January 15, 2005 Relatives and More Work PLEASE NOTE: Spies.com is no longer. There is no redirect to this site, so if you're reading this, you're using the correct address at leftfield.org. Otherwise, you'll be getting an error page, and may have lost me forever. I'm coming to realize that Stephanie isn't just my niece, and not just my coworker, but also a really cool person. I think everyone has a vision of the members of their family that stays somewhat constant until something happens to change that relationship. Your little brothers or sisters will always remain so, until they become parents. Your Mom will always be your Mom, whether you respect her, rebell against her, or are her best friend, until she becomes infirm and you have to take on the parent role. A cousin may just be a cousin until you go on a cross-country trip with her and really get to know the juicy details. I found this out awhile ago, when Heather and I had a talk before a show that I directed. We met for dinner and had a long conversation about our families, about Sean, about ourselves and just life in general. I stopped thinking of Heather as "Sean's girlfriend" and started thinking of her as this great person named Heather that I'd just gotten to know. I haven't had too many alone-moments with Stephanie, mostly because she never visited me when I lived away from home. When I'd go to her house, it was usually to meet with the whole family, or to help Chris out with something. When she comes over to Mom's, she's in full granddaughter mode. All of which are accurate glimpses into her personality, but not necessarily the whole story. I'm sure I'm not getting the whole story, but I commuted in and out with Stephanie a number of times since she got hired at the Consulting Company, and I think our relationship has taken a turn in a very different, very nice direction. Seeing me at work, I think, has opened her eyes to the fact that I'm really someone outside of the uncle who shows up to family parties. Talking with her in the car, I realize that she's just on the cusp of becoming a full-fledged adult, and has some really strong opinions on things. She's wickedly funny in a quiet way, has more self-confidence than she lets on, and is somewhat of a party girl. These things, I never really knew about her until just now. It's like meeting a brand new friend. Work was fairly slow today, though I had two projects that ate up much of my shift. The first was a bunch of charts to fill in, with an Excel spreadsheet attached. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was being asked for, what numbers went in which chart, etc. I couldn't get ahold of the person who sent the documents (I love it when someone says, "You can reach me on my cell anytime!" and then proceeds to not answer it and not check voicemail), so I spent a good half-hour trying to figure out how to get things the way they should be until I gave up and brought the document over to Laurie. She had worked on the document before, so she showed me what she had done, though I think the worksheet she had worked off of was different. I did what I could with it, making it exactly the way it should go if Laurie was right, and sent it off a couple of hours later. Later on that day, I got a call from another person working on the same document, who said that I'd have to "redo" the charts. I apologized all over myself, explaining that I didn't quite know what went where, and two of us made an educated guess, and... "Oh no," he said with an embarassed laugh, "We sent you the wrong data. What you did was exactly right for the data we submitted, it's just that the numbers we gave you were completely wrong." On the one hand, I was a little miffed that I'd have to re-do the charts. On the other hand, I was happy that I'd done them correctly. Then I got mad that they didn't check their numbers until after they got their work back. Then I was glad that I knew how to do the charts, and it would be easier to do them next time. I was just in that sort of mood. They didn't get me the new data today, but wanted the new charts back first thing tomorrow morning. When I explained our hours during the weekend (11am-7pm), the guy I was talking to said that he'd like them back tonight, but asap if I didn't finish them before the shift was over. And then I waited for the document. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, about an hour later, the guy called back and asked me if there was any point in sending the data then, or to send it the next day. Since it was about a half-hour before closing, I told him to turn it in overnight, and I'd call him at the number he put in his e-mail to discuss any differences in the Excel format as soon as I got in. Let's just hope that he remembers to keep that phone on. The other part of my day was spent on a document that came in under the umbrella of a new initiative we're doing for the company. I don't know if it's okay to give out details, so I'll err on the side of caution and just say that it requires a different set of skills than we currently use during the course of the day. Namely, reading for content. Though we're "desktop publishers" by title, mostly we make sure that everything adheres to our company standards in terms of visual display. Unless we're specifically asked to, we don't change the wording of a document unless there are some blatant mistakes beyond spell check. Sometimes a document will be turned in from one of the Eurpoean offices, and it's necessary to make sure that the English actually makes sense, and that verb tenses are used correctly, but that's very rarely the case. But this new area requires not only reading for content, but making decisions based on that content, which is a skill set I haven't exercised in this position before. I can clean up a document without knowing at all what it's about, and frankly, it's easier that way. Unless the consultant asks for something that shows a process in a very specific way, it's just a matter of applying the right styles, using the right templates, and making sure the page is set up so that it looks as close to standard as possible. A few people in the department have expressed apprehension about this new service we're offering, and I was one of them, at first. But it's really kind of interesting, figuring out what to do with the content, given the rules we've been handed. I don't have it down by any means, but I'm getting the hang of it (I've only done three of these documents "for real" as opposed to the exercises we were given) and it's a different sort of challenge. The only drawback is that some of the documents can be dreadfully boring (to me...mostly because I won't be making any money off of the advice given in them). I'm not much of a "corporate" type, though the atmosphere in the company is very professional, the department is much more relaxed. We're a creative bunch (there are musicians and designers and writers and painters, etc.), so the business aspect of things usually only interests us if we can find some cool new way to show it. Otherwise, the content doesn't matter as much. At any rate, my real hope is that by learning this new skill set and taking on more responsibility, whoever does these projects will get an increase in salary next year (we only get financial reviews once a year, alas), so I plan on getting very good at it. Cash is a very good motivator. After work, Steph and I dropped by MicroCenter to pick up the flat screen monitor for Mom. I'm so jealous! Though I currently don't use a desktop machine, when I get my own space, I'm definitely getting one of those. So thin. So lightweight. Such a small amount of desk space taken up! I'm slowly but surely becoming a tech geek. And a workaholic. Scary.