Oh man, I so wanted to have my camera with me today...
I don't know if I have mentioned it here or not but The Cake Lady's husband scored a job where I am working. He is in desperate need of a name and since it isn't his real name, I am going to start calling him 'Jimmy' here.
I have always dug Jimmy.
The Cake Lady met him when I was living in San Antonio with NY. I missed the hell out of The Cake Lady when I was living in San Antonio because I really didn't have any other friends that lived near by and she and I were both so busy that we hardly saw each other.
I'm glad that she met Jimmy then.
But I had no idea that she and he were heading down the path they were on until right around the time Trin was born. When they moved in together.
I was pretty sure I was losing yet another 'single' friend to marriage (hey, it's happened) and I hadn't ever really hung out with him so I was really hoping he was a nice enough dude for her.
The first few times I went over there to hang out with her and him, I was all weirded out. I didn't want to be the chic hanging around when he didn't really want me there nor did I want to be the third wheel... but it wasn't like that.
Now don't get me wrong, it probably took the better part of a year, year and a half, for Jimmy to get used to me and all of my craziness, but he did come around...
And for the last three years I have spend a LOT of time over at The Cake Lady and Jimmy's house and it has always been cool.
Better than cool, really. It is the place I go when I want to feel like I am with family... when my world is crazy or even when it isn't. When I want to kick back and spend the day with the people I love, I load my car up (mini-van now) and I cruise over for the day and just hang.
The Cake Lady and I both came from less than stellar mothers and the very fact that we manage to function with out therapy and alcohol in spades is nothing short of a miracle. She has been my rock for... fuck, seven years. She and I have always been able to rely on each other for a landline to what normal is, for a shoulder and for a completely unwavering friendship.
Which is why I am so glad that she married Jimmy and that he is cool as hell and I haven't lost that friendship.
And because Jimmy is cool as hell, I am jazzed that he is working with me now.
Which is where I intended to go with this post: work.
When I first starting working at New Job, I was given an assignment. It is for ordering like 12 tanks for a Marine Center that will be opening up next year. It is just one of the many things that need to be ordered for this job. When they handed it to me and I looked at the total dollar amount on the last page, I wanted to hand it back. The order is for almost three hundred thousand dollars.
I. DID. NOT. want to be responsible for 300k.
I just sat there staring at the nearly half a mil on my desk hoping like hell I didn't fuck it up. And wishing someone else would take responsibility for it.
That was about a month ago and in that month, I have really started to feel myself slide into a comfortable place at New Job. I am finding my groove and learning to function without having to ask a question every five minutes. I've been able to shed a little of the armor I was wearing and show these people I work with some of the real Kate.
Some.
Not all.
They can't handle all.
I have also learned to work on a Mac since that is what we use there. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and the only time I find myself really being confused by it is when I go to close a window on the wrong side or try and use keyboard shortcuts.
The dude I work with mentioned that The Owner Lady told him she was happy that she had hired me a few weeks ago which did wonders for my soul since I wasn't sure if I was minutes away from being fired for incompetency.
Well, today, I finished the tanks.
I started on them in their earliest beginning stage and followed them through to today when I was finally able to fax the purchase order to the company that manufactures them and file them as done.
And when I went into The Owner Lady's office this afternoon to update her on the things she had asked me to work on, she just sat back and said, "Kate? Have you ever done any kind Purchasing before?"
Because I do Purchasing now, that's my job.
And I told her 'no' and was waiting for her to say something like, "well that explains why you are such a moron!" but instead she said, "Well you are just taking to it like a fish to water! You're doing a great job, you're so on top of everything."
*inner glow*
That really made my day.
And when I was driving home today I was so bummed that I didn't have my camera with me today when Jimmy was crating the Kalwassers (pumps) so I could take a picture of them for you guys to see.
Because they and my job are pretty cool.