The One With the Crappy Job and the Canine Good Citizen

I know, I know. I'm behind on my blogging. I thought the e-mailing at work would be enough for you, Mon, but I guess not. I have been swamped at work. We have four huge documents due by the end of the year and I seem to be the only person in the office who knows where to put a comma, so I have to do all the editing and consultant managing. It's been quite a chore. So here's the long-awaited blog.

Let's start with the good news, shall we? Chubbs is a Canine Good Citizen!! He passed his test Tuesday, though he struggled a little with the down-stay. It's weird because he's never had trouble with that, but my boss said I was clearly nervous and making him nervous. But he did perfectly on everything that requires temperament testing, which is the important part of the test. He did great. Now, I'm going to get him started with the Delta Society. It will require another test, but we'll be able to go to nursing homes, assisted care living facilities and children's hospitals to cheer people up. I'm so excited. I think he will love that.

Muggsy is doing great as well. He still hates new people, but he and I have developed a very strong relationship. When we go running, I let him off-leash now, and he always stays close by. When he gets ahead, he stops and waits, looking at me and wagging his tail, like 'What's up, Mom. Hurry up.' We have so much fun. I've been so tired lately that I haven't done much training, but after the first of the year, we'll be back to training every day again. I'll also have classes five days a week, but one of those is a fiction writing class at UCLA that I'm taking because I want to enjoy writing again.

That brings me to how much I hate my job, specifically the people I work for. This week has been absolute crap. The consultants that we didn't want to hire but had to because of our corrupt Directors didn't like that I have been critiquing their work (hello -- I'm the client!!) and decided to hold a meeting with the Board members. My boss went and didn't invite me to at least defend myself. So my manager, Joanna, told me I could have the afternoon off. I had too much work to do, but I worked from home and I got a call from her. My boss, we'll call him Ass since that's actually very close to his real name, called her from a meeting across LA to come back and attend this ad hoc committee meeting, basically to be told by the Directors that she and I don't know what we're doing and we need to listen to the consultants more. So I was told that the people I manage need to start managing me. Just because the consultants are giving them kickbacks. (Once I can prove that, I'm going straight to the papers!!) The consultants kept throwing me under the bus, and Ass was doing nothing to defend me. And he backs me to my face, telling me I'm doing the right thing and don't have to worry about this happening. Thankfully, Joanna defended me and then went on to completely chew out Ass and tell him that all of us were thinking about leaving. He freaked out and said he would do better but he lies. And I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to manage my consultants now. This is just one example, but it's really starting to wear on me.

Here's my problem: I'm not fake. I like people who tell the truth. Even if I don't want to hear it, I hate people who are fake. Hello!! I used to be a reporter. I can't read bullshit. Don't feed it to me. But I work for the most unethical people. I could never survive in politics (good luck, Travis) because I hate games and I don't have thick skin. I just don't. I don't like it, but I can't help who I am. And I care about my job. I want it to mean something. I took this job because educating people about water in So. Cal. seemed like a great opportunity to do something that mattered. But elected officials don't care about their constituents. They care about spending half a million dollars mass mailing newsletters and $25,000 hosting town meetings that no one comes to but gets their names out in the community. They spend all their time campaigning and criticizing and not working on issues that really matter. I'm frustrated. I hate seeing that side of people.

And Ass has no backbone, so he just ducks and lets us get hit with all the shit that's flying around. I'm very lucky to have had wonderful bosses at the Morning News, and I'm just not sure what to do with a boss who's less of a man than I am.

That was a lot of complaining. I'm sorry. Back to good stuff. I did all my Christmas shopping online this year and will have all my presents mailed out by Monday. Those of you who know me (and usually get their birthday presents a couple months after the actual day) know what a huge accomplishment this is. But I didn't have to brave the malls and I'm excited about Christmas this year -- no family drama, just a quiet holiday with the people I love the most (except you, Mon).

And I promise to start writing more regularly again. As you can see, I didn't feel that I had much to say that wasn't bitchy, and my mom always says, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nuthun at all." :)