Ridiculosity

Sorry for not blogging yesterday, folks.  I, of course, had lots of material, but it was just too ridiculous to post.  I was angry, and couldn't put the usual humorous slant into my stories. Rod was essentially a tyrant yesterday, demanding that we do things for him (Why do something if you can get someone else to do it, after all?), haranguing us on deadlines, and lastly, offering financial advice to Jennifer when she mentioned she was car shopping.  Ridiculous man!  If you, the Readers, are actually interested in reading my cathartic rants from yesterday, just comment accordingly to this blog.


Today, however, is a little lighter, and I can view things on the bright side.

For instance, this morning, Rod came in with cookies!  How exciting, and dare I say it?  Nice?  Thoughtful?  I asked what kind of cookies, and the reply was "Oh, all KINDS! I know there's chocolate chip in there!"  Now, I have always been a fan of chocolate chip cookies, so I had to investigate.  I looked where he indicated and found, precisely... 

... precisely 2.3 cookies.  And they are raisin oatmeal maybe?  They smell like sugar and vanilla, and I could spy coconut in them.  How on earth did this translate in his mind to chocolate chip?  Because of the wrinkly brown chunks in there, that most of us call raisins?  The label did not read chocolate chip, they don't smell like chocolate chip, and to me, they don't even look like chocolate chip.  All I can think is that they were left over from some function he attended recently and he couldn't stand seeing 2.3 cookies go to waste.  Being the thrifty sort he is, he saved them and brought them in to his "girls."  Six hours later, they are still untouched.

Rod tries to be social every once in a while.  This morning when he came into the office, he doggedly turned on the lights and sat down in  silence after making his coffee.  Then he walked by, stopped, and came back.  "Have I asked how you are today?"  I checked, there appeared to be no sign of humor on his face.  "Um, no, Rod, I don't think you did."  "Oh. Hmm.  Well.  How are you." It wasn't a question.  Kinda more like a demand.  "I'm fine, Rod." I waited a good 30 seconds after he left.  "And how are YOU today, Rod?"  He informed me he wasn't yet ready to enter an opinion on the subject, thus ending his attempt at making polite conversation. So, you can see he tried to be social... but... it just didn't quite work out for him.  I bet he gets that a lot.

Earlier today, I finally blew my top with Rod.  A few weeks ago I had asked him why there was no data displayed with one of our products we have running locally.  He looked and had no idea of course (I was still green at that time, so I asked).  Now, today, he wanted me to do a local demo of the product for him, I guess so he knows what the real thing will be like. On the demos I have sat in on so far, we demo'd on the customer's data. So I went and pulled up the data, and again, it didn't appear to be working right.  So I reminded him of the problem and had him come look.  Around and around we went, but then it boiled down to this: "You [Katie] NEED to let me KNOW when these things AREN'T WORKING."  I reminded him, gently at first, that he had indeed seen that it wasn't working before.  With his own two eyes.  "WHEN!" he demanded.  I couldn't remember exactly, so I said "A few weeks ago, when Dave was still here" (Yes, I had to rub it in that he let Dave go).  He got irate and said "Well, do you expect me to REMEMBER what happened a MONTH ago?"  I rolled my eyes but my reply was simple.  "Yes, I do!"  Whatever.

After that brief exchange, he harassed me some more, and I did finally let him see my wrath.  I asked if he wanted a PR person, an IT Person, or tech support.  I can't be all three.  At least, not effectively.  Surprisingly, he didn't interrupt me once in my tirade.  Jen mentioned he just went straight to his seat.  Impressive.  Jennifer thinks that he acted like a scolded child.  Me, I figure he was already planning what to harass her about later in the day.

Shortly after my tirade, Jennifer asked if I was ready for lunch.  I said I was ready for happy hour.  And who wouldn't be?  This place is utterly ridiculous.  Well, Rod is.  At some point, do you think he will ever figure out that we will perform much better if he just lays off us?

Anyway, he has been very quiet and respectful to me ever since.  Granted, that's only about 15 or 20 minutes now, but the one time he spoke to me, his tone was controlled, he was polite, and he even let me finish a sentence or two.  I guess I need to lose my temper more often...  

Eye Tee Girl