Well, the first half of the day wasn't bad and then it went bad from there.

I have finally won the UPS battle. OldBoss finally agreed to switch our mailing address to mail services, much to everyone's relief. I thanked my vendor contact, though she said she wasn't going to relax until packages actually make it there. I said they made it there at the end of December so I'm not too worried on that front. I don't know if the packages were reshipped today or not though (see below).

It was our lovely temp's last day today, I'm sad. But at least her next job lets her work from home so she doesn't have to slog here for an hour while having car issues.

Ashley's nephew was finally born after weeks of drama. That's a relief. I feel bad that the baby got hauled to a different hospital and is separated from his mother and the dad is having to drive like 25 minutes between two hospitals. Apparently the baby will get out before the mother will, so um...good luck with that. Jim has driven up there to keep the sister company in the hospital, karaoke be damned. I asked how all the stuff she was making for the baby was going and she said she made a hat but it came out too small! Uh-oh.

Someone posted on work Slack that NPR article about how oh noes, people are less engaged/quiet quitting at work! So sad! which then turned into a moanfest about how awful it is to work from home. If NewBoss hadn't just joined the channel I would have said quite more on the topic, but pointed out that y'know, 2020's and pandemic may also be factors here. Fuckers. Unfortunately for me GiantOrg is one of those places where people BELIEVE in their MISSION, which I don't.

In the afternoon, I had the meeting with BigBoss, which went...unexpected. I did end up telling him the usual office problems because he asked, and how they aren't going to be solved, which he admitted as much if other offices have to cooperate, or we have to have the money. I told him about the Gods of the Giant Org cockblocking everything situation and THAT surprised him because that's not typical behavior at Giant Orgs, albeit he said he did hear that ours is....I forget what polite phraseology he used, I'll just say "heavy handed" where most organizations are not at this, and you'll get the drift.

But he also asked what I liked about my job and I was fucking gobsmacked, like fish gulping for air, I got no answer for this .I can't say "health insurance" like I usually say when oh, Mom asks. I finally said something like I like getting work done. He also asked about career prospects and moving up and I was forced to say that I got moved into this, then I got moved out, and then "....that group did not like me..." (I didn't go into ugly details) and I got moved back here. I said I don't qualify for scheduling and I can't go back to the old group, and no one else will take me because I don't work in financial stuff and all other jobs require it, so I am straight up stuck. This was not a conversation I wanted to have right off the bat, but...well, I don't have any career prospects, that's the truth and that's obvious.

And then I proceeded to have Important Document Drama for the rest of the afternoon. I'm going to anonymize all parties in this, but let's just say that I'm the one in the office today, Teammate A was working from home and Teammate B left at 1 p.m. today.

(a) Person A, whose ID has been shipped back to the East Coast with no estimated time of shipping it back yet (see above UPS story), got told that it was sitting in the office and asked Teammate A if it can be mailed ASAP? I looked and it's in the office, but it's one of the ones that was bent (and I had to point out that it was bent since nobody noticed). I still have no idea when the replacement will ever arrive. Told Teammate A to ask if Person A wants the bent one if it's just going to go to another country to be thrown into their records, never to be returned home, because in that case if it's bent, fuck it. If Person A wants it for nice framing in their home, then...still waiting.

(b) A few days ago, Teammate B did a rush ID order for Person B, which she did not consult with me about, which is fine since I thought she had it down and she's done several this month. But apparently she left off their apartment number and we definitely had paperwork proving the person sent that. Now UPS is refusing to deliver it, of course we find this out after the East Coast vendor is gone for the day, as is Teammate B. And Person B is throwing a shit fit wanting a refund, of course. NewBoss is processing the refund, which will not be immediate. I couldn't find paperwork for this anywhere and had to email Teammate B saying "could you please upload that?" (I found a long email chain and no documentation otherwise), and had to email the vendor asking if the address can be changed. But since UPS is shitty and evil, who knows?

I both wonder: (a) is Teammate B going to get lectured for an hour/written up/In Trouble for this like I would, or will they just be all, "oops, you made an expensive typo, but we understand," (b) am I going to get in trouble for this even though I didn't do it? I would bet money that Teammate B doesn't get in trouble or much trouble, but I somehow will. I'll get blamed for training, or for fucking up the response today, or.... something. I debated whether or not to attempt to shield Teammate B, but that wouldn't work anyway, her name is clearly on everything and it's clear she's the one who screwed up. Like I'm relieved it wasn't me doing THAT level of fuckup FOR ONCE, but I bet it'll backwash onto me somehow because that's how being a buttmonkey works.

On a related note, we're going to have LOTS of meetings next week about my bad behavior with OldBoss and NewBoss, (scheduled before the Person B explosion, but I'm sure it'll be added to my list of fuckups) followed by lots of front counter shifts. Kill. Me. Now.

Show tonight: I got there only to find out the following: (a) They're getting the inside of the lobby repainted, and apparently the painting guys started by plastering over all the cracks, so there's random white areas all over the walls. (b) To prime for the painting, the office had to be cleaned out, during which apparently some things were unplugged. (c) Steve came in earlier today to get the Internet back up in the office. They reasonably assumed that meant the Internet was up throughout the entire building. (d) Turns out it was not. (To quote someone from the orchestra, "That's exciting in a bad way.") Bar area had connection, concessions did not, half of the scanning machines worked, and the light booth was completely out. So when I got in Dannette was working on it, but Steve did have to be called in to fix the whole mess before the show. Poor guy said he was in 10 out of 10 pain and one of his legs was collapsing on him, but he made it up the stairs to fix everything before going back home again. (He said he'll be back tomorrow for cast party, but I dunno....)

That said, the Internet and lights and sound were up again by 7:30, though we did start ten minutes late. I did spot a coworker of mine in the audience, so that was nice. I did get to watch sound check (usually it's done before my call time) and I cracked up at Kat saying, "something something being a whore."

Announcements were made: they are canceling the Valentine's dessert auction because they don't have time to do it (not sure what to make of that, but I wasn't planning on going anyway), AND the final shows are set. Sounds like they didn't get Legally Blonde, which was subbed in with Into The Woods. So apparently Something Rotten, Oklahoma, Seussical at New Year's (Omar did a fist pump for this, me not so much), Into the Woods, Fiddler, and Little Mermaid. I'm not totally sure on the order since Jan forgot Fiddler in the order and said it later, but still, better show schedule than this year's for my preferences.

On comm tonight, Kimmie muttered that Chris answered the phone before it rang and said, "Maybe he just hopes someone will answer the phone." Me: "Well, he is lonely and horny."

After the show, I saw that Kimmie was taking pictures of a lizard (she named it "Ernesto"), put a cigarette in its mouth, and was sending this to Steve. Apparently he'd been leaving it around the theater to freak her out or something. Kimmie and Jean have various animal friends around the theater with names ("we got Nigel back"), and also the Milky White cow was returned from where it had been loaned and left backstage to avoid the painting, and that weirded some people out. I heard various stories of animals being left around the theater, which I liked.

Also, Taylor came backstage and said, "My aunt is TOTALLY LOADED tonight, I told her she smelled like a sailor," and I said that was funny coming from him (since he plays all the sailors). Jean was all, "I didn't serve her that," and I said "well, you only get fifteen minutes at intermission, you can't get her that drunk." We all assumed his aunt had pre-gamed before the show.

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