A Week in Review

Friday, July 17, 2009. There's a new computer system at the COB; will Angie survive the chaos, and if she does will she beat an old man to death with his keyboard? Delta is rebooking flights without telling anyone, which gave Angie a fine opportunity to practice her cussing. The temperatures in Salt Lake City are closing in on 100 degrees, way, way too hot. THIS is a Week in Review.

I’m so glad that’s over
The first week after a dramatic change is usually the hardest. You know what they say about a bad hair cut – give it 10 days and it will be fine. People have to grow into, or grow out, changes. Well this week the COB launched a brand new computer program for all of our data, causing these old me that I work with to have 13 major coronaries each. It’s been so stressful. Honestly, there was a lot of commotion when we got our new phone system, but that was nothing compared to this.

To be fair I will say that these men work on the computers tracking information on our missionaries all day long. They cannot do their jobs if they can’t use the computer. And the makers of our new system didn’t consider what they need well enough before putting this system in place, and we got about one hour of vague training before the launch. And these men are old. And they don’t like anything new.

The guys were unavoidably vocal about not liking this program. There was bad language, pounding on desks, work being lost over and over again, and men running around hollering out their problems. Did you see that episode of The Office where Dwight fakes a fire in order to teach everyone the importance of a good evacuation plan, and all h*** breaks loose? People are nearly trampled to death? Angela’s cat is thrown through a tile in the ceiling? That was us, without the smoke. The tension levels have been so high in this office that I am honestly exhausted. Yesterday I really thought that if I heard one more person complain about one more thing, the tightness in my chest would make me implode, and my last words would be, “shut up. Shut Up! SHUT UP!”

Our saving grace was a great team of techs who practically lived here all week. They sat down with the guys, at their desks, one-on-one, and taught them the new program. And they were so nice. I know that when they first showed up on Tuesday, launch day, they got an earful of terrible complaints, but they reacted with patience, and calmly walked us through the transition. Very impressive. Their kindness was the only thing that kept us alive.

Stupid Delta
A couple of weeks ago I booked a trip to Minnesota for October, and got one heck of a deal on the ticket! I usually don’t buy so far in advance, but when I saw a price that was about half of the usual, I grabbed it. Hooray!

This week I was looking for my itinerary on Delta.com to make sure that I have aisle seats (I get so claustrophobic if I’m not in the aisle). I couldn’t find my itinerary, which is concerning, so I called the customer service phone number. I got the usual call center in India, and explained the problem. The agent was able to find my return flight, but was a little sketchy on the outgoing flight. When he finally found it, he said something about leaving at 1:00 on October 9, and I said no, I was booked to leave here at 7:00 pm. This is important because I’m at work all of that day and really don’t have the vacation time saved up to take that day off. He told me that the 7:00 flight was cancelled, and so I was rebooked at 1:00. What the what? Shouldn’t someone have told me about this? They have my email address; I couldn’t have gotten a notice? Was this supposed to be a fun surprise saved for when I showed up at the airport at 5:30 for my 7:00 flight? “Surprise, your actual flight was 4 hours ago!” Of course the young man was all hollow apologies. The latest we could get was 4:55, which means that I’ll have to figure out a way to get away from work about 2:30 and go straight to the airport. And it’s a connecting flight instead of the direct one that I had before. I’m not happy. But I guess it was the best he could do.

I did still get a killer deal on the price, which is something. And Minnesota in October is beautiful! My parents and I are going to drive to Chicago to see my aunt. I’m really looking forward to it. And my October my rage will have softened.

Way too hot
We had a lovely spring here in Salt Lake City, and the summertime temperatures have stayed in a nice 80-90 degree range. We got through the 4th of July without hitting 100 degrees, which I haven’t seen in years. It’s just been wonderful. But, the weatherman says that this weekend we will feel all the burning pain of 100 degrees. I suppose it was bound to happen. I will submit to it with the dull apathy felt by someone who finds it too hurtful to care. It’s just for a few weeks right? I hope so.

That’s it for today. Well, I kind of have one more thing. I have a very pretty notebook at home that’s been empty for a year. I buy notebooks because I love them, but don’t always write anything in them. For the last little while I’ve thought about trying my hand at writing some poems, and last Sunday decided to use that pretty notebook for that reason. I sat on my bed and wrote a poem. It’s not bad for a first-time-in-years try, but I’m not sure that I’m ready to share it yet. I’ll keep practicing, and will share when there’s something share-worthy.

Until then, thanks as always for sticking with me. Don’t melt in the heat.
You are loved.