coraline2009's Xanga

Wedding Veil planning session 1

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:36:57 GMT

This seemed like a prudent place to document this, as it links to my Ravelry account. I'm not ready to start an actual project on Ravelry for this, so a blog entry seemed best.

Early Wedding Veil planning (Chill, readers, I'm not engaged yet!!!)

CO 5 sts
Row 1: work 1 row
Row 2: *k1, yo* to last st, kfb (10 sts)
Work 3 rows st st
Repeat row 2 (20 sts)
Work 1 row st st
Work 5 repeats Blueberry pattern (KLE, p. 137)
Work 1 row st st
Repeat row 2 (40 sts)
Work 3 horiz. repeats of Single Lily of the Valley (KLE, p. 132) for 14 rows
Repeat row 2 (80 sts)
Work 12 horiz. repeats Ladybug pattern (KLE, p. 138) for 24 rows
Repeat row 2 (160 sts)
Increase 6 sts randomly (166 sts)
Work 6 horiz. repeats of Butterfly pattern (KLE, p. 140), interspersed with 5 repeats Lace Background Stitch (BW 2nd Treasury, p. 262), so as to achieve this effect: Butterfly|Lace|Butterfly|Lace|Butterfly|Lace|Butterfly|Lace|Butterfly|Lace|Butterfly.

332 sts total.

I'm still not sure about the edging, though.

----------------
Now playing: Michael W. Smith - I'll Lead You Home
via FoxyTunes

One thing.

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:22:07 GMT

The cat has been kinneared.

If change details how we know time happens, then time just sped up.

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:09:12 GMT

Lots o' news!

#1: I have a new boyfriend. He's very awesome. We have so much in common - common interests, common goals, a common faith - and yet he's very different from me. We've only been on a few dates, but it's going really well.

#2: I'm knitting another shawl! The designer of the Andromeda shawl has hired me to knit her a "floor sample" of her Icarus shawl. It's going rather slower than the Andromeda did, partly because Icarus is knit in a smaller yarn, and partly because my life is so hectic at the moment!

#3: I'm applying to become a member of BridgePoint, finally. The elder board has my application, and we're in the process of finding a time for me to meet with 2 of the elders to discuss my app. Kinda exciting.

#4: (And this is the biggie)

I've been transferred.

It's a temporary switch - I'm moving from a store that averages between 350-400 prescriptions on a weekday to a store that averages above 550 on a regular basis. Mondays, they touch the 700 range!

Why is this happening? Well, the pharmacy manager (New Boss) of my new store is an Emerging Leader in my district. So is my current boss (My Boss). New Boss has mentioned to the district supervisor that his staff is relatively new, and under-trained, and he has no senior technician to help guide and mold the store. So at the Emerging Leader meeting on Wednesday, the district supervisor asked My Boss if I (specifically! Me!) was still interested in getting out of my store and moving around the district, helping wherever I'm needed. My Boss hesitantly said yes (because he hadn't had a chance to discuss it with me.) So the district supervisor described the situation over at New Boss's store, and said that they do have one tech who could make a good senior technician with the proper training, which she can't get at her own store because it's too busy. So a swap was proposed: Me for Her.

After the meeting, My Boss came back to our store and talked to New Boss on the phone about it for a while. I knew they were on the phone together, and meant to try to listen in (because eavesdropping, I've found, makes me better informed and better able to do my job), but was too busy with a customer. So when I finished, My Boss had hung up, and was surveying the schedule. I asked, "So what did [New Boss] have to say?"

My Boss: "So you heard your name come up, did you?"
Me: stunned silence, followed by a very surprised, "Uh, no I didn't!??"

My Boss told me about the happenings at my new store, and asked if I was willing to go help them for a few weeks, while the staff at my store trains their proposed senior tech. I said yes.

This is huge for me. It's a great opportunity for me to show off just how good I am, as well as a great opportunity for the staff at this new store to become better at their jobs. I stopped by my new store this afternoon to discuss the situation with New Boss, and he informs me that there are some Attitudes on staff, that a clash is inevitable, and I'm guaranteed to lose my cool at some point. I told him that I'd be keeping my head down for the first few days, doing my job and watching the staff, to see who is competent and who thinks they're better than they are. (Deep down fear: I'm always afraid that I fall under the latter category!) After a few days, I'll be taking them to task, and doing some teaching.

So. As of Monday, I am the Only Senior Technician at the busiest store in my district. I need to discuss with New Boss who does various Sr. Tech responsibilities, such as chargebacks, reports, and scheduling. He may do the scheduling himself, and that's fine by me. I need to treat this new-to-me store as though it is my home store because, until further notice, it is. I'll still treat my boss from my home store as My Boss. I am loyal to him, at this point. (Also, he's asked me to "spy" on New Boss and report back on how he operates.)

I'm seriously excited, and seriously freaked. It's a lot to take in all at once. When I left my store at 2 PM today, it was with a feeling of great trepidation. I don't know when I'm going back! It could be 2 weeks, it could be 2 months! It could even be never! New store, though, is in a richer-than-rich neighborhood, and there's maybe 1 Medicaid claim a week, and next to no Spanish! (2 things for it, 1 against. Take a guess at which is which.) One of the assistant managers from my store was just transferred to new store last week, so I got to see him today. I saw him in the aisle, skipped over to him and said, "Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen!"

He responded in a surprised tone, "What are you doing here?"
Me: "I'm working here now! Or, at least, I will be on Monday." And told him the story.

He seems very happy over at new store. He also told me that I won't want to go back to my store. I hope that's not true. I don't know what I'm going to do without Silvia, Marco, and Laura. They're my best friends, in some ways, but I've always always felt like an outsider in the store. The language barrier has a lot to do with it.

I want to do well in my new store! I just hope I don't disappoint New Boss. He was seriously excited to meet me today. Though we've met before, it was always at district meetings, or briefly at one of our stores. He told me that he didn't want to strand My Boss without his best tech (I said "One of the best", trying to give Silvia her due.), so switching this other girl for me was like trading "a 6 for a 10."

New Boss thinks I'm a 10. He had to get the idea from somewhere, so it's either the district supervisor or My Boss, and I think My Boss is the likelier culprit. Hehe, I know My Boss officially can't play favorites, but I knew he values me higher than almost anyone else in the store. I knew it.

Anyway, I'm off through Monday at 1 PM, and I'm bored already. I think I'm going to go knit and call my boyfriend.

----------------
Now playing: BarlowGirl - Enough
via FoxyTunes

I've just been attacked...

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:40:34 GMT

...verbally. Over the phone. By someone I usually trust and like. This person (a coworker) and I do have a rocky history, but of late (as in, the last 6 months,) I have tried very hard to be grace-filled when dealing with her.

Also, I am consistent in my behaviors at work. If I take a call and it's for someone in particular, I put them on hold and inform the person. If they haven't picked up after a minute or two, and the call rings back to my phone, I tell them that they're still busy, and would they like to keep holding? My paranoia is assuaged by the fact that I always always always ALWAYS work in a specific manner such that when false accusations come my way, I can point at my history and say, "Now who will you believe, me who is consistent, or this person who may or may not be lying?"

(Yes, my paranoia and I have a working relationship. Don't you and yours?)

The story of this morning:

I was asleep. I've woken up 3 times this morning - once before 5 AM, once around 7 (I think - didn't check the time), and once at 9:30 when my phone rang. It was my coworker. She immediately started accusing me of hanging up on someone yesterday afternoon. This person had called for my coworker, and said that I (and gave my name) had told them that she was busy, and hung up on them. That is something I never do, because it is both rude and unprofessional. My coworker seems to believe this person is telling the truth, because the call came in around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I clocked out at 3:32 PM, so there is about a 1% chance that it was me, except that I hadn't answered the phone in about 15 minutes. Also, even during our busiest times, I don't hang up on people. I try to get them their answers to the best of my ability. So to be accused of being rude and unprofessional when IT WASN'T EVEN MY FAULT is NOT a nice way to start my morning.

And here's the kicker - I work tonight. Hopefully coworker will be gone by the time I get there, because I don't have the patience to deal with her today.

Why xkcd is awesome.

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:55:24 GMT

I am usually Captain Obvious, but I experience enough situations like this to make this funny to me.

----------------
Now playing: Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book (Unabridged)
via FoxyTunes

The genius of Neil Gaiman, reprised

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:59:13 GMT

Original blog entry here.

I've been following Neil Gaiman's Twitter feed for a few days now. One of those serendipitous things. I almost accidentally stumbled upon his feed. And because I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, I HAD to start following his updates on my phone.

I woke up this morning to 4 messages. The first one was a very bleary NG, stating that his assistant (still in MN) had called to tell him that somebody was trying to get in touch with him about something. He wasn't sure quite what. The second was a simple "Oh. Just forget it." Third and Fourth were about how he needed honey for his tea, and all the hotel had in his room was orange marmalade.

Then I received another update. It was expletive-laden, but you could just sense the joy. NG had been awarded the 2009 Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. A blog entry posted a few minutes later detailed how he was careful not to start cursing at the ALA board, when they called to inform him. For, indeed, it was the ALA board calling his house in MN, trying to get ahold of him. Too bad NG was in Los Angeles for a press junket for the soon-to-open Coraline movie. Lorraine gave them his cell phone number, so it all worked out.

As you may recall, in October I gushed openly about how much I love The Graveyard Book. Looks like I'm not the only one! But now I can say I owned a copy before the ALA gave it its medal. And I may buy another copy with the medal on the front, because you know Harper Collins is working on that this very instant.

Dreams

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:46:33 GMT

Hi Heather. (My friend found my blog. I suspect Ravelry shenanigans.)

So I've had strange, weather-related dreams lately. I had a dream last week that involved tornadoes, the city of Chicago (which I've never been to), and running into a public library. Last night, the weather got even stranger in my unconscious and I dreamt of a hurricane encroaching on the city of Houston. It was a big surprise, and a bunch of people were busy frantically barricading the windows downstairs and stocking up on food. We stole a refrigerator from somewhere. The strange thing is that I woke up right after stealing the refrigerator, but it was well before 7 AM, so I went back to sleep - and the dream resumed with me going to a nearby store to buy esoteric sodas to get us through the storm. Dreams almost never "resume" for me. Work's been a mad house lately (evidenced by my dreaming of tornadoes), but I suspect it's about to get worse (evidenced by the hurricane last night.)

Yes, I believe my dreams often carry warnings about what is going to happen. Over the last 7 years, I've noticed a pattern. When I dream about work, it is always vivid, always frightening, and almost always has a waking counterpart in the very near future. As an example, back when I worked for CVS in Pennsylvania, I had a dream that involved a line of cars in the drive-thru that extended out the driveway and down the street for a quarter mile, and no one being at work to help me. That Saturday, it was just me and the pharmacist, and he'd stepped out to use the bathroom, and it suddenly got very, very busy. "Coincidence!", says my logic.

Logic can jump off a bridge. I'm not superstitious outside of work, but inside the pharmacy, I'm very, very superstitious. If you're having a good (read: not busy) day at work, you do not anger the "pharmacy gods" by talking about it. If one of you is foolish enough to talk about how not busy you are, you must immediately say, "Well, now you've jinxed it." Because of my superstitions, and my strange dream history, when I dream about chaos at work, I take it very seriously. The fact that the weather in my dreams has gotten worse suddenly portends Very Bad Things.

I'm scared about Monday.

----------------
Now playing: PFR - Fight
via FoxyTunes

An attack on socks.

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:41:11 GMT

I hate hand knitting socks. I keep trying to knit socks, because I love the concept of knitting socks, but I really despise the act. I'm almost finished with the gusset of a pair of Spring Forward, and I feel like stabbing something with my size 0 needles (think very, very tiny.) I think my aggravation over these socks is going to prevent me from ever knitting another sock. I've just removed all but 1 sock pattern from my queue on Ravelry, and the one remaining pattern is there because the construction is different from all the other sock patterns I've seen.

Other knitters can have their sock knitting. Leave me my lace and my sweaters, and I'll be fine.

----------------
Now playing: Steve Camp - Living In Laodicea
via FoxyTunes

Forty-six or Fifty-three? (reprise)

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:35:39 GMT

Quote from the original March 15th blog entry"

"Somehow, I've got 2 techs on vacation this week. *gives her boss a mocking "gee, what were you thinking" look* That means I have 4 techs with which to cover 211.5 manhours. From what I can tell from what was scribbled onto the work calendar, my boss has found one external tech to cover one shift - my one day off, Thursday. So the standard 4 techs have 202 manhours to cover. I'm the only one picking up extra hours - M's working his assigned 4 days; not staying late, not coming in extra. I don't dare ask A to come in extra - she's been flaky, emotionally, and I don't want to push her, lest I have an extra 33.25 hours to cover. And H has worked a LOT of days in a row, and I'd really like her to be able to stay at home for once.

According to the original schedule, I'm working 39 hours."

This looks eerily similar to what's happening this week. I'm down 2 techs - A has left us to work at LBJ Hospital, and H is in China, visiting family. We found one external tech to cover one shift, on Monday. And I was originally scheduled 39 hours. (Well, the original schedule says 33, but I picked up an unfilled shift on Saturday.) Monday, the external tech worked until 5, instead of 7, so I stayed to finish her shift. Then M's wife locked her keys in her car while she was at the Med Center, so he left at 6 to pick her up. So I stayed until 8:30, because if I hadn't, it would have been the pharmacist and one tech. Not exactly fair, either to them or to the customers. Since then, I haven't had one shift that's been exactly as scheduled - my Tuesday shift started early (at 1:30, instead of 3), because I had to cover for M, who had to go to a tech meeting. Wednesday, I was supposed to work from 3 to 9, but got shifted to 12 to 8:30 because we couldn't find a tech for the 10:30 to 7 shift (trust me, it sort of makes sense.) Today, I was supposed to work from 9 to 5:30, but had to switch so one of the trainee techs could go take her certification exam this evening. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to work from 3 to 9. It's staying that way, because I'm meeting up with friends from my knitting group at House of Pies after work. Because if I can't have my usual knitting group (which ends at 8 PM), I'm sure as shooting fish in a barrel going to have some time with my friends.

And I need to painfully kick one of my staff, because I got notice yesterday that he didn't renew his license before the end of November, and so I shouldn't be using him at the moment. This is BAD, because he's one of the only people who can work on a Sunday morning.

Oh yes, and my pharmacy manager decided that this week was the PERFECT time for some vacation time. *foreheaddesk*

It snowed yesterday. That made me happy for a few hours. Vivian and I made a snowman with the snow from the roof of my car. I gave him Sudafed tablets for eyes, and Vivian provided a baby carrot for a nose and some leaves for arms. He was both rather cute and rather evil. I transplanted him to the ledge on the back fence, and he's mostly melted by now. Because it's 51 degrees outside again. We'll be back in the 70's by the weekend.

November in 6 sentence fragments or less.

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:31:26 GMT

Not dead. Work schedule changed again. Bruised my arm at a Tenth Avenue North concert held at my church last Thursday. Probably 86'ing Thanksgiving this year. Already planning for Christmas in Houston - lots o' stuff happening at church, and Jay's going to be out for a lot of it. Oh, and Marco, Silvia, and I are talking about going to pharmacy school together.