday I paid for it dearly. We went to the movies last night, and the whole time I was there all I could think about was trying to keep my dinner down. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the movie. And today I'm even worse. I'd give anything to go home from work right now, curl up in bed and die. Okay, not really die, but you know what I mean. Will this EVER end?????