Yesterday morning, I was talking to my Dad. After the usual catching up, chatting about the weather, and pondering all of the world's problems, Dad asked, "So did you ever get that tire looked at like I told you?" Now, given my recent track record with cars, I'm a little paranoid about ANYTHING going wrong with the car. This being a tire issue, I probably should have checked it about a million times over by now, but I had no recollection of him EVER talking to me about the tire. We both chuckled and laughed, both stating that since it hadn't been a problem yet, it probably wouldn't be anytime soon.
Twenty-four hours later as I set out for the morning, I heard an unmistakable "flapping" sound coming from my left front tire, the one I was supposed to have been monitoring. Oops. After trying to use my emergency air compressor (probably didn't wait long enough for it to be effective) and trying to find my AAA card, my neighbor came out and kindly changed my tire for me. Not wanting to waste any time, I drove off to Walmart to get my tire fixed.
If you've never been to Walmart for any type of car service, after checking you in, they give you a little ticket so that you can use the little price scanners to see if your car's ready and then send you off on your merry way, most likely to peruse all the wares in Walmart. So there I was, nothing better to than be a mall walker. Not one to sit and be bored, I set off to find anything and everything interesting. I was not disappointed.
First stop was the paint section. I've recently come to the conclusion that I'll probably be renewing my lease at my current apartment. Originally, I had decided to not put any money into painting the place, but now that the white walls in my apartment are starting to drive me crazy, I'm reconsidering that stance. So as I stood there deciding if I wanted blue, yellow, or green for my living and dining rooms, I got to hear a three year-old try to convince her mom to buy her the "pretty purple paint" I don't think I've ever seen such an awful shade of purple, but this little girl was adamant. Unfortunately for her, three year-old logic doesn't always persuade people to buy Barney colors for the wall.
I've been wanting to get Cooper a nice dog bed for his crate, but being a total cheapskate when it comes to stuff like that, I've been putting off that decision. Today, since I had nothing better to do, I wandered into the pet section to see if I could find anything. I didn't find anything I liked, but I did find a rare gem in that department. TWO on-duty Walmart employees. I didn't need their help with anything, which was probably good, seeing as how they were very busy...turning all the Betta fish towards each other in their little cups to make them puff up and "fight" each other. They had names picked out for the fish and a running commentary as to how the imaginary battle was going. Just in case you wondered, a blue crowntail Betta named "Jaws" won the competition.
Back-to-school items are now the "big thing" in stores, so being the school supply dork that I am, I went to see if there was anything neat to buy. Inwardly I groaned as I saw all kinds of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga notebooks and pencils. "Really?," I thought to myself, "Why would a parent pay almost triple for a notebook just because it has a weird lady sitting in an egg on it?" My question was answered about a minute later when a mom and her two daughters came over and started oohing and ahhing over the selection. It may not have been so bad had it not been the mom who let out a squeal when she found the THIRD Justin Bieber design at the back of the box. "Oh my gosh!! Now you girls can have one for spelling, one for math, AND one for science, AND THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!!!!! I had to get out of there fast, before I started laughing.
After awhile, I got really bored of looking at all kinds of junky throw-away garbage and went to the little waiting room by the tire center. I picked up a year-old issue of RedBook and started reading all about Katherine Heigl's kitchen. Halfway through the story, a super obnoxious lady came in talking on her cellphone. I really don't like to eavesdrop on other people's conversation, but when you're talking very loudly two feet from me, I reserve the right to do whatever the heck I want, and I decided that I didn't care if I overheard her conversation. Again, I was not disappointed by my decision. Note to all brides-to-be: You'd better make sure there is an adequate selection of single men at your reception. Amanda was very disappointed that she spent $40 dollars on a dress, $40 on shoes (why do your shoes cost more than your dress?), and drove all the way to Isle of Palms (half an hour away) where she had to pay for her own alcohol, only to discover that the only two single guys at the party lived in Wisconsin. Tina (and me, mostly by accident) were reassured that Amanda was in fact not looking for a one-night stand, but was trying to find an available local guy to date, and was very angry that Chelsea didn't invite more single guys to her reception. I was sad for myself when Amanda's car was taken care of before I could hear her talk about her plans for the upcoming week.
Just when I think I'm accustomed to some new regionalism and am proud of myself for not having a confused look on my face when I hear a new word, something happens to make me look like a dork. As I was waiting in line to pay for the tire that had been fixed, a woman nearby said, "Look at that buggy!" Immediately, I turned in the complete opposite direction of everyone else and stretched to look out the window. Honestly, I expected to see a horse, a box on wheels, and several Amish people inside that box on wheels. I could not have been more wrong. In fact, what I was supposed to be viewing was a shopping cart that had lost it's front wheel and was beginning to tip over on a customer with a full cart. Like a cat that just had a disgraceful fall, I tried to act cool and pretend that I didn't just forget that fairly familiar term. Thankfully for me, only the cashier noticed, and just as she started to make a comment about being from out-of-town to me, the dramatic sight of three glass applesauce jars about to careen from the cart to the floor directed her attention away from me. Also good- the jars were saved by a Good Samaritan with quick hands. And a bag of rice that cushioned the third jar's landing.
Well, the good news is, my tire was fixed and I was able to drive my car for another day. The bad news is, now my eye's are playing tricks on me, and I think my tire's going flat again. So when it finally stops raining, I'm going to check the pressure again. And then come inside and prepare for work and get to bed early so I can call AAA at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning so they can come and change my tire for me before I go to work. Yay! At least I'm prepared for the worst now. Have a good week!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Beat the Heat
The drive to church takes approximately seven minutes. So this morning, I got in the car, turned on the AC (it was 80 at 8 a.m. this morning), strapped on my seat belt, and then arrived at Crossroads about ten minutes later. I gathered all of my things and stepped out of the car and started walking towards the church. About ten seconds later I had to stop. I wasn't waiting for a car to pass, I wasn't talking to anyone, and I wasn't stopping to look at anything. No, I had to stop because I couldn't see. Why? The temperature difference between my car and the outside world was enough to cause condensation to form on my glasses.
Now, it's not like I've not had condensation form on my glasses before. But, prior to today, the only time I'd ever had condensation form on my glasses was when I came in from the cold into the warm house. Initially, I was a little miffed when this happened. But, after a nanosecond, I figured it gave me an excuse to talk about the weather on my blog, and then I was trying to find my name tag in the name tag basket and completely forgot about my problems with my glasses.
Don't worry, I know that as much as we all like to complain about the weather TO other people, we don't like to hear other people complain about the weather to us. So I won't complain, I'll just share...
This week, most of the time Ohio has been just as warm as South Carolina. Let me just say, I feel your pain. Literally. It's painful to walk outside and feel like you're walking into a sauna! But as I would look at the weather each morning, I was amused at the way the two states handled the heat.
I think on Monday it was supposed to be 98 here and in Medina. That morning on the news, the heat wasn't even an issue. The weatherman literally said, "Another typical July day here in Charleston." I was a little aghast. How is 98 degrees not noteworthy?! When I got to work, the Ohio news feed on my computer at work had a crawler that kept mentioning "Excessive Heat Warning! Excessive Heat Warning!" I found this amusing, but only because I was sitting inside in my very well air-conditioned office.
I know it's all in what you're used to (See the comment I made about the temperature of 98 degrees.) Back in January, the freezing rain we had that lasted all of three hours shut down all the major bridges in the area and the entire state government for a day and a half. I drove my friend to the airport a few days after Christmas last year. I think there were three or four inches of snow on the road and we may or may not have almost gotten stuck on Blake Road a few times. We have truck loads of salt stored away, they used...sand.
Friday I was listening to the radio on my way into work, and the DJs were reading a story about classrooms in Illinois and Indiana not having air conditioning. The female DJ is a little over dramatic anyways, but she couldn't believe that there are buildings in existence that still don't have AC. I think she talked about that for the entire fifteen minutes it took me to drive to work!
While I am not a fan of extreme heat (I burned my hand on my steering wheel yesterday), I have learned to deal with it. Basically, it comes down to running from air conditioned apartment to air conditioned car to air conditioned office/store/church/other people's homes, etc. See? It's a science! And, now that it's almost the end of July, I hopefully have only another 50-60 days of unbearable heat. And by that I mean that after 50-60 days the high might be less than 90 degrees. 85 and no humidity feels like heaven now.
Adios, amigos. I have very few hours of freedom left to enjoy, and I still have about half of my Parks and Rec DVD to watch. I love it when Target has sales on DVDs!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Quiet Sundays
It's been a long week, to say the least. Last Sunday was an absolute nightmare. I set off for South Carolina bright and early, and then spent 6 hours driving the most boring stretch of road ever. The last 5 hours were spent driving through ridiculously busy traffic. From the West Virginia/Virginia border all the way to Martins Creek, it seemed I was in the middle of bumper-to-bumper traffic. By the time I hit Charlotte I wanted to pull over and just cry because I was being cut off, tailgated, and trying to stay focused on the road while making sure that Barbie, talking on her cell phone, wasn't going to drift into my lane with her Jeep. Charlotte may be a large city, but giving the citizens of that city six lanes of highway was a major oversight on the part of some engineer.
The week at work was fun too. I was late for work every day but Wednesday. Monday, my car wouldn't start. I think something's wrong with the key. Friday, I lost ALL the keys to the car, but eventually found them in the middle of all the stuff I had brought home with me and had left sitting in the dining room. Tuesday and Thursday I just ran late. Wednesday, when I did make it to work on time, I had to get Marie, one of our cleaning ladies, to let me enter through the treasurer's entrance and use all the back hallways to find the health department since the lady who opens the health department at 7:30 was on vacation but never appointed a replacement to open the clinic doors.
After spending a week and a half in beautiful Ohio, with it's fresh air and reasonable heat and humidity, I had a hard time adjusting back to 90+ and a "sea breeze" contributing to ridiculous heat indexes in the 110s to 120s. One day, we had a heat warning. Seriously? That night, I ordered food in, because I didn't have any food in the house and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store until it was cool enough that I wouldn't be melting to the pavement on contact.
Yesterday was "catch up" day. First, I caught up on sleep. Then, I caught up on naps. Finally, I caught up on being lazy and watching a few episodes each of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. By the end of the night, I was taking Benadryl to cope with the reaction I'm having to whatever poison plant I was exposed to in Ohio. Fresh off a good night's sleep, I got up early, cleaned half the apartment, went to church, came home, cleaned the rest of the apartment, then went and did laundry. Work, work, work! That takes us to about three hours ago.
For all the nonsense of the last week, the last three hours have been blissful. I made some really yummy chicken and potatoes for dinner, and I got to enjoy it while sitting on my freshly cleaned patio. Once the mosquitoes came out and started bugging me, I came in and started watching the movie "Date Night." I love that movie. I mean really, it has Steve Carrel AND Tina Fey, what's not to like? I even had Oreos and milk as a snack! I know it all sounds really lame, and really, it kind of is, but it was exactly what I needed: A few quiet hours to let me reclaim just a little bit of sanity.
Now, as always, we near the end of Sunday and my moment of bliss is over. But...I think my neighbor just hit something (non -mammal) with his car, so now my neighbor the cop is walking over...maybe now it's time for entertainment! Have a great week!
The week at work was fun too. I was late for work every day but Wednesday. Monday, my car wouldn't start. I think something's wrong with the key. Friday, I lost ALL the keys to the car, but eventually found them in the middle of all the stuff I had brought home with me and had left sitting in the dining room. Tuesday and Thursday I just ran late. Wednesday, when I did make it to work on time, I had to get Marie, one of our cleaning ladies, to let me enter through the treasurer's entrance and use all the back hallways to find the health department since the lady who opens the health department at 7:30 was on vacation but never appointed a replacement to open the clinic doors.
After spending a week and a half in beautiful Ohio, with it's fresh air and reasonable heat and humidity, I had a hard time adjusting back to 90+ and a "sea breeze" contributing to ridiculous heat indexes in the 110s to 120s. One day, we had a heat warning. Seriously? That night, I ordered food in, because I didn't have any food in the house and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store until it was cool enough that I wouldn't be melting to the pavement on contact.
Yesterday was "catch up" day. First, I caught up on sleep. Then, I caught up on naps. Finally, I caught up on being lazy and watching a few episodes each of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. By the end of the night, I was taking Benadryl to cope with the reaction I'm having to whatever poison plant I was exposed to in Ohio. Fresh off a good night's sleep, I got up early, cleaned half the apartment, went to church, came home, cleaned the rest of the apartment, then went and did laundry. Work, work, work! That takes us to about three hours ago.
For all the nonsense of the last week, the last three hours have been blissful. I made some really yummy chicken and potatoes for dinner, and I got to enjoy it while sitting on my freshly cleaned patio. Once the mosquitoes came out and started bugging me, I came in and started watching the movie "Date Night." I love that movie. I mean really, it has Steve Carrel AND Tina Fey, what's not to like? I even had Oreos and milk as a snack! I know it all sounds really lame, and really, it kind of is, but it was exactly what I needed: A few quiet hours to let me reclaim just a little bit of sanity.
Now, as always, we near the end of Sunday and my moment of bliss is over. But...I think my neighbor just hit something (non -mammal) with his car, so now my neighbor the cop is walking over...maybe now it's time for entertainment! Have a great week!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
What's in a Name?
A few months back in the "Crossroads Connection" class I attended at church (aka "New Members Class"), the teachers presented us with a list of possible volunteer opportunities if we wanted to get more involved in the church. It was at that moment that my alter ego, the one that is outgoing and likes the idea of striking up conversations with random individuals, decided to surface and sign up to be a greeter. As a greeter, I was going to be given a name tag, which I received this morning. Ms. Janeen, the lady in charge of the program, was so happy to present me with the name tag. Having a last name that is spelled incorrectly 99.9% of the time, I glanced at the tag, wondering how it had been spelled this time. I was pleasantly surprised to see that "Homonai" was spelled correctly! My eyes then drifted over to my first name: There in perfectly etched letters was the name "Kati."
Ms. Janeen was in a hurry to go spend time with her family, so she didn't stop to ask the usual questions like, "Does everything look good?" or anything like that. I just looked at the name tag for about two seconds, laughed, clipped it to my shirt and started greeting. Half an hour later when we were all done, I placed my tag in the basket and again laughed at "Kati."
Now, I don't care that I get called by different names, call me whatever you like (within reason, of course!) and I'll happily answer. My given name is Katherine, but aside from people who are just reading my legal name, there is only one person who knows me personally and still calls me by that name. If you're a friend or a member of my dad's family, you know me as Kate. My family on my mom's side are the only ones who call me Katie. Then there's my Uncle Dean and my best friend, Katie: they call me Kate-ums. Oh, and we can't forget that two of my cousins took to calling me Kacy for a year or so when they were little!
Now, that last paragraph applies to Ohio only. Obviously I still have the same name, but since moving here I've had fun listening to all the different names I go by. When I was first meeting people, I introduced myself as Kate. I am now called Katie by nearly all of those people. There are maybe five people in the area that I speak with on a regular basis who call me Kate. The only other time I get called Kate is when I'm being addressed by a stranger who's reading my name off a paper or something like that. One co-worker calls me "Katie-Kate-Kate" EVERY time she sees me, which always cracks me up. There is another lady at work that calls me "Katie girl" because, "that's what you call girls named Katie, even if they say their name is Kate." I think one of my co-workers is afraid to call me Katie since I introduced myself as Kate, but she's also told me that calling me Kate doesn't sound friendly enough. She now compromises by always calling me "Miss Kate." And now I guess there are about 200 people who will call me Kati!
Well, I have dawdled long enough and should probably go get some work done. This is code for: "I will set out with good intentions but will most likely end up just playing with my markers, crayons, and colored pencils again just like I did yesterday." In the words of my sister, "Life is so hard." In any case, have a fantastic Sunday and enjoy your week! Sincerely,
Kate, Katie, Kate-ums, Katherine, Wilson, Hey You, Person Over There, etc.
Ms. Janeen was in a hurry to go spend time with her family, so she didn't stop to ask the usual questions like, "Does everything look good?" or anything like that. I just looked at the name tag for about two seconds, laughed, clipped it to my shirt and started greeting. Half an hour later when we were all done, I placed my tag in the basket and again laughed at "Kati."
Now, I don't care that I get called by different names, call me whatever you like (within reason, of course!) and I'll happily answer. My given name is Katherine, but aside from people who are just reading my legal name, there is only one person who knows me personally and still calls me by that name. If you're a friend or a member of my dad's family, you know me as Kate. My family on my mom's side are the only ones who call me Katie. Then there's my Uncle Dean and my best friend, Katie: they call me Kate-ums. Oh, and we can't forget that two of my cousins took to calling me Kacy for a year or so when they were little!
Now, that last paragraph applies to Ohio only. Obviously I still have the same name, but since moving here I've had fun listening to all the different names I go by. When I was first meeting people, I introduced myself as Kate. I am now called Katie by nearly all of those people. There are maybe five people in the area that I speak with on a regular basis who call me Kate. The only other time I get called Kate is when I'm being addressed by a stranger who's reading my name off a paper or something like that. One co-worker calls me "Katie-Kate-Kate" EVERY time she sees me, which always cracks me up. There is another lady at work that calls me "Katie girl" because, "that's what you call girls named Katie, even if they say their name is Kate." I think one of my co-workers is afraid to call me Katie since I introduced myself as Kate, but she's also told me that calling me Kate doesn't sound friendly enough. She now compromises by always calling me "Miss Kate." And now I guess there are about 200 people who will call me Kati!
Well, I have dawdled long enough and should probably go get some work done. This is code for: "I will set out with good intentions but will most likely end up just playing with my markers, crayons, and colored pencils again just like I did yesterday." In the words of my sister, "Life is so hard." In any case, have a fantastic Sunday and enjoy your week! Sincerely,
Kate, Katie, Kate-ums, Katherine, Wilson, Hey You, Person Over There, etc.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Just because I wanted a Post.
Normally I try to have something typed up by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday. Clearly I am past that point right now, but I have nothing productive to show for it. I blame the fact that I was REALLY sick all weekend. Okay, so a head cold isn't really worth complaining about, but I did take Sudafed and slept a lot. I had two really interesting posts, but after spending 45 minutes on each one, I got disgusted and am recycling them for later. So merely for the purpose of having something to post on a Sunday, I'm posting this. Maybe if I have nothing better to do this week I'll post on Thursday or something, we'll see. Well, that is all. Right now I feel a need to sanitize my apartment, so that will be my project from now until bed time! In any case, at the latest I will have a new post next Sunday. In the meantime, if you are interested enough in wanting to know about anything in particular that is happening here in Summerville, leave me a comment and I"ll write a post about is sometime soon. Sooo...have a good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, and if you live in Ohio watch out - I am coming for you soon!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Watch your words.
For the last few months I've been spending some of my spare time reading about becoming a successful freelance writer. Like everyone else, things can be a little tight money-wise, and I to find a way to bring in just a little bit more money to help with bills or for splurging on the fun things. However, with four and a half years of retail work still fairly fresh in my mind, I decided that I didn't really want to be tied down to a "real job" where I'd have to follow schedules and listen to another boss and deal with more people (aka, I like my free time and don't want to give up my control over it!). So I figured that writing would be the most fun way for me to earn a little extra money without having to give up my beloved free time, and I began searching for jobs.
Lo and behold, I got my first job on Friday. Not a big job, just a little transcription work for a few weeks. But any start is a good start here, right? Not really knowing what transcription entailed, I happily began listening to an audio clip taken from some business meeting in Maine and started typing away. I've found that it's not been the most pleasant work I've ever done, but I'm getting paid to do it and it's keeping me very amused (just wait, you'll see why!) I'm also learning some valuable lessons about communication, which I am going to share with you today.
1.) Gather your thoughts before you speak. The woman leading the meeting was named Cindy. I think she had one too many cups of coffee before the meeting that day. She has a very bad habit of starting to talk and then rephrasing the statement or question. It probably wouldn't be a big deal, but when I have to type EVERYTHING that is said, it's hard to keep up with "Okay, so why don't we -- wait a second, Orono, you were talking about -- why don't you tell us -- I think it would be good to hear from Orono about -- can you tell us what your enrollment process is, Orono?" I don't normally talk to myself, but more than once I said, "Cindy!!! Stop talking and think about it for a second!!
2.) Listen before you speak. There is a man named Bill on this recording. Bill likes to say things like, "I do not understand the question. Why would we call them a new student?" Cindy responds with, "Because they've never attended the University of Maine, Bill." Bill replies, "Oh. I don't think I was listening when you shared that detail." This has happened more than once. Again, I talked to my computer and said, "Bill! Amy just said that Machias doesn't record inquiries!"
3.) If you're going to insert yourself in a conversation, make sure you know what you're talking about. Halfway through the meeting, a man named Roberto suddenly began speaking (via telephone): "Well, I think it is important to provide the financial data as well as the demographic data. Why would you not want financial data?" Cindy was clearly confused and asked him a.)Who are you? and b.) Why does financial data matter in tracking how many students enrolled in the college. After a few seconds of whispered conversation on his end of the line, Roberto sheepishly admitted that while he was from Gorham, one of the campuses involved in the discussion, he did not realize he was talking about student admission trends. He was trying to get in on the cost analysis conference call and dialed the wrong code apparently. I really need to stop admitting that I was talking to the computer again, but even I said, "Wait. Who the heck is Roberto? I don't need one more person talking!"
4.) Speak clearly. One lady was talking so quietly that more than half of the time she was talking, I documented that what she was saying was inaudible. I contacted the person who hired me and mentioned this, and he too had an issue with the transcription. Needless to say he permitted me to write "inaudible" on more than half of what she said. (I didn't talk out loud to her, but I did let my head drop to the table any time I heard her voice!)
5.) Make sure there are no barriers. A wonderful man from Farmington would begin talking, and in the background, all you could hear was horrible static. It didn't bother me that the static was there, but it was amusing to me when Cindy informed him that there was trouble on his end of the line, and before he could respond, Alice from Fort Kent piped up and said, "There's a thunderstorm!" Amidst all my lines about demographic data and enrollment opportunities, in my transcription there was a line which read: "There's a thunderstorm in Farmington! It just passed Fort Kent a half hour ago!" That made me laugh out loud.
6.) If you're the person recording, make sure YOU are not making any noise that would show up in the recording. I have my media player on "slow speed" so that I can type and keep up with what has been said and not have to waste as time replaying a clip. I kept noticing these little noises pop up on occasion. Just a very low, "tick...tick...tick..." I figured it was just background noise. I went back through a clip at normal speed, just to confirm my typing, when I heard an excessive amount of typing and mouse-clicking. Figured out what the mystery noise was! I laughed out loud when the woman recording the session knocked over a microphone. Fifteen seconds of muffled, "What was that?" "I don't see where it went" "Pick it up?" "Are we good to go? Will they be able to hear us?" Priceless.
7.) Don't use filler words. Cindy has a bad habit of saying "okay." Now, most of us say things like, "uh" and "um" when we need a few more seconds to gather our thoughts. Same with most of the people at the meeting. It's actually almost nice, because it gives me a microsecond to catch up with the audio, since I don't have to type the filler words. But Cindy, wonderful Cindy, will say "And...." or "Okaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy" each time she speaks. And that, I have to record.
Well, having completed the first job yesterday afternoon, I received my second job, which was transcribing a two-hour clip from the same people about financial databases (maybe Roberto was in the right place, just on the wrong day!) Can you say, glutton for punishment? But in reality, I did find a job to keep me amused for a day and a half, I learned about several towns in Maine, and I will get to take a nice chunk out of my credit card payment next month, so life is VERY good. Plus, now my work profile will have some jobs listed, which makes me look like less of the newbie that I am and will hopefully inspire confidence with more employers!
Have a wonderful evening everyone. If you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a baked potato, cooking in your own skin, just come visit me here in Charleston. It's 95 with a heat index of 102! And on a final note: In less than thirty days, I will be back on native soil. Can't wait!
Lo and behold, I got my first job on Friday. Not a big job, just a little transcription work for a few weeks. But any start is a good start here, right? Not really knowing what transcription entailed, I happily began listening to an audio clip taken from some business meeting in Maine and started typing away. I've found that it's not been the most pleasant work I've ever done, but I'm getting paid to do it and it's keeping me very amused (just wait, you'll see why!) I'm also learning some valuable lessons about communication, which I am going to share with you today.
1.) Gather your thoughts before you speak. The woman leading the meeting was named Cindy. I think she had one too many cups of coffee before the meeting that day. She has a very bad habit of starting to talk and then rephrasing the statement or question. It probably wouldn't be a big deal, but when I have to type EVERYTHING that is said, it's hard to keep up with "Okay, so why don't we -- wait a second, Orono, you were talking about -- why don't you tell us -- I think it would be good to hear from Orono about -- can you tell us what your enrollment process is, Orono?" I don't normally talk to myself, but more than once I said, "Cindy!!! Stop talking and think about it for a second!!
2.) Listen before you speak. There is a man named Bill on this recording. Bill likes to say things like, "I do not understand the question. Why would we call them a new student?" Cindy responds with, "Because they've never attended the University of Maine, Bill." Bill replies, "Oh. I don't think I was listening when you shared that detail." This has happened more than once. Again, I talked to my computer and said, "Bill! Amy just said that Machias doesn't record inquiries!"
3.) If you're going to insert yourself in a conversation, make sure you know what you're talking about. Halfway through the meeting, a man named Roberto suddenly began speaking (via telephone): "Well, I think it is important to provide the financial data as well as the demographic data. Why would you not want financial data?" Cindy was clearly confused and asked him a.)Who are you? and b.) Why does financial data matter in tracking how many students enrolled in the college. After a few seconds of whispered conversation on his end of the line, Roberto sheepishly admitted that while he was from Gorham, one of the campuses involved in the discussion, he did not realize he was talking about student admission trends. He was trying to get in on the cost analysis conference call and dialed the wrong code apparently. I really need to stop admitting that I was talking to the computer again, but even I said, "Wait. Who the heck is Roberto? I don't need one more person talking!"
4.) Speak clearly. One lady was talking so quietly that more than half of the time she was talking, I documented that what she was saying was inaudible. I contacted the person who hired me and mentioned this, and he too had an issue with the transcription. Needless to say he permitted me to write "inaudible" on more than half of what she said. (I didn't talk out loud to her, but I did let my head drop to the table any time I heard her voice!)
5.) Make sure there are no barriers. A wonderful man from Farmington would begin talking, and in the background, all you could hear was horrible static. It didn't bother me that the static was there, but it was amusing to me when Cindy informed him that there was trouble on his end of the line, and before he could respond, Alice from Fort Kent piped up and said, "There's a thunderstorm!" Amidst all my lines about demographic data and enrollment opportunities, in my transcription there was a line which read: "There's a thunderstorm in Farmington! It just passed Fort Kent a half hour ago!" That made me laugh out loud.
6.) If you're the person recording, make sure YOU are not making any noise that would show up in the recording. I have my media player on "slow speed" so that I can type and keep up with what has been said and not have to waste as time replaying a clip. I kept noticing these little noises pop up on occasion. Just a very low, "tick...tick...tick..." I figured it was just background noise. I went back through a clip at normal speed, just to confirm my typing, when I heard an excessive amount of typing and mouse-clicking. Figured out what the mystery noise was! I laughed out loud when the woman recording the session knocked over a microphone. Fifteen seconds of muffled, "What was that?" "I don't see where it went" "Pick it up?" "Are we good to go? Will they be able to hear us?" Priceless.
7.) Don't use filler words. Cindy has a bad habit of saying "okay." Now, most of us say things like, "uh" and "um" when we need a few more seconds to gather our thoughts. Same with most of the people at the meeting. It's actually almost nice, because it gives me a microsecond to catch up with the audio, since I don't have to type the filler words. But Cindy, wonderful Cindy, will say "And...." or "Okaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy" each time she speaks. And that, I have to record.
Well, having completed the first job yesterday afternoon, I received my second job, which was transcribing a two-hour clip from the same people about financial databases (maybe Roberto was in the right place, just on the wrong day!) Can you say, glutton for punishment? But in reality, I did find a job to keep me amused for a day and a half, I learned about several towns in Maine, and I will get to take a nice chunk out of my credit card payment next month, so life is VERY good. Plus, now my work profile will have some jobs listed, which makes me look like less of the newbie that I am and will hopefully inspire confidence with more employers!
Have a wonderful evening everyone. If you've ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a baked potato, cooking in your own skin, just come visit me here in Charleston. It's 95 with a heat index of 102! And on a final note: In less than thirty days, I will be back on native soil. Can't wait!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Succeeding while failing!
Back in March, someone in DHEC got the idea that the entire department should participate in the "Healthy Palmetto Challenge." This Challenge was a state-wide initiative circulated amongst all kinds of health-related organizations, encouraging individuals to walk. All the participants were issued a pedometer, a book for recording steps, and a booklet all about the health benefits of walking. Honestly, I have no idea how the challenge ended. I still have the pedometer, and have been using it faithfully, but I never got around to sending my steps in to the director of the program. In fact, there were twenty people who signed up for the program, just from my office, but none of us ever sent our steps in.
In the course of natural events, when a group fails to complete one task, they rarely decided to attempt the same task again. But now we were apparently not following the course of natural events, as about two weeks into our failed attempt to "Walk to Hollywood" (The original intent was that together, all the participants would record the number of steps needed to walk from Columbia, the state capitol, to Hollywood, SC. ), our assistant office manager came up with the brilliant idea to form an office-wide exercise program.
Believe it or not, we were excited about this. We signed all sorts of release forms, we all brought in our dusty old exercise DVDs, and just about everyone went out and bought yoga mats. We signed up for our exercise slot (mine was at 5:00 p.m!) and began exercising with gusto. Then began our "succeeding while failing."
On our first day we decided to do Pilates, which just about killed us all. As the woman on the DVD gave instructions, her voice was met with choruses of "Are you crazy?" "Ok, now she's just trying to kill us." "Wait, she wants us to bend that far?" Needless to say, the next day we were all moving VERY slowly and I know that I personally took the maximum amount of extra-strength Tylenol, which is something I almost never do.
After a few more days of this, we moved on to kickboxing. This was quite a departure from Pilates, and most of us were happy with this change. This did present it's own set of challenges though- even though our groups of exercise participants had dwindled by a few, there were still a few too many people in our tiny classroom. More than one person was almost given a black eye while "jabbing," and several participants made accidental attempts to kick holes in the walls.
We mastered kickboxing, and then promptly lost two co-workers: one to injury and one to switching shifts. We continued on though, now taking on "Theraband" resistance exercises. I was in heaven, I love my resistance bands! On our first day with the Therabands, we acquired a new participant. Two of us in the room were clearly not following the proper procedures, as even after completing the entire tape, we felt no soreness at all. Our new participant, however, was not so lucky. She almost called off sick the next day because she was in such a tremendous amount of pain.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to this last week. Two of my co-workers were working out with me to a new video, one that involved dance aerobics led by an entirely too energetic British girl. I had tried this video a few weeks prior with some other co-workers, but after she stopped doing the basic step moves, we got lost and eventually just started flailing around, telling each other that just the fact that we were moving was good enough. On Tuesday, I was doing well following all the moves this chick was doing, but I couldn't get the rhythm down. Basically it was like a bad Japanese movie. On Wednesday I was doing a lot better with the rhythm, but in order to keep up with the tape I had to eliminate a step or two with each set. Also, when she started adding spins to the "grapevine," I almost threw up, and I don't get easily nauseated by spinning.
Thursday was going to be my day! I hadn't really thought about the tape that much, but in the last moments I had before we started the tape, I decided that I WAS going to get all the moves and rhythm down! I started off strong, I mean, you really can't mess up marching in place. As we kicked it up a notch, I was still doing ok. I have those toe taps and cross steps memorized! We moved on to the "funky walk," which I can complete only if I channel moves I learned during my self-defense class in college. Then came the grapevines. Since I was over halfway done I was pretty proud of myself. I was extremely pleased that I was keeping up with the video, not losing my rhythm, and operating almost exclusively on muscle memory.
THUD! That was the sound my body made when I slammed into the plastic literature racks on the wall. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, I probably wasn't thinking, and that was my problem. In any case, I lost it at that point. I tried to get back into the groove of the video, as we were just heading into the easy cool down portion, but I was just about doubled over with laughter. The impact jarred me out of whatever fairyland state of mind I was in, and my co-workers and I spent the last three minutes of the video laughing hysterically, out of breath, trying to keep up with what we were supposed to do. I imagine that we looked like drunks stumbling around. We looked up to see our assistant manager staring at us. A look of confused disbelief crossed her features as she said, "What are ya'll doing in here?!"
Later that night, as I typed a little blurb of my idea for this post onto a "sticky note" on my computer's desktop, I started off considering that afternoon's exercise a complete failure. However, by the time I finished mulling over the events of the week, I couldn't help but be pleased by the idea that even in our (my!) complete and utter lack of ability to master that routine, we were getting our half hour of physical activity in, laughing all the while, thus succeeding while failing.
Well, again it comes to that point in time where I must draw this post to a close. I have tomorrow off work due to Memorial Day, and my biggest plans for tomorrow are to visit the Atlantic Ocean early, like sunrise early, and find a Memorial Day observance here locally. It will be odd not standing in front of St. Mark's in Wadsworth for the parade and then walking to the ceremony in Woodlawn, but the holiday still has the same meaning hundreds of miles from home. Please remember all of those who died while serving our country and their families, and especially at this time, the family of 1st Lt. John Runkle of West Salem, who was a friend of my aunt and her family. Have a good night everyone.
In the course of natural events, when a group fails to complete one task, they rarely decided to attempt the same task again. But now we were apparently not following the course of natural events, as about two weeks into our failed attempt to "Walk to Hollywood" (The original intent was that together, all the participants would record the number of steps needed to walk from Columbia, the state capitol, to Hollywood, SC. ), our assistant office manager came up with the brilliant idea to form an office-wide exercise program.
Believe it or not, we were excited about this. We signed all sorts of release forms, we all brought in our dusty old exercise DVDs, and just about everyone went out and bought yoga mats. We signed up for our exercise slot (mine was at 5:00 p.m!) and began exercising with gusto. Then began our "succeeding while failing."
On our first day we decided to do Pilates, which just about killed us all. As the woman on the DVD gave instructions, her voice was met with choruses of "Are you crazy?" "Ok, now she's just trying to kill us." "Wait, she wants us to bend that far?" Needless to say, the next day we were all moving VERY slowly and I know that I personally took the maximum amount of extra-strength Tylenol, which is something I almost never do.
After a few more days of this, we moved on to kickboxing. This was quite a departure from Pilates, and most of us were happy with this change. This did present it's own set of challenges though- even though our groups of exercise participants had dwindled by a few, there were still a few too many people in our tiny classroom. More than one person was almost given a black eye while "jabbing," and several participants made accidental attempts to kick holes in the walls.
We mastered kickboxing, and then promptly lost two co-workers: one to injury and one to switching shifts. We continued on though, now taking on "Theraband" resistance exercises. I was in heaven, I love my resistance bands! On our first day with the Therabands, we acquired a new participant. Two of us in the room were clearly not following the proper procedures, as even after completing the entire tape, we felt no soreness at all. Our new participant, however, was not so lucky. She almost called off sick the next day because she was in such a tremendous amount of pain.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to this last week. Two of my co-workers were working out with me to a new video, one that involved dance aerobics led by an entirely too energetic British girl. I had tried this video a few weeks prior with some other co-workers, but after she stopped doing the basic step moves, we got lost and eventually just started flailing around, telling each other that just the fact that we were moving was good enough. On Tuesday, I was doing well following all the moves this chick was doing, but I couldn't get the rhythm down. Basically it was like a bad Japanese movie. On Wednesday I was doing a lot better with the rhythm, but in order to keep up with the tape I had to eliminate a step or two with each set. Also, when she started adding spins to the "grapevine," I almost threw up, and I don't get easily nauseated by spinning.
Thursday was going to be my day! I hadn't really thought about the tape that much, but in the last moments I had before we started the tape, I decided that I WAS going to get all the moves and rhythm down! I started off strong, I mean, you really can't mess up marching in place. As we kicked it up a notch, I was still doing ok. I have those toe taps and cross steps memorized! We moved on to the "funky walk," which I can complete only if I channel moves I learned during my self-defense class in college. Then came the grapevines. Since I was over halfway done I was pretty proud of myself. I was extremely pleased that I was keeping up with the video, not losing my rhythm, and operating almost exclusively on muscle memory.
THUD! That was the sound my body made when I slammed into the plastic literature racks on the wall. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, I probably wasn't thinking, and that was my problem. In any case, I lost it at that point. I tried to get back into the groove of the video, as we were just heading into the easy cool down portion, but I was just about doubled over with laughter. The impact jarred me out of whatever fairyland state of mind I was in, and my co-workers and I spent the last three minutes of the video laughing hysterically, out of breath, trying to keep up with what we were supposed to do. I imagine that we looked like drunks stumbling around. We looked up to see our assistant manager staring at us. A look of confused disbelief crossed her features as she said, "What are ya'll doing in here?!"
Later that night, as I typed a little blurb of my idea for this post onto a "sticky note" on my computer's desktop, I started off considering that afternoon's exercise a complete failure. However, by the time I finished mulling over the events of the week, I couldn't help but be pleased by the idea that even in our (my!) complete and utter lack of ability to master that routine, we were getting our half hour of physical activity in, laughing all the while, thus succeeding while failing.
Well, again it comes to that point in time where I must draw this post to a close. I have tomorrow off work due to Memorial Day, and my biggest plans for tomorrow are to visit the Atlantic Ocean early, like sunrise early, and find a Memorial Day observance here locally. It will be odd not standing in front of St. Mark's in Wadsworth for the parade and then walking to the ceremony in Woodlawn, but the holiday still has the same meaning hundreds of miles from home. Please remember all of those who died while serving our country and their families, and especially at this time, the family of 1st Lt. John Runkle of West Salem, who was a friend of my aunt and her family. Have a good night everyone.
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