Today and Monday.

And then I am finished with this office. My poor office orchid, which was so happy in my previous location where it got plenty of light, is now losing all of its flower buds due to the new location (the dungeon!).
All three of the office orchids will come home on Monday when STM will let me have the car for the day :)

Work

I'm in my last week at this office. It's not bloody happening fast enough, that's all I have to say about it!!!
After today: 5 business days left, four if I use my sick time...well, actually, 3 1/2. I've got plenty of sick time.
7 calendar days.

I should get one of those little countdown boxes!

A Note to My Coworker...

I KNOW you've had this space of cubicles to yourself for quite a while. It still doesn't belong to you, lady.

Talking on the phone about whether you packed the car or whether they should remove some sort of charge from your credit card is none of my damned business, nor do I have any interest in hearing about it. I understand that you may have some business related calls to make, and that's fine, but keep it DOWN when you're on a personal call. We share this space.

WTF!??!

I have worked at my current office in various jobs for over 2 1/2 years at this point. I started as an intern during grad school and gradually worked up to full time beginning last August. During that time I'm sure I've had bad days, but I've also tried to be a decent worker.

As a result, when I was hired full time I was moved from a desk in an office with a window to a cubicle without a door. Luckily there was still sunlight. Apparently this made sense.

Now, with 3 1/2 weeks until my final day here (13 days I will actually be required to be in this office...) they are moving me again.

To one of the smallest cubicles in the office, with no window, sandwiched between an intern and an administrative assistant.

"Thank you for all the hard work Vika, we really appreciate the time you've spent here!!"

In the spirit of awesomeness

One of my coworkers sent out a company wide email the other day. This doesn't happen quite as often as one would think for an organization of about 80 Arlington based employees.

Her business trip in the Middle East was extended. Awwwww.

BUT, she'd gotten tickets for Spamalot at the National Theater in DC for tomorrow.

What a SHAME. She had to sell them.

Guess who's going to Spamalot tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll try to remember to post pics.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!

In all of the wedding and Harry Potter and summer heat craziness I almost forgot.

I got promoted again, with another payraise.

Yay!

Welcome Samer!

We have recently welcomed a new member to our crazy team here at work, Samer. Samer seems a nice fellow, and he has the advantage of speaking Arabic, French and English fluently as well as being a Middle East/North Africa expert. Which is how he found his way to our little pocket of insanity.

Samer has Klatchian ancestry. I'm sure of it. He made the coffee today, see, and now I'm so sober I can see the future.

Need to buy melons, yes, melons would be useful.....

On the Job...

As the semester wanes and my time in graduate school comes to an end (if I survive the next two weeks, which is somewhat debatable...) I am being trained in a new part of my organization in preparation for me to go full time.

The section in which I'm working right now deals directly with a government agency. I had no idea how not-stereotypes all those gummint stereotypes are.

Wow.

Well, at the very least I am getting the idea that I have job security: my boss comes by my office approximately twice a week now to mention that this is going to be a chunk of my duties when I go full time. I think he's getting a kick out of the fact that I'm staying-you must understand that every time he does this he has this almost-manic glee in his manner. It's actually pretty amusing :D

I give people, I give.

So, although I've been posting (pretty much for myself, at least at first) on this blog for a bit now, my sisters hadn't been in on the fun. But now that the filial blogs are reaching critical mass, I figure it's only fair to pitch in to the madness.

My boss, whose birthday is today, is a curious creature. I've mentioned his oddness before on this blog, but I am forced to repeat myself: an Actual Good Boss is a rare thing, and must be commended when found.

Happy Birthday Shawn, whereever you happen to be today. I hope you took your convertible and went to some beach somewhere or something like that!

In other news: Masters Degrees. Not for the faint of heart. I commend my brother in law, seeing as how he is almost finished a PhD. Wow-this Masters Degree is more than enough to handle for me...I don't think I'd be up to the challenge of a PhD. I might feel differently if I wasn't working almost full time and planning a wedding, but hey, life happens.

Speaking of wedding planning, aside from an intriguing idea to have my dress made from 'hemp' fabric (tee hee), we've found ourselves a caterer!! Oddly enough, we ended up going with the woman who reminds me strongly of my sister. Well, at least I know that if she's like my sister, who (well, okay, all of us are like this, but hey, she came first :D) has a bit of an attention to detail thing...some call it perfectionism, but since I also suffer from this I'll be kind...then I figure she'll make a good wedding caterer. :D

And, in other news, I get to write an entire paper on the history of wine in Eastern Europe and how the perception of it can be seen as a reflection of social change. No Kidding. I can even support that thesis.

Spring Break

Well, it's been a while since I posted, but I've been busy.

I just got the promotion I mentioned in previous posts and I was away for a week over Spring Break (grad students still get it, yay!)

Westmoreland State Park, VA is a gorgeous little park with lovely cabins, beaches, a pool, fossil hunting galore, bald eagles, a ton of cool avians in fact, tons of critters...gosh, it was great. As soon as I figure out how to post photos I'll put some up here for anyone who happens to wander past.

Ta for now!

And later in the day...

Well, it's always interesting when a coworker leaves. If you are friends with said coworker, this can involve a bit of time on their last day being less productive than you ought to be...it's good that people don't leave very often. It also is nice when you enjoy working with your coworkers.

I will miss Julia, she is a hard worker but also knows how to have fun. I wish her good luck in her next job.