Sports and rankings

The Toronto Raptors lost last night. The team is out of the playoffs.

The Minnesota Wild won in overtime. It's down to the wire to determine whether it gets home ice or not for the first round of the playoffs.

It's a bit of a pain for me. I am at a holding pattern to book anything. I want to fly down and see a couple of games, but I can't until I know whether the team is in second place in their division (home ice advantage) or third (they play at least games 3 and 4 at home).

It's best that the team gets home ice. They do better. However, it would be cheaper for me to fly down to the Twin Cities if they don't get home ice advantage. It means that I can fly during the weekday, which is cheaper. If they start playing next Monday, flights aren't cheap!

Such a weird problem to have. I like booking ahead, but I can't in this instance.

More aggravation with the incompetent colleague

The incompetent colleague continues to prove that she is not the brightest tool in the shed. I had had it with her on Monday.

On Friday, she asked a manager for information. He responded that same day. She asked the same question first thing on Monday morning, which made him respond by saying that she didn't need to ask so soon. Before all of that, I had indicated the same thing to her.

She cannot think for herself. She can't assess any situation. She just sees a task on a checklist and does it. Ugh!

What annoyed me even more was that she proceeded to ask the same manager for a different set of information. I had explained that I had all this information for the last two team meetings. It means that our entire team has all that information. She doesn't pay attention. She continues to show everyone that she cannot comprehend simple things.

And, she constantly talks without listening. I had a short fuse on Monday and told her to stop it.

She is to be let go. The problem is working at a company that has tons of procedural nonsense that needs to be done beforehand. It's at my manager's manager level. It likely means that it will take another month before she leaves the company.

I am surprised that I am not committed at a mental institution by now.

She also is indifferent when it comes to emotions. I've never met anyone like that. There is no compassion there, which is odd to me.

Missing someone that it hurts and dealing with work madness

Have you ever missed someone that it just hurts? That, for a brief moment, a sense of sadness and panic set in? After all of that passes, you're then okay?

I am feeling all of these emotions. I don't know why I am experiencing such a mixed bag, but I do miss my guy a ton.

I suppose that it doesn't help that there are issues with an upcoming, major software release. All weekend, I simply saw e-mails flooding my inbox on various issues, and what needs to be fixed in both the code and documentation.

About that job that I had interviewed for several weeks ago, it turns out that the position is on hold. I frankly didn't think it was a good fit for me. However, I have heard through the odd, contracted human resources woman that they have a different position in mind for me come January.

I don't have a favourable impression about this company. I will hear what they have to say, but I won't hold my breath.

Issues and a proposal

It's nice when you make a point and folks side with you. My motto is to give it a try, say what you need to say, and see what happens. It's better to say what you need to say than regret not saying a thing.

At work, a number of us were given a task to drive projects to their completion. My counterpart borders incompetence. She decided to assign a number of folks deadlines, including me. I pointed out that she can't arbitrarily assign deadlines to folks who need to do the work without consulting with them.

In an e-mail, I pointed out the issues that I have encountered trying to get various folks to collaborate on a single document of which they own certain sections. The idea that I need to work with them on deadlines and such was time-consuming.

Instead, I proposed a different way to get this work done. The leader of this group liked it. She held a meeting with us. On Friday morning, we ran through my proposal and it was approved. Go, me!

The catch is to strike a balance. It is one thing to list all issues encountered. It's also helpful to suggest a new approach.

I don't like inefficiency. It makes sense that I would speak up. Otherwise, I'd be miserable wasting not only everyone's time and effort, but mine, too.

Driving over to my guy's car at the airport and getting a few lovetaps for being good

Our scheduled meeting on Saturday afternoon did not go as planned. My guy called me from the parking lot at the airport and told me that his car was dead. He couldn't unlock it. The anti-theft system wasn't responding to his remote. He had a physical key, but both my guy and the CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) guy could not find the lock on the car to use it.

I asked my guy whether he wanted me to drive over to be with him. At first, he didn't think it was a good idea because the tow truck was going to tow his car back to his town. He then said that he felt guilty that I had driven such a long way to see him. I told him not to worry, as he didn't plan to have issues with his car.

My guy was obviously tired after a long trip back from Stockholm. He wanted to just get in his car and drive off. He was then okay with my dropping by.

Since my guy is directionally challenged, trying to tell me which parking lot he is at was difficult. He told me that he was across the street from a terminal, which threw me off. I eventually figured out that he was parked at the departures level by the terminal in the daily parking lot.

My challenge was trying to find the up ramp to get to the seventh floor. The signage was completely messed up. Eventually, I figured it out.

"Which parking stall number are you parked at again?" I asked my guy, as we were on the phone the whole time I was driving over.
"G 46," he replied.
"Ah, I see your butt," I replied, as my guy was bent over his computer bag. "Best view all day. Okay, I'm going to hang up."

My guy looked relieved to see me. He came over and groped my butt, which turned me on.

"I need my cell phone charged," he replied. He knows that I have a micro USB cable in my car.
"Sure," I said, taking his phone.

I bent over to insert my car keys in the ignition, and found my cable that has both a micro USB and lightning tips. I thought to myself that the position that I was in would be good for spanking. My guy helped himself and smacked my butt.

"Hey, I'm a good girl for charging your cell phone," I said, smiling at him.
"Yes, but you're my bad girl," he said, giving me a couple more smacks for good measure.

We hugged and kissed while we charged his cell phone at 3% power. There is more to come.

Texts, Wallet Ninja, and airport security

It's always tough when my guy leaves on business. He left on Saturday night. We couldn't see each other on Saturday, so I asked that he contact me somehow before he flew off, just to let me know that he was okay.

My guy is scheduled to be in Thailand for two weeks. It may change. Naturally, change is a norm in most workplaces, and ours is certainly no exception.

My guy and I exchanged texts for over an hour. It was nice, but it started off a tad rough with the news that he had.

For Christmas, I gave my guy the Wallet Ninja. Its packaging states that it is TSA-approved, meaning that you can store it in your wallet, as designed, and you can bring it on the plane as a carry-on item.

Well, there was a fuss at the security area when my guy went through it with the Wallet Ninja. The supervisor actually had to come over to inspect it.

My guy told me about the issue with my gift. I felt bad. He told me that it wasn't my fault. I snapped a screenshot of the Wallet Ninja's TSA-approved line and sent it to him. We are so predictable, which is comforting.

Naturally, he showed the screenshot to the supervisor. The latter guy's response was that "all products say that they're TSA-approved."

Really? Wouldn't those companies get sued if that were the case? Wouldn't consumer agencies say something about such false claims? My guy wasn't impressed. Neither was I.

I asked my guy what happened. I got the play-by-play broadcast. His Wallet Ninja got confiscated. I told my guy that I have a spare one, so it's his. He told me that I'm such a sweet person.

I was more concerned whether he would make his flight. He did. He was boarding his flight ten minutes later, so I was pleased and relieved.

My guy felt like punching someone after his security ordeal. I asked him not to punch the guy sitting next to him, as we both didn't have that much money to bail him out of jail and I didn't want to hear about his ordeal on the news.

I also said that I would kiss him if I were with him, but could offer a virtual one. That cheered him up.

We are similar in that we get annoyed under such conditions, but always manage to comfort each other. It's good.

As crazy as it is to send a kiss emoticon, I did. I could tell that he liked that. I was pleased that he was okay. I was, too.

A phone call before our Thursday night dinner

Before my guy and I became an item, we chatted casually on Skype. He asked me for my Skype handle and I gave it to him. A day later, he added me and said who he was.

One day, while sending instant messages on Skype, he asked if we could talk over Skype, as he tends to be an "old-fashioned guy." It kind of makes sense as we have come to know each other.

I was at work on Thursday. At around 16:45, he came upstairs to our cubicle area and talked to me about something work-related. His actions were the complete reverse compared to the previous day. I think that he was less tense after having our talk. I suggested that he talk to a couple of software developers upstairs. He liked my advice and did just that.

Technically, he didn't have to come upstairs. He could have sent me a text message. Instead, he wanted to talk face-to-face.

Roughly forty minutes later, he came back to his cubicle. Rather than sending me a message on Skype to figure out whether I was ready to leave work, he disappeared.

A minute later, my desk phone at work was ringing. It was from a conference room -- the same room in which we had had our chat the day before. He was cheerful. He asked if I was ready to go. I was. I noted that he was connecting with me in an old-school fashion. He said yes. We both liked it.

My guy left work first. I followed shortly after. I met him in the parking lot. He was sitting in his car. I said hi, reached through his half-opened car window to caress his head. He smiled. He clearly liked that.

We walked into the restaurant, both ordered noodle dishes, and talked. He started off fretting about changes at work and some baggage from his past, but I managed to make him laugh towards the end of the night.

Perhaps an hour or two later, we headed to the counter to settle our bill. My guy was kind to pay.

"Thanks for dinner," I said, which is normally how I express how much I appreciate having dinner with him.
"You're welcome. Thanks for the company, sweetness."
"You're welcome, sweetie."

He's getting back to his normal self. He just needs some time and support.